#they're not exactly *rare* but they're still pretty hard to find

[axiolotl]

so yesterday i went to a local plant shop for the first time (!!!) and got into a great convo with the owner. we were chatting about everything Plants, when i got distracted by a beautiful pink princess philodendron on the front counter. and i was like "OOOOH is that a pink princess???" and she was "like!!! yeah!! hold on we have more --"

and she walked out across the store and I heard from across the way -- "ah....I really only have small and shitty ones"

and I was like "I mean it's ok, it i were to buy anything it's probably need to be small and shitty, im running out of room haha"

then she brought this plant up to me

for context, this is what they're supposed to look like:

and she looked down at it, then looked at me, and went " ://...yeah....im just gonna give this to you for free"

"no no you don't have to do that!"

and she went "://...it's gonna need a lot of TLC, I think you can do it!"

SO. now....i have this beautiful silly little girl . she has a new leaf coming up, and it doesn't look like the two big leaves are REALLY drooping, it's like they just...grew...down? I guess? like they're nice and strong! and my goodness, give her three months, and she'll look amazing

[kisses4choso]

#DAD?

SYNOPSIS: when you first meet their adoptive kids CHARACTERS: s. gojo & s. geto WARNINGS: mildly suggestive (geto), ages 19/18 [according to the manga] NOTE: pretend geto didn't commit genocide... he brought the girls back to jujutsu tech and lived happily ever after!

when GOJO first introduces megumi and tsumiki to you, you're a bit conflicted. the first thing you think? yeah, gojo was right in being scared of a kid that's a third of his age; poor megumi looked identical to his father. the second? they're so young, they're actual kids. gojo is so young. you are so young.

"nice to meet you. i've heard lots about you," is the only thing you can offer to the children other than a warm smile. the boy stares at you before looking off to the side, and his sister nudges him, smiling at you politely.

"us too," the little girl says, "professor gojo says you're pretty a lot," she stumbles over her words a bit before deciding on something, "and you make really good cup ramen."

"professor gojo said that?" you look up at him from where you're squatting on the ground, tickled by the funny nickname, and you're happy to see a cute smile dancing across his face. "then i'll have to treat you to some ramen soon."

she nods, still flashing her smile, although it's missing a few teeth, and megumi remains looking off to the side.

"are you gonna be in charge of us too?" he suddenly asks, his blunt words a contrast to his little voice.

satoru answers for you, squatting down to meet the boy's eyes (probably, it's hard to see where he's looking with those glasses), "we're still figuring that out, kid. are ya tryna get rid of me or somethin'?"

megumi mumbles something under his breath, and whatever it is, it earns him a pointed sideways glance from his sister.

"wanna say that louder?" he challenges the boy, but megumi responds by sticking his tongue out at him. gojo mimics his actions, just like a boy would. because that's exactly what he is, a teenage boy.

"thought so! alright, you two, can you give us adults a second to talk? we gotta talk about..." he trails off, turning his head to face you directly, "taxes, or somethin'. we'll be in my room. be on your best behavior please, we have a guest."

"pinky promise," tsumiki says, kissing her thumb and holding out her hand. surprise washes over gojo's features, but he quickly composes himself, mirroring tsumiki and allowing her to link her pinky to his. she presses her thumb to his, effectively sealing the promise.

cute, he thinks, how hard would it be for megumi to be like that?

gojo then decisively sticks his pinky out to megumi, but the boy gives him a weary look, and he frowns. "well, holler if ya need me!"

and with that, he's rushing you off to his room, closing his door behind him, lowering his voice, and tugging off his glasses, "so? whaddya think?"

"about?" you stall, finding comfort in his bed as if it were your own. you feel his eyes on you, you always do, but this time it's that look. he's analyzing your every move, your flow of energy, your darting eyes; you're not sure if it would be more effective to acknowledge it or let it go. he stands in front of you, so it's hard to ignore, but you persist.

he hesitates before speaking, a rare occasion, "remember how i said i wanna be a teacher at tech?" he doesn't wait for your answer, "i think, if i try hard enough, i can start teaching right now. the boy has lots of potential, and i want to develop that. can't let it be wasted with the z'enins."

you move your lips, but he anticipates your words, "i know, i'm not even twenty yet," he brushes a hand through his hair, "i don't want his power to be a burden to him. he wants to protect his sister. i can help him."

"i know you can, satoru. it's what you want to do, and i know above everything else, you're stubborn," you finally meet his gaze, and you find the troubled twist of his lips. "but will you have time?"

"i've got enough money..." he says, deflating at your unconvinced sigh, "i'll find a way."

seeing him so caught up in this tugs on your heartstrings a little, and the slight pout on his lips doesn't do much to help your heartache. you say what you were scared to from the moment he mentioned the two children, "i can help."

for the second time that evening, shock laces itself onto his face. you look a little startled by your own words. the reality of being responsible for raising two children on top of developing megumi's cursed technique against the wishes of arguably the most powerful sorcerer clan... it was heavy.

"ya don't gotta, i just wanted to know if i'm crazy or not for adopting two young kids at my age."

"you're always a little crazy, no? and i want to," you say, and a beat of silence passes between the two of you, the six eyes user taking a particularly sharp breath.

"you're okay with raising those two brats? with me?" he dismisses your first comment, the last question a little quieter.

he takes a step closer to you and crosses his fingers in hopes you'd say yes. a selfish thought, but it means another reason to convince you to move in with him. another reason to spend nights and days together. yet another reason to love you.

"yes, professor, but with all these missions, you'll practically be an absent father... figure," you reach out to him, pulling him closer by his waistband.

he smiles, slumping his weight in the spot right next to you as if his king bed couldn't hold him anywhere else, "not much different than what they're used to."

"satoru," you bat his shoulder, and he laughs, dimples on display. you don't miss the questions hidden in his eyes, and you wish he'd lean over just a little for you, maybe let him steal a kiss or two as a remedy. you continue, "we turned out all right, i'm sure they'll be okay with you."

"with us," he corrects, "and i turned out amazing, by the way."

he turns to you, attention completely fixed on the way your eyes crinkle when you laugh, at his expense, but the laugh is for him. uncharacteristic emotion comes over him for a moment, but his gaze is as steady as always, and in the moment he's sure he'd done something in his past life right, "but i hope they learn more from you."

"mimiko, nanako, come say hi," GETO calls to the girls as he opens his door for you. you were at his house as a 'surprise' he said, so you felt the necessity to get the two girls a few gifts.

he moves aside to allow you in, and immediately you're aware of the unusual mess in his living room. the building blocks, dolls, hair bows, plushies, toy cars, and puzzles make it look like a daycare.

his lips meet your forehead, "hey, you didn't have to get them anything. they're spoiled."

"i see that," you laugh, grabbing onto his freshly manicured hand as he leads you to set your things down on the coffee table.

his hair is messily braided as well, and you take out your phone to get a picture, but your attention is caught by two pairs of thundering steps coming toward you.

"mister geto! look what we drew for..." nanako quickly stops herself, her feet screeching to a halt, her sister bumps into her back.

mimiko yelps, not expecting the blonde to halt so suddenly. she peeks over her, searching the living room and finding you sitting on the couch. her part of the couch.

"what a cute," geto hesitates, turning away from you and toward the hall, "cat?"

nanako pouts, casting her gaze toward her feet, "it's supposed to be you with kitty ears."

geto quickly clears his throat, "i know, i was just kiddin'."

he glances back at you, the remenants of a smile in his eyes. he definitely did not know.

"who the heck's that?" the blonde says, leaning to the side to get a good look at you. "i thought you were gonna bring the guy with the weird eyes."

"nanako," geto's sharp eyes are not visible to you, but you know he's giving her a disapproving look with how she tenses. "come here, please. this is who i was talking about earlier when you weren't paying attention."

the two girls share eye contact (although the meaning of it is known only to them) and reluctantly step forward, the brunette behind the blonde.

the dynamic was obvious to you, nanako was the loud one, and mimiko was the shy one. it was cute, the way they held each other's hand upon coming closer from where they stood in the hall.

suguru attempts to push the two little girls toward you once they reach him, but they both hide behind him. your heart warms at the sight; nanako's looking up at geto, hugging his leg while mimiko squishes the side of her face against his other leg and looks at you.

you break the ice by introducing yourself, a little discouraged when they simply blink at you.

time for the trick up your sleeve.

"i brought these here for you. they're from kyoto, and i heard you wanted to try them."

their eyes instantly brighten, and they both look up at geto, waiting for his permission. he smiles at them, giving them both a quick nod, and they run toward the long couch.

"excuse me, can we open them?" mimiko asks, and you think that even if you tried, you couldn't find it in your heart to deny the girl anything.

you hand each of them a sparkly gift bag, "of course, hon. they're for you."

geto follows closely behind them as they wander over to the couch, opting to sit down on the floor right in front of you, between both of the girls.

mimiko opens her bag carefully, removes the tissue papers one by one, and gasps when she sees what's at the bottom. she turns to nanako and her mess, holding up her snacks. "look!"

they were giggling, trading a few of their gifts, and having fun with the extra plushies you had thrown in there.

"what do we say?" geto interrupts them while they're lost in their own world, but they don't seem bothered in the least.

"thank you so much!" they both exclaim at the same time, mimiko a little louder than normal.

you turn to geto as they wander into the kitchen to excitedly eat their snacks, "they're great girls. i can't believe those people would..."

geto winces, holding your hand delicately, "i know. but they're doing good so far. i think you made a good impression, they're not so quick to trust people."

you smile, a newfound hope inside you, "i can tell they adore you. you'd make a good dad, suguru."

you lean down to give him a quick kiss, but something changes in his expression, and he holds your chin in his hand, stopping you from meeting his lips. he smiles at your frown, a teasing lilt in his voice when he speaks, "don't say things like that."

"or what?" you know just how to get under his skin, and although your original comment wasn't meant to bother him, it's given you an opening.

his pupils are dilated; you can almost guess what he's about to say, or perhaps do, and--

"hi, do you wanna try?" nanako suddenly speaks, and you both jump, so caught up in your own world, that you hadn't noticed the girls' presence.

"thank you," you say, taking a chip from the bag she held to you, and geto does the same. mimiko offers you gummy bears, and you take one as well.

still a little startled, geto mouths a 'sorry' to you, and you merely shake your head, enjoying the sweet gummy.

he'd no longer have the benefit of having you all to himself in his house anymore; having no privacy was almost guaranteed with kids like mimiko and nanako.

but he thinks it might be worth it, seeing the way the girls smile as you compliment their hairdos, and watching you laugh as they take credit for his. he glances at your hands as you cover your eyes for a game of hide and seek, eyes caught on the glint of the promise ring on your index finger.

no, he didn't mind it one bit.

haruta's better than me, if nanami was that close to me...

[bluecollarmcandtf]

Total Customer Service

My hotel famously caters to the whims of each and every guest, so I thought I'd highlight the insights of some of my staff. My "unique" recruitment process has helped me acquire an army of hard-working uniforms who are guaranteed to serve! Hopefully, this glimpse will make you want to book a visit...

(Josh) The Bellhop

I love this job, but sometimes it kills my back! Who would've thought that being a porter would wear down my body more than hard labor ever did? Don't get me wrong: I'll gladly work here forever, but most of my days aren't a walk in the park. Honestly, none of them are.

When I was a construction worker, I got paid to be outside and occasionally hammer in a nail or two. My crew was pretty notorious for just standing around all day. We were doing that when my current boss approached us. I don't remember exactly what he said, but before I knew it, we were dropping our tool belts and hardhats and following him back to the hotel!

He hired me as a bellboy, so now I offer any guest the service of lugging their suitcases up to their rooms. Since I'm just staff, I obviously can't use the elevators, (those are reserved for the guests) so I carry their things up the service stairs in the back of the building. The temperature in the stairwell is always hot as hell, so I rarely end a shift without sweating through the pits of my uniform jacket. It sucks, but the AC is saved for spaces that make guests more comfortable.

Most of the customers are pleased to see me working so hard anyway. I'm usually panting by the time I deliver their luggage to their rooms. I'll always offer to unpack their things: it's a part of the hotel's five-star service.

Then I wait and see if they need anything else from me. A lot of times, I'm the first employee the guests are able to interact with, so they're usually pretty excited to take advantage of the "all-inclusive" service our hotel is famous for.

Some of them are shy about it at first and some of them are demanding from the get-go, but I'm always happy to do whatever they ask. Even if I don't particularly like what I have to do: it's just a part of the job...I love this job...I love my boss...I love that this work is my life...

(Bill) The Housekeeper

Part of me cringes every time I get a look of myself in a mirror. Sure, I'm proud to be a housekeeper, but it's a real change of pace from back when I was a financial advisor. Part of me is nervous to think I could run into someone from my old life: a former colleague or an old customer perhaps. I'd still clean their room the same of course, but I can't help but wonder what they'd think of me while I did it.

I used to manage the hotel owner's finances. That's how we met. He persuaded me to grow his hotel as much as I could. It became an obsession of mine, and I'll have to admit that I tossed all my other customers to the side to focus on him. It was a bit out of character for me. I'm not really sure why I did that. Anyway, I was spending so much time at his hotel instead of my office that he offered me a job.

I can't recall his pitch, but it must have been a convincing one, because I dialed up my old former boss and quit. I just didn't want it anymore! It didn't even bother me that the only vacant position was in housekeeping!

I took it immediately.

I love cleaning up the messes our guests leave behind. Thinking about that is what gets me out of bed everyday, which is no easy feat since my shift starts at four in the morning. No matter how messy, gross, or bizarrely sticky a room is, I just love to get on my hands and knees and scrub every inch for them.

The best part is when a guest comes back to their room to find me making their bed or cleaning their shower. I can tell they're always pleasantly surprised to find me there.

I just keep my head lowered submissively like I'm supposed to and wait for them to take charge. They always do. Here at the hotel, us employees are completely at the customer's whim. I'll do anything they tell me to...I want to make them happy...I want to serve them...I want to obey.

(Donavon) The Waiter

Who knew waiting could create such awful migraines. I work in the hotel bar, and every day is a new storm of hungry and entitled mouths. Each table has someone who isn't happy with their meal, and they love to express their discontent in the most ridiculous ways. Sometimes it's a glass of water in my face. Sometimes it's a slap on the ass, but it's always followed by a roar of laughter!

Usually, every guest in the restaurant joins in like it's all one sick joke.

I'm not used to being treated this way. I used co-own a nearby gym, and I always made it my mission to foster a welcoming culture of respect and familiarity. I know "the customer is always right," but sometimes it is a hard fact to swallow.

The hotel's owner helped me learn that. He approached me one night at the gym and pulled out this weird swinging medallion...

I don't remember much of what he said, but I knew I had to abandon my gym. I left my wife too. We were happy, but I couldn't work here and have other commitments.

That's how I got started waiting tables. I'd never done it before, but it's not hard when I'm constantly being told what to do. Between the customers and the boss, I spend the entire day running around fulfilling orders; table six wants more wine, table nine wants their food cut for them, table twelve wants a foot rub... you get the picture.

