#this would be difficult for a lot of adults to come to terms with

[eats-the-stars]

got some hard news today. turns out my 4yo nephew is going to have to get daily growth hormone shots after all. they were going to wait until he was older and could understand what was happening better because last time we trialed the shots he did not have a great time and we stopped after one week. but the results from his last blood test show that he’s no longer producing enough growth hormone to like, break down sugars and essential living stuff so...now he NEEDS the shots, not just to maybe catch up to his peers growth-wise, but to just...not die. so...we’re all a little stressed, and my sister is trying to fight with insurance to get the once-weekly shot instead of the daily shot, because he is FOUR YEARS OLD, and we already know that daily shots are going to be a source of anxiety and fear for him. last time, he got to the point that he was scared to get diaper or pants changes (we have to pull down his pants to inject him in the butt since that is the area with most cushioning, second option is...the stomach, so...no good choices here). so, yeah, not looking forward to this. especially since “how long does he have to get these shots?” might just be...forever. hoping with all i’ve got that we can work out some kind of routine or method to make this easier on him.

[pallastrology]

the midheaven and imum coeli

aries on the midheaven makes for a native that aspires towards independence. they are natural hunters, relentless in their pursuit of their goals. they often have a reputation for having authority issues, and this can be true, they don’t cope well with working under the boot of other people, but they aren’t difficult to work with in general; when given the opportunity to work with someone they can build a strong connection with and when given a common, meaningful goal, aries midheavens are wonderful team members and are encouraging, passionate and energetic. with the midheaven in aries the lower heaven is in libra, and that’s where we see that slightly uncharacteristic talent for working in partnerships. growing up, the natives may have lived in a household where everything had to look perfect, where there were poor boundaries and avoidance and comfort-seeking from caregivers, rather than firm but fair treatment. the native had to grow up quickly and is very much a self-made individual now, but in some ways, they can feel stunted, like they’re stuck developmentally. they need to learn to uphold boundaries without becoming militant, to work with others while still supporting and encouraging themselves, to stay connected to the people that matter while they chase their prey.

taurus on the midheaven brings a desire for security. the native is artistic, stoic and determined. they don’t necessarily want fortune and fame, but they want to be valued and respected. they aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty or put in long hours and hard work to get to where they’re aiming for. their career paths can sometimes look more erratic than you’d expect for an earth placement, and this is because taurus midheavens often have issues with under - or over - valuing themselves, taking on meaningless work because they feel they haven’t earned better, or refusing opportunities out of stubbornness or a feeling of being out of their league. they work well with others when they are given time and patience, because these natives often have trust issues and can’t open up easily. with the midheaven in taurus the lower heaven is in scorpio, and a lot starts to make sense. they often grew up in homes with intense emotions and little in the way of healthy outlets or communication, homes where distance and mistrust was the norm. secrets were often kept and love may have been treated as a resource to guard fiercely and rarely give away. as an adult, the native has to come to terms with these early experiences and understand that we all have inherent worth, and are all deserving of unconditional love; it isn’t a thing to be earned, it’s within us all and can - should - be shared freely.

with gemini on the midheaven, the native aspires towards connection. they are adaptable, expressive, creative thinkers, who are quick to ask questions and quicker to learn. they have a strong desire to fly the nest and discover some of the world for themselves, and they usually do just this. the native can sometimes struggle to focus; they have a tendency to spread themselves too thin and get overwhelmed. they can be rather insecure, lacking faith in themselves and their abilities at times. this is often down to their upbringing. as a gemini midheaven, they have the lower heaven in sagittarius, which can indicate that they felt alone a lot growing up. perhaps their caregivers were very busy people, or they struggled to make friends, or were ostracised in some way. they may have felt like an outsider as a child, and so relied on their hobbies and dreams to sustain them when other people couldn’t. as an adult, gemini midheavens are a little anxious, quick to doubt themselves, but quick to seek out connections too; whether social or developmental. they would suit a life path that involves flexibility, a fast pace, multiple routes to progression and the chance to experience many kinds of people. however, they do need to stay still sometimes and listen to themselves. they may feel inferior at times, but they can learn a lot from themselves if they open their hearts.

cancer on the midheaven makes for a native that aspires towards comfort. they are highly attuned creatures, sensitive to others’ emotions and needs without them needing to say a word. the native is naturally maternal, not necessarily in the sense of wanting children, but in that they have a lot of care and love to give to whom they choose. they are traditionally well-suited to a career in the public eye, as this nurturing quality reflects well on others. the intensity of their life will often ebb and flow quite dramatically, even as far as water signs go. they need periods off to just rest and return to themselves, or they burn out terribly. with cancer on the midheaven, capricorn is on the lower heaven. growing up, the home was often a cold and clinical place, not one where emotional connections were the norm. as a result, the native, often subconsciously - as is the nature of water signs - goes through life searching for the warmth and comfort they needed as a child. they can become dependent on loved ones, or go the other way and give everything to these loved ones without getting an ounce back. it can be really helpful for them to research reparenting and go through life with the concept in their mind’s eye.

leo on the midheaven brings a desire for adoration. they may aspire to be seen as a star in their chosen field, though, honest as they are, only want this reputation if they can back it up. they are deeply passionate people, who work and play hard. their creativity and generosity will take them far in life, if they can learn to accurately identify and work on their flaws. at times they can be stubborn, and this is both good and bad for them. they are driven and determined, but often lack self-belief and rely heavily on loved ones to encourage and praise them when things get hard. with leo on the midheaven, we find aquarius on the lower heaven, and so we learn a little more. the native’s childhood was often quite a lonely one. whether that’s through an unconventional upbringing, emotionally distant caregivers or living somewhere isolated from peers, the native often felt they were alone in the world. now, as an adult, they are powerful people with the heart of a child. they are honest and loving and often a lot more vulnerable than they appear. they want love and support, but can get stuck feeling they need to “perform” to earn affection, becoming reliant on external sources for validation. building some self-esteem and learning to validate their own experiences and emotions is invaluable for these gentle giants, and they start to step into their strengths.

with virgo on the midheaven, the native aspires towards health and contentment. they are quick thinking, careful and dedicated, with a tendency to plan ahead down to the minutiae. there can be a habit of rushing ahead to their chosen destination without being able to enjoy the path they’re taking, and they are prone to anxiety and overthinking. a virgo midheaven is a judgemental placement, in that they are constantly assessing their situation and adjusting accordingly. this can make them seem controlling or critical at times. with the midheaven in virgo, the lower heaven is in pisces. the native’s childhood was often a chaotic place, with few boundaries and little emotional stability, leaving them to fend for themselves in a confusing and uncertain world. the native’s need to feel in control now makes a little more sense, but living life in constant fear of losing it is no real way to live. making use of their penchant for routine, their ability to learn any skill - especially those they deem practical in some way - and their softer, compassionate side will come in handy to help them loosen the reins a little. over time, with the same devotion they give to their loved ones and their chosen field, things do feel less daunting.

libra on the midheaven makes for a native that aspires towards peace and beauty. they are soothing, reflective and highly intelligent, with a craving for an easy, yet meaningful life. they have a tendency to choose pleasure and comfort over growth, to their detriment. they can be very afraid of confrontation and authority, making themselves small and silent to avoid it. they are attracted to careers in the arts, human rights, or paths that find them developing one-on-one connections with people in some way. with libra on the midheaven, we find aries on the lower heaven. the native often grew up in an explosive house, where conflict was handled poorly and communication was last in line. their caregivers may have been draconian and not allowed them to develop much of their own self, which can explain their fascination with how people work and their struggle to maintain healthy boundaries as adults. they are sensitive individuals and work very hard to make others happy, often at their own expense. it takes time to spot these patterns and start mending them, but it’s worth the work to build a beautiful life, by and for one’s own self.

scorpio on the midheaven brings a desire to know all their is to know about their chosen field. they are intriguing, determined and passionate, but they aren’t loud about it. they chase their goals with a fierce drive and focus, which can leave them blinkered to the rest of their life in the process. they can be overachievers, pushing themselves beyond their limits, and are often attracted to the “darker” side of life; what classes as dark, i’ll leave up to the individual to decide for themselves. the native is an intense individual, and not one that makes friends easily, but they tend to make friends for life when they do, chart depending. scorpio on the midheaven means taurus is on the lower heaven. the native’s childhood was often quite traditional in terms of values, with strict and hardworking caregivers who perhaps had some secrets. difficulties were between family, and we therefore kept quiet and not addressed, left to fester. as an adult, scorpio midheaven looks to excise secrets and half-truths in their life, and lives a life of integrity at any cost, or alternately, if they internalise their early experiences, they live a double life, hiding themselves from the world. to thrive, they need to be honest with themselves and their loved ones, and make use of their intense drive to work on themselves and their goals.

with sagittarius on the midheaven, the native aspires towards growth. they are detached, curious and enthusiastic, with an insatiable lust for knowledge. they are often attracted to careers that involve a lot of education or personal development, but can find it hard to settle down. traditionally, this placement would denote travelling or uprooting for a career, which suits the native just fine as they don’t attach too easily, to places or people. with sagittarius on the midheaven, gemini is on the lower heaven. growing up was a lonely experience for the native, who spent a lot of time alone. they craved connection and spontaneity, but instead of their caregivers, who may have been anxious individuals themselves, they found solace in the world around them. as adults, they are very cool externally, but struggle to attach closely and may struggle with commitment issues and a need for freedom that beats everything else. if they can settle their hearts and learn to let people in, they’ll find that their unique way of seeing the world, their creative thinking and wealth of knowledge will serve them very well indeed, and the world is just waiting for them.

capricorn on the midheaven makes for a native that aspires towards independence, respect and mastery. they are driven, strong-willed and surprisingly fiery at times, with a strong sense of responsibility. they are natural leaders and managers, but often fail to see themselves this way until they’re older and wiser. they don’t tend to find the prospect of self-employment attractive, preferring instead a more structured pathway, though they suit working for themselves very well. with capricorn on the midheaven, cancer lies on the lower heaven. the native’s childhood was spent having to “mother” those around them, whether that is because of unstable emotions from caregivers meaning they couldn’t do it, or life circumstances leading to an inability. the native had to learn to put aside ideas deemed childish in order to try and become what was expected of them. as an adult, capricorn midheaven is capable of truly amazing feats, but they are prone to melancholy and find it hard to believe in themselves. when they do learn this vital skill, their passion, drive and determination will take them far indeed, and help them strike a balance between work and life.

aquarius on the midheaven brings a desire to better things. they are more patient than they seem, but their brains move quickly and they do find it hard when those around them can’t keep up. they need support from their people and a good network to really thrive, being a social sign despite the mad scientist stereotype. they may be attracted to almost any field, but it has to be important to the native. with aquarius on the midheaven, leo is on the lower heaven. throughout their childhood, they felt different. not necessarily a bad different, but they knew they were cut from a different cloth to their caregivers, or peers perhaps. being a compassionate and conflict-avoidant placement, they often tried to act the part of one of the gang, and now as an adult they can feel unsure of who they really are and where they really fit in. they have a wide range of often-contradictory interests and skills, and make friends with people of all backgrounds, so they are something of a patchwork quilt. but that’s no bad thing, and embracing every part of themselves will allow them to find meaning and support in life.

with pisces on the midheaven, the native aspires towards healing. they are kind, perceptive and willing. their goals can be ephemeral and easily clouded, leaving them confused about their place in the world. they aren’t afraid of work but are deeply afraid of being stuck in a situation that drains them, as a sensitive and honest individual. with the midheaven being in pisces, the lower heaven is in virgo and so this fear makes a lot more sense. growing up, the native lived in a stern, restrictive household, where they felt they had to be perfect to be loved. they may have struggled with health issues which caused them some delays, or other rifts in the family. now, as adults, they can lack direction and feel easily overwhelmed and burned out, falling into pits of despair and depression relatively easily when they don’t take extra care. they have a huge store of compassion and this will be their most vital asset, along with their genuine interest in humanity and the world. they have a willingness to help others, an understanding of the depth of the human soul, and the ability to sit and listen and absorb. building healthy boundaries and letting themselves explore will serve pisces midheaven well in life.

[spacebarbarianweird]

I haven't seen much of Astarion n Elf!Tav, so I was wondering what you would think about them together 🤔

Hi! I've got so many requests for headcanons I really felt like I couldn't decide which one to take next so I asked my subscribers to choose the race for me.

The most voted for Elf! Tav. Since I have separate requests for Drows and Wood Elves, this one is going to be about High Elves.

Hope you will enjoy it!

Astarion x High Elf!Tav

Masterlist

Headcanons

You are young by Elven standards, still many years from receiving your adult name.

But you already have a lot of life experience - and there is sorrow in your eyes since many of your friends are already too old to accompany you.

And you know sooner or later you will be able to share company only among ones of your kind since the world will change too fast for you to grasp it.

You fall in love with Astarion at first sight. He is your Thiramin, a soulmate, a forever love.

Maybe you were together in your past reincarnations. Or in your past life, you met him as a mortal.

Or it's something new for both of you.

Astarion shrugs this idea away. He doesn't have a soul. He will never see his past lives in his dreams when he gets older (because he will never age), he won't reincarnate when he dies (because he is already dead). There is nothing, only the existence of the undead.

To have a Thiramin you also need to have a soul.

Which he doesn't.

But he still loves you. You are the first person he cares and loves. And unless you don't want him in your life, he won't go away

He also has come to terms with your mortality.

First, you will be around for many centuries. He has at least six hundred years together with you or even more.

Second, you will come back. Not right away, but you will. You will come to him, in your new body, and he will recognize you the same way older elves recognize their long-dead friends in children.

Post-game, you travel. Elven wanderlust takes you places - other continents and planes. Halrua, Kara-Tur, the Vilhon Reach, the Sea of Stars. Sometimes you settle for a bit, but never longer than a decade or two.

You speak Elven to each other. Astarion feels safe speaking his mother tongue to you.

You call each other "Salen Aester" and "Salen Thiramin": my love and my soul.

He likes teasing your ears, caressing and love-biting them.

You do the same to him, though, he wasn't comfortable at first.

But you just made him sit in front of you and allowed him to touch your ears while copying his movements.

He ended up a crying mess.

You also decide to spend some time searching for his family though it's difficult since he doesn't remember anything about his past life.

His surname is though of an Elven origin ("The one who learns by hand") sounds unfamiliar to most Elves you meet.

And Astarion is hesitant about searching for his past life.

"Whatever it was, I don't want it. I want the future. With you."

Once you turn 110 years, you return home to get the adult name.

And marry Astarion.

It's difficult for the elders to accept Astarion - a vampire, an undead, a person with no family or kin. 

But they do.

It's a sin to separate Thiramins, after all.

--

Tag list

@tugoslovenka @marcynomercy @wintersire @vixstarria @not-so-lost-after-all @ashiro20 @theearthsfinalconfession @herstxrgirl @starlight-ipomoea @micropoe10 @astarion-imagine-archive @veillsar @elora-the-slutty-songstress @fayeriess @lumienyx @astarion-beloved @tallymonster @caitlincat-95 @tragedybunny @valeprati

[professorcalculusstanaccount]

Tintin through time! 

Thought it would be fun to have my various designs for Tintin in one post. The canon comics have a floating timeline and Tintin never ages. I think rooting him in a specific time and context makes him feel a little more real (also I am a sucker for historical fiction). Click below for a potted timeline and notes about each design!

Left to right, top to bottom:

Child - in my timeline Tintin was born in 1915, a year into the First World War. He was probably picked on a lot by his peers for being small, ginger and slightly effeminate, and was picked on by adults for being “difficult” and asking too many questions.

