#this isn't done

[ch3rrybite]

fic recs: tomarry edition

@whythiskolaveridiii bbg this one's for you 🫵💕

you asked for fic recs AND I HAVE FINALLY DELIVERED

(tell me why this took more than a month to compile)

don't fuck with florists (they'll fuck you up) - oneshot, soo cute, it's quite popular, time travel (one of my favourite tropes)

you belong to me (i belong to you) - this one is one of my favourites, it updates slowly, and i've been following it since the beginning, it's very dark and delicious and THE DYNAMICS ARE JUST 🤌🤌

What He Grows To Be - this is one where harry raises tom (another popular trope), and so naturally it has some questionable undertones, but its so well written so eh

But For You, I Did - oneshot, so usually in time travel fics, harry and tom are a bit older (like 5th year-ish), but they're both in 1st year in this one, so its a cool take on a fix-it

Teaching History (is Old News) - crack fics are so so amazing, and this one does plot with crack so well

Three sugars and a splash of daddy, please - this one is HILARIOUS, but also not canon compliant, so the characters are very OOC

Mors et Tempus - slytherin harry in the 1940's, what more could you ask for

Times of Peace - ptsd ridden harry is so dear to me

Trapezing Through Time - master of death harry is sooo satisfying, and the writing in this one is top tier

Psychopomp - very satisfying dumbledore bashing in this one

[aspec-manga-snom]

Oshi no Ko: Lies & Love. Aromantic Coded Narratives

I'm going to edit this more, but I'm pushing it out to feel better.

This post is an incredibly cut down and curated version of a longer academic style paper on this topic. If there are any confusing bits or inaccuracies, let me know. A lot of this is rewritten for a more digestible format.

This post is going to talk about spoilers for a majority of the Oshi no Ko manga,the short story, "45510" and the song it inspired "Idol" by Yoasobi. I will also discuss relationships with power imbalances and the sexual relationships between two minors, as Ai Hoshino was 16 when she had children. There will not be explicit detail but it is important to keep in mind the conditions of Ai's relationships.

There will be major spoilers so if you are waiting for Season 2 of the anime, don't read on. I highly encourage everyone to read the manga if you can. If you haven't started it and have just found it through this post, start by watching the anime if it is available, it is excellently produced.

Some Background:

Oshi no Ko was written by Aka Akasaka, known author of Kaguya-Sama Love is War & Renai Daikou. A lot of his work is introspective on the nature of relationships and love, Oshi no Ko being no different.

Oshi no Ko follows the story of two twin siblings, Aqua and Ruby Hoshino reincarnated fans of their new mother, Ai Hoshino. Ai Hoshino was the famous main idol of the idol group B-Komachi. The two of them previously new eachother as a doctor and patient before the latter passed away from Anaplastic astrocytoma, a form of brain cancer, and the other stabbed by Ai's stalker.

The two of them live a regular life as Ai's children until she is murdered by the same stalker that killed Aqua in his past life. After her passing they follow in the footsteps of their mother and enter the world of Japanese Entertainment in pursuit of getting revenge on their unknown father who they blame everything on.

Both of them have a very pragmatic view of the world, but they aren't the focus. Lets talk about Ai.

Ai Hoshino, 45510 & Idol:

The main point of this post is to argue that Ai lies somewhere on the Aromantic spectrum. There are some light pieces of evidence for her also being asexual, but not nearly as defintive as her aro-ness.

Ai Hoshino is the driving force of the narrative despite her story only making up around 10% of the manga. The main reason I want to talk about her is how she is displayed in Idol and "45510". For this I'll be using a fan translation by u/64990022 on Reddit the link for which can be found here.

The short story follows another member of B-Komachi looking back on Ai's popularity with jealousy.

In this we get to see an old interview of Ai's which holds her perspective on love: "I think affection comes from trust. What was it, payback? Like, to return affection with affection. But I'm a coward. I can’t believe in the words “like,” “love,” or “affection” very much. I don’t know, I’ve never really fallen in love with someone before.” This is the core of Ai's identity as an idol and how she performs. She doesn't understand love and how to be affectionate towards other people. Additionally, she doesn't seem to understand the point of marriage: “I can’t imagine it at all. Marriage? Me? Even if you say you want to marry me, how much of that is true? I can understand when people want to be with someone they like, but why marriage? Is it an expression of love? To prove that you would stay forever with that person? If that’s it then maybe I understand a little.”

Personally, I think that this rings true as an aro perspective on love and affection, not understanding the conventions of love and instead coming up with her own. Without being told that its normal to not have the ability to fall in love, Ai has given her feelings its own definition in an objective sense.