It's all pretty typical stuff for a restaurant, I think. The customers get full control over me and the rest of the wait staff. However, it does make serving food a little difficult at times. Last night, we had to work overtime because this one guy kept making full use of us waiters. A good chunk of my evening was spent under his table, so I had to sprint afterwards to catch up on everyone's food.

It might stress me out, but I try not to let it bother me. I'll put up with their abuse and treat them with the utmost respect like a good waiter should. I don't mind being groped and fondled by virtually every customer as I pass. Part of our service is complete access to the staff. They can do whatever they want to me...they can have me do whatever they want...they deserve that treatment...I'm meant to give them that treatment...

(Ricardo) The Kitchen Staff

This job sucks. It's the truth, but I don't think I'll ever leave. The kitchens are so steamy and uncomfortable that I constantly think about walking out and getting a breath of fresh air. Still, my hands keep scrubbing countertops and chopping vegetables.

Sometimes I think of my life before I worked at this hotel, back when I was just an aimless twenty year old hanging out at the gas station. I had so much free time then. Now, I spend every waking moment in this sauna of a kitchen getting splashed with grease and oil.

Everything changed when that stranger came up to me and my buds one day. He talked really slow and dangled this weird necklace in front of our eyes. If I didn't know any better, I might think he was trying to hypnotize us!

Obviously, that's not what happened.

He was just offering us work. He made me realize how much I needed to work. I have to do this job! I need it! All my buddies agreed too. Some of them had jobs, but they didn't mind. It's been awhile since I saw them since I'm stuck down here in the kitchen. I think one of them might be a pool boy or something? I don't remember. Whatever it is, I'm sure it's more enjoyable than washing dishes down here.

The only break we get is when a customer comes in the kitchen.

One of them burst through the doors last night. We could all tell he'd had too much to drink, but that didn't change how we treated him. Like always, me and the rest of the staff stopped what we were doing and straightened our backs out of respect. He stumbled around, licking his lips as he looked us up and down. He wasn't afraid of groping us, which any guest is more than entitled to do.

Eventually, he got to me, burping in my face before covering my mouth with his slobbery lips. I'm not gay and he had a rank odor of beer on his breath, but I wasn't going to tell a customer no!

Before long, he was ordering me on the floor and crawling on top of me. The other chefs and kitchen staff got back to work, but I was left with the responsibility of keeping the guest entertained. I'd describe it as gross more than anything. I think he might've even pissed himself, but an order is an order.

His demands were the ridiculous kind only a drunk ass would make. Still, I did everything: no matter how uncomfortable, sick, or degrading they were. That's just the expectation for employees at this hotel...we are here to serve them... I'm here to serve them...I am at their whim.

...so now you understand.

My hotel is famous for its "uniquely unlimited" customer service. Stay here and you'll always be right. You'll always have someone to pick on, laugh at, play with, or use.

Get familiar with anyone that catches your eye. I can assure you that all of my employees are handsome and thoroughly conditioned. Order the waiter to pour your food over his head; tell the housekeeper to do a little dance; command the bellhop turn around and bend over. They'll do it all, and they'll thank you for it.

So what are you waiting for. Book your next vacation with us! I promise you'll enjoy meeting the rest of my staff...

[bimobuddy]

Fizzarolli x Asmodeus TK Headcanons

I love these two so much!! If you haven't seen S2 - E6, I highly suggest you go do that right now.

These might contain spoilers, but nothing too big, I don't think

Fizzarolli

Lee:

He's a giggler!

While he usually wakes up first, on the rare days he doesn't, Ozzie will tickle him awake. Partly because he thinks the sleepy giggles are adorable, but also partly out of revenge for the air horns (it's not gonna stop Fizz from using them though)

With anyone else, he'll fight back, but with Ozzie, he enjoys it and finds it fun. He'll even go as far as to try and provoke him sometimes.

Worst spots are his sides and tail, he'll probably start flailing. If you're unfamiliar with how he reacts, it's easy for you to accidentally get swatted, but Oz knows him and knows just how to avoid the swinging limbs or wagging tail

The tip or 'blade' of his tail REALLY gets him kicking

Tummy gets him curling up and giggling, tail thumping against the floor happily

He even gets flustered and giggly when Oz starts kissing on his cheeks and forehead. Not the most ticklish place, but just enough to get him giggly and smiley

Ler:

Back when they were kids, Fizz used to go after Blitz all the time. He'd usually win most of their tickle fights

Now, his main target is Ozzie, even if he isn't able to get him most of the time, as Oz usually just turns the tables on him

With his extendable limbs, it's pretty easy for him to wrap up his victim and still get at their sides or tummy

This is usually how he gets Ozzie, the rare moments his attacks actually work

Has chased Ozzie around their room a couple times during a chaotic ler mood (Poor rooster is just such a big guy though, it's hard for him to get away)

Has only ever gotten Blitz once since they've made up, but Blitz is an assassin now and was very quick to escape and turn it back around on him

Asmodeus

Lee:

Usually isn't much of a lee, as Fizz is really the only one able to get close enough or catch him off guard

And even then, it only works if he's in the mood or if Fizz sneaks up on him

DEEP CHUCKLES DEEP LAUGH

Fizz absolutely adores his voice, especially when he laughs

He knows he could easily overpower the little imp, but why in Hell would he risk hurting his Fizzy or ruining his fun? He'd much rather sacrifice his sensitivity to Fizz to see him happy

If you get him good, he'll accidentally crow. This has only ever happened one time when Fizz snuck up on him and grabbed his hips. However it didnt last long because he IMMEDIATELY wrecked the imp afterward

Sometimes Fizz starts kissing (or even scritching under the chins of) the other two heads in Oz's fluff. It's not exactly super ticklish, but it has gotten a chuckle or two from the Prince, as it felt weird, and he'll usually gently pull Fizz away with a soft "stooop"

Worst spot is his hips

Ler:

oh boy

This man can be absolutely ruthless

It's easy for him to scoop Fizz up in one hand and tickle him with the other

If he's feeling evil, he'll go after Fizz's tail and hips

But he's also such a sweetheart though, the SECOND he hears Fizz so much as even start the word 'stop,' he stops. He'd feel so bad if he overwhelmed his little clown

When they're alone, he'll start peppering Fizz's face with little kisses, while his other two heads do the same to his neck (in a sfw way) and it gets him super flustered and giggly

Big fan of teases. He'll go for the cliché 'tickle tickle tickle,' and stuff, but he'll also make kissy noises, make that clawing hand motion right over Fizz's tummy, or make him ask for it. ("I don't understand what you want, Fizzy, you're going to have to ask")

He's got feathers, he's basically a demonic chicken man. Sometimes he molts (sheds) his feathers too. (see where I'm going with this?)

When he loses his feathers, all he's gotta say is, "You know, Fizzy, it's molting season," and the imp is either immediately running away or hopping up into his lap for the gentle tickles.

Just like Fizz, he gets chaotic Ler moods too. He can and WILL chase or hunt down his partner, which is sometimes a challenge. Yes, he might be bigger, but Fizz is also very good at outmaneuvering him

But jokes on Fizz, this just makes the attack worse when Ozzie finally catches him

On mornings when they don't have to work, when Fizz goes to get up and out of bed, Ozzie will just hold him close to his chest, not letting him up, and give morning tickles

[scumbagjaeger]

omg! I love the college major one! if you're still okay with requests, how would the guys be as a study partner ?

STUDYING WITH THE SNK MEN

starring: Eren, Jean, Armin, Connie, Porco, Reiner, Levi, Zeke

rating: mostly sfw! 18+

notes: Omg thank you!!! I'm always open for requests I'm just really slow with them lol. Since I was a history/english major, most of my homework in college was papers so I kind of framed these with them helping with a paper! I also love the idea of them pining for you a touch so some of these might be more geared around that, instead of an established relationship, but I think they're pretty versatile anyway haha. Enjoy!!(:

college majors

EREN:

It's rare for him to be seen actually doing school work

So when he sends you a text inviting you to do homework together, that's exactly what he's going to do, simple enough

He's probably extremely behind in like four classes oops

Eren prefers to study in the evenings, probably after hours in the library? So there's like no one there besides the other people way behind in their classes lol

I love basketball player Eren, so he's either wearing the same big hoodie and sweats that he wore during the day, or a clean shirt and shorts, wet hair from the post-practice showers, and maybe even his gym bag

If you have plans to meet in the usual spot, he'll have your favorite energy drink waiting for you when you get there

He'd probably be super nice to study with

After practice he's extremely chill, calm, asking about your day and what not while you pull out your laptop and papers

If you ask he'll tell you about how his practice went and what he's been up to, he's tired from a long day of school and what not but he's super comfortable around you, so it's just a nice vibe

He's a good listener, remembers the names of the professors you like and the guy you hate in your class

Once you're actually really to start studying he's extremely quiet, he lets you work in peace

Honestly the sounds of his keyboard is probably so comforting? The man is good with his fingers what can I say

You might catch him sneaking glances (or full on staring) at you here and there, bright green eyes poking up from behind his laptop screen

Lowkey he's looking for any reason to talk to you again

The second you acknowledge his gaze he'll start up a small conversation again

If you need his help he'll do the thing where he leans over you a touch

He definitely saw the pink on your ears when he did it the first time and now he will never not find an excuse to be that close to you lmaooo

If you're writing a paper, he'll read it after you're done and give you feedback, but he's not good at giving it??

"Yeah, seems good to me," or "I don't get this part", he doesn't really know how to explain it or provide specific advice about how to strengthen the analysis of your evidence lol sorry

Afterwards he might put a hand on your arm and ask "So... got any plans tonight?"

Lol it's like 1am but if you're down he might take you to get ice cream, or back to his place if you want to hang out there. If not he'll offer to drive you back to your apartment, he doesn't want you walking around late at night alone :)

JEAN:

He probably sucks to study with lmao so sorry

It's just hard to get him to stop talking and actually get work done?

Your conversations start to dwindle as you begin typing on your laptop and he just changes the topic

In his defense, you guys probably find time to study together either in between your classes or immediately after, so he's just kind of distracted with everything going on

He'll invite you to do homework together and he literally thinks it means work on your essay together and like write it together

And you'll have to explain that you can do your own paper while he studies and he's like "OH okay then"

But he'll offer to help you with it anyway, which would be really nice!!

He'll read the paper once to get a feel for it, almost scans through it which makes it seem intimidating but he's just a fast reader lol

He'll explain the paper back to you???? Like he'll tell you what he's got out of the paper, your thesis and your main points; if there's any general comments or miscommunications you guys can sort that out there, he helps you frame your paper better

Then he'll help you fine tune each paragraph and make sure the evidence and analysis is solid! He's probably the best with helping you with your papers because he's super supportive and patient

When you pause to ask for his input he'll smile and give you a nudge, "Hey, you've got this. I know it's tough but you're smart, you already know the content! (Y/N), you've got this, I believe in you"

And then he gets really pink in the face "Uh, yeah. So. Onto the next paragraph?"

Sometimes you will need to tell him to focus on his own work lol

Jean with glasses. That's it

If he's writing his own paper or reading one for class they're low on his nose

Looks like a model reading, holding the book in hold hand and barely dropping his gaze down to look at it

Writing notes that are indecipherable with his other hand lol

Jean reads aloud because it helps him focus and it's really cute okay

If you're stressed or you guys are in a public/busy setting he won't! He doesn't want to be distracting

But if he's comfortable with you you might hear him whispering quietly to himself

If you offer, he'll give you some context and ask you for your input about something he's stuck on!

Remembers when your papers are due and will ask you how you did on them a week or two later!

If you're frustrated about your grade or another upcoming paper he might send you a text before your weekly study session: "change of plans. wanna catch a movie in the park? they're playing a good one :)"

ARMIN:

Armin with the double major???

He has you studying together a couple times a week AT LEAST

I bet he holds 'tutoring sessions' where he invites a bunch of friends together to study and get help from him because he can whip out a 12 page paper in two hours tops

But Connie and Ymir derail these sessions

If you guys are studying alone together he's extremely helpful

He'd love to call them private sessions with you though lowkey?? I bet if y'all were together he'd even try and roleplay some sort of tutor thing, lil freak

Studying with you is a TOP priority. This man will cancel a doctor's appointment to study with you

He'll rent you out a study room in the library!!

Armin can actually pull strings with the librarians to reserve a room last minute, if you really need one!

Study rooms are nice because they have those big whiteboards to use and he'll fill one side with "(Y/N)'S PAPER" and have you go through everything about your paper

Title, intro, thesis, paragraph topics, evidence, analysis, conclusion...

Even if you have an outline already lol he just likes to write on the whiteboard, it makes him feel important

If you're dong a worksheet or something he'll also use the whiteboard for that!

Good luck if you're writing a paper about something he's knowledgeable on?? If it's history he can literally pull evidence (like a book, author, quote and page number) out of thin air for you to use

But he might try and take over your paper oops

"(Y/N), I totally get what you're saying about Hegel's religious theories serving as a metaphor for Germany's idealized and romanticized view on their newly formed state, causing the reign of the Third Reich during the 20th century, but would you agree that this idea extends BEYOND Hegel, and in fact combines the martyrdom of the empire and their warmongering tendencies to that thought?? Just an idea :)"

He's probably the smoothest when it comes to inviting you to do something after you study

He knows your favorite coffee shop is right next to the library, or he knows of a mini golf park that's half off for students

He writes down your exam dates and paper due dates in his calendar so he can remind you and ask you how you feel afterwards!

Before a big exam he'll surprise you with something like a gift card to your favorite coffee place or a flower omg I love him

IMMEDIATELY after your class ends, your phone goes off" "How'd the exam go!! Wanna tell me about it over lunch? :)"

CONNIE:

Sorry to any business majors but all my business friends had the easiest homework ever??

Like one of them had to redesign a monopoly board for their MIDTERM, so studying with Connie is probably more like arts and crafts lmao He’ll ask you to study with him when he notices you’ve been especially stressed or down

Connie’s got a real good skill at reading people I bet but he doesn’t show it?

He’ll check in occasionally but it can also be overwhelming when someone’s constantly looming over you while you’re stressed so he doesn’t do that!

But right in the heat of your semester, you’ve got like five different papers and projects due and you get a text from Connie saying he’s on his way to your apartment with food and a project

He makes some dumb excuse about needing to borrow some tape or something

He brings your favorite takeout and lightly forces you to eat it, put your books down and think about something else for ten minutes!

He points out that you’ll do your best work when you’re healthy and gives you a look

You guys probably study in silence for a bit before he finally breaks the tension

"So... stressed much?"

He'll let you rant to him about all of your classes, about your parents pressuring you, about how you're scared you're pushing away your friends by closing yourself off but you NEED to, everything

You'll feel him at your side, his hand rubbing your back gently

"(Y/N), you're like the smartest person I know. You don't have to prove anything to anyone about that. You're friends all know that exams are hectic, so you don't need to worry about us! I just worry about you when you stop taking care of yourself, (Y/N). So... let me take care of you, yeah? We'll get through this."

All-nighters aren't probably the healthiest thing, but Connie makes them fun and you guys are able to get through them without two pots of coffee

He let's you explain everything about your projects and he'll play devil's advocate a little bit during your essay, just asking you simple questions that you should answer in your paper. "--But why is that important?" and "--What about any opposing arguments?"