Early canon - He leaves school early and becomes a reporter at 14. He’s unhinged, he’s blasé, he dresses like Spongebob. Coming right out of Catholic school he has a lot of unhealthy beliefs he needs to confront and unlearn. I imagine his editor is a pretty shady person as they are willing to send this kid off to dangerous places. His naivety prevents him from spotting any red flags at first.

Late canon - Tintin as we know him! His journalism career is at its peak at the tender age of 17. He’s found a family and stability at Marlinspike. His politics are evolving. He is, however, pretty neglectful of his own personal life, almost fully focusing on his career. He’s starting to grow wary of his editor and they frequently argue, Tintin often winning out as he knows it’s his articles that sell papers.

Young adult - With the Second World War breaking out this is an unstable time in his life. He’s come to terms with being gay but is fired from his paper after being forcibly outed. Tintin and the Marlinspike team take fighting fascism into their own hands. 

For his design here he wears a turtleneck like Captain Haddock, glasses like Professor Calculus (also representing a renewed perspective on things) and his hair is more relaxed like Chang’s! The idea was to show how he has been impacted by the people he cares about. 

After the war ends he struggles with unemployment and burnout, insecure that he might have peaked as a teenager.

Middle aged - It’s the late 50s - early 60s, Tintin is jaded and cynical but still kind and willing to help others. He is absolutely horrified by the events of WW2 and carries an enormous sense of guilt, feeling he didn’t do enough. His faith in journalism has also been thoroughly shaken, witnessing the spectacular failing of the system himself, and realising there are people who genuinely do not care for the truth, and are only concerned with power. 

Elderly - if he somehow makes it to old age he’d be a chaotic little old man who doesn’t give a Single Shit. It’s the late 80s and early 90s, at this point he has retired from journalism and has published his own books, and has taken to becoming a full time political activist (here he’s wearing an AIDS awareness ribbon from 1991, in the 70s Herge had Tintin wear a helmet displaying a symbol for nuclear disarmament). Kids adore him, cops hate him! 

He has taken to technology, being an early adopter of the Internet and desktop computers. He and Chang have since been able to reunite with Chang’s family and they often spend time with Didi’s grandkids!

I don’t know what would kill him. Old age? A car bomb? Maybe he falls over badly and bangs his head one last time. I don’t think it’s my place to decide.

[1117feverlessdreams]

Picture Perfect

* ੈ✩‧₊˚* ੈ✩‧₊˚* ੈ✩‧₊˚ * ੈ✩‧₊˚* ੈ✩‧₊˚* ੈ✩‧₊˚ * ੈ✩‧₊˚*

* ੈ✩‧₊˚* ੈ✩‧₊˚* ੈ✩‧₊˚ * ੈ✩‧₊˚* ੈ✩‧₊˚* ੈ✩‧₊˚ * ੈ✩‧₊˚*

📷💖TAGS: Short but San is veryyy sweet 🌸Lots of fluffy fluff 🎀, mention of oral and masturbation, a lil bunny kink action 🐰 slight smut, and San as a dig bick nerd 🤓!

📷💖PAIRING: Nerd!San x Neutral!Reader, HOT!San x Photographer!Reader

📷💖WORD COUNT: 5.2k

📷💖A/N: I hope to push out more content soon. College has been a major setback for me but there are a lot of drafts in the making!

* ੈ✩‧₊˚* ੈ✩‧₊˚* ੈ✩‧₊˚ * ੈ✩‧₊˚* ੈ✩‧₊˚* ੈ✩‧₊˚ * ੈ✩‧₊˚*

As you pounce around your apartment, you manage to grab the things you need for your class's reunion party tonight.

Your best friend was the host and had requested for you to take pictures as you used to do in your school days. You were so good that the school had asked you to take everyone’s picture for the graduating year.

After that, in your early adult life, your career of picture taking didn’t escalate to where you thought it be after all these years.

It was difficult being your own boss as vague as that sounds. Your clients can be unreasonable at times, and your schedule is always tight.

Luckily for tonight, you’ve managed to get your shoots done early today in perfect alignment with the later occasion.

Upon arriving, it was convenient for you to obtain a reserved spot in your best friend's 12-car garage. In other words, you would’ve had a hell of a walk carrying bulky camera equipment across a road of a walkway to a five-story mansion.

You felt proud that your friend had managed to acquire such an easy-going and luxurious lifestyle. Even if you were still working toward that point yourself, you still felt a sense of accomplishment as their dear friend.

With your parking spot you could enter the house from an alternate entrance, the quiet concrete space sounded still compared to what was going on inside.

It’s been a while since you've seen everyone. You were nervous spite of the fact, but you were always on good terms with your peers.

You take a deep breath and slung your tripod over your back, and adjust the camera pack on your shoulders. You turn the door knob and enter what was the back door to one of the kitchens.

It wasn’t long until you had recognized a few people who had already recognized you.

To your disposition, you were adruptly stopped into a general conversation. It was about 7 minutes long in a discussion of the progressions you’ve made in life with your former classmates.

You were saved from diving into a new topic of discussion when your best friend had walked in.

…

“Hey you! Why didn’t you tell me you were here?!”

A breath of relief releases from your lungs as she stood there in a bedazzling dress, looking like the brightest super star in the whole oversized house.

Well I would have but as you can see, I got caught up, you communicate with kind eyes.

“I guess it slipped my mind. I’m just excited to see everyone again tonight.”

As your best friend, she could obviously read your nervousness and could tell that the initial conversation made you feel overwhelmed.

Especially with heavy pounds of camera equipment crushing into your entire backside.

“Well hurry and come further inside so I can help you set everything up! That way you can take those pictures and mingle for a bit.”

You nod and follow her out to the kitchen to the central area of the party to set everything up in shape. Her immediate action was to take the tripod off your back while you set up everything from the duffle bagged camera pack on your shoulder.

“You’re too nice. You need to let people know what’s convienent in your time, like those arrogant clients you have.”

“Well you know I’m a people pleaser. My whole job centralizes around people.”

“I understand that. She says, snapping the locks of the tripods legs in place. “But never forget that you are a person too.”

No matter what anyone said that was envious of your friend's success, she always remained to be true to the person she was to you and better.

You finish by plugging in the ring light to illuminate your background. As tonight is a reunion, you came up with the bright idea of recreating Polaroid cards that everyone loved you for in your school years.

It was a regular white background, but your decorative expertise made the printed Polaroid photos look anything but regular.

What made you adore your friend even more was that most of your former classmates brought in those photos, in perfect condition, and to keep them after all these years made you gleam at your best friend from across the room.

After many reminiscent discussions, catching up, and strings of sticky glued mess from decorating, you were ready to call it wraps for the night to “mingle”- as your friend suggested.

Truthfully, you didn’t know how to mingle without photography being involved. As if someone had read your mind to prevent you from becoming a disaster of yourself, you heard your name before you pulled the ring lights plug.

“Hey! It’s great that you still do this kind of thing, I always knew this was meant for you.”

You watch as he walks into the light, glowing apart from the dim party lights.

Choi San, the school’s nerdy sweet boy that made your heart throb. He wasn’t any other girl's trope, but that only meant better for you to have him for yourself. But you were always hesitant to let him know how you felt. Even now.

“Choi San?”

“Don’t tell me you didn’t recognize me…”

You flicker your eyes up and down as you take in his black and white suit and tie. He always overdressed for any occasion, but that was one of many things you loved most about him. Not to mention, the boldness of his comb-over hot pink hair.

“No- it just- you grew up so well.”

"As did you.”

He smirks at you so hard to the point that a dimple comes into view in a small shadow due to the works of lighting.

“Yeah, I guess photography was always my way of capturing life with my eyes. It’s great that I can look at everyone when I want and relive those memories.”

Besides the fact that it takes you back to way back when, it makes you weak to the knees from the way he looks so good now, his intense gaze makes you overthink every word you said.

“Oh wait- that sounds really odd right?”

His smile grows larger, and another dimple is engraved in his slim cheekbones underneath the light. “I like odd. It’s boring when things are casual, and even.”

He walks past you and goes behind the camera to analyze your setup. He nods his head in approval with his hands in his pockets, then slides another one out to tap on the stool. “Mind if I do?”

“No. Not at all.”

“Thanks.”

You make your way back behind the camera to take his picture, secretly trapped by his beauty in your viewfinder.

His smile never came back down in any subtle way, which made you eager to just kiss him right there.

“Your teeth are nice but, can we recreate your old picture and just use your lips? Maybe… poke out a dimple?”

“Uh yeah… sure thing." He closes his mouth, smirking directly at you at first before you had to redirect his eyesight to the camera lens. You managed to capture his essence in a still frame with a final click. “My teeth are nice hm?”

“Um yeah… they’re nice”, you mumble, completely nerve-wracked. “It’s a bit of a shame though, but maybe we can use it for another photo." You awkwardly walk sideways to print out the photo as you transfer it from your friend's laptop. “Here’s your pic.”

He looks at the pic in his strong hands, standing back up again with a smile wide as he looks back up at you, slipping the smaller image into his front blazer pocket.

“Sounds like a plan.” If it wasn’t so quick you would’ve caught his glance at your lips, but yet you couldn’t even register that fact he’s talking to you now. “So, you still decorate Polaroids?”

“No, not really! It’s just for the occasion. It’s kind of out of style now so…”

“Oh no it’s totally in now! But no matter who else does it, I always said Y/n started it, and they do it best!”

“Awe thanks. You’re so kind, as always.”

Another smirk of his sly on by, a one-sided one that could potentially do more damage than the normal one. He wands his finger in the air, referring to the space around you. “See you around?”

“Yeah”, you nod. “I’ll be ‘mingling’ in just a few minutes.”

San breathes out a light chuckle, looking you up and down without hiding it before turning to walk away.

…

It didn’t take you long to pack things up as it does to set things up, but from your previous interaction, it made you more nervous to get out into the crowd.

With your luck, as you venture off to find your best friend, you walk into a drinking game in one of her family rooms, decorated with gold strobe lights illuminating the vintage furniture. She started it, of course, and you see San again, standing tall and relaxed on a back wall while everyone else is seated in a circle.

You approach the circle slowly, and yet your best friend manages to sense your presence. She turns around and opens her arms to bring you in to join the game.

Spin the bottle, it was.

Even as grown adults, here you are, still playing childish games.

San then decided to join as well. He taps on someone else’s shoulder to sit right across from you.

“This is for all the single people, your friend whispers, “…this is your chance to finally just go for it!”

You begin to scold her in response, but it startles you when everyone begins to drum roll on the ground for suspense. The bottle gets spun and starts turning in rapid rotations.

San finds comfort in making eye contact with you. You were the only ones not drumming on the ground, or cheering in excitement.

As some sort of messed up fate would decide, the bottle lands between you…and San.

“Well look at that”, a random classmate says, “…the two smart kids, Y/n and San!”

“If you don’t kiss, you have to feed each other a shot!”, a classmate shouts.

Without any thought, you immediately grab onto a shot glass from the middle table and pour it up for the both of you, all the way to the very top.

San follows your lead as you hand him a filled shot glass, rising on your knees.

All you had to do was pour the drink into each other's mouths. A simple task, but the fact that it was San made you slow to understand.

“I got it.” San grabs hold of your wrist with his gentle touch using his free hand. He places the rim of the shot on his rose-pink bottom lip, then nods at you to do the same.

You begin to follow him then, and when he gives you the signal, you tip the drinks upward into each other's mouth as you both tilt your head backward.

The strong scent of liquor infiltrated your nostrils through the wrong pipe, causing you to start having a coughing fit, and accidentally pulling San down on top of you.

“Sorry!”, you both say unanimously.

He rises from atop of you to pull you back up, but you are already quick enough on your own to scoot back into your spot.

“Well!”, your best friend suits from beside you, “the tension in here is suffocating!” She looks at you, reading over the bloodshot redness on your face. “Say y/n, are you okay with taking a group photo for everyone?”

“Y-yeah”, you stutter, “of course.”

“Great!”, she claps. “We should all take one.” She points to the area behind her while looking at everyone on the floor, “On the couch everybody!”

Everyone uncrosses their legs with moans and groans from the stiffness, one of the naturalist things that comes with your age.

“Oh! I need some time to set up still, it’s sort of dark in here.”, you explain while standing up.

“I can help you.”

You look to follow the voice of San, seated on the edge of the couch with drunk girls tossing themselves all over him.

“You don’t have to, you can just- stay right there.”

“It’s okay love… I insist.”

“AWEEEEE!”, the girls whine, forever being allured by San’s sweet heart and his looks.

Conversation between your classmates had naturally begun to pick up again. The task of setting everything up was two times quicker, but with the underlying tension, it felt longer.

As he isn’t too familiar with cameras, Choi San followed your lead once again.

Your hands occasionally touched as small murmured apologies would simultaneously be spoken between the two of you.

You were so immersed that you didn’t even notice your friend grinning as she watched. It was like watching you two as kids all over again.

When you had finally set everything up, you both rose from the floor at the same time, thumping each other's heads.

“Ouch!”, you exclaimed.

“Sorry.”, you both say.

“Hey, Sannie! Come sit with us for the picture!”, the girls scream, messily waving him over as they struggle to make room for another.

You step back to hide behind the camera, snapping threads of photos when everyone is ready to select the best ones for later.

“Y/n!”, your friend yells. “…you’ve gotta get in at least one of these!”

“Oh, no.”, you shake your head. “I don’t think there’s any spots left for me on the couch left anyway”

“You can have my spot.”, San calls you to again.

“It’s okay. I’ll stand behind the couch… it’s not that big of a deal.”

“AWEEEEEE!”, the girls whine again.

“I will too then.”

“AWWWWWWEEEEE!”, they whine obviously for another time.

“Okay, that’s enough everyone! Your friend sits in an annoyed tone. “Are you ready Y/n?”

“Yeah, one sec. You run behind the camera and run being the couch holding up a 3 with your fingers. “Alright, Reunion on 3!”, your friend announces.

“1, 2, 3. REUNION!”

You feel an arm snake around your shoulder, and you naturally grabbed on to it for the picture. One thing you hate as a photographer was noticing yourself in awkward tension in photos. So you’ve trained yourself not to be.

After the picture though, you felt like melting into the floor so you didn’t have to move forth with embarrassing yourself with Choi San tonight, you were consciously trying your best to bring up a plausible excuse.

“Was that okay? I apologize.”

“No you’re so fine. I mean- no- trust me, it’s fine.”

“Are you sure?”, he questions, looking over the mixed expression on your features. “It kind of happened naturally, but if it made you feel weird then-”

“I grabbed onto your arm anyhow, so if you wanna be real here, we both did it without checking on the other.”, you state with shrugged arms. “You see, we’re even.”

He closes the space and walks up to you and grabs your hand. “I like odd. It’s boring when things are casual, and even.”

“If you’re okay with it, I like to take you to someplace else. It’s walking distance, so don’t be wary.”

“Sure.” You look around to see everyone falling on their faces. “I could use some fresh air.”

..

You walk arm-in-arm across the city’s bridge with pretty city lights, and yet you're still confused about which view you like best with a beautiful man at your side.

He abruptly stops in his footsteps to unlink your arms, pulling his smartphone out of his pocket.

“If it’s okay”, he looks down, flipping his phone in his hand with nervousness, …"I want to take a picture of you at this moment. I feel like- as much as you take pictures-you hardly capture the beautiful moments with just yourself.”

You blink at him rapidly in astonishment, luckily for you, the occasional strong wind was enough reason to blame if you cried.

“That’s okay, thank you for that.”

He nods with a smile, encouraging you to pose against the railing in front of the waters and sky-high bright light buildings.

“You make the camera look good!”, he shouts, eyes being covered by the phone but his dimples peak with his toothy smile.

