#they are both DYNAMIC and COMPLICATED characters

[waspredteeth]

regarding Chris and Damian as foils... I'm always peeved when some people minimize what could be interesting about their relationship to "a child who only values his biological family and hates his adoptive family vs a child who renounces his bio family and embraces an adoptive family." This brief summary/discussion always tends to boil down to Damian is an evil child who must learn to appreciate his adoptive siblings from Chris, who's a perfect boy who loves his adoptive parents and hates his abusive bio parents. When really, that screws both of their characters.

Damian has a complicated relationship to say the least with Bruce and Talia, but neither of them taught him that blood is everything. When written well, Bruce should be stressed and neglectful but deeply loving and Talia shouldn't be an abuser but a sorrowful mother who wasn't able to give him a free life that she wanted for herself.

I should stress that the "blood son" rhetoric that pops up around Damian existed only in his first appearance and the animated movies. In pretty much all of the comics afterwards, Damian was disparaging of Dick, Tim and Cassandra, but he didn't point out his "biological superiority" unless it was specifically in service to Tim's own storylines. His character evolved from an annoying brat that exists to challenge Bruce and Tim for a couple issues to a full child character whose insecurity within a family leads to him lashing out at everyone he deems closer to Bruce than he could ever be. Moving on to Chris Kent, his entire first storyline revolves around building a relationship with Clark and Lois and finding the resolve to fight back against Zod and Ursa. In the end he makes the sacrifice to return to the Phantom Zone in order to ensure that his bio parents can't return to Earth. But in the end, he's just a kid. He struggled with fitting in on Earth. Unlike Clark, he didn't understand why he had to hide his powers. Had he not been sent back to the Phantom Zone to wrap up the story arc, I would've really liked to see Chris struggle with pretending to be a human kid after so long being taught the opposite by his bio parents. Later on when Chris reappears aged-up (deja vu) he's still pretty much the same character but notably more cocky and impulsive to contrast against Thara Ak-Var.

Damian and Chris's potential interactions should be preceded on how similar they are - not on how superior Chris is because he's a loving kid, and Damian is too traumatized to express the same kind of trust and affection that people expect from child characters. Besides, they have entirely different situations. Damian is a child suddenly being dropped into a large and well established family with complicated inner dynamics and rituals, while Chris is a child being brought into a small and simple family structure consisting of Clark/Lois, Kara and Clark's parents. (Pointing out here that Jon didn't exist and Kon-El was killed in Infinite Crisis months prior to Chris's appearance). Chris's bio parents are cut and dry neglectful and abusive, and Damian's parents are a complicated jumble of neglect, ooc abuse, angst, and love. Damian had to contend with the frankly insane plots and history of all the Bat-characters while Chris was confined to one plot line in a fairly consistent Superman run. I don't think I have to spell out how mentally unstable and grief-stricken a lot of the Bats were when Damian became Robin versus the relatively normal lives of Ma, Pa, Clark and Lois when Chris showed up. When exploring what their interaction could've been, I think Damian would one-sidedly hate Chris, who would try to avoid him. Damian would resent Chris for being everything he isn't: a child whose flaws are accepted and embraced, a child with a complete loving family and support, and a child that allowed to be a child. Chris probably wouldn't like Damian at first for being Robin when he got used to Tim being Robin, and he'd be discouraged at how snappy and anti-social Damian is. He's a kind child, but he's not a saint. Chris would have the usual child hang-ups about interacting with mean kids and socializing outside his family. They'd accept each other the way that they are, but I don't think they'd become friends until Damian matures and Chris acclimates to human society as his own individual. Maybe eventually they grow to trust/confide in each other like Bruce and Clark - but until then it'd probably a lot of Damian making rude comments and Chris going :/

[gffa]

Since you’re a DickBabs shipper,

What are your thoughts on Nightwing Annual #2 from 2006/2007 besides its more…infamous moments?

I merely ask out of curiosity

Hi! It'd been forever since I read that issue (probably not since around when it first came out!), so I had to go hunt it down again to reread and I have Thoughts. As an explanation about me, as a DickBabs shipper and just a fan of things in general, I tend to really like things that I see as having a solid foundation but lots of fun, crunchy sharp edges that can really hurt when they're dug into. I very much love adorable wholesome moments for them, but I also very much love when they're so far under each others' skins that it makes them do really wild, sometimes awful things. But I think the cheating thing is just fundamentally out of character for Dick. I think I see what the author was going for, in that it came across as Dick feeling desperately guilty that he wasn't there for Babs after she was shot, that he would have done anything to comfort her when she needed it, this person who has always been so strong, and because this is Barbara Gordon, the woman he's loved for so long and would throw just about any moral out the window for her, because she's so deep into his heart. Reading the whole issue, where Babs turns down his marriage proposal because she believes he's living too much for other people, he hasn't really defined who he himself is (and that's why she hopes he goes in the trip with Bruce and Tim, not something as Nightwing for Batman, but as Dick Grayson with his family), that that night was part of what the author was going for, that their take on Dick was that he would do anything to help others, anything to help her, including stomping all over his own personal morals and boundaries. But even squinting to see it through that lens, I just don't really buy it. I don't buy that Dick would cheat on Kory like that, not when he was about to marry her, not even for Babs. And I really do not buy that he would give her the wedding invitation so casually like that the next morning, that guy has way more emotional intelligence than that. I enjoyed most of the annual, because I really like Dick and Babs running the gamut of their dynamic with each other, that sometimes they're in a really good place and are cutely adorable and so fluffy that it makes everyone around them want to vomit, and other times they've both got all the these really sharp edges that make each other even more interesting, that they're fun to read about because they have conflict and I think they both really want/need that sometimes in their relationship, someone who can bite back when necessary. The annual provided a lot of good fodder in how complicated they are, how there's all these roadblocks put between them, that there's been unresolved tension between them forever, there's been feelings between them forever, but they just weren't the right time yet, there was too much else going on around them, that it's not a lack of love for the other or that they don't fit, but that it just wasn't lined up for them yet.