If you're memorizing terms for a quiz, he's making it a game, rewarding you with chocolate chips or something dumb whenever you ace your flashcards

Honestly he'd end up learning all of your terms too? I think a good way to learn something is to explain it to someone else (or just talk through it at least), so as you go through your terms and their definitions he is slowly starting to memorize them? He may not seem like the most studious person but he's definitely a quick learner

He also forces you to take breaks when you're starting to get overwhelmed though, which is also how you guys do his projects lol. "Why don't you put down your laptop and give yourself some space from your essay. Help me color in this poster and then we can look at your paper with fresh eyes, yeah?"

By the time your paper is done and your terms are all memorized, it's 4am and the sun is starting to peek through the tree line, and only then do you start to feel the weight of your overnight study session. Connie does too, and he nods towards your bedroom where you both collapse onto your mattress

"Don't go to class today," "What?" "C'mon, you need to sleep, you've got all your projects done, your paper is perfect, you need to sleep." and as he's pulling you towards him, rubbing your back, who are you to decline that offer?

Porco:

I feel like Porco is also very down-to-business, like Eren

Which can be extremely nice? He's very disciplined, so studying with him is perfect when you procrastinate too much and NEED to get your shit done

He probably gives you shit for procrastinating lol, sorry he just doesn't understand how you could do that to yourself?

He's an extremely busy guy, to the point where homework is probably fun for him, because it's the only thing he can really control (compared to his soccer practice and work schedule, that has set times)

Like he can get homework in class and then get it done immediately after, while the content is still fresh in his mind, and then his afternoon is free

So if you ask him to study with you sometime he might look at you a little funny because he doesn't really need to study that often?

But he's also a gentleman so he'll agree, inviting you over to his place sometime after soccer practice

He might save some homework to do in the evening with you, or he'll just sit there with a blank word document across from you because all of his homework is done LMAOO

But let's be real he'd never pass up a chance to spend some alone time with you

Love Porco to pieces but he's probably a bit dense when it comes to talking to people one on one?? Like people he's interested in

"Yeah, all the boys are playing COD right now and they want me to join but I said I had to study with you ://"

But then when you tell him that he can go play if he's done with his homework he's like "no shut up, stupid. I want to help you"

He'd lowkey be such a parent-type friend when it comes to studying at his apartment, like he has a dinky little platter of like vegetables out because it's good brain food, what a dork

You can convince him to order a pizza if you end up needing to stay later, and he orders your favorite toppings without you having to tell you what they are

"When Sasha and Niccolo hosted that make-your-own pizza thing two months ago, that's what you put on your pizza so I just figured that's what you liked I don't know"

When you ask him how much you owe him he just rolls his eyes. "Shut up and get back to writing your paper, dummy"

At one point he asks you how many pages your essay needs to be he is shocked??? He thought it was like a three page paper, so when you tell him it needs to be a minimum of twenty four pages he dies a little bit

"People have to write papers that long???" He might even call the pizza place back and order a dessert, paying the delivery charge and tipping a driver again just because he really had no idea that's why you were so stressed

You can definitely get him to take your mind off of studying by asking him about something relating to soccer or his family and he does not realize that you're doing it to get your mind off of your work, he's just happy to talk to you lol

Reiner:

He'd probably be similar to Porco in that he gets most of his homework done like right after class, it just makes more sense to him to do it that way

Like the content is fresh in his mind and then he doesn't have to worry about it

If it's a paper or something he just goes to the library immediately after class and gets lost in his research and then a couple hours later he leaves with at least half of it done, does the rest the next day

But I'm sure he still gets super stressed out about all his work

So when you ask him to study with you he's totally down, he could always review his notes for the 18th time!

When Reiner does need to study he cram studies in the most unhealthy way?? I bet he had a really healthy and disciplined way of studying in high school, but something about college and his anxiety just caused all of that academic discipline to go out the window

He could have a paper due in two months and if he puts it off for a day he starts to beat himself up over it :(

Still a good student obviously!! Just doesn't take care of himself as kindly as he should

When you guys study together it's different, because he'd hate to encourage you to treat yourself the same way he treats himself

You guys go and get lunch together before you study and he pays (duh), and he even suggests that you guys go on a walk or something before actually settling down to study

Maybe you talk about the work you need to done to plan what you need to get done today, what you can afford to put off until the next day, etc

Or maybe you talk about something else entirely, just about how nice the weather is! You both end up feeling refreshed and ready to get started once you make your way to the library

Since he's going to school for education he's probably extremely helpful when it comes to memorizing your terms and concepts

He'll make flash cards for the both of you with your respective content and you guys take turns quizzing each other

Unrelated but I bet he has decent handwriting?? But when he makes the flashcards for you both he makes sure it's all super neat and perfect, gets weirdly paranoid about misspelling a word or his handwriting looking bad, causing you to misspell a word on your exam day??

"Reiner, trust me, you're already helping me so much, I appreciate all you do for me!"

His face just goes bright red and he nods, unable to speak so he just goes back to making more flashcards

He'll print out your essay once you're done with it, paying the $0.94 per page charge for each draft, so he can highlight and annotate it for you

You explain to him that he can just edit it on his laptop but he refuses, he thinks he will do a better job editing with the hard copy in hand

Will 100% take you to get ice cream again once you guys are done studying, to recap how you did, whether you got done the stuff that you set out to, and plan another study date hangout

Levi:

I feel like Levi would be really intense when it comes to studying?

Like he just looks extremely focused in on his work, so it might seem like he's angry when you invite him to study with you in the library

But he insists that you go to his apartment instead. The library is going to be full of students trying to get their work done, and he can even cook for you afterwards, if you'd like

He writes down his apartment address and you agree to meet there at 3 o'clock sharp

When you get to his apartment there's classical music playing, he already has his laptop on with like four open books next to him so he can work on his literature paper

If you're also working on an English paper he has dozens of anthologies for you to borrow, if you're looking for a specific one he'll go to his bedroom (where he has a massive bookshelf) and will pull it out for you

"Bartleby the Scrivener? By Melville, yes? Hm, I think I have that in my seventh edition, let me--" and without waiting for response he's gone, and then he's back moments later with a massive text in his hand. He'll flip to it in the anthology and he'll set it on the table for you, "here, I've even annotated my copy"

Actually if you ask him to help you write your paper he would also be really helpful?? Very direct with it, but as long as you know that going into it, it's fine lol

I love the idea of him being a graduate student who teaches an undergrad/Intro to English Studies course, so he's extremely comfortable with helping you with your papers, even if they're not about English!

In group settings he can be really intense, and even though he's still extremely direct one-on-one, he is patient with you, and understanding as you explain what confuses you about your assignment

If you are going into this study session hoping for it to be a date of some sort, prepare to be disappointed because this man keeps his academics and his love life separate lol

Until he hears your stomach grumble!!

The second he does, he shuts his laptop and makes his way towards the kitchen to start dinner

"You can't do your best work on an empty stomach, and the noise will be distracting anyway," lmaoo

If you offer to help out he'll take it, maybe suggesting you prepare the vegetables while he makes the pasta sauce

He might brush a hand against the small of your back to signal you of his presence while reaching over to grab something next to you?? Like a spice or something

While you cook together, he'll ask you how your day was, he might even offer to pour you a glass of wine, so long as it doesn't spoil your appetite

He might smack your hand away from snacking on the vegetables you cook, but will also accept if you try and feed him one-- "to see if it's seasoned properly"!!

Levi would think about the taste for a second, humming with approval before turning back to focus on his entrée with a tinge of pink dusting his cheeks.

He will keep up this flirty energy all throughout dinner, but the second the dishes are washed and put away, he is opening up his laptop and going back to work, straight faced as ever oops

Zeke:

So cocky?? For no reason?? Someone put this man in a time out

"So you need my help, hm? I guess I can take a peek at your paper."

Even if you just ask to study with him, he's going to assume you need his help

Which can be nice if you're stubborn or have a hard time asking for help (like me lol)

He's extremely observant, so the moment you begin to reread a paragraph to see how to improve it, he's at your side. "Okay, what's the problem here"

He can tell by the way you furrow your brows, or the way you begin to read aloud quietly to yourself!! The man doesn't even understand why he's so lasered-in on you, he's basically studying you while you study lmao

I will always headcanon him as being a coach for a little league baseball team in his hometown, and he does most of his own homework on the train ride there and back

So when you ask him to study with you he's usually not doing much himself anyway, just there to help you out

Maybe he'll bring some papers to grad from the class he's TA'ing for, because he wants to show off a little bit hahahah

He'll even invite you to the classroom that he TA's in, because he knows that it's going to be empty by the time you finish your last class

Similar to Reiner, he'd prefer to edit your paper with a hard copy so he can 'grade it' with the rest of his undergrad essays, but he'll send you to the printer down the hall with his credit card, might even tell you to pick out something from the vending machine for yourself (they say chivalry is dead)

He's also extremely thorough though when editing your paper, gets so quiet that it's almost scary, but he's super encouraging and helpful with all of his notes, even just rewriting things for you in red ink in the margins

After he's finished he'll go through his revisions with you so that you understand why his rewrite of your thesis is stronger, more concise, so that in the future you know how to do it yourself

Not that he doesn't love to help you! But he wants you to learn the stuff

Honestly if he's helping you learn terms or remember concepts he is also using a whiteboard like Armin lol

I think Zeke would want to be a surgeon or oncologist to follow in his dad's footsteps, but I think he'd have a real gift for teaching and should go into that instead, he could teach one of his little league kiddos medical terminology and have them pass a test he's that good at teaching people

Talks with his hands a lot while he's explaining concepts to you, circles phrases and draws arrows connecting them to other ideas, basically acts as if he's a professor giving a lecture to you lol but it's okay because he looks hot doing it xoxo

He won't say much once you nail your practice term quiz or show him your final draft of your paper, just nod and give a little "hm, not bad, (Y/L/N)"

But deep down I think he'd be going crazy because Zeke loves an intelligent and competent partner?? I mean don't get me wrong he'd probably like someone less intelligent than him so he can a) feel better about himself and b) manipulate them without them knowing, but he'd be kind of speechless once he's aware of your intelligence and his heart is racing a little bit?? He doesn't realize he's experiencing feelings for the first time hahaha

For that reason, once you are done studying he is like "okay bye" and he is gone in like two seconds UNLESS you start up a conversation with him about little league, then you may be able to convince him to walk you back to your apartment (who's being manipulated now, Zeke)

AHH I'm so sorry this took so long!!! I hope you liked them!! My next set of headcanons is going to be some meet-cute scenarios that I think would lead to your relationship with the guys respectively, so this was tough!! I was torn between it being an established relationship or them kind of crushing on you/a study date-not-date type of thing?? But I really hope you liked them and I appreciate your patience with me :)

[ghoulbrain]

“Fuck yeah… where’d you learn that from?” for cooper x lucy? 👀

18+ vaultghoul. lucy has an unexpected talent. cooper is befuddled. dirty talk, oral.

Girls like Lucy are a rare find in the apocalypse. Even when she's covered in grime and filth, she has a newness to her that runs deep. Those big eyes of hers are always full of wonder for a world that's alien to her.

Despite how oh-so prettily she looks sitting down on her knees, it's that aura of naivete that has Cooper expecting her to fumble once she's got his pants undone.

She does not.

Lucy's gaze flickers up to meet his—eyes bright and focused—before she descends down on him, taking the thick head of his radiation scarred cock between her plush lips without an ounce of hesitance.

"Christ, woman," he grits out through yellowed teeth, sucking in a sharp breath. She swirls her tongue expertly, following the gnarled lines of flesh that run along his cock as if they're just veins to be teased.

He sighs uneasily, head tipping back. It's been awhile. A long while, and goddamn it, she's outpacing him. She hollows her cheeks, sucking a little harder on each backward pull before she relaxes to descend incrementally further.

He licks his lips, but even in the shade, the arid heat dries them as soon as his tongue passes over them. She's good at this.

In an effort to wrest back some sense of control, he curls his gloved fingers around her ponytail and gives a firm pull, drawing her back all the way to the tip. She doesn't fight him, she doesn't even seem surprised.

She fuckin' moans.

Cooper exhales roughly, cupping the side of her face with a low groan. He eases his grip and she slides right back down like she's hungry for it, hands braced on his inner thighs to hold them spread.

"'Atta girl," he breathes, easing his hips into a subtle rock, watching her intently. She relaxes her throat around the head of his cock so smoothly that he doesn't realize he's about to bottom out until her nose bumps into him.

"Fuck, where'd you learn that from, sweetheart? Pretty little thing like you with a mouth like that..." It's unreal. He holds her steady while he picks up a rhythm, fucking her mouth while her fingertips bite into his thighs.

She's done this before. He shouldn't be surprised. Despite the look of her, she's no stumbling foal. She's his little killer.

"Steady now, that's it... Hhah, that's it, hold still for me now, just-" his breath hitches, a ragged moan pulled from him the same time he comes hot and heavy into her pliant mouth, curling forward. It knocks the breath out of him, makes his head spin like the first hit of a vial.

Lucy pulls off of him with an obscenely wet pop. She turns her head to spit before wiping each corner of her mouth with her thumb, a coy smile tugging at the corner of her lips while she watches him recover.

"Fffuckin'..." Cooper trails off, at a loss.

"See? I know things," she says, far too unfazed for his liking, though there is a faint rasp to her voice that makes his spent cock throb. "Not exactly much else to do in the Vault."

"Ain't you all related by now?" He asks, voice reedy. He tucks himself back into his pants, eying the wet shine of her lips hungrily. He grabs hold of her suit collar and pulls her up.

"Just cousins," she answers breathlessly, licking her lips reflexively when his draw near.

His eyes meet hers, his brow creasing deeply. "What?"

"Uhm," she hesitates, gaze flickering from his to his lips. "Joke. Just joking," she says, hurriedly pushing in to close the gap between them. He lets her, welcoming the softness of her against the hard, twisted lines of his mouth.

Lucy has been a lesson in contradictions. For every soft curve of her there's a sharp edge to be found. Every time he thinks he's won, she flips his whole world upside down.

He tastes her tongue, meets it eagerly with his own, represses the urge to bite. She tastes as sweet as the ice cream he only remembers. He gives a low rumble against her lips before pushing her down onto her back so abruptly she lets out a satisfying little yelp.

"Alright, vaultie," he murmurs, running his tongue along his teeth. "My turn."

[descendant-of-truth]

I've been wondering if I should make this post for a while, but I'm just gonna come out and say it: the Sonic movies are not pro-military just because Tom is a police officer. I'd argue that the movies are pretty anti-military, actually.

So, let's talk about Tom first, since he's kind of the elephant in the room with this discussion. Tom is the sheriff to a small town where he rarely has to deal with any real crimes; he usually deals with more trivial problems like people's cars breaking down, and we see him help a family of ducks cross the street.

He's an officer partly out of a sense of obligation (reportedly his family has held this position in some way for over 50 years), and partly because he wants to be in a position where he can protect people in serious situations. His goal at the start of the first movie is to start working in a bigger city where he can be more helpful.

I won't say that Tom isn't something of an idealized vision of a cop, and that in the wrong hands, he could easily be used as a form of military promotion. But I think Tom is like this for a different, more specific reason: to be used as a sharp contrast to literally every other government official we see.