After a few minutes, you push off the railing, and San stands up to show you the results. It was fair for a beginner you thought, but the fact that it was San who took it made your heart pick up in pace. You looked at peace with yourself.

You take San’s place after reviewing your pictures and give him pro tips. During his photo shoot, you offered him poses which he perfected on his first try. Simply because he was so perfect.

At the end, he struts toward you, even when the camera isn’t on him he looks like a model.

“The camera makes me look good.”, he says reviewing your photos.

“You don’t need a camera for that silly, you’re right in front of me!”

“I mean…”, your cheeks bloom again with red as you smack yourself in the head.

He grins wide again, coming to stand by your side to watch over the city. “Even with this amazing view, you shined brighter than all of it.”

“Wow-um, Thank you, you’re so kind to me San.”

“Don’t mention it.”

A few cars passed, but in between that was peaceful silence as you and San continued to watch the bright lights, buildings, and stars.

“You ready to go back sweetheart? It’s getting late, and I don’t want to keep you up if you have clients to attend to in the morning.”

It broke you a little bit to hear that even San knew you were a workaholic.

“Actually, I’m free all of tomorrow as well. I didn't know how intense the party scene would be, and I didn’t want to take any chances.”

“You didn’t drink all too much, did you?” His tone is guardian-like, an ounce of concern pours within every word.

“Not really. How about you?”

“Maybe one or two, but I really finished neither.”

“So… we’re both good to drive home then.”

For some reason the peaceful silence grows into awkwardness and shame.

“You live nearby?”, San whispers.

“Nope, it’s a couple of hours for me. I’m thinking about crashing at a ‘tel tonight. I don’t want to get lost trying to find her bathroom in the middle of the night.”, you point to the way of the party, referring to your best friend.

A hearty chuckle leaves his mouth as it bounces with his broad shoulders. “That’s really far.”, he acknowledges, …”and I completely understand that but…I have a spare bedroom if you’re up for it. It’s reserved for family and friends only- nothing weird.”

There were a lot more pros than cons you thought, but high school you would’ve thought otherwise. But your adults now, where’s the harm in going over a friend's house?

“I’ll take you up on that, I could save the money.”

“Sounds great.”, he says, holding out his arms for you to grab onto with your own, “I can save you gas too, and drive you back to get your car in the morning.”

“You would do that for me?”

“I would.”

…

Even if he changed on the outside the inside of his apartment showcased how much of a dweeb he still was and you loved it.

He walked you into the room you’d be sleeping in which was a slight contrast of his dweebiness but it still shows his personality nonetheless.

For pajamas, he handed you a t-shirt with the cutest Pokémon character on it and some black sweats. When you came out of the room from changing, you followed the alluring smoke of delicious aroma from the kitchen to find him sautéing a stir fry.

He changed from his formal suit to the casual wear of his black tee shirt and black sweats. But to you, it was anything but casual, because how can such a man look so sexy in something so basic as plain black clothing?

“It smells amazing in here, I’m actually starving.”

“There’s plenty enough for you here sweetheart. What kind of person would I be not to feed my guest?”

“I appreciate it. You’re the sweetest.”

“Of course.”, he moves away from the stove to hand you your plate as you both move into his living room to watch the movie you selected. “We will reserve dessert for later.”

It had been twenty-something minutes since the movie began and you couldn’t recap on what happened if San asked you to.

Dessert was severed right after dinner as promised, but was it wrong for you to want something else more?

“I’ll guess I’ll head to bed now”, you muttered, “thank you for everything, from taking me home and cooking a delicious meal.”

“Of course. He gets up from the couch as you do, “I’ll head to bed now too.”

“Good night, San.”, you wave from across the hall.

“Good night, Y/n.”, he doesn’t shut his door until after you do, which was a little intense because you kept gawking at him.

You can admit that everything was perfect. The bed was at the perfect standard between hard and soft, the sheets were clean, and the room was tidy and smelled nice. But later that night you couldn’t sleep, so you go to check on San to see if he was still awake.

You don’t think to knock on his door in case you might wake him up from good sleep.

However, what you didn’t expect was him sitting up in his bed with a night light and glasses reading manga.

When you come in he’s flustered and throwing the book somewhere across the room while he tosses his glasses on his nightstand.

“Sorry! I thought you were asleep!”

You rush to close the door and San struggles to reach you as his ankles get tangled from the sheets covering his bed.

“Wait, it’s okay!” You open the door slightly with only one eye in appearance, idolizing San’s unbelievable frame. “Is everything all right? Did you need anything?”, he says in a rushed tone.

“I just-honestly, my nerves are bad and it’s hard for me to settle in at other people’s houses.”

“Oh! I’m sorry.”, he grabs a blanket from his bed to reveal another one, moving to stand in front of the edge, and closer to you. “You can take the bed in here if that’s better for you. I’ll make a pallet on the floor.”

“No that’s okay!” You wave him off between the cracks. “Maybe I’m just paranoid.”

“I promise, it’s alright.” He walks much closer to you now, taking his grip on the door and opening it wide to your exposure. “Please…I insist.”

You walk into the room, looking between the hard wooden floor and his fluffy bed which was also dressed in black. “How about we just share the bed San, that way no one has to be uncomfortable?”

You’re both adults… you can handle it, right?

“Um sure, yeah. He tries the cover back down onto the mattress as you close the door behind you. “If you’re comfortable.”

“I am, are you?”

“Yes.”, he confirms, then settling in as he sits up, waiting on you to join in.

“Good.”

“Good.”

You make your way in and San turns off his nightlight to finally get some rest, the both of you turning in the opposite of ways.

Unexpectedly though, you both turn opposite again at the same time, and your lips become magnetic in an inevitable connection.

You both pull away on your last breaths, gazing into the other's eyes, and pulling your bodies closer.

“Can I tell you something?”, you both whisper at the same time.

“You first.”, you both say again.

San takes the initiative to start before you this time, hovering his hand above your cheek in which you take hold of as soon as the opportunity presents itself. “I’ve been waiting to do that since high school.”

“Me too”, you confess. “I think…no- I know I like you.”

His eyes brighten and he begins caressing your soft flesh. “Same here.” In seconds you begin kissing again, never ending until before you take each other's breaths away.

It actually began to escalate into something more afterward. You both felt like you had to continue touching the other in one way or more.

San began to pull the plug as he stopped himself from pulling your shirt over your head. “I uh… we don’t have to-”

You immediately silence him with a kiss, pulling the remainder of your shirt that was left on your body yourself. “I want to with you, please.”

“Why would i ever say no to you?” San moves over on top of you, trying to get to know your body more from its every angle. “Where do you want me?”, he asks, mainly because he’s unsure where to start himself.

“Anywhere and everywhere, please?” Your reach up to touch a long strand of pink behind his hair and smooth your fingers along his jawline.

“Anything for you my sweet.”

He then makes the move to firstly bend down and kiss you on the head, making his way down directly to where your pleasure erects.

“Wait!”, you whisper above what was considered normal, startling San you come to a complete halt. “Glasses.”

He scoffs and climbs his way back up to your face. “Don’t tell me you have a kink for glasses.”

“Only when you put them on”, you sensually remark. “It makes you look even more delectable.”

“Is that so?”, he devilishly grins, “Hand them over here then.”

He slides on glasses as he looks deep into your eyes. Embodying the nature of a DILF like no other, perhaps that’s another kink you only have with him.

San moves downward again to your sex, pursuing straight into action. With the skills of his lips and tongue, her was able to suck, twirl, and eat every bit right out of you until his glasses are smeared with your cum, and your legs are quivering in instability.

“So it’s true”, you mumble, sucking back in every breath you give out. “…nerdy boys do give the best head. I wonder if the big dick part is true or not.”, you grin, letting your sex drive take wheel off every previous challenge.

San lets up and pulls onto the string that flatters his waist, pulling the down as the fabric loosens and stretches. “I’ll let you be the judge of that.”

His shirt selfishly covers him with he reveals himself to you, sticking up hard underneath black cotton. But he reads your desperate expression and relieves your mind, taking his shirt off to sire him all to you.

“Holy fuck.”

San leans down to your ear and lightly kisses its outer shell, while the tip of his meaty cock taps on your abdomen.

“What do you think my love? Are the rumors true?”

He pulls apart from you and you follow the front of his face, shaking your head in disbelief. “I think they underestimated you.”

“Good answer, you’re not as dumb of a bunny as I’d thought you’d be.”

Your breath hitches from the ticklish feeling your body shivers from in hindsight. “B-b-bunny?”

“That’s right baby, that’s what I’ll call you, my little cock hopper.” San flips you over to leave you the role of being top, and yet he takes the lead by plunging his dick right into your sweet spot.

“Oh my- fuck!” Your eyes flutter as your mouth gapes open wide, gripping on his sheets and printing your claws.

He wastes no time to push in and out of you. Your beauty has driven him to insanity. But your noises and cuteness brought him over the very edge.

“Bunny do you know? unghhhh- how many times I- gosh- got a hard on in class and had to go to the bathroom- shit- because of you?”

“No, I’m sorry”, you whine. “Did you ever-fuck- do it? Rub it off?”

He growls at your inquiry, thrusting in hard and much deeper than before, forcing you to jerk forward. “Did I?”, he laughs darkly, “Why do you think I was nowhere to be found every lunch period? You think I was eating on the floor-arghhh-somewhere?”

“I would’ve assumed so but..if you needed my help Sannie, then you could’ve just asked y’know?”

“You would’ve did that for me Bunny?”, he whimpers, reaching up to caress your unattended skin.

“I would’ve Sannie. That cafeteria food was nothing to miss out on anyhow.”

The both of you laugh from the recall of freezer burnt fries and overcooked pizza.

“Fuck, bunny. I wished I would’ve talk to you sooner.”

“We can make up for lost time, Sannie.”

“Have you ever thought about us being together? He starts to thrust slower, eager to hear your thoughts. Like… in a relationship?”

“I always have too”, you conquer. Even now.”

He almost comes to full-stop, gazing up at you with furrowed brows and lost eyes. “Will you be mine then Y/n, please?”

For the first time tonight, you show your teeth with a wide smile. “With pleasure.”

The two of you meet halfway in a warm kiss. San starts to pick up his pace again, faster and harder, plunging into your hole as he holds onto your neck so you can never let go.

Your releases and his collide together like a shockwave, leaving you both to just collapse on one another and breathless.

“You’re mine now, no take back-sees, he teases, kissing your red-hot flustered cheek.

“I’ve waited this long Sannie”, you say lifting your upper body to smooth wet hair from his forehead to uncover the handsomeness that is his precious face. “As if I would ever.”

…

In his bed you lie peaceful and calm, deblocking the things you wish you would’ve done with the beautiful things you have.

It made you come up with the idea as you tap on San’s muscle-tight arm to be released from your waist, to which he whined and babbled about.

You bend down to retrieve your clothes that was left discarded at his bedside to fish into your pockets.

You pulled out the pink tube and applied it to your lips, then went into San’s front blazer pocket to find his Polaroid.

San has watched you carefully from the lipstick to the point where you kissed his picture. One on the cheek, the other, on his neck.

“Is that a decoration for my Polaroid?”

“One of them, I’m not done yet”, you giggle.

You began to write, ‘SO HOT’ and ‘call me!’ with your new phone number attached. Around the border, you added pink hearts to compliment his hair and complete the image.

“There, now it’s done.” He sits up as you tilt the picture in his direction. “What do you think?”

He grabs onto the square laminated photo, evaluating every design. “Nobody does it like you baby. It’s picture perfect.”

…

The night continued on with you giggling with San as you shared your embarrassing crush stories with each other, contemplating why the hell you both didn’t say anything sooner.

* ੈ✩‧₊˚* ੈ✩‧₊˚* ੈ✩‧₊˚ * ੈ✩‧₊˚* ੈ✩‧₊˚* ੈ✩‧₊˚ * ੈ✩‧₊˚*

A/N: This was so fun to create! I hope to post more stories soon! 💞

Much love,

xoxo

[grenade-maid]

there's a lot of reasons more people aren't into yuri that are troubling to consider, but equally, I genuinely think it cannot be understated how much of it comes down to most yuri being boring as hell. Like truly. I've been reading the front page of Dynasty Scans like it was the newspaper for 15 years I am not exaggerating I can show you the download file data 15 years.

You know what the complaint about yuri by yuri readers was back in 2009?

"wow that really was just 5 volumes of them blushing at each other and then they don't even kiss"

You know what the complaint about yuri by yuri readers is today in 2023?

"wow that really was just 5 volumes of them blushing at each other and then they don't even kiss"

Don't get me wrong, Yuri has grown a LOT in that time, to the point that most people today wouldn't even understand a Maria-sama reference if it were dropped in front of them (thank God). It's expanded and evolved to encompass more stories about adult women, wider varieties of scenarios, a greater acknowledgement of real life lesbianism, and is more comfortable showing girls kissing with tongue and having sex.

Yuri Manga is maybe the best is it's ever been, and it's also getting the widest readership it's ever had in the English speaking world. The titles we carry at work are always on back order with long queues, and, when I've asked them, most weebs of all gender or sexualities report keeping up with at least a few Yuri series.

At large though? Most of it is still really boring. That's not a bad thing necessarily. I like it because it goes down easy. For the most part any series you pick is gonna be pretty chill. Even shit from Sal Jiang which is PRETTY EDGY for yuri is a pretty breezy read. More serious ones like How Do We Relationship? cover some pretty real subjects about how intimacy is actually quite difficult even when both of you love each other, but it's not like... Exciting. Yuri isn't where you go to pump your fist or get perched on the edge of your seat.

So when the comparison is made to yaoi, well, I mean, have you READ any yaoi? Even in some of the more restrained titles those boys are likely to be sucking and fucking balls and all within the first volume or two. There's gonna be drama, intrigue, shit is gonna get messy, passions are gonna get heated, clothes are gonna be ripped off, people are gonna get sold to One Direction, it's stuff you can sit down with a bowl of popcorn with you know? Stuff you can message your friend and gush Hey Can You BELIEVE? A lot of it is pretty trashy, but that's the appeal. The generic state of yaoi is torrid and exciting and sexy. Ultimately, as a species many of us like to see pretty people fuck. In yaoi you'll get that. In yuri you won't. Nothing wrong with that, but it is gonna be a major contributing factor to their relative popularity.

It's also worth making the comparison to hetero romance manga, which has undergone a renaissance of it's own in recent years. There's now a whole meta around crafting a handful of mean shitty grouchy dysfunctional bully women and flinging them at the protagonist of the day who, unlike in years past, may actually have a face and personality. Most of these are also very trashy and truly scrape the bottom of the bucket in terms of writing.

AND YET?

I would bet money on the fact that you'll have heard of these women and probably even have a good idea what they're like without ever having touched a page of their manga.

I'm sorry but the straights are whipping donuts around the yuri girls in terms of delivering a wide variety of weird compelling fucked up women. How many yuri leading ladies by comparison can you point to as standout recognizable characters even divorced from their story? There's definitely a few, but not many. I'm not talking quality or depth of writing, I'm talking straight up pure recognizability. There are many beautifully written women in yuri, now more than ever. I can't think of many who'd like, get a figure made or have their face splashed on merch, though.

I don't really have a conclusion here. I love Yuri a lot, but at the end of the day this is just kinda the state of things right now.

[honeydewandcake]

Talentless Nana x Dandy’s World

I already have an idea of what each toon’s role would be

See the list below if you want ↓

Poppy — She takes the role of Nana Hiiragi, she is sent to the island to eliminate every toon there. She pretends to have a bubbly personality but she’s very manipulative and calulated. She has no special talent, but she pretends to read minds. I chose Poppy as Nana as I thought she has that same personality, being all nice and friendly to others. I thought it would be interesting to make a beginner toon into something a lot cooler.

