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moongothic · 6 months

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Do you ever start a project, thinking it'd be a fun thing to make, only to realize halfway through you hate and have literally no use for it and then get stuck unsure what the fuck you should do with it

Yeah

This is my Bag of Regrets

Okay so around March of 2023 I made my first-ever crochet bag out of the leftover yarn I had from my Blanket of Darkness. I loved how that bag turned out, but even then I realized I could've done a better job had I lined the bag, which I should've done really early into the project.

So.

I ended up with a bunch of this super thin cotton yarn, in a few colors. We're not gonna talk about how I got the yarn, I just ended up with it. And I did not know what to do with it, because the pink and the dark maroon-y color just are not my colors, at all. I do not like them what-so-ever. And so like, I had to figure out something to do with the yarn, didn't wanna waste it. And for some god damn reason I thought I could practise making more crochet bags using this yarn.

Like in theory, this was a fine idea.

But I don't even like pink, what the fuck am I going do with this god damn thing now.

But I was a fucking idiot and did not think about that fact until I was like 80% done with it

Anyway, I thought it'd be fun to try doing a checkerboard pattern on the tiny crochet bag. This was a huge mistake. I don't know what the fuck it was about it, but I had the worst time of my life trying to make sure the squares were even, with the same amount of rows and that the corners met at the right spots- like sometimes I made the right amount of rows but the corners didn't meet at all and sometimes I did the wrong amount of rows but the corners did meet. It was a fucking nightmare to crochet. I had a horrible time. Making the front and back panels took me months and I had to restart it so many times just to get it right. It was bad, I hated it man

Also, by the way. I don't mind working with thin yarn at all, but because this was a thin COTTON yarn, I just. The yarn has no stretch, it is hard. Working with it made me feel like I was going to cut off my left finger as the yarn was rubbing against it as I was crocheting.

The bottom piece of the bag was done in that dark purple-maroon-y color with... I can't even remember what stitch I did, it was something Alt Knots has a video tutorial for on their YouTube though

But, I made the three crochet panels

Then I cut out the piece of fabric I would hand-sew the crochet pieces onto. I have a ton of this red-brown fabric that I have no idea wha to do with, and I figured it would work fine for this (since you're not supposed to see this fabric anyways) so I cut the pieces from it

Pinned the pieces down and then I just sewed the pieces onto the fabric. I decided to use sewing thread so it'd blend into the crochet better (being a fine thread and all), using white for the checker board pieces and a dark red/maroon-y color for the bottom piece

Forgot to take a photo of the bottom piece but it's fine, you get the idea

Then I cut out the lining fabric. I didn't really have any fabric that would actually match the checker board crochet at all, and I didn't want to buy anything so I chose to use this black fabric (with itty bitty roses) for lining

Cut the pieces and pinned them down facing each other

I think I originally wanted to do the sewing by hand for a cleaner look but I wasn't happy with it, so after I did my innitial hand-stitching I went over it with a sewing machine, getting as close to the crochet but without sewing over it. And after checking it was okay, I cut the excess fabric and did some clean up to help keep the fabric from fraying.

Folded the pieces inside out and they were looking decent!

Now yes, I did still have to hand-sew one side shut for each piece, but it wasn't a big deal, though sadly because I had to make sure the handsewing wasn't visible on the outside of the bag, this was going to be a visible flaw on the lining anyways

You can see what I mean on the top edge of the bigger piece (with the white thread)

In hindsight I probably could've sewn the edge shut with a mattress stitch or something instead of going through all the fabric, but alas, I was stupid and didn't not realize this at the time

Sidenote I took like 5 month break from this project after finishing the front and back piece but before I did the bottom piece. Because yeah, this was around when I realized I hated what I was making and that I had no idea what the fuck I was gonna do with it once it was done. And I just could not get myself to even look at it, for months. And it HAUNTED me, made me feel bad about not having completed it every dang day. But yeah, finally in March I got back to it after finishing my last crochet blanket. Because I wanted to start another project but I did not want to start anything before finishing this fucking thing so yeah.

(Oh yeah I also I grabbed some metal accessories from my mom's stash that I attached to the bottom piece, so the bag can have a widdle handle)

With the pieces all done, it was finally time to sew them together. And this I was going to do by hand sewing them with a mattress stitch. I started by just attaching the smaller piece to the bottom, making sure it was centered right, and carefully sewed it together, starting from the middle and making my way up the sides, one at a time.

I did very specifically do sewing on the red-brown fabric

And it was looking good, according to plan!

Did the bigger piece the same way, and then all I had to do...

...Was clean up, by mattress stitching the crochet pieces together. Chose to use white because I figured I'd rather have small amounts of white peeking through on the bottom piece than have the dark red/purple on the front pieces. Though thankfully the white yarn isn't even that noticable, it sinked into the stitches quite nicely

With that done, I did this one final little touch-up. On checker crochet pieces you could kind of see my starting row, as the row had quite large holes in it. And I wasn't a huge fan of how it looked, so I just took some of the white yarn and wove it into the loops to fill it out

One final thing I did but didn't bother documenting was the strap. I did considder crocheting it, and even started it, but I did not like the stitch I was trying to use for it, and at this point I was so fucking done with the project I couldn't be bothered. I had some white cotton ribbon with nothing to do with it, so I decided to just grab some of that to make a lil strap. It's... not great, it's just that the ribbon is quite thin so it FEELS really flimsy. But I had reached the "I don't give a fuck anymore" stage and so. Yeah whatever

My shitty little bag of regrets is done. Yay.

I probably could've done something to clean the edges of the bag better because you can see the red-brown fabric peeking through, but... Like I can't think of what I could do to fix that, and again, I'm at the point where I don't have the energy to even try anymore

It's done, and that's what matters

Probably throwing it in the trash because what else am I gonna do with it

(Final note; I did have left-over yarn from this, but I used that yarn to make tiny mesh fruit/grocery bags. Ones I will actually use! Yay)

#Moon posting #Yarncraft Diary #Crochet #Crochetblr #Yarnblr #Mandatory ''This started out as a DIY Blog first and foremost'' Disclaimer #Also yeah I finished this god forsaken thing months ago but did not have it in me to post about it #Do not let me start dubious projects ever again. This was a massive waste of time #Did not proof read this we die like men

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foone · 2 years

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Hi I'm Foone Turing. I've been here a while but never really did an introduction post, so...

Hi. Yes, that's my name. I'm an asexual trans enby (they/them pronouns), I'm married, and I'm both older than you expect and younger than you expect, depending on what you know me from. I'm a writer and programmer. I'm better known on Twitter, at the moment. I'm well known for being severely ADHD and I'm also on the autism spectrum, somewhere near ultraviolet. I live near Oakland, California, USA, but I grew up on a farm in the south. I'm a furry, but I don't have a fursona yet.

I'm big into retrotech stuff, especially floppy disks. 80s and 90s PC stuff mainly, but I have a passing interest in everything else. I loves me some weird tech that you have no idea ever existed. I'm also big into analog media. VHS tapes, laserdiscs, that sort of thing.

Fandom wise, I'm a Trekie from way back, primarily in the TNG/DS9/VOY/ENT era. I haven't yet gotten into the new stuff, and I have only a passing knowledge of the original series. I'm also a big fan of Babylon 5, Red Dwarf, and Doctor Who (4th doctor, and new who doctors 9,10,11). I watch a bunch of British panel shows: HIGNFY, Mock the Week, Nevermind the Buzzcocks, 8 out of 10 cats (primarily the countdown spinoff).

I am a Big Hater on crytypocurrentseas and AI art. I used to be famously mad at the JWST, but now that it's in space and functional, I've calmed down. They just need to rename it and I'm golden.

I'm currently splitting my social media presence across three sites:

* Tumblr, obviously. Shitposting, jokes, queer stuff, and queer joke shitposts are all going here.

* mastodon: I'm putting my tech stuff here. Teardowns, building new death generators, fun historical weirdness.

* Twitter: formerly my primary platform, but now I just use it to keep in touch with people and make fun of the impending collapse of Twitter.

Stuff I do and have done after the readmore.

(I'm on mobile now but I'll get back to this on the desktop and add more links)

* I run lettuce.wtf, a webcam showing a lettuce to see if it will outlast Twitter. (My money is literally on the lettuce)

* my long running site The Death Generator: a tool for making fake video game screenshots, with user supplied dialogue.

* I run some Twitter bots, one of which is more popular than me, and all of which will need to be migrated soon: Gay Cats, WinIcons, Print Shop Deluxe, and Every Clue Line.

* I got Microsoft 3D Movie Maker open sourced

* I got rickrolled so hard that it ended up on national TV

* I ran doom on a pregnancy test

* I have made many horrible and weird keyboards. Keyboards with hair, keyboards which write poetry, keyboards that take 5 hours to say "hello world", keyboards with randomly placed keys, keyboards with 7 toggle switches instead of buttons, and many more.

* I tear down random electronics and try to figure out and explain how they work. (originally on Twitter, but moving over to mastodon now)

* I pissed off the FBI on more than one occasion. They tried to get me fired, they delayed my wedding by over a month, and they mentioned my 4chan nickname in a federal trial.

* I used to work for 4chan. I was a moderator and coder, I created /rs/ and /r9k/, and I convinced moot to destroy the original politics board (for obvious reasons). Things went further to shit after I left, but I am still glad I left. Oh and I also inadvertently prevented the creation of the 4chan dating/meet up site by being too ADHD to actually complete development of it. You're welcome.

* I ran a windows 95 machine for the maximum amount of time. There's a bug where it crashes after 49.7 days of uptime, so I let it happen. I livestreamed the end on YouTube.

* I've done exhibits at the Vintage Computer Festival on the history of floppy disks and optical discs.

* I've worked with the Video Game History Foundation (and others) to preserve old games and game development resources (source code and such). I'm big into archival!

* I wrote a really famous Twitter thread about the surprising way our vision works, which is still circulating in screenshots (including on Tumblr!) something like 5-6 years later.

* I made my old apartment play the Zelda Ocarina of Time shop music when you walked I the door.

* I run the Tumblr animefloppies, collecting screenshots and GIFs of floppy disks in anime.

* I run several other sub-tumblrs for collecting weird things, but I'll have to link them later.

* I am technically a speedrunner. I did the TAS of Duke Nukem 1, episode 1, and a joke speedrun of Solar Winds, where I beat the game by ignoring every single possible objective and just flying to the end, which takes over an hour.

* I used to make games. Some of them are available for download.

* but it still do, too: I'm working on a (currently unnamed) game about managing a dairy farm. Both the developers have ADHD. This is going to take forever before it comes out, if it ever does.