Question: who exactly is the villain in the first Sonic movie? Robotnik, yes, but who is he? What does he represent?

Well, he's pretty much the face of the military.

Robotnik is under direct orders from the government to look into the power outage incident, and that turns into a mission to capture (and experiment on) Sonic - and regardless if Robotnik was authorized to use lethal force, he does so anyway.

And the thing is, all of the higher-ups know he's unhinged and dangerous, but he keeps his job because he gets results regardless of his methods. Heck, the first thing we see him do is lie to Tom about who he is and what he's there for so he can get inside his house to search it. Not exactly the most flattering portrayal of military investigations.

(He even gets punched by Tom after forcing his way into the house anyway)

Tom then proceeds to spend the rest of the movie on the run from the government, going out of his way to protect Sonic (who is quite literally an illegal alien) at the risk of his own livelihood. Clearly, adhering to his job description is not something the movie views as morally correct here.

Second question: who's the villain of the second movie? Still Robotnik, but he's not employed by the government anymore, so he can't really represent them anymore, right?

No, but considering Sonic's adopted family was actively manipulated by a government spy, who was meant to marry his new aunt in order to target him, and Sonic proceeds to get tased and thrown into a cage along with Tails by the other military personnel present at the fake wedding... I think it's safe to say that they are, once again, a central antagonistic force in this series.

(Yeah they do a funny where the spy turns out to have fallen in love for real, but I think we can all agree that was done for the sake of keeping a whimsical tone and not to endorse what was actually happening with the government there)

Which brings us to the third movie, which is still unreleased at the time of writing this. And one final question: how exactly do you think they're planning to write an adaptation of Sonic Adventure 2?

They've already set GUN up as the villains. That alone is central to Shadow's backstory, and the writers have clearly done their homework on Sonic lore. And even if they've somehow wildly missed the messaging of the franchise they've made two successful movies off of, the fact of the matter is that there is no adapting SA2 without anti-military sentiments. Like, they would have to work pretty hard and completely butcher both the game and their own movies up to this point for that to come out being pro-military.

This part's more in speculation territory, but here's a thought: what do you think Tom is going to do when he finds out what happened to Shadow?

Remember, Tom is an idealized small town sheriff who has this job out of obligation. He hasn't had to deal with the darker side of all this stuff until he started protecting Sonic, which - just as a reminder - has led to his house being searched, his car being cut in half, Sonic almost getting killed at least twice, his sister-in-law being manipulated, Sonic and Tails getting locked in cages... I'm probably even missing a few things.

Once everything that happened 50 years ago comes to light (especially if the theorists are right about Tom's family having been involved in it), I honestly wouldn't be surprised if he just. quit being a police officer. or got into activism. or both.

But even if we limit the analysis to just the two movies that are out right now, I struggle to see how "Tom shirks his duties to protect an alien child from being experimented on by the government" is in any way a pro-military sentiment.

In conclusion: basically every problem in the Sonic movies is the fault of the government in some way, so can we please stop talking about the series as if Tom is singlehandedly making them pro-military, now. Thanks

[misc-obeyme]

Could I please request the brothers + side characters reacting to an MC who has an obsession with mugs? Like it’s quite literally taking over the kitchen. They cannot go a single outing without buying a cute mug that they see. There’s too many mugs. They won’t stop buying them. Thank you!

Hi there, anon!

This was super cute, I had fun writing it. Turns out I think most of our characters would be enablers lol.

GN!MC has a mug obsession and they're taking over the kitchen

Warnings: None!

Lucifer

He notices the first few times you bring home a new mug, but he doesn't think about it too hard. Until one day he goes into the kitchen and finds that there are too many mugs to fit in the cupboard. Now he's stressed about it. They can't even cook properly in there anymore.

He's going to make you get rid of some. MC, there are too many mugs. They don't fit in the cupboard anymore. You have to get rid of a few. If you refuse, he'll sigh and try to find a spot where they can build you a special mug shelf. But listen, if you fill up that shelf, there isn't space for another one. Please, you have to stop with the mugs.

If you're out and about with him and he sees you getting too close to some mugs, he will redirect you. He can't watch you all the time, so of course you still end up bringing home new ones, but if he can prevent it, he will. Distracts you with something else you like.

If you like to share your mugs, make Lucifer some hell coffee in one and bring it to him when he's buried deep in stacks of paperwork. The minute he drinks some and tastes how bitter it is, he's going to be attached to that particular mug of yours. This makes him less likely to force you to get rid of them.

Mammon

Okay, this mug situation is getting a little crazy. He noticed right away that you love mugs. You were always bringing a new one home. But uh… the cupboard's getting pretty full.

Still, he makes the problem worse because he's constantly buying you new ones. Any time he sees a cute mug, he thinks of you and wants to get it for you. He will deliberately show you the mugs if you're in a store that has them. Look at these mugs, MC! Ya need a new one, don't ya?

At some point, Mammon will start keeping some of your mugs in his room because Lucifer is losing his mind about it. When the shelf is finally installed, he brings them all back to the kitchen except for one that he keeps for himself. It has some special meaning for the two of you and he can't stand to part with it.

If you give him something to drink using one of your mugs, he's going to be so happy. Acts like it's no big deal, but he notices and he's thrilled. If you have soup bowl sized mugs in your collection, bring him some spicy instant noodles in one and watch him lose his mind. Really make him crazy by using a matching mug for yourself.

Leviathan

Collector solidarity. He knows this feeling, this need to buy just one more object of your obsession. Notices right away. Notices when you're constantly buying new ones and notices when the cupboard starts to overflow. This is an unacceptable state for your collection.

Lucifer may be the one who purchases the mug shelf, but Levi is the one who chooses it for you. He knows exactly what kind of storage unit to get so that they can be displayed in all their glory. Let him show you how best to organize your collection, MC!

Absolutely ready to help you collect as many mugs as possible, but he's especially good at locating unusual and rare ones. Limited edition mugs? He gets his hands on them somehow. Handmade one of a kind mugs? Watch him procure some for you. In fact, he might even make you one himself. Levi is nervous to give it to you, but he manages somehow.

Considering how you can't help yourself from buying mugs, you likely end up with some that are themed around his special interests. Give him something to drink in a Ruri mug and you might never get it back. Unless he's the one who got it for you, then don't worry he already has three of his own.

Satan

Another collector who understands, but organization is not his priority. Have you seen this guy's room? He's going to think you should just pile the mugs around where they're within easy reach. Why display them on a shelf at all? Doesn't actually mind the state of the kitchen when the mugs are everywhere.

When you get the shelf, though, he does help you come up with a storage method that makes sense to you. Satan's books may be in disarray, but he still knows where every single one is. Helps you figure out how to organize them in a way that works for you, too. It may mystify everyone else, but the two of you are on the same wavelength about it.

Kind of in the middle when it comes to enabling your obsession. On the one hand, he loves to see how happy you get when you purchase a new cute mug. But on the other hand, he knows that bringing yet another mug into the house might cause the end of Lucifer's sanity. So whether or not he tries to distract you from them just depends on his mood that day. If he's particularly annoyed at Lucifer, he'll try to get you to buy multiple mugs.

Bring him something to drink in any cat themed mug you have and he starts feeling things. You really know what he likes, don't you, MC? Come sit with him while he drinks this. He wants to chat with you about your mugs.

Asmodeus

Mugs! Mugs everywhere! MC, you silly little thing. It's so cute the way you keep bringing mugs into the kitchen, but the place is getting kind of cluttered. He doesn't mind them and he thinks it's really cute that you do this, but you know… they still have to be able to use the kitchen.

Loves your mug shelf. Always helps you pick out whatever mug you want to use that day. If you drink coffee every morning, this will become a daily ritual with him. Choosing the right mug in the morning will set the mood for your entire day, after all.

Does not try to distract you from buying more at all. He's going to pick out some for you. He will buy you more if he sees one that makes him think of you. He will actually design one for you himself. Asmo gets a whole line of mugs made, all of which feature his original designs. But there's one he does just for you. It's so limited edition that you're the only one who owns one.

Fully appreciates any time you bring him something to drink in one of your mugs. Especially loves when you've clearly chosen one you think he'll like. You might lose a couple to him, though, when he discovers how handy they are for holding makeup brushes.

Beelzebub

Due to the fact that Beel is always in the kitchen, he is aware of your mug obsession right away. Notices when they really start to pile up. Doesn't mind, though. Just moves them out of the way as needed.

He's actually rather happy about the addition of the mug shelf to the kitchen. It gives him something to look at while he's scarfing down whatever's in the fridge. He likes to look through your mugs and identify any new ones that have been added recently. He really likes your newest mug, MC.

Does not encourage or discourage the purchasing of new mugs, but if he sees one he thinks you'll really like, he'll point it out for you. Considering how often he sees the collection, he probably knows it pretty well. He'll be able to tell you if you have a mug like that already or not.

Bring him a drink in one and he'll recognize it immediately. If you really want to make him happy, show him how to make something like mug cake or a brownie in a mug. Bring him ice cream in one of your mugs. Get creative in any way with making food for him in any of your mugs and he'll be so happy. He's thrilled that you not only brought him food, but you made it yourself in one of your precious mugs.

Belphegor

Only gets annoyed about the mugs when it's his turn to do dishes or cook. Seriously, MC, your mugs are taking up so much space in the kitchen. They're everywhere. It makes it hard to do anything in there, you know?

Cares a lot less about it when the shelf is installed. In fact, if there's a big enough gap, he's going to start sleeping under the shelf. It's a cozy spot there in the kitchen and he gets to hang out in there with Beel while he's eating and still get some sleep in.

Due to Lucifer constantly trying to prevent you from buying new ones, Belphie is absolutely going to deliberately show you where the mugs are in any store you're in. He wants to watch Lucifer scramble to stop you. He will show mugs to his brothers too because he knows they'll want to get them for you.

Before you can even think to bring him something to drink in one of your mugs, he's going to choose one from your collection that he informs you is his. This one mug of yours is actually his, he's just letting you keep it with the rest. You always bring him drinks in it. Every time you do, he notices and blushes a little bit, but he never says anything about it.

Diavolo

Hears about the mug problem happening at the House of Lamentation and thinks it's just about the cutest thing he's ever heard. No doubt he first heard it from Lucifer who was likely complaining about the situation, but you know the complaints basically went in one ear and out the other. Diavolo just heard MC collects mugs and that's it.

Comes over to the house to see the new mug shelf. Brings you a set of new mugs to add to it. They are high quality mugs and they're pretty unique too. You put them on the top of the shelf because these are officially Special Occasion mugs. Wants to know about all the mugs. Tell him where you obtained all of these, MC! He wants to hear all about it.

Constantly finding new mugs to bring you. Always brings you one when he comes over. Sometimes he buys you a new one, but sometimes he just takes one from the castle to give to you. Drives Barbatos crazy at first when random mugs go missing until he figures it out. Starts keeping extras so Diavolo can bring you whatever mugs he wants.

Whenever he's there, bring him something to drink in one of your mugs and he's going to be so happy. Since he doesn't live with you at the House of Lamentation, if you choose a set of matching mugs and give one to him to take back to the castle, he's going to lose his mind. Refuses to use any other mug but that one.

Barbatos

He's perfectly happy to hear about how your mugs have taken over the kitchen at the House of Lamentation. Finds it humorous. But you know that if it was his kitchen, your mugs wouldn't stand a chance. He wouldn't get rid of them or anything, but he would absolutely keep them washed and categorized. They would always be put away safely. He would have a whole storage area for ones you don't use as often.

Pleased to learn of the new shelf Lucifer got for your mugs. When he's over visiting, he doesn't comment on it other than to say something about how your collection is growing. He doesn't expect his level of dedication to such things here - he's just glad you guys have done something to keep the collection in check.

He won't buy you a lot of mugs himself, but he won't prevent you from purchasing new ones, either. He might show you some other things - after all, don't you realize how superior teacups are to mugs, MC? Here, let him show you. However, he does find a mug that is also a tea pot and he gets that for you the instant he sees it. It's like the perfect combination of his interest and yours.

When it becomes evident that you are always wanting to use your mugs, Barbatos makes sure you have a nice group of them at the castle. That way whenever you come over, he can serve you tea using one of the mugs from your collection. Keeps teacups nearby in case you decide you want to use one, but defaults to one of your mugs.

Simeon

Kind of in the middle about it. He loves to see how happy you are when you get a new mug, but he also thinks you should probably try to keep your collection from getting out of hand. It's really taking over the kitchen, you know? That can't be safe.

Definitely becomes a little less concerned when the shelf comes into the picture. At least now you've got a place to keep them all out of the way. He wouldn't even have considered using the House of Lamentation's kitchen while it was so cluttered. But now he might use it if he's there for something.

He's worried about Lucifer's stress level, so he's far more likely to distract you from buying additional mugs. Steers you away from them whenever he can and doesn't usually get you any himself. He will make exceptions sometimes, though. If he sees a mug that he just knows is going to make you incredibly happy for some reason, he can't resist. He might also get one for a special occasion.

More than happy to use one if you bring him something to drink in it. He's actually really creative about cooking with mugs, too, and comes up with all kinds of random pastry ideas for them. They're great little containers for making a single serving of something. Simeon gets the idea to incorporate your mug collection into baking desserts for parties. What do you think of a little cheesecake in a mug, MC?

Solomon

He thinks it's hilarious. Any time he's at the House of Lamentation, he uses magic to expertly stack your mugs. They look rather precarious, but don't worry, they won't fall! Once the shelf becomes a thing, he offers to use magic to make it hold a lot more than it normally can. Kind of like one of those bottomless bags, this is a never ending shelf. You can put mugs on it forever.

If this is happening in the Nightbringer timeline and you've got your mug collection in the kitchen at Cocytus Hall, you can be sure Solomon will enable you. Don't worry, he'll go the Lucifer route and make you some kind of storage situation for them, but unlike Lucifer he'll never make you get rid of any. Does the same kind of magic that makes it so you can keep adding new mugs until the end of time.

Absolutely buys you more mugs. Gets you special ones, makes you magic ones, constantly adding to the problem. Never tries to distract you, always points them out instead. Ask him for any kind of mug magic and he's on it. You want a mug that always stays hot? Done. Need a mug that never spills? He can do that too.

You know, MC, these mugs are just the right size for mixing potions. He can't help but wonder if the material would change how the potions turn out. Give him some to use and he'll be so excited. Keeps them forever, even if it turns out that making potions in mugs is not really very effective. Keeps ingredients in them. Just make sure you never drink from one of the mugs that end up with him.

Luke

MC! Your mugs are everywhere! Why do you need so many? You'll have to explain to him that you just have a collection because you love mugs so much. He's still concerned about the state of your kitchen. How do you cook anything in there?

Calms down quite a bit once the shelf exists. Probably rearranges it every time he sees it. Because you guys are not very good at keeping those mugs in check so he has to take it upon himself. When he's there, let him choose his own mug to drink from. He might end up choosing the same one every time. Make him happy by giving it to him. He'll bring it back to Purgatory Hall and insist on using it every single day.

