#the more i learn about these two dudes the more im like.. bewildered at the fact that they are not actually a thing

[stormyoceansmain]

The tsunami episodes (there are 2, Sink Or Swim and The Searchers) are extremely good actually. Dude 1 and Dude 2's kid are on a pier when the waves hit and it's all about them trying to get to safety and also it's pretty damn heartbreaking in places. Like at one point they're separated and D1 literally screams himself hoarse looking for the kid. Once kiddo is back safely with his dad D1 is all 'ah, yes good, shocking out time now' and just drops.

Oh and D2's wife both left him AND died. She ran off when kid was 5, reunited with them briefly, asked for a divorce and was promptly hit by a car.

anon this probably wasn't your intention but you just made a great argument for me to start watching this show. i was reading that tsunami part and rubbing my lil gremlin hands together because that kind of angst? DELICIOUS. devastating, for sure, as in im probably gonna be left on a sobbing pile on the floor if i ever decide to watch it, but also [CHEF'S KISS] Y E S. give me that sweet sweet angst with a sprinkle of hurt/comfort on top (i do hope mr. dilf brought both his kid and the other dude back home and made them sleep in his bed until he was sure they were okay)

also amuse me for a second, because there are a couple of question that sprang up in my mind while reading your message, like:

1) jesus christ how long have these two been coparenting that kid

2) so let me get this straight. this dude - mr diaz - looked at this guy and went 'i trust you with my son's life so much im gonna make you his legal guardian if i die'. now, idk this dude's life, idk if he currently has a girlfriend or a boyfriend or any kind of significant other, but i do presume he has some family members that - presumably - helped him raise the kid after his wife skedaddled. but instead of leaving his kid to them, he's just like 'no no no. i want this guy. because (i assume from this tsunami experience) i know he is going to raise hell to make sure my kid will be safe'. so yeah, i guess my question is has anyone ever told mr diaz that ain't exactly friends behaviour???? has anyone told the WRITERS?????? BECAUSE - and i cannot stress this enough - THAT AIN'T EXACTLY JUST FRIENDS BEHAVIOUR.

also im sorry about the wife i guess. i mean im not sure i vibe with her (she better have a damn good reason for leaving her son behind, imho), but the writers weren't very kind to her so that sucks

[scribble-blog]

Soulmate AU part 5!!

First • Previous • Here • Next

Tim growled as he kept searching. There were no messages sent from Paris in the last five years in the League’s database. There weren’t any mention of a Hawkmoth, a Ladybug, or a Chat Noir in any news site. As far as he could tell, the girl had been lying to him almost entirely.

Except that she was Damian’s soulmate. And there was no faking the sheer exhaustion in her eyes when she spoke about Paris being besieged for the last four years.

And his gut was telling him to keep looking.

After an hour, and switching his location so he appeared to be operating out of France, he finally found two leads- one, a juvenile blog that had some questionable information interspersed with straight up tabloid trash, and the other an app, which he eagerly downloaded to his phone, waiting.

Finally the app popped up, showing a little Ladybug icon, and he clicked it. LadyBugOut! Sprung to life on his screen, and he perused the small icons. Small and stylized animals, a ladybug, a black cat, a bee, a turtle, a fox, a snake, a dragon, a peacock, and a butterfly. From what he remembered of his chat with Marinette, one of the heroes was Ladybug, so he clicked it.

It showed him a long line of posts, mostly videos. The girl in them was short, with dark blue-black hair and bright blue eyes, and a glaringly red and black spotted suit and mask.

“Salut, Paris! Back again with an update and a few things to address regarding the recent akuma, Lady Silence.”

He flicked to the next one.

“Salut, Paris, I’m here with Reine Abeille today,” the camera moves to another hero in yellow and black, blond hair in a high bun as opposed to Ladybug’s pigtails. “You’ve all sent in quite a few questions, and we wanted to take the time to respond today!”

“Salut, Paris! Just a quick update, I know many of you have been wondering about the recent addition to our team, Viperion.”

“Salut, Paris. I’d like to start this video with a moment of silence and recognition for the 73 lives lost in the recent attack by-“

Tim pauses it. A team of four, possibly more heroes? Perhaps nine to match the icons? A publicly revered and loved hero, to the point where she does question and answers with them. A villain that caused a death toll of seventy three people less than a month ago.

How in the world could they have missed this?

“By Evilutionist. We ask that if you know one of these victims you reach out to them and offer a hand, a hug, or even just a smile as they go about their days.”

He leant back in his chair, bewildered. Lives lost, but still there to be comforted, and going about their lives?

He got up to go find another cup of coffee. He was starting to understand how long his night was going to be.

Before he started watching through the whole long list of posts, he checked the other tabs. The black cat had a map that was currently inactive, but also logs of past maps detailing a red line, a purple line, and a larger area shaded in grey. They were labeled accordingly, Ladybug’s Path, Akuma’s Path, and Area of Attack/Destruction.

There were hundreds of maps logged.

The Bee contained large organized lists of homes and businesses that had registered as safe shelters during akuma attacks, a compilation of helplines and websites where you could learn more about staying safe during an attack, how to stay prepared and aware, and what necessities to keep stocked in cases of longer term akuma attacks.

The Fox seemed open to the public, where they could present their own posts alongside Ladybug’s about good, happy things.

The Turtle was a series of videos and posts about relaxation, meditation, coping, and self-care that could build the emotional strength to resist akumas.

The Dragon was a series of videos featuring another superhero- he assumed it was the Dragon themed one- and Ladybug, demonstrating self defense techniques and other strategies for avoiding, outrunning, fighting, or otherwise protecting yourself from akumas.

The Snake was, to his surprise, just a series of playlists, seemingly cultivated by each hero.

The Peacock held another map, also inactive, until the app chimed loudly. As he watched, a notification popped up, similar to an Emergency Alert System notification, that said in all capitals, AKUMA ATTACK.

He pressed the X on it, and watched as the Black Cat symbol seemed to glow green. He switched back, and the map was now accessible, a purple dot glowing near the Eiffel Tower. It started moving, and the shaded grey filled in around it, following the dot. He turned back to his computer and started searching frantically for some sort of news coverage. After a minute, he found a Facebook profile and opened it, and someone’s livestream was rolling.

He looked back at his phone to see that the red Ladybug dot had appeared near the edge of the grey, closing in on the purple dot. The livestream drew him back. It showed an apartment view of the Seine, and the road of broken detritus that trailed behind the akuma’s path.

“-Quel connard ne passe pas une bonne nuit alors, je suppose, mais honnêtement, cela ne devrait pas être mon problème.” The camera flipped to the face of a tired woman. “J’ai du travail en quatre heures et je ne me suis endormi que trois heures plus tôt, mais un trou du cul supersonique fait voler en éclats les fenêtres de gauche et de droite.” The camera flipped again, showing not the view but the clearly broken window. “Baise ça, mec, j'essaye de DORMIR,”

-some asshole isnt having a good night then, i guess, but honestly that shouldnt be my problem. ive got work in four hours and i only fell asleep three hours ago but some supersonic asshole is shattering windows left and right. fuck this, dude, im trying to SLEEP,

The feed went silent as the akuma lunged back into view down by the water. It was a large red woman, with wires that sprouted from her and trailed along like muscles, enhancing what seemed to be the speakers that her body was made of.