* I'm currently working on three books. Two are compilations of stuff previously twitterized, one is a novel:

- Always Screaming Forever: non-fiction, stories about my career in the tech industry and various other tech/science/history stuff I love ranting about.

- The Other Side of Screaming: fiction. My short stories.

- Mundane Kaya Sona (placeholder title): a linguist gets pulled into an FBI investigation into a car crash. An unknown language leads to the discovery of a wizard living in a forest in Oregon, and an interdimensional plot to smuggle nuclear weapons to another world, and break a cold war stalemate we (the planet earth) didn't realize we were in. I've been working on the setting for this story since I was about 7 years old, and I'm excited to finally get it out of my head and into yours.

* I'm probably forgetting like 5-10 major things I've done but ADHD is a hell of a drug. I'll add more as they come to me.

#Introduction #Foone

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whatstruthgottodowithit · 2 months

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Love In Trouble [Part Four]

Fandom: Elvis Presley, American Musician, RPF

Pairing: Elvis Presley x Original Female Character, Austin Butler x Original Female Character

Characters: Characters: Elvis Presley, Original Female Character, Austin Butler, Red West, Sonny West, Jerry Schilling Colonel Tom Parker, Minnie Presley, Vernon Presley, Dee Presley, Joanie Esposito, Joe Esposito, Pat West

Rating: Mature

Word Count: 3699

Summary: Lori Presley lives the high life. She has a lovely home, a elegant wardrobe and her parties are the most sought after ticket in town. Not to mention her husband is the King of Memphis. But what if she no longer wants to be the Queen?

Tags/Warnings: This is a mafia au with detective austin butler entering the chat, Memphis Mafia, Detective Austin Butler, Adultery, Infidelity, Love, Angst, Unhappy Marriage, Murder, Court Room Drama in the loosest possible way, AU, Set in the 70s

Notes: ngl the logistics of this one are hammering me but we're trying here

LINK TO ALL PARTS // LINK TO AO3 // LINK TO PINTEREST

Detective Butler’s apartment was nice. The stonework was a rustic red colour and the gardens that adjoined the sidewalk out front were kept neat and tidy. Even the parking lot out back looked respectable with newish vehicles in every spot and an electric gate that hinted at the smell of the inhabitants being more well off than others in the surrounding neighbourhoods. Still money or not it was a far cry from the homes she was used to. The winding driveways up to bleached brickwork. Ornate stained glass that coloured the sunshine as it shone through onto a thick shag pile.

Still Lori didn’t think that the difference in architectural design was the reason for her feeling so out of place. It wasn’t the reason she’d come when she was sure Elvis wouldn’t notice her absence. It wasn’t why she’d lied and told him she’d been roped into some church event whilst he went to the club. It wasn’t the reason she scurried inside hoping no one saw or recognised her even opting to wear something casual in the hopes she wouldn't draw attention to herself.

Thankfully she didn’t pass anyone on the way up to his apartment and when she got there the door was open meaning she didn’t have to do anything more than check it was him at the door before she darted inside, allowing him to close it softly behind her.

‘You’re late,’ he said as he watched her look around, pushing her oversized sunglasses up onto her elegantly styled hairdo before she looked back at him. Her expression was cold, all the emotion and care wiped from it, and it made him falter, clearing his throat nervously as he added, ‘I er, I thought you weren’t coming.’

‘Yeah well I’m here aren’t I?’ she challenged, ‘this apartment building isn’t exactly easy to find.’

‘Well we could’ve done it at the station,’ he replied, making her jaw tighten and her arms cross across her body. Austin cleared his throat and moved towards the kitchen trying to resist pushing her for fear she’d spook and flee taking whatever leads he had with her.

‘Drink?’ he asked, ducking behind the wall that sectioned his kitchen/diner off from the living room. He could hear her moving around, no doubt assessing his entire life or at least what he’d bothered to unpack yet, but he decided to let her.

‘Water’s fine,’ she called.

Lori could hear him moving about, the faucet coming on and the clink of glasses, but she ignored it moving around the room as she assessed him. She didn’t know what she'd been expecting from this straightlaced, hard edged cop. The one that had accosted her at the church function felt stiff and unyielding. She’d expected his apartment to be all dark panelling and chrome but it was soft. Neutral palettes against soft furnishings. At first she’d thought it was the choice of the landlord, a uniform that allowed them to rent on a whim, but there were personal touches that hinted it may be more his taste than some faceless home owner. A movie poster of an art nouveau film she had never heard of. A potted plant that was thriving despite the position it held within the room. A picture of a young blond boy and what looked like his mom, the pair beaming.

When he re-emerged and placed her drink on the coffee table he could feel her eyeing him, her blue eyes sweeping up and down his lean frame with curiosity. Austin said nothing but straightened up looking her dead in the eye as if signalling he wasn’t put off by the scrutiny. Then he gestured to the sofa allowing her to sit down which did so gracefully before he took his own seat in his armchair, his finger brushing underneath his chin as he watched her.

She’d taken to looking around his apartment again and he took the time to observe her whilst she was distracted. She looked different again today. Not a chic nightclub attendee, not a cutesy woman of the church but a blend of the two with her outfit of choice being a pair of tight bell bottoms that maintained modesty and a waif of fabric that knotted against her chest as if bragging about being just enough material to be called a shirt. Again her hair was perfectly styled but her makeup was neutral, enough that she could be deemed as making an effort but not so much it supported the idea she was to impress him.

When she looked back and found him watching her she busied herself with her drink, taking a long swig as if she was determined to prolong being the one to initiate conversation. And though he liked making her squirm he decided to be merciful and said, ‘so.’

‘So?’ she scoffed, placing the glass down on a coaster as she raised her brow, ‘that’s all you have to say?’

‘What am I supposed to say?’ Austin shrugged, leaning back in his chair casually as if he was unbothered about the outcome of this rendezvous.

‘Just so?’ she baulked.

‘Well you called me,’ he mused, ‘and insisted on meeting face to face. I assumed whatever it was you were going to be doing the explaining. I mean I don’t suppose you’d come all the way down here to tell me what I already know. Or to parrot out the official company line.’

‘Which is?’ she pressed.

‘That Tony Bowen had nothing to do with Kings. Or you for that matter,’ he challenged. Lori shifted, crossing and uncrossing her legs as she grabbed her glass of water once more if only to have something to mess with.

Of course that was why she was here. She was here because he was the only person who might possibly believe what she had been thinking these past few days. He might believe her or possibly tell her that what she had been thinking was ludicrous. That the evidence didn’t lend itself to the notions she had been having. But to get there it seemed he was determined to make her utter those notions out loud.

‘Okay,’ she said, her throat thick with a spittle she swallowed down as she tried to get the words out, ‘okay so we had an affair.’

‘And?’ Austin replied, watching as she fell quiet, her gaze flitting to her lap. She wasn’t going to make this easy for him but he was sick of people pussyfooting around the issue when a man was dead and so he pressed, ‘and what does that have to do with his death?’

‘I don't know,’ she lied, swallowing thickly though to her surprise the familiar sting of tears had not presented themselves. Austin sighed.

‘Then why are you here?’

‘Because,’ she said looking at him, his blue eyes wide and expectant which lowered her tone to something barely audible, ‘because I think my husband might have something to do with it.’

‘Why do you think that?’ he asked in the most forgiving tone he’d summoned since meeting her.

‘Because no one crosses Elvis Presley,’ she said quietly.

The sentiment hung in the air for a moment, the pair of them watching one another until she became too shy to look at him, her gaze turning to her glass once more as she chugged the icy cold water down allowing it to wash the tears and bile from her throat from finally having spoken the words aloud.

She hadn't wanted to believe it. Of course she was not naïve to the types of things her husband and his entourage got up to in the name of work but it had never been any of her business. She did not have a hand in it. The wheels were greased enough that trouble rarely arose from it and if it did it was swiftly dealt with.

But this, Tony's death, hadn't been something she could ignore. Because Elvis had made sure it wasn’t. Even as they danced around the topic of why he would be involved or why she might care about some bus boy she had known that this was not something simple. This was personal. He had made it personal. He had killed Tony because he knew it would hurt her. Punish her for daring to find solace in the arms of another man like he had never done the same. It was a reminder that at the end of the day she was his. A reflection on him and if she was going to misbehave he would too but worse.

Austin was still watching her when he cleared his throat, sad blue eyes flitting back to his face as he probed gently, ‘okay…but do you really think he’d kill someone over an affair?’

‘It’s an embarrassment,’ she reasoned.

‘Okay sure,’ he said hesitantly, ‘but killing the guy? I mean what if he got caught surely the motive coming out is just as embarrassing. I mean no offence but he'd be just as well killin’ you-’

‘Killing me wouldn’t be a punishment though would it?’ she challenged, ‘no one knows why Tony's dead apart from me and him. I can't even mourn him or challenge him about it because that would be admitting fault. I get to sit in grief whilst he gets away with murder. It’s a solid punishment.’

‘Why not just divorce you?’ Austin challenged, again longing for the golden hue of California where there seemed to be less scrutiny over honour and shame. After all, it was hard to talk about morals and respect when everyone in tinsel town was screwing someone they shouldn’t.

‘And risk a scandal? Risk the humiliation of being left for a younger man, please,’ she scoffed, shaking her head and looking away from him as if listening to his ridiculous theories would make her stupider. Austin sighed and leaned forward weighing up his case.

‘Okay say he did kill the guy,’ Austin started, ‘I haven’t got much to go on other than your word. He has an alibi for one.’

‘Yeah he said he left the club at one and was home in good time but he didn’t get to the house until well after two thirty,’ she reasoned.

‘But no one could corroborate that other than you. His boys are adamant they got him home on time,’ Austin said, recalling the way his questions had gone down like a lead balloon when he’d broached the boss’ departure time on the night in question.

‘Our security system might be able to,’ she said, praying that the tape had not been pre-emptively wiped.

‘Okay so he wasn’t at home,’ Austin shrugged.

‘And he was shot right? Elvis has guns and I bet you could match one of them to whatever killed Tony,’ she continued. She could see his reluctance and because of it she could feel her heart breaking as the only person who was willing to believe Tony had come to foul play no longer seeing the way it could've happened.

‘It’s flimsy,’ he said.

‘It’s all I got,’ she breathed.

Austin pondered that for a moment trying to find how he could work the scarce evidence into something workable. It wasn’t a great fit and considering the rift it would cause he couldn’t imagine it'd be easy to push through for an arrest let alone a trial but there was something to her that tugged at his heart strings. Like the old lady crying down the phone to him and his own sense of justice, her being willing to take the risk felt well big.

