#these are so straightforward instead of my usual ramblings

[luna-azzurra]

do you have any advice for writing a love confession without making it grossly cheesy or awkward?

im writing one between long time childhood best friends that are EXTREMELY close and im so stuck

Since these two characters have been best friends for a long time, the confession should feel like it’s built off their history together. Maybe start with a memory that’s meaningful to both of them. It doesn’t have to be a huge, dramatic moment, something small but personal, like a time they supported each other or a running joke they’ve had forever.

For example, one of them could say something like

“Remember that time we got caught in the rain walking home from school, and you made up that ridiculous song to keep me from freaking out? I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately… and I realized that’s when I first started seeing you differently.”

When people confess their feelings, especially in a real and vulnerable way, it’s usually not in flowery language. If you try to make it too poetic or dramatic, it might feel forced. Instead, keep it honest and straightforward. They don’t need to say “I’ve loved you all along” in some grand, movie-like way. Let the confession come out more naturally, almost like they’ve been fighting it for a while and finally just have to get it off their chest.

You could have them say

“I don’t really know how to say this, and it might sound weird… but somewhere along the way, I started seeing you as more than just my best friend.”

There’s no way for this kind of confession to be totally smooth, and honestly, that’s what makes it feel more authentic. They’ve been best friends forever, so there’s going to be nerves, maybe some hesitation or stumbling over words. Lean into that awkwardness, it actually makes the moment more relatable and shows how important it is to them.

Maybe one of them starts talking, realizes they’re rambling, and tries to correct themselves. Like

“Okay, wait, that sounded dumb, let me start over. What I’m trying to say is… you mean a lot to me, more than I’ve probably ever said out loud, and it’s kind of terrifying because I don’t want to mess things up between us. But I’ve gotta be honest, this is how I feel.” The vulnerability in admitting they’re scared to ruin the friendship makes it more heartfelt and real.

This is probably the most important part! These two aren’t just falling for each other out of nowhere, they’ve built this strong, deep friendship over the years. So the confession should acknowledge how much that means to them. Make it clear that the romantic feelings don’t take away from their friendship but add to it.

You could have one of them say something like

“You’ve always been the person I turn to for everything, and that’s not gonna change, no matter what. But lately, I’ve been feeling something more, and I can’t keep pretending it’s not there. I just hope it doesn’t mess things up between us.” This way, they’re emphasizing that the friendship is still the foundation of everything, but they can’t ignore the fact that it’s evolving into something deeper.

Overall, just make sure it feels true to the characters and their relationship. Don’t feel like you have to tie it up neatly with a perfect line or a romantic kiss right away. The beauty of this kind of love confession is that it’s messy and emotional, and it should reflect the complexity of their relationship. They don’t need to have all the answers right away. Let the moment be about the honesty and the fact that they’re finally admitting something that’s been building for a while.

Maybe end with something like

“I don’t know where this goes from here, but I had to tell you. You’re too important to me to keep pretending like I don’t feel this way.” This leaves room for both characters to process what’s happening without forcing a big romantic resolution right away. It’s more about them taking that first step into new territory, which feels more genuine and in line with the close friendship they’ve had for so long.

[mel-addams]

Get Started Drawing...

...even as a complete beginner!

In my efforts to help some friends who are only just starting to learn to draw (as adults! glorious!! <3), I kept digging around for resources that cover things I remember learning in the various art classes I've taken...but that does a better job than I can of laying it all out in a comprehensive, but not overwhelming, manner. (I am far too prone to rambling as you can see from this post, and bounce around topics as I remember them, rather than in a sensible order.) I've found a few guides here and there that cover one thing or another decently well...but I've finally found a free site I'm really keen on as an overall source if you're just starting out with learning to draw!

It's incredibly clear and concise, whereas many of the other sites and books I found could sometimes be overwhelmingly detailed. It's arranged in a way that reminds me of the flow of art classes, starting at the very first steps--how to approach art if you've never done it before, and the fact that you only need basic tools to begin with. If you go in approximate order, it then establishes that you should start sorting out a solid foundation by practicing simple lines and shapes--the same way you learned to write letters so you could ultimately make words, sentences, stories... This includes some neat little practice exercises with questions to consider while you do them, so you also learn to see and observe things like angles and proportions, which are critical for being able to accurately draw more complex things.

It evolves from there into how to take those basic shapes and turn them into simplified human bodies--and from there, how to consider more complex 3D versions of the shapes to give those bodies a sense of dimension and physicality. It even touches on things like composition, silhouette, negative space, and line of action--all in a quick, straightforward manner. It plants the seed of understanding for these more complex illustration concepts, which you can then research further, armed with relevant terminology to dig up more in-depth resources as they catch your interest!

The style itself is usually simple, but even if your aim is to draw with a more detailed style, this one can serve as a base sketch to add that detail to. (Combine learning this base with photo studies, plus more detailed style guides for wherever you want to take your art, and you could use this as a base for comics, cartoons, anime, realism...the core concepts and skills remain the same!) There's also examples of how to adjust for varied body shapes, so it provides more flexibility than some drawing guides do, which often only focus on one "ideal" body type. (This style can also be used for that, if it's what you want--you just adjust the proportions of the basic shapes as you need! But this provides examples of how to handle variety, which will give you a better foundation for drawing people and characters so they don't all look the same, instead of having to figure out how to adjust for it later on.) The Shape Dolls for reference are also incredibly delightful, and a great cheap way to have a little pose reference mannequin of sorts!

There's also links to sources if you want to dig into concepts more deeply--available both as a general source page, as well as some specific topics including relevant sources at the bottom of their respective pages. There's also a patreon with some extra thoughts that is fully accessible for free, but has a paid option if you want to support Tan for providing such a lovely resource! (Also they have a legit vegetable farm?? How cool is that.)

So yes! If you have any interest in learning to draw--whether you've ever tried before or not, and no matter your age--try looking through this site, and let it guide you through the process!

[junosmindpalace]

i saw your dr stone senku oneshot about senku realizing hes inlove and just wanna say i LOVEDDD IT, so i was wondering if i could request a similar thing to that but with kusuo (i dont rlly mind if its a headcannon or oneshot or whatever, anything works!) with like aren or mikoto randomly pointing out that kusuo looks like he likes the reader LMFAOO

hi there! thank you very much for your request! i'm glad you liked my dr stone oneshot!

i tried to mimic the straightforward, fast-pace, absurdness(?) of the show- i hope i did it justice ;,)

warnings: none!

wc: 1.9k

Kusuo, as much as he tries not to, cannot help attracting people into his life. He does his best to avoid socializing and standing out by minding his own business, hoping others will do the same. 

But instead (and seemingly without doing anything), he’s acquired a large group of friends who greatly admire and care for him. It’s undeniable that they could be troublesome, but he still goes the extra mile for them and even those he doesn’t know well. You were in Kusuo’s class and lived in his area, so he often saw you in and out of school, and just like the rest of his friends, you managed to meddle your way into his life. You’ve repeatedly witnessed his kindness and compassion, and each time you’ve confronted him, he’d brush it off and chalk it up as an interference to his peace.

Kusuo was pretty bland to you besides his funky accessories and bright pink hair, but you found he was an easy person to talk to, mostly because (and sadly enough, depending on perspective) the conversations you had with him were pretty one sided. You didn’t think much of Kusuo’s quietness, and took him to be a good listener instead of someone who was disinterested in what you had to say. 

Over time however, whatever irritation Kusuo originally had with you faded as you familiarized yourselves with one another. He found himself hanging out with you and contributing more to your conversations (telepathically, of course) out of his own volition. If he wasn’t forced to hang out with Kaido and Nendou, and maybe sometimes Aren, he was usually spending time with you. He seemed to tolerate you more than anyone else in his life because of your patient understanding nature. You were non-invasive, never forcing Kusuo to do anything he didn’t want to, and covered for him whenever he was confronted by others so as to avoid further attention. For your kindness, he’s subconsciously given you his time and attention and is a little more lenient with allowing you into his life. 

Saiki discovered with time that the two of you actually share a lot of common interests, such as a love for video games and manga. On top of that, he also greatly respected your determination, hard work, and open mindedness. 

“Why does Y/N get to…?!” his other friends would groan out or shriek in irritation when he enabled you over them, to which he’d deadpan, “because they’re not insufferable like the rest of you.” 

Even though you two have always been strictly friends, Kusuo just cannot help getting himself into tricky situations as well, and so no matter how hard he tries to make it seem like the opposite, somehow people are always getting the wrong idea when the two of you are together. 

It’s hard to tell who exactly was the first in Saiki’s friend group to suspect anything, but his friends all at once slowly started acting unnatural when the two of you hung around together or talked about each other.

The people who addressed the elephant in the room first were Toritsuka and Mikoto. 

Saiki and the two were dealing with a dangerous situation, which was surprisingly and maybe even alarmingly normal considering the nature of Saiki’s friends (being psychics and all), when you suddenly approached him in the midst of their chaos.

You called a greeting toward him and his friends and then started rambling about your day, completely oblivious to the danger the group was trying to tame. You brought up a low grade you got, an annoying teacher, and then asked Saiki if he wanted to go out to a cafe after school. 

But Saiki suddenly grabbed your shoulders and looked you firmly in the eyes, catching you and the other two psychics off guard, because they stopped whatever panicking they were doing to watch. 

A beat of silence. “Saiki?” “I’ll meet up with you at the cafe, alright? I’ll even treat you, just get out of here.”

And you’re confused on why he sounds so serious and urgent, on why his grip on you is so firm, but you’re patient, and so all you do is stare at him with a small frown and go “okay.”

You said your goodbyes and headed off with the group watching you do a double take before disappearing behind a corner.

And Kusuo immediately regrets holding onto you when he turns around to the stunned looks on his friends’ faces, who, after a moment of processing the sight, are in his face. 

“I knew it! I knew the two of you were dating! You don’t have a heart of stone after all!” “I wish you would’ve told us, Kusuo! They’re cute, too!”

He’s insanely annoyed by this, obviously, and immediately shuts down the mistranslation. “Quiet! I’m not dating anyone and stay out of my business. We have to continue…”

But from there, the situation only worsened. Everyone was thinking it, everyone was feeling it. It was only a matter of who was finally going to say something about it. And of course, Saiki knew everyone was thinking it, but he truly didn’t think it would escalate into something intrusive. 

And after the psykickers, seemingly everyone decided to speak up about it. 

You were talking to Saiki before class began, and when you were invited over to talk to another friend, Kaidou and Aren appeared by the esper’s desk. “Is it true?! Are you and L/N dating?!”

“No. Get out of my face.”

“I didn’t really see it at first,” Aren thought out loud to himself, ignoring his wish. “L/N’s pretty friendly with everyone, but the two of you oddly enough make sense. You look good together!”

Saiki stared exasperatedly. Saiki respected Aren for being one of the more level headed members of his friend group, but even he was on about this?

“What are you talking about Kuboyasu? My pal’s irresistible!” And now Nendou was joining the conversation, approaching Kusuo’s desk with his hands in his pockets. “Congrats buddy! They’re a real cutie!”

“Hey! What are you gents talking about?” Hairo’s voice boomed out. Him too? Why was everyone so interested in the conversation? 

“Saiki and L/N,” Kaido answered as Hairo joined the semi-circle formed around Saiki’s desk. Hairo's face lit up, immediately catching on just from the mention of your names. “Ooh! So it’s true, huh? I always suspected something! I’m happy for you both!”

“Enough! I’m not dating L/N! Where are you all getting this stupid impression from?”

“What are you talking about?! You two always come in a pair!” Kaido cried out in defense and stared at his friend incredulously. 

“Yeah, everywhere you go, L/N isn’t far behind. You can’t find one without the other.” Aren added almost hesitantly as Saiki stared with his mouth forming a small “o” shape.

This came as a surprise to him. He was always so keen on living a “normal” and peaceful life, finding others a threat to this aspiration and doing his best to block them out because of it. He didn’t socialize or attempt to make friends, but apparently he could live his “normal” life with you in it. You casually followed him-- and him you-- and he found comfort in and outside of your “normalcy”-- your presence, your everyday tasks and conversation; even your uniqueness. You became a part of his normal at some point, his peace.

When did that happen? 

“You bring them everywhere with you, dude. I think L/N’s the only person who can get you to come out of your shell a little.” Hairo commented with a short laugh and scrunched brows as he thought aloud.

Saiki admits that he’s more willing to try new things or do something he initially didn’t want to if you’re there with him. He trusts you, and so if you’re involved, he supposes he doesn’t mind getting involved either. Sometimes when he asked about the two of you constantly tag teaming, he’ll say something like “they wanted to come along” or “Y/N convinced me to go” and Kusuo himself is a little surprised that he never realized how that looked and sounded like to his friends, who knew him to be pretty reserved and introverted. 