He could see her open her mouth and roar, right as a smaller red figure bounded in, dodging the concentrated sound blast and grabbing something from around her neck and snapping it in half.

The woman on the street reverted in a flash of light to a more normal appearance, and Tim watched awestruck as Ladybug tossed her yo-yo into the air and shouted something.

The wave of light that spread outward was dazzling, lighting up Paris’ night sky. In front of the camera, as the light washed over the holder, their window was suddenly whole and unbroken again. The street beneath was clean.

“Merci, Ladybug,” the tired narrator muttered. “Bonne nuit.”

The camera shut off.

Tim stared, awestruck.

“She fixes it all,” he breathed. “That’s why she was talking about people being alive after they die, they come back to life. She fixes all the damage. It probably destroys most records of the damage as well.”

The app was accessible because of her direct part in making it, he would assume. He saved the video.

Time to get Bruce.

TAGLIST:

@the-fusionist @rebecarojas07 @lowandco @kotaleartzu @resignedcatservant @alenee13 @mystery-5-5 @ladybug-182 @actual-disaster-human @loysydark @rumbelle18 @magic-miraculous @vixen-uchiha @athena452 @mochegato @ash-amg @worlds-tiniest-spook-pastry @thestressmademedoit @sassakitty @doriebell @toodaloo-kangaroo @myazael @theatreandcomicfreak @mer-mel @dahjokester @northernbluetongue @abrx2002 @area51qt @jessigurl-design @renscorpio @cici-schnee @multplelifes @redscarlet95 @razzledazzle247 @rosep16 @emotionalsupportginger @kceedraws @tired-butterfly @kuroko26 @catthhay @moonystars14 @shamefullove @shreky-boi @imanerddealwith @chaosace @captainmac6 @purple-people-eaters-productions @crazylittlemunchkin @weird-pale-blonde-person @bigpicklebananatree

[shirtlesssammy]

7x01: Meet the New Boss

Then:

Cas is God now, and I’ve never been more devout.

Now:

We start right where we left off. Cas wants the rest of TFW to love and respect him but they only fear him. Well, dude, you can explode them with a snap of your finger. Dean asks if he’s going to kill them. He has no need; They’re powerless against him, so they’re not going to try anything. Dean pleads with Cas again. But all Cas says is that he hopes, for their sake, this will be the last time they see him, and he’s gone. 

Dean asks Sam how he’s doing. Sam falls, cuts his hand, and sees visions of Hell. So, peachy. 

God!Cas is really taking the whole God Complex to a new level. He kills off a ton of angels in Heaven. “It is a new day on Earth and in Heaven. Rejoice.”

Dean’s soul Baby is once again in a sad state of disrepair. Sam’s resting while Bobby and Dean discuss trying to find where God II is chilling. Bobby suggests looking for a trenchcoat on a tortilla and I sometimes love watching episodes I don’t rewatch a lot because that was funny. Dean has no clue how to deal with Cas, but he can fix his car, and when Sam wakes, he can work on fixing him too. 

Later, Dean’s grabbing a beer when Sam walks into the kitchen. He’s okay! Okay enough, at least. Dean tells him to come help with the car and they’ll talk about what to do about Cas. Sam starts to walk out when.

A homophbic preacher is giving a shitty sermon when God walks into the room. I will always stan the God!Cas that says, “I am utterly indifferent to sexual orientation.” I mean, God!Cas is completely out of control, but just like our Cas, he was trying to do his best in a world that’s far too easy to do your worst. 

Cas kills the minister and then hears a whisper of his name. He stumbles but walks out of the church. 

Sam’s in the basement getting some tools when he starts to have visions of Hell. Bobby finds him. 

There are news reports that 200 different religious leaders are dead in an “act of God.” One eyewitness reports: “We all saw him. No beard. No robe. He was young, and sexy.” WHooEE. (Sidenote: Chuck has a beard and a robe. Lol.) The Ku Klux Klan is forced to disband. New Age motivational speakers: Gone. I mean, God!Cas, bby, these two are not the same. Sam thinks they should try talking to Cas again. Dean has closed that door. 

Cas healed leprosy? Bless the God that overrides pharmaceutical companies and their greed for profit. 

Cas finds Crowley hiding out in a trailer park. 

He tells Crowley that he will remain King of Hell but Cas will control where the souls go. Crowley has no say in the situation so he graciously accepts. 

Sam is up late reading when he has a nightmare vision of getting choked by a chain. He wakes and calls for Dean and Bobby. 

They’re busy in the shed with Baby and the 5000th beer of the episode. Also, Dean’s wearing his cute blue jumper and why can’t they bring that back? 

They discuss Sam. Sam overhears their conversation. Sam and Bobby really want to find something to get to Cas. Dean does not want to poke that bear. Dean does suggest summoning Crowley. 

They want a spell to bind Death. 

Cas is out and about healing true believers while he is deteriorating. 

Then he opens his shirt (YAY!) only to reveal a roiling belly full of something that wants out (NAY!). 

Bobby gets a Fedex from Crowley: The binding spell for Death. They have a lot of the ingredients but they still need “an act of God, crystallized.” Bobby found something at a house about 9 hours away. 

That night after some quick thinking on Dean’s part, (“Excuse me, do you have any Grey Poupon?”), they head inside the house to steal their act of God. 

The residents of the house interrupt their burglary (they keep the fulgurite in an actual glass case smh). Dean turns around to see a shotgun pointed at him and has ZERO concerns. In two shakes of a lamb’s tail he has the homeowners trussed up. After a polite introduction, they begin preparing for the ritual. Sam and Bobby work on spell ingredients while Dean does the real heavy lifting and carefully arranges a bag of greasy takeout and a soda on a side table. 

The ritual begins. The building shakes. “Um, hello? Death?” Dean peers around nervously and comes face to face with newly bound Death. 

Dean immediately fetches the bag of greasy food - the best fried pickle chips around! Hey, Death, if you won’t eat those please pass ‘em over here. 

“This is about Sam’s hallucinations, I assume?” Dean’s jaw drops down the ground. WHAT hallucinations, Sam? I can’t believe you are keeping something from your brother! 

Dean files this new piece of information away and they get back on track. They need Death to kill God. Because “we said so and we’re the boss of you.” Dean. Honey. 

Our poor Dean-tastrophe gets saved from himself by the appearance of Our Lord and Hot Guy on a Tortilla, Castiel himself. Death is utterly unimpressed. 