I like that Dick and Babs are so deeply entwined in each others' hearts that they can really hurt each other and with these characters, who are very much not perfect people, who indeed are both sometimes kind of real assholes, that's going to happen. They're going to say nasty things to each other, because they're both strong personalities and both kind of fucked up at times. It's similar to how I enjoy Dick's relationship with Bruce, one of the most defining ones of his life, a relationship that is deeply imperfect, but all the more valuable for it. Sometimes Dick and Bruce are horrible to each other, but it only highlights how much deeper down the love goes, how important they are to each other, because even this horrible fight can't truly break them apart, not long term. That's a lot of how I look at the Dick/Babs relationship, in a sense! Sometimes you have warm, happy months in the sun. Sometimes you have tearing into each other level of fighting. Sometimes they both just need a little space. Sometimes there's an issue the other needs to get their head on straight about and the other knows they're important enough to say, hey, you gotta deal with that and stand firm on it. But they always, always love each other and always, always come back to each other. Dick/Babs works for me in part because they have been through so much crunchy stuff together, but also so much good stuff together. Because they know each other so thoroughly--Babs knows that sometimes what Dick needs is a drill sargeant, rather than someone gently holding his hand, like she does for him in this annual. Sometimes he needs someone who will be the one to put on the breaks because he's not always good at that when it's someone he loves. Dick knows that sometimes Babs needs someone to lovingly call her out on the boundaries she's really willing to cross when it comes to dealing with people. The best parts of this annual are the ones that capture the sense of scope about them, the hard edges they both have and how sometimes they enjoy getting a little mean with each other, because there's a lot of dark corners to both of them. They're both deeply loving, kind, caring people, but they're also both Bats, they're both not always nice people, that they're both a little fucked up in how they relate to other people, but that they challenge each other, they push each other, they shove and kick each other, into getting their shit in gear. Babs being the one to help Dick with his physical therapy and recovery after everything worked well because she was kicking him out of his self-pity and guilt spirals, she was kicking him out of going right back to living for doing everything for everyone else, and instead taking some time to figure himself out. When the annual worked, it worked because Babs loves him so much that she knows him well enough to kick him into gear and she's right. And it's fun because she's not always the softest about it--she can be very soft and gentle, but Miss Barbara Gordon is also always willing to kick someone in the ass if she thinks they need it and she will not be sorry about it. And when it doesn't work, it's just. Sigh. Sometimes comics are dumb and we have to make our peace with that.

[slightlycomicobsessed]

i need more people to talk about Cass & Shiva bc their relationship is so Interesting. Cass supposedly hates her but can’t really. Shiva loves Cass but doesn’t know how to express it. It’s such a fucked up and complex dynamic that NO ONE EXPLORES in favour of ‘ooo scary evil assassin parent’

[doortotomorrow]

RAVEN + CLARKE - "Hey, Raven? I'd pick you first."

[kingofthegophers]

Becoming very interested in their dynamic...

[artheresy]

My dynamic for Dan Feng & Yingxing

Hi hello, I said I would finally post this after long debating over if I show it here first or in my fic first, but fuck it. That’s a long ways away and I need to rant about them because they take up too much space in my brain.

So this post, isn’t me claiming that this is the canon dynamic between Dan Feng and Yingxing or that this is the only right one or whatever. This is purely my own view of what I think their dynamic would be based upon how I see their individual characters with the little bits and crumbs we’ve been given so far in HSR. I can’t go over every single aspect of them here because I just purely can’t think of every single thing so this is primarily going to be talking about the fundamental key parts of my interpretation of their dynamic! If that makes sense, I’ll hop right in

Be warned, this is pretty fucking long, I think so much about them it actually hurts me physically, like it’s painful. This is me just letting my autism run while talking about two of my favorites, so be cautious… sorry in advance if some areas turn into tangents, again I think about them so much its actually too much I think about them too much

AGAIN, THIS IS MY VIEW OF THEM!! Based on the characterization we have so far which isn’t a whole bunch, this is my interpretation of their relationship based on how I view the bits of characterization we have and what we know about them

—

Okay so one of the biggest and most fundamental parts that influences how I view their dynamic and the course of their relationship is looking at how exactly and why exactly I think they became close. Jingliu in her companion quest says:

I think this statement she makes “to see someone so arrogant get along with someone so proud” is actually the foundation of why they get close and their dynamic works rather than an obstacle that they somehow overcome. Specifically, I think that it was Yingxing’s arrogance (partially genuine and partially a habit born for the sake of his own survival) that allowed the two of them to get close. When we see lines from Yingxing via Dan Heng’s memories or via the Mirage Echo, though he uses Dan Feng’s proper title, he seems to talk rather casually to him. Even in a tense situation as secretly being in Scalegorge Waterscape for research would seem, Yingxing still is very lighthearted and in some languages, even laughs a little as he banters with Dan Feng. I have my own headcanons for why he has this casualness to him, but either way it’s a genuine part of him and a part of his canon characterization. I think that casualness, a product of his confidence/arrogance and maybe a little of his obliviousness as well, allows for them to get close. It evens the playing field, Yingxing sees Dan Feng as his equal, as a person, as Dan Feng rather than as his position of Imbibitor Lunae High Elder of the Vidyadhara. I could speculate all day whether or not other people had treated him similarly before and he shot it down (there’s a lot of the actual evolution of the dynamic that I will write I swear), but I think there was something very unique in that casualness that Dan Feng might not have experienced before, not from anyone else, not from the other members of the HCQ he had met before. Perhaps even Yingxing’s background would play a part in how shocked by his behavior DF is. Either way, it is that casualness, that equalness unlike he had ever experienced before, mixed with all of Yingxing’s other characteristics such as his cheeky nature that manages to quickly break down Dan Feng’s walls and make him feel compelled to grow closer to YX. Whether their first meeting was via Baiheng and Jingliu or a chance encounter before they eventually join the HCQ, Dan Feng is coming away from that shell shocked by the sheer audacity of this short life species, feelings he first interprets as offense before he realizes he’s actually amused/interest in him, and Yingxing walking away like “Huh? That was the High Elder I guess. Seems nice, a bit stiff tho!” There is no worship of Dan Feng from his side for any reason, not for his skills, not for his position, not even as an unattainable ethereal beauty situation. He views him as just another person, an equal, and no part of him views DF in this cocky “he’s not unattainable bc I already have him” kind of way because…

—

Another fundamental in my personal interpretation of their relationship is that Yingxing doesn’t truly seek anything from Dan Feng nor does he ever necessarily try to pursue him. And all of this isn’t in an insecure “We’d never work” kind of product of overthinking way of choosing not to pursue him. Rather, it’s primarily because Yingxing doesn’t feel the need to. He doesn’t need his romantic feelinhs to be satisfied or fulfilled especially with the difference in their lifespans. As long as he can be by his side and stay close with him until his time comes to an end, Yingxing is truly perfectly content with that. A lot of this additionally stems from a certain place. That being that after he gets to know Dan Feng better and learns of the sheer pressure he endures due to his position, the choices he feels he’s forced into, the level of restriction, even with all of the influence Dan Feng still has, he doesn’t want to be an added source of pressuring or discomfort. To sum it up, Yingxing leaves the ball in Dan Feng’s court so he can act as he sees fit when he feels like it. There’s an added layer to this also of Yingxing not wanting to ruin the current state of their dynamic (a topic I’ll get into more). In the end, this is just yet another part of Yingxing that utterly pulls Dan Feng in. He is very used to being distrusting of others and refusing to get close to many people, primarily out of wariness of the potential ulterior motives people may have when befriending him. Contrastly, Yingxing doesn’t expect or even want anything from Dan Feng even the closer they get. Dan Feng can see that, and it makes him trust in Yingxing. Makes him trust to the point that he feels comfortable enough to make attempts pursuing Yingxing himself rather than meeting at a stalemate, refusing to go after a man Dan Feng knows won’t chase him as to not risk pressuring him and bc he’s fine with how things are. That isn’t to say though that Yingxing won’t respond to any attempts Dan Feng makes first though, because he absolutely will. Well… that is if he can recognize any attempts from Dan Feng at all because he can be rather oblivious in the face of people making advances at him-

An added part to all of this is that Yingxing with the way he acts, both in general and in this specific regard, ends up being part of what helps influence and encourage Dan Feng to do more to take what he wants, actually follow his desires in certain aspects rather than keeping up his stiff outer image and denying himself of everything for that sake of his position. The HCQ in general all have influence helping Dan Feng open up more like this, seizing things instead of either waiting for things on a platter or never having them. However, Yingxing's bold nature is definitely the strongest factor as he ends up helping Dan Feng learn to identify what he wants for himself. Whether that want is something as complex as moving forward in a relationship when not only has Dan Feng had very little experience with close connections to others, but also is so accustomed to the stillness of long life, or something as simple as taking breaks and time to himself to live and breathe and experience life moving around him. It's through Yingxing (and the rest of the HCQ) that Dan Feng learns to be more selfish. It's through all of their care and kindness and love that Dan Feng learns that he too is not merely a pillar to stand tall for his people. That he is a person with needs and wants, and it is perfectly fine to be selfish and prioritize yourself at times.

—

So that previous section got into a little bit of Dan Feng’s trust in Yingxing, but what about Yingxing’s side of things? What about his trust in Dan Feng? I dunno what it is about him, but I feel like Dan Feng is the kind of person who can hear some of the deepest confessions and see the barest parts of the heart of someone he cares about and not treat them any differently like as if they are fragile y’know. Like Dan Feng is the person who Yingxing, out of all the HCQ, can truly confide in because he knows he won’t be seen different or treated in a drastically different way. Ultimately, Jingliu isn’t someone he feels he can go to for super emotional things which she likely herself knows she wouldn’t be able to help much with, Jing Yuan and him have a very light hearted joking dynamic that makes changing the tone and breaking the mood for a deep heart to heart much harder so he doesn’t often do it, and Baiheng… well, deep down Baiheng still sees Yingxing as that disheartened little boy, who had lost everything and was being told that there’s nothing he could do about it given his lifespan, that he couldn’t avenge what he had lost. If Yingxing were to tell her how he honestly truly feels about everything in his life, the traumas he still hadn’t overcome or the thoughts that plague him every day, he knows she would end up fretting over him, mother hen style. Being overly cautious as if his mind is made of glass, and as much as he loves her, he hates the idea of her changing how she treats him because of just how much she cares for him in turn.