“Oooh! Are we talking about Saiki and L/N?” Oh no. Not…

“Teruhashi!” 

“Sorry to interrupt the conversation, but I couldn’t help but overhear you boys talking about L/N! They’re always telling me about you Saiki! It’s so nice how you do so much for them!”

Does he really do a lot for you? Yes, yes he does, and Teruhashi has heard it all. You don’t talk about it excessively or ever make it seem like a brag, but it slips up so casually in conversation that even Kokomi, with all her admirers, finds it endearing how natural Saiki’s urge to take care of you is. 

Trouble at work? Saiki’s on the job. He’ll get your annoying manager to stop bugging you or help you clear out the place faster after a long day. An item you casually mentioned you wanted? Knowing Saiki, he probably goes through hell and back trying to get it for you, but even so he never spends too much time indulging you in the details of how he obtained it. A classmate giving you a hard time? Saiki’s loyalty is more evident than ever. Even Teruhashi is taken aback when you share your experiences with him. 

“I’m so jealous! I wish I had someone like that!” Chiyo groaned out from behind the group as Kokomi and Hairo made space for her to join the discussion. 

With so many of his friends taking notice of these things, Kusuo is forced to acknowledge and reflect on them in that moment, especially when they’re suggesting something beyond friendship. 

He consistently swoops in to save you from bad situations, even when you insist that you can handle yourself. And Saiki knows you can, he doesn’t always doubt you, but he tries to make it seem that way or as if you were an inconvenience. In reality, Saiki never exactly knew what urged him to help you out so much. With his other friends, everything he did felt like a one sided favor. But with you, it was something more. He was okay with taking care of you. 

And he can’t help but smile when he sees how excited you are about something. Saiki’s cold demeanor sticks most of the time, but it’s typically in private or away from his friends’ prying eyes that Saiki’s shoulder relax a little and he lets himself enjoy your presence. With his responsibilities and burdens as a psychic, romance was absolutely off the table. 

But maybe…

“Hey everyone! What are we talking about?”

Both the conversation and Saiki’s daydreams immediately halt as everyone turns toward the sound of your voice. You slowly approach the group with a smile on your face. “Talking about that test?”

Even Kusuo is staring dumbly at you, but before anyone could open their mouths to answer, the bell rang, signaling the beginning of class. 

As the teacher called everyone to return to their seats and the group broke apart, Saiki briefly looked down and then toward you in the seat across from him, watching you unpack your supplies. 

Good grief. His troublesome friends really got to him. 

BONUS: 

“ImeanitssoobviousyouhaveathingforY/Nwiththewayyou’reconstantlytogetherhowcouldanyonenottellfromthewayyou’realwaysprotectingthemtoalwayshangingaroundoneanotherthoughit’sdefinitelyanoddpairingbutonethatyoutwoseemtomakeworkit’salmostlikeaclincheinaromancefilm!”

Translation: “I mean, it’s so obvious you have a thing for Y/N with the way you’re constantly together. How could anyone not tell from the way you’re always protecting them to always hanging around one another, though it’s definitely an odd pairing but one you two seem to make work. It’s almost like a cliche in a romance film!”

(Akechi cornered Saiki in the hallway right after class.)

[sirwow]

More AvA/AvM thoughts and a longer rambling under the cut to get my thoughts out

Admittedly this is all going to come out of the blue but that is my fault for saying nothing about a year old hyperfixation till now. Anywho!

The color gang coming from the online world where all the other sticks live has been in my head since we saw the outside world. Yes they’re way more vibrant then most there but purple and their parents are also a very vibrant trio. So I have my thoughts on the four. Obviously don’t have any parents around (wasn’t my fault for once shocker /lh) and are most definitely not related really. So it gives me the thought of the 4 always being friends since they were small and fighting/playing is just what they usually did with no parents figures other then a care taker.

But then how’d they get on the stick fight site? Well considering it was not until AvA 4 when we saw them they most definitely saw other famous stick fights that wanted to make them be part of it. Hell in AvYT we see at the end they all just wanted to watch epic stick fights. So yeah thought I’d they basically ganged together to make their own site to show off their epic fights together while also living in said site together. Worked well.

Then a certain someone broke down the wall one day and they were like damn this is kinda neat. Kept the site of course it is their literal home but after more and more or AvM they considered the PC, TSC and Alan more as their home and so started staying there more. The little Minecraft houses, finding interests outside of just fighting, and living out their fantasies with the power of minecraft.

They’re still all identical looking for a long time though. I think the accessories I draw them with were drawn by TSC as gifts but not until after AvM 30. They’ve learned so much more at that point about themselves I could imagine being identical as each other and just being “them sticks that fight” still gets a bit old. Course’ they can take off the accessories when they feel so but kept them in the back pocket. TSC hasn’t felt any feeling to change their looks so he hasn’t.

Well then anywho it’s very late and though I have more AvA thoughts I need to contain them for when it’s not 3 in the morning ! So instead some smaller stuff Iv noticed while obsessively observing episodes and shorts (mostly Blue because I heart blue)

Blue unlike the rest of the color gang is very… plain. And I don’t mean this in a negative sense. It’s more a lesser degree of creativity from him on most accounts. He’s not very creative in his solutions most the time and has very straightforward solutions to issues that in his mind are straightforward. Break an axe? Make a new one. Gotta go fast? Drugs Potions that make you faster. Yeah there’s cooking but he never really does anything creative with it outside of adding nether warts like the lil freak /pos he is. Follows a written recipe and taught lesson.

It’s a quiet aspect of him I only really noticed a few days ago. Not that this is a negative aspect again but something that makes him stand out more!

Now then uhh smaller random stuff I just always like. Lush Caves ep, Red realizing oh god he can’t win this fight Vs TSC and started running from them instead. Always makes me boowomp a little thinking about it since Red is kinda the younger usual happy go lucky prankster. TSC I know you’re also young and stressed but continuing to get his ass was NOT the way man,,

Last thought, King just trying to avenge his son only to come out of the situation with like 6 new adoptive kids is very funny to me. They say vengeance is a life well lived so I guess he got vengeance 6 times over. Ok gn (ecplodes)

[w1f1n1ghtm4r3]

so i like the april fools shuffle units a normal amount. i have done redesigns for almost all of them and i draw them A Lot.

rambling additional notes on all of the redesigns below

a couple notes if you ever want to draw any of these redesigns for yourself at any point: i'd appreciate being credited for these redesigns (obviously anyone not redesigned i don't need credit for lol) and you don't need to follow my specific skin tone + hair/eye color schemes i have laid out. those are how i personally like to draw the characters and i've included them for anyone who might want to stay completely accurate to my redesigns, but you're welcome to use your own preferred color schemes for the cast when drawing them with these outfits!

now onto the fun(?) stuff

aoharu is pretty straightforward with redesigns, its basically just leoni but with a sun theme instead of stars. adding the image for the color palettes for the unchanged designs just because it has the notes for ichisaki too (their changes were too minor to completely redraw them, in my opinion).

ichika remains entirely unchanged design-wise other than adding a sun pin to her suspenders. saki stays mostly the same too, other than changing the design on her armband and switching her pigtails for a ponytail (in an attempt to seem a little more mature/imitate airi's hairstyle/move on from her childhood self since she's started to believe that honami and shiho want nothing to do with her and ichika anymore).

not too much to say about airi and ena's outfits either, i wanted to go a little more cute with airi and cool with ena, but there's minor changes with both of their hairstyles, with airi switching her pigtails for a ponytail as well (moving on from her idol days but still maintaining her usual sort of style) and ena's hair being a bit longer/messier.

yyj is definitely the most drastic, they're the only unit where i changed every single character... i have a lot of trouble drawing the mmj outfits, but also the lighter color scheme and clover theme just didn't really make sense for yyj to me? so instead i went with a mainly black and character color combo for their color schemes, alongside gold and white to accent it and a more spacey/dreamlike theme. everyone's black and white are slightly tinted with their character colors too!

they're split into pairs for matching accessories, but it doesn't mean much otherwise. kanade and an both have the dangling star charms and a single larger wristband (with those being on opposite sides from each other) as well as no buttons on the front of their outfits, while both hinomoris have the large bows on the backs of their outfits, smaller wristbands on both arms, a legband, and star shaped clips (like the other pair, the clips and legbands are on opposite sides from each other) and they do have buttons. they're split differently for the same style outfits though, with kanade/shizuku and shiho/an being the matching pairs this way.

kanade has the most obvious design changes. i swapped her character color to a medium-light blue rather than red, because tbh she kind of stood out too much if she was still red. she's not meant to be the leader of the unit, she doesn't want to stand out. her hair is a lot shorter than canon and she usually keeps it braided for practice and performances (and leaves it loose otherwise) (both the haircut and style were initially suggestions from shizuku). shes the only member of the unit to wear tights and to lack any star shaped hair accessories.

shizuku i don't have that much to say about, i had designed kanade first and then shizuku to match. its pretty straight forward i think? she's got the tallest socks not counting kanade's tights though.

for both an and shiho i wanted to go a slightly cooler/less feminine direction, while still sticking to the general theme i had going. which lead to the shorts and vest combo! otherwise the only notable change with either of them is that an's changed her clips to two regular gold ones and she's got a ponytail now when they practice/perform, much like kanade's braid.

fts was both very fun and an absolute pain to redesign because on one hand, i can do whatever i want, on the other hand, it's like vbs there's really no consistent theme to carry through everything. except a lot of layers i guess. so my goal was to kind of merge their casual aesthetics with something more vbs-like.

tsukasa wearing his jacket incorrectly was inspired by my own tendency to do so whenever i get too warm. i think he just does it because he thinks it looks cool though (its a little silly and a pain to keep it on but he's committed to the look). also leaving his middle layer as his fish jacket from his casual sprite was a funny little thing i thought worked for him.

with rui my goal was just pockets. lots of pockets. they're probably hiding little robots and tools in those pockets. i should have put more pockets on their pants too but oh well. combine that with wanting some obnoxious bright greens and blues and at least one item that kind of clashed color-wise with the rest (their pants in this case) and this is the result. the sketch doesn't convey it well but their black jacket and pants are both kind of loose, while the green hoodie and tshirt underneath fit okay. also their hair is kind of long if they ever untied it, but no one ever sees that.

hapisen for the most part sticks to their canon sprites, just simplified slightly for my sanity. mafuyu's costume still drives me insane to draw though, that's so many layers to think about.

other than questioning my sanity every time i draw mafuyu, there's only one change from her sprite, which is making her hairtie one decorated with pompoms much like a lot of other parts of her costume. i just thought it tied things together a little more.

the upper half of haruka's outfit is more or less completely unchanged (other than making it fit in a way that looks slightly more masculine), but then i replaced his skirt with pants and gave him boots (wxs meiko, who is the sprite haruka's outfit is originally just a recolor of, wears heels). i figured if i was going for a more princely sort of design for haruka then changing those felt fitting. beyond that he's obviously got shorter hair (a choice he makes after seeing kohane decide to change herself, wanting to embrace the genuine person he wants to be beyond the idol people knew him as) and that's about it. hits this guy with the transgender beam.

kohane's outfit is really just a bit simplified from the original with sizing/proportions of elements adjusted to (in my opinion) suit her better. the ribbons in her hair felt like a cute addition (and i like to give kohane ribbons in general), while her hair length is an in between of her two standard canon ones, longer than the usual one we see but shorter than pre-canon/early mainstory. her glasses are optional, she changes between them and contacts with how she's feeling for the day and what kind of shows hapisen is planning. the more intense the show, the less likely she is to wear her glasses.

kyushumi was kind of intended as niigo but without one member in a mostly white outfit since they don't have someone like kanade who is intentionally trying to save people. although they're also a little happier off anyway, so they don't need someone like that. they're my most drawn shuffle unit, so also probably my most thought-through redesigns.

each design takes slight inspiration from a member of niigo (nene/kanade, minori/ena, honami/mafuyu), but that was just kind of as a personal guide for what kind of vibes to go with for the outfits. they've all got personal touches to them.

nene's hoodie is very loose on her body and arms, but a normal fit in the length, and her shorts are actually long enough to be seen. she just wants to be comfy, she's tired a lot, very low energy girl. glasses because i think nene should wear glasses anyway, so as opposed to canon nene who i like to believe just favors contacts, this nene does not.

minori is pretty obviously similar to ena's outfit, but there's a few nods to mmj in here. she's got clover shaped earrings, the pattern along the bottom of her dress is meant to resemble the tips of the clover leaves from mmj's symbol, and her shoes are just the mmj unit outfit shoes in different colors.

the goal with honami's outfit was simply "how little skin can she have exposed" because i imagine her being more worried about that than usual here. so long sleeves, long skirt, high collar, etc. her hair is longer (for no particular reason tbh, i simply liked how it looks) but still styled the same, and she's got a solid red scrunchie now. the four buttons on her outfit are all meant to look like the moon, two full moons and two opposite facing crescents. also i will never stop joking about the fact that she's naturally the second tallest girl in the cast (not counting vs, then she's third tallest) and i gave her tall heels on top of that. she is towering over all of her unitmates here.

while you're welcome to use these designs for any (non-incest) ships you'd like, i do have a personal list of ships that are canon to my own au with the shuffle units, which is what i originally designed these for. the "canon" ships are

ichika/saki

ena/airi

honami/kanade

akito/touya

mafuyu/rui (qpr)

haruka/kohane

mizuki/nene

however you are not by any means required to follow these specific ships! i have no desire to enforce the ships that go with these, so draw whatever ships you might prefer with these designs. i'm happy to see anything!

anyway if you made it this far congrats on surviving i know this is a lot of text o7 i hope you've enjoy my silly little character design insanities ^^;

[gooeygoldies]

Y'know what surprise post it's Otacon time he's on my mind rn (I have had some of the songs I've assigned to him on repeat lately) pokemon au is back!! Og mgs, mgs2 and mgs4

BUT YEAH!! POKEMON!!! he's one of my -if not the- most developed character au-wise in regards to pokemon and teams and things so yuh yuh under cut my insane person rambles

Okay SO we are going by game.