“You look awfully like a mutated angel to me,” Death snarks, and informs Cas that he’s due to explode soon. In addition to a major overload of souls, Cas has also swallowed Leviathan - ancient hungry monsters that predate angels. They’ve been locked away in Purgatory for time out of mind, but now they’re just a step away from a delicious new world and their doorway is Cas’s gut. 

Cas brushes away this concern.

“Where is he?” Cas asks Death about God!God. “I did a service taking his place.” Oh honey no.

Dean quickly gets tired of the Death versus Castiel snark-off and orders Death to “kill ‘im now.” 

Death lifts his hand with grim amusement to smite Cas, when Cas snaps his fingers and frees Death. Uh. Wherps. Death strolls over to the pickle chips, reassures the frightened homeowners, and Castiel flaps away to…

A political campaign headquarters. Cas heads in to kill the senator running for re-election who has caused “poverty and despair in God’s name.” His stern facade cracks and he starts to laugh wildly. Uh. Oh no.

Death berates Dean for not preventing Castiel’s catastrophic god complex. He warned him, after all! About the souls! It wasn’t a cryptic clue at all! “Maybe you should find somebody better to tip off,” Dean suggests with rising ire. 

Death suggests that his own time is better spent on another planet. At the time, I pictured Death swimming with our tentacled interstellar friends in a sea of stars but now I like to think Death planned a jaunt to a parallel world to talk to jetsetting Dean and Sam instead. 

Sam tries to smooth it over and asks for a smidge of help. Death tells them that if Cas returns it all to Purgatory, that will be enough to save their world. He arranges for another eclipse as well to help them build another door. Finally, he warns Dean about ever trying to bind him again and compliments him on the pickle chips. 

Cas wakes up. He’s covered in blood, lying in a pool of blood, and he’s surrounded by...the dead bodies of the political campaign workers. Cas killed everyone, and he killed them bloody. Viciously. 

Back at Bobby’s, Dean has his boots kicked up on the table with a drink in hand. Sam tries to rally him to fight to get Cas back from the brink. Dean isn’t buying it - not from the guy who’s been hiding his hallucinations from everyone else. (Okay, but pot kettle black, Dean Bean.) 

“It’s under control,” Sam insists. Dean would still rather escape into a life of porn and alcohol binging. He then finds news footage of the campaign office and sees the demented smile on Cas’s face. Erm. Not good. 

Sam doesn’t give up, though! In the junkyard, he prays to Cas to let them help him. Back inside with Dean, Sam’s ready to sink into a chair and give up when Cas appears. 

He looks...rough.

Cas asks for help. He talks Dean and Sam through setting up the ritual while he slumps on the floor. “I feel regret,” he tells Dean, wishing that he were strong enough to fix Sam’s wall before he dies. Dean’s not ready to hand out any hugs. BUT I AM.

Sam’s off getting blood for the ritual when he runs into an old face. Lucifer confronts him and tells Sam that he’s still trapped in the cage with two archangels and has been hallucinating everything since. “This is my best torture yet. Make you believe that you’re free and then yank the wool off of your eyes.” Yeesh, that’s clearly a move Lucifer would’ve learned from Michael. Who learned it from Chuck, right? 

Dean heads off to find Sam and discovers a jar of blood in the hallway...and no Sam. Pressed for time, he rushes back to paint the sigil on the wall. They prop Cas up and start the spell. “I’m sorry, Dean,” Cas gets out just before the spell ignites. 

The wall rips away and then light blasts out of Castiel. 

Mood, amirite?

Cas lies on the floor, unresponsive. He’s cold and not breathing. He’s DEAD, JIM! “Damn it,” Dean mutters as sorrow steals over his features.

And then Cas blinks awake. And insta-heals! He sits up, blinking. “That was unpleasant.” Cas has his usual half bewildered half sorrowful expression. He swears that he’ll redeem himself to Dean, and Dean seems at least halfway receptive to that plan! He won’t push him away!

Except...Cas suddenly pushes Dean and Bobby away. He crumples in on himself and shouts that they’ve held on! The leviathans! In a moment, any trace of Cas is gone as Leviathan!Cas grins maniacally and tosses Dean across the room. 

“This is going to be so much fun,” Cas says...and knowing how it ends up we agree! Pining, baby. Pining!

These Quotes are the Monster Under Your Bed:

What a brave little ant you are

Miracles, mass visions, trenchcoat on a tortilla? I don't know what I'm lookin' for

I am utterly indifferent to sexual orientation

We all saw him. No beard, no robe. He was young...and...and sexy. He had a raincoat

Who feels like hog tying death tonight?

You know how I'm gonna deal? I'm gonna stuff my pie-hole, I'm gonna drink, and I'm gonna watch some Asian cartoon porn and act like the world's about to explode because it is

I'm gonna find some way to redeem myself to you

Want to read more? Check out our Recap Archive! 

[whetstonefires]

Im sorry, you had a character who had been raised in a place that hated magic users, been framed and lost faith in the government, became a fugitive whose ONLY FRIEND was a magic user..... And the dm did not lap that up on a plate???? You basically handed them a plot on a platter omg

On the one hand yes, and I was trying so hard, I was single-handedly carrying the ‘giving a shit about the story premise’ flag. She told me all about the setting (but not the plot) and what the party needed for balance ahead of time, and I built my girl to interface with all of that and then it...just didn’t work out at all.

On the other, she was trying hard too. She really didn’t know what she was doing, had never played under a competent DM who cared about story, and had gone into this with a ludicrously ambitious complex political machination plotline that collapsed the second we won our first encounter, and did not get kidnapped and coerced into working for the secret police as surprise agents the other factions didn’t know about.

And fell apart harder when she let the oracle be old friends with the head of the army, and suddenly we had ties to power in the opposite faction from the one she wanted us forced to serve, and even harder when (forced to make things up to replace the original plan) she had the place we went to hide besieged by an army of secret police trying to assassinate Army Boss Lady, her only developed PC who wasn’t a Super Annoying Dude, permanently exploding the ‘sneaky subtle machinations’ vibe.

But she just couldn’t let it go. She really wanted us to experience emotional conflict about what had shaped up into a really straightforward decision that I was the only member of the party who was emotionally invested in anyway.

Even when I tried to help I sometimes put extra strain on her, because I would get really into the worldbuilding and then for example be totally bewildered that the houses had roofs you could stand on, when we were four levels down in a city dug deep into a cliff face.

It had never occurred to her to look for plot in PC interactions, I think, and if it had I can see not attempting to lean into it, when dealing with a party composed mostly of asshole divas and characters specifically designed around not giving a shit. (We started out with two wizards who were different flavors of indifferent to the persecution except re: not getting caught.)

The sorceress princess didn’t care about anything currently in the story only her distant lost throne, and kept starting drama for lulz and ego, and the oracle just steadily escalated her attempts to get the desired power trip out of the game at the expense of everything else. Apparently she was DMing the DM violent revenge fantasies about an NPC who took her character down in an ambush that we’d been kind of manipulated into with misleading descriptions of the amount of cover available. Scary shit.