Tries to follow Simeon's example by preventing you from purchasing more mugs when he can. However, he also really likes to see how happy you get when you find a new one you like. Sometimes can't resist showing you because he wants to see you smile. Let him pick out which one you get.

Fascinated by mug baking. Makes Simeon teach him how to do it. Ropes Barbatos into making them, too. Starts just making himself little mug cakes whenever he gets a craving for something sweet. Always uses the mug you gave him. Maybe give him a couple more so he can have a rotation.

masterlist | Thank you for reading!

[swan2swan]

Huh, your Black Clover post reminded me of a train of thought I had about Shonen Female Leads? What makes for a good one period and what makes for one that is good in spite of the story around them?

Furthermore what does it mean for them to be "useless" as opposed to just not being the main asskicker of the lead cast? Apologies if this turns into something way too complicated.

Not at all!

So, there are several categories of "Useless" that female characters can fall into. One is the "Actually Useless", where you can cut them out and things don't really change. Examples being Tenten, Ururu, Loly and Menoly, probably some girls in One Piece...yes, Ururu helps with Ichigo's training and stalls Ilfort, but she's mostly just there to provide a sense of scale for the enemies. This is honestly usually what they're for. And it's fine, mostly...there's plenty of useless dudes, too. Jinta isn't exactly more useful than Ururu, save for his cute subplots with Karin. They're really just There, and that's...not usually the issue with the Female Characters we're talking about. You need to be a bigger hitter.

The more prominent ones are the Winless Ones. They might be important to the plot, but they ain't gonna carry a fight. This becomes MUCH more dangerous to their integrity. Hinata and Sakura kinda fall into this category: they're USEFUL, ridiculously so, and they have Big Moments, but they'll get scorned by a fandom because they're really only there to be the Side Character Woman. Often they'll get a Dedicated Chick Fight (this also happens to villains). Orihime is often viewed similarly: obviously, being a medic is CRUCIAL to Story Progression, having your Dedicated Healer is essential to keep the story going (see also: Bulma in the Namek Arc), but they're rarely going to have their Big Moments like that.

It's also a very, very sliding scale...but what I generally want for a Successful Female Character in an anime is for her to have the same bloody, tooth-grinding, hard-fought, well-planned victories that we read and watch shonen to see. I want them screaming with fury, mustering up all their energy, pulling out combos, unleashing hidden techniques, and finally persevering. It's fine if they fall short against a big opponent once or twice! Happens to everyone in Shonen! But by the fifth time your Female Lead finds herself fighting an opponent and almost dying before The Hero or the Antihero or the Mentor or The Squad pulls up to save her...sometimes it can get tiring.

And while shows like MHA did put out a good crop of girls to fight, most of the focus of plotlines and battles tends to fall on Deku, Bakugo, Todoroki, Dabi, Endeavor, and THEN onto Ochako, Momo, and Toga (the Ochako-Toga fights are all pretty good, but again, Chick Fights). JJK did okay with Maki, Nobara, and Mei Mei, but even they kinda pale compared to Gojo, Itadori, Nanami, and such (though she is certainly lively and memorable!!!).

Black Clover, though? Noelle's right in there with Yuno and Asta. In the recent epsiodes, she kept those shields up, kept saving people, and was fighting the whole darn time alongside Asta the Protagonist. Her powers grow, she fades a little as they do a whole arc focused on Vanessa's growth...Mimosa stays involved...and while the anime's current point hasn't really given Noelle any W's that I can remember, her biggest loss is to an enemy that SCREAMS "I am going to get my power level up, come back, and crush you". And I can't wait for that.

Also, she lost her WHOLE DARN POWERSET in the movie and still fought through, joined the battle, powered up, and...iirc...netted a W.

She's still playing third fiddle to Asta and Yuno, but she's more prominent than almost any other female SC I can think of. Short of Erina and Megumi in Food Wars.

[parab0mb]

So, now that I finished the game (again) and the DLC chapters, I'm going to ramble about Crosscode C:

This game is really bizarre in the sense that, to be completely 100% honest, there isn't any particular part of the game that I think is all that mind-blowing. But all the individual elements (heh) of the game come together so well that the resulting product ends up being so much stronger and memorable than the sum of its parts.

Like, most indie games have one or several notable flaws or shortcomings (and understandably so) but this game is such an airtight experience that I can't help thinking about it and just being like "the how HECK is this game so GOOD?!"

...I am of course just getting started, I've got a wall of text of things I liked and thought her just "meh" under the 'keep reading' if you're interested (you've been warned (also spoilers obviously)):

The combat is definitely one of the strongest elements of the game and probably one of my personal favorites; its brutally difficult and sometimes feels like bullshit (and maybe there is one or two instances where it actually is just bullshit) but once you get the hang of it is really is flashy and satisfying and makes you feel badass to pull off. Plus its got the whole easy to learn, hard to master thing going on (like most of it is just charging SP and pressing the space bar, but knowing what moves to use and when def play into things).

I dunno how much of a hot take this is, but I really liked the puzzles in this game! I won't deny that they can sometimes drag on and interrupt the pacing of a temple, but personally I didn't mind. And just like the combat they're so well constructed that, while you'll spend minutes staring blankly reminded that you're a simple-minded creature and that the human mind wasn't made for this and you should be foraging for mushrooms in the woods and risking death over your next meal, they rarely feel impossible to solve without having to resort to a playthrough and are really satisfying to finally figure out (not to brag but there was exactly one puzzle in the game where I had to look up the solution and another where I did solve it on my own but then looked it up cause I thought I cheesed it by mistake). At first I wasn't a huge fan of how fast/precise you have to be for some puzzles on top of just finding out the solution in the first place, but after a while you kinda get used to it (and there is an option to slow things down which is really nice of the devs to include).

The story is... pretty alright. Yeah. I honestly don't have much to say about it. Bit of a slow pace, does the job, and has it's share of twists and emotional moments, but the narrative itself doesn't really do anything mind-blowing either so... you know. I definitely think it's the characters themselves that are memorable and prop up an otherwise average story. I mean every single one of them is just the hugest goober and even characters who initially seem forgettable or one-dimensional end up subverting your expectations and being super endearing/compelling/layered. Oh yeah, and Lea is a character that can only say like 10 words and SHE DESERVES THE WORLD I WOULD KILL FOR H-

Also, since the DLC is brand new to me I do wanna say that the ending was the tiniest bit underwhelming. Like you break into Vermillion Wasteland, fight a (surprisingly easy) boss, and that's... just it. Like 20 minutes top. I dunno, it feels like... something was missing. Still thoroughly enjoyed the entire thing and it is nice for the cast to get their happy ending (not quite as emotionally impactful as the base game's end imo, but still great and I'm glad they gave us more time with these dorks).

The platforming and navigating the overworld is tedious, which sucks a bit since that makes up a good chunk of the game. Idk man, having to scale different elevations of platforms is made frustrating by the fixed camera and the fact that the different "levels" of platforms aren't distinct from each other at all, so its easy to get duped by the perspective and jump to something you can't actually reach (yes you can use projectiles to check but it still isn't fun). Even without everything blending into each other visually, trying to find which obscure paths from four rooms ago will bring you to a chest just isn't all that enjoyable (some of the later maps like Sapphire Ridge were okay though, if only cause they started to have actually interesting puzzles to do). Basically they're just... there, between the actually fun stuff.

The trading system and farming for resources is confusing and kind of a chore. That's all I got.

Guess I'll touch on the art/music since I don't have too much to say about them. To be perfectly honest I'm not actually super crazy about the artstyle (blasphemy!), but I won't deny that the sprite-work and overall aesthetic are still super-well done, even if they aren't my personal taste (tl;dr I'm neutral on it). The soundtrack isn't something I'd put on my phone and listen to in the car, but like the art it's still well-made and perfectly suits the mood of/drives the emotional impact of the game, and there are still a handful of standout bangers (Lea's theme will live rent-free in my brain of course).

One last thing I'll say (that I mentioned before) is that as fun as this game is, it feels like a commitment to get through at times. Even when I first played it and had more free time, sometimes this game just felt "imposing" to pick back up after a break. Idk its hard to describe, but at least for me it was hard to play any other games alongside this (especially with my limited free time) which kinda sucked a bit.

To wrap things up, if I had to give the game an arbitrary number rating, I have to give Crosscode a 0/10 because its an indie game that doesn't have a fishing game (smh honestly how could they make such an obvious mistake 😔).

[strawberry-cowmilk]

top 10 saddest quotes in obey me

a/n: I'm suffering from having 0 idea of what to write next and my previous shitpost like this did surprisingly well, so here we are. (I actually posted this before but it didn't show up on tags??) Again, this post is all jokes. I'm sorry if I accidentally offend anybody.

no image belongs to me, I just filtered and cropped the screenshots from the game.

content warnings: shitpost! everything is all jokes, mild strong language

-----

10

This is a harsh reality many Mammons live in: zero money. You know why? Because they often get hung up upside down, so the cash falls out of their pockets. The Mammons hate it very much, and it's scary for them, but this one is showing his deep fear to the Leviathan to show he really has no money. The fact that the Levi looks like he doesn't believe the other male is truly devastating to look at.

.

9

What we see here, dear people, is a wild Beelzebub who stole a Leviathan's food, and proudly quotes the Joey guy from Friends while doing so. While it is not uncommon for such orange-haired males to steal food, it is sad when it happens to a Levi. Think about it, where do we go to get food when it's all finished? Exactly, the supermarket, which is outside. And what do Leviathans hate? The outside. This poor Levi now has to go outside for food.

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8

Mammon has returned, this time not sharing his own hardships, but making life hard for another species: Satans. Many people don't know this, but recent studies have shown there are two kinds of Satan, gold and silver. Silver Satans are more emotional than the gold ones, so calling one cheap is very painful for them, dangerous too. Why? All Satans express emotions by throwing destructive tantrums. By the way, our research team couldn't determine what the Simeon is thinking. Hypothesis says he's thinking about an Mc's glutes.

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7

Speaking of glutes, look at this heartbroken Asmodeus. It's in his name, ASSmodeus. Clearly, this kind of male loves ass as much as he loves the mirror section at IKEA and fake plants bugs won't sit on combined. This Asmo had spotted some potential mate with, in his words, 'a pretty nice derriere.' Imagine the pain he felt when the mate, potentially a Mc dressed as a succubus at a Halloween party, vanished from sight. Scientists were brought to tears by this image. So sad.

.

6

Many of us can relate to this poor Belphegor. It's a sad reality we live in: waking up everyday from precious sleep to go to work, school, or to see your laundry you forgot to fold. As we know, Belphegors enjoy sleep, and are able to sleep in any situation. That is how much they love visiting dreamland. Our team of researchers believe this is due to the fact that Belphegors dream about auditioning for the position of the lead singer of Evanescence, and getting said part. This is their dream they get to live in. Imagine waking up. Ouch.

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5

Oh my, what a rare sighting! Wild Raphaels don't appear often in front of people. But, think about the reason we found a Raphael. He said it himself, he is missing. The poor thing. Imagine how much he misses his mom. The fact he used the word 'still' indicates he's been lost for a good while. Poor Raphael, we all hope he finds his mom soon.

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4

When you first look at this, you might think there isn't much sadness to it. But what if I told you our research team found out what the context behind this image is? You see, the Lucifer is talking to an Mc. Said Mc just woke up from a dream and they're still half-sleeping. Sadly the dream was way better than their reality: the Lucifer actually unbuttoned the highest button of his shirt in it. This Mc wishes it was also the case in their reality. One of our researchers quit because this was way too emotional.

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3

Now, on with the real tear-jerkers. First, I have to point out how sweet it is of the Asmo to try to cheer the Levi up. But, we've all been in this position the Leviathan is in right now. And we sure know how painful it is to relive those memories. Nobody wants to remember the terrible things they did as a young child at 3AM while trying to sleep after all. Just look at this Levi's body language, he's completely shut himself off from the world. I actually cried.

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2

Oh the pain. The pure emotion packed into this phrase, the hint of sorrow behind his eyes, the blush, indicating the Satan was crying. That's too much, man. Good thing the nearest Mc came running to give this Satan a hug. We have to admit, our team wasn't able to find the context to this image. However, the most popular theory states that the Satan was trying to catch a cat, but it ran away and told him a yo mama joke.

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1

I needed a moment before even looking at this. Poor Diavolo, getting absolutely clapped in Mario Kart. Everyone hates losing in that game, but it's worse for Diavolos. Mcs rank them not by attractiveness or anything, no, but by skill in Mario Kart. That means this Diavolo's love life got ruined, by his own friend. If that isn't sad, I don't know what is.

[moider-time]

Don't be shy tell the public abt our Romeo and Juliet bruharvey au 👀👀👀

👀👀 oh y'all ain't ready lol tbh I doubt I'm gonna do this justice (and bestie I am so stealing some of your lines cause your writing?? so good)

Let's set the scene. We have the Dents (Montagues) and the Waynes (Capulets) who are at war in the streets of Gotham. Christopher Dent thinks he can try and step to Martha and her empire despite so many other people telling him otherwise.

Gilda and Harvey recently split and he's not really in the best mental space. Well he thought focusing on work was a perfectly good distraction but according to Ivy "trying to burn out your retinas by reading legal mumbo jumbo is not fucking healthy, Dent!" So Ivy and Martinez decide that he needs a night out so they drag him to a fancy dress party to de-stress. And that's where he sees him and knows he'll never be the same.

Now Bruce hasn't been on speaking terms with his parents for a while. Not since he saw his mama Martha shoot someone. He still remembers how their blood soaked the pavement, their chest stuttering as if not sure what to do. What hurt even more was seeing Martha blank-faced, not touched by the wriggling of the man in front of her. (This couldn't be the same woman who played Princes & Princesses with him - that dressed him up and made him feel loved. It couldn't be. Why is it her?)

So he leaves, gets a small apartment in well, not the best part of Gotham but it could be worse. He focuses on his passion for art and he's not struggling but his job doesn't lend itself to financial stability. Especially not when he has his babies to think about. He still keeps in touch with Harley and when she invites him for a night out with her and Selina and rightfully brings up him rarely leaving his apartment, he can't exactly say no.

So he makes sure Dick, Cass, Jason and Tim are tucked in, kisses them on the forehead, triple locks the door and heads out. He doesn't think he'll spend that long, just enough time to relax and spend time with his sister and friend. And of course it's at this party that he sees him.

Both Harvey and Bruce can agree that they never expected to see someone so pretty at this party. They see each other across the room but find it hard to push past the ever shifting masses so they can satisfy the attraction between them.

Harvey can feel the heat of eyes across his skin, his scars. He doesn't mind when people stare after all, there's no point in caring about something you can't change. He'll always be him, and people will always be people. And anyway, he'd rather have them judge the ones on the surface. The other ones; the scars he and Jessica shared from the tip of their spine to the belt of their waists, those were worse. Those were personal. Those you kept in the house.

When they finally meet, their eyes lock and their bodies graze against each other. Bruce acknowledged him with fascination instead of disgust. As if his scars were a physical trait out of the ordinary, like purple eyes or blue hair, but not inherently disturbing.

"I like your rings," he said, dropping his doe eyes to Harvey's hands. He hated them because they were silver. He started loving them again.

"Do you want one?"