Mgs

- Porygon and Magnemite: Very straightforward the hacker/engineer pokemon duo!! He got them in college. His buddies his pals

- Sobble: actual plot here! It was a gift by Sniper wolf, who had Intelleon as her main pokemon. It is very much like him in the first game (cries and can turn invisible, in this au he got the camo gear idea from Sobble!!) and is perked upon his shoulder always. Also the water type is a sad little connection to the.pool. yeah. Anyways, he leaves it behind after leaving shadow Moses cuz he isn't a crybaby anymore!! Character growth!! The Sobble is okay don't worry about it

- Venonat: in au-lore. Originally assigned cuz I felt they looked alike, also a nocturnal pokemon to accompany him! But it was a pokemon he saved from being attacked by wolf's mightyenas (stand-in for wolves) it helps him sneak around shadow Moses thanks to its enhanced sight!

Mgs2 (now we get more into my own lore)

- Porygon2 and Magneton: Evolved!! Thanks to philanthropy that is, now they battle alongside snake and Otacon and are key helpers in all things electricity. Magneton is especially key in destabilizing electrical power sources

- Patrat (Shiny): Shiny bcs the color scheme felt cuter, but aside from that its here to match the 'eyes in the sky' role Otacon has now. A little sentinel! It keeps guard if accompanying snake or Otacon in missions.

- Swadloon: its all cozy and cooped up like. Like a nerd. But beside that, and it's role in the future (aka MGS4) it's main function is to sew up any torn garments, and helped Otacon make the new sneaking suit.

- Joltik: you know the bug things set to record conversations in spy movies? Make it an actual bug. Also it eats electricity so its a rlly good pal to have on the computer.

- Helioptile: It's actually a power generator!! Solar powered friend and I'd feel it would've been caught while moving around for philanthropy

* Venonat: He's still there!

Mgs4

Porygon2 & Magneton: Same ol' guys

Galvantula, Watchog, Heliolisk, Venomoth: They all evolved! Even if they spend most of their time in the nomad, Otacon took the time to train all of them after Snake's health started deteriorating just in case they needed to protect Sunny.

Leavanny: Honorable and separate mention! The nanny pokemon and it evolves by friendship. Evolved not long after Sunny arrived into his life, as the pokemon category implies, it takes care of Sunny as well!! Main caretaker whenever Snake and Otacon need some backup in that regard

Rotom: you know Rotom dex? Think metal gear Rotom... Rotom gear. But it's the mk.II instead. Rotom powered! The little dude also helps with every day appliances with it's usual forms

Beheeyem: It matches his sleeker, cooler look. That concept art with the coat? It's the cooler nerd pokemon

Porygon-Z: Used to be Emma's, and it ends up being the last puzzle piece in FOXALIVE in this au. She gave it to him before, y'know, spoilers but dying and all dat!

Well that's it!! I love Otacon he's so me I'm so him. Nerds with big glasses... Hopefully if I get the energy I'll do more deep dives like these but tbh for Snake his team is p static. Whatever !!! Ty guys for listening gn !!

[vyuntspakhkite-l-darling]

I love seeing people ramble about their stories so, can you ramble about Biting the Bullet?

Totally! I recently decided to pause my first draft because I got stuck and do a dummy draft instead so it'll be nice to just talk about it a little. <3

Originally it was going to be a silly story about a military fireteam during a war in a fantasy universe. It. It was going to be silly. It was going to be an action-comedy. It is.... not that anymore. All the world conflicts started getting into the mainstream media and I began seeing more military recruiters in my school and I kind of began projecting my anxieties and frustrations and stuff onto the story and honestly I think that made it a lot stronger.

I have three options I'm still not sure which to pick for the POV. I'm doing it in 3rd person past tense for sure, but I'm still not sure if I'm going to switch between all four of the main characters' perspectives, just Sibatol and Arsioly, or just Arsioly. For the first draft I'm rotating between all of them and we'll see how I feel after that.

I think my favorite thing about this story is the decisive character moments I have planned. My characters will develop gradually, but their biggest developments come from moments where they have to make big choices, whether to stay in their old ways or grow as people. Visralion, the team's medic who usually puts others before himself, says no when Arsioly first asks to be his boyfriend. Because even though they both like each other, Arsioly is a pretty shitty person to everyone but Visralion at that point, and Visralion recognizes that if they got in a relationship it'd just end up with him trying to fix Ari and that's not his job. This is also a big moment for Arsioly- he can choose to be awful about the rejection or he can choose to look at his own behavior and improve as a person. He chooses to improve himself.

Ari probably had the most of these and I can't say one of them bc spoilers but another one he has which is more subtle but still important is when Estera, the girl his fireteam finds on a mission and basically adopts bc she has nowhere else to go, wakes him up in the middle of the night to cuddle because she had a nightmare. His immediate reaction is to tell her to suck it up and leave him alone so he can sleep. But he chooses to be compassionate to her and it really makes him realize how much better it feels to be nice to people (and helps teach him the value of a life bc he almost shot her and is now seeing that all the people he's carelessly killed could have gone on and had moments like these but shh...).

Most of Virava's are more spoilery but they revolve mostly around her being terrified about her past repeating itself, and she ends up overcorrecting and taking several steps backwards before she finally stops bearing all her feelings by herself and actually talks to people about her fear.

Talking about Sibatol under the cut because his portion of this revolves around be talking about him being promiscuous, if hearing abt that will make you uncomfy don't read further :3

The one I can think of for Sibatol is a bit less straightforward than the previous ones but bear with me. He struggles with hypersexuality for most of the story due to trauma from when he was young. Sleeping around causes a lot of problems for him but he just can't stop and he really struggles in situations where he can't just fuck his way out of it. Most of the moves he makes hurt him or make situations worse or just generally dig him deeper into this hole he's dug for himself. But I'm not the person that's gonna give you a character like this and then tell you that the way they become a better person is by being less of a slut. His turning point (I won't be too specific bc spoilers) is when he learns how to use his sexuality in a more strategic way, a helpful way that makes things easier for people for once, which is a gateway into him changing his mindset abt his sexuality and he's still as promiscuous by the end of the story but he doesn't just use it as a distraction from bad feelings anymore, he approaches it in a healthier way.

[spaceyflowerswriting]

HII idk if u write for gun ( lookism ) but would it be alright if I request a gun x reader fluff? That’s all! Ty:))

beauty in you (gun park x reader)

details: fluffy drabble, gender neutral reader written in 2nd pov, general canon au, you and gun are coworkers dating

summary: a silly conversation with kouji makes gun realize you've become a very dear part of his life.

a/n: i do <3!! he's one of my faves to write; thanks for requesting!!

inspired by the last prompt on this post 💖

×

"...Really?"

"What?"

Kouji pointed to the headband Gun was currently wearing, the fluffy cat ears on them being a large contrast to his serious demeanor. "If I asked you to wear that, you would've asked me what color I'd want my coffin to be."

"Hm. Really?" Gun smirked out of amusement when the purple haired highschooler gave his arm a light slap.

"Seriously, I've never seen you make so many exceptions for someone before." Kouji huffed and pointed with a thumb at you, which you didn't notice because you were too busy singing with Crystal. "They've really got you wrapped around their finger."

"Please," scoffed Gun, "Is it so strange I enjoy the company of someone? And it's not as if I don't do these things with Goo, either. Just the other day we were at a karaoke like this one."

"Yeah, but you kinda grumble when you agree! With them you just agree right away."

"Your point?"

Kouji let out a deep sigh. "You know what it is? I think they made you soft, at least towards them."

Soft...? Soft?

Never in a million years would Gun ever describe himself with such a word, nor would he imagine someone else would use it in reference to him. Yet at this moment, he could sort of understand why Kouji would say what he did.

He shook his head anyway, turning his attention back to you, adoring your bright smile that even his sunglasses couldn't protect his eyes from as he said, "They made me appreicate something I've yet to experience, that's all. I see no problem with it."

When Kouji made a gagging sound, Gun turned his head back to see him grimacing. "Am I hallucinating? Gun wearing cat ears and saying the most disgustingly cheesy ass thing I've ever heard?"

Gun just chuckled. "Is now a good time to ask what color you would like your coffin?"

"Man..."

[below is extra characterization stuff i started with but then realized i was just rambling instead of writing a story but i liked it enough to keep it]

When others say that beauty was found in people, Gun could agree, but perhaps not in a way one would usually think. For him, it wasn't the kindness or smiles humanity shared that he found beautiful, but physical talent instead--people so skilled, they were on the tip of almost being non-human.

The most flexible gymnast, the fastest swimmer... and most of all, the strongest human; particularly when it came to fighting. Yes, to Gun, there was just something beautiful about the way one could perfectly move themselves to inflict maximum damage, through technique and knowing the right weak spots. Not to mention, knowing there was hard work put behind to maintain such strength and knowledge made it even more beautiful to him.

Of course, there was also talent in itself that fascinated Gun. Anyone could achieve enough through hard work, but not everyone was born with natural talent.

So... why did he find beauty the "normal" way in you? As far as he knew, you couldn't fight, and all you've done was just be yourself. Your personality achieved some sort of dynamic with him where for once he enjoyed the company of someone in a peaceful way. In fact, he wouldn't mind spending the rest of his life with someone like you. It was a strange feeling, but he was sure of it. Emotions weren't too complicated for someone as straightforward as him, after all.

Nonetheless, perhaps he could argue that your talent was making him smile, and for that, he could appreciate the beauty in you; your talent.

[archiveikemen]

Abe no Yasuchika • Sutokuin/Akihito Main Story: Chapter 3

This is a fan-made translation solely for entertainment purposes with no guaranteed perfection; expect mistakes, grammatical errors, and some creative liberties. All original content and media used belongs to Cybird. Please support the game by buying their stories and playing their games. Reblogs appreciated.

Read this before interacting┊aikm’s Genjiden Glossary

Akihito: By the way, aren’t you afraid of talking to me like this?

Yuno: Huh?

Akihito-sama’s handsome face drew closer, sending my heart racing.

Akihito: I’m well aware that I was once a terrifying enemy to you.

Abysmal eyes stared intently at me, it was like they were staring right into the depths of my heart.

(Deception definitely won’t work on Akihito-sama.)

Yuno: … That’s true. You were indeed terrifying as an enemy.

I weaved my web of words while cautiously sounding my thoughts.

Yuno: But strangely, I no longer fear you.

Yuno: I also recently learned that you have a surprisingly awkward side to you.

(Both Yasuchika-san and Akihito-sama… the two of them were different from their usual elusive selves.)

(I feel like I’m starting to understand what kind of people they are, even just a little bit.)

Akihito: Awkward, huh. Was that supposed to be a compliment?

Yuno: Ah, I’m sorry, it was my mistake… but I didn’t mean it in a negative way at all!

(That was indeed disrespectful of me.)

Akihito: It’s fine. I don’t deny that I’ve shown you some rather disgraceful sides of me today.

Yasuchika: When I asked you to check on Yasuchika for me during the day for instance, and right now.

Yuno: No, I don’t think you’re acting disgraceful.

Yuno: … Instead, I think you’re the kind of person to treat what’s precious to you with a lot of care.

Akihito: You mean Yasuchika?

Yuno: Yes.

I nodded and Akihito-sama stared reminiscently into the distance..

Akihito: It’s because that boy and I met in a rather unique way.