DM was overwhelmed. It happens. Although the more I describe the situations we got into the more I’m like ‘wow she really had problems with wanting us to wind up in specific positions so NPC dudes could monologue plot at us, huh.’

My roleplaying was specifically designed to interface with her stated plot, but it didn’t always yield the outcomes she wanted or relate directly to her opening story goals, so she often reacted to it as a distraction, which didn’t help.

That’s a learning curve thing, but I’m still annoyed with her for getting mad that my character wholeheartedly disliked her carefully crafted Morally Ambiguous Antagonist, who was super condescending and ran the secret police, and turned out to have been maintaining a constitutional crisis for fifty years so he could be the de facto ruler of the city-state and keep us locked in a state of infighting and witch-hunting so we didn’t have the energy to devote to serious border wars, as opposed to the low-key, defensive border wars I’d fought and my adored older sister had died in.

His sole good trait was being anti-war and my character was a very young, patriotic, dedicated member of the military elite! Why would she be conflicted? Because he’s an authority figure? Maybe then don’t give me alternate authorities who have better morals and more right to boss me and are telling me to do things that make sense for reasons they actually explain!

And she caught him in a lie in the very first thing he ever said to her, even before she knew who he was. Pulling off subsequent Bluff checks doesn’t obligate a PC to trust the NPC who they know lied to them for no apparent reason about something very basic, when they have every reason in the world to be paranoid?

But I got accused of godmoding. 😩 Because Dimsil didn’t trust this suspicious man to send us to go fight sewer zombies, after a week in a bunker hiding from her own government when she was supposed to be on sabbatical going home to meet her new nephew.

I was prepared to be the odd one out for being Lawful, but not fitting into the party because I was the only one who cared on an in-character level and I cared too much was hard.

...I’m always going to be salty about all the attempted railroading with that one NPC tbh. The dude had actually set up our framing on purpose, but he didn’t tell us this, so my girl was just really scornful that he thought he was the only one who could possibly be trusted to run the city when apparently he couldn’t even run his Inquisitors effectively enough to not have them running off trying to frame random citizens to meet quota. That’s not a sign of good management!

But yeah, tiefling wizard rogue dude with his thing for bombs and my paladin starting to be real friends in the middle of the bullshit storm could have developed into something really cool, I think, if the campaign hadn’t collapsed under the weight of entitlement and drama. As they do.

And in addition to the difficult party members, flexibility and being invested in the story on a character level rather than a major-themes or detailed-moment level are useful DM skills, which is something I knew but until this ask hadn’t isolated as a concept in quite this way. Thank you!

[pilot-boi]

Shouting In Cafes: Chapter Four

Tentative Reconciliation

A break from work finally, and then Neptune is left to fend for himself at work without Jaune to supervise and restrain him.

AO3 LINK

Noodle Dude: are you drinking again dude?!

Ocean Man: Im just having a glass of wine before bed. Relax.

Noodle Dude: okay okay

Noodle Dude: are you okay?

Ocean Man: Why do you ask?

Noodle Dude: you did break up with someone like two days ago and drank yourself to sleep over it :/

Ocean Man: yeah…

Ocean Man: I mean Yeah!

Ocean Man: Im fine dude. There will be other guys and girls.

Noodle Dude: i know but its been a rough couple of days and the break up didnt sound good

Noodle Dude: i just wanted to check in

Ocean Man: Im okay i promise. I have something else to focus on now.

Noodle Dude: whats that?

Ocean Man: Starts with an s and rhymes with fun

Noodle Dude: neptuuuuuuuunnnne!! 

Ocean Man: Would you rather i be sad and drunk or angry and focused?

Noodle Dude: neither of those things are good neptune

Noodle Dude: dude? you there?

Ocean Man: Sorry i thought about the frat boy and wanted more wine.

Noodle Dude: dude thats not healthy

Ocean Man: Im kidding im kidding

Ocean Man: Probably.

Ocean Man: I am.

Noodle Dude: why are you so focused on this guy?? Hes just a dick you met once in a coffee shop

Ocean Man: I dont know. He rubs me the wrong way is all.

Noodle Dude: :)

Ocean Man: I am not attracted to him

Noodle Dude: sure sure

Ocean Man: It could be the fact that his mother controls my source of income.

Ocean Man: And could take away that income if her son says a single word to her. 

Noodle Dude: go to bed neptune

Ocean Man: And hes rich

Noodle Dude: go to bed neptune

Ocean Man: And his hair is annoying.

Noodle Man: im going to bed neptune

Neptune spent two days in a coffee shop free bliss. He wasn’t scheduled until Friday, and until then he could lock himself up in his dorm and study without anyone bothering him. Thank god for a roommate in design who spent all of his time out of the room. He was falling behind on his homework.

No matter how social Neptune was, and here social meant flirtatious, being left alone was one of the natural pleasures in life. He liked his dark room. He liked the soft blue light of his computer screen. He liked not being annoyed. This was his element, and when he was in his element, he was focused.

He got to bed on time.

He got his work done.

He even got complimented by his teachers.

Everything was good.

And then he was back at The Daily Grind and Jaune wasn’t scheduled to work that day. And Sun was for sure coming in. And he dreaded every aspect.

“Let me guess. I’m on the cash register,” Neptune asked his coworker before he was even done clocking in.

“You got it.”

“Figured.”

Thankfully, after a few restful days, Neptune was on his A-game, meaning he could smooth talk the customers with ease.

“And what does a lovely lady such as yourself want to drink?” Neptune said and uncapped a sharpie with one fluid motion.

“You’re glowing in this autumn weather, by the way,” he would say as he took down a cup from a high shelf.

“What is someone as beautiful as you doing in a quiet place like this?” he asked and punched in numbers on his cash register with a pen.

Many pleasant smiles. Many quiet blushes. Neptune was good at what he liked to do.

Too good, maybe. Too many not-straight pretty boys with kind smiles and nice eyes being inexplicably drawn to a handsome barista’s dorm room and suddenly they were kissing, but oh no he was straight he swore.

And then more dates, nicer ones. Onese with movies and popcorn and dinners at places with chandeliers. And then more promises like, “We’re just friends,” and then the unavoidable, “Thanks I guess I’m not straight,” and Neptune was left alone with a bottle full of wine.

What time was it?

Neptune checked his watch. 3:15 PM. He just had to last for one more hour without moping around in self pity.

The door swung open with a little more force than needed and hit the wall with a soft thud. Some flyers tugged at the pins holding them to their corkboard. A few studious classmates of his glanced up in annoyance as the bell jingled.

“Hello, welcome to the Dai-” -it was him- -”ly Grind. What can I get for you today?”

Stay calm. Don’t make any snide comments. Don’t say anything else at all. He was alone, wearing shorts and a tight T-shirt and flip flops, rubbing at the back of his neck with one hand and avoiding Neptune’s eye contact. It could be taken as ornery, which Neptune did take it as, but the twinge to his brow and the pout of his mouth made Neptune think if only for a second that he was embarrassed. Or sad. Or both.