(It’s a trait I see Baiheng having as to it being an obstacle in her other relationships like with Yingxing but works well in her relationship with Jingliu, caring for her and treating her softly, not underestimating her, in a way that others are too afraid to treat the unwavering, ice cold Sword champion! Matching DF and YX’s whole situation with his arrogance and casualness)

In the end, Yingxing feels like Dan Feng is the only one he can truly trust with the deepest corners of his heart and mind without worrying of Dan Feng either judging him or suddenly treating him like a fragile piece of porcelain. Even if he were to take note of something Yingxing told him and do something in response perhaps to ease his worries or heart ache, it would never be something out of pity or thinking Yingxing to be unable to take care of himself. Because ultimately, that’s where this all stems for Yingxing. He has lived so much of his life underestimated, whether having his skills and abilities questioned for being a short life species or sometimes intentionally sometimes unintentionally having his ability to take care of himself questioned like he needs a caretaker. Something that again is partially due to again to being a short life species. What Yingxing likes about Dan Feng is from the moment he met him, he doesn’t feel as if he is being questioned or underestimated. Dan Feng makes him feel as if he is truly seen as an equal, even with their distinct difference in power. It’s a treatment from Dan Feng that serves as a response to Yingxing’s own treatment of Dan Feng, his casualness to the other man making it clear he sees him as an equal as well.

And that? Well that is perhaps the most important part of the dynamic. In canon, they both have struggles with how they are seen and treated by others based on preconceived notions about their status. Dan Feng being in a way dehumanized as he is put up on a pedestal for being an incarnation of Imbibitor Lunae, for being the High Elder of the Vidyadhara, a position that he wants to escape because of the sheer loss of identity just a role brings. Yingxing being underestimated from the moment he stepped onto the Xianzhou because he wasn’t a long life species to the point that the other celestial masters on the Zhuming borderline bullied him into doubting himself, thinking a lot about his own death, and as a young boy (not even a teen yet), literally saying “Maybe I’ll never live to see the day my parents are avenged.” In my view of them, for them to truly be as close as they are established in canon, I think that from the start of their dynamic they make it very clear they see the other as a genuine and true equal in a way that other people haven’t or perhaps, can’t fully.

—

I said this before my in Aurizzm Yingxing post, but yeah, I don’t think Dan Feng or Yingxing would have come into a romantic relationship with each other with any experience at all. I know Dan Feng with no experience is a very accepted idea, and I agree with it very much given his isolated position and his proud attitude and that 100% plays into my view of their dynamic. I also however, firmly believe Yingxing came in without any romantic relationship experience too. The difference here ends up being in how inexperienced each of them are. Yingxing has had a lot more friendship experience, and he’s experienced crushes before which is how he can identify his own romantic feelings better than Dan Feng. But he’s never actually been in any relationship. He’s never had the time, he’s got his own goals in mind while being painfully aware he’s on a time limit, and let’s be real like I said before, This Man is married to his Forge. Meanwhile, Dan Feng truly hasn’t had any friendships prior to the HCQ. Knowing him and her too, I firmly believe Dan Feng and Jingliu’s relationship for example, was for maybe a few decades, maybe a literal century, just them sparring without words from time to time. So Dan Feng not only going in with no friendship experience, but I think that man also is having to recognize some new emotions and feelings he’s never experienced nor can put words to. So Dan Feng’s disaster comes in being painful aware of the presence and intensity of his own feelings… he just doesn’t have the words nor experience to recognize exactly what those feelings are. It’s an absolute disaster on all fronts, somebody pray for the HCQ who unfortunately have to experience all of this.

There’s an added layer I want to go more into looking back at the first part of why their relationship works and the thing I said about the Baiheng trait. As we saw with Jingliu admitting to her feelings towards his attitude as a child, she wasn’t… she wasn’t really a fan so to say of his arrogance. And given y’know, what we see of the people of the Luofu, I don’t doubt many people have similar reactions. Part of Yingxing’s limited experience comes not only from his own decision to not pursue anything, I think part of it comes from being for whatever reason feeling distaste for him. Whether it’s their own prejudices against Outworlders, or his bold attitude and lack of formality that makes any interest they had in him end up flying away. Which ugh, makes it even more special that this attitude of his, born out of necessity for his own survival on the Xianzhou and for his ability to move forward in his craftsmanship after all he went through, which has pushed so many people away, ends up being the exact thing that allows him to get close to Dan Feng. IT’s UGGGHHH Sorry, but I just need to scream. I NEED TO SCREAM ABOUT THEM OKAY?? THEY TAKE UP TOO MUCH SPACE IN MY BRAIN, I CAN’T HAVE A SINGLE MOMENT OF REST BECAUSE OF THEM

—

Again, this is my view of them and their dynamic based upon what we have been given in game so far, the crumbs of characterization we have. God I hope we get more. This isn’t me saying this view of them is canon or anything, this is just how I view them. This is the dynamic and thoughts that have grown like mold in my head from thinking about them WAY too much.