And yet he wasn’t sure he could trust her. Not yet anyway.

But without her he had nothing. Without a testimony or hint at where to find more evidence the case would collapse around him. So he pressed, the stoic, sceptical cop returning to replace the one that had tried to ease her out of her shell.

‘Why do you want to help anyway? I mean you didn’t seem too bothered before,’ he challenged.

‘I loved Tony,’ she said truthfully.

‘Do you love him?’ he asked, not saying his name yet they both felt the weight of his presence. When she dropped her gaze to her empty glass he snorted, making her head snap back up as he asked, ‘if you love him why are you here? You are aware this could ruin his life.’

‘I’m aware,’ she snapped, ‘but it’s my fault Tony’s dead. And I suppose he deserves justice.’

‘And that’s your husband in prison?’ he challenged, ‘why not just leave him? Humiliate him.’

‘It’s not as simple as packing a bag and leaving,’ she retorted.

‘Oh,’ he chuckled, ‘this is your way out without the blame laying at your feet right?’

‘Oh I’m plenty to blame,’ she smiled mirthlessly, ‘but I figure the blood of a dead man on my hands and a jailed husband might go some way in repentance.’

Austin could see her point but in his eyes her worldview was still skewed as if she would come out of this with only secret shame. A point he dared to make as he said, ‘you know if we go through with this there may not be any saving you. We will have to tell them everything and despite whatever evidence we can cobble together it might all come down to your testimony.’

‘I understand,’ she said quietly. Austin hesitated but decided to ask anyway. He already had his hopes up at the chance at pushing this case to where it needed to be.

‘So you’re in?’ he asked, ‘because I’m not going to go through with this only for you to change your mind-‘

‘I won't,’ she affirmed.

‘How can I trust that?’ he asked sceptically.

‘You can't,’ she smiled sadly, making his heart flip flop, ‘but I loved Tony and I know you think I can do the right thing.’

‘But you love him.’

��I did but right now I'm not sure I’ll be able to again not knowing what he did,’ she said. Austin nodded and weighed his options up once more.

It was almost foolhardy to think he could trust her, the wife of a wannabe mobster. And if he did trust her and it all went south he'd only have himself to blame. He would not have a chance at staying in the precinct or the county for that matter. He’d probably have to move again. But there was something in her eyes he couldn’t ignore. A tugging at his heart strings. She was one of the most famous women in Memphis and yet here in his small apartment she felt helpless. The rock on her left hand and the designer shades perched on her coiffed hairdo were nothing more than façade. Because what true riches did she have in her life?

Her husband hadn't even noticed her affair until it was over. The love she had for Tony was tucked away never to be mentioned in the light of day. A plethora of people moved in and out of her home every day and yet no one had noticed she was here. Apart from smoke and mirrors what substance did her life have? To him it appeared very little.

Then again he supposed his own life favoured that at the moment. Without his work he wasn’t much of anything these days which was probably why he put so much stock in solving this case. He supposed they’d just have to help one another.

‘Fine,’ he nodded, ‘let me speak to the DA.’

✵✵✵

Robert Johnson was a short, plump man with a hairline that receded far past his ears even if he had trimmed it down to hide the rate at which it had disappeared. It also struck Austin that the man might do well to size up in pants, his belt creating a distinct overhang of stomach that wasn’t hidden as he’d removed his suit jacket and stood up as he entered, offering a hand to Austin as he came towards him.

Nevertheless he was polite, offering him a drink which Austin politely declined, too eager to thrust his newly constructed case file under his nose. He had known it was a risk bypassing his commanding officer but he had wanted to get more impartial eyes on the thing before he was given an outright no. And by all accounts Johnson was far more amenable than his Captain even if he was pouring over every sheet in the manila folder with a sceptical brow and a wince. As he let out another sigh Austin couldn’t help himself and leant in trying to skim the bit he was reading upside down as he said, ‘I know what you’re going to say.’

‘You do?’ the man asked cautiously.

‘It’s barely a case,’ Austin replied.

‘It’s shit quite frankly,’ he replied, throwing the flap closed as he relaxed back in his chair. His tone took Austin off guard. Because it wasn’t unfriendly. It wasn’t a flat-out refusal but it spoke the truth which didn’t beg much hope for what he was intending.

‘Bobby,’ Austin sighed, ‘he did it. I know it. You know it. God the whole precinct knows it-’

‘And that don’t make a case,’ Bobby sighed, leaning forward and interlacing his fingers when he noted the downtrodden look on the detective’s face, ‘look I want him locked up believe me I do. He ain't exactly good for the city but I don’t see how it’s feasible. Not with that you’ve got. I mean fingerprints? A missing gun that matches the make of one of his and no alibi except his friends word-’

‘What about the fact the dead guy was banging his wife,’ Austin pressed.

‘It’s motive but he’ll just say he didn’t do it and your evidence doesn’t back it up that he didn’t. Besides you can't prove there definitely was an affair. A picture don’t mean nothing, not really. And even if you could all it’d take would be for her to deny it or him to say he never knew about it,’ Bobby reasoned.

‘What about if she’s willing to testify?’ Austin rebutted, making the older man sit up in his chair with intrigue, ‘she knows he did it Bob. He did it to punish her and she's willing to testify to that.’

‘Well a jury would lap that up,’ Bobby smiled, ‘get her in to make a statement…what?’ he asked, seeing the way Austin’s smile dimmed.

‘We can't.’

‘You’re shitting me,’ Bobby scoffed.

‘We can't include her,’ he replied, leaning forward to press the folder onto the desk as his colleague tried to hand it back, feeling the case dissolve. With the blonde's insistence he hesitated, ‘not forever just not yet. We need to build the case around our evidence. Pick his side of the story apart one by one and then by the time he’s on the stand there’ll be enough circumstantial evidence surrounding him that slapping a motive on top of it will make it clear as day.’

‘And if she backs out?’ Bobby challenged.

‘She won't,’ Austin affirmed though the gaze on him remained hesitant, ‘I saw the look in her eyes Bob. She won’t back out.’

‘Oh yeah and how do you know? What’d she do whisper sweet promises in your ear like she did the dead guy,’ Robert said drily. Austin fought the urge to roll his eyes as he said, ‘she told me the truth.’

‘And you trust her?’ he asked, raising a sceptical eyebrow.

‘I do,’ Austin replied truthfully. After all what other choice did he have?

When the doubt in the other man’s eyes didn’t fade he sighed and took the manila folder from him, placing it on his lap as he leaned closer, begging him to see his point of view as he said, ‘look I know it’s risky. I know the case will rely on her and she’s not the kinda witness you want to back but from what I can tell she’s for real about this thing. She knows that this is her only way out. She knows without us she’s trapped which is why we have to play this right. It’s why we can’t expose her sooner than needed. Anything before that would ruin her situation heck it might even wind up with her dead. She has to trust us to the finish line.’

‘And that’s the stand?’ Robert probed.

‘Hopefully,’ Austin said, praying his case would hold enough water to even get to trial.

‘It’ll need more circumstantial,’ Robert said.

‘Definitely,’ Austin agreed.

‘And we need to pick apart whatever they spin,’ he added.

‘I’m sure we could get one of them to break form,’ Austin promised, ‘and if we get all that and then hit ‘em with an affair narrative it’ll swing a jury.’

‘You might be right,’ the other man said, rubbing his hand along his stubbled skin as he pondered it before he looked at Austin, uttering his declarations, ‘we’re gonna need concretes. Circumstantial too but something that’s undeniable. Something a hotshot defence attorney can’t pick apart.’

‘I’m sure once we have a comparison the finger prints will match. And I’ll find out more about the gun,’ Austin assured.

‘Then it’s a case of looking at the night in question. You’ll need to have his entourage in at the same time mind, see if their stories align before they can speak to one another. Probably the whole staff,’ he sighed. Austin didn’t notice his lack lustre orders because he was so happy that someone was finally listening to him. That the boys at the precinct would have to help on something they had deemed an impossible feat. That he’d been right to trust his gut on this one.

His happiness only faded as he reached the door ready to head back to work and heard his name called. He paused, not closing the door he was holding in the hopes Robert wouldn’t want to keep him much longer. He had work to do after all.

‘Sir?’ he asked, hoping respecting authority would make the exasperated look on the man’s face fade.

‘I’ll back you on this but don’t think I don’t know that this is a powder keg ready to go off,’ he warned.

‘I know sir,’ Austin nodded, ‘thank you.’

‘Don’t thank me,’ Robert snorted.

‘Why not?’ Austin asked.

‘Because I’m not doin’ it for nothing,’ he said rolling his eyes as Austin’s brow furrowed, ‘don’t worry I ain’t dirty. In fact I’m one of the ones that’s not searching for a reason to look the other way.’

‘I’m not sure I follow,’ Austin chuckled weakly.

‘You said to do this we’re gonna have to help the wife right?’ he asked.

‘Yeah,’ Austin hesitated.

‘Fine. I’ll help the wife but if we’re gonna poke the bear I want something in return,’ he said.

‘What?’ Austin asked curiously, pushing the door just so it clicked onto the latch. It wasn’t fully closed, one gust of wind from the open window would no doubt blow it gently open but it was enough that their voices didn’t travel into the corridor. Whatever the man was going to proposition him for his ears only.

‘Tip offs.’

‘Tip offs?’ Austin questioned.

‘If we’re gunnin’ for Presley we might as well aim for the entire structure. He won’t crumble without his friends goin’ first. Believe me I and many before me have tried,’ Robert said but Austin wasn’t sure he understood.

‘Sir?’ was all he asked.

‘Keep her close and make sure she’s willing to talk about more than just this Tony guy. He’s our in but by god if I ain’t gonna make sure we bring them all down.’

ELVIS TAGS

@girlblogger2002 @sania562 @caitlin1996 @literally-just-elvis-fics @notstefaniepresley @18lkpeters @velvetelvis @jaqueline19997 @elvispresleyxoxo @amydarcimarie @everythingelvispresley @elvispresleywife @lillypink @richardslady121 @louisejoy86 @ccab @i-r-i-n-a-a @lettersfromvenus @artlesson8892 @presleyenterprise

AUSTIN TAGS

@purejasmine@caitlin1996

#my writing #love in trouble #austin butler #elvis presley #elvis #elvis presley fic #austin butler fic #elvis presley x ofc #elvis x ofc #elvis presley x ofc x austin butler

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mathoinyanarts · 4 months

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Houseki no Kuni Sunday 2

Previous HNK Sunday |

MAJOR spoilers for episode 5-8 of Houseki no Kuni

So this time around I went ahead and made notes for each episode that I watched.