God, why couldn’t he read this asshole’s face?

Not an asshole. Owner’s son. Calm.

“So, you’re working here today?” Sun asked, finally turning his eyes toward Neptune.

Neptune shouldn't answer him. “Yeah. It’s a part time job,” he said anyway.

“Well, yeah, but I’ve been in here the past couple of days and you haven’t been here. I get free coffee, you know?”

“So I’ve heard.” He should shut up. “What are you having today?”

“Sorry, by the way. And a grande white mocha.”

Neptune’s brain fizzled out for a split second. “What was that?”

One eyebrow rose to a degree Neptune didn’t think was possible. What the fuck was going on with this guy’s face?! “A grande white mocha?” Sun repeated, sounding bewildered.

“No, I mean-”

“I dunno. I didn’t mean to make you yell about how much you needed your job in a public coffee shop.”

Neptune stared for a moment. Sun broke eye contact a second in, choosing to fiddle with the hem of his GAINS NOT PAINS T-shirt instead. Neptune’s mouth tasted sour, but not out of anger with Sun. It seemed like embarrassment. Why would he be embarrassed?

Neptune rang him up in silence.

“Thank you,” he said and handed him his receipt.

Sun grinned and his eyes crinkled. He took the receipt between two fingers and leaned his body across Neptune’s counter, resting his head on one fist. “So, Italian, huh? You learn that to pick up girls?”

Neptune rolled his eyes. “My mom was born in Naples.”

Sun didn’t lose the smile. It got wider if anything. “But I bet it helps, right?”

“Your order is almost ready.”

“Right!”

Sun had to have given himself whiplash from how fast he bounced back upright and sprinted to the other side of the counter, snatching up his drink and whirling into an open seat by the window. Neptune covered his mouth, trying not to laugh. No laughing at this guy. That wasn’t allowed.

But… Apologizing was something Neptune hadn’t expected. Breaking eye contact, sure, but it was considerate to say the least. Considerate for a frat boy, he reminded himself.

A frat boy that was giving his phone a peace sign as he took a selfie. No wonder he was sitting by the window. Idiot.

[girlhorse]

im in the mood for an abemiha meta so im going to talk about the language use in oofuri! and by language use i mean the use of the word “like” (suki/好き/スキ)

im putting it under the cut since i gotta include some images. beware of minor manga spoilers! really, really minor though lol

first i’m going to provide an explanation of terms and stuff, and their connotations (info is from jisho.org and wordreference. i am still just a beginner in japanese but i am fairly confident in these explanations!)

a lot of you may know this but japanese has three systems of writing, which is going to be very important for my discussion! these are broken down into hiragana and katakana (referred to together as “kana”, symbols are syllabic) and kanji (written characters that represent a word/phrase) you can express japanese in writing in kana alone, but its way more common to use kanji along with kana in writing. this will be really important to my discussion, as i will be highlighting the distinction between katakana usage and kanji usage of the word “suki” 

suki, written “好き” in kanji and “スキ” in katakana, is defined as: “liking; fondness; love” which can be a little confusing - the distinction between “liking” something and “loving” something isn’t quite available, so that typically necessitates context. but with written language, especially in a language with three entirely different writing systems, i think it is safe to say there are other ways of constructing that distinction.

(i can hear a distant “but gabby what about DAISUKI!!! isn’t that MORE about love?” yes and no! ive addressed this in an earlier post but in general the word “suki” is considered to be more serious and romantic, while “daisuki” is a bit more.. uh.. “extra” and frivolous)

so why would an author choose to use kana (in this particular case katakana) in place of kanji?

the kanji is difficult/obscure (gonna just say that “好” doesnt seem particularly difficult at all - it is taught in grade 4)

the author wants to stress sound of the word/emphasize the word (this is important for my interests lol)

a stylistic choice

(i picked up this info a bit from japanese language forums & from translating stuff so it might not be completely accurate but! i think this sums it up)

now that that is out of the way im going to make my bold ass claim! that in the text of oofuri (or just in mihashi speak), スキ is love, and 好き is like! i will now try to show u how i came to this very very bold conclusion:

the first instance we see of “suki” being used in the manga is when abe tells mihashi he likes him as a pitcher (bottem left bubble is “i like it”) 

which is followed up by this panel:

in sequential panels, we have two different spellings of “suki”. it is made clear from the very first chapter in the manga, that (esp for mihashi) that kana “suki” and kanji “suki” have different, important implications. it seems here that mihashi is bewildered that abe would say anything like “like” to him, and writing suki as スキ only drives this home further, almost as if “like” was in bold or italicized

now this is just the first instance and only proves that katakana can be used as a tool to emphasize something, or that maybe mihashi doesn’t know the kanji for suki, or that this is how “suki” is translated to mihashi speak - but it can also set us up to look out for this distinction in the future. I’ll get to the confession scene last my dudes just hold on a minute lol 

now the “this is the mihashi version of suki” theory could work if not for the fact that we have at least 2 instances of mihashi using 好き:

the first when he says he likes the big carrot chunks in the curry: 

and again when he asks abe if he likes catching (i’ll say more on this in a bit):

so if mihashi didnt just learn 好き (its fair to say he always knew since hes not like illiterate dgfdg) then in this instance, “suki” doesn’t have any particular emphasis -- ie mihashi is saying “like” here

setting aside mihashis fondness for carrots is the question he asks abe which is “you like being a catcher, huh?” to which abe emphatically replies: 

this is followed by mihashis conclusion, where we see the shift back to スキ:

“i see. i like pitching. and abe likes catching”  (mihashi uses スキ elsewhere when he talks about his feelings towards pitching; we can pretty much assume that he loves it. thats like his whole character) mihashi wasnt sure how much abe liked catching, and after hearing abe’s response, shifts 好き to スキ. it is subtle, but it means a lot! abe likes/loves catching as much as mihashi likes/loves pitching! there wasnt really a need for clarification on the reader’s part here - we can get what abe is saying right away, but mihashi must confirm it for himself and re-confirm to the reader that “スキ” has a special meaning in this manga/to mihashi

moving on!!!!!! just to solidify, i want to show a couple more instances where スキ shows up:

here, in the word for crush: (the word crush is lit. “person you like” - interestingly, while “person”(人) is in kanji, “suki” is written in katakana)

ofc this could just be because this is handwritten, and it is easier to read handwritten kana, so perhaps it is this way for clarity (人 has 2 strokes so its not an issue, but 好 has 6 so its just a bit more complicated) BUT higuchi. (unfortunately for amateurs like me who try to translate her work) really is not opposed to handwriting more complicated kanji in her manga. i also haven’t looked hard enough but perhaps there is an instance where 好き is handwritten. dont know though!