Boxten — He takes the role of Nanao Nakajima. He doesn’t do much and is mostly outcasted, he is the first attempted murder but will come back in the future. His special ability is nullifying other toons’ powers (taking it from Nanao because I couldn’t think of anything else for Boxten). I thought Boxten fit Nakajima because they’re both kind of left behind (in Boxten’s case, I don’t see him as a popular toon in the fandom) and because I thought their personalities were kind of similar, both shy but good at heart. I also though it would be kind of cool to see Boxten in the future.

Finn — He takes the role of Moe Makabe. He was sent to the island a little bit later and joins Poppy as they continue their mission. Finn also does not have any special talents. I thought Finn fit Moe the most since they’re both outgoing and sort of childish, they’re also both considered newcomers. It’s also a common headcanon that Poppy and Finn are family, so I thought the relationship might work there.

Rodger — He takes the role of Kyouya Onodera. He’s very observant and logical, taking in every piece of information and is able to reduce a coherent story in a matter of minutes through observing his surroundings. I might just give Rodger the ability I gave him, which is being able to look deep into a toon’s soul and see the true them. I think it might help with investigations that happen around the island as the murders take place. Although not the same personality wise, I do think Rodger could fit in story wise (I will explain in Toodles’ section). They both also play the role as detective.

Cosmo — He takes the role of Michiru Inukai. He is a very kind-hearted but his nervousness gets in the way. He’s quite selfless, making him quite naive and easy to manipulate by Poppy. Cosmo has the ability to heal others, this also shortens his lifespan. I thought Cosmo was the best for Michiru, not only do they have the same kind of personality but their abilities are quite literally the same (both can heal but at the cost of their own health and life). It does pain me to say that Cosmo does in fact lose his life when trying to heal Poppy, unfortunately. I think Cosmo might still be best friends with Sprout, but became friends with Poppy after Sprout’s death (yes, he will die).

Toodles — She takes the role of Rin Onodera. She is the closest thing to family for Rodger, she was sent to the island before him only to disappear. Toodles has the ability to shapeshift into other toons and animals. She is still alive but takes the form of another toon (possibly not in Dandy’s World, maybe a toon before the main cast). At the point where our present day toons are sent to the island, Toodles is now an adult. Pinpointing who could be Rin was difficult, but ultimately I decided that Toodles is the best. In terms of story, it makes the most sense that Toodles would be related to Rodger (in a sense that Toodles is almost like a “little sister” to Rodger).

Astro — He (loosely) takes the role of Hikaru Daichi. He has the ability to control gravity, but only depending on where the moon is. Astro is quite humble albiet very reserved since he lives in the mountains away from everyone else. This was a tough choice, I didn’t really want Astro to be Hikaru but he made the most sense. Both are related to the moon, they have somewhat similar personalities as they’re friendly with pretty much everyone by being kind and humble. Although, I wonder if Hikaru’s story could be Astro’s as well, maybe Astro does kind of enjoy sending people to the moon because it’s “beautiful” to him.

Glisten — He takes the role of Seiya Kori. He is charismatic and carries a big ego, he is quite the beauty so he has a number of fangirls and fanboys. Taking his ability in the game, Glisten has the ability to teleport. I’m not sure if I want to make it the exact same where he teleports to another person, but if he did then that would be considered the drawback. Glisten is pretty much the only toon who fits Seiya personality wise. He fits story wise as well, but this time I don’t want to give Glisten a girlfriend. It would be funny to see him lose his sparkles in the future, only to get it back. It kind of adds to the charm of Glisten being a mirror.

At this point, I’m kind of stumped on which character would be who, so from here on out I’ll just explain what each remaining toons’ powers and abilities would be as well as their drawbacks.

Brightney — Inspired by her ability in the game, Brightney’s talent is x-ray vision. She can see people through walls and such, being able to identify who it is and where they are. The drawback would be that her vision is temporarily blinded/blurred after using it, it’s similar to staring at a light for too long. It takes a few seconds to get her vision back, but it’s still not very good for her eyes. I’m wasn’t sure if I should have given this ability to Vee or Brightney since they’re similar in highlighting, but I thought Vee shouldn’t get a magical talent as a computer, so I gave it to Brightney.

Flutter — She has the ability to make poison through her mouth, similar to Kirara Habu. I take inspiration from Flutter’s concept design where she had a probocsis, I thought it would be interesting if she could make poison from it. I don’t think I should make her flight an ability as that’s just her species, so I had to give her a different talent. I don’t want to make her exactly like Habu, so I changed her drawback to be the lack of speech. Maybe it’s because the poison.

Dandy — I think his ability is quite unknown to the others, I kind of thought that he might be an enemy of humanity/twisted in disguise but it would be more fun to give him an actual talent. If Dandy were to have a talent, it would be mind control. He has the ability to influence others by discretely manipulating their mind. I think that when he uses this ability, the victim will still have their consciousness but they won’t understand why they did such a thing. Maybe Dandy makes them think they should. This could make it seem like he has no talent as it’s almost impossible to distinguish thinking or controlling. I think his drawbacks are unknown as well as the extent of this power.

Goob — I’m sure it’s obvious, but Goob’s talent is his arms. It works exactly like in game where he can extend and pull others back to him. The drawback this might have is that there is a maximum length where he can reach. I’m not sure what other talent Goob might have as he doesn’t seem to be the type to have a magical ability, his arms are useful though so no one really bothers to point it out.

Razzle & Dazzle — To parallel their twisted version, both of them can make and control ribbons. It might be the same as their twisted version where they can make ribbons come out the ground. For drawbacks, I imagine that they can only make and use a limited amount, perhaps only two (one for each). The ribbons don’t necessarily have to be sharp like in the game, they could just act as tentacles or an extra hand.

Scraps — She has the ability to fold herself into anything. Since she’s made of paper, it doesn’t really hurt. She can turn into animals and objects but not very big ones, this could be the drawback. It’s like making an origami elephant on a regular piece of paper. It won’t be big, but you’ll still see the resemblance. Her suction tail is just part of her, it’s not a talent or anything. She can still use it like she can in game, although it’s just something she was born with.

Shelly — I was a little unsure of what ability I should give her, but ultimately I decided that Shelly has the ability to become a shadow or become someone’s shadow. Her ability in the game is useless here as I think machines and extracting isn’t necessary, so I decided I should take inspiration from her twisted’s research log. It says that Shelly was tired of being forgotten, meaning that she’s not very popular in the show, so it made the most sense that her talent would parallel that. Shadows could metaphorically mean that someone isn’t noticed or no one pays any mind to them, perfect for Shelly. The only drawbacks I can think for Shelly is that she can only use this ability when out of sight or she can only do it in dimly lit areas.

Shrimpo — Although I had a few ideas, I decided that Shrimpo would have super strength. His strength depends on his emotions, the more negative he is the stronger he is (which is all the time). I think positive emotions make him weaker. His drawback would be that he can’t control this ability very well, sometimes he will break tables and chairs because he can’t determine how much is being used. Shrimpo’s punches can send buildings across the entire island, but he won’t do that. Another idea I had was talking/hearing animals and insects, but I thought it would be too useless.

Sprout — Taking inspiration from his ability in the game, Sprout has the ability to manifest from thin air. A drawback to this is that it takes a great deal of energy depending on how large the object is, a limited size for each object could also be a drawback. Sprout can manifest small things like pencils and cupcakes, but he can’t manifest things like tables and large wardrobes. I thought this could work as his talent as it seems he can make food in his in game ability, and instead of making him take it out of the oven, I just thought it would be more fitting to have him manifest it from his mind.

Teagan — I could give them one of two talents; being able to go back in time or having super speed. I guess the going back in time idea would be the same as Youhei Shibusawa where she can only go back in time less than 24 hours back, but I’m not sure if it fits her. Super speed is interesting too as she can move so fast that they look like they’re teleporting. I guess it also fits in the sense that she can dodge pretty much anything. I think the super speed is more interesting, the only drawback is that she runs out of breath quicker when using it.

Tisha — Her talent is having a death touch. Self explanatory, things that she touches will die slowly. This works on any living organism, the smaller the organism is the faster it will die (things such as bacteria, it’s helpful for cleaning). Despite this, her touch is not automatic, so it’s not anything to worry about. A simple light tap on the shoulder won’t kill someone instantly, she has to be holding her hand on it for a long period of time before they actually die.

Vee — She has no talent, however she does count as the island’s database. She is observant and can keep each toons’ talents in files. It’s helpful for people who need the knowledge, people like Poppy.

[villainofmyownstory]

Day Zero chapter 2

masterlist | taglist | AO3

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pairing: Simon “Ghost” Riley x plus size fem!reader

summary: Ghost doesn't know what to do. He looks for Riley everywhere, with no results. He slowly loses his mind and does something he hasn't done for a long time… You wonder who and where Riley has been with all these years. How he found you? Why is he wearing that weird vest? And above all, where is the person who put it on him?

tags: AFAB reader, plus size reader, dog german shepherd, alcohol, weapon

author's note: I didn't expect so many comments, likes… everything… Thank you for this, it motivates me a lot. Unfortunately, what everyone probably expects doesn't happen in this chapter… or maybe it does?^^ I plan to add new chapter once a week. However, I have more free time this week, so I will add the next part in a few days.

Chapter 2: The one with(out) Riley

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Day 730

You & Riley

It had to be Riley.

Of all the things you dreamed of all those lonely nights. About family, friends. Everything you've been longing for. You missed him the most. For your beloved dog. I t wasn't like the other family members were important to you. You just knew and pretty quickly came to terms with the thought that you wouldn't see them again.

It was difficult, hard. However, the realization of the unpleasant truth and mourning in such strange and new lonely conditions passed. The loss of the dog was unexpected and sudden. And knowing from day one that many animals somehow survived. Somewhere deep in your heart you felt that Riley was just there. And eventually, one way or another, you will be together again. But you thought it would happen after you died.

Not now. And not like that.

The dog was so happy to see you that he jumped at you with his front paws, trying to put them on your shoulders, but he was so excited and exhausted that he hit you with full force, pushing you. You hit the ground with a loud thud, crushed by the mass of the dog who was now licking every inch of your body, clothed or not. It didn't matter to him at all.

"Oh my god Riley...stop it, oh fuck" as you try to get out of the weight you don't know if you're in pain or if you're happy or shocked.

You're going through a million emotions. Many thoughts are running through your head. You have so many questions. So much confusion.

"Riley, man, calm down... I know, I know..."

You're trying to say something and at the same time get rid of the dog that has gained a lot of weight after these two years. Not only was he handsome, but he looked like a decent dog. Adult, mature. After many attempts, you finally manage to sit down, the dog seems to let go for a moment, panting loudly and sticking out his tongue. You look at each other as if each of you wanted to express and tell you everything that happened and what you felt during these months of separation.

Riley still had that incredible wisdom in his eyes, something that made him seem so human. This was one of the features that made him easy to recognize. The second thing was the fact that, unfortunately, before he came to you, when he was a puppy he lost part of his left ear. That's why as soon as you saw an animal running towards you, in a split second you knew it was him.

It was something so incredible, even impossible.

And you remember your mother's words the day the puppy showed up at the door of your family home 

"Fucking miracle"

Scratching Riley's ear, you shook your head in amusement and whispered, barely audible

"Yes Mommy, you were right… as always. He's a miracle."

Now you were just curious about the person who had kept Riley alive for so long and kept him in such great shape.

Slowly standing up, brushing off the dust from your clothes and wiping your cheeks, which were wet with dog saliva. You looked around the area, not seeing another living creature.

“Riley, who did you come with? Where is this person?”

You asked the companion next to you, grabbing your backpack and slowly walking in the direction the dog came from. However, the wounds on your feet from the long walk were so painful that you had to give up after walking a few steps.

“So, I guess we'll have to wait here for this mysterious Ghost?”

Walking towards a small building that was probably an energy building. Hoping that there will be a working power supply with electricity inside. which the tower still works and sends a signal, from time to time you looked with a smile at the dog which was glued to your leg and was following along with you.

For the first time in a long time, you smiled.

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Day 731

You & Riley

Nothing, silence, emptiness.

As if the arrival of the dog didn't change much. And it changed practically everything. The world took on new colors for you, you felt that it was a signal, a sign. Whatever. Something refreshing that restored meaning to your life after such hopeless and miserable, long and lonely months.

And somewhere deep inside you believed that someone would eventually show up. And after many hours of sitting in a dingy little building next to the tower, you lose hope again. Maybe Riley's arrival was everything you deserved in this new life.

When trying to get more comfortable on a concrete floor, you need to be careful with your dog. With every movement you make, even the smallest one, Riley raises his head and looks at you. He gets closer if you move your body away from his just the slightest. As if he was afraid that you would disappear from his sight again.

The night and half of the day passed. No one came at noon.

Like the mysterious Ghost, sleep never came.

“Darling, I'm so tired... everything hurts,” you say quietly, stroking the animal's fur with your hand.

 “Riley, I think we should wait a little longer, maybe one more day?” You look towards your backpack. Unfortunately, all the supplies you had packed were slowly running out. Your water supply would last for another day. Maybe if you saved more for the next two days. You had food for two or three days. However, you didn't expect before that you would have to count all the food and water for two.

It wasn't a problem. At all.

“Oh boy… you don't know how glad I am that you're here with me,” you muttered, placing your hand on the dog's body, finally falling asleep.

And the last thought was that in two years you haven't said as many words as today.

And it wasn't a problem. At all.

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Day 730

Ghost

Ghost felt like he was slowly losing his mind. That he's about to go crazy. Since all this happened, this whole cataclysm, the apocalypse. The end of the world... Everyone could call it whatever they wanted. That damn Day Zero. The man was able to organize himself in all this chaos, pursue his goals, plan and live. From day one, everything made sense, meaning, some direction for him.

Planning, patterns, predictability. Sticking to the schedule, drill.

His years in the army prepared him for this. It was in his blood.

So now that there had been no sign of Riley for over 24 hours, the only living being for whom he got up and went to sleep every day, it all made no sense. His life had no meaning.

Yesterday when he left the fucking house with a pillow in his hand that he took for the dog. In terror, he ran around the area shouting the dog's name, hoping that it would appear soon. Ghost was under the illusion that Riley would run around  the corner with some prey in his mouth. Wagging his tail happily.

Nothing like that happened.

Ghost, in his madness, destroyed several objects he encountered on his way. Screaming loudly and cursing. This couldn't be true. Something bad must have happened. The dog had been clinging to Ghost continuously for 2 years. Even when he taught him to hunt or search in new unknown locations, the dog was able to return to the man.

Why wasn't he there now?

Ghost finally went home after many hours of frantic searching. All the time he was wondering what else he should do to make his friend come back to him.

When he finally reached a safe place and parked the car, he looked around the area, hoping Riley had found his way home, and stuck his tongue out, wagging his tail. That the dog would be sitting outside the house, waiting for Ghost.

Unfortunately, to the man's horror, there was no sign of any presence.

Ghost felt under his skin that if he was left alone, he would lose ground. And his entire planned, arranged life will collapse day by day like a house of cards.

The house seemed unusually quiet and empty. Even though every space, every corner, cabinet, shelf and floor was filled with objects that the man had collected for two years. Supplies, clothes, items needed for survival. He was proud of how easily and quickly he adapted to the new challenge. How he was able to find himself alone, without other people.

This was another difficult and important mission for him.

I'm sitting in a chair at a large oak desk. He converted the room into an office where he kept maps, important documents and books. Ghost leaned back in the leather chair and closed his eyes.