I am loving this season so much tbh, though a mutual keeps telling me that that its gonna get divisive way later. Honestly can't wait then

Episode 5

-Phos be needing a lot of help, like oof These people out here needing to fucking scrape them out of a shell, and now they gotta search a whole continent and ocean for them

-youz really a bitch for all of this Ventricosus And right as I was typing this she got her arm blown off, breh

-What did those Lunarians think they were going to do with their little pointy fire sticks on a giant ass snail monster??? I like the tendency of goons to just be stupid in most media lol

-Come on Cinnabar, they just came to you literally missing half off their body:(

(Story in 3 parts) -At least Kongo cares enough that even though Phos is practically useless, they still send out a team to find them. -Ok, I spoke too soon. He ready to kill a bitch -NOOOOOOO KONGO, DON’T TAKE THEM ENCYCLOPEDIA

-They is Ship of Theseusing this Gem, WTH -Poor Jade:( All of Phos's memories of them used to be stored neatly in their left ankle😔

-Them got zebra legs now lol

-FAST AS FUCC BOOOIIII

Other notes: So I was thinking more about Phos getting Ship of Theseus'd. This could be such a good message for, like, how much of yourself are you willing to get rid of just to fit in? To where you're nothing like who you originally were

Episode 6

-They still Nyoomin

-Yellow Diamond having their “What am I fighting for” crisis

-Lol, can’t believe they did Phos like that lol. Phos: “I like you, Sensei:)” Everyone else: D: Yellow Diamond:

-Oh no, they said Kongo’s trigger word: Humans

-Amethyst be like: Come play with us(:

-OMG, I love the Amethysts so much!

-.... (( <- reaction of somebody who always speaks too soon))

Other notes: Fr, Bort had every right to be mad en mi opinión

Episode 7

-Ok, phew, I’m so glad the Amethysts are ok

-They is hibernate

-They is dressed for the occasion

((Side note that I like this manga panel of the scene better))

((Bort does NOT have the patience for this shit))

-Ok, this is just so cozy of an episode

-Antarcticite getting a hug from sensei. My heart🥺

-OMG, Phos trudging through the snow is just me I relate to them more than I like to admit

-I feel there’s something more ominous about the Ice Screech

-Phos: “Have we tried reasoning with the Ice?”

-”The Ice speaks to me and tells me to do terrible things”

-Phos try to keep your limbs challenge, literally impossible

Other notes: Building off of what I mentioned earlier

Episode 8

-The Ice their greatest opp in this episode.

-I don’t think Kongo’s poor gem heart can take much more of this. Bro, just showed up with two entire arms missing. Imagine every time you let your kid out of your sight, they just show up with their skull bashed in

-Kongo comforting Antarcticite is what I needed today

-Giiirl, you are glittering No, like girl, the gold is taking over your body

-Phos: “Well I’m glad you’re alrigh-” Antarcticite: 🫠

-OH SHIT ANTARCTICITE IS STILL LOCKED IN🤫🧏‍♂️

-😭

((Side note, this would go so hard as a tattoo))

-Goddamn, didn't know this story was written by Gege. Fucking getting me attached to a character just to yank them away from me so soon😡

Ong tho, even though I'm so pissed at the anime for doing me like this, I'm still having such a fun time watching. Can't wait for the next HNK Sunday, and get ready for me to be obnoxious about a few Gem OCs I'm cooking

#op rambles #houseki no kuni #houseki no kuni spoilers #houseki no kuni sunday #land of the lustrous #hnk

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projectgoblin · 6 months

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It’s my birthday and first wedding anniversary this weekend so I want to share my wedding dress! It is 100% made by me alone, and took close to 6 months. The final looks different from the original design but I’m moderately happy with the result. As an aside I also made my own jewelry and bouquet as well!

There’s several parts on it that make me want to cry and redo and some parts that I love. I’m notoriously picky and hard on myself when I make my own things but it’s hard to deal with dress regret when you did everything from design up to completed garment, you know?

The base layer is 100% silk from Ukraine, a shop called Secret Spark on Etsy. It was already a lovely purple but I did dye it a little deeper so it showed up better. After that comes a layer of a lavender and silver shift two tone chiffon from NewFabricsDaily, a layer of glitter tulle from Joanns, a layer of sequin squiggle from LaceFabricArt, and a final layer of tulle which the lace ( ElmaLaceApplique) was attached to.

Internally there’s a steel spiral boned corset made from a pattern by CorsetsByCaroline (modified Patsy) which is made of satin from my Mother In Law’s wedding dress leftover fabric.

A LOT of self drafting went into making this dress and I think I made it much harder on myself than I needed to by taking a normal 6-7 panel dress and making it 14 panels to match up with the base corset I used for the initial bust design. Why did I do this? Looking back, I have no fucking clue. It caused a ton of heartache and is the reason a lot of things are tugging in weird ways in some photos.

Truthfully though? It doesn’t matter how much I do or don’t like the dress because I am THRILLED by the person I was so very very lucky to marry. They mean the world to me and i would’ve married in a garbage bag and still been the happiest I’ve ever been. Love is so cool.

#I made this and I’m both proud and disappointed #I would’ve died in all white tbh #I also forgot to put on my veil #handmade wedding dress #purple wedding dress #wedding #sewing #seamstress #fabric #handmade #fashion #silk #wedding dress #oops #birthday #anniversary

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niuniente · 1 year

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I'm loving all these side stories exploring the DHD universe! Each one so far has been pretty great. I love alrick and his story very much, but it's fun to get to see and focus on these other characters too. Pearl was entertaining and I'm excited to see what's up with Plague

Your art is also always such a treat. I was just thinking to myself today that I kind of wanted to study the way you use background art. The grayscale filtered photos spaced out between white space without feeling empty is really hard to pull off, but I think you do so very well.

While Alrick is the main protagonist, you are right that we need to see other characters, too. It avoids stories being repetitive and gives readers a chance to mirror characters against each other; when character X is like this, and character Y is the opposite, they underline each character's traits. Whether it's their values, looks, age, gender, sex, job, living situation, dreams, fears, past, future etc. We learn about ourselves in relation to others so this same goes to characters, too.

Characters being surrounded by other characters also reveal new things from each other. Miranda can't really talk about how being a Death-Head's girlfriend affects her and the relationship with her coworkers but she can speak about it with Alrick. Joon is very lively and Miranda is super supportive of Joon, but only Alrick will understand how it is to work as a Death-Head. Plague is an ass for everyone but doesn't speak back to Kahamet (so he knows his place). Alrick is considering others but through Dio we see what happens when Alrick (or anyone) considers others above the Death-Head rules.

Also, the easiest way to expand the world or theme is to see it from other character's perspective, from their neighborhood so to say. Alrick doesn't seem to be working as a Death-Head to collect payments but Grimm does and uses this right of his without hesitation or remorse. Ama and Awa view Death-Head work as a luxury service whereas Dio does his dirty job and doesn't view the job as anything to do with luxury. Grimm enjoys being a faction leader, Plague doesn't want it. Lou-Lou is horrified with Death-Heads, Miranda lives and sleeps with one. Society views Death-Heads and their deals as something horrific, but for Pearl meeting Grimm via her deal was a lottery win. Mr. Singer loses his teeth as a payment, Cure loses her life. Rena doesn't make deals but Grimm does and can only do it because Algoth busts his ass off to give Grimm room for deals.

If you ever come up with something with studying my art, please, let me know! We're blind to our own work, can't see them the same way as outsiders too. I think one reason why the space doesn't feel so empty is the colored speech bubbles, which are connected to each character. I think the result would be more hollow if all speech bubbles where just blank white. The characters take more space with their colored speech bubbles. (I originally started this as I hated drawing speech lines to right character. If they are individually character color coded, then it's a lot easier to do speech bubbles!)

Why I went to comics without background was due two things. First, I didn't want to draw them. I don't enjoy them. I hate it. I don't enjoy at all thinking about compositions, perspectives, hues or values, nor about panel placements. Been there, done that, hated every minute of it. I don't want to spend my precious limited free time and limited resources on things I hate. My emphasis is on the characters and the comic is drawn in a way that it doesn't have to put emphasis on the things I hate, like panel placements and directing viewers gaze.

Second thing is that rules in art are human made. Sure, some things do make the viewing more pleasant and carry your story - I went to an art school - but many of the rules you don't need. If you are famous, you're even praised for breaking them!

I had that almost rioting epiphany when I was in the art school. I happened to see from TV news how in the modern art museums, there was a new exhibition by an American painter. He was famous for painting portraits and hanging them upside down. The curator of the exhibition was explaining with shining eyes how amazing this method is! How amazing it is that this painter challenges the viewer by hanging the paintings upside down! How revolutionary!

I thought "He gets praised for hanging paintings upside down, but if I did the same anywhere, even in the art school, I would be scolded for a cheap trick or be even called downright an idiot. So, why it is allowed to him and not for me?"

As I hate injustice like this, I've made my mind to fuck around and find out when it comes to my own art, and remember; if what I do was done by someone famous, it would be praised as something exceptional. If it's allowed to someone, then damned I be, I'm going to take that right for myself, too!

#sorry this is such a long reply!#ask niu

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rust-bearer · 8 months

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Ahhhhhhhh I got some childhood nostalgia and I just had to throw it onto the zombie apocalypse au. Probably could’ve just made a small post for this but I dunno, been a while since I did zombie stuff so I figured I’d let you in on it.

Was doing a little spring (?) cleaning and found my old Nintendo NES system I got a while back, cause y’know, absolute fucking nerd for most Mario games over here, and I was like… you know what. The zombie kids would probably love something like this.

I’d bet money that Swindle probably made sure their mansion farmhouse had solar panels built into it before everyone moved in. Based on where things take place, like, that might not be all that reasonable? I mean, where I live solar panels are common and highly encouraged if you can afford the original investment, and I’d bet he saw a way out of paying such high prices for utilities and just went all 🤑🤑!!!! with it because, well, of course he did.

Cue Swindle arguing with poor self-employed dude from Texas who’s explaining why they can’t just install solar panels where the house is, there’s little to no reliable sunlight and the trees would cover most of the rays and the house’s roof isn’t positioned right!! and—but Swindle is having NONE of it. He gets the solar panels, goes on to get into a whole debate with his bank to try to throw the charges off as fraud.