I have so much more I could talk about, certain specific things or things that don’t even immediately come to mind right now. If you want to ask more about how I view them or have some topic or aspect of them in mind, please hit me up. Either send something to my inbox or bust your way into my dms to talk about them. I love them so much. They mean the world to me.

And honestly? I could just make two whole separate posts also just about how I specifically characterize each of them, but I think I need to let my brain rest a bit.

And don’t think about this dynamic specifically in reference to how it could reflect on their current selves because you might just end up hurting yourself like I have. GOD I HATE THEM

[bobosbillionsknives]

Rem named an infant Knives and was surprised when he grew up to have an identity crisis and violently lash out at the world around him 🤣🤣🤣🤣‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️

[ahollowgrave]

Hiiii do you have any more writings or musings about None? I was in your writing tag the other night and they came up a couple times but I'm not sure if I should be picturing a miqo'te or some sort of service animal/familiar lol

Hello! That's so fair, my Odette writings do not offer a lot of description for them! They do have their own tag [HERE] although not much is in it, currently. Some of the screenshots I'm including here and the writings which you've already seen! I'm very sorry for how rambling this is but None is where a lot of alts and relationships spawn from! None is neither a miqo'te nor a service animal (though I think they'd give a huff at the title)! None is the saddest creature in the whole world, a widower, Odette's favorite lil guy, Gerry's estranged step-parent, and a Lalafell:

A Lalafell ranger who makes their living guiding people through the Shroud. These days they are 'mostly' retired. They're well past their middle age and when they were younger they made a deal with sylphs. To be fleet-footed and quick and the best hunter. It came with some side effects:

They wear a hat to cover the ears. It's a bit silly to have two sets and, frankly, None doesn't wanna talk about it. They are stoic, pragmatic, and a bit of a hermit when they can afford it. None is a widower, their late wife was an duskwight woman named Aloutte, who was a widow herself with a young child; Geraldine. None and Gerry were never close and in the wake of Aloutte's passing that distant only grew. None and Odette met at the Menphina temple she was raised at. The Sisters there offer grief counseling and when Aloutte first fell sick she made them go to make the transition easier. A child at the time, Odette was obsessed from the moment they met. A pale shadow trailing after them. Where None failed with Gerry, they bonded with Odette. After Aloutte's passing None returned to the temple to live long term, some grievers need more support than others, they and Odette spent a lot of time together. They very much fill a uncle/aunt role for Odette; a trusted advisor who isn't the adults who raised her. When Odette took her vows and started to travel it was None who traveled with her, taught her basic outdoors skills, bought her Beauty and taught her how to care for chocobos. When Odette has to leave her flock of karakul to travel it is None she calls to care for them. Also, while Aloutte's loss and the grief that follows is very important to None as a character I feel it is important to note they were the saddest creature in the whole world before they knew the warmth of Aloutte's embrace! Sometimes you're just born with a heavy heart, you know? Because of how important they are to Odette. Odile... fucking hates their guts. Oooh, she hates their guts so much!!! The feeling is mutual and Odile and None have come to blows a few times. Something they both keep from Odette; None because they don't want to make her worry, Odile because she'll use the information to drive a wedge at some point. None also features in Odette's WoL AU, they're an honorary scion and spend most of their time with the other off-screen members. They spend time with Krile and Tatatru discussing lalafell things and I like to imagine that F'lhaminn and None have a lot to talk about. This is... pretty long so I will stop here! But I hope this satisfies some curiosity about None and thank you SO MUCH for asking about them!

[angelsdean]

seconds away from making a new spreadsheet for my rewatch where i keep track of times sam has been a hypocrite or manipulative towards dean, or hasn't owned up to his own actions, or has projected his own insecurities onto dean and twisted dean's words / put words into his mouth (all his "i'm a freak YOU think i'm a monster" whining etc etc)

[ikemenomegas]

Omega!Getou Suguru x Alpha!Reader

The younger years

A brief note on how I see the Alpha for the two special grades of Jujutsu High: when a person writes for Gojo, I don't think you can really untangle him from Getou. Whether you ship them or not, the fact remains that they had the biggest impact on one anothers' sense of belonging and development. Getou was Gojo's moral compass for the few years they spent together and the question he posed haunts Gojo like nothing else. Gojo was Getou's measure for power and the person he wanted to be able to stand side by side with. I also thing part of Getou's choice to leave had to do with how futile he felt Gojo being "the strongest" ended up being. Because of this, and the fact that I write the Alpha in this situation as being most easily interpreted as being part of the Gojo/Getou/Shoko class, it would be most simple to explain the situation as the Alpha being the same person, but someone who has chosen different things in each case. I have some kind of au in my mind where there is a sort of poly ship with the three of them, but since that would never happen in canon (because of canon character deaths) I do write for a similar version of the Alpha going with either one or the other, not both.

tw: mentions of canonical character death, minor implication of suicide, and spoilers for the manga if you're not caught up

Getou Suguru walks a dozen lines: between the rural village world he quickly outgrew and the world of sorcerer's that sees him as a commodity; between the world of the conservative faction and higher ups that wants to control his omega body and his own uncontrollable power; between the way he realizes he loves you and the ways he cannot say it out loud...