Bruce smiled with his whole mouth, "Only if you take some of mine"

The music shifts so something soft and slow and as they swap rings, their bodies begin to sway and dance. Harvey carries Bruce's sapphire blue ring on a chain right above his heart. A silent promise of sorts. Bruce wears a small coiling snake with a white diamond as one eye and a black one as the other on his thumb and even then it's a bit loose. And doesn't that sight just leave Harvey breathless?

Neither of them know when they start to lean in, when their breath starts to mingle. Bruce, standing on his toes and asking if Harvey's ok with this. Saying it's alright if he isn't, that he shouldn't feel pressur- And Harvey leans down to connect their lips while they're moving to their own music.

Kissing Harvey felt like nothing else he could've imagined. Bruce had kissed a total of 3 people by his age of 29. Selina in middle school, bored and grumpy with having to act the damsel in distress in their school play. Oliver, when they were 16 and curious, scrubbing their lips until they bled and Khoa. The last lover, the love who outlived all Bruce was.

Harvey kissing him now undid 4 years of pain. It awoke romance from its graveyard sleep and spread something lovely and gentle but aggressive and savage in Bruce still. They floated through the music, not noticing or maybe uncaring of the footsteps approaching them. Bruce floated when Thomas dragged him out the door, a snake on his finger and whiskey on his lips. He hoped Harvey floated when Jessica did the same.

[deathianartworks]

Do you have any coloring tips? I'm trying to get better at coloring but it's hard :/ everything looks so out of place and I lose motivation fast

Of course!

By no means am I an expert on this (I still forget to choose a light source 90% of the time) but here's a few things that I do when I'm colouring something digitally. Remember these are all individual to the way I make art so they may not all be applicable to yours and are simply me explaining how I do colours, not a tutorial for all colouring styles.

Buckle up folks, this one's a long one (sorry in advance!!)

Here goes nothing.

Losing motivation is totally normal and okay, take a break if you need it, maybe send it to some friends for some hyping up (art servers full of other artists are great for this!). Colours ain't gonna look perfect first time you try to do them, I never put down a colour that I like first time, it takes some messing around and asking friends for me to get them down.

So don't feel pressured to get them perfect in the beginning, that rarely happens!

Here's a mini explanation of how I do my colours, hope it will help a little :)

1) GET THOSE BASE COLOURS IN!!

It doesn't matter if they're not exactly what you're going for rn, go with roughly the colour you want and start there! Personally, I do big blotches of colour just to get something down on the page as this helps me want to actually finish it. Then you clean up those edges so they're all in their correct spaces.

I've found that working on a neutral mid-tine grey background helps you see the colours best at the start so all of my 'paper' starts off grey when working digitally.

Here's the example I'm going to be using (this is from the ghost files fanart I'm working on)

2) ADJUST THOSE COLOURS!!

So, now you've got those colours down, you can adjust them to be roughly how you want them to look. If you're unsure on what colours look best together, you can either take some time out, find some YouTube channels and learn a little about colour theory... OR you could grab some colour pallettes from online and have a play around with gradient maps or simply placing the colours in yourself. There's no shame in using resources like those, that's literally what they're there for.

I didn't need to do this on this drawing as I was happy with the colour selection. This is because I chose the background colour and simply adjusted the hue and saturation slightly until I got the colours I wanted. This is my general technique for choosing colours as my work tends to be fairly similarly coloured (browns, oranges, reds, yellows with hints of purple)

3) ✨SHADING✨

Right, well done! You've got your base colours in.

...but oh god, what now?? They look so flat and lifeless, what shall you do?!

This, my friend, is where shading comes in. It's both a way of telling the viewers where the light and shadows are, can change the mood of the drawing, can change what we feel about a character or it can just look real pretty but shading and lighting does all sorts of fun things to a drawing.

If your style is more simple and doesn't require shading/has minimal shading: apply this tip to any shading you do have and don't forget the importance of rim lighting in simpler styles.

For shading both skin and clothes, I use the original colour, shift it down into a darker shade and on the colour wheel I shift it down too (eg. shading green with blue, red with purple) sometimes you can shift that even further to create similar shading to the one above, where I shaded orange/brown with pinks/purple's.

The principle is the same with highlights but like,,, opposite. Shift everything up, shade browns with yellows, blues with greens, etc.

SIDENOTE ON HOW I COLOUR SKIN:

Okay so, these next two paragraphs are based entirely from what I've learnt during studies and aren't rules, just simply how I do it.

For lighter skin tones, I tend to start from one of the lightest colours and shade darker, like you would if you were working with something like watercolours. This allows you to build up shadows in areas of darkness. Once you've done the shadows, you can then go in and add highlights and lighter sections where necessary.

For darker skin tones, I tend to start at one of the darkest values, as dark skin tends to reflect light differently to light skin. Then I add lighter shades in sections that the light would reflect. You can add shadows too, I tend to add them if the drawing still feels flat after doing the highlights.

3) OVERLAY + MULTIPLY LAYERS ARE YOUR BEST FRIEND

These things are literally lifesavers for me, I love an overlay layer.

I can't really explain what they actually do so I'm not even gonna try, just play around with them. But using a purple/blue multiply layer and erasing where the light hits, that makes the illusion of full shading without the same effort of painting in the shades.

Overlay layers are 100% a 'fuck around and find out' resource, I tend to use red and pink overlay layers as my colours tend to be more desaturated and this helps with brightening them up. However they can also be used to change the genre/mood of the drawing, like this:

These two drawings are the exact same. There's no difference between them other than an overlay gradient map layer in green or sepia. (These gradient maps are built into clip studio paint, I'm not sure about other programs)

But the whole vibe is completely different. So yeah, fuck around with different colour schemes and overlay layers (the bi flag colours are a great choice for experimenting with overlays as the colours are naturally very harmonious so maybe start there.)

You can also try a noise later for a bit of texture, it's my go-to fix it for any drawing ngl

Uhhhhh, yeah. That was lengthier than I expected, hope it helps even in the slightest. As I said at the top, I am by no means an expert and am still figuring things out myself, so just fuck around and find out.

Bye now!

[drifting-pieces-blog-blog]

Breaking down the comics: BENDIS. PART 2.

READING THINGS SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO! 

See Part 1 HERE. 

And we’re back! Weeeee! 

Here’s some more brief Comic book history! 

Alright, so it's always been brought up that ALL the heroes live in New York and no where else. 

So back in 1985, they came up with "The West Coast Avengers". They operated out of Palos Verdes, California. 

A lot of readers considered them to be the B team of heroes even though it had bigger names. 

It had Hawkeye, Mockingbird, Wonder Man, Tigra, and Iron Man. 

It ran until about 1994 then petered out. 

It was revived in 2018 with Hawkeye, Kate Bishop, Gwenpool, America Chavez, Quintin Quire, and Johnny Watts. 

I know who, like... half those people are. 

It got canceled again in 2019. 

So... There is a chance that Moon Knight and Echo was Marvel testing out the waters for another California based set of heroes. 

Considering how this run ends… I’m going to say they kinda sabotaged themselves? 

Issue #6! 

Not a fan of this cover either. Is his art going down hill? Was he getting rushed? If this was the case, why did he keep doing his own covers? Why are his hands so big and weird there? Why is everyone staring at the reader so disapprovingly? 

TRIGGER WARNINGS: It’s occurred to me that I need to figure out trigger warnings for this run, because they are there. They aren’t as straightforward as Bemis’ run was. Or even as blatantly obvious as Aaron’s. But I know they are there. How? Because I inadvertently triggered myself pretty hard with this issue so if I got triggered, I know there needs to be a warning. 

These are going to be a bit more specific and a bit more vague. And I know this because I have some VERY specific triggers that aren’t exactly commonplace. 

**Dissociation, possible derealization, possible depersonalization, mentally struggling, cry for help unheard…. Something in that general thought house without being overly obvious. Does that make sense? These next issues are going to get very difficult when it comes to how he starts to depict Marc’s mental illness and how much he starts to drown without anyone helping him. As well as wrongly depicting WHAT mental illness he has and overall generalizing mental illness as a whole into one big problem**

This is going to be your only warning. Please treat yourself with kindness. 

SO! 

Opening up, we find ourselves back with Buck, who is examining the Ultron head while he has the news on in the background. 

On the news: "Has the mysterious Moon Knight made Los Angeles his new home?" 

I love how Moon Knight is still always 'mysterious'. 

"Residents of West Hollywood were treated to a very rare super hero appearance as Moon Knight had a run-in with local law enforcement." 

Then we see amature footage of Moon Knight zooming by on the back of a car. 

....This is not the first or last time we have ever seen him just standing on the top of a vehicle that's driving away. He has a ....HISTORY...with vehicles. 

"Has Moon Knight made Los Angeles his quote unquote Territory? And is this the beginning of a New West Coast Avengers?" 

Buck pauses and calls up a secret number then gives them a code. 

The person on the phone tells them that they "No longer have that item in stock". 

He declares a "Code White" and asks to speak to agent 13.

They tell him that they'll see what they can do then hang up. 

Hmmmm...

Back at Marc's place, we see him taking a shower. Lots of blood to wash off. Not to mention the punched up face. 

Captain America tells him to get sleep. 

This is why Captain America needed to be Steven Grant. He’s trying to take care of them. To take care of the body. To come up with strategy and plans. Also trying to take care of Marc, who is spiraling a bit. Alright, and we're back with Night Shift. 

They're about to explain to the boss lady Snapdragon why they failed and had to be bailed out of jail. 

"I'm looking for one stripper and one C-List crazy Super Hero and I sent the, let's see, 1-2-3-4-5-6 of you. I sent SIX against TWO." 

(Everyone always makes this mistake against Moon Knight. He fights best against groups. One big guy? He's gonna get his ass handed to him a bit. But a group? Half the time his fighting style ends up using the group against themselves! He is trained in the art of fighting when the odds are not in his favor! HE WAS A SPECIALIST FOR CRYING OUT LOUD.) 

The leader, Tik Tok? Asks to make it up and face Moon Knight again at no additional charge. 

The BIG boss isn't interested. In fact, he's there himself. 

He shows up and the team is pretty scared. 

We've seen this guy's silhouette a couple times and I gotta say.... I have not yet figured out who he is. If he's supposed to be some major player, I'm missing it. Supposedly he says he's faced Moon Knight before. We'll see if I'm impressed by the big reveal when we finally get it. 

Here’s a picture. Let’s see if you figure it out before me. 

Mystery Boss calls them all idiots when they have no idea what he wants from Moon Knight. 

One of the Night Shift members gets upset and mouths off a bit. 

Mystery Boss basically sets them all on fire and does to them what he did to the guy on the boat in the first issue. Turns them into a large pile of ash. 

He tells Snapdragon to hire better people so he doesn't have to keep getting his hands dirty then disappears. 

Back with Marc, we see him sleeping fitfully and having nightmares. 

He wakes with a start and finds Echo in his room. 

"I didn't want to wake you." 

He stares at her, REALLY stares at her for a moment. 

"I just came here to say...Are you okay?"

"Are...Are you real?" 

"What? What are you--Don't!" Marc touches her to see if she's real and she recoils. 

"What is WRONG with you? What do you mean: Am I real?" 

"'Msorry, Echo."

"What is wrong with you?" 

"I was having very...Vivid dreams." 

PAUSE: So... This part breaks my heart a little. Because we VERY seldom see Marc suffering the side effects of his PTSD. We don't get to see him break down, have flashbacks, have nightmares, or question what he's seeing. We don't see his dissociative episodes, his derealization moments. We only ever see him angry. We don't get to see him STRUGGLE. 

And in this moment, you feel the hope for a good comic. You feel the "This could be something" and it is so disappointing that it isn't. And maybe that's part of why this run is, to me anyways, listed as a HORRID run and not just a mediocre run. The 'what if' of seeing...REALLY seeing Marc Spector is just sitting right out of reach and it makes me want to cry. 

UNPAUSE. 

Marc turns away from Echo. 

She tells him to look at her so she can read his lips. 

"Did you come here to apologize for punching me in the face?" 

"Yes." 

"Repeatedly." 

"Yes." 

"I'm sorry I kissed you without permission. I was--I was caught up in the moment. I clearly misread the signs." 

She tells him that he didn't entirely misread the moment. 

But the moment has passed. 

She notes that the lifestyle is getting to her and she isn't acting in ways that exactly 'resemble what I think of myself.'

Marc assures her that this is common for people in their line of work. Especially since she was undercover and having trouble getting out of that role and back into who she really is. 

I'd also like to point out that Marc has REPEATEDLY been asked what his problem is and he has avoided the question every single time. It's to the point where perhaps that so many people ask him that as a means to discriminate against him or as a way to just call him crazy without actually wanting to help or understand, that maybe he's given up trying to explain himself. 

She apologizes and asks if she can stay with him since she has no where safe to go. 

"Why DO you have a giant empty house?" 

"Probably for the exact same reason you have NO house." 

"What does that mean?" 

"Because I--I don't know how to act normal and I'm doing the best I can to keep up appearances." 

(Fuuuuck. When it's good, it's very very good and it's why when it goes bad it's SO BAD. He could have done so much better! I think anyone with mental health issues can relate to this. Doing the best they can to appear to be doing fine, but not sure what that looks like so they just make themselves empty.) 

Another issue is that while this is such a very good scene.... Bendis has done zero research onto D.I.D other than probably watching a few movies or a quick google. So his take on Marc's failing mental health at this point is VERY general...and currently bordering on a completely DIFFERENT psychosis all together. And this is going to start becoming a problem as the comic goes on. 

I'd very much like to remind everyone of Moon Knight issue # 9-10 by Moench (Reviewed HERE). When Khonshu's statue was destroyed and Marc had a total meltdown. 

THAT was far more accurate and done so wonderfully. 

ANYWAYS....

Echo goes to use his shower and Marc takes a moment then finds the Avengers in his room with the Helicarrier outside. 

Captain America: "Moon Knight." 

"Wh-What's...What's going on?" 

"You don't answer your phone." 

"My phone?" 

"You're an Avenger. I need you to answer when I call." 

Clearly Marc is distressed by this. 

This time there are more than Captain America, Spider-man, and Wolverine. Captain Marvel, Black Widow, and Luke Cage are now there. 

Is this real? Or is the problem expanding? 

Captain America: "Are you okay?" 

Spider-man: "Dude! You live here? Can I have a student loan?" 

Marc: "It's real. It's... It's really you." 

Captain America: "So, the BIG question is-What are you doing with this?" 

Luke Cage holds up the Ultron head. 

And Marc freezes up. In fact, one could argue that he suddenly VERY heavily dissociates. He still can’t tell if this is real or just the other people he’s been seeing that he knows aren’t real. 

It's actually painful to read because you can tell he's NOT okay, and while they ask him repeatedly if he's okay, they do nothing about it and make no other acknowledgement that he isn't well. 

The Avengers everyone! 

At this point, Maya comes back from the shower. 

"Oh. The Avengers. Captain America." 

This snaps Marc out of it. He asks what they are doing here. 

Turns out Buck called them to say "Moon Knight gave him this Head of Ultron for safekeeping." 

"Buck called you." 

"He was worried about you and thought this was too dangerous an item to be tucked away in the prop department of a TV show set." 