He was afraid of this moment. Yes, he expected that one day he would be alone again. That he would have to say goodbye to his best companion. However, a German Shepherd should live up to 13 years. Maybe Riley would have lived another year or two in good health. Ghost was ready for this terrible situation. But that was to happen in the future. Someday, when they're both ready. In many years. In at least 9-10 years. That was the plan. That was the assumption.

And now Ghost was staring at the blank white ceiling, feeling like his world had collapsed once again.

The first was the death of his family.

The second time was when his teammate died.

Third… no, no, no. This couldn't happen again.

"No!" the man growled loudly, getting up from his chair and hurrying towards the room that was now the large pantry.

He must have had something strong to drink. Bloody hell. He had to drink that fucking brandy.

It's been a long 730 days since Ghost last dipped his lips in alcohol. Two years of sobriety.

And a drunk lieutenant meant something very dangerous. 

Pure madness. 

If someone showed up at Ghost's door now. The person should step back and leave without hesitation. And never come back. For your own safety. Your pathetic life.

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Day 732

Walking towards the city in the morning, with your dog by your side, you felt as if the world smiled at you and let you go back to your happy years. When you were younger and Riley was just a few months old puppy. This is exactly what your mornings looked like. You were walking along quiet streets somewhere on the outskirts of your city, enjoying the new, sunny day. You usually went to your favorite cafe and bakery, then went to the park with your dog. Lazy, ordinary mornings.

Unfortunately, now despite the idyllic landscape, peace and quiet, greening grasses and trees. Nothing else here was like back then.

Silence, deserted, ruined buildings.

Even though the world changed completely that day, the city looked remarkably good and clean, the main roads were passable, cars and other things on the road had been moved so that one lane was empty. You decided to go to the center and plan further walking there.

You entered several buildings and checked several vehicles.

Weird. All the more important and necessary things you could find in these places are gone. Medicines, canned goods. Batteries, clothes, shoes. The fuel from the car was drained, batteries, light bulbs and other things from the engine were removed.

The city looked like someone had definitely lived there after Day Zero. For a long time.

However, after a few hours of walking around empty streets, you decided to enter the last building where you expected to find at least a few drops of water. Even fermented, rotten food. Whatever.

“Riley, come on, one more place and we're going back to the tower, maybe Ghost will show up tomorrow?”

you lightly pulled the dog's leash. The dog was still sitting on its hind legs, looking in the opposite direction from which you had come.

You didn't have time to react.

Focused on the dog, you leaned down to give him the command again to finally move.

You didn't have time to do anything else.

Shot.

And the whistle of the bullet.

That's all you heard...

You didn't have time to do anything else.

taglist: @leviathanleva @chocolate-noodles

[billyshakesp]

If I had a nickel for every time two lesbians got into a fight after one of them tried to commandeer a futuristic ship, and one of the lesbians was a dumb idiot jock with a good heart who does not remember her past, only that she came from some distant place in deep space, and the dumb idiot jock lesbian was raised by an old-ass woman with scars completely covering her face, and she has a sword which serves as her weapon and her hand and possibly her cuddly toy, and the one of the lesbians was an evil genius who is also an idiot, but only when it comes to feelings, and has trauma as deep and dark as the chasm she was raised in (which is very deep, and very dark!), and harbours the world's saddest, most all-encompassing crush on the dumb idiot jock lesbian which everyone, quite literally everyone knows about except for her, gasp for air–

And the lesbians get really angee at each other, so they other friends, and the DIJL (take a wild guess as to what that stands for) makes friends with a bunch of really kind and really powerful people, and the idiot is confused because she never felt this "love" thing before, and the evil genius/sapphic mess befriends a dude (gender-neutral) who sold their innocence and childhood to the devil for books! (relatable)–and that person is a genius with the social aptitude of a cantaloupe, except later we find that they actually do know what's going on around them, they're just so deeply incredibly nerdy that no one notices that they are totally badass and will fuck you up, deep inhale–

And then the lesbians attend a formal event where they are friends with sexual tension for a bit, and then they go back to being angee until, Oh no!–the world is now Weirdmaggedon, which results in the death of an actually mature adult woman who we thought didn't have issues, but actually is deeply fucked up inside, and the idiot lesbian has to stop the apocalypse, but this only further increases the rift between the two, but then the evil genius/soft whimpering mess is lifted into space, away from the love-of-her-life-whom-she-doesn't-even-know-she-likes-but-would-actually-fall-on-an-iron-spike-for, but she would actually prefer said spike over ever coming to terms with her feelings, and the evil genius now works with an intergalactic super-empire which rules the observable universe, but she has hallucinations from her childhood (if you could call it that), and she then realises that, shit, I'm just maybe a little bit of a soft, sad, hopeless disaster for one dude (gender neutral) waving a sword around, dramatic gulp for air–

Meanwhile said lesbian with a sword finds out that she is only one piece in a grand plot to harness the ambient energy of her planet, a plan which has been stewing for actual millennia at this point, and it turns out that she's been systematically lied to by the people around her, which makes her big mad, so she starts thwacking her sword at the weird, vaguely animal-looking soldiers sent down by an unfathomably powerful space monster, wheeze–

Meanwhile meanwhile in space, the evil genius/soggy kitten (figurative and literal) actually finds out that oh, it's not actually normal that every time she sees the idiot lesbian, she gets the overwhelming urge to spit in the idiot's face, then lick it off, because bbygirl is disturbed and affection is difficult, okay?–so she almost, almost properly reunites with the other lesbian, but then our hearts are once again torn, still beating, from our ribcage and impaled with a rusty iron spke when, oh no! they have to save the world again...

Meanwhile meanwhile meanwhile in a far-off planet the smart one, their bestie, and another person with a weird gender situation work to raise their family and kill god.

I would have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.

[akookminsupporter]

Namjoon gave a good interview to Vogue Spain and in it he said a few things that I thought I'd share with those of you who may not understand Spanish.

This was at the end of the article but I want to write it first:

One thing that needs to be made clear about this album is that, no matter how much the rumour mill is trying to spin it, it is by no means the end of the successful band. "Oh, I'm not leaving BTS. Absolutely not. This is the first time I'm launching a solo project like this, so I'm trying to stand up and take my first steps. But I'm ambitious and I have willpower. So I don't want to miss the opportunity to do both. So I will try my best not to lose control and steer these two ships at the same time. A lot of bands split up and fall apart, but I hope that doesn't happen to BTS. I just love the music, I love my job, I love the band members and I love myself. If I can keep both projects going, I think it can be something legendary in the long run".

Other important parts of the article:

"The k-pop industry hasn't stopped growing since we debuted with BTS [in 2013]. It's become a lot more complex and has brought a lot more people into its structures. I think there are a lot of lights, but also some slippery shadows. Many of us started our careers very early as a group: we slept and lived together as teenagers. We became a real family, which is great, but this culture has also affected me a lot, because sometimes I find it difficult to be treated as an adult who has autonomy in his decisions. I'm perceived as just another cog in the crew, in the context of a mass phenomenon",

Did you ever feel like you were getting completely lost in this delirium of success? "I used to think so, but the funny thing is that I am fully aware that it was my own choice to devote myself to the k-pop industry. Nobody pushed me into it. But yes, I have lost myself at times. Although perhaps saying this is an excess of 'self-empathy'. There is no answer. Except that, if k-pop is about recharging the batteries of a mass audience and I'm responsible for doing that recharging, then I have to keep my feet firmly on the ground. As an adult, as a musician and as a human being. And these ten years of my career have helped me define who I am and learn to love myself. But I'm still in that process, you know? All these internal struggles will be recorded on records and videos," he explains.

"Music is really necessary for the world, but, when it comes to my music, sometimes I feel like I'm producing something unnecessary. If I were to die tonight, I don't think anything would change. It might matter to some people for a while, but a farmer or a street sweeper is more relevant to the functioning of society. When I ask myself about the role of our generation in historical terms, when I look at all the digital platforms and communities out there, I am overcome with confusion. There are a lot of people who don't want to think. They have frenetic lives and turn to music or television to escape, so the last thing they want is someone trying to lecture them from a pedestal. In that context, I wonder how I can make my music matter. I haven't found an answer yet, but I keep trying to bring my own perspective to it.

As to whether he is afraid that the army he has on Instagram (42.4 million followers) might one day turn against him for a silly mistake or a blunder, RM answers bluntly. "Yes, it scares me. It scares me 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. When I was younger I tried to come across as a cool guy who doesn't give a shit what other people think, but I don't think that's right anymore. I care about the publicity dimension of my career and the influence I can have on others. It stresses me out, yes, but I think I can handle it. That's why I don't retire or do things like go out and drink the night away and then drive drunk. I'm human, I can make mistakes, but I will do everything in my power to be the best version of myself. One of the keys is to treat this job for what it is: a job. I don't think artists have any special rights or status.

Note: if you would like me to translate another part of the interview, let me know.

[laurents-laces]

It took me 84 years, but here's the notes for Pacat's Instagram live on January 22, 2022! You can find previous summaries here. This time I added a section for things that involve both capri and dark rise because there was a lot of that.

“It’s funny, I tend to write, as I think back on Dark Rise and then before that, Captive Prince, I tend to write these book ones that kind of don't necessarily reveal themselves until the end or cohere until the end or maybe are written for the re-read rather than necessarily for the first read… I kind of have this philosophy that difficult pleasures are the most enjoyable because you have to work to achieve them, and so you know, I like the idea that you get rewarded at the end of Dark Rise for reaching the end.”

Important Updates

There has been some progress on the capri News™, though it was epically delayed by the pandemic. It’s not a fourth book, hardcovers, Laurent’s POV, or a TV series

There were updates about Dark Rise and Fence too but none of it is news anymore because this happened so long ago. The capri fandom is just unlucky like that

Pacat has a new project! It’s very different and is more adult in tone than his previous works. It’s kind of monster-horror-gore, he’s been wanting to do something with a shounen horror vibe like Berserk or Attack on Titan. It’s coming in the distant future, not soon

Captive Prince

Pacat hasn't heard of the capri fandom term Smaurent (small Laurent) but thinks that the idea of him does exist in the books as he was a very different person as a young child. Pacat likes writing characters who explore the idea that one’s past leaves fingerprints on one’s present self and Laurent is the most extreme version of this that she’s written

A fan said that they think of “Damianos V” as being a roman numeral, so that Damen would be the fifth King Damianos. Pacat really liked the idea

Pacat cried for a really long time while writing Nicaise’s death scene. Got a few strange looks as he sat in the Melbourne State Library with tears streaming down his face for a few hours. Nicaise’s death was planned from the beginning, he was always a bittersweet character to write

Laurent is such a private person. Writing more from his POV would risk exploding the mystery of his character and might kill some of the tension in capri

The capri News is like a missive from Rohan- it's on its way and it'll arrive at some point, just when you need it most

A fourth capri book isn’t completely out of the question but there isn’t one planned for now

The Brazilian capri covers are their own thing but they don’t represent the books well. They have a very dark-ages-hard-masc-medieval aesthetic

How tall is Damen? Laurent thinks that he’s a foot taller and that sometimes it feels like more

Orlant: Rough exterior, heart of gold, didn't deserve what happened to him

Pacat pronounces Vere like Veer (veer off course) but that is not the correct pronunciation that Laurent and the Veretians use so feel free to pronounce it how you want

Pacat wasn’t really involved in the art for the Japanese edition but has been a fan of Chinatsu Kurahana for a long time. Usually the author doesn’t get much input for foreign editions. The Japanese publisher was very welcoming and let Pacat have some input, but he was such a fan of the artist that he let her do whatever her vision was. He gave a bit of a description for clothing but didn’t tweak any character concepts once they were drawn because he likes having different versions of the characters in different media. We shouldn’t think of it as an official version of the characters or as Laurent’s canon hair length

Dark Rise

The submission date for the Dark Heir manuscript was June 2022. At the time of this live, Pacat was just past writing the midpoint of the first draft, heading towards the climax. The climax has been planned for a long time

We absolutely get James's POV in Dark Heir. Pacat had just finished writing one of his chapters when this live happened

How would Anharion describe Sarcean in one word? The answer would change depending on whether Anharion was wearing the collar. If he was wearing it he would say whatever Sarcean wanted him to say

James is not named after the gay king james (James I of England)

We will find out about James’s mother at some point, either in book 2 or later

Pacat’s current favourite Dark Rise character to write is a new character from book two

It was important that the stewards were racially diverse. When Pacat was pitching Dark Rise he had little pictures of the characters to show what the aesthetic of the book is, it was art that he found online. Things might have changed since then but this was three or four years ago and it was really hard to find fantasy imagery of non-white characters. If you wanted to find mages or warriors in suits of armor, all the artwork had white characters. So he wanted to include different types of people in the traditional western fantasy aesthetic

Favourite part of Dark Rise #1 is the ending because it was all of the pieces falling into place

Cyprian’s surname is not St. Clair but saying more than that would be a spoiler

Stewards have family in the outside world

Pacat would love to write short stories for Dark Rise like the ones for capri but she’s a slow writer so it would be some time in the future

Dark Rise/Capri

Justice’s appearance wasn’t specifically influenced by danmei, he has long hair because all the Stewards have long hair. The Stewards have long hair because everyone in the Old World had long hair and the Stewards carry on the sacred traditions of the past. This was inspired by the delightful long-haired-Laurent contingent in the capri fandom because they were so underserved by Captive Prince. No one in capri other than Ancel has really long, butt-length hair so Pacat wanted to change that in a new series

Where do you get inspiration for jewelry like Nicaise’s earring or James’s collar? Pacat has been thinking lately about the importance of creating a strong visual aesthetic for a character. The earring was created as a plot device. It’s long because it had to be very gaudy and noticeable because Laurent would use it as a disguise later, and it has blue sapphires because blue is Laurent’s colour. It's one single earring instead of a pair because it felt more poignant as a memento. The earring was more about purpose than aesthetics, but Pacat paid more attention to aesthetics in Dark Rise. When working on Fence, Johanna is so good at creating characters with an iconic visual look, and Pacat was thinking about that when he created James. He started with the idea of red because it's the colour of blood. The collar started off as a necklace that was a drop of blood, but it was changed to be more interesting and to have more of an impact. Pacat often thinks about the scene from the Hunger Games when Katniss is about to prove herself to the sponsors and they're not paying attention to her so she shoots the apple in the boar's mouth. A lesser author would’ve had her nail the bullseye but Suzanne Collins souped it up one more level, to come up with something slightly cooler or more imaginative. So Pacat goes through his finished drafts and thinks, is there anything I can turn up to 11? And the necklace wasn't at 11. So he thought about making it a choker, then a collar. A choker with rubies looks like a slit throat and that’s a very cool image, so that’s what it was changed to

Pacat is an only child so Tom and Auguste as older brothers aren’t based on personal experiences, but the idea of siblings has a strong importance to her. Dark Rise is dedicated to her half-sister Mandy who committed suicide when she was 15, which was the year Pacat was born

Fence Comic

The process of creating Fence: First Pacat writes the script, then it gets sent to the illustrator Johanna. It goes through a few rounds of notes where the two of them talk about the kinds of things they want to see happen, what would be cute or great in the upcoming storyline, and then Johanna does sketches. Then art edits happen, but usually the art is so incredible that it doesn’t need many edits so the only usual change is to make sure that Nicholas is left handed when he’s fencing. Then Boom (the publisher) looks over it before it goes to inks, then to the colourist Joana Lafuente, then to Jim Campbell for lettering. Jim places the speech bubbles and fits the script onto the page. Where the bubbles are placed and which words are emphasized makes a big impact on the flow of the script. Then everything gets sent back to Pacat for proofreading and editing of the lettering and then it’s done