and here, unrelated to abe and mihashi, when suzune is telling her boyfriend  ookawa that she loves him (its blue cuz its an omake on the cover thats just how it is)

again, it is handwritten, but also this scene seems to rely on the emphasis provided by the katakana

and now. drumroll. im finally focking ready to talk about the confessoin scene! i have talked about how it can be read as a “confession” in this post, but i think it is definitely worth bringing up again bc it is my focking point!

maybe u already guessed (or read my other post) but when abe and mihashi tell each other they like each other it is with スキ:

am i trying to imply theyre in love already? yes and no! i think that スキ here is meant to draw our eyes to the word so we remember it well, or maybe give us a hint of what’s to come in the story (like a real confession scene between them) the two of them are very naive and dont know each other well in the beginning, but it is clear higuchi wants us to pay attention to this word and ask ourselves why it might be written in this way, and how this writing can kind of make the meaning of “suki” ambiguous 

(as an aside id like to note how in the panels above, the phrase “i like you” is isolated from the rest of the sentence. as u probably know abe’s full phrase is “not just as a pitcher, i like you as a person, too!” bc of the way japanese grammar works, though, abe’s “i like you” clause out of context can work as its own sentence; and higuchi chose to give it its own bubble. mihashis “i like you” is even isolated from his “me too!” which i think is interesting. mihashis flashback later in the manga to abe’s “i like you” is segmented in exactly the same way)

also in this scene is where mihashi says he loves being a pitcher w/ スキ:

so if we add the layer that this scene is from mihashis perspective he may very well be meaning “love” in this scene, and may have even interpreted abe’s words in that way (again at the beginning we already see mihashi interpreting abe’s 好き as スキ, so perhaps he is doing it again - though it is left unclear on purpose)

make of this what you will - i could be just picking up on unimportant things. after all, “suki” absolutely isn’t the only word that is emphasized/ kana in the manga, so perhaps this is just a coincidence. but i think it is pretty significant that it is fairly consistent of a distinction in the manga, for such a loaded word, and i honestly suspect this isn’t going to be the last we see of it.

[jupiterjunebug]

16 for the kissy kiss

Below the cut: Major major spoilers for TAZ ep 59 (and a little for 60) im so sorry i wrote a pairing u can’t read memes!!!

Baking Lesson

Pairing: Lupcretia, mentions of Lupjeans (I’ve been calling it Nerd Alert in my head)

“I’d like to learn to bake,”Lucretia said one morning as she cornered Lup outside of her bedroom on TheStarblaster. She seemed deadly serious, so much so that Lup almost cracked ajoke about lightening up, but in the past few years she’d gotten good enough atreading the other woman’s body language to notice the way Lucretia’s fingerscurled in a death grip around one of her many journals.  

“Any reason this is coming up now,sweetcheeks?” Lup asked, and hoped she didn’t imagine the blush at thenickname.

“Well,” Lucretia answered, hervoice cracking a bit before she managed to gather her confidence, “I thoughtthat it might help. With the journaling, I mean. It’s hard to write aboutthings I don’t know, and cooking is something you and Taako love, so knowingsomething about it would make my accounts more authentic.”

That’s the most Lucretia answer Luphad ever heard, and she couldn’t stop herself from laughing at that. Lucretiadefinitely blushed at that, her head ducked as if to hide in her journal. Shit.Lucretia must not have realized that was the laugh Lup reserves for things shewas fond of.

“Hey, no, don’t worry ‘Cretia.That’s just the cutest thing I’ve heard since we got to this reality. Sure, Ican teach you how to make some sweetass baked goods. I was actually going tomake a pie when you ran into me. Wanna help?”

Lucretia brightened, and Lupcouldn’t bring herself to regret losing one of the few moments of quality Luptime she’d managed to fit into her schedule. A ship as big as The Starblastershould have felt empty with only seven people, but her colleagues andespecially her brother had a way of feeling full. Usually Lup enjoyed that, butsometimes she just wanted to sneak into a room by herself and think of sickspells while chopping ingredients.  

Lucretia trailed after Lup into thekitchen, looking bewildered as Lup threw an apron over her head. Lup took alook at her, wide eyed and wearing an apron that Taako had monogrammed “HEADBITCH IN CHARGE”, and almost lost her shit laughing. Lup began to realize thatshe often almost lost her shit laughing, which was usually on brand for her butseemed to make Lucretia nervous. Swallowing down the humor of it, she starteddigging through the cabinets for ingredients.

“You know, I’m glad Ole CaptainDavy packed a lot of supplies before we left,” she said as she chucked pie tinsand rollers onto the counter. “The last couple of realities were fun and all,but I wish we could find some world that sold real baking supplies, ya dig?”

Lucretia let out a noise that mayhave been one of agreement.

“Course, you have to wonder why hethought we’d need all this stuff,” Lup continued, crouching down in front ofthe cupboard where she knew Taako stashed the good sugar, “this whole shindigwasn’t meant to last this long, was it?”

“Captain Davenport likes to beprepared. It’s what makes him such a good commander,” Lucretia said. Lupshrugged, pulling out the sought after ingredient and plunking it down on thecounter beside all of her other treasures.

“If it means I get to bake pieswithout having to pull some ludicrous hundred year mission rationing, I’ll beglad.”

“This mission won’t last a hundredyears.”

“I sure hope it doesn’t. Alright.Let’s make some sweet sweet pastries.” Lup opened the top of the flour andbegan pouring it into the bowl, keeping an eye on the levels as she addressedLucretia, “Now you’re supposed to measure this shit, but I’m pro so I don’tneed to do that. You want, like, two cups of this,” she grabbed the saltshaker, “a teaspoon of that, and then some butter. Like. A cup of butter.Something like that.” She looked up. Lucretia was nodding, her pens movingfuriously in two journals. Lup slid the bowl over to her, “you mix it.”

Lucretia took the bowl as if itwere something delicate. Lup resisted the urge to reach over and change hergrip on the spoon, instead watching her as she figured it out for herself. Aswith most things, Lucretia picked it up quickly.

“This is more difficult than youmake it look,” Lucretia mused as she stirred the dough.

“Practice makes perfect, andperfect is the Lup Aesthetic,” Lup said, putting on her most stunning smile.Lucretia blushed again. She got back to stirring until the dough was about theright texture and Lup took back the spoon.

“What now?”

“Rolling time, my dude.” Lupbrandished the rolling pin like a sword. Lucretia laughed, a sound Lup resolvedto encourage more often.

“So I just roll it?”

“Uh, sorta? You gotta roll it tillit gets to about as thick as you’d want a pie crust to be. Don’t go too hard onit, though.” Somehow, Lup didn’t think Lucretia was the type to go too hard onpie crust. “First we gotta flour up the counter so the dough doesn’t get allsticky.”

Lucretia nodded, her hand twitchingas if to grab the pen tucked in the apron pocket.

“I can tell you this again whenwe’re done if you’re worried about forgetting it before you can write thingsdown,” Lup said. Lucretia startled.