Anyway…. Solar panels kind of sort of mean somewhat reliable power? In the right circumstances maybe? OR. ORRRR you could do generators. Do both is what I’d do if I wasn’t broke but hey, it’s Swindle, he’s probably got more money than the fucking… whoever is the richest person or something.

SO. My overall hc is that Blast Off is the sort of resident techy person of the group, and I’d bet anything that on his occasional trips out to find good and interesting stuff to mess around with in his office/room/living quarters/etc, he brings back one of those old Nintendo consoles for the kids (and himself) to play with. The good thing is that he has one of those old-fashioned televisions as well, and it pairs really well with the NES console to give some nice sort of 80s vibes. Thank god for the solar panels, or… maybe the generators. Both?

Good news: the children love it! Blast Off gets a kick out of setting it up for them, and since it requires no internet, they’re good to go!

Bad news: once they get to a rather difficult level in one of the various Mario games Blast Off owns (projecting onto him because Mario is fucking AWESOME), nobody sleeps without hearing the cries of frustration from one of the few kids after they’ve lost the level for the umpteenth time. To everyone’s surprise, about three days’ into the struggle, Onslaught takes on the task of overcoming the problem level. Cue him sitting up at three am with all the kids snoozing around him, hunched over with glazed red eyes as he’s got a death grip on the controller and stares so hard at the tv as it depicts the whole “GAME OVER” title for the millionth time. He doesn’t get much sleep that night, and only stops trying to beat the game after Blast Off comes out and threatens to turn off the entire system because he “can hear the stupid machine from all the way across the house every single time Onslaught loses the level and it’s starting to get annoying.”

So yeah, I looovveeeee the old Nintendo games (specifically Mario games though) and I LOVE zombie headcanons, so I had to throw them both together! I think that’s it for now though.

God Swindle commits so much tax fraud. He does it, and does tons of it, but they can never make any of the charges stick if they ever even come up with a charge at all. Very mr sticky fingers, very ‘I donate a lot to the police every year…’ and whoops they just so happen to lose evidence and whoops, that ‘speeding ticket’ a new officer wrote up is all gone now. And so is the new officer. Though that’s also more inline with- everyone else in the family, too.

I think Swindle would be genuinely interested in casinos. He likes them on a financial level, of course, but he really has an interest in them on other levels too. If he cared enough he might’ve opened one himself, but that’s a lot of playing nice with people 24/7, too public facing. He’d definitely have friends who own them. ‘Friends’. Maybe visits them sometime, does some networking, the works. Vortex ironically is the one who might understand the ‘appeal’ of it the best, but he thinks it’s really boring; he’d rather ruin someone’s life and do it 1 on 1, not string hordes of people along for ever. Bleh.

I’d like to imagine it’s a combination of Blast Off AND First Aid coming up with the video games thing. Blast Off has a few, has a passing interest in them, but restoration as a hobby is the lowest on his list of interests. He initially balks, though, when the kids clamor to play too. Because they’ll get it dirty, or won’t play it right, or they’ll be too loud, really- but he eventually decides it’s not a bad idea. Lets them play Pong, of all things. Eventually he brings it up to First Aid, and First Aid mentions that he’d been trying to find some game consoles or the like, things they can play that won’t kill their power (handheld would be nice), but it’s- he never really cared a lot before, not since he was younger, and he doesn’t know what to look for anymore. So Blast Off goes with him next time they scavenge, despite Onslaught making a face about it.

First Aid hotly debates himself whether it would be psychologically harmful or helpful to bring the children games where they kill zombies.

#zombie au

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sasukimimochi · 1 year

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And so now we have Lepy, (though his real name is Aouri)! the skill i had when drawing his feral form varied because i got better at it the longer i was drawing it (cuz i use him in a visual RP with my friend heid i had lots of practice) and of course the same went with his human form cuz he had just gotten a reboot when i started his reference. He used to be a living toy, he's changed quite a bit due to personal reasons. I've had him for many years now but i gave him a hard revamp in 2018 so i could leave his past behind.

He has a TON, a FUCKTON of lore, so we're going to summarize this as much as i can rn because i need to get back to working on ch 22 of gom. i will split his post into multiple cuz he also just has a lot of art as well and rp panels.

going to put a read-more though cuz i'm probably going to go into more than the others cuz i love him that much.

Lepy is a spirit animal [original species]; (Black Jaguar with king cheetah mane/used to be a snow leopard) who was kidnapped from his forest when he was still alive, where he was known as the ghost of the rainforest, by a demon prince named Adelais.

At first, Lepy was forlorn, unresponsive, and merely lived by the demon's side bc what could he do? he is like 5'3'' and the prince was like 7 or 8 foot or smth. idr what the exact number is, but the demon prince is "large and in charge".

Lepy however, actually fell in love with the price, as the prince did with him. Originally, their relationship was merely a captor with his prisoner, but it turned into a mutual love and respect over time. Their bond was incredibly strong and Adelais was very fiercely protective of his small boyfriend.

[Content Warning, next drawing has a bit of blood!]

i just left off the nudity for these to make it easier to share (cuz he never really wore clothes before death/while alive) but i assure you he has something downstairs LMAO, anyway.

One day, Lepy was minding his business as usual when suddenly, Adelais started acting unusual and feral.

Lepy died then, after his own lover ripped out the heart from his chest. He didn't know why, for many many years, why... Did he actually hate him all that time, and finally grew bored enough to murder him?

After this, Zaaid (an oc of mine, or GOD), plucked a star from the sky to replace his heart. now, he lives as an angel and for many years, his memories were sealed for his health and mental health. He has a scar on his chest and the star beneath shines dimly, directly connected to his body and health.

Finally, after years of learning how to love responsibly and take care of himself better, his memories fully came back while he also gained a dark mark on his chest, growing inside the star... (to be continued in next post)

bonus, can't show the full thing but hey, i am really proud of this drawing and if i can't at least show a bit of it i will be sad. Lepy's spots take so long to draw!!

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frankendykes-monster · 1 year

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But the question of one's favorite version of the Legion of Super-Heroes is a deceptively complex one. It's not just a matter of team line-ups or creative teams, but the actual directions and themes explored by the franchise. The Legion has been relaunched and repackaged more than anything else in the DC Universe -- a universe where the line-wide reboot has become the go-to move -- and each time it's based on different ideas of what these characters mean, and what the future looks like. As much as they might be in the same continuity, the original Legion has a completely different set of ideals that it's exploring than the Dystopian "Five Years Later" Legion of the '80s, and when Mark Waid and Barry Kitson "threebooted" the Legion in 2004, their stories were a reaction to a completely different environment in comics than when they rebooted it the first time ten years earlier.

And because each version of the Legion is so thematically different than the others, the question of which one's your favorite has a lot to do with which of those themes you find appealing. For me, there's no question, and I'm sure this won't surprise anyone: I love the original Silver Age Legion.

Part of that comes from the same reason that I love a lot of Silver Age books, in that it's just full of bizarre kookiness, with a sci-fi setting that allowed the creators to ratchet the weirdness up even higher than they did in the regular line back in those days. There's one story in the '60s where someone's spying on the Legion and they can't figure out who until they realize that there's a tiny little man living in Sun Boy's ankle who was surgically implanted there by one of their enemies when Sun Boy went to the dentist, and it's hard to say if that was actually the craziest thing they ever did in those stories.

But more than that, there's an optimism to it.

When I talked to him about writing the Star Trek / Legion crossover, Chris Roberson told me that one of the things that attracted him to both franchises was that they both showed an optimistic future, and he's right. When you think about the time when the Legion was created in 1958 and those years in the '60s when they grew in popularity, that was the same time when people were building fallout shelters in the back yard and teaching school kids to duck and cover under a school desk in the event of an atom bomb. Nuclear war wasn't just a possibility, it was seen as something that was pretty much inevitable, and that was reflected in the fiction of the time. This was the dawn of the post-apocalyptic story, with increasingly grim visions of the future based on the destruction that we'd already seen.

But with Silver Age comics in general, and the Legion in particular, it was different. I imagine that the Comics Code and a desire to not get any irate letters from parents about terrifying their children with visions of nuclear holocaust were as much a motivating factor as any bright-eyed hope for the future when creators like Otto Binder and Jerry Siegel approached it, but the fact remains that they showed us a future that was thriving.

The Legion's 30th Century wasn't quite a utopia, but it wasn't a wasteland either. It was a glimpse of a future where everything worked out okay, with a galaxy of strange aliens from even stranger worlds united behind Earth. Well, okay, admittedly, they were less strange aliens and more "a bunch of white people and one green dude," but the sentiment was there. The very existence of that art deco skyline of the 30th century was a sign that we as a civilization had made it through, even when it was under attack by computer robots.

There's actually a story from 1964 -- the first appearance of Dream Girl, if you want to look it up -- where a few Legionnaires take a one-panel field trip to a world that actually has been destroyed in an atomic war, but for them, it's a strange historical curiosity that they're viewing from the outside. It's a "might have been" and not a "definitely will."

Of course, the fact that things worked out okay was to be expected. Even though we were in danger here in the real world, the Legion's future was descended from an Earth that had Superman protecting it, which points to another great element of the team. They have that same aspirational element to them that I love about characters like Robin and Jimmy Olsen, but it's applied to an entire universe. The existence of the Legion is predicated on two different ideas about Superman. The first is just that Superman is there to make sure that their future exists, and as simple as that might sound, the fact that we see the end result of what he does makes his struggle in that Never-Ending Battle against evil mean something. A dystopian future means that he failed somewhere along the line and that in the end, all of his good works didn't matter. A future that's bright and united, however, means that all of those times he saved the world from Luthor or Brainaic actually counted for something, that there was something out there to make it worthwhile.

And the second is that it's those battles, and Superman specifically, that inspire the Legion to form and use their powers to do the same thing he did. It's a pretty strong recommendation for his character that his legend and his accomplishments last for the next thousand years, and it lends a power to the mythology of Superman. It immediately puts him in the ranks of Hercules and Robin Hood, these figures that we still talk about a thousand years (or more) after they first entered culture. It just does it in a way that we don't have to wait around to see if it actually works out that way once 2958 rolls around.

Just as important as that, though, it casts the Legionnaires themselves as fans. Just like Jimmy Olsen, it brings the idea that the readers themselves could be part of the story to the forefront, with the added wish fulfillment of granting them super-powers and sending them off on their own adventures. It's something that Waid and Kitson touched on in their "Threeboot" Legion, going as far as to have the characters actually sitting around reading Silver Age comics and drawing inspiration from the adventures there to escape from the boring repetition of their world. Which, incidentally, may be a metaphor for what was going on in the rest of the DC Universe at the time. Who knows.