She reached the conclusion that lying was the greatest form of love, all stemming from her experience as an idol and observing the world of fans. To her, idols expressed their love to their fans all the time in their words, but none of them truly meant their words. While this is most likely true, we can see how this came to a head in the construction of the stage persona of Ai in the lyrics of "Idol" by Yoasobi;

" That "I love you" again Now, everybody is lured and captivated by you The pupil that you got The words you vocalize Even when untrue, it's your perfected Ai "

Every expression of love is a lie to captivate the audience, but to Ai, even if its untrue, its an expression of care and appreciation.

" So strong, it's you, unrivalled idol There cannot be weaknesses to find The brightest star is residing in you The gaps and shortcomings, don't show 'em Dammit, dammit Parts nobody wants to know should remain hidden One and only If it's different, no way, no way Such a true love, it's the realest Ai "

Despite not knowing how to love, Ai believe she'd give her fans the most appreciation she could by lying to them. Things like this aren't uncommon in the lives of young aros, claiming to have a crush or to love someone to fit in with the expectations people have for them. Despite all of this, she did hope that one day she would feel a 'true' love towards someone, which ended up being her children right before her death.

The Father

This is where the spoilers actually begin. Despite Ai being in a relationship with someone, there isn't much proof that this relationship was anything within the realm of healthy if not completely manipulative.

The twins' father and Ai's ex-boyfriend was Hikaru Kamiki. He was a child actor the same age as Ai, 15, and shortly after the two of them meet Ai becomes pregnant and gives birth at the age of 16. At this point Hikaru Kamiki has had multiple of these relationships and, to the reader, is known to be a serial killer of women in the entertainment industry, luring them in before killing them. He is suspected to, if not almost fully confirmed to have leaked the address of Ai to her stalker as well as which hospital she was staying in.

Needless to say, their relationship is incredibly brief and ends as soon as Ai becomes pregnant and is forced into hiding. The entirety of their relationship is shown as being based around meeting up around hotels and lacks an air of romance commonly seen in teen romances. He most likely manipulated Ai into a relationship with the intent of murdering her but there is some evidence to him actually being in love with her as he brings flowers to her grave on the anniversary of her death.

At time of posting, we don't know enough about him or their relationship to draw many conclusions but as he is the only partner Ai has every had, omitting their relationship felt disingenuous.

TLDR;

Ai's treatment of love as a whole relates greatly to an aro lens of love and the institutions of love in society. Lying about love is not uncommon among aro experiences. Idol is a bop no matter the language and its a really good aro song.

[synoicus]

I was made to love you, and yet,

Inspired by this observation by a friend:

[leupagus]

It's worth noting that there are some extraordinary people in the world who have been quietly doing the work for decades, and they should be celebrated with all the fervor that we denounce the villains. I first read about Harrison twenty-odd years ago, when he'd already been doing this for about fifty years, and this is one of those guys whose life can, indeed, be summed up by his headline.

James Harrison saved millions of lives. Millions. Not with anything flashy or dramatic, not with profound speeches or brilliant strategy or any of the things we insist are the ways to impact the world. He simply kept himself as healthy as possible so that every few weeks he could go and sit quietly in a room and give away a fundamental part of himself — quite literally his lifeblood — to people he'd never meet, for no pay and no expectation of acknowledgement. (He was, it should be said, acknowledged quite a lot per this article, but that's beside the point.)

When we talk about the kind of people we want to elevate and celebrate in our societies, I often think of people like James Harrison. I hope we get more of him; not just for his blood, but for his heart.

[barghest-land]

working on early horses, i wanted to do a quick sketch to show how small Eohippus was compared to an extant horse (this one is about 150cm tall). as you can see, it wasn't big at all. a perfect little lap horse :)

[ryuuna]

pre vs post tadpole lobotomy

[sakuravalenp]

He's supposed to be invincible - DC X DP

Just something random that came to my mind.

So, Danny ends up being adopted/fostered by Bruce just months before Damian arrives at the manor, the how and why is your choice, but the GIW is still a threat. 

Now, Danny catches Damian attacking Tim the first time and instead of telling the rest of the family or scolding Damian, he went lik:

“You haven't even defeated me, and you think you have a right to attack Tim? Get in line, kid.”

And so Damian understands that to get the right to fight against Tim, he needs to get rid of Danny first. Climb the power pyramid, if you will. And so, Damian starts his assassination attempts against Danny. 