(I really wonder what happened between them.)

However, I figured that it would be too inappropriate to casually ask such a personal question, so I perished the thought and watched his calm side profile.

Akihito-sama said nothing more, then he suddenly smiled at me.

Akihito: — Sorry. I made you listen to my rambling.

Yuno: It’s fine. Um…

When Akihito-sama tried to end the conversation, I spontaneously stopped him.

(I want to at least tell him this much.)

Yuno: You mentioned earlier that you feel confused about receiving the Hero’s Power…

Yuno: I believe there was surely a meaning behind specifically the two of you being chosen as heroes.

Akihito: A meaning…?

Yuno: Yes. The Yamata no Orochi said that we won’t be given a trial we can’t conquer.

Yuno: If both of you work together, there might be a way through this.

(I don’t know the relationship between Akihito-sama and Yasuchika-san very well, but—)

(I can see that they both care deeply about each other.)

Akihito-sama chuckled at my words.

Akihito: … You’re right. After hearing you say that, I’m starting to feel that way too.

Yuno: My apologies. That was impertinent of me…

Akihito: No, I thank you for saying that.

Akihito: Yasuchika and I are undeniably a little cowardly.

Akihito: That’s why it might be best to have someone straightforward like you as a medium of the underworld.

(Akihito-sama…)

(I still don’t know what I can contribute to this war… but at least, I hope to be a form of support to Akihito-sama and Yasuchika-san.)

…

Not long after, there were reportedly sightings of the undead in a province not far from Kamakura.

(According to the report submitted to the Shogunate, they should be around here.)

To avoid causing damage to the nearby village, we divided ourselves into teams to patrol the area.

(From the Shogunate, there’s Shigehira-kun, Rikka, and Tamamo; while the Rebel Army assigned Benkei to guard the other side of the village.)

(I’m patrolling this area alongside Akihito-sama, Yasuchika-san, and Ibuki, but—)

Signs of the undead were nowhere to be seen, so we decided to wait for a while.

Soldiers dispatched from the Shogunate were in the vicinity.

Soldier 1: Still, I never expected us to end up being under the lead of some suspicious person from the Imperial Court.

Soldier 2: Shh! He can hear you. You never know where Yasuchika-dono placed his shikigami.

(As expected, there’s still some distrust towards the Imperial Court.)

(Although it’s understandable if you think about what happened between us in the past, but I wonder if we’ll work together just fine.)

Rikka: Found you, Yuno.

Yuno: Rikka!

Yuno: What’s the matter? Did something happen to Shigehira-kun and the others?

Rikka: Nah, I was told to check on you. They’re doing fine over there.

(That’s a relief…)

Rikka: … In any case, Shigehira is really harsh when it comes to making use of ayakashi.

Rikka continued languidly.

Rikka: I only took a short break and he’s already back to get me to work, and he tells me to come check on you the moment I have any free time.

(That’s how hardworking Shigehira-kun is…)

In contrast to that, while Rikka has been cooperative with us so far, he still has the carefree nature of an ayakashi.

(Before we set out, he was making snow sculptures in the corner of the room during the war council.)

Rikka: Where are Akihito and Yasuchika?

Yuno: They’re checking on the situation over there with Ibuki. Should I call them over?

Rikka: Nah, no need. I’d rather you not.

Rikka firmly declined.

(What’s wrong?)

While I internally questioned the tone of his response, Rikka’s gaze shifted to something behind me.

Rikka: … Speak of the devil, Yasuchika’s here. Help me out, Yuno.

Yuno: Huh?

I thought I felt two hands on my shoulders and was immediately spun around.

A little distance from us, I spotted Yasuchika-san and Akihito-sama returning after completing their checks.

(Perfect timing.)

Yuno: Akihito-sama! Yasuchika-san! Rikka’s here to check on us.

The two of them noticed us and started walking in our direction.

But before they reached us, Rikka hastily leaned in and whispered in my ear.

Rikka: I’ve passed the message to you. I’ll get going now.

Yuno: Eh? Why…

I turned around to see that Rikka had already disappeared.

(When did he…!?)

Yasuchika: Aww, he escaped.

Yasuchika-san’s shoulders slumped while walking up to me.

Akihito: He’s quite a cunning ayakashi to use Yuno as a shield.

Yasuchika: It’s not like I’m going to do anything to him. Right, Yuno-san?

Yuno: It could be that you’ve already done something to him…

Yasuchika: Hmm… just a little bit!

(I knew it!)

Yasuchika: All I did was have him cooperate with me for a little experiment.

Yasuchika: Ri-chan always gets irritated quickly and escapes the moment I take my eyes off him, so the experiment failed.

Akihito: Attempting to force him into making a pact with you was a bad idea, I guess.

(H-he did WHAT…!?)

Yasuchika: It was worth a try! By nature, it’s impossible for an Onmyōji to make a pact with an ayakashi, however—

Yasuchika: I thought it might work given my current state whereby I can’t use my Onmyō magic like I usually do.

Yasuchika: If I were to make a pact with a powerful ayakashi, I could use its abilities in place of Onmyō magic alongside the Hero’s Power to fight.

Yuno: So you’re still having trouble using your Onmyō magic after all?

Yasuchika: It’s not completely unusable. I managed to develop a technique to control the power just in time.

Yasuchika: In fact, I’m actually using a shikigami to do the scouting right now.

(Thank goodness…)

I heaved a sigh of relief when I recalled how cornered Yasuchika looked the last time.

Yasuchika: … However, I have to suppress the Hero’s Power when using Onmyō magic; and I can’t use Onmyō magic when using the Hero’s Power.

Akihito: So that means it’s difficult to deal a fatal blow to the undead using Onmyō magic.

Yasuchika: That’s correct.

Yasuchika-san nodded at Akihito-sama and turned his gaze back onto me.

Yasuchika: Therefore, my weapon in this battle will be a sword infused with the Hero’s Power.

(I see…)

Yuno: It really is impossible to use Onmyō magic and the Hero’s Might together at the same time after all, huh.

Yasuchika: To put it bluntly, yes. Well, there are other methods, but—

Yasuchika: Attempting to forcibly use both powers simultaneously would cause them to go out of control.

Yuno: In other words, it’s dangerous?

Yasuchika: Yeah, I’d rather not do that. There’s a possibility of it affecting Akihito-sama too.

Akihito: …

The look on Akihito-sama’s face looked like he wanted to say something but decided not to.

(Could Akihito-sama also know about that other method?)

Yasuchika: However, it’s fine if we don’t use that method.

Yasuchika: I may not be as skilled a fighter as the warriors, my swordsmanship is decent enough.

(Everything will definitely be alright if Yasuchika-san says so… I guess.)

Akihito: By the way, what did Rikka come to tell us?

Yuno: He only said he was here to check on us. It looks like Shigehira-kun and the others haven’t encountered any undead either.

The moment I said that, Yasuchika-san looked up as though he just sensed something.

Yuno: Yasuchika-san?

Yasuchika: — They're here.

Soldier 1: AAAAAHHH! MONSTERS!

Yuno: …!

The soldiers could be heard screaming from the bushes.

The soldiers who were resting immediately stood up and drew their swords.

Akihito: Looks like this is where we’ll be fighting them.

Yasuchika: Akihito-sama, the sorcery tools.

The two put on their respective forehead ornaments.

(…!)

When the light faded away—

I gasped at the sight of their new appearances.

Yasuchika: …! This is…

Akihito: I’m assuming this is due to the cursed powers of the ayakashi.

(They look like… they have matching appearances.)

Their almost otherworldly mystical appearances had me gazing admiringly at them.

Yasuchika: Let’s go, Akihito-sama.

Akihito: Yuno, try not to leave our side.

Yuno: … Okay!

The instant they headed in the direction of the screaming—

Grotesque-looking creatures emerged from among the trees.

(T-those are the undead…)

Undead: Gyaaaa!

The undead let out ear-piercing cries as they approached us.

While everyone froze in fear from seeing those creatures for the first time, Akihito-sama stepped forward and removed his bracelet.

Akihito: Stop moving.

(Is that his kotodama…?)

The undead’s movements slowed for a brief moment before they quickly recovered and started running towards us.

Akihito: … I see. It’s just as I expected, kotodama is barely effective on them.

Akihito: In that case—

Akihito-sama raised his hand, and a bolt of lightning struck the undead.

Undead 2: Eeek…!

The undead that were burnt by the lightning turned into ashes.

However, a new wave of undead trampled over the ashes and rushed towards us.

(There’s more…!)

At the same time my body tensed up, another bolt of lightning struck the undead.

Ibuki: Looks like it started while I was away, huh.

Yuno: Ibuki…!

Ibuki: It’s still too early to relax.

The fallen undead rose again.

Undead 3: Kill the living! Kill them!

Undead 4: Kill them!

Newly spawned undead poured out from among the trees, increasing in number and attacking us relentlessly.

The horrifying scene was so repulsing, my legs nearly gave out due to my natural instincts.

Soldier 2: W-what the hell is that…

Soldier 3: Damn it! There’s no way we can fight those things.

(Oh no, some of the soldiers are entering a state of panic…!)

Some of the soldiers went into chaos and started running away from the undead instead of fighting them.

Ibuki: How disappointing that they’re abandoning their duties just because their own general isn’t here.

Ibuki: This battle is going to be a tough one, huh? Akihito.

Akihito: Unfortunately so, but we can’t do without them.

With a charming smile, Akihito-sama summoned a bolt of lightning in the path of the fleeing soldiers.

Soldier 1: Eek!

Akihito: There’s no running away. If all of you are truly that afraid, I can just use kotodama on you.

Akihito: However, wouldn’t you rather face the enemies with your own convictions than be controlled like puppets to fight against your wills?

Soldier 2: Ugh…

Soldiers: We have no other choice but to fight…! Damn it.

(… Akihito-sama is indeed terrifying on the battlefield.)

Yasuchika: Everyone’s looking motivated! Looks like I should keep up too.

He drew his sword that emitted an eerie glow.

Yasuchika: I won’t allow them to go near Akihito-sama again.

Yasuchika-san stood at the front and cut down the approaching undead, his movements graceful like he were dancing.

Akihito: As expected of you, Yasuchika. But you should leave me some opportunities to shine too.

Akihito-sama’s lightning ability burnt a wide range of enemies to ashes—

While Yasuchika-san finished off the undead that managed to survive Akihito-sama’s attacks.

Soldier 1: We might actually win if we keep this up! Chaaarrrgeee!

With a battle cry to boost their morale, the previously frightened soldiers charged at the undead all at once.

(I can’t believe the two of them aren’t at their fullest potential yet.)

Akihito: It seems that the Necromancer is continuously summoning the undead while hiding somewhere.

Yasuchika: I’ve made the necessary preparations for my shikigami to request for reinforcements if we get attacked.

Yasuchika: Therefore, if we could just hold on a little more, we might be able to find the Necromancer.

Yasuchika-san’s words sounded slightly reassuring.

However, more undead kept on appearing with every one we defeated…

Yasuchika: ggh…

Yasuchika-san let out a small groan and retreated to my side.

Beads of sweat could be seen on his forehead.

Yuno: Yasuchika-san, are you in pain—

Yasuchika: I’m fine. It’s just that fighting this violently isn’t something I’m used to doing.

His response was as nonchalant as usual, and yet…

I knew very well that Yasuchika-san was the type of person to push himself too far over the edge while pretending everything was fine.

(Whenever Yasuchika-san uses the Hero’s Power, he constantly has to suppress his Onmyō magic.)

(It’s definitely much more complicated than it looks.)

Akihito: Step back, Yasuchika. I can handle the rest.

Yasuchika: I can’t do that. Akihito-sama, your ability isn’t meant to be used repeatedly.

Yasuchika: If you push yourself any further than this, it’ll harm your body.

(T-that’s…)

(But we’ve already sent a request for reinforcements to Shigehira-kun and the others. If we could just hold out a little longer until they arrive…!)

I could feel their frustration from being unable to fight, I prayed hard for reinforcements to arrive sooner and that was when—

The trees rustled and a man came forward from amongst the undead.

(This one is different from the undead.)

Akihito: Looks like the mastermind has finally shown himself.

Yasuchika: That’s the Necromancer…

Necromancer: All you annoying heroes, how dare you despicably change the course of fate and cling to your lives so desperately.

Necromancer: Kill the heroes first! We can finish off the rest of them after.

More undead emerged from the ground in response to the Necromancer’s command.

(T-this is endless…!)

Despite being cut down, the undead rushed past the soldiers towards Yasuchika-san and Akihito-sama.

Yasuchika: Apparently it seems that they’ve locked onto us.

Akihito: Ibuki. I leave Yuno to you.

(Wha…)

Akihito-sama gave me a hard push on the back towards Ibuki who caught me.