Suguru is used to concealing his true emotions, even from himself. He presents himself in a way he thinks others want to see him but the core of his personality is really kind and empathetic. He has a hard time balancing this with his pride though.

When he first meets you as a first year student, he doesn't think much of you, he's just watchful like he is with everyone. Once he sees you fight, he acknowledges your potential, but his being nice to you beyond the surface level takes longer.

People think that Suguru is some kind of gentle omega because he's very good at being polite and courteous in public, this notion is quickly dispelled when Suguru and Satoru fall in together and feed off of one anothers' personality and Satoru starts to indicate to his classmates the kind of people in the sorcerer's world to watch out for (safe to mock behind their backs). Honestly, it's kind of a relief to all of you...

Fighting together builds closeness quickly as you each learn to trust the others with your own lives and the quality of the class's friendship improves.

Suguru and Satoru's techniques have made them both highly ranked sorcerers from the start so things are already difficult. There's a power gap between anyone else they get paired up with so they often go together, but since you have to go on missions too you've been paired up with both at one time or another.

It's on one of the worst missions where they send you all out together so Shoko-san always has a guard that you all end up saving each others' lives. After that, things are generally more informal between you all.

Missions are still a pain though. Every one of you have AoE attacks so it can be hard to coordinate, although Satoru is the worst at figuring it out because he was trained without any pairing up.

Satoru also doesn't like to pull his punches so when you train as a class it's usually with a cursed corpse or Suguru (until Satoru gets jealous of one or both of you ignoring him and forces someone to trade off). During these sparring bouts, Suguru realizes that he actually really likes your scent and he likes how you push yourself to get better at the close combat that could really make your technique shine even though it scares you. However, he often finds himself a little disappointed afterwards since your fighting style is more focused on redirection methods at the moment so you spend a good portion of the time trying to throw him away from you.

Things start changing when the boys' get more comfortable with one another and you and Shoko and warm heats start becoming something that's obviously going to be a Thing. For omegas, the school's archaic directors don't encourage suppressing the heats, even though it's safe with the right monitoring. It's the toss up of having the two strongest students down for a few days out of every other month but the higher-ups generally conceded it's worth the break.

Suguru doesn't mean to seek you out but you all live near one another in the student housing so it happens. Warm heats make him sleepy and a little dizzy and he'll sometimes end up curled up on one of the common space couches if you've left a jacket or something around. If those things of yours disappear for a few days they always end up returned, washed and folded.

The relationships that sorcerers form are very weird (from the point of view of theoretical social outsiders)

The danger of being a sorcerer and the constant threat of an early death means that people are careful about getting close to one another. A lot of people end up avoiding acknowledging emotional closeness because they thing it's kind of an automatic curse (regret) or because they think it's not worth burdening someone with the words

Also, in the field there's an expectation of trust in whomever you're fighting alongside - ideally you should trust the person you are with to do what they can and also do whatever you can. However, sorcerers are specialized humans fighting against the embodiment of fears. Sorcerers to some extent can't trust each other to hold up 100% in the face of that and fighting styles and techniques can be so individual it becomes impossible to fight alongside someone else

But people still have needs or desires for emotional and physical intimacy and this isn't exclusive to omegas or alphas and their particular brand of physical needs

When you notice Suguru taking your clothes, you treat it more like family members giving one another things to bring to their nest. It's not a courting thing, but he ends up with a blanket of yours that's in his room more often than not and he'll put some of his things into your laundry with the silent intent of stealing it back later.

When he doesn't want to be harassed by alphas in the the non-sorcerer world, he'll come out with you if there's no other group to be with or Satoru isn't in town

If you're both at the school and it isn't busy, he asks you if you mind if he doesn't wear scent blockers while at the dorm, which is typical for home-life in family homes but he asks, which comes off as polite and doesn't have to mean anything

You all eat together often so it's not weird if you know his food preferences and he knows yours

Sharing music comes naturally. He's more of an introvert and you all study together so it's not anything specific when you start sharing headphones

If he starts falling asleep next to you the morning after a bad night, well he and Satoru have fallen asleep on each other on the train too so it's not anything particular.

Except he wants it to be. Maybe. He's still a sorcerer and you're all barely crossing sixteen so does he get to want this? He's starting to want something and he doesn't know if you want the same thing. (He doesn't know if Satoru knows he wants the same thing too...)

And then Riko happens. Riko happens and Satoru almost dies and he isn't allowed to die, you almost die and everything starts to fall apart.

The last year, the higher-ups start sending him on a lot of individual missions or missions with people who essentially stood back and watched. You start getting sent out with weaker teams to even the odds. You're with him sometimes but it's not enough.

You're still at the school more often than Satoru but it's not enough. He wants different things from you and Satoru and Suguru isn't enough.

He hides when his first full heat hits. He makes Shoko give him scent blockers and safe suppressants and against all instinct to find you, he hides.

When you see him afterwards, a mistake brought on by being too tired to sense you near, he tells you he's fine. You don't believe him, but he's come to you before when something is wrong. He may not tell you what's going on, but he's sought you out in the months since the merger failed. You think that whatever it is, you have more time.

He just nudges against your shoulder and shuffles to his room to sleep off the exhaustion. You bring him a bottle of water and leave him alone. Is that the moment? If you'd read the tension in his shoulders and stayed, would that have been enough?