“No, I’m just…used to notation.”

“Hey, no problem with that. I’d betelling you to write away if not for the fact that rolling pins take a hand ortwo.” Of course, that sent Lup’s brain down a tangent about using levitationmagics in cooking, but if she brought up that topic she figured this pie bakingsession would turn into a debate on arcana which was too much nerd for theearly morning. Instead, she handed Lucretia the flour and the other woman triedher best to gently tilt it over on the wooden cutting board.

Lucretia let out a squeak as thebag slipped from her hand, letting out a mushroom cloud of flour as it collidedwith the cutting board. The white powder settled over her like too much snow,and Lup couldn’t keep down her laughter this time. Lucretia shook herself off,depositing the flour in a pile on the floor. A bit hung in the air, however.Lucretia breathed in. Lucretia sneezed.

Lup cackled.

“I’m not very good at this,”Lucretia sighed, her white-tipped nose wrinkling. Lup considered resisting theurge to lean in and plant a kiss on Lucretia’s nose. Lup was not the sort ofperson that resisted urges.

“Oh,” Lucretia said, blinking.

“Did I read the room wrong?” Lupdidn’t think she had. Lucretia had been blushing around Lup all week, and ithadn’t seemed like a platonic sort of blushing.

“N-no,” Lucretia said, her handsflexing for her pen again. “I just thought you and Barry-“

Lup raised an eyebrow. “Honey,Barry doesn’t have a problem with me making friends,” she added an emphasis tothat last word and hoped Lucretia would pick up on it, “after all, there’splenty of Lup to go around.”

“Oh,” Lucretia said again, blinkingeven harder. She spun, pulling a pen from one of her pockets and reaching for ajournal. Lup watched as she scribbled away in the book for a few minutes. Then,she seemed to realize that silence had fallen and looked up. “Sorry, I was justupdating my bond charts.”

“Your bond charts…” Lup started,her grin somehow growing even wider. “Oh my gosh, why do I keep crushing onnerds?”

[meanwhileinoz]

Bisexual People On Reddit Reveal The Hilariously Surprising Differences Between Dating Man & Women

THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY!

Today, Bisexuality isn’t uncommon anymore. We see love everywhere. Love is a beautiful thing, and it comes in different forms. Every person has their own sexual preference, and being bisexual is an example which is simply being attracted to both men and women.

  However, for some people, understanding this concept is beyond their comprehension. So, a group of very calm and understanding individuals who are bisexuals got on Reddit and elucidated things, which range from being hilarious to NSFW, explaining the differences between dating men and dating women.

  #1 And that’s how Portarossa became a lesbian.

Women are softer, physically — not just with regards to, you know, boobs and stuff, but also just their skin in general. All that moisturising pays off. All you want to do is touch ’em.

I once dated a guy who naturally had absurdly soft skin, and it was weird but extremely pleasant.

  #2 Portarossa knows what’s up.

Men dating bisexual women are a lot more likely to ask for a threesome.

  #3 GreatAndPowerfulNixy makes a good point, maybe that’s why most men prefer skipping foreplay.

Hello, I’m a bisexual man.

The biggest difference I’ve noticed is how forward you can be with sex right from the get-go. Dating and sex with a woman is a fucking dance, testing the waters to see how far you’re allowed to go. Dating and sex with a man is usually “do you have a cock? Alright, let’s get that shit in me ASAP homie”.

  #4 LynxaBane sums it all up.

As a bisexual female this is what I’ve noticed.

Dating a Lesbian: The lesbian I was dating at the time pretty much wanted me to “forget” I also liked men and wanted me to be 100% into women all the time. It was unrealistic to say the least. I couldn’t comment on actors or men in public yet if I said anything about another female it was all good.

Dating a Bisexual Woman: Pretty standard relationship was fun to talk about people we found attractive etc. Very experimental in the bedroom.

Dating a Straight man: Asked for threesomes alot but when I actually went to plan it, backed out. Not all that experimental in the room. Got SUPER turned on by the idea of me with another woman and SUPER jealous at the thought of another dude.

Dating a Bisexual Man: Pretty close to dating the Bisexual woman, just now the penis isn’t made from silicone and there’s no boobs 🙁

Something I learned overall: Every relationship people think because you play for both teams you are more likely to leave because you have double the options.

#5 riddley16 shares with us an interesting experience.

The girls I’ve dated have actually been significantly quicker to tell me when somethings wrong. The guys I’ve dated bottled it in sometimes for a month before I even knew anything was up.

  #6 Aggressivecleaning discusses a matter of importance. Clothes.

The wardrobe that is doubled is a pro with women

#7 All girls can relate to what nomorerunning97 says.

Flirting with girls is so much harder (as a girl at least).

  #8 Just a bro thing, what do you think, John-oc?

Bi guy here. After long periods of sex without ejaculation;

Girls – Is it me? Is something wrong? (Two days later) are you sure you’re not fully gay?

Guys – no sweat bro… mind if I finish off and we grab a pizza?

#9 Each have their own taste according to Repulsia.

Women’s kisses are completely different to men’s. Sex with women seems less climax oriented.

  I pretty much round up to being gay now, but I’ve dated several women in my time. Beyond the genital thing, which never mattered much to me anyway, I think the biggest difference I noticed was how much thought women put into interpersonal relationships. At its best, my ex-girlfriends would be able to clearly and articulately express their feelings in a way that I, emotionally stunted man that I am, cannot. At other times I would feel bewildered as they found hidden meanings in things I said or did that I never intended. In my experience, men are more inclined to take what you say and do at face value and not think too deeply about other people’s motivations or thoughts.

  #11 drunkersloth42 tells us something that’s more than just about sex.

I am a woman who has dated both men and women. Currently dating a woman. Dated more men in the past (But this probably has more to do with the numbers there will always be more straight men then women who date women).

by far the biggest difference was expectations for gender roles in the relationship. Pretty much all men I dated expected I carry the burden of the emotional work of the relationship and (If living with them) the house work. It is really not attractive when your boyfriend just expects you to be responsible for his laundry and remember birthdays/pick up cards/ make the shopping list/ tell him what chores to “help” with as if I turned into their secretary or mom. And the thing was they weren’t even conscious of it! With the women I have dated it has been far more equal with actual discussions about these things. I mean all couples argue about chores, but it’s nice when the default expectation that im responsible for it isn’t there.

  #12 Communication is the key, is it not montelco?

Anecdotally, with the men I’ve dated, things are always surface deep. When “What do you wanna do for dinner?” gets an “I don’t care.” it means just that as opposed to the girls I’ve dated that get pissed when you respond with “Alright, we’ll just do leftovers then.”