Pacat worked very closely with Sarah Rees Brennan on the fence novels. They talked a lot about how events would play out, biographical details of the characters, made canon compliance edits, saw the books at every level and loved them. It’s impressive how Sarah can turn on a dime between two sets of opposing feelings when transitioning between emotions. Her books have a lot of wit and charm but also a lot of hard-hitting emotion

There was information about Rise and a preview but I'll skip over that part because it's already out now

Personal

When creating characters, Pacat often thinks of them in terms of dynamics they’ll have with other characters, or what they want to achieve, or what kind of archetype they resonate with, or how to build a backstory that gives them layers. Characters are interesting when they have more than one motivation, when they look one way on the surface but then different aspects of them from the past are revealed

Pacat was an Earth sciences major

Pacat chooses all the fanart friday posts himself and then his assistant Hannah sends a request to the artist

Least favourite book trope: band of misfits who save the world through a hail mary pass. Pacat likes a highly confident crew, not a small rabble of people who fluke their way into saving the world. It's not a bad trope, he doesn't know why he doesn't like it. He doesn't like Firefly because of this trope

He often reads fanfic on ao3 for more of a story than was in the original or more of a dynamic that was underserved in the original. But authors can’t read fic of their own works for copyright reasons

Owns multiple copies of the Lymond Chronicles. Book four is her favourite because the ending is so intense and devastating. Pacat often thinks of that ending when deciding what to do with her own works because most authors would’ve chickened out of writing an ending like that. She read book one for the first time in a restaurant at 9:00am and stayed there until she finished the book. She probably looked like a mess because of all the laughing and crying, and at one point one of the waiters came over to bring her a handkerchief and said “are you okay?” and Pacat said “I’m just at a really intense part right now"

Pacat does brainstorming sessions with friends to come up with ideas for books and looks at art books for inspiration

He’s reading the BL manga Twittering Birds Never Fly

Danmei dramas/web novels are really long so he isn’t familiar with most of them, but he ordered MDZS and he’s looking forward to reading it because he’s heard a lot of good things about it

Pacat doesn’t usually like love triangles, whenever he ships something in a love triangle he ends up choosing the unlucky guy. He liked Gale more than Peeta and liked Edgar more than Heathcliffe

[liskantope]

I've been feeling devastated about last week's disaster of a debate (among other political developments) and see it as evidence that Biden was never a fit candidate for reelection. And at this point I really don't think he has it in him to stick out a job like the presidency all the way until 2029. But I think a lot of people are really overreacting in terms of what kind or variety of weakness it exposed in Biden. I'm a little stunned by how many people -- not generally Republicans or anti-leftists or leftists who have a bias against Biden already, but moderate-left-ish types such as Scott Alexander and Kat Rosenfield -- who seem convinced of things like that the debate shockingly but obviously "proved" that Biden is completely senile, has a clinical level of dementia, is unfit to be president right at this moment (let alone for 4.5 more years), obviously isn't acting as president but must be sitting around dazed while others do the work for him, that the Biden team's insistence that Biden is fundamentally fit has now glaringly been exposed as a complete lie, etc.

One particular narrow range of skills was on display at the debate, and I'm not sure exactly what succinct term to use for it, but it was something like "smooth articulation ability", and it's something I think about a lot as a communicator in my own professional context. There have always been certain mental states I get into (often triggered by stress or sleep deprivation) where words and sentences don't come out as clearly, get caught up in the moment on the wrong beat and get sidetracked, and struggle to get wrapped up without becoming run-ons that lack in a conclusion, where I mumble and stammer easily, and where I have trouble recalling particular words and phrases on the fly, and these contrast dramatically with my moments where the opposite is the case. This especially affects my teaching: it used to fairly often be the case that I had "bad days" where I could tell right from the start of the 75-minute class period that I wasn't going to be able to form thoughts as well as on my "good days". With more experience I've gradually learned how to minimize the "bad days", but I'm still prone to it if I'm not careful. Yet, even at my worst moments of this, it says nothing about my knowledge of the topic I'm teaching about, nor about my fitness in general. It's a very narrow aspect of my mental abilities.

Now one could point out that a huge part of being a politician is being a absolute world-class "smooth articulator". And that's true, and Biden certainly was once, and clearly old age has eroded his ability at this. But it's kind of beside the point when someone is suggesting that stumbling a lot at a debate is evidence of having dementia and being too old for one's job, other than that our being accustomed to politicians being extremely skilled at articulation is obfuscating the fact that for a typical person (whether old and senile or not), having to express one's ideas on the fly in the style of a presidential debate is incredibly difficult. I believe the great majority of adult humans -- including those who are dismissing Biden now, including a lot of the very intelligent and generally articulate among us, including myself -- would probably not be able to do much better than Biden did at that debate if we were placed in his position, and it doesn't say much about our ability to make decisions in the role of US president or about our dementia status.

All that said, what matters most in a presidential debate is the vibes each candidate gives off, and Biden definitely gave off "doddering old man" vibes in just about the worst way possible, which will certainly make a lot of people not feel okay about voting for him, whether or not they've seriously reflected on his capability of performing the actual non-public tasks required of a president.

[mmikmmik]

I watched I Saw the TV Glow today and half the people in the theater were audibly confused when it ended. I knew it wasn’t going to have a clear narrative like half an hour in but I wasn’t expecting that much ambiguity. I would have thought it might be a fourth wall-breaking fakeout if the theater lights hadn’t come on. But I liked it.

They should have cast a young Maddy. The adult actors did fine as teens opposite each other, whatever, suspension of disbelief. But the vibes of a near-thirty year old woman interacting with an actual child were super weird for the first few scenes. Threw off their chemistry.

I had a weird relationship to the nostalgia/genre pastiche because I never saw any of the Nickelodeon shows being referenced, but I immediately caught the Buffy allusions. So it was like… the safer and more childish the show became, the less it made sense to me.

The choice of “Tara” as a name for Maddy’s counterpart was very interesting beyond her being Amber Benson’s character on Buffy. Tara was the Scoobie who was best at coping with real life. She could grieve healthily and walk away from a bad relationship and be a stable supportive adult for a recently orphaned young teen. And she also (arguably) perma-died a bullshit shock value death. Tara was also renowned for being one of the earliest serious lesbian characters on TV, along with Willow, with whom she shared a long-term textual on-screen relationship. But that just made the betrayal of her sudden murder worse for her fans. Lots of interesting possible implications.

I liked how both the real world and the Pink Opaque world were difficult to take seriously. Maddy and Owen attend “Void High School”, as in, VHS - are you kidding me? And Owen claiming he has his own family he loves very much at the end of the movie… it’s so fake. But “Mr. Melancholy”? could you get any more “the villain is a metaphor for being depressed”? And Maddy’s inability to describe it as returning to the real world, instead insisting on the “season six” terminology, and the way the mythological figures flipped on the constellations when she started talking about how she returned to being Tara… lady, you are not making your case very convincingly. I mean come on.

Well either way Owen is definitely not doing great!!! :( has anyone submitted Owen to that “could transition save her” blog yet

[neteyamyawne]

Inferno : Holocaust ♡✦

Pairing : • Neteyam x twin!fem!reader x Sully family

• Tsireya x fem!reader

• Neteyam x Ao'nung

Summary : y/n and neteyam were inseparable twins but as they grew up things got difficult with humans coming back on Pandora, they both got distant and neglected by their own in the process, what would be their next step? (For more info click on the summary link)

Parts : pt1 pt2 pt3 pt4 pt5

• series masterlist

Overcome 🤍

❈ Warning : angst, fluff, suggestive, fighting, little blood, cursing? That's it i guess

❈ Word count : 5.9k not proof read.

❈ Note : The love interests do not affect the plot of the story it's Just because i want them to be together in this series 🤭 Ao'nung is not the bully, it's a character i made up, next part is angsty as hell

"word" - dialogue

❈ Glossary : iknimaya - avatar rite of passage, sa'nu - mom, kelku - tent, ite - daughter, tsurak - warrior's mount, ma' sempul - my father, ma' sa'nok - my mother, sempu - dad, ma'evi - my child, ma'parultsyip - term of endearment from an adult to their child, yawnetu - little loved one, mauri - metkayina tent, tsmuke - sister, tsmukan - brother, y/n - your name, y/ts/n - your tsurak name, y/i/n - your ikran name.

I laughed as i flew over the waters on my tsurak, Tsireya's hands wrapped around my waist while she screamed in my ears when I dived in without her knowing, going pinpoint into the water, i hooked my hand under her thigh, fingers grazing her inner thigh, holding her close, speeding ahead, i commanded to go deeper into the sea, the sea life swirling around us, fishes and ilus staring at us, sometimes purposely disturbing a school of fishes myself, finally after a lot of exploring, she tapped my shoulder signaling me to go up, i nodded, slowly rising up to the surface, she settled her chin in the gap of my neck and shoulder, i turned my head about to give her a peck when my twin brother's voice called out loudly to my irritation "Heyyy, wait for us! You having a tsurak doesn't mean everyone does!" I rolled my eyes and grunted when they finally caught up to us, Ao'nung glared at me from behind Neteyam.

they were on Neteyam's ilu, it was supposed to be a double date but it was turning out more annoying than i expected "you know, maybe if you were fast enough we wouldn't have to wait for you, brother" Tsireya hit me on my forearm, i looked at her huffing and shrugged "what? I'm just telling th-" but before I could finish my sentence Neteyam splashed me with the help of his ilu, i gasped "you Skxwang, I'm going to kill you for real, this time" he took off, Ao'nung nearly fell into the water and i chased them, i backed up to them in an instance while Tsireya was giggling at our idiocy. Soon catching up to them we all got into splash fighting, whoever splashes someone the most wins but as the game went on and no one was ready to back down, getting tired and wanting to spend some alone time together me and Tsireya called our quits, bidding a short goodbye and promising to meet at our spot at eclipse we went on our ways.

»»————-　⚜　————-««

We laid down on the soft grass, the spot we found in the more forest part of awa'atlu but still close to the sea, the perfect place for us to rest and spend time together, the breeze from the sea cooling the area, the sun providing the perfect amount of sunlight, there were rocks surrounding us, shielding us from onlookers and gave us enough shade, Tsireya sighed in my neck, eyes closed with a small smile playing on her lips, i shifted a strand of her hair behind her ear, the soft membrane shell of it flickering at my touch, I chuckled internally, we've been together now for almost three years now, Tonowari was more than shocked at the new while Ronal almost passed out, but they accepted us eventually, It was a shocker when neteyam and ao'nung told them the truth as well but they accepted us, why not one more? Now we all lived under the same mauri, all six of us together under one roof, like a loving family, atlast.

It's been 6 years since we came here, and almost 5 years since I had my tsurak, thanks to Ao'nung, tonowari took me and Neteyam under his wing, teaching me how to ride y/ts/n while training Neteyam for his iknimaya, even tho I did technically pass mine, i still chose to wait for my spiritual passing, that I'll go through with my twin and Ao'nung. during the period of these 5 years, the whole of metkayina thought I'd end up with Ao'nung while Neteyam with Tsireya but something total opposite happened, i fell for Tsireya first then Neteyam confirmed my suspicions about Ao'nung and him, soon, after 2 and half years of dropping hints and small advances, we confessed, more like we blurted out everything and the metkayina siblings just stared at us confused, but to everyone's surprise it was Ao'nung who made the first move, kissing Neteyam right in front of us, i didn't leave my chance either capturing Tsireya's lips right then and there.

Now we're here, laying on the soft patch of grass, my hand lazily roaming on her back and waist, the sunset spreading out shades of pinks and purples, these were the moments that made me glad we left that prison, the eclipse was nearing and we had to be present for the dinner this time because I don't want Ronal biting my ears off again, i shook Tsireya lightly, kissing all over her face while she smiled waking up finally "ohh c'mon, do we have to leave right now?" Her voice groggy from the slumber, i pulled her to sit up with me, she leaned her head on my shoulder, mumbling something i didn't catch, i rolled my eyes "wake up sleepyhead, i don't want sa'nu to be mad at me again for being late" picking her up enough to let her stand, she yawned, i called out to y/ts/n, He happily swam towards us, i took tsireya's hand guiding her to him, taking our seats she wrapped her arms around my waist, pressing her cheek to my back while i flew above the water so it doesn't disturb her, getting to the shore Neteyam and ao'nung already there, but to my distaste i caught them kissing, landing near them as their attention went to us, i just gave them a gagged reaction while ao'nung gave me the biggest eye roll he could muster on Pandora, reaching them, tsireya by my side ao'nung spoke "you act like you don't do this with my own sister" you grimaced at him "well atleast- you know what? Leave it, it's weird enough to see my twin kiss you" you shook your head letting out an exhale, neteyam having enough of this conversation pulled us all towards our kelku while me and ao'nung bicker about it, tsireya just ignored us both, she has listened to this tale well over a thousand times, so she knows not to get in between.

As we got to our mauri, me and ao'nung both fell silent in seconds when we saw Ronal, none of us wanting an ear full before dinner. Quickly washing up and freshening, we sat down in a circle together, tonowari sat directly opposite to Ronal, me on his right and ao'nung on his left, our mates on our side then Ronal, The roasted fish made by her almost melting on my tongue as I breathed out with mouth stuffed with it "This is so good, sa'nok" she just smiled at me, reaching over to pat my cheek "you say that every time, ite" we all laughed digging in, talking about our day, though most of mine and tsireya's was spent together, ao'nung, with no surprise, had too much to say, apparently he and neteyam went hunting for a date, and caught to much to handle, ended up giving most of the kill to the communal space, tonowari talked about the new warriors that have joined in now, but the subject was changed when ronal asked "when do you think the iknimaya should be held, wari?" All eyes fell onto him, he thought for a minute before answering "it is time they pass through it, in a month would be reasonable" he looked back at neteyam and ao'nung, both of them had a little fear plastered over their faces, I chuckled internally at their reaction but it didn't go unnoticed as ronal asked me "why are you so happy, huh? You only have a tsurak, the rest is still to be passed" I just looked at her sheepishly, not wanting to talk about this further I changed the topic again "ma'sempul, can I join you and others for the hunt tomorrow? I still want to practice hunting with y/ts/n" he smiled agreeing right away, telling me what I should or shouldn't take with me, in the end the dinner was finished with me and ao'nung fighting again but it was no surprise.

»»————-　⚜　————-««

I rode besides tonowari and the other hunters as we made our way to the deep waters for today's hunt, these were the new warriors in training so I had some experience to be a level above them or at least be equal to them, I mastered riding my tsurak many moons ago, now it was becoming a second nature to me, I still flew with my ikran, when the night gets too suffocating a nice flight around awa'atlu is the only thing I need, but y/ts/n was becoming my day to day ride so it was easier to be with him, plus he has the most beautiful saddle and accessories thanks to my gorgeous soon-to-be mate, she hand-made many of the things that are now attached to my tsurak, the intricate details, beading, the weaving patterns, all the time and effort she put into them to make them perfect for me, these were the things I could never thank her enough for, only shower her with my love even more.

We all hunt for hours, tonowari giving us useful tips now and then for better catching, by the end of the hunt my net was full to the brim and so did many others, passing my net to another warrior who was carrying the kills, we started our journey back to the shore, by the time we were halfway there the sun was scalding on our skins, constantly diving into the water to keep our bodies cool, at last we reached the golden shores of metkayina, the only thing on my mind was to take a portion of my hunt back to our mauri and ask ma'sa'nok to prepare it for me, maybe I'll take neteyam with me to convince her even more but my thoughts came to a stop as we landed down, there was a commotion swirling in front of us, i looked at tonowari, he gave the same confused look back, we both made our way towards to center to see what was happening but the scene in front of me stopped me in my tracks altogether.