He's exhausted body and soul when he finds Mimiko and Nanako, when he makes his decision and disappears

You see him only once after that. Shoko sends you a picture while she's waiting for you to meet up. It just says "shinjuku".

There is one world in which you run. You don't know where you're going. You can't feel him. You have no idea where to find him. But you run up a crowded street and from the shadows, Suguru lets you run by him and sees tears on your cheeks.

In another though, you come from the other direction and he stops you, just the barest flicker of his energy appearing, like his hand brushing your arm, and you stop like he knew, like he hoped, you would, and ask him a question.

[milfglupshitto]

you extended the offer to let me rant about malevolent in your inbox and so i am taking you up on it.

i am absolutely SCREAMING over episode 40 part 2 i listened to it yesterday morning but i’m still not over it. i don’t even have words i’m just screaming. Screaming i tell you

i do have a question that’s been burning at me this whole time though. so i’ve been assuming that john and yellow are just pieces of the king, and the king in yellow still exists as his own entity as well separate from john and yellow. to put it in math terms, i was thinking of john and yellow not as halves, but as thirds, where john + yellow + the king in yellow = one whole complete being

but in episode 40.2 they were discussing john and yellow in terms of halves, so like, is it actually john + yellow = the king in yellow ?? cuz this changes my whole perspective on yellow as a whole then if he’s not a third but a half. Does this make sense. head in my fucking hands i’m having a crissis over this episode

hi yesss parts 40 are so. I think I tried to tell my roommate about it and just gave up because I couldn’t get coherent words together

it’s a good question and one that’s been bothering me for a while too tbh! kayne has been using language of halves since either part 20 or coda I think but it’s never been clear to me if that was literal or not, I was interpreting it the same as you before 40. so I don’t have a good answer here

[i-wanna-show-you-off]

just started watching disventure camp today (finally) and I’m already on ep 6. I have (out loud) made the “you a baby quit cussing” joke like. Every single episode at least once. I have SO MUCH to talk about..

more in tags..like spoilers and stuff..

[brookheimer]

what do you think would be the best way for the pregnancy to be handled? pure personal opinion

hmmm i'm honestly not sure, especially given that this season is rumored to just take place over a span of ten days, each episode spanning a day. but i'm gonna go unpopular opinion here and say i would be pretty fucking disappointed if it's just, like, an immediate abortion??? like idk what tv yall are watching but i feel like abortion plotlines are a fucking dime a dozen these days and maybe like one in every ten is anything approaching 'empowering,' even though all ten are framed that way. i think abortion vs pregnancy is often framed as a, like, sophie's choice for women -- do you choose to be a person or do you choose to be a woman? -- and it honestly just reinforces the exact same dichotomies they're claiming to break in my opinion. not every abortion narrative but, like... too many of them. so i'm wary lol

rest under the cut cuz it got soooooo fucking long!!

it's the same as with Strong Female Characters: it's not actually a well-written, empowering female character if her 'strength' is dependent on her complete and total rejection of her identity as a woman and every trait associated with it. we've created these, like, anti-feminine career women girlboss warriors whatever as a balm to the terrible hyperfeminized mother-before-all-else classic caricature of womanhood, but tbh, both narratives are equally harmful -- they're not only both still reinforcing the same dichotomy of, like, family/love/emotion/empathy/interdependence etc vs self/respect/rationality/intelligence/independence, but even reinforcing the valuing of the latter (the 'masculine' traits) over the former! by defining strong female characters as those who reject femininity, you're literally just reinforcing the idea that 'femininity' and 'feminine traits' are bad, weak, etc -- the only 'empowering' thing is that hey! women who act like men can be respected! except not really and they'll always be viewed as a woman anyways!

kind of got off topic but, like, that's often what abortion plotlines come down to in my experience -- housewife or career woman? man or woman? and i'm just fucking sick of it, man. like, it's one thing, obviously, for the world of a show and the characters inhabiting it to enforce these views and be judgmental etc etc etc, but it's so frequently driving the writing and narrative itself. i think that abortion plotlines can be good, but honestly? usually only when the character in question genuinely has no desire whatsoever to have kids, like diane in bojack horseman. because if a character is unsure, what typically happens is they'll get bullied into a specific outcome, and it's then framed as 'empowering' and about 'the right to choose.' if a career-driven woman maybe wants to have a baby but gets an abortion because she knows it'll ruin her career, that's not empowering! that's so fucking sad! why are we calling that empowering! that's just as tragic as having a kid because you fear the ostracization you'll receive if you abort! so. i don't know. i think abortion plotlines are really hard to do well because they always just end up oversimplifying everything and turning it into proof of how Strong the woman who got the abortion is -- like, sometimes strength is not getting the abortion. it's not like being a mother actually makes you weaker or lesser. so why do so many of the shows who claim to criticize that notion end up perpetuating it?