"So did she. She called us." 

Maya had called to ask who Moon Knight was earlier. 

Marc tells them all to leave. 

"You--You all have to leave here. You--You're blowing my cover. You have the whole damn Quinjet out there!" 

"It's cloaked." 

Captain America asks why they even have an Ultron head. 

Marc explains that there is an LA Kingpin, whose identity he has yet to discover. 

Captain America expresses concern that this is a big problem and that it should be an Avenger's problem.

Marc tells them that this is NOT an Avenger's problem. The new Kingpin is trying to stake a claim, not face the Avengers and if they start causing problems then the guy will just 'pull up stakes and get out of town'. 

And now we have another panel that a lot of you have seen floating around! I love finding context for silly panels like this! 

Captain America confirms with Maya that she is teaming up with Moon Knight as Echo. 

He asks for the next step. 

"I'm going to offer him the head of Ultron. And he's going to come get it himself. And then I'm going to bring him down. I promise I'll call the second I need you." 

Cap points out that this is a VERY dangerous move because if he gets the Ultron up and running...An AI that wants to wipe out humanity....

Sure you do, Marc….Sure you do…

END ISSUE! 

This one was rough. It’s hard to watch him very obviously start to be in distress to the point where people NOTICE and still no one is willing to talk about it because mental health is SO taboo to talk about in this group. Perhaps in this world. 

Let’s see where the next issue takes us. 

ISSUE # 7

This is an interesting cover. I think that’s supposed to be Snapdragon? She’s kinda hovering over the cape though, and not really standing on it. The perspective is a little off. I don’t know… I find the ones where they just stare ahead to be unnerving. 

Looking at the intro on the title page we got more problems. 

"After a brutal fight, Moon Knight and Echo are victorious and manage to evade the police. Regrouping at Marc's mansion, they receive an unexpected visit from the Avengers. Despite his televised getaway from the police, Marc assures them he has the situation with the Kingpin well in hand, along with all of his other personalities." 

I'm frowning so hard right now. 

We open on Buck again. 

"You told on me, Buck?" Marc addresses him. 

"They got ahold of you already?" 

"Yeah. The Avengers came to see me." 

Buck apologizes. He didn't know what else to do. 

Marc is disappointed, saying he thought Buck knew how to keep a secret and could help him. 

"I like you, I do. And I dig what you're about. In theory. But, and I'm gonna be honest with you..." 

"Please." 

"I think there's something really wrong with you, and normally I wouldn't judge, but you're playing a dangerous game." 

Ouch. The repeated telling of 'there's something wrong with you' is just more salt in the wound. 

Marc gives him the Ultron head, telling him to keep it then. 

Buck is shocked that the Avengers let him keep it. 

"Captain America trusts me. Which you'd think would be enough to get anyone to trust me. I wonder what I would have to do to get you to." 

"It ain't that I don't trust YOU." 

"Sure it is." 

"It's that I don't think you're all right. Bipolar, aspergers...I don't know what..." 

This...This is about to get VERY uncomfortable. 

That’s right… “I hear voices.” 

"What do the...Voices tell you to do?" 

"In general...Make the world better." 

"Maybe you should see someone, get that evened out." 

"I don't WANT to." 

"See, that's where you lose me..." 

"I dress up like a little-known Moon God and strike fear in the hearts of men... Did you really think I was normal? Do you think that any of us...ANy of the costumes are normal? We're all crazy." 

Uuuuggghhhhhh noooooooo

"But we're the exact kind of crazy that the world needs right now. The EXACT kind." 

No. Bendis...No. Marc does not 'hear voices'. And the jab about 'what do the voices tell you to do?' is a CLASSIC discriminatory move when they find out someone IS hearing voices. As if the voices will suddenly control them and make them do violent or scary things. 

Not everyone who hears voices is violent, scary, or unpredictable. Some people just shrug them off. Sometimes the voices just say stuff and don't tell them to DO things. 

And DID is not 'hearing voices'. DID is about the 'voices' being other people in the head. And again, Marc is deflecting. He isn't telling the whole story. ANd part of the reason is I feel like if he did, these people would instantly think him not only INSANE but also treat him differently. 

He's struggling and he's grasping at what he knows people can handle because he's had to handle it before! He's telling the story that he feels is understandable and acceptable and not the real story! 

GAH. 

So... Buck buys it. He apologizes for screwing him over. 

"I won't lie to you... It bummed me out." 

"I didn't like doing it." 

"You want to make it up to me? Do it again." 

Back at the strip club! 

We find Dragonfly upset that she can't find any good for hire crews to bring her Moon Knight. 

One of her girls interrupts her telling her that there's a guy bragging about having the head of Ultron and he wants to sell it. 

Dragonfly goes to meet the guy. 

Buck tells her that he works for Moon Knight and that he needs off the 'crazy train'. He wants out and he wants Dragonfly to pay him for the head so he can get out of dodge. 

He gives her a piece of Ultron to show to her boss as proof that he's legit. 

He tells her that he wants to go directly to the big boss with this and not hand it over to her. 

He tells her that if she doesn't take the offer by midnight he's going to Hydra. 

She tells him she wants Moon Knight. 

"Hey, when he finds out I turned on him... I think you'll see as much of that Lunatic as you want." 

So she goes to her boss to tell him the deal. 

The boss sees through the plan, of course. 

"Moon Knight is trying to draw me out into the open." 

"Yes, should I just kill the guy? That would send a message back." 

He tells her that he's annoyed. Annoyed that of all the superheros out there, MOON KNIGHT is the one giving him troubles. 

After a debate, he tells her to ask the man to step out back so that he might have words with him. 

"You're here?" 

"I am." 

"Here?" 

"Moon Knight wants me to come out into the open because he thinks he can take me down. He thinks this is a street fight." 

Yeah I...Have no idea who Count Nefaria is. I'm going to have to look this one up. 

Alright... This one is a villain that dates back to Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Don Heck 1965. So he's not some new guy. 

So either he's a big deal in other runs of other comics that I don't read (a common problem if you don't read every comic ever), or he was a big villain back in the day, got forgotten about, then they dug him back up in the desperate search for bigger badder villains to 'bring back'. 

A quick Wikki read later. Okay. He pops up now and then. I guess he's been in a few random things I've read, but I had no idea who he was then and I still don't. So to me, he's just some guy. Maybe you've heard more of him. 

For whatever reason, I've just never found Moon Knight to mix well with villains like this. Traditional ones that fight the big fights with Captain America or X-Men just never really clicked or had the same sway over Moon Knight. 

He always just kinda shrugs and goes "You're supposed to be scary?" Like, the man has no reasonable fear? And when it comes to the big leagues, he just kinda goes “Ain’t my circus” and bows out. 

To each his own I suppose. Bendis is used to writing the big leagues. Writing for the Avengers, he goes for the big guns. So I’m not surprised that he would pull out a heavy hitting power villain like this. Just… Not for Moon Knight. It’s kinda like throwing Magneto at Spider-man. Why would you? 

Moon Knight was indeed watching and he recognizes who this villain is. 

He gets into an argument with Not Spider-man/Captain America/Wolverine on if he should handle it himself or call in the Avengers like he agreed to do. 

Hey look! Another well known panel! Now we have it in context! 

(Why are all the good meme panels from this run?) 

Snapdragon brings out Buck. 

To his credit, Buck sticks to his guns. 

Buck insists that he just wants out and to get paid. 

The Count demands the Ultron head. 

Buck demands the money. 

The Count tells Buck to get him the head and MAYBE he'll be granted mercy. 

See... A big hitter Villain like this with all this power? Why is he trying to get money and become a Kingpin in LA? I just don't buy it. 

So Buck goes to his car and pulls out the Ultron head. 

The second he holds it up, it explodes. 

It's a fake! 

The Count demands the real head. 

Buck stall and reveals the REAL trap. 

"We WERE going to bring you the real one, we were. But then it dawned on us that we didn't need to take that chance. 

See, all we needed is proof that you'd even TRY to barter for the head of Ultron. Which is on the same list as plutonium in terms of things that you are not allowed to have or buy or sell. I mean worldwide illegal tech." 

The count goes in for the kill. But Buck isn't done. 

"See, not only did you come out and reveal yourself to be the Kingpin of LA and try to steal an Ultron, you did it on video." 

And Echo waves from a nearby building, holding a video camera. Oh, and one more thing…

You see, the Count was enhancing his powers with Mutant Growth Hormones (new street drug that gives people mutant powers). 

Moon Knight had been asking Buck to not only enhance his own tech and weapons.... But to make him some pretty potent and illegal chemicals that only a former SHIELD agent had access to. 

The Count lays on the ground: "He did somethinggg...to me... My powers." 

"It's a chemical Agent. Used mostly on mutants. You released it when you crushed the tin can fake ultron head. Just like you were supposed to. Nick Fury thought it inhumane. Which he was right about. Except there's you." 

Buck reminds Moon Knight that it doesn't last all day and they need to get this over with quickly. 

The Count panics and flies off while he can, leaving behind Snapdragon. 

While Buck and Echo are pleased that it worked and they have Snapdragon, Wolverine is not happy. 

"He's going to hunt and destroy you for this, you idiot." 

Spider-man comes to his defense. "Hey, he took on a thor bad guy and lived to tell-Give him a break." 

Captain America agrees: "He doesn't get Ultron and we have his general. It's a tactical win." 

And here's the problem... 

While Moon Knight is 'chatting it up' with his own personal Head Avengers...

Echo keeps the video rolling. 

He hasn’t talked to her about ‘the voices’ yet. She just knows that ‘something isn’t right with him’. Also? Echo is a lip reader. Even with a mask on, if the fabric is thin enough, she can still read lips. And Moon Knight? His fabric is thin. She just witnessed the whole pretend conversation. 

I hate this. I hate that it’s implied that she now knows about his crazy and it’s going to be an issue. 

Speaking of issues… This next one is a doozy. 

ISSUE # 8

This cover I like. The birds, the moon, the outline of the building…. It’s just a pretty use of space and light. 

We open with the Detective from before heaving up to his car. 

He finds a knocked out Snapdragon on the hood of his car. 

"A present for you, detective." 

Moon Knight shows up and the detective pulls out his gun. 

"Put the gun away, Detective. We're on, basically, the same side." 

The detective fires his gun and Marc uses a new tech weapon to create a forcefield that appears like Captain America's shield, deflecting the bullets. 

"Jeez...Settle down." 

"What the hell is this?" 

"Well I'm trying to have a conversation with you, jumpy. Two guys talking. More or less. Try to focus...Listen carefully..." 

(I bet Moon Knight is missing Detective Flint right about now....I know I am.) 

He informs the detective about Snapdragon, the Count, and the Kingpin of LA. 

Moon Knight then hands him a USB of the video of the Count basically confessing. 

The detective really hates the vigilante crap but Moon Knight isn't worth the paperwork so he lets him go. 

Next up? We're back in TV land watching the show about Marc's life. 

Except we have Marlene and 'Jake Lockley' vs. a werewolf. 

Marc is upset by the werewolf's design. 

He argues about how he wanted it to be a real looking werewolf. He gets push back on that.

"I thought this was all based on your old life as a soldier of fortune." 

"It is." 

"Why a werewolf??"

"That happened." 

"You were attacked by a werewolf?" 

"There's a lot of crazy in the world and--" 

(Why is Marc growing a goatee? Does Steven know about this? Does Jake???) 

In private, Marc addresses the 'Avengers'. 

"What now? What am I doing wrong now?" 

Wolverine: "You tell us, big hollywood producer guy." 

Captain: "I'm a little confused by you, Moon Knight." 

Spider-man: "Guys, leave him alone. Without a Civilian life, you could lose all sense of self. you--" 

They tell him to stop goofing off and get back to work as Moon Knight. Count Nefaria is still out there and looking for him. 

Marc says Echo is looking into some intel and coming up with a plan. 

We head back to the mansion and find Echo still staying with him. 

She watches as Buck helps Marc suit up in some new tech. 

Marc asks for a web shooter, Buck wants to know why. 

Finally Echo gets introduced to Buck and they make friends by him giving her some new fighting tech. 

Back at the police station, the Detective is showing his Captain the video. 

His captain tells him to get it to the feds, as this is above his paygrade and also illegal since it was gotten by a vigilante. 

The Captain dismisses him and the Detective is not too pleased. 

Know what time it is? TIME FOR A MONTAGUE. Or, in comic book land, a quick way to move things along over a period of time without taking up too much time to tell you about it. 

You also get a lot of single frame wordless art out of it, which can be nice. 

So we get Echo and Moon Knight hitting up known places that the Count was investing in. All while the Detective interviews Snapdragon for his own intel. 

He tells her that she isn't his problem. The FBI special cases is on the way. He also tells her that he thinks it's interesting that she's been with them for over a day and no one has come to try to break her out or bail her out. Not even a fancy lawyer like what happened with Night Shift. 

He goes to leave and she stops him. 

MORE MONTAGUE OF MOON KNIGHT AND ECHO KICKING ASS. 

They are lighting up the money laundering areas now. 

Snapdragon has told the Detective where the Count hangs out. He goes to the Captain with the news and the Captain doesn't want to hear it. 

Detective recommends they call in the Avengers and the Captain says they don't have a way to do that. 

Detective asks him "With all due respect... How come I get the feeling you don't want to take down the Kingpin of Los Angeles??" 

The Captain just leaves. Now that's fishy. 

Marc and Echo stake out the next place to hit. 

Echo tells him to take off his mask when talking to her so she can 'hear' him. 

"Deaf, right. Sorry. You just don't ACT deaf." 

"Now what the hell does THAT mean?"

"It means either you can't take a compliment or I can't give one." 

Marc...You should know better. You've been on the bad side of discrimination since you were born. 

But also... She totally CAN read his lips with the mask... She's lying to him. 

Or perhaps it's just easier to do it without the mask and they aren't in a life or death situation so it's fine. Hmmmmm....

He asks how she's feeling, she tells him that she's feeling better and that she needed this. 

Spider-man pops up and tells him to kiss her. 

Captain America tells him to get moving against Nefaria. Spider-man starts to argue with him about giving Marc a break. 

We see Marc physically flinch. Echo either doesn't notice or she ignores it. 

Marc asks why she never thought to call the Avengers despite this huge operation she was trying to run alone before he got there. 

"I --I never belonged there." 

"But this is a big muscle operation. We're going to have to call them eventually. We have to call Somebody." 

She kisses him. 

She tells him they can do one more "rousing bit of super villain vandalism". 

"Nefaria IS a Thor-level bad guy." 

Marc tries to remind her that this is out of their league.

UH OH. 

Okay so, Anyone else getting a vibe that Marc’s mental health is crashing down around him and EVERYONE is ignoring it? Just because he’s ‘sorta’ told them he hears things doesn’t mean he’s told them the problem. And they clearly don’t understand it. So they’re just looking the other way. Everyone just assumes “That guy’s nuts” and goes with it. 

And despite Marc knowing that the three ‘Avengers’ are just in his head, he’s starting to see them more and associate them with him doing a poor job. Seeing them as there to chastise him. He’s also starting to physically respond to them talking to him. Reacting and getting more upset at their appearance. These are all signs of a failing control of the situation. …..They are ALSO signs of a different mental illness. But hey, in Bendis’ world, all mental illnesses are the same, right? 