Anyway, that ties in with yet another element that I find really appealing, that springs right from the fact that they're so readily identifiable to the readers: The Legion are a bunch of kids. There are later versions where the same characters have grown up, but for me, that doesn't work as well at all. It breaks one of the best metaphors of the entire franchise, that they're children, a group that symbolizes the future, who also literally represent the future. They're the ones looking around at their world with fresh eyes and going "Hey, we should all just be like Superman." Adults -- with the exception of those who sit around thinking about funnybooks all day -- don't think like that, but kids do, and the Legion are a bunch of kids who actually have the power to make that work.

Incidentally, I feel the same way about the X-Men -- not that there should never be grown-up X-Men, but that there should always be some kind of emphasis on young characters and the school. The metaphor of evolution and the newer, younger species arriving to possibly replace the old is just too good to pass up.

Speaking of the X-Men, I think it's fair to say that that's a franchise that owes a lot to the Legion, and not just because Dave Cockrum originally designed Nightcrawler and Colossus as Legionnaires before they were rejected and sent packing across town to Marvel. Because it was set in the future and not bound to the rest of the DC Universe, the Legion was free to build its own continuity, and it took a path of change and dynamism that you didn't usually see in the Silver Age. Things didn't always end with a return to the Status Quo. Lightning Lad died, came back, lost an arm, and had it replaced. New members joined. Prospective members were rejected and formed their own teams. A third of Triplicate Girl was killed off "permanently" and she returned as Duo Damsel. Things changed.

But the most important thing that the X-Men and most other comics about teenage superheroes lifted from the Legion is that for the first time, kids with super-powers acted like actual kids. And by that, I mean that they were massive jerks to each other.

And I love that about them.

I wrote about this once for a book of essays on the Legion called Teenagers From The Future (available now in finer bookstores everywhere, tell your friends), but it really just boils down to this: When adults are jerks to each other, they're just jerks, but when kids are jerks it's because they're kids. Kids make up weird rules about things and get unreasonably angry when someone breaks them. They form clubs with bizarre secret rules that they take too seriously until they forget about them and never bring them up again. They're dicks to each other for no discernible reason.

And that is exactly how the Legion conducts itself.

Maybe the best example of this is the occasional recruitment drives, which are literally just stories where characters like Matter Eater Lad and Light Lass (she makes things less heavy!) sit around and tell other super-powered youths how much they suck:

I spent a good chunk of my youth attending public school, so I can go ahead and confirm that this is exactly what it would be like if teenagers actually had super-powers. He can avert nuclear war, but even Superman can't make kids stop being jerks to each other.

And they were jerks. Their very first appearance is based around going back in time to play a prank on this guy that they idolize, and it just builds from there. At least one out of every three stories is some variation on that theme, and they get weird with it. The first time Supergirl meets the Legion, they don't let her join because exposure to Red Kryptonite has made her "over 18" for like an hour. Keep in mind: this is a temporary condition and they are time travelers. And occasionally, they just turn on each other, living out a kid's idea of gender relationships:

There's a lot of Legion runs that I love, but that original has never been topped for how much it appeals to me, which might seem a little weird when you consider that I got into it around 2006 at the age of 24 after never reading a Legion story in my life and not when I was the age where I actually should've been identifying with these characters. But there's something there that I can't deny the appeal of, that combination of hopeful optimism and kids being jerks, of Silver Age weirdness and emotional authenticity, and the past's idea of what the future could be if we all made it through.

Chris Sim, writing for Comics Alliance, 2012

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ninacytosis · 7 months

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For the time lost

Summary: Zuko wants to erase every reminder of his past mistakes, and Katara will take him on a journey to, quite literally, heal both of their scarrings.

Contains: Angst, Fluff, Katara has burns scars from Aang's first attempts to firebend, Katara tries to get over her resentment towards the FN, Zuko doesn't hate Azula.

Dear reader: I hope you enjoy it! <3 Let me know if you want me to continue posting

Find chapter one here and chapter three here.

┊┊┊┊☆┊*🌙*┊☆┊┊┊┊

Chapter Two

Katara thought about her students while folding clothes. A decent amount of people decided to move to the Southern Water Tribe after the war ended, and she knew a lot of families took this as a chance to start over. For now, she was in charge of nurturing the minds of the young benders that arrived. Even though she loved this new job, it was time for her to take a break.

“Hey, what’s with the sunglasses?” her dad asked, taking them off the nightstand and putting them on. “I know it’s summer but we’re still in the South Pole, kid”

Katara smiled. “I’m just packing them for tomorrow”.

His dad offered to help her, but she was almost done when he arrived, so she thought of two plans for her trip instead. Plan A, she would eat at the first rotisserie that appeared on her way to Zuko’s fancy royal mansion/palace/casa. Then, she would go to his house and even though she insisted on staying in a hotel nearby, she would eventually agree to stay. She would get a Fire Nation royalty-style spa day, Zuko’s treat (it’s important to clarify that, at least half of this plan was stolen on Toph’s visits to the Fire Nation. Though it is quite obvious). After all of that, she would ask him (preferably during a beach day) why he is visiting the North Tribe so much. And right before leaving, she would spend a day at Iroh’s shop.

However, it seemed like she had to go with plan B. Sure, it wasn’t a bad plan B, but it definitely involved fewer massages and face masks than the original, and Katara was just a girl who wanted a little self-care. Can anyone blame her?

“I like what you’ve done to the place” Katara stared at the wooden panels on the wall. She was too shy to confess her feelings about fire hazards, she didn’t even know if it was offensive for him.

“I tried to make it a bit retro, you know?” Iroh explained. “Everything is changing so fast, I’m afraid the world forgets its roots. But I guess that’s not a big preoccupation for younger folks”.

The words of Iroh resonated in her head on most occasions, especially since she was aware that he was Azulon’s firstborn. Even if he had spent more than a decade fixing his past actions, it was still weird for her to share the same table as a guy he had resented from the moment she gained consciousness. It’s hard to get used to this new era, and it’s probably the reason she barely went to the Fire Nation, even if it meant fewer hangouts with Zuko. In the last months, Aang helped her a lot to channel her antipathy into different, less draining emotions. Today’s emotion is: curiosity.

“I think I know why you are here, Katara” he offered her a cup.

“Well, we both needed a vacation”, she said. ”Zuko’s told me how busy these last weeks have been for him… plus I missed swimming without the risk of dying of hypothermia”.

“Then you’re certainly going to love the beaches down on Chaisee’s island” Iroh gave her a warm laugh. “Oh, the times I had there when I was your age!”

Katara took a sip on the cup and smiled.

“But be careful, Zuko’s skin might be sensitive after last week”, Katara cautiously nodded, “as a water bender yourself, you know how the healing procedures work”.

Healing procedures? Katara nodded again. Could Iroh tell she was nervous?

“Yeah…. I totally forgot. It’s such a sensitive procedure!” she said, having no idea about this healing thing. “And I wouldn’t want to hurt a Fire Lord, they have a history of heated arguments don’t they?” Apparently, it was impossible for Katara to shut her mouth. “Anyways, promise I won’t interfere in the treatment. Don’t know how I forgot, Zuko told me all about it on my way here… I mean, on a letter of course. He wasn’t on the ship. I guess you know that” shut up shut up shut up.

Iroh widened his eyes and made a frown that immediately told Katara that her attempts to sound unbothered and casual failed, as usual.

“Did I say something I shouldn’t?” Iroh covered his mouth his hand.

Katara tried to comfort him. “Well, he technically told me about his trips to the North Tribe, so it was a matter of time until I figured out what was going on”, honestly, she never even considered the idea of him wanting to get rid of his scar. He hadn't mentioned since he was sixteen. “I have a few questions now, though”

“Maybe you should ask him directly, I’m sure you’re going to notice the change once he arrives. A healing process is slow, and you know Zuko: he wants everything fast”, Iroh sighed, “but in his last letter he told me that this healing session was quite intense”.

He poured the water into two cups.

“The thing is,” he cleared his voice, “Zuko doesn’t understand that there are some parts of a wound that can only be healed by him.”

#zutara #ftl #atla #zuko x katara #zutara fanfic #zutara fanfiction #hope you like it!#pls be gentle this is my first fanfic in english

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co-mixed · 1 year

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Your Favorite Characters Will Never be Perfect in Movies.

Remember how Hawkeye was nothing like in the comics? Or how Rogue never even encountered Gambit on screen? Or how the whole Titans show did its own thing?

And are you one of those people who can’t help but mention that this-is-not-how-it-happened-in-the-comics? Yeah, I used to be one too.

In my case, it was enough to part with my expectations for the things I’ve already seen to realize what I’m missing by dismissing (I swear I’m not freestyling here.) But there’s more to it than just working on my own hopes and dreams. There is a reason (a few in fact) why we don’t see page-to-page adaptations.

Where do I begin?

I’m trying hard to get into DC and the aforementioned Titans only pushed me closer to it (yeah meet another show I absolutely love now). But what stops me every time is issue number 1000+. I have time and I’m a patient lady but I won’t start something I can’t hope to finish. Both Action and Detective comics are over 1k issues long. I’m not sure I have time for that. But I’d love to get to know the characters and so would many others. Lucky for us, each one of them gets an origin story and if you’re lazy, a dedicated segment in an encyclopedia of their respective universe. Movies and shows aren’t that. They always have room for improvement and a fresh look. What they don’t have to do is retell an old, sometimes outdated ~30-page arc. Been there done that. Take me someplace new.

The Power of a Retcon

Name a character who's never gotten a retcon. I’ll wait. If the first name that pops up is someone who has 10 pages of panel time before being cast off into the roster oblivion, we’re thinking alike. Most prominent characters have had their origin replayed and rewritten. No matter what the reasons were (sometimes it’s just lazy writing), you can always count on at least 3 different ways the character discovered their powers. Now which one do we take to screen? The latest? The fan favorite? Can’t please everyone. Besides, sometimes writers gotta work with a whole different universe (Hey ya, MCU). No one illustrates this better than Wanda and Pietro. And if anything, it’s our weird attraction to canon that caused them to be disowned by Magneto (correction - he never disowned them but it was revealed that he’s not their bio parent, although he reclaimed them back as his own eventually).

There are a few characters and types of characters for whom it’s important to keep their origin intact. In my opinion, one of them is mutants but even comics have been messing it up for a long time now (looking at you, artist formerly known as Apocalypse!)

With so many changes how do we even trace a character back to their origins? It’s really easier to capture their general sense and role.