Ibuki: Oof. You’re being unusually rough.

Akihito: I’ll apologise later.

I caught a brief glimpse of Akihito-sama’s smile directed at me before the newly emerged undead obstructed my view.

Before we knew it, Ibuki and I were outside the circle of undead.

Yuno: But the two of them…!

Ibuki: Be good and step back. Losing the medium of the underworld would be too big of a blow. c

The smile on Ibuki’s lips made him seem as though he were enjoying the situation.

Ibuki: For now, we can only attack from the outside to support them.

Ibuki: Also, this is as far as those two can go if they don’t make it out alive.

(What…!?)

Yasuchika: … This would’ve been a child’s play if I could effectively use Onmyō magic.

Akihito: Say, Yasuchika. What we’re doing right now looks really out of character for us, don’t you think?

Yasuchika: You’re right. Akihito-sama aside, I shudder at the thought of being called a hero.

Akihito: But we were chosen to be the holders of this power.

Yasuchika: …

Akihito: Like Yuno said, there must be a meaning behind specifically the two of us being chosen.

Akihito: When she puts it that way, I can’t help but to live up to the expectations of a hero. c

Akihito: But looking at our current situation, winning is impossible. So how about we make a bet?

Yasuchika: A bet…?

Akihito: You still have another trump card, don’t you? I’ve been thinking the same thing.

Yasuchika: We absolutely can’t do that. If it fails, you’ll be affected by it too.

Akihito: I don’t want to do it either. — I don’t want to curse you.

(… What on earth are they talking about?)

The disturbing conversation gave me the chills.

Akihito: But I still want to give it a try because we can’t afford to die here.

Yasuchika: …

Akihito: I believe you can succeed, Yasuchika.

Akihito: Do you not trust me?

Yasuchika: …! That’s not the case at all.

Yasuchika: Ahh fine, please hate me forever if I fail!

Seemingly having given in to despair, Yasuchika muttered something under his breath.

The hand he stretched out towards Akihito-sama contained a ball of light.

Yasuchika: — Let’s do this.

Akihito-sama nodded and held his hand out to the light.

Akihito: Two powers that devour each other. Tame them, accept them. The soul becomes a vessel, creating an even greater power.

Ibuki: … Heh, looks like they came up with something interesting.

The sides of Ibuki’s lips lifted into a grin while he attacked the undead from the outside.

(Could it be… Yasuchika-san is mixing his Onmyō magic with both of their Hero’s Power?)

As the ball of light in their hands glowed brighter, Yasuchika-san’s face twisted in agony for a moment.

Yasuchika: ugh…

Akihito: Yasuchika.

Yasuchika: … This level of power is nothing to me.

Yasuchika: — After all, I am THE prodigious Onmyōji!

The light focused between their hands.

Akihito: Well done.

Yasuchika: You too, Akihito-sama; for improvising on such a reckless plan.

Yasuchika: These powers normally wouldn’t merge with each other, but you made it possible to turn them into a new kind of power by cursing me.

Akihito: It feels good being praised by you.

Akihito: That said, your trust in me and non-resistance to my curse were crucial in leading to the success of our plan.

Yasuchika: Of course I have trust in you completely, Akihito-sama.

Akihito: — Well then, shall we finish this once and for all?

The ball of light burst and sent the surrounding undead flying before going on to engulf the Necromancer.

Yuno: Amazing…

Both the undead and the soldiers paused their fighting momentarily to stare in awe at the scene unfolding before their eyes.

After the light dispersed…

The Necromancer, dragging his body on the verge of collapsing, glared at the two men.

Necromancer: If I’m going to be defeated here… I’ll make sure to at least drag one of you down with me!

Several newly appeared undead emerged around the Necromancer.

Yasuchika: You don’t know when to give up, huh.

Yasuchika-san chanted something to activate another spell.

As though intending to take advantage of the opportunity, the Necromancer threw what appeared to be a dagger in Yasuchika-san’s direction.

Yuno: Watch out!

Yasuchika: …!

There was no way his Onmyō magic or special abilities would react in time.

In the moment I felt my stomach drop—

(Ah.)

Akihito-sama threw himself in front of Yasuchika-san, shielding him with his body.

Akihito: Ggh…

Akihito-sama took the dagger instead and fell to his knees.

Yasuchika: Akihito-sama…?

Yuno: A-are you alright?

Akihito: Just a scratch, it’s no big deal.

I ran over to Akihito-sama’s side.

His kimono was torn at the shoulder, revealing the wound caused by the dagger.

(The wound is indeed not deep enough to cause any serious problems. But in this condition…)

Akihito-sama’s breathing was laboured and he struggled to stand.

Yuno: Could the Hero’s Power be going out of control…?

Akihito: … It seems so. I can’t believe that out of all times, I’m rendered unable to move in a time like this.

Yasuchika: — How dare you injure Akihito-sama.

At the sound of Yasuchika-san’s chilling voice, I looked up to see him casting a spell towards the Necromancer.

The Necromancer didn’t even have the chance to cry out at his moment of death before turning into particles and disappearing into the wind.

Yasuchika: Yuno-san, let’s move Akihito-sama somewhere safe.

Yuno: Y-yes! If I’m not mistaken, there should be a small hut over there—

Undead: Kill both heroes!

Undead 2: Kill them…!

(Oh no, we must do something about the remaining undead…!)

The approaching undead were suddenly sent flying by a roaring bolt of lightning.

Ibuki: The soldiers and I will stall them until Shigehira arrives, he should be here soon.

Yuno: Ibuki…

Yasuchika: Akihito-sama, please hold onto me.

Akihito: Thanks. Sorry for the trouble.

Yasuchika: I should be the one apologising. Why did you shield me…?

Yasuchika: — Nevermind that. Most importantly, we should get you treated at once.

…

Yasuchika-san swallowed the words he wanted to say and carried Akihito-sama to a nearby hut with a pained expression.

Yasuchika: I have to leave to deal with the remaining undead.

Yasuchika: Just in case, I’ll station a few soldiers to stand guard outside the hut.

Yuno: Understood. You should be careful too, Yasuchika-san.

Yasuchika: I’ll be fine. More importantly—

Yasuchika-san looked at me with worried eyes.

Yasuchika: Please, I leave Akihito-sama in your care.

(Yasuchika-san… he must be feeling responsible for Akihito-sama’s injury.)

Wanting to give him even just a little bit of reassurance, I nodded firmly.

Yuno: It’s alright, I will. Please leave him to me.

[loquatenjoyer69]

Below are some ramblings about a panel from the Younger Cousin arc (chapters 113-116), so if you haven't read it and don't want to be spoiled (though I don't really discuss the plot), don't read this.

Okay I've been wanting to talk about this because ever since I read this it's been like circling like a record 'round the spindle of my mind, so to speak, lol. This is right after the bit that Joelle made a post about, which really sums up my thoughts about the mood of this entire exchange, pretty much. Especially "#THE. ABSOLUTE HANGDOGNESS. THE REFUSAL TO LOOK AT US [...] #'no i couldnt keep up my family's grudge against a family i also genuinely hate i didnt have the backbone u__________u'." But what really gets me about this particular line of Natori's is that he drops this right after having seemingly finished telling Natsume about his relationship to the Matoba clan. He's like "No, I don't have any beef with them now, I get job assignments from them even, etc etc. Well, now we've figured out the secret even though it took a while..." and then we get the above panel, which for me is a little difficult to translate naturally in English while still retaining the nuances which make it hit so hard to me, so I'll provide a very rough translation just so you can get the idea. The most surface level and clunky reading of what he's saying is basically

"Did you see something that seemed like this deserted house and the industry leader are opposed to each other?"

Obviously, he's talking about himself and the Matobas, but instead of saying it more directly, like 「私と的場一門」 ("me and the Matoba clan") or 「うちと的場一門」 ("me and the Matoba clan" but with a different pronoun that can refer to one's family), he uses さびれたうち to refer to himself and 業界最大手 to refer to the Matobas. 業界最大手 is pretty straightforward, it means the number one company in an industry basically. さびれたうち does mean abandoned or deserted house, but うち as you may have noticed can also be used as a first person pronoun (most commonly by women but it is used by men in certain situations, and both Matoba and Natori have used it). It refers to one's family or house, which is usually when Matoba and Natori will use it. When they're talking about their family or something like that, the text will read 的場 (Matoba) or 名取 (Natori) but the furigana will say うち. So here, Natori is using うち to refer to himself/the Natori family, but he's marking it as an abandoned house, in comparison to Matoba's industry leader.

Overall I guess this isn't the most deep or crazy thing ever, but something about the way he chose to say it like that, like "Did you see anything that made it seem like this abandoned house (me) and the industry leader (the Matobas) are in opposition?" really highlights his mindset to me. Even though he's still determined to make his own way as an exorcist, he's painfully aware of this power differential, and maybe he feels some shame or conflict about the fact that he relies on the Matobas; he couldn't keep up the feud if he wanted to. It's not possible.

He says it with his back turned, and it just comes out; it feels like it's been weighing on him, and before Natsume can even say anything, he apologizes and is like "sorry, that was a weird thing to say." It really does feel like he had been holding it in and it just slipped out.

[roboyomo]

the pinned post

finally making one!!

anyway hai helloo people i am roboyomo :] usually go by yomo (or robo but that's a rare one). i use he/him and masculine terms despite being agender

more info about my blog below the cut :)

current interests are:

#projmoon - Mostly lobcorp and ruina!! Probably one of my biggest interests at the moment,, adam and the fascinating worldbuilding could be some of the main reasons why

#pokemon - Still fairly new to pokemon, but nonetheless i still enjoy the games :) (even though i can only watch gameplays since i don’t have a nintendo ds. cruelty to me)

#yuppie psycho - Yuppie Psycho has been here with me for a long while, but It mostly stayed like a vague memory from a few years ago. Still, I absolutely enjoy the game and everything about it!! domori and rei sintra my beloveds,,

#utaite - A REALLY BIG utaite fan. literally 99% of the songs i listen are just utaite originals or utaite covers of vocaloid songs. (and only just a bit of actual vocaloid songs)

#ocs - LISTEN this may not qualify for an interest to some people. but it does to me. i love hearing about the little critters other people have created from their mind. and i love talking about my beasts. Basically hand over your beasts. i need to hold them like a dove it is urgent and of upmost importance

#studio investigrave - i. Did Not post about these games yet but i have a lot of art ideas for these games i love all of the current 5 games released urhfuwhrhwh,,,, biggest favorite out of the 5 is elevator hitch!!!!

#reverse 1999 - i am still fairly new to the game but i have been playing for like 3 something weeks by now and i fucking adore medpoc I LOVE YOU MEDPOC R1999 THEY COULD NEVER MAKE ME HATE YOU

I also have my own tags for this blog!!

#yomoposting : General posts and such. i use this to post mostly random stuff

#yomoart : my art tag!!! all of my sketches, drawings and illustrations are under this tag :]

#yomoasks : the tag for asks i receive! pretty straightforward

#yomo and his beloveds : i don’t use this tag as much,,, but generally i use this to tag posts that are centered around my most beloved/comfort characters!!

#yomo ocs?! : THE TAG FOR OC CRITTERS!!! Everything about them goes here - ranging from lore rambles to random joke stuff with them involved

and some character-specific tags!!

#adam the greatest : the tag for my most beloved adam lobcorp!! “all hail adam christ”, as i used to say. everyday i hold him like an injured bird because he is precious to me

#carmen the beloved : the tag for carmen projmoon :] i love carmie i hold her dear to my heart. which might be a bad idea considering what she does but i’m doing it anyway

#volo my bestfriend volo : the tag for volo from pokemon!!!! i adore him i love me some cool long-haired male characters with some very clear issues. and also with some religious motifs going on

#N the greatest : the tag for N (or Natural Harmonia Gropius) from pokemon!! i still need to get through the entirety of the story for pokemon bw and b2w2 but i love him nonetheless. cool green guy :]

i am also on Artfight!! My profile is here if you want to check it out :)

some additional stuff: i am an artist for as long as i can remember, i really really really like adam lobcorp, volo, carmen, cynthia, N and medpoc and i heavily obsess over characters that are just. long haired and have some sort of plan for the world and the humanity. <- and i do not mean “oh this is a good thing to do” NO they need call it a good deed but in reality it will absolutely ruin everything instead. plus i am also really obsessed with my own ocs and their lore so please please please ask about them i will happily ramble about my little critters. also please be careful with the things you say in my direction! i am. sensitive and i WILL be sad over what you have said about me.,,

my blog is welcome to everybody :] that is unless you are an asshole and/or a creep so please leave if you are anything like that. that being said, please do not make yaoi/yuri, fujoshi/fudanshi and himejoshi/himedanshi jokes on my blog! i am not comfortable with those terms exactly so please avoid using them in the comments or reblogs. thank you for your cooperation!!!

yea this post turned out to be a bit tooo long for my standards but who cares

[waterfallofspace]

If you are still doing these (I know you already got two), could you possibly do 💀🔔and 🪶for an MHA character of your choosing? Thank you in advanced ;D

Yes I am! (Sorry I took a little break to sleep haha~)

I picked D/abi, with heavy h/otwings plot. It also gets a lil smutty, so I hope that's alright!! (it just kinda happened~ nothing actually gets described other than kissing/teasing, no actual smut but still~ fair warning!)