My mind went blank when i saw Jake, neytiri and their children standing on the golden sands of Awa'atlu, my eyes immediately darted through the crowd to find the face similar to mine but he was looking at me with a same horrified expression, meeting each other in the middle still away from the family we once called ours, he had the same fear evident in his eyes, they still haven't seen us yet but it won't be long before they do, he gripped my arm as he spoke in a hushed voice "what are they doing here?!" I licked my dry lips before speaking "i don't know but if we want to find out…." I looked at tonowari's side and then back at neteyam, he nodded and i gathered every ounce of courage that was left in me but i was again the same little girl who was desperate for her family's love and affection, the same girl who was shoved ruthlessly aside with her twin, rage coursed through my veins and with a nod to him, we walked to tonowari's side ready to face our former family yet again.

»»————-　⚜　————-««

2nd person pov

The area went silent as you and your twin stood besides the leaders of the clan, the omaticayan family astonished to see their lost twins in such a unexpected place, your face was devoid of expressions, neytiri's heart rejoiced and panged seeing your faces but you held no warmth towards her, Jake felt helpless all over again, deteriorated even. Ronal circled them, throwing insults with great displeasure at the group but not a flicker of sympathy rested in your heart, instead rage kindled in the pit of your stomach, itching brighter as the moments passed, they were here again to ruin everything you made for yourself, everything your brother made for himself, they are here to take it away from you, that's all you could think of, past memories flooded in your mind like a dam being opened at full force, your hands shook as a blanket of fear wafted over your body at the thought to losing everything you've earned now, to start anew, you didn't have that energy to do it all over again, you had a family now, who loves and cares for you, you are not alone this time.

Tonowari was concerned about how quiet you and neteyam were, he rested a hand on your shoulder pulling you back from the trench of old nightmares "are you alright, ma'parultsyip?" His voice soft and caring, he knew by the way you and him reacted to the situation, you knew who the people were but to what extent he didn't know, "we're fine sempul, you and sa'nok have a greater problem to deal with right now" neteyam said with as much steadiness as he could muster, and you nodded, tonowari leaned down cupping yours and neteyam's face as he said "there's no greater problem than ma'parultsyip being in distress, do you understand?" you smiled putting a hand over his where it rested on your cheek "it's fine, sempu, you can go, maybe we can talk about this later" he nodded smiling back and looked at Ronal who was still questioning the family, making his way to them to question them further, while you stared daggers at the family.

Lo'ak and kiri were taken aback at your presence, guilt traced their hearts, they never got a chance to apologize and now they didn't know if you'd even accept it, you stared at them with no remorse as they cower in your gaze, tuk was on cloud nine seeing her tsmuke and tsmukan after so many years, she never once forgot about you two, even in her small memory she remembered, all she wanted to do was jump in your arms and never leave but neytiri held her back as not to upset the Olo'eyktan and the tsahik, you and neteyam were glad to meet your little sister again, you both missed her more than anything, your eyes shifted to Jake, who was struggling to form words, seeing your interaction with tonowari, he knew his chapter in your lifes were over, at a loss of words in the end picking up tuk, when everything felt lost he spoke with an voice of desperation "please, i just want my family safe" you rolled your eyes but sighed looking at tuk, tonowari held a silent conversation with Ronal, looking at the two of you for approval as well, you nodded giving him the green flag to go ahead, you didn't stop to hear the rest as you made your way to tsireya, holding her hand in yours to calm your nerves, she turned to you smiling, rubbing her thumb over the back of your hand, she turned her head back looking at someone, staring at her line of sight, anger swirled in your stomach as you saw lo'ak checking her out but in an instance he looked away when you caught him, tsireya tightened her grip on your hand as she saw the small interaction, for her it was probably nothing but you were adamant to not let go of what you've made for yourself, not to the ones who ruined it for the first time to begin with.

»»————-　⚜　————-««

1st person pov

As much i disliked the decision of tsireya and ao'nung training their kids, it was done and couldn't be taken back, for now me and neteyam helped the family move into the new mauri given to them, i didn't like the decision of them living with us in the first place but i wasn't as cruel as they were plus we'll see tuk again, i dropped the mats i was holding with a sickening thump they rolled open, i saw Jake cringed but I didn't say anything, turning back to walk out but i was stopped by a hand on my arm, i looked up to see neytiri with tears in her eyes as she started "ma'evi, how-" i didn't give her time to speak as i wrenched my arm out of her grip, scowling at her while i spoke "do not touch me, ever! Without my permission" the tension in the mauri could be pierced with a knife, she turned to neteyam beginning to speak but he didn't even stop to listen as he walked out, ao'nung followed him, worried what was going on, Jake frantically walked forward, eyes begging to talk to us but i beat him to it "No" I held up my hand to stop him "Enough! don't try to talk to us, anyone of you, you are welcome to stay here as long as you want but leave us alone, do not try to meddle in our lives, the consequences won't be good" with that i walk out to, tsireya following me out, i was angry, at myself, at them, at eywa for giving us this shitty life, at everyone, we met up with neteyam and ao'nung while the latter comforted the former, i sat down beside my twin, tsireya next to me, she held concern in her voice as she spoke "y/n, what was that? Why did you speak to them like that? Do you know them?" I didn't answer her right away, looking at neteyam for confirmation, if he wants to tell them the truth, he nodded once and i answered tsireya's questions "of course we know them *sigh* They were our family"

We sat with tonowari and Ronal, while she wrapped her arms around me, we told them everything as now there was no point in hiding, Ronal kissed my forehead and tonowari was livid, he felt ashamed to let the people who abused his children stay with them, i was in tears by the end we finished our story, tsireya rubbed my back, ao'nung held neteyam, tonowari comforting him as well, my mind felt numb while i snuggled closer in her embrace, Ronal ran her fingers through my hair, whispering against it "are you okay ma' yawnetu? I know it must be hard for both of you, if you want you can go live-" i shook my head in her neck "no sa'nok, you are our family now, you, sempul, ao'nung and tsireya is our family now, not them, not anyone else" neteyam nodded too, joining our hug, soon the other three got in too, we sat there in huge pile of tangled limbs and love, tonowari being the biggest was the foundation, Ronal at his side while me and tsireya cuddle to her left, neteyam and ao'nung beside tonowari cuddled together, that evening every tear was wiped and hearts were mended, everyone slept lighter than usual and i was happy the day ended this way, i pulled tsireya closer to me before i drifted to sleep myself.

»»————-　⚜　————-««

I few above the clear waters of Awa'atlu, leaning back on my y/i/n, i stared at the bright sky, giving all the control over to him, the sun cascading sunlight down on the beautiful village, i needed a break from yesterday, away from everyone for a little while, enjoying my own presence and thoughts, it's been a few days since they came here, not me nor neteyam has talked to anyone of them neither did they try to seek us out, which was a blessing but we both knew it wasn't for long till we have to talk to them, i closed my eyes sighing at the feeling of the wind caressing my body, i flew in peace till the sun came down a little, not afternoon or evening just in between, sitting up i looked down to land near the shore, while looking out i saw the group tsireya and ao'nung have been training, deciding maybe i can take tsireya with me for a evening walk before we head back for dinner.

I jumped down disconnecting my queue as y/i/n flew away in seconds, everyone's eyes were on me because of my entrance but i didn't care as my eyes only trailed to tsireya's, she smiled instantly signaling me to come in and i did, diving beside her, i ignored everyone but her and ao'nung, turning to ao'nung as neteyam had a message for him "nung, neteyam was looking for you earlier, he has something to give you, i think" i say trying to remember the exact thing my twin told me but couldn't, he nodded bidding his goodbyes, making his way towards the village in minutes, i refocused my attention on tsireya, catching her hand underneath the waters i spoke in a silky voice "maybe if you're done, we can go collect seashells?" She just gave me her shy smile that i could die for, moving away from me she instructed the lesson would continue tomorrow, i went to grab her hand again but lo'ak beat me to it, taking her hand in his as they talked, i raised my eyebrow, what the fuck does he think he's doing? Tsireya nervously got her hand out of his hold, giving him a small smile while she swam back to me, if looks could kill he'd be 6ft under, i restrained myself from talking to him, making our way out of the shallow waters, his stare still lingered on her and my blood boiled but tsireya quietly kept a hand on my shoulder, taking my attention away from him, i smiled at her, instantly forget about my bad mood as we started our walk towards our kelku.

We entered our mauri, my eyes quickly going to ao'nung, who now fashioned a new necklace, i smiled at neteyam who was looking at me already, i yawned, even if i didn't do anything today i felt exhausted, when i told Ronal about it she just suggested i should take some rest and that's what I did, falling onto my hammock and pulling tsireya with me, she giggled but cuddled up to me in the end, my thoughts got less and less clouded, finally going blank as i slipped into a peaceful slumber but before i did i hear a familiar voice which i haven't heard in years sounded, still i was lulled to sleep before i could react as i was too comfortable in my mate's arms.

»»————-　⚜　————-««

2nd person pov

Jake and neytiri entered the tent, giving their respect to tonowari and Ronal, neytiri's eyes watched your sleeping form cuddled with tsireya, how peaceful you looked in your sleeping state in contrast to your scowl when you saw them, they knew their mistakes, they were sorry for it as well but it was too late, neteyam turned away from them, going as far away as he could so he didn't have to interact, Ronal stepped towards them, ready to defend you and your twin with her life if she had to, putting her hand on the small bump she had as she spoke "is there anything you need?" Her voice stoic, Neytiri looked at you and neteyam longingly, she never forgave Jake for treating you like the way he did, but it was Jake who answered first "we are here to invite our kids for dinner tonight" Ronal's face twisted in disgust "you have lost your right to call them your kids, they are my children not yours" both jake and neytiri flinched at the sudden outburst, neteyam just rolled his eyes from his corner, thank eywa you weren't awake, tonowari got up from his place, reaching his mates side he spoke calmly "we will talk to them, but do not hope they will come" Jake nodded, but neytiri was planted to the ground as she stared at neteyam, who sat like she was invisible, unbothered to even look up from his work, Ronal getting annoyed, she put a arm on neytiri's arm, giving her a slight push as to indicate their stay was over, with a heavy heart she moved, stepping out the mauri with her head hung low.

Tonowari made his way towards neteyam, sitting down in front of him, neteyam sighed of course he had to go, and so did you, you had to make things smooth, even if you'd rather die than see their faces again but you had do it now, tonowari patted him on his head, ao'nung taking his hand, intertwining their fingers together, soon enough Ronal woke you and Tsireya up and delivered the awful news, though your first answer was a stern "NO" you were firm on your decision but a little persuasion and bribing of food, you agreed, both you and neteyam would go to their tent for dinner, instead it felt more like you were walking straight into a palulukan's nest.

»»————-　⚜　————-««

1st person pov

Me and Neteyam walked towards the kelku we avoided the most, I begged Tsireya to come with me, cried even, but she was firm on me going alone, ahh how she betrayed me! But she was right too, i guess, still even if i thought about good thing, the tent in front of me made me sulk again, reaching the entrance of it, i took in a shaky breath and Neteyam knocked on the rim, all their heads turned to us and i wanted to turn around and run away forever, Again! But i fought the urge and walked in with Neteyam with me, Neytiri looked like she was holding her breath, tuk looked happy to see us, Kiri and Lo'ak were too shock to see us there, Jake looked like he was about to breakdown, i sighed having enough of this "you called us for dinner, jake?" His face fell when I called him by his name, but i had no regret, Neytiri looked heart broken, Neteyam stayed silent beside me, Jake started talking "yes- yeah, i wanted to have chat over dinner" i nod, keeping my face straight, we sat down in a circle, me and Neteyam a little bit further away from the circle so we weren't sitting directly beside them, i look up from my plate as i said "what did you want to take about, Jake?" It was clear it hurted him to hear me calling him Jake, "we wanted to talk about- um- about what happened, 6 years ago" i stopped mid bite, so did Neteyam, his hand in the air as he was about to take one.

"We had enough of you dictating us, you burnt us out, so we left, we found a home where they actually treated us like children and not like soldiers, we are happy and we have a happy family with a loving mother and a amazing father" i finished then Neteyam started "we found our love here, where we tried to find it in you, but you were too full of yourself, none of you helped us, not Neytiri, not Kiri, not Lo'ak, we only had eachother, we did what was best for us, we left" Neytiri's face crumbled when Neteyam called her Neytiri, he was a mama's boy but his mama ignored him in the end.

Everyone was silent after that, Kiri was crying silently, Lo'ak looked down in embarrassment and guilt, i just continued to eat, i didn't care now how they felt by now, i was here for dinner so I'm having it, when i was finished, Neytiri was crying, Jake looked like he was slapped in the face, Kiri was sobbing, Lo'ak looked like he could throw up, i looked to tuk "i happy to see you tuk tuk, come by tomorrow, we'll go swimming" i said right in front of them, tuk smiled as she threw herself on me hugging me, and i laughed hugging her tightly, she pulled Neteyam in too "I'm missed you so much tsmukan, tsmuke" i smiled and we both said in sync "we missed you too tuk tuk" she pulled back, going back to her place and we got up, our faces going blank again "i think we're clear here" i said in a flat voice, that held no warmth, no kindness like it did before when i talked with tuk and i hear Neteyam say "don't call us again" and with that we both turned around, walking out, not looking back at them, once again.

»»————-　⚜　————-««

I groaned as i leaned back on my hands, Tsireya beside me, she had a sympathetic expression on her face, she held my hand in hers, when we got back i nearly picked her up in front of everyone and put her down on my tsurak as we made our way to our spot, i was furious, mad crazy, but hurt too, their apologize meant nothing, not anymore anyways, for once we were having an amazing life and they HAD to come ruin for us, tsireya comforted me as best as she could buy i was in my own mind, we stayed the whole night there, sleep was something that i had to chase every night but tonight it was exceptionally hard, at afternoon the next day we decide to go back, my stomach was growling for food as we didn't have breakfast, so getting on y/ts/n, me and tsireya started to make our way back.

As we got closer to our side of the shore, some shouts and screams caught my attention, i looked back at tsireya in confusion "what's going on?" I asked her, her shrug was the only answer, getting to the spot of the shouting my blood ran cold as i saw ka'ani, the clan's known idiot, pushing kiri back and lo'ak shoving him in return, i quickly flew my way over to them, i jumped down before my tsurak even touched the ground and i immediately got in between both the boy, i pressed two fingers on ka'ani's chest, pushing him back "stay away from, you hear me?!" He looked at me, eyeing me from head to toe, he backed up, hands up in the air, motioning his surrender, just then I saw neteyam and ao'nung coming in on their ilus, I walked to kiri "are you okay? Did they hurt you?" I asked, checking her for any harm, she just grabbed my arm, tears forming in her eyes "hey, we might be angry, but we won't stop to protect our own from harm, alright? But this doesn't mean we forgive you" i said patting her shoulder, i heard murmuring behind me, turning around i see ao'nung talking back to ka'ani and neteyam pulling back lo'ak, tsireya walked upto me "come on, guys, enough of this let's go home" i said as i grabbed tsireya's hand and started my way back when i heard screaming and yelling again but this time louder.

Lo'ak and ka'ani hit eachother furiously, ao'nung joined lo'ak and soon did neteyam, i hesitated but the prospect of beating ka'ani's ass was too good and i got in with them, we handed their asses back to them before tonowari and Jake pulled us back, i had blood dripping down from the side of my eye, my lip busted but the adrenaline from beating them was still running through me, tonowari was pissed "what was that?!" He yelled at me, neteyam and ao'nung, shoving us into the mauri, i started "sempul, ka'ani and his gang were disrespecting kiri and lo'ak, we just tried to protect them" he pinched the bridge of his nose "Fine! But next time, you come to me and no more fighting! Am I clear?!" All three of us replied in sync "yes sempu" he simply smiled and shook his head "what have i got myself into?" And we all laughed, while we were all unaware of what lo'ak got in consequence of this fight.