Also, disposition. The women I’ve dated will agree to going places or doing things even if they really don’t like it. One girl I dated hated hummus but would try some anyway when I would snack on it. With dudes I’ve dated it’d be a straight up “nah.”

  http://ift.tt/2xt7QbX

[isaacathom]

ooh, i made a slight change to what i guess is the ‘inciting incident’ for CCC

so, originally, i had it be that Nava was caught and strangled by one of the hunters, and thats what caused Shani to go Magic and kill the three hunters and spare the Survivor.

new plan. mostly influenced because im trying to explain where the magic came from, and ive decided that, if nothing else, Nava also has the ability to shoot hope lasers out of her hands. its possibly a regional thing. thats not important. (well it is but not relevant)

if she has that ability, i find it difficult to believe she’d be so passive as to just. let herself get strangled. that sounds bad, but i mean, youre being held down and the guy on top of you reaches for your throat, youve basically got a gun, you lift that sucker and pop a cap in him. thats what Nava does. after a moment ineffectual struggle, and with another hunter (the third one, as the second is currently holding Shani back) closing in to help hold her down, Nava shoots a hole through the first hunters chest and gets up off the ground.

Shani reacts poorly, because Shani is an altogether gentler soul than Nava is.the hunter holding Shani nearly loosens his grip. the Survivor loses his fucking mind and scrambles backwards, yelling incoherently. the third hunter, noticing that Nava is briefly distracted in examining the first hunters body, lunges forward and stabs her repeatedly with his hunting knife. THIS is what gets Shani. like she starts screaming louder (and its this scream that is first heard by the town, and used by the Survivor as evidence) as Nava stumbles forward and slumps. the third hunter keeps on ploughing through, though, because hes in an emotional state and this is revenge. because like, TECHNICALLY the first hunter isnt dead yet. yet. but there is a big fuck off hole in his torso so yea hes basically dead. and the third hunter is getting his revenge. and just. keeps going. while the Survivor screams in abject fear and the second hunter (holding shani) tightens his grip again.

and shani goes off. because like, now shes even more scared for her life. when she was being held, yea, she was spooked, but now seeing the reaction this man had, this series of events, and having the grip on her retightened (as it’d only been loosened in just bewildered fear), she has pretty good reason to believe that this third hunter, crazedly stabbing her friend to death, will come for her next. she was already going to die at these mens hands, but now its going to come faster and with more violence. also, lest we forget, her friend just killed a man and has just been killed herself. so, click, off she goes.

promptly hope lasers the guy holding her (i imagine by shooting him in the leg and then spinning around for the chest shot to end it), before long distance lasering the third hunter, flinging him off into a tree. rip. the Survivor just starts whimpering at this point.

at this point im not sure exactly what happens. cause the idea is that Shani flees the scene. and thats fair, i guess, but did she also check on Nava? i mean, Nava is totally dead, she was stabbed far too many times and far too noticeably to actually survive, like how the first hunter was Totally Dead even if he hadnt died yet, because there was no real way any of these 4 people were gonna actually make it out alive based on their injuries. but. did she still check? i mean, unlike Nava, who was fully conscious and aware of what she was doing at the time of lasering the guy, Shani isnt. shes not conscious of what shes doing beyond knowing WHY shes doing it - cause they just killed her friend. even IF she remembered the stuff leading up to her going super saiyan, she does not remember at all that actual experience of being in saiyan mode and killing two people in less than a minute.

but like. what is she doing. what does she do. where is she going??? was she trying to get to the village? that could work. not as an extension of any lack of direction (because, fun as that would be, itd get quickly tiring in the actual story i think), but as an extent of getting turned around and being in a new place. live in a desert city your whole life, now youre in a forest and your best friend just got murdered, directions are hard. easily explain it as, since the hunters had led them off the path theyd been taking, that shani has No Idea where she is and gets lost. she doesnt get lost for long, admittedly, as she arrives in the village like, the next morning (early enough that not many people are awake, but late enough that people are already aware of her description and know who she is supposed to be). or something. ok that time thing is also something to discuss but ill get that later.

but still??? checking nava? did she check nava, realise she couldnt actually do anything, and then run for the village in an attempt to get the hunters in trouble? or tell the truth? it’d probably have worked if she hadnt gotten lost and promptly passed out once she arrived and forgotten the whole thing. but that COULD work. like. runs to Nava’s side after killing people. the survivor is off to the side trying to keep quiet in fear that Shani will kill him. finds nava like, totally gone, like, fuck me dude this whole murder business was positively brutal. backstabbed to high fuck and ten turned over for a frontal assault. destroyed. and shani just stands up and /runs/. at speed. away. adios, shani, you wild fuck.

after that shit is still the same. slightly more motivated (a dozen or more stab wounds are a little hard to pass off as an accident or even self defence to an /extent/), and it makes more sense later. tying into that, after all. cause when Mavris (im just gonna call the master Mavris at this point im really lazy) finds the body, he knows Nava was murdered immediately. he doesnt know the context, he doesnt know what happened, but he KNOWS she was murdered. whereas if she’d been, say, strangled, theres that extra confusion and you could easily make the mistake of thinking that she simply fell into the ditch and died. but stab wounds? dont get that many stab wounds from some sharp rocks in a ditch.

so the survivor just. does the same as he always did. shakingly picks up Nava and chucks her in the nearest ditch he can find, kicks some dirt in there too since i mean, she is wearing light colours, yea its stained blood red for the most part but to be safe, kick kick. click clatter crack. runs back to the village yelling for help, dragging the third hunter along in a desperate attempt to save at least one of them.

NOW. the thing i gotta work out. what time stuff happens

cause i think the less time between the deaths and shani’s arrival the BETTER, right, because its better pacing. so. the hunters encouner Nava and Shani during the day. morning or afternoon? morning, maybe, or early afternoon. there needs to be enough time for the bodies (of the hunters, not nava) to be recovered and returned to town and for news of the murder and the supposed Murderer. so that when shani appears everyone knows. her exhaustion also needs to be justified, beyond the obvious (in that shes been travelling for like a week or more across deserts and forest with minimal food and water, no worries)

so. lets say morning? and then have shani arrive at the village after dusk. means people are still awake (thus meaning she can be found and quickly brought indoors before too much hubbub, but also justifies how little people are around) and it means that the council can be quickly made aware of her arrival and begin searching through her stuff for evidence while waiting for her to wake up. the sooner they can investigate her, the sooner the trial can happen and the sooner shes made into a slave, which kickstarts the ressstt of the story. right. yea. that works.

this stuff works fine.

i was also thinking, for a later point, that someone else from shanis city finds themselves in the town. nava and shani weren’t the only people who decided the desert was better than the government or whatever the hells happening in that city, so a guy shows up from there. not with as impactful an entrance, ofc. though, how much /would/ that impact shani. i mean, the guy wouldnt know shes stigmatized (yknow, as a murderer), so it means she can just. talk. no worries. no pressure. she can just chat to this guy, learn about whats happened since shes left, confirm that yup, no fucking clue where Nava went, yada. she probably sees him off when he leaves to head west for the boats.

thats about all ive got. probably should rename mavris, though, lmaoooo