Crisis on Every Earth

We get retcons in the main timeline but how about all the other ones? Remember how Marvel went ahead and built a whole Ultimate Universe? Gotta say I loved the experiment even with its shortcomings. And I’d love to see more of that (just give me a high-school Evolution-style AU already!) Oh and then Nick Fury and Spidey became so wildly popular- they made it to movies and 616 respectively, remember? That’s kind of the point. The versions of the characters we know and love aren’t always necessarily the best ones. But we won’t find out unless we give them a fair shot. And I’m all for that.

And if you already have a version you like then what are you actually losing by getting a new one? You’ve read them and you’ve seen them.

Too Many Cooks

To build upon the previous paragraph, all characters have their creators and then they have dozens of other people who took their turn at writing them. Now which one did it best is quite a question (the best example will always be the X-men although let’s face it, they’re a team). The thing here is, under a new writer every character picks up new traits. There’s a huge difference between the original take, a take from the 90s, and whatever is going on now. Again, it comes down to personal preferences and the story you choose to tell.

To change or not to change

That, and what to change exactly. Every character can essentially be boiled down to several qualities that you shouldn’t change no matter what. The rest is flexible.

Yes, for some characters it’s their signature look that can’t be altered (but that’s far less common than most people want to admit). For most though it’s their values or a specific origin or their role in a team. Just because we don’t expect it doesn’t mean it doesn’t work.

The question of what exactly you can and should change, now this is a fun one.

What works on paper doesn’t always fit into a frame. Like Superman’s questionable habit of wearing underwear as a top layer of clothing. Sure it works for a campy version but the truth is, he could look however the hell he likes as long as he’s a humanoid. His origin and personal traits are what makes him Superman. But depending on the story you wanna tell, you can change whatever and it will work for me.

Toys and Sandboxes

Every character is shaped by decades of writing (good and bad). Events get added and erased but even if you get the origin right, the character won’t go through the same things as in comics. That is, unless you’re planning on retelling every story (I’m sure you aren’t.) Every slightest change of events will make them grow apart from their og version. By the second movie, it’s already a different AU version. That’s exactly what AUs are for. Exploring options, using opportunities.

Our vision of characters always ties to when and where we see them for the first time. With our favorites it speaks to how much they resonate with us. And truth be told, that’s not always their originally intended personality (or look). I’ll go into DC, having a few expectations of my own, same as I watched the X-men movies with a clear vision of their characters. But teenage Jean Grey will never have the memories of teenage time displaced Jean, and og teenage Jean was absolutely replaceable by a cardboard cutout.

So there it is, something I will be holding on to when I finally go to see MCU’s take on mutants. And something we all should consider before judging any casting.

#marvel characters #dc characters #characters #movies #comics #comic books #long reads #MCU #DCEU #cartoons #animation #comic book characters

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incarnateirony · 2 years

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It’s funny to me that 2p0 (and most of fandom tbh) takes Jensen’s "I guess I could see interpreting it like that” re: platonic Destiel as a conformation of platonic Destiel - imo it’s the opposite. When actors on other shows are asked if it’s fair to interpret their character and another character as being gay and in love, they get torn apart for saying things like "I guess I could see interpreting it like that”, aka a polite “no I don’t really think of it that way but you can continue to have the space to ship that if you want”. Essentially, I feel like Jensen is trying to politely disagree with a platonic interpretation, but because fandom operates in bad faith they automatically assume he agrees Destiel is platonic, when in every other circumstance those words would have been understood to be in disagreement with the original question asked.

Yeah like. if you actually look at the quote and understand how human beings communicate, rather than try to devil's advocate an agenda through it without understanding social codes and whatnot the way 2po does, it's incredibly telling. I GUESS YOU COULD. That itself is implicit "I don't, but you can!" but that just whistled over his head like the jackshit idiot he is, and he figures if he narrates over it loud enough and attaches enough manipulative anchor text, his spin of it becomes a reality, and that's just not how the world works, not how people work, not how communication works, it's just.

Same way 2po and a large quarter of fandom went selectively deaf/dumb/blind about what Jensen said on stage, when he kept asking "That moment? Specifically that moment? Because I have two answers, one in that moment, where I would have X, [fandom stops listening at this exact point] in that specific moment. and then another one on the next shot. [jensen never clarifies]" (cut for length)

These people don't care what these other human beings are actually communicating. They care about how they can exploit it into an agenda. And, unfortunately, the other show operating in a manipulated bubble for 15 years gave them the impression they can do this infinitely, rather than a show that was designed to sprint for the goal so hard Robbie and Jensen got told to calm the fuck down. It's a 13 episode run, not 15 years, dude, you guys can't spin this forever.

Hell. Look at how he tried to spin "HAHA PEOPLE ARE WRONG ITS HEAVEN" when like. Yeah we know, dipthong. I've been reblogging my heaven meta this was designed on all year, but most specifically in the last 2 weeks, but somehow you missed that and thought I said purgatory because you can't track the way mental planes work in this fuckin' show for shit.

Or him assuming I said Destiel would happen every year, which is the opposite, while I took years of harassment from hellers for trying to tell people to respect Berens efforts (which 2po denied, and got hellers attacking Berens during) even knowing we probably would never see full resolution, that he was trying, hence the market testing (which 2po denied). Then suddenly at a very specific SDCC 2po was oblivious to the events of (proven by his getting hysterical about robobo memes, not realizing we already knew about his real boyfriend who visited the private panel with him), I suddenly changed my fucking tune to "berens is running the ball, we're getting at least an ILU, he's streaking naked across the field until security tackles him. With the right roll of the dice we can do anything." which 2po denied. Then Berens wrote it verbatim. Then he ran the ball. Then ILU. Then we got the wrong roll of the dice and covid boned us from four angles, and security did indeed tackle the naked berens running the ball.

Then a year later you all found out it was the first thing they wrote on the season and thus most of the plot orbited around it and it was berens' prime goal and, per him, his entire reason to stay. Which really just. Bundles alllll of 2po's denials before that together into a comical ball that just got double tapped straight through. GEE. I WONDER WHY I CHANGED MY TUNE JUST BEFORE SEASON 15. ITS A MYSTERY, BRAIN.

Which is when we got the butchered omitted finale (which 2po denied, and paid 5k of other people's money to be wrong on) which removed the roadhouse reunions and more (which 2po denied until Dabb tweeted it), and so on.

People like 2po, and the segments of fandom that listen to his consecutively wrong, made up, quantum tunnel of just-as-badly twice-interpreted M&Gs, just say/hear what they want to hear. They will aggressively rekit dialogues, erase context, delete basic realities, or just outright plug their ears and act like either they didn't hear it or they don't understand basic social codes. It's one or the other, and whichever it is, it's never going to make them a reliable leaker or speccer. Because you're not listening to what's actually being said or happening, you're taking one puzzle piece and trying to cram it in the wrong hole to make the picture you want it to make, rather than the picture it's painting.

Gee isn't it funny that Jensen magically had a second new opinion in the exact shot I've been telling everyone he broke and fell into the trashcan during since Dec 2020, along which the can't move on, let go, and other prequel, johnmary, show structure & morals and destiel leaks started flowing. Gee I wonder what that means brain.

like bro one of us had friends design an unofficial panel berens showed up to and took notes from before spilling all the season 15 tea and asking for me by name. The other person has been screaming wrongly into tumblr aggressively for about 5 years. And hoping everyone forgets the fails. SPOT the FUCKING DIFFERENCE.

#2p0 shut up challenge.#seriously dude #read it slowly without trying to win #then delete yourself #just digitally #cuz i worry if you keep doubling down #the end result you'll do worse than digital #save yourself

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vanityxvanitas · 14 hours

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In chapter 152 of the manga, I noticed in the flashback that Sensui already had his ears pierced as a child. When I went to look up the cultural significance, I wasn't able to find anything similar in Buddhism, but I did find the practice of Karna Vedha in Hinduism. Is it possible Sensui comes from a Hindu background in addition to or instead of a Buddhist one?

I don't know who you are but great information, I didn't know about this practice at all. Let's say I'll try my best to answer this with my limited knowledge about Hinduism and Buddhism (might be faulty by the way, as I know very little about Indian cultures and practices in general and don't even have faith in my awareness of Buddhism). Of course, all are heavy assumptions.

I'm not sure at which stage of life Sensui started wearing earrings so I previously assumed he started in adolescence. I can't see clearly if he wore earrings in the panel of his flashback, and the anime Sensui didn't wear earrings at all so the detail of his earrings was unfortunately dismissed in the anime. Love the anime but such a waste of potential! I don't know what Togashi originally had in mind but such a beautiful and simple character design with those stud earrings (he sometimes forgot to draw Sensui's earrings too). Anyway, it can be any but it depends on whether the family still upholds this tradition, if only we get to know his parents. There might be Indian families in Japan who still practice Karnavedha. If Sensui got the earrings from this tradition, he must've had them from a very young age from how the ritual is described. This is the limit of how I can dig into Karnavedha unfortunately. Linguistic and cultural barriers are strong.

The words used in association with Sensui in the manga seem more relevant with Buddhism so it's easier to look from that perspective, of course also due to my cultural bias and experiences leans heavily to Sinosphere cultures. Originally, the tradition of having bindi embodied the third eye that provides higher consciousness and extraordinary perception also came from Hinduism as well, so it'll be interesting to interpret him from that perspective (if only my range of knowledge is wider). While symbols of earrings aren't too significant in Buddhism as far as I know, it's sometimes considered a characteristic of a Bodhisattva in which the type of earrings a Bodhisattva wears is 耳璫 (jitou). Personally I've seen more depictions of Buddhist figures without earrings and none of them wear stud earrings. The earrings mentioned in the scriptures aren't stud earrings either.

Many statues are depicted with elongated earlobes that are sometimes pierced with round earrings (for example, Ratnasambhava or more vividly, Bodhidharma which in a way kinda look like Enso circle in Japanese Zen context?) or having holes in earlobes shaped by gauge/plug earrings from Indian cultural context. There's also a possibility that the marks on Sensui's ears aren't earrings or moles, but holes from earrings. (Eh?)

Unrelated but Getou Suguru from Jujutsu Kaisen has a more obvious design when it comes to Buddhist reference with how his ears look, large and possibly plugged (but it seems like his earlobes were naturally big?) While monks aren't supposed to have tattoos and earrings because art and decorations in general is a form of attachment, it's fine for normal practitioners to have them, so in a way, earrings can represent Getou's and Sensui's attachments to the world?