»»————-　⚜　————-««

I was sitting on the beach with tsireya and tuk, neteyam and ao'nung were playing in the water, when i heard footsteps coming towards us, i looked up to see lo'ak and kiri walking towards us, i instantly sat up as they took their places beside me, before i could register them being there, Kiri started "thank you- for saving me" and i looked at her with a soft expression "it's okay, i did what i thought was right and ka'ani needed some putting in place too" i smile, my eyes shifted to lo'ak, who had his head down "Jake scolded you, didn't he? I know he did" i looked annoyed, not at him but at Jake, lo'ak looked at me "I'm glad you and neteyam got away, i finally saw what you guys went through and we turned a blind eye to both of you" tears stained his cheeks and neteyam, ao'nung and tuk made their way to us, neteyam sitting beside me as we both pulled lo'ak into a hug "hey, it's fine, we get it" kiri joined our hug "we're sorry, really, terribly sorry for what we did to you, for all the ignorance" kiri cried in my shoulder and i looked at neteyam, we both knew they were sorry, as we held them, i sighed, my mind fought for the years we spent suffering then my heart is battling with my love towards my siblings, in the in we all knew we couldn't be angry at them, Jake and neytiri? Yes but not them, they were kids too so we forgave them "it's okay, we forgive you" me and neteyam both said together, their cries worsened and we held them till all the years worth of guilt and blame was spent out.

After they calmed down, we all laughed and played together, i even gave kiri a ride on my tsurak, while lo'ak begged me to give him one, i just flipped him off, the splash fighting lasted till eclipse and by the time we got out of water we were shivering, all of us but it was fun, nonetheless, it was time well spent.

»»————-　⚜　————-««

3rd person pov

Jake stood near the tree, so close yet so far away, as he watched the scene unfold in front of him, his twins, his once pride and joy and still are at some degree at the present but his own heart burned and shriveled up for their love, his eyes stung with unshed tears, a small smile playing on his lips at the sight of Lo'ak and Kiri Bonding with them, they had forgiven their siblings but he knew even if Neteyam might forgive them but you would rain hell before even thinking about it, he messed up and he knows it, god he suffered and is suffering for 6 years now, with Neytiri blaming him and lo'ak's guilt stricken state, he had no choice but to suffer in silence and he knew he deserved it because you and your twin suffered in silence all those years and now that you're finally living your life to the fullest, he is no longer a part of it, it kills him that people who are strangers to him are more of parent then he ever was, to see your trust in them being so great, he died a little inside everyday seeing you call someone else 'father' and him by his name- that's what shocked him even more, you called him Jake, not dad, nor sir just jake, as if he was nothing to you.

He longed to be your father again, but he knew he'd have to walk through a holocaust to even make up one percent of the damage he had inflicted upon them, he burned in the fire he ignited and only you could stop it now.

A/n: I'm so sorry for the delay, my weeks and life have been really busy, i thought I'd post it soon but my bad, I'm sorry, i hope y'all like it 😭

Yawne : @fanboyluvr, @callmeoncette, @lu-the-ghost-reader, @brisbriskett, @saltedcoffeescotch, @ducks118, @itscheybaby, @jackiehollanderr, @elriel-4-ever, @zoetrope1997, @yeosxxx, @persefolli, @im-in-a-pansexual-panik, @teyamsbitch, @elijangwifey, @erosthefae, @murderbirbdany, @thearabloak06, @killua2dot0, @ilovechickenwings, @kylobensgirl, @darling-imobsessed, @majathepapaya, @sweetirilly, @reinap06, @neteyamforlife, @thatgirljas13, @totesnothere04, @arminsgfloll, @babyqueen17.

© Neteyamyawne 2023 | All Rights Reserved. Do not repost on other platforms, copy, steal, or translate any of my works!

[thelarriefics]

SECRET RELATIONSHIP FIC REC, Part II: Below you will find more fics where Harry and Louis hide their relationship. (Part I)

📖 i found love in you (and i learned to love me too) by @larrydoinglaundry (167k)

After months of battling with his own demons, Louis goes back to get what he once left behind, but Harry's not sure if he showed up in time. A journey of remorse, healing and love that's strong enough to break them down and build them back up again. Sequel to 'love is a word, you gave it a name'.

📖 blue moon by @aquietlarrie (152k)

or the self indulgent 50’s au where i wanted a safe space to explore the culture, history, and sexuality of being gay in a time when it was extremely difficult to do so. includes, lots of questionable dancing, healing your inner child, and one heck of an emotional ride.

📖 Behind closed doors (I got myself in a mess) by @teamlouis2023 (58k)

Louis, a renowned wedding planner, has everything he needs to be happy : loyal friends, a boss that is a little more than just a boss, a job that he loves with all his heart. Tasked with the planning of Gemma and Michal's wedding, he doesn't except to come across the man who had left him five years earlier

📖 Us Against the World by @chelsea-frew (58k)

It's time for the 58th Hunger Games. 18-year-old Louis, the victor of the 56th Hunger Games, is to be mentor to the latest tributes from District 4. It is the worst job in the world. Making it even worse is that one of those tributes is 16-year-old Harry, Louis' secret boyfriend. The stakes are life and death. Can Harry do what needs to be done to emerge as the victor? Can Louis help him from the outside? Against all odds, can these two be brought back together—or will Louis be saying goodbye to Harry forever?

📖 Train Tracks and Porcelain by @jaerie (41k)

The next moments happened in the strange slow motion of dawn. Shadows were forming into people and things and, there in the middle of it, Louis watched the humongous head of an elephant emerge from a box car right in front of his eyes. Or a Water For Elephants inspired AU

📖 Lover Boy by @brightgolden (27k)

Where Louis wants to tell everyone about his relationship with Harry, but his boyfriend clearly thinks otherwise.

📖 Unraveled by @allwaswell16 (18k)

Whilst Harry was prepared to protect the PM with his life, he wasn’t prepared for Louis’ secrets. As Harry helped investigate the attempts on Louis’ life, he found a tangled web of political rivals, possible terrorist attacks, and family secrets as well as an undeniable attraction to the man he has vowed to protect.

📖 Everything's going to be alright - Sixth Form AU by @boufantgirl (17k)

Louis is in sixth form with Harry Styles. A classic story about sixth form, love and coming out. There is some drugs and alcohol use. There are some adult themes. The people in this story are 18. A story about the end of school before going to university.

📖 On Thin Ice by @neondiamond (16k)

As the goaltender for one of the best hockey teams in the world, Harry never expected participating in his second winter Olympics would be so eventful. His hidden long-term relationship with the captain of their biggest rival team may have something to do with it.

📖 getting yourself wet for me by @dreamersdivin-headfirst (10k)

frat boys take on watersports

📖 Curves of your lips rewrite history by @lunarheslwt (8k)

everyone bows to Prince Harry, but in the privacy of his four walls, the one he is bowing and kneeling for is his knight, Sir Louis.

📖 The President and His Captain by @tommokat (5k)

Childhood best friends turn boyfriends Harry and Louis have kept their relationship quiet for almost a year now, so when Harry's basketball coach enforces a no dating rule for the season, they should have no problem sticking to that rule. Right?

📖 Battle Of The Balls by @greenblueish (5k)

the one where YouTubers Harry and Louis play Golf With Friends, go to the pub with Niall and return home six hours after posting the video.

📖 tongue-tied by @liberty-barnes (3k)

the one where OT9 participate in a game of Family Feud, and they really should have listened to Liam when he said this was a bad idea

📖 there are rumors we have to face by @louisandtheaquarian (2k)

In this scene, Harry and Louis are sneaking around in earnest while at the wedding of friends, Zarry's stunt is getting old, and rumors fly.

📖 every night with us (is like a dream) by @darkinfinity (2k)

A look into the life of a professional football player dating a physical therapist.

[david-talks-sw]

Why do a lot of SW fans dislike the Prequel Jedi?

This was going to be the conclusion to this answer about "why a lot of people dislike Mace"... but it's just too long, so I decided to make it a post in its own right.

So why is Mace-- scratch that, why are the Prequel Jedi considered to be "unlikable" by a big chunk of the fandom? Especially when compared to Anakin "I killed a group of children twice" Skywalker.

Overall... I'd say it's three things.

1) Some fans had different expectations.

I touched on this in a recent post: older fans, who are now at least in their 40s, grew up seeing Luke as the ultimate Jedi.

He's Campbell's Hero With A Thousand Faces, up there with King Arthur and Superman. He's, for lack of a better term, the chosen one.

So when the Prequels were announced and they knew they'd get to see the Jedi Knights in their heyday, they expected to see something like the Knights of the Round Table.

A collective of errant warriors who go on exciting adventures, providing aid from place to place. Like Luke Skywalker.

Instead, they got this:

"A bunch of monk/diplomats who sit around talking about taxations and trading routes and measure the Force based on cell organisms."

"They're nothing like Luke Skywalker! What the hell?" (I address why this is inaccurate here)

Then the second film comes out:

"Wait, Jedi can't get married now? So were all those EU books about Luke and Mara Jade bullshit?" (also addressed in above link)

Then the third film comes out:

"Palpatine is right there, why can't they sense him or read his mind? They're Jedi!" (explanation why here)

Also Luke is no longer the Chosen One apparently? Anakin is? How does that work?

Plus, the way they speak, their jargon, is waaaaay too formal, gone are the OT characters talking informal English with American accents and quips. Even the way these new characters speak - and not just the Jedi, the Queen too - seems detached from reality and makes them harder to relate to. (but we're talking about diplomats and royalty, so how else would they be talking?)

2) How adult audiences perceive "morally pure" characters.

Even if one didn't have the pre-concieved notions about the Jedi... they don't seem to impact the adult viewers the right way.

Then again... neither does Barney the Dinosaur.

Many are the conspiracy theories and negative discourse surrounding him (there's even an upcoming documentary about it). You know why? Because he's not meant to be a character for adults, who have outgrown morally black or white characters and are unable to relate to them... his target demographic is children.

They see him and go "I love you, you love me". We see him and go "What the fuck is this guy hiding? What darkness lies beneath that mask of optimism and joy?"

Same goes for the Jedi.

So I'd say what we have, here, is a similar situation as the one in the recent Rick and Morty episode, "Juricksic Mort".

In the episode, a bunch of dinosaurs return to Earth and it turns out they're incredibly selfless, diplomatic, moral and spiritually advanced (kinda like the Jedi!)

Rick's reaction is - you guessed it - "what the fuck are they hiding?"

The dinosaurs turn Earth into a utopia, ending all wars, removing all conflict, bringing about world peace and giving everyone the chance to go on vacation... and everybody hates them for it and eventually wants to see them fail and step down from their pedestal.

The writing emphasizes their superior virtue so much that they actually come across as uptight and patronizing. This is done intentionally, so that it's difficult to find them likeable out-of-universe, and we relate to the earthlings in-universe who react the same way.

Why do the audience and the characters react this way to characters who - again - are good and moral?

Because as Moriarty says in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows... hidden within the unconscious is an insatiable desire for conflict.

It's why the presence of conflict is so crucial in storytelling.

It's why every scene in good movies presents some form of internal, external or philosophical conflict.

It's why protagonists need flaws to be interesting and relatable. Because we're flawed as well.

Also, the protagonist will eventually have overcome their flaws through an arc.

More importantly, the basis of all conflict, in storytelling, comes from something being out of balance.

And the Jedi are trained to not be that :D !

So on the one hand we have Anakin, a flawed, conflicted character who struggles with his inner balance, and on the other we have the Jedi, who are essentially presented as flawless and balanced.

What will a chunk of the audience do? They:

Won't like the Jedi.

Will project a flaw onto them (more on that in the next section).

Side with Anakin, the one that's as imperfect as the audience is.

Sometimes all of the above.

But the thing is, though... the Jedi we see in the Prequels are not flawless or perfect.

They are, for the most part, characters who have already completed their character arcs, characters who have already confronted their own inner flaws and overcome them.

And whenever these flaws resurface? Well, they've conquered them once, and they have the training, so they do it again.

Example, here's Yoda confronting and overcoming his hubris and inner fears:

Has he done it before, in his almost 900 years? Probably, yeah. But it's not a one-and-done sort of thing.

But the Prequels are not their movies. They're about Anakin.

He's meant to be the more interesting character. And they're meant to be the ones with less flaws, because they're mentor archetypes and the Prequels show an interesting situation wherein the protagonist fails to listen to the mentors and fails to overcome his own flaws, which leads him to - instead - be doomed by them.

3) Issues with the writing.

So, for the people who didn't like the changes but want to like the Prequels, there's a headcanon that seemingly fixes everything:

"The Prequel Jedi... are intentionally written as arrogant, hypocritical moralists. They are meant to come across as dispassionate. I mean, isn’t that what being a Jedi is, apparently? You purge yourself of attachments aka emotions, and act only logically (which was typically-encouraged behavior for a long time, in the US). They've become too systemic and lost their way." And guess what? With this interpretation, "Luke is special again! He's like Qui-Gon in that he found a middle ground between the unfeeling Jedi and the Sith, who have become slaves to their emotions. Like, sure, Anakin can be THE Chosen One, whatever, but Luke? Luke has found the balance, he succeeded where Obi-Wan, Yoda (who wanted Vader dead instead of believing he could be redeemed) and the other Jedi failed. So that's what the Prequels are about: the Jedi's failure."

The issue is, though... it doesn't align with what George intended. (as explained here and here).

But it does use most of the ingredients the films give us. Which - short of unleashing a barrage of George Lucas quotes, interviews and videos - makes it hard to disprove.

Because - seeing as the films aren't about the Jedi, they're about Anakin and his own inner demons - we don't see enough of the Jedi's culture and lifestyle and day-to-day unless it directly relates to Anakin.

So George's very clear idea of how awesome the Jedi are is never truly conveyed or fleshed out and as a result they feel like a group of people who always say "no" to the protagonist. The flawed, passionate and more relatable (by contrast) protagonist.

We get glimpses of it in The Clone Wars, but then it's tarnished by the fact that the Jedi are at war.

Then there's the reads that could easily be disproved... had George been more explicit about what he was going for.

"The Jedi Council bully a 9-year-old." This read could've been avoided had the scene ended with the Jedi telling Anakin that being afraid is normal, but his fear must be conquered otherwise it'll lead to the Dark Side. Which, they do, but in a vague way rather one with a kind empathetic smile.

"Obi-Wan is always berating Anakin, their relationship is tense." The whole movie partially features an arc where their relationship is on the rocks, so removing the tension isn't an option. However, the interpretation that it's been like this for a decade (rather than recently because Anakin reunited with Padmé) could've been avoided if, instead of just a minute-long elevator scene, we maybe saw a set-piece of them on a mission, maybe showing them working in tandem and joking as they escape that nest of gundarks.

More could've been done to frame the Jedi in the positive light thy were meant to be seen under. But again: the movies aren't meant to be about the Jedi.

Though it seems that a lot of people wanted them to be. And maybe that explains the hate re: the Jedi.

Older audiences wanted to see Campbell's Hero they grew up with again, they had a preconceived notion that the Jedi would be wandering, exciting adventurers... instead they got a bunch of "stale" diplomats whose whole job is to avoid conflict and adventure.

So instead of taking the story for what it was - a movie for kids - they projected a "morally gray" narrative that said these characters were flawed and weren't how they were supposed to be in-universe, when the truth is they weren't happy with the characters they witnessed out-of-universe.