It's still a lil 'off the top of my head' drabble~ (drabbles can be 1k right 😭)

💀 No warning, 🔔 Interruption, and 🪶 Deliberate for D/abi. (cw: Swearing, Kink!Hawks, and some Kink~Indulgence)

~~~~~

You’ll pay for this one Birdie. 

If Shigaraki was saying anything worth listening to, neither of them would know it. Instead, Hawks meets Dabi’s glare across the meeting room, flashing a smile in return. The feeling that nestles in Dabi’s gut is immediate. Oh, you’re so gonna pay for this… 

He can admit, half of it comes from his own hubris. Watching birdbrain squirm is too good to pass up, especially when they have actual business to attend to right after. Seeing the pale tint to his normally tan face, the pink dusting he can’t seem to shake. 

Oh, and of course, Dabi’s favourite part; watching Hawk’s tongue slip out between his lips as he attempts to calm his breathing. Ironic, seeing as Dabi’s the one being forced to violently expel air. Though, to his credit, Hawks isn’t exactly a silent participant, especially not by the end. 

Normally it would be a pleasant distraction from the dull thrum of a league meeting. After a good session, they’ll both be left exhausted, Dabi ready to doze off as Twice rambles on. Maybe a bit inconvenient when the topics actually matter, but Hawks will fill him in after. It’s the least he can do. 

“eh’GNKT-!” 

Except neither of them is paying attention today.

Before they’d left for the meeting they’d been indulging in their… usual activities, when Hawks had built up the nerve to pitch a particularly deviant request. Ever the tease, Dabi had agreed, one on condition. First one to cave and leave the meeting loses. Their usual bet applies, winner picks the next challenge. 

Dabi releases his nose with a sharp exhale, offering a halfhearted shrug as Toga elbows him in the ribs. They’d built up quite the collection of nonverbal cues to get away with talking during meetings. That particular interaction was pretty straightforward. ‘You okay?’ ‘Yeah, think so.’ 

It’s the truth, though not all of it. He may be okay, but a single glance across the table confirms Hawks is most definitely not. Catching his eye, Dabi smirks, lips parting for a breath. Hawks echos the movement, his chest falling nearly as uneven as Dabi’s.

“Are you even listening, Dabi? Of course he’s not listening, you’re so annoying! I am not!” 

At his name, Dabi lazily raises a hand to his nose before giving Twice a nod. “Was a little caught up in… somethin’. What was it you wanted?” 

“I was wondering if maybe you wouldn’t mind- Stop rambling and get to the point! I’m not rambling, I just- You need to recruit more people!” 

Hawks gives a light chuckle as Dabi cautiously lets his hand drop back to the table before speaking. “Last time I checked, I was the only one wh- gnKKT’uh-!” 

The hands free nature of the stifle lets a low breath escape at the end, Hawks matching it with a sharp inhale. Dabi lets his gaze wander back over, nose gripped between his fingers. He can feel the feather still trapped inside twitch, only managing to subdue the tickle as Hawks lets it fall still again. 

“Are you okay? No one cares! I care!” Twice rambles, oblivious to the struggle his fellow villain’s trapped in. 

With a measured glance at Shigaraki, who seems utterly uninterested, Dabi releases his nose again. “I’m fine. As I was saying, I haven’t seen any of you bringing in new mem- ah’KNDT-! hh’EKKT-!” 

The feather twirls again, each fibre seeming to trace its own pattern around his twitching nose. Which, given the bloodthirsty look Hawks is pointing his way, may just be the case. Clutching his nose tight enough to leave marks, Dabi gasps as the feather dives deeper.

“B- birdie… hN’CHH-! eNGKTT-! ehh! eH’RTSHHuh-!” The last one escapes his grip, the rush of air through his flaring nostrils sending chills down his spine.

There aren’t many times Dabi would refer to Hawks as a bird of prey, he prefers featherbrain or mother hen. But there’s no other way to describe the look in his eyes. Hawks is hunting. 

“Are you sure you’re alright?” Toga chimes in, leaning against her hands with a pout. “You sound sick.” 

“I’b dot- eKRSHHuh-! I’b dot… hH’RRTCHHoo-! Fugk…” Dabi pauses to swipe at his nose again. The shudder he feels run through the feather is parallel to the one leaving Hawks breathless.

Birdie can’t hold out for much longer. 

“hk’TZSHH- RRTSCH’oo-!” Not sure I can either.

With a smile showing all his teeth, Hawks gives the feather one final command. It twirls itself around, the tip running along the inside of Dabi’s nose, before tracing a small circle around his piercings. 

They’re sensitive enough from the outside, from the inside? He never stood a chance. Dabi snarls in response, his nostrils flaring as the tickle surges. Hawks responds with a barely contained whimper, teeth nearly drawing blood from the ferocity he bites his lip with. 

“Go- gonna… ARSHH’oo-! huhh! hh’rrzshh- rtzchh- akkRSHH’choo-!” 

As Dabi leans against the table, one hand clutched over his nose, the feather suddenly trembles. It doesn’t feel intentional, but it’s effective all the same. He catches Hawks giving him a look, before glancing down at his lips. He’s mouthing something. ‘Give up yet?’ 

With a smirk, Dabi pinches his nose again, nearly whining as the tickle increases tenfold at the touch. “nGKKT-! INGKT-! DKXNT-” 

Hawks finally speaks up, his normally playful tone decidedly raw. “You shouldn’t stop them like that, you’re just gonna-” 

“eH! AZSRHhhuh-! RRTSHH’uh-! HETCHHUE-!” With the final burst, Dabi hears a faint moan slip from Hawks’ lips. No one else seems to notice, they’re pretty consumed in some sort of argument. What it’s about is anyone’s guess. 

“knch’uh-! nxt’chuh-! arrsh’ngt-! hH’RSHXGT-!” Sucking in another breath, Dabi dips his head into his chest as the string of half-stifles leave him coughing. He won’t be the first to cave, he can take this, this is nothing, this is- oh. 

Across the table Hawks suddenly stands, knuckles pale as he grips the edge of his chair. Without a word, he slides towards Dabi, grabbing his arm and pulling him from the room. Shigaraki raises a word of protest, but soon redirects his attention to Twice as he begins another presentation. Their absence isn’t exactly uncommon nowadays. 

As they get to the hallway, Dabi slows his footing, giving Hawks a smirk as their panting synchronizes. “This mean you give up, Birdie?” 

The answer comes in the form of a kiss, Dabi finding himself pinned against the wall. He leans into it easily, matching the lust with a hunger of his own. 

Hawks breaks first, letting his mouth hang next to Dabi’s ear, each breath sending waves of heat down his neck. “You win.” 

“As expected,” Dabi responds, aiming to lean into another kiss. He’s stopped short by the feather sliding out of his nose. Despite the act being one of surrender, the sensation of it rubbing his skin still leaves him gasping. 

“hNCHH’uh-! RRSHH- ERSHH- EKTSHH’oo-! Shit, Hawks.” 

“Sorry hotstuff,” Hawks chuckles sheepishly, “Didn’t think that one through.” 

Dabi smirks, pulling Hawks back in for a kiss full of teeth and tongue. 

“You’ll pay for that one birdie.”

[suekreandtheidiots]

There was an "Incorrect OC quotes" generator hype going on on IG a while ago and, of course, I couldn't not. 😂 I only just remembered that I wanted to take one particular quote PLUS a story reply from my friend Teo aka @teo-s-art-corner as an opportunity to ramble about some of the teenage gang a bit. The boys, to be precise. 😂

(I don't care if I'm shouting into the void here, that timeline gives me so much life, teenagers are hilarious. 😂 I also enjoy the feeling that writing them gives me, but that's for a different conversation!)

ANYHOO. Let's go!

"Fozzy is the most straightforward."

Yep. In a way, he is. Lance is very straightforward, too, as in "not afraid to speak his mind", but Fozzy has the tendency to just blurt out with whatever comes to his mind, without thinking. Lance is a liiittle more mindful about the things he says. He doesn't exactly have a filter either, he is just more "collected" in his choice of words, while Fozzy is just... BLAH, regardless of how dumb he sounds. 😂 He always appears a little "simpler" than others but that isn't at all the case: Fozzy is really intelligent. So. much. more. than he ever appears. I'm not saying he has the same academic brain that Lance has, but he's actually really clever... and calculating, of all things. That's part of why his parents were so desperate about him squandering a huge chunk of his youth and falling for sex, drugs and rock'n'roll instead. They knew that their son was a hundred percent aware what he was getting himself into there, they knew he knew he had the potential to do better. He just didn't care, he wanted to go nuts. It drove his parents mad. There's a certain darkness to Fozzy (at least to his younger version), too, that is hard to put into words... but it's definitely there. But yeah... unfiltered madness, for sure. 🤣

"Cal is oddly specific in his choice to commit violence."

Alright, this was a super fun sentiment (thanks Teo, I'm cackling again 😂) but I gotta say here that Cal really isn't one to randomly commit violence. 😂 Still, I always imagined him to have this bit of... hilarious randomness about him? Which makes this fitting. He just says weird and funny things at times, he's a delightful person, blessed with the kind of wit that makes people laugh. (Something I see in Ali, too, by the way. Both Cal and Ali have a bit of a male Lorelai Gilmore vibe to them, if I HAD to give an example.) So, when Cal blurts out with something like the above, he usually really doesn't want to punch people in the neck, it's just something randomly creative that comes to his mind and that he feels like sharing. 😂

"Mark is very polite."

He is. Mark is, indeed, very polite. A little calmer than his peers, too. I know I talked a little about him before, but I'll say it again: Despite all the weird crap, Mark was the most "progressive" of the gang in their time. Feminism, racism, ableism... pretty much anything regarding social injustice he had a better, clearer grasp of than his friends. The "male ego" wasn't really a thing for him, he knew how to properly apologise when he did or said something wrong, he was usually the one to call out sexist remarks towards the girls that most other boys usually tried to brush off as "Come on, it was a joke!". He sure had his flaws but Mark was a bit of a walking green flag. 😂 Girls felt safe around him, without actually being able to point out why. I still don't know what he does for a living nowadays but I really kinda see him working as an equal opportunities commissioner of a company or something. I don't know yet but he still has it in him, and he only got better over time. There's a reason Aimee stuck by his side. She saw all of it early on!

"Lance is seeing the bigger picture."

True. Lance's brain often goes where others don't. He is a pretty dominant person, too. I hate the term alpha-male for it's extremely negative connotation, Lance is aboslutely not that person, but he really is a bit of a natural leader; he just takes charge without thinking too much of it. He has major problems with authority, too. 😂 Sooo, seeing the bigger picture is a thing for him, mainly because he thinks that he has to, to stay in charge and protect his peers, but wanting to assert dominance for the sake of asserting/maintaining dominance also kinda is a thing for him. 🤣 It's hard to explain. He's just such a handful and I love him to pieces. 🤣

"Tim is wondering why he's still hanging out with these guys."

... yeah. 😂 I mean, Tim totally appreciates the friends he picks and the fun times he has with them, but I think what I failed to express so far is that Tim isn't actually always super cute and easygoing. He isn't exactly the Voice of Reason. He's more like the one who watches the stupidity unfold and who laughs when someone gets burned. 🤣 He's friend material in his own way, he values loyalty and he's kindhearted, too. He's blunt as fuck, though, and easily annoyed, too, which has always been a thing for him, not just because those weirdos tested his patience all the time. I know next to nothing about D&D but I always kinda saw him as this extremely annoyed healer of an adventuring party who sure does what he's there to do, but who often hasn't a whole lot of empathy to offer on top of that, especially not when the stupid outcome could have easily been prevented. 🤣 "Ah, she called you out on your shit? Good!", "Oh man, you have a hangover? Really? Those 38 shots were a bit too much, you think? Pf, lol, told you so. *carelessly tosses a pack of aspirin*" ... Tim was willing to stick around for anyone for sympathy, but he never tried to make excuses for anybody. Which made it easy for him to walk out on Cal, Fozzy (and Mark) when they planned the stupid prank on Lance. Being blunt and honest is one thing. Deliberately planning to cause harm and hurt was another. It was neither about demonising Cal nor protecting/coddling Lance, the whole thing was just something he couldn't have lived with, so he did the best he could think of and backed out.

Some additional thoughts:

I never wanted to create this little group as a mix of stereotypes, liiike... there isn't the designated "Goofball" or the "Stupid One" or the "Brainy One" or whatever else role there is that could be filled, so pleasepleaseplease always take these kinda things with a wee grain of salt! 😂 One of the parts I enjoy most about my own worldbuilding is how I want everyone to be humans in first place. Humans who don't always do what people expect them to, who are capable to surprise others, who have off days and also dull moments.