The reason why it's hard for me to imagine Sensui with Hindu background is because his later actions in adulthood didn't reflect what I know about Hinduism, especially when it comes to the concept of God. It's easier to imagine his actions were somewhat learned beliefs and behaviors but, there's also a chance he abandoned Hinduism as the doctrines didn't suit his perspective so I'm trying to look from that perspective.

In fact, it would be very interesting if Sensui was Hindu (or Sanātanī, I'm not sure what word to use anymore because Hindu is more like an umbrella term covering not just religions). Unlike the nontheistic Buddhism, Hinduism is both polytheistic and monotheistic at the same time since different deities are as embodiments of Brahman or the embodiment for the metaphysical concept of ultimate reality. In Hinduism, when the soul is free from the saṃsāra, it merges with the essence of that ultimate god thus becomes infinite. If Sensui was Hindu, then there's a chance he actually adored Koenma quite a lot more than if he was Buddhist, because he literally met a mini version of Yama. Also, Hinduism promotes practices to reach perfection in life, maybe that's why he was obsessive with practicing his actions in the first place, especially when such actions were ordered by a holy figure.

As for Buddhism, Sensui's concept of an angel being covered in seikouki is rather achieved through the accomplishment of oneself rather than being blessed by any divine figure. Anime Sensui also appeared to be more relevant in terms of Hinduism due to this because in the English version, he mentioned how he almost became a god(?). For an example scenario, Sensui was someone who might've started killing before he reached 6 years old, the age when superego started to develop. If he was indoctrinated with the encouragement to practice ‘good deeds’ encouraged by gods, then his anime Sensui criticizing reikai would be much more relevant to how ‘gods’ misdirected him.

(Excuse me for not watching the entire arc properly in anime without skipping but my bias for manga is too strong. Also, the anime Sensui’s face looked like he needed IV drip all the time, but I swear I like him too. Personally, I just find more possible leeways in manga Sensui who didn't mention much about religions, concepts of gods, or even the system he worked for. In general, the manga Sensui appeared as more ‘suisen’ and enigmatic so…)

Side talk: I remember being quite impressed by the description on a video about India that ‘all gods are one’. Such an impressionable perspective, too bad due to mankind’s interpretations of metaphysical entities that religious conflicts are unavoidable even when peace is strongly promoted.

One of the reasons why Sensui being a Hindu is that it explains why he felt obligated to fix the problems he caused. While the basic concept is ‘good/bad deeds are followed by good/bad happenings’. Hindu view of karma holds a person responsible for their actions and the effects such actions caused, but in Buddhism karma isn't ‘judged’ but rather just natural and perhaps unpredictable causes and effects. Him defying a mini god could be the action of quitting Hinduism and the doctrinal practices and running away from being judged by whom he distrusted.

Just like what Raizen said, it's unknown whether reikai/spirit world is the final resting place of souls? I feel like Togashi is very good at building anti-judgemental details when it comes to the existence and divinity, which is why his stories are very multi-dimensional. His actual religious and political stances are unknown so it's my heavy assumption, but I've always felt like while he has a large range of knowledge, he's also very independent from social constructs and doctrines.

Onto Buddhism. Buddhism (or Zen Buddhism more specifically) traveled through China before getting in Japan, and the one who delivered it to Japan as well as many other places was Bodhisena, a Tamil Brahmin from Madurai. Buddhism and Hinduism both derived from a Vedic philosophy called Sramana, but Buddhism took a distinct direction, and while it reaches very far in the East, has lost its former popularity in India.

This is from my own knowledge of Buddhism so it can be false or biased, there are thousands of suttas available and too many interpretations anyway. The Buddhist concept of no-self isn't about erasing one's own self/identity, but as in accepting phenomena as the results of causality instead of focusing on the attributes of entities. From what I understand, everything is interconnected (although there's never a confirmation to this in Buddhism to avoid elongate unnecessary debates depending on one’s own definition, so I guess interconnection is just a branch of belief) and holds selves/essences of their own, so the only way to escape from the system is to exist in a manner that detaches oneself from such interconnection without acceptance or rejection of values/ideas. Therefore, refraining from getting attached to worldly matters and letting the noumena exist as they are rather than involving one's mind in the phenomena - neither agree or disagree with it to avoid getting lost in the paradoxical nature of existence.

This limited understanding about Buddhist theories of mine is why Sensui's choice of reincarnation appeared as impressive to me, because perhaps Shinobu knew he was arrogant (so Minoru existed), a Narcissus/daffodil of a human. He watched Chapter Black because he wanted an answer to what human nature is, it's unknown whether what he saw Chapter Black gave him a quick answer he didn't know yet or somewhat matched his previous suppressed impressions on mankind (because along with complete innocence, there's a chance he knew humans can be bad - from what he said about ‘good’ and ‘bad’ countries - but denied it because he thought humans can strive to be better, which I prefer this interpretation for personal reasons because if he reasoned things himself, then it explained why he refused to turn back).

Yet, Shinobu didn't care what would happen to ninkai after the portal was opened, as it would be too arrogant to claim he knew for sure how youkai will act. Despite Minoru claiming he was awakened, Shinobu was still seeking an answer and he seized the control of the main and final self despite Kazuma calling Shinobu just another part of the system like any other alter. Maybe Itsuki knew this and focused on Shinobu the most, because Itsuki and possibly Naru were the truest identities whose characteristics were the closest to Sensui's ‘essence’. A good topic will be what Itsuki's stances are but then he's not even a human.

Especially when La Rochefoucauld regards egoism or self-interest as human’s original instinct, which I personally think that's why while Buddhism seems laxer than other religions at first, the Buddhist attitude of not engulfing in one's ego is rather hard to ‘get it right’ because humility in making an answer for oneself is not enough and seeking answers from divinity is also not the case. This is a very subjective take since religious doctrines are usually metaphorical so interpretations can vary a lot, but I find in comparison, Buddhism is less deterministic than other religions due to such views, emphasizing the freedom to follow a Middle Way instead of choosing between eternalism and nihilism. As someone who viewed Sensui as running around in the cycle of lost and found, I just think it'll be interesting to let him chase after the true awakenings before reaching nirvana. Maybe because I don't pursue nirvana that it feels more interesting to fulfill one's curiosity before seeking liberation from worldly matters, as the universe and existence themselves is simply amusing as a whole.

In a way, developing other alters and watching over them is also a form of no-self. It can be said that maybe Shinobu felt temporarily free from worldly matters by hiding inside the system and letting others do whatever they did, which was just an act of denial without actual enlightenment. For example, a Buddhist might practice to attain nirvana with residue of mind and body when they're still alive before reaching the final nirvana in death. Shinobu could hide or be forced to detach from his body, but he couldn't escape his mind. The scenario of a failed attempt to attain nirvana is also why I find it more amusing if Shinobu was awake and not asleep like Kazuya said, because those who attained nirvana aren't unconscious but rather meta-conscious of everything yet attached to nothing. He was liberated and trusted the system because they let him be freed from himself and from making possibly wrong decisions, he was chained in the system because he couldn't always trust them and what they did.

One of main differences lies in the concept of an eternal self or Ātman in early Vedic religion/Hinduism, and the encouragement of no-self or Anattā in Buddhism. In Buddhism, self-identification is a form of attachment, so there’s no need to define what one's essence is. If Sensui actually believed in the eternal self as a Hindu, then his wish to be reborn was indeed a form of repentance, because maybe he was aware that with his mindset derived from his essence, he would live a painful life all over again but as a species the same as his victims. Vice versa, there’s also a chance he ran away from his former beliefs too, it's scary to feel that one's pessimism can be permanent.

Also, perhaps the lack of reassurance of permanence is also a reason why Buddhism is misunderstood as pessimistic? With religions that promise security and reliance like Christianity, followers can feel more security and reliance as their gods watch over their journey.

Actually, when it comes to immortal souls, Jainism is also a possibility but that's a bit far-fetched so it's not mentioned that much here.

TL:DR: Maybe. I don't even know anymore but interesting suggestion.

Irrelevant idea: From how he looks, I think he's multi-ethnic or more specifically is mixed with Indian blood, resulting in the cultural remarks and the skin tone and blue eyes in the anime. I'm aware that manga characters have the wildest hair colors, but in real life, blue eyes are available although quite rare among Asians in general but damn, these Indians with blue eyes look so gorgeous. (Delusional talk: Maybe the choice of blue eyes was to make a contrast with Itsuki's orange/yellow eyes by complementary color theory. In that case, they could've made the bindi/urna red to match green.)

I'm also bi-ethnic so this might sound a bit of a projection, since it explains the reason a foreigner alter like George existed and why Sensui was willing to turn towards youkai instead. Overall, mixed children are less bonded to the concepts of ethnocentrism and chauvinism. There's also an opinion that youngsters these days are more prone to existentialism because they lack strong cultural backgrounds in the age of globalization, so they have to grab on to whatever the zeitgeister appear to be and claim those as their own identities. If Sensui also experienced cognitive dissonance due to distrust in his own family/former boss/species, then it's understandable why he had to developed such distinct alters to secretly cope with the changes.

I also read a suggestion that Sensui might've been mixed with Western genes which makes him look like that. While it's more likely that the anime chose Sensui's skin tone based on the cover of volume 16, somehow it matches the impression of his design being partly Indian for that urna/bindi on his forehead. (Just an awfully wild guess. Don't bother please.)

Unrelated but that's also why it's easier follow the scenario that Sensui wasn't really raised by his biological dad but another one whom his mother married, because it gives more leeway to make up stories where his dad wasn't Japanese and just a world-traveling sorcerer who happened to meet his mom then died early. It explains why his family members didn't have the spiritual powers he innately had. Anyway, it's way too far-fetched from the original ambiguous story but that's the best I can come up with for now, maintaining ambiguity is convenient after all. For a dumb scenario, it'll be interesting if Sensui's advantages of genetic lottery came from eugenics though, with his ancestors preferring to choose people with strong spiritual powers to marry. It'll be an interesting battle of ‘my genes are better than you’ between Sensui and Yuusuke if that was the case. (What?)

Actually, when I read this again, it has very little to do with Hinduism and seems to have strayed a bit far from the original topic so sorry about that. (Thanks to this idea I have like 3 versions of how Sensui's pasts possibly can be and honestly I can even stick to one option, but then that happens a lot…)

Unrelated but I've always found Indian dances beautiful in a way that the movements look immaculate and powerful in comparison with East Asian dances. Kali Sensui and Shiva Itsuki in which Itsuki got himself hit to stop Sensui from destroying things? (Too delusional! Time to shut up.)

#yu yu hakusho #yuu yuu hakusho #yyh #sensui #lame rant but I tried #what are Itsuki's stances anyway??

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