But here's the thing: Danny is making absolutely no effort to stop him, he just takes the attempts. The first time, Damian successfully stabs Danny, and goes to announce his victory over Danny to his father. Bruce rushes to Danny, worried for his safety, and finds him just chilling there, not a single drop of blood or injury. Damian is gapping.

“Oh yeah, the kid beat me in a round of hide and seek. He’s pretty good.”

Bruce is relieved and pats Damian’s head, not noticing his utter confusion. And so a cartoon-like montage starts: Damian attacks Danny and claims victory, but Danny is completely fine, and says Damian won at some random game. Everyone thinks the two are super close, and that Damian’s excitement about winning is super cute. 

Eventually, positive enforcement wears Damian down, because everyone congratulates him and gives him affection for winning the “stupid things” Danny comes up with. He gradually calms down and integrates pretty well. Danny does end up being his closest sibling because he’s the only one that actually knows all of Damian. The only one Damian could attack with zero restraint and still be treated the same. 

But the important thing here is: Danny becomes an invincible figure in Damians mind. He could be stabbed, decapitated, poisoned, and still come back like nothing happened.

So surely, when Phantom is shot out of the sky by a Blood Blossom, surely he’ll just stand back up in a minute like always. Surely, he’s just waiting to get back to the cave to pretend like he always did for Damian. Surely, he’s just putting on a show on the medbay. 

But hours go by, and he’s still pretending. Still looking pale. Still keeping his eyes closed.

Damian doesn’t understand why he hasn’t bounced back yet. He should be okay by now. Alfred is moving around, changing the IV,dabbing Danny’s head with a damp cloth. There’s commotion outside as everyone is trying to get an antidote.

But this shouldn’t be happening. 

Danny is invincible.

Danny should be back to normal already.

So Damian starts shaking Danny. Screaming to stop pretending and tell them he was beaten in some stupid game again. To open his eyes already. 

Father is pulling him away, trying to calm him down, but he keeps struggling in his arms, because he’s getting Danny to wake up. 

And he doesn’t notice the tears falling down his face until he runs out of energy, and all that’s left is hiccuping in his father’s arms.

...

So… yeah, that’s what my mind supplied today while on the bus :)

Maybe one day I'll write it, but I don't have time, so I would love to see someone else's take on it.

[ambar-telumendil]

I mean, this could be canon 👀

[bogkeep]

there's something so deeply dystopian to me how tech companies don't understand that a forced convenience is not a convenience at all. i'm sure autocorrect is helpful for many, but a function that forcibly changes my actual written words and punctuation is taking away my language. photo filters can be nice but i need to choose using them myself or else i have lost the ability to take the picture i want. i don't want a machine to draw or write for me. taking away the option for me to do things manually feels like violence!!!! all this talk of endless opportunity, why are you RESTRICTING me

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

The Wizard Cowboy War (Wizboys VS Cowards) continues on.

[omgitskaii]

lingering impulses.

[bittersweet-jack-of-no-trades]

So we agree that Stan just wanted to invent things like his brother, right? That he felt the urge to build and create just as much? That his creativity was simply never allowed to be embraced until it become profitable? That he channeled his passion through the 'justifiable' path of scamming/getting money?

And we agree that despite Stan hiding and concealing it, his passion and creativity and inventiveness touched every soul that walked through the Mystery Shack?

[lemonadeslice]

🦋 every single choice will affect your fate, and the fate of those around you 🦋

(redraw of these)

[lazylittledragon]

dndads s1 you're so special to me

[eighteenthofoctober]

When your Dad's boyfriend cheats on him with... Santa Claus!?

Merry Christmas Ace Attorney nation!!!!

[heretherebeturtles-comic]

HTB - CHAPTER TWO

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5

<< Chapter 1 -- Chapter 3 >>

Same posting schedule as last chapter: every other week on a Friday.

Chapter Progress Dates Thumbnailed: Dec 2023 (revised May 2024) Lineart/inks: May-Jun 2024 Colour: finished Nov 2024

This chapter is dedicated to my late Grandma. She was one of the biggest supporters of my art as a child and the supplier of many sketchbooks. In her last months she asked, nearly every day, about how the story I was working on was coming along. I never had the heart to tell her it was a silly TMNT fan comic, but her encouragement meant so much to me.

A big thank you to my patrons for their support over these past few months while I struggled and still struggle to get back on my feet. Another thank you to them for helping me choose which sketch to use for the cover of this chapter <3 You guys are very cool!

Anyway, I appreciate all the kindness during the long wait between chapters, I am excited to share more of this comic with you soon!