It's also why I don't really like answering questions like "Who is the most (insert adjective)?" ... like, sure, there are characters who have traits that shine brighter than their other traits, and I do enjoy a wee brush of stereotype here and there, too, of course, but I usually don't really think in certain categories and I really love keeping things and interactions as natural as possible. I just want to see people as a whole person and that is how I always treat my OCs, too!

[birindale]

Etymology: She-Ra

What’s good, it’s time for another foray into etymology, this time featuring the resident magical alter ego, She-Ra! As you may have seen from my Larry Ditillio/Lou Scheimer quotes, the actual etymology is pretty straightforward--She, plus Ra. So we’ll cover that first, then move into homophones and proposed alternative etymologies (largely by people who didn’t know about the actual one).

Section One: She

‘She’, of course, is a third person pronoun in English, here the feminine counterpart to the masculine ‘he’ of He-Man. I’m reasonably confident y’all are familiar with the idea of personal pronouns, given we’re on Tumblr, so we’re just gonna jump right in here.

From Middle English sche <ʃeː> (~’shay’), though it could be rendered scho and ȝho (both pronounced ~‘show’) before we killed the yogh. Luckily for us, in ȝho it’s just pronounced like ‘sh’. 

Don’t let the sch fool you, the c in sch was often silent in Middle English. How exactly we arrived at sche, though, is a matter of some debate. This paper summarizes most of the proposals, which has saved you all about eight paragraphs of me rambling about phonemes.

Regardless of its derivation, the vowel situation in ‘she’ is pretty weird--I’m assuming like half of you are familiar with the Great Vowel Shift, but for those that aren’t, the 15th to 18th centuries saw a.... well, great shift in vowels. It’s why so many of our words are spelled so fucked up; one day our long vowels just did an electric slide to the right & suddenly bite was pronounced like byte instead of beet. But one would expect the “e” in sche to unravel into an “o:”, not the “i:” sound we wound up with. It could be the influence of ‘he’, which would be convenient for us, looking at the word as a counterpart to the ‘He’ in He-Man, but historical phonology is a tricky beast. And it could just be an outlier--commonly used words have a tendency to mutate faster. 

I think that’s enough about vowels, though. Moving on!

Section Two: Ra

Ra. Good old Ra. God of the sun, the sky, order, kings. Ruler of all three realms, sky earth and underworld. Creator of all life (sometimes). Kind of a big deal.

Not to pat Larry Ditillio on the back too hard here but it was a great choice, phonetically and theologically. There’s even a precedence for using his name as half of a compound, as with Amun-Ra, the New Kingdom’s fusion with Amun. There’s his association with the falcon, shared in MOTU by the god Zoar (and the Sorceress), but he was also usually depicted with the head of a ram in the underworld. And I mean. Skeletor’s Havoc Staff is literally a ram skull, is all I’m saying. Like Ra is a pretty incredible option, here.

A little more Egyptology, because the coincidences don’t stop there. Ra had three daughters, and since this is appending Ra to “She” and they’re all--as the “eye of Ra”--sometimes considered feminine aspects of Ra, I think it’s relevant. And funny, because all three were depicted as cats at one point or another & Catra is right there.

Hathor was goddess of the sky, the sun, music, dance, joy, sexuality, beauty, love, motherhood, queenship, fate, foreign lands and goods, the afterlife, and more! This is a bonkers number of things to be god of, but I don’t think it was ever all at once. Most consistently, she was the embodiment of the Ancient Egyptian perception of femininity. As women’s role in society changed, so did Hathor’s role in the pantheon--for good or ill. 

Bastet & Sekhmet are a little more focused. Originally, they were both fearsome warriors, protectors of Egypt & specifically of the pharaoh, but over time Bastet became a gentler take on protection, often with a maternal slant as she became more associated with the house cat than the lion.

Sekhmet on the other hand was (and always would be) literally bloodthirsty. She could breathe fire, cause plagues, and almost destroyed the world once! But she was also a goddess of healing, called upon to ward off illness & injury, patron of healers and physicians alike. [holds up a picture of She-Ra] 🤌 It’s about the duality.

Alright, onto the etymology. ‘Ra’ is pretty straightforward, it’s just how we most commonly transliterate the rꜥ hieroglyphs (though he is often called Re) & Demotic script.

So there are three kinds of hieroglyph, right? Phonetic, like a letter in English, logographic, like a morpheme in written Chinese (which is typically logosyllabic but bear with me here), and determinative, to disambiguate meaning between homophones.

D21, the mouth, provides the ‘r’ sound, as a phonetic hieroglyph. As a logogram it could mean ‘to turn the other way’, but we’re just after the sound here.

D36, the forearm (palm upwards), gives us the ‘ ꜥ ‘, which is... okay, hieroglyphics were an abjad, right? There were no written vowels, you just spoke them. But ꜥ, ayin, was a voiced pharyngeal fricative, which is basically a semivowel (like the Y in English ‘yes’ or the W in ‘west’), which is why its use here can be spelled either ‘Ra’ or ‘Re’, because it’s not representing a distinct vowel sound. One of its descendants, ע, is usually rendered as a glottal stop in Modern Hebrew (or omitted entirely), but another descendant is the English letter O, through the Phoenician ayin. We can’t pronounce the ancient Egyptian ayin based on its derivatives, but we can take historical cues from them.

A glottal stop (like the break in uh-oh) is abrupt, right? Ayin is more like... a glide. A pause. When people make an “I don’t know” sound, that’s the sort of sound. This video is as close as most native English speakers will be able to approximate.

But I digress. We’re only halfway through! Those were the phonetic hieroglyphs, but there are other words pronounced rꜥ, so there are some logograms to help us narrow it down. Unsurprisingly, first is N5, the sun, followed by a Z1, (the numeral one), which indicates that the previous glyph is an ideogram--it’s like a one-character version of “←literally”. Now, by themselves those four glyphs could still just mean ‘the sun’, so to specify that it’s the god being spoken of, in come our determinatives.

This could be either C1, C2, C2A, C2B, or C2C. All depict a god wearing a sun-disk on his head. The C2s are all falcon-headed, and C1, while human, has an uraeus (the little rearing cobra you see on pharaohs’ headdresses and crowns) to emphasize divine authority. Some spellings outside the Unicode standard mix and match accessories, or omit the phonetic hieroglyphs entirely to rely solely on the determinatives. Generally, if you see a god with the sun on its head, it’s either Ra himself or invoking/referencing him (which was done frequently in pharaohs’ names).

Okay. Switching gears.

So hieroglyphs are kind of a bitch to write out, right? You don’t want to take the time to draw a whole little guy when you’re just making a list of supplies or something. So they invented this shit called hieratics that was basically cursive hieroglyphics, which eventually became the Demotic script! Ra was written G7-Z5-N5, (still rꜥ), or pꜣrꜥ (conventionally pronounced pa-re), with the pꜣ functioning as a demonstrative determiner to indicate that yes, they mean the god.

Section Three: Homophones

Those of you who have tried to google ‘She-Ra bible’ may be familiar with Sheera of Chronicles 1 7:24. Chronicles is the last book (split into 2 for Christian bible) of the Tanakh, wrapping up the Ketuvim with a genealogy and history of Judah & Israel. To oversimplify: David, Solomon, Babylonian exile, Cyrus the Great swoops in and lets everyone back in & okays the building of the Second Temple around 539 BCE. Only non-Jewish messiah in the Tanakh, and relevant here because the Ancient Greeks thought his name meant ‘Sun’, from Persian خور, ‘xʷaɾ‘. It’s also been translated as hero, humiliator of enemies, youth/young, and one who bestows care. It is almost certainly unrelated to C’yra (of D’riluth III), but the possibility remains until Scott answers my fucking email.

Anyway, Sheera/h. שארה‎ (שֶׁאֱרָ֔ה, with niqqud). That ה (funnily enough, named he) is a suffix indicating a singular feminine noun, which has been applied to שאר‎, sh-’-r (or sh-a-r, depending on how you render the aleph. I used an A in my post on Adora with אדור but it feels weird as a infix, especially given what I did with the ayin in section 2). Let’s take a look at its definitions:

Sha’ar means to remain, to be a remnant, and its derived nouns she’ar and she’erit mean remains, residue, etc. In the Tanakh it refers almost exclusively to survivors, people or things left behind when everyone/thing else has died, often violently. Noah & his passengers on the Ark after the flood, Lot & his daughters after Sodom and Gomorrah--did y’all know the town they went to after was called Zoar? The aforementioned falcon god in He-Man? It’s a coincidence but what the fuck. Naomi and her sons in Ruth 1:3, then just Naomi in 1:5. Oh, and she renamed herself Mara like ten lines after that. Shit like this just kept happening, I had to stop looking at examples bc it was freaking me out.

She’er, meanwhile, means flesh, both in terms of flesh for consumption & one’s flesh and blood. It can also mean physical power (Psalm 78:20), but I for one assumed that shit was metaphorical. On the other hand, who am I to deny another fun little parallel with our Princess of Power? A lot of people prefer this for the underlying meaning of Sheerah’s name, since she’s explicitly someone’s daughter & it could just be like “(singular feminine) kin”. But I think that’s boring (even if the prospect of like, “Fleshella” or some shit is both objectively hilarious and kind of in line with MOTU names) and a little unremarkable to name three cities for. Did I forget to mention they built three cities named after Sheerah? #girlboss

Last of the שאר is she’or, meaning leaven (the noun, not the verb). In Modern Hebrew it’s more often spelled שאור, with a waw added in to disambiguate the pronunciation.

Onto some other homonyms, bc that was technically just one!

Shir, an anglicization of شیر, Classical & Iranian Persian for ‘lion’, one of the plurals for which is شیرها‎ (šir-hâ), which admittedly is more like “sheer-ha” but say it out loud before you judge me for its inclusion here, huh? The singular’s also part of شیرزن‎ (širzan, “heroine”). 

There’s Macedonian and Serbo-Croation шира/šira , "must" (fermented/ing juice, not necessity).

Cira, which is Sicilian for “wax”.

شيرة and شْيَرَة, Hijazi and Gulf Arabic (respectively) for syrup, from Persian شیره‎. There’s a lot of Persian origins here huh. Shame Purrsia isn’t canon, could’ve had a field day. 

Okay one more in Hebrew. Shira/h, שירה, is poetry, verse, singing. In Modern Hebrew shir is a song and shirah is a poem, but that distinction didn’t always exist. The other derivatives of the שׁ-י-ר stem are all related to this. You’ll note that the second letter is a yodh, not an aleph as in the above שארה‎, whose stem was שאר. There’s like a 99% chance that Larry Ditillio’s niece Shirah’s name is derived from this.

Section Four: Shit I’ve Seen People Claim it Means

Most understandably, I’ve seen people claiming they just stuck an S on the rejected name “Hera” and broke it in two to mirror He-Man. So just to cover our bases, Ἥρα (Hera) is of uncertain derivation. Potentially a feminine form of ἥρως (hḗrōs) or related to ὥρα (hṓra)--the former being the ancestor of our word hero, in epics specifically heroes of the Trojan War, but generally humans or demigods venerated at local shrines. The latter refers primarily to time--hours, years, seasons--and youth. The youth reading is supported by the Roman name for her, Juno, which is also of uncertain derivation, but one of those likens it to iuvenis, young (like the juve in rejuvenate).

Asherah the ‘mother goddess’. I admit I wasn’t expecting this one. Asherah (the spelling I’ll be sticking to for consistency’s sake) was, admittedly, kind of a big deal in the ancient Levant. In the interest of not going full theology essay while I’m trying to talk about names, suffice to say she was the consort of the king of the gods (El, Elkunirsa, Yahweh, ‘Amm, Baal, etc.) in quite a few religions, some of which have dropped the polytheism thing & Asherah along with it. (The others are dead).

It’s written אשרה in Hebrew, so roughly ‘sh-r-’ if I’m sticking to my aleph conventions. She was also called Athirat in Ugaritic, an extinct Semitic language ( 𐎀𐎘𐎗𐎚, ʾAṯirat), though before 1200 BCE she was almost always referred to with her full title, 𐎗𐎁𐎚 𐎀𐎘𐎗𐎚 𐎊𐎎, rbt ʾṯrt ym. This is another abjad so we gotta adlib our vowels, but most people go with rabītu, for ‘lady’. The ym could refer either to her son, Yam, or the sea which he was the embodiment of, but the middle bit is tricky. It’s her name (that Athirat), but some people think it’s derived from the Ugaritic ʾaṯr for ‘to stride’, so her full title could be translated as Lady Athirat of the Sea, Lady who walks on Yam/the Sea Dragon/Tyre (the city). However, a more recent translation derives it from the root y-w-m, ‘day’, which would make her Lady Asherah of the Day/s (or even just Lady Day).

Another epithet was qnyt ʾilm ( 𐎖𐎐𐎊𐎚 𐎛𐎍𐎎), variously ‘creatress of the gods’ (page 58), used in the Baal Cycles recovered from Ugarit. Since it’s a port city, her association with the sea was emphasized, and in this version she had 70 sons (though the Hittites claim 77 or 88).