NEXT ISSUE! 

Issue #9! 

Now THIS is the famous cover! The one you think of when you hear Maleev’s name. 

Those whites. Those colors. The way he uses a water color technique. DAMN. He was saving up for this one. 

Wait a minute... They changed the title page blurb. 

"While attempting to loot the temple of an ancient Egyptian god called Khonshu, mercenary Marc Spector was beaten nearly to death by a trasonous partner. Left to die in the desert, he was taken by a group of Egyptian people to the statue of their diety Khonshu who offered to save his life but only if Spector would become his avatar on Earth. 

Spector agreed, and began his career as the costumed crime fighter known as Moon Knight. Night falls, the Moon Knight rises, and neither sorcery, science, nor mortal sin can win against him!" 

WHAT THE FU- That's not what happened! That's not even close to what happened?! EGYPTIAN PEOPLE?! LOOTING THE TEMPLE?! Even the most CASUAL Moon Knight fan knows how the story went! How do they manage to fuck that up so badly!? Where's the continuity editor?! Why did they change it?! WH...GAHHHH! 

"Unbeknownst to all, Moon Knight has developed split personality disorder-And his personalities have adopted the roles of his former Avengers teammates: Spider-Man, Wolverine and Captain America, all of whom give him guidance on how to be a hero." 

Noooooooo. That's not what happened! He didn't just 'develop' D.I.D. 

^%$##%^& Okay. I see it now. I see what they did and are doing. 

They disliked the Steven and Jake aspect. They really had no idea how to deal with them. ESPECIALLY Bendis, who clearly knew NOTHING about Moon Knight except what the Marvel editors were telling him. 

So they tried to give him a bit of a 're-write'. They took away Steven and Jake, made it so he JUST NOW developed DID out of the blue? And now his alters are the Avengers who can tell him how to be a Superhero and give him life advice... 

I...I am not okay with this. 

And on top of this? They did NO research into his mental health issue, probably watched some old Hollywood movie or two and then based it off of that. Then went with all the lines about him having "Schizophrenia" and just tossed those symptoms in there too for funzies. 

I can't. I just cannot. 

This run is SO triggering. In so many BAD ways. GAH. Okay. I'm...I'm going to keep going. I'll save it. Because I know how it ends and boy howdy.... 

BACK TO THE COMIC. 

Alright, our comic opens up with...and I kid you not: 

"Marc Spector's stately awesome house, last week". 

He's trying out his new shield like Captain America's. And why is Marc growing a goatee? It looks terrible on him. 

"No, Buck, I asked for a sheild like Captain America's."

"That IS a shield like Captain America's." 

And they argue what his shield looks like. Buck questions Marc's Avender status because he's never seen him on the TV with the other team. 

"Can you keep a secret?" 

[....] 

"I'm a secret Avenger." 

"Moving on. See, Captain America's original shield is made of a vibranium/adamantium alloy." 

"I know." 

"Well then you know neither vibranium nor adamantium is exactly growin' on trees. I mean, you're rich but you ain't THAT rich." 

So instead he made him a 'zero point energy shield'. Basically a retractable force field that pops up in the shape of Cap's shield. He can also throw it. So that's cool. Portable shield. 

He asks Marc why he wants a Cap shield. Marc just says it's cool. 

PRESENT TIME 

And.... I have to laugh about this. 

You have this god level bad guy with scary powers...

And he's just pissed off that MOON KNIGHT, of all the people in the world, MOON KNIGHT is the one that's just annoying the hell out of him. Just a regular guy. 

And that's just spot on Moon Knight energy right there. Being obstinate and annoying to the bad guys since the OG run. 

Cap deflects the incoming blast with his shield and tells Marc that they're out of their league and they need to get the heck out of there. 

"Retreat, regroup, and plan the attack to your own strengths and your own rules. RUN!!" 

Everyone keeps talking about how this guy has fought all the avengers and fought Thor to a stand still. LIke, we get it. He's powerful. I've still not got him on my list of known top villains but SURE! I Don't know every bad guy that makes their rounds in the comics. 

But I still just feel like putting him in a Moon Knight comic where he's having break down issues is just unfair. And then the other Avengers KNOWING who he is facing and not standing by to help him... 

"Superhuman strength, speed, durability.... He can kill you with his optic blasts. He can fly. Not going to listen to me? Then at the very least get HER out of here, Spector. If you're crazy enough to fight this fight, fine. But you get her out of here!" Cap continues to argue with Marc 

Marc grabs her and shoves her into a building while he runs around to distract The Count. 

Echo is pretty pissed at being tossed aside. 

"And I thought I hit rock bottom hooking up with Murdock!" 

(Oh honey, he's everyone's rock bottom.) 

Captain America continues to lecture Marc about how this fight is above him. How the Count could kill him in an instant and is just toying with him. 

Flash back to last week! 

We see Buck fitting Marc with Web-shooters. 

Buck once again asks Marc why he wants Web-shooters when that's Spider-Man's thing. Marc doesn't answer. 

PRESENT. We see Marc get blasted off a building and he uses the web-shooters to stop his fall. 

Spider-Man now tries to reason with Marc. 

"Look at him. You gotta give him credit for dressing like Old School Dracula. I mean, seriously, where do you even BUY a monocle nowadays? What is he the Count of anyways? I bet nothing. He just decided to call himself count." 

He says what I'm thinking. 

I appreciate that. 

Moon Knight turns on the villain and Spider-Man tells him to "NOT get within arm's length of the Super-Powered Bad Guy." 

Yeah, Marc gets blasted back. 

"Look, it's safe to say, when in doubt, ALWAYS listen to Captain America. I mean as religions go, that wouldn't be the worst one I've ever heard of." 

Marc manages to get tossed aside but also web the Count down a bit. 

Spider-Man tells him to get running. 

He looks back and finds Echo there beating on the Count. 

While she distracts him, Marc attacks and throws him into a car. 

Yeah, way to arm the dude. 

And for the second time in this run, Marc gets a vehicle thrown at him. 

Ah. I see. 

So, Marc puts himself up close and personal to attack again and this makes Spider-Man nervous. 

"YOu're doing that thing where you're getting too close to the big super baddie." 

But you see, this is Moon Knight's fighting style. Marc KNOWS he can take hits And when you are close, the attacker has a harder time fighting back. Especially one that uses fire and explosions. They can't explode you without hurting themselves. 

Spider-Man's fighting style is always stay out of range, wear the bad guy down, and attack with long range. 

In fact, Marc gets up face to face with this guy. 

FLASHBACK TO LAST WEEK! 

We see Buck fitting Marc with Wolverine retractable claws. 

"It's not Adamantium, but it's the best I could do." 

Buck explains that it's stronger attached to his arm than it would as a sword. It will reinforce his arm while also lending strength for damage. 

"Good. I need close quarter weaponry. This is very good." 

"You want to be Wolverine too?" 

"I need to make sure if I get this close." 

"You want to be Spider-Man, Captain America AND Wolverine...All at the same time." 

Marc doesn't answer him. 

"The voices in your head. The ones you told me about... Are these them?" 

PRESENT. 

Wolverine is now goading on Marc. 

He pulls out the claws and stars stabbing. 

"Gut the son of a bitch!!! Don't let up. Get in there. Cut off his @#$@$@ HEAD!!!" 

And suddenly they are start arguing. 

This is a problem. The three 'guides' are arguing wanting different things and even MARC wants something different. 

Echo jumps in again and beats on the Count some more. 

Marc attempts to cut off the Count's head with the claws and gets thrown. 

This let's the Count turn on Echo and blast her. 

Yeah... That's not good. 

Warning for Character death I guess. 

(She comes back in later comics. Nothing stays gone in Comics. Plus she's getting her own show in the MCU. You know they gotta bring her back so they can push her on the people. She's a deaf native woman. Marvel's gotta exploit the HELL out of that.) 

Okay....Things are about to go SOUTH. 

Wolverine goes Berserker mode. Captain America argues that they are better than this and don't kill. Wolverine wants blood. Spider-man wants them to just stop. 

So Wolverine attacks Captain America. 

That’s some really nice art. I love the lines for the shadows. The crisp edges. The colors. The shredded cape. Even the action is stellar. Maleev you get that bread. 

ALRIGHT. That ends this issue. And we’re seeing what COULD be considered extreme System breakdown… Except this is not being written in a system sort of way. What we have is the Avengers acting as sort of Shoulder Angels that tell him what to do to be an Avenger and the three have conflicting personalities. And Bendis knows this because he WRITES for the Avengers. Famously so! So he’s given us Spider-Man, Captain America, and Wolverine, the three more famous characters in Marvel, who also have VERY conflicting personalities and views on how to be heroes. 

But again… You don’t need Wolverine’s rage here. MARC has enough rage. Marc has lost a LOT of people. Marc is more than capable of going berserker on his own. He’s no timid snowflake. Marc has done some… truly terrible things in the past. Even Moench wrote it that Marc has a most violent rage and is capable of carrying out the most heinous of deeds. 

And Steven is the one that would tell them to back off. Tell them to run. To keep strategic and protect Echo. Jake would be the one telling him to be careful. To watch his back. To stop making stupid moves that is putting them in danger. 

Jake has lost people too. Jake is usually the one that faces the grief. That feels the loss of friends and loved ones. 

This issue…This RUN should have been about System breakdown. The struggle of trying to give everyone what they want when everyone wants something different. About finding balance in how to live a shared life. In dealing with grief and trauma and danger. 

It could have been Marc losing Echo and raging out and forcing front away from the others. It could have been about him trying to hide his DID and failing because Jake is tired of masking and Steven wants to do things differently. 

It could have been about them fighting over how to gear up and Buck trying to figure out why they keep asking for such different things. Marc trying to explain things the way Marc always does (badly. Marc explains things badly. Marc is bad at things.) and making everyone around him worry. We could have seen Echo trying to figure out this relationship she’s suddenly getting in with what she doesn’t know is three men. About Marc struggling with suddenly experiencing more symptoms than he’s used to as the system breaks down. Time skips, waking up in different locations, trying to wave away weird things and being in Denial. We certainly saw a lot of that in Moench’s run as the system became aware of itself! Now the system is aware and STRUGGLING. 

I’m forever going to be bitter over how good this comic COULD have been. 

ANYWAYS. I’m going to break it into anther part here because I’m almost out of pic space and I don’t want to cut the last three issues up worse than I need to. 

PART THREE HERE

[thefirstknife]

Hello! I've been meaning to ask for a while: is there any sort of timeline for the bigger things in the destiny universe? One of my characters I've written as 568y/o at 0YW (start of D2) and I want to flesh out her lore a bit by figuring out a chronological layout of her experiences. Are there any time frames (D2-relative) for things like when the tower was built, when/how long the warlords were, SIVA crisis, and like when which factions (human/otherwise) were around and where? Thankie!

Somewhat, yeah. There's a few sources for our best guesses at the timeline, though there aren't any hard dates or years. Any mention of specific time periods and amount of years is SUPER rare so we can't really tell with any accuracy how old someone is or anything like that. Your character could be roughly placed at some point in the Dark Age, most likely, though when exactly, hard to tell. It's usually just our best guesses and estimates and they sometimes vary a lot. We still don't know how long has it been since the Collapse, despite Neomuna that must be able to have reliable records (this post is honestly the closest attempt to find that out, with some caveats, but with the lack of anything better, this seems to be the most tangible way to tell, maybe).

Ishtar has a handy timeline feature. I haven't gone through all of it myself and there could be some mistakes or stuff that's not entirely clear or stuff that's contentious (not all events are equally easy to place and there's some variation in opinions), but it should be fine to orient yourself in general terms. (uh, if you go to Ishtar and see a lot of fish, don't worry about it. They're running a joke right now. It's Fishtar Collective. All lore is fine however lmao)

There's also this one which I think is pretty popular because it's visually nice, though I can't find a more updated one. I'm not sure if the guy who made it ever released anything beyond this one (this was last updated for Season of the Worthy). I think it works on the same principles as the Ishtar one.

[tamelee]

Personally I don’t really get people who say they acknowledge Sasuke and Naruto’s romantic bond but still ship Sasuke with a woman… Like, they saw that he was gay (he’s shown to not be attracted to women so he’s not bi) but kinda don’t care?

Actually I don’t really understand the whole shipping culture, or even mainstream fandom culture… I don’t know, I just don’t see the point in just making up content for pre-existing characters while completely destroying what made the characters unique in the first place by ignoring canon entirely (like crack-shipping). I get why people wouldn’t like everything about canon, it’s my case too, but if they don’t like anything about canon… Why are they here in the first place?

Nooo now I sound grumpy. I must be bothering you I’m so sorry 😭😭

Anyway, you’re amazing and I hope you know it 🥰

You don't sound grumpy to me dw 🫶

Well, I don't believe such ships have much to do with Canon either way. And I doubt all of them hate Canon per se, though some change 'Canon' to like Canon, which is funny. "This is my Canon." Yeah, not how it works, but ok- have your Canon your way ofc ┐(￣ヮ￣)┌

Side-note though, I don't think Sasuke even knows who Hinata is? 😆 It's as you say; crack-shipping. (I saw that giant/small-yaoi meme here on Tumblr again. No idea what it's called, and immediately thought; a yes, Sukuna and Levi. Kinda want to draw xD Makes no sense at all.) A lot of Headcanon is derived from personal... ideas/desires/inspiration or self-inserting reasons? (Isn't that exactly what 'x-reader' fics are?) Or even trend-posting. As much as characters are used to tell a story for the original author/creator (they're essentially tools), do fans use them to create new ideas. "Ah yes, we all know this character, let's create something around it simply because I want to." Which is completely fine, right? Look at rare pairs. And to be fair, a lot of content, fictional writing and art aren't even based on canon either. The closest thing through fan-work are Manga analyses or meta's, even panel redraws- stuff like that. People adapt 'canon' into fanwork through various degrees or sometimes ditch it altogether. Nsfw/spice is by default made up and entirely Headcanon :') (Though personality can be depicted in a way ig, through expression/behavior and whatnot.)

I totally get what you mean though, although I guess I'm caught up in fandom-culture now. Personally, I do like characters as 'canon' as possible, but it really depends. For some Animanga I don't really care. I think I ship pretty much all TR/BlueLock-characters for literally no reason, but I wouldn't claim it to be Canon in any way (˚☐˚! )/

However, I don't like it when Naruto and Sasuke's characters are butchered. Made-up context or not. The originals are so special to me and it's the reason why I'm a fan, though I don't mind too much in fics, depending on the story. I find it hard to feel the same when they've practically become someone's OC's with only the same name and design. I can't even read height/age-differences because I can't imagine it xD But anyway, this all includes "official" work made for financial/marketing reasons also- especially those damn novels. Those never have anything to do with canon, nor does it align with it. No matter how passionately people claim otherwise.

I'm only a tiny bit petty about it >< u&me grumpy 🤝 And aahhww I don't actually, you should see me sitting here in giant red Christmas socks and a glittery green sweater that's kinda itchy tbh. I don't really feel anything other than those glitters annoying me every 3 seconds... which reminds me I should change -.- anw thankyou <3