i think there's a lot of really fucking interesting stuff that could be done with shiv's pregnancy, and honestly? most of it isn't even fucking related to what happens with her pregnancy. it's just using that as a vehicle to explore layers of her character that we haven't been able to before, largely because she's been so vehemently obsessed with obscuring them. i've been wanting to delve deeper into shiv's relationship with her gender, with caroline, with gerri, with notions of femininity, etc etc etc for YEARS and this is the perfect fucking opportunity. i want to know what shiv actually wants. who she actually is, beneath the 'hypermasculine' veneer she's had to adopt to even be allowed in the room, let alone respected. like does she actually want children, does she actually want a family? has she only been against it out of fear for her career? or is it genuinely something she desires? how much of her relationship with gender is rooted in spite? who is she outside of that spite, and how far will she go to achieve it? will she have a kid to prove to caroline (but really to herself because caroline doesn't actually give a fuck she's gallivanting in europe with peter munion) that she can be a good mother? what does she even think motherhood should look like? does shiv want to be seen as a woman? does she want to be seen as a man who happens to be in a woman's body? does she want to be seen as a man? like, there are so many fucking interesting avenues to explore, and i mean, she's not gonna fucking have the kid in ten days. i hope they actually make the most of the opportunity this could present -- with the exception of, like, one scene, we've only ever gotten to know shiv through her relationships with the men around her. we literally know nothing about what she is outside of roy masculinity. is there anything outside roy masculinity? does she even want there to be? honestly, i've been a little frustrated in past seasons with how surface level a lot of the shiv stuff has been -- the others get so much internal depth, whereas shiv's characterization has largely been reactionary. like, she's usually just reacting to things people (read: men) have done to her. we know so fucking little about her life before the show! she has the potential to be like kim wexler level if they dig into her more and part of that is digging into her relationship with her gender because, like it or not, she fucking IS THE GIRL. like, that's her defining fucking feature: being The Girl. so let's dissect that!!

i know this was such a long rambling, like, non-answer lol but basically i guess i don't actually care what the outcome is of the pregnancy arc so long as it's handled with care -- so long as it's used as a means to explore the shiv we already know, rather than creating a new problem to understand instead. i think an abortion plotline is the riskiest because they're so frequently done poorly, i have no idea how a miscarriage would go but i do think there are interesting ways it could be done, and i can't imagine shiv actually being a mom but i think there's a lot to unpack with shiv even just considering motherhood. idk what the end outcome will be, but as long as the pregnancy plotline is used to expand upon shiv rather than punish her for her femininity or make some grand moral claim about The Correct Way To Be A Strong Woman, i think i won't be too upset. and i have faith that it'll be decent, honestly. this show -- both the writers and snook herself -- cares too much about shiv to do her that dirty. ....i hope.

[welcometoteyvat]

xiao gives zhongli his loyalty, his soul; zhongli has stopped needing it long ago (and even then he requested it firmly, but without harsh demand) but takes it anyways, because xiao needs him to (he doesn’t have anything else to give). “what is freedom if demanded of you by a god?” maybe zhongli has taken a page out of venti’s book and simply decides to treat xiao with kindness, as an equal. if he had mora to spare and if xiao didn’t only prefer almond tofu, he’d take xiao out to dinner every week—liyue harbor has changed so much, and perhaps there are some changes that even the last yaksha would like to experience (silently, in xiao’s quiet way)— except zhongli has no mora and xiao would scowl at a dinner anyways, which would defeat the purpose of enjoying it— so quiet fondness and stopping by wangshu inn will do for now. after all, zhongli has enough time. they have enough time.

xiao has made peace with his karma, and his duty; he was saved by yanwang dijun, and this is his debt to shoulder—liyue needs a protector, and he never shrinks from his responsibilities even when they have been too much to bear. this is the way things are. (but perhaps things are changing. he asks what zhongli is doing; viewing flowers, raising birds—perhaps... but he is a weapon and no matter what his lord has said, there are things that must be done, and he will be the person to do them. there are things that must be done, and his sacrifice would be a better price to pay compared to the sacrifices of the mortals and the not-quite-mortals; and when he is falling, falling, falling—— perhaps this is what bosacius chose and sacrificed, five hundred years ago.

except this time there is no sacrifice, and only warm, golden light, and the gentleness of a hand reaching out to him (saving him, saving him).

the first time, rex lapis saved him.

the second time, zhongli saves him.

perhaps there will be a time when he too can hear “you've finished your duties, go ahead and call it a day.”

I take absolutely no credit for the idea of morax -> zhongli saving xiao. that idea is completely credited to this galaxy brain tweet.

ending has no motivation lmao. this was meant to be a zhongli and xiao love letter but now it’s almost a drabble 🧍‍♀️

[animationismycomfort]

I wish twdg explored more on how though human beings can become closer through awful times…..sometimes that’s not always the case

[myrskytuuli]

I think one of the more interesting things they could do in Sandman season 2 is that the story of Nada and Dream is told through folktale, as in the comic, but this time we hear both the men’s version, the women’s version and couple other versions that circulate around. And they are clearly all contradictory and you can kind of see how they all slant towards their target audience. Who has agency, responsibility, depth, sympathy, etc varies wildly from story to story.

and then we never find out what the “truth” of their affair was. If Nada was innocent little girl, or arrogant and dangerous witch queen, just a victim of circumstances, or just a fool dallying with forces she shouldn’t have. And wether Dream was capricous and evil, hurt and lashing out, or more of a mindless force of nature.

We just see Nada and Dream reconciliating, but never actually hear the words they exchange, so what actually happened is a secret those two won’t share even with the audience.

I just really like that all the other relatinships that Dream has had have been very...realistic. They have ended with hurt feelings, but not because anyone was technically at fault, more that they just fizzled out for myriads of reasons that are exactly the same as with normal mortal relationships. I would like for Nada to get the same kind of treatment, instead of being an object whose story starts and ends with being a tool for Dream’s character development.