She’s also called ʾElat, 'goddess' (from El, as in names like Michael or Gabriel), and Qodeš, 'holiness', from q-d-š, which makes some people equate her with the Egyptian goddess Qetesh, which is pretty flimsy but funny here because guess who she’s associated with? (It’s Ra. She’s also sometimes depicted as a lion/with Hathor’s wig. It’s a small ancient world after all)

Asherah & her iconography are mentioned 40 times in the Tanakh, but that’s cut way down in most English translations, where ʾăšērâ was almost entirely translated as ἄλσος/ἄλση (grove/s) in Greek, except for Isaiah 17:8; 27:9, where it's δένδρα (trees) and 2 Chronicles 15:16; 24:18, where it's Ἀστάρτη--Astarte, a goddess of war, sexuality, royal power, healing, and hunting more associated with Ishtar than Asherah. Possible consort of Baal so almost certainly not actually Asherah. She did turn up in Egypt in the 18th dynasty as a daughter of either Ra or Ptah (Bastet’s consort), though, which is fun for me.

Asherah's very associated with trees though, so it does make sense they’d translate it to groves/trees. Found under trees in 1 Kings 14:23; 2 Kings 17:10, carved from wood by people 1 Kings 14:15, 2 Kings 16:3–4--there in reference to poles made for her worship, also called “asherah”. The Mishnah defines an asherah first as any tree under which there’s an idol, then specifically as any tree which is itself worshipped.

It lists associated plants: grapes, pomegranates, and walnut shells (invalid to eat or drink if from an asherah), and that myrtles, willows, and etrogs (but not dates?) were invalidated for Sukkot if from an asherah. I think the implication is pretty much any plant with a use can’t be utilized if it was an asherah, but there’s no like, description of what an asherah is or isn’t (except not allowed, which like, fair).

Regardless, to relate it to She-Ra is like... like you can’t just say that, man. The Da Vinci Code of fandom over here, except I’m personally upset about the false etymology instead of the disrespect to my boy Leonardo (da Vinci isn’t a name), and it pisses off every Abrahamic religion and like half of all neopagans. Are you happy? Now this whole section is blasphemous and heretical.

Let’s end this on a sillier note, shall we? It’s time to talk about questionable MOTUC decisions again.

No one sincerely suggested these for our world, but MOTUC established “the sword of He” as the ‘real name’ of He-Man’s sword, and it was later clarified that ‘He’ is the Ancient Trollan word for ‘power’... which, as you can imagine, led to a lot of confusion. It was never established if ‘Man’ is also Trollan, so the apparent translation is Power-Man (leading one forum user to jokingly ask if that made She-Ra ‘Iron-Fist’, after the Marvel duo). Naturally, people have speculated about possible translations for She-Ra, but the guy responsible for the Sword of He stuff left the company in 2014, so it’s likely to remain speculation.

Primarily people suggest ‘She’ might mean ‘protection’ or even ‘honor’, but very few people try to account for ‘Ra’. Most likely because it doesn’t mirror an English pronoun, so there’s little point in drawing parallels. The one and only theory I’ve seen is that it’s a feminine version of ‘Ro’, from He-Ro (a historical figure in MOTU), but it’s logically fraught, imo. Although frankly so is the Sword of He to begin with, so maybe I should just relax for once.

What do you think? What does She-Ra mean to you?

[ufonaut]

Not to treat you like an expert on comic books but, what do you think of the Ominous Chalkboard Ramblings from flashpoint beyond #0? Idk what half of it means but… Geoffy’s little hints gotta mean smth for his other ongoings

i'd love to be treated like a comic book expert, god knows i try to read enough to warrant it! i think a lot of the chalkboard is pretty straightforward so let's take a look at it:

(our first glimpse, in flashpoint beyond 2022 #0)

(first time seen in full, in flashpoint beyond #5)

5G averted -> the 5G initiative, or generation five, was a rumoured reboot of the dc universe that had been set up all the way back in doomsday clock 2017 and then unceremoniously cancelled between dan didio jumping ship and the pandemic delaying books & thus putting the fear of low sales in publishers' hearts. what we have left of 5G is wonder woman #750 (which is narrated by alan scott while attending the 1939 world's fair), the flash #750, detective comics #1027, generations: shattered #1, generations: forged #1 and supposedly future state. the purpose of this potential reboot had been to unite all eras of the dcu and make sense of it all over again like zero hour: crisis in time had back in 1994. instead, we got the soft reboot that is infinite frontier 2020 and the current time-related arc starting from the new golden age 2022 #1 because geoff is clearly still set on the generations/legacy aspect (and thank god he is!).

must travel beyond omniverse etc -> this one's less clear but i'd guess it's related to dark crisis 2022 and the return of the infinite earths, we've got an upcoming tie-in (dark crisis: big bang) dealing with precisely this. geoff explains the omniverse and hypertime better than i ever could right here:

(flashpoint beyond #5)

the true black adam will show no mercy -> i think the answers to this one may be found within the pages of christopher priest's black adam 2022 miniseries but unfortunately i don't keep up with that one. something to do with malik white surely?

fall of justice league/rise of legacy league -> one again dark crisis related. when flashpoint beyond first came out we were very much still in the very early stages of crisis, it stands to reason that the legacy league is referring to the generation of heroes currently at the forefront of the action (jon, yara, dick & damian, etc) after the death of the justice league in justice league #75 last summer.

why is deathstroke not acting like deathstroke? -> again early dark crisis, the fact that slade hadn't been using his usual methods is a topic of discussion more than once in the first couple issues. the answer is that he's been possessed/infected by the great darkness and he's under pariah's control!

the legions of four worlds/remember earth-3/warn earth-247 -> i suspect this one's something to keep an eye on for future developments but the original legion of super-heroes was wiped out during the continuity reboots in zero hour, giving rise to a different legion until infinite crisis 2005 when a third incarnation appeared, which means up to now we technically have the legions of three worlds -- a fourth may very well be the one seen in the new golden age #1, which showed a future justice society in the 30th century but that's an educated guess at best. worth noting here is that remembering earth-3 is likely referring to remembering its destruction during crisis on infinite earths 1985 and earth-247 (named as such in infinite crisis) refers to the post-zero hour future earth of the second legion of super-heroes incarnation.

the great darkness wants nothing -> very much true, dark crisis: the deadly green 2022 #1 reveals the great darkness to be infected by pariah's madness and grief and having no motive of its own.

beware: he'll find his son do not interfere -> this one's anyone's guess since it's kept purposely vague. one of my theories is that it may refer to the stranger seen haunting helena in the new golden age being per degaton's son to keep in line with the lost children theme, otherwise i can't think of any character currently looking for his son (flashpoint thomas has already found his son after all, while a few others -- jay garrick, roy harper -- are looking for daughters). another possibility is doctor manhattan's son from doomsday clock as he's briefly seen in the new golden age.

his daughter will rejoin the justice society to save it -> helena wayne! the new golden age and the upcoming jsa ongoing both reveal that someone's been interfering with the justice society's timeline across the ages and helena's on a quest to save the jsa, the use of 'rejoin' makes it especially obvious since she hasn't been a part of the team since all-star comics 1976.

thomas wayne will die -> flashpoint thomas wayne was going to die as rip hunter makes it abundantly clear in flashpoint beyond #6 but bruce's gambit paid off and thomas came to accept a world without his son.

who's hunting the time masters? -> the leading question in, again, the new golden age. my guess is per degaton or a possible son (see above) with access to his time-travel tech.

and that's all, folks! i hope this answered some questions and helped a little :)

[kimium]

Hi friend💜 I would love to hear something happy today, do you have any favourite ships or cute fic ideas you want to ramble about right now?💜💜

Love you tons

Aw, thanks friend! Thanks for the ask! I love your questions and I'm going to answer both parts. Please note I will have massive spoilers for everything. This is also long, so it's under a cut.

Let's start with my favourite ships!

Favourite ships

I have many ships but I want to talk about some I haven't talked about lots.

Fai/Kurogane (Tsubasa)

Where do I even begin with this ship? From moment one these two were set up as character foils. Fai's design is light, airy, and full of whites and blues. He's tall, lean, and built like a dancer. He smiles a lot, is friendly, and enjoys light teasing. There is an elegance to him, almost as if he's a breeze personified and equally as difficult to catch.

Kurogane's design is heavier, grounded, and full of blacks and reds. He's muscular, built, and moves like a lion: graceful but full of power and strength. He scowls, comes off as prickly, and hates teasing. He's the quiet but brutal strength of a hunter taking down its prey.

This is where CLAMP could have stopped, really. This is a clear blue/red ship. But they didn't. Instead they went the extra steps to completely and utterly separate Fai and Kurogane's ideals, morals, philosophies, and perspectives on life. And see, that's what utterly rips my soul apart regarding these two as a ship: they both complete and utterly destroy one another.

I will never, ever forget the moment when Yuuko reveals the cost of Kurogane's wish to save Fai. The dead, cold look Fai gives Kurogane before showing the reader, for the first time, the hollowness of his smile. Then, the line, "Good morning, Kurogane" absolutely destroys me. With a single line of dialogue, CLAMP showed how their relationship will never be the same again. Their dynamic haunts me even years after finishing reading the series.

Tohru/Kyo (Fruits Basket)

First, Fruits Basket is my favourite shoujo series of all time. If I was asked, I'd go on a full rant about the entire series.

Anyways, Tohru/Kyo is a ship I love with all my heart and soul because of one core message it presents: No one can entirely fix you, some of the work has to be your own. Both Tohru and Kyo come with so much baggage they're practically a cargo ship before the series even starts. Yet, through the series neither Tohru and Kyo entirely "fix" one another. They support, listen, and care for one another, but there is never the message "I will fix you" presented. Both Tohru and Kyo have issues they need to work out on their own and problems they both ignored until they couldn't any longer.

And none of the solutions were presented as "I need the other to save me". Rather, the solutions are "You helped me find the courage to face this problem and while I am scared, I will do it. After, I know you will be there to continue supporting me".

This is why they are such a great ship and why this series is one of my favourites.

Haruka/Michiru AKA Sailor Uranus/Sailor Neptune (Sailor Moon)

There are a lot of reasons why I like this ship. To start, even as a child I -knew- something was up and they were NOT cousins. Next, they're a power couple. That episode in the original anime where they go to that "couple's" competition and effortlessly win? They're not just in love, they're basically soulmates.

However, I think I'll sum up why this is one of my favourite ships with one line "Oh, it seems you misunderstood... a world without Haruka isn't worth saving".

Look, this was the 90s. "Good" and "Bad" characters were usually pretty straightforward. This line here though? That's one of the most morally ambiguous lines from a character that's supposed to be "good" in any series I've watched. Neptune (Michiru) would rather watch the world burn than to lose Haruka (Uranus). That's Homura's "I'm going to make the world burn and people die just so I can have Madoka with me" Devil mode that didn't come out until 2011. Sailor Moon threw this absolute BANGER of a line in (I believe) season 5 which aired in 1996.

Cute Fic Ideas

I don't have too many "cute" ideas, but here are a few:

-I want to write a Twisted Wonderland fic where the staff of NRC dote on Yuu.

-Maybe a very soft Yuu/Everyone fic? Not too sure since I don't want to write a heavy "shipping" fic with Yuu.

-An actual good timeline Shouichi fic. I know, it's shocking. I want to write another Outsider POV fic or a very confused Shouichi being dragged clothing shopping by Kikyo.

-There is some sort of follow up to my Kitsune!Komaeda marries ordinary Hajime fic that I should probably write. Maybe touching on Munakata's offer of immortality. Really, this entire series is one you think I'm done and then I surprise everyone.

And uh... that's it. Sorry, I can't think of more, though there probably are more. I have ideas but they don't fit the "cute" category... (and one of those is a Shouichi fic. I'm sorry...)