#yes i know that it technically wouldn’t be canon bc she’s still in character for the bows

[laurancezvahlslefteyebrow]

Good Morning council it’s been a while

@xerith-42 @gonedreaminggg @cinnamontoastcroonch

I wanted to talk more specifically about what happens to certain SK characters after Shad’s eventual death, as well as the difference between premature and full shadow knights. i never really got around to this so i figured now is as good a time as any.

Ok first and foremost, full SKs:

I know some of you had liked the idea of full SKs dropping dead once and for all after Shad’s death, and at first I did too. But then I got to thinking. Technically speaking, they’d already earned their immortality. Yes the rest of their SK abilities were lost, but I like to think they remain immortal, a final gift of sorts from Shad due to their loyalty. Only issues? Well first off, they’re immortal, not invisible. They can still die, they just don’t age. Second, unlike PMSKs, they don’t have half a soul. They have no soul. They’re essentially walking husks of their former selves. They’re basically zombies, wandering the earth aimlessly, with one goal. Finishing their task. For most, like Gene, their task is fulfilling Shad’s wishes. Ie, killing Aphmau and her gang. So, if you were to approach them they’d be extremely aggressive, even if you had nothing to do with Aphmau. These guys would eventually need to be rounded up, they’re too dangerous to be left alone.

As for the few full SKs that weren’t loyal to Shad, (Vincent, Zenix, and Sasha) they’d also be husks, but they’d be non violent (Zenix… for the most part). I’m sure the Phoenix Alliance would probably try to find a cure for them, though I’m sure that’s unlikely.

Then we have the 2 PMSKs that actually died and were resurrected, Vylad and my oc Eseryt (i’m counting her bc she’s canon is my rewrite). Now the only reason they aren’t walking husks is because they never gained their immortality and thus still have the other half of their souls. Only thing is, half a soul has a tough time piloting a body alone. And so, they remain motionless and cold. Not dead, but comatose. Though they’re minds are very aware, moving a million miles a minute, panicking probably. They can very faintly hear and feel the things around them, but it’s muffled and far away. Eventually Eseryt is awoken by being given Kul’Zak’s relic (i’m sorry it’s not vylad 😬), the reason this works is because A) Eseryt is Kul’Zak’s incarnation and B) that relic contained a fragment of Zak’s soul, which was then bestowed upon Es. She’s awake, but less of herself, though not much less of a person, she now has more soul than most SKs.

Now Vylad is different. In order to wake him they needed to travel to the Yggdrasil Forest and convince the elder and council to left them have a sapling. This was very hard to do. The only real reason they eventually gave in was because these people had just vanquished the one thing that was a threat to all of them. Anyway, a ritual is preformed and Vylad awakens, also less of himself. He goes on to live a semi normal life, but one night while in a bout of sleeplessness, he unknowingly admits to Garroth that he wishes they wouldn’t have wasted the sapling on him and that he wished they would’ve just killed him. This absolutely shatters Garroth.

And on that cheery note! Laurance!

Now Laury is different. Not only was he premature, but he also never actually died. He was just transformed. Meaning, his body never needed to be resurrected. In the beginning he falls unconscious just like the others, but eventually he wakes up on his own. Though it is a slow process, taking weeks maybe even months for him to get back on his feet. When he first wakes he doesn’t know what’s happening. He’s feverish and scared and barely conscious. Eventually the fever leaves him and he’s left feeling like less of himself. More numb than usual. And he has to come to terms with the fact that he can hardly see or walk, that he’ll never guard again, and that his closest friends the past couple of years are both on their deathbeds and no one knows how to save them (he wakes up quite a bit before vylad and es). His only solis is that he’s finally with Aph and Garroth again, and he can finally meet his daughter.

I’m sorry that was a lot but I had to finally get it all out

thoughts? prayers perhaps?

[shatteredfears-arch]

aLSO all DC muses being added/are already here, which i’m posting bc i don’t have bios posted for all of them so this is a quick rundown. as generally known, the main plotline of this blog is one big universe, but ofc, there are basis for these characters personality traits. And the main verse that is this blog’s verse has a mix of S/nyder and R/eeves, we don’t accept hate to either here. Also technically J/oker 2019. minor comic and other influences but i take what fits into the main world as my wild colorful brain views it (and yes, as an autistic, I view things differently than the non auts who call me names or choose to insult me-- too bad so sad for u tho i’m friends w the block button) 

(obvious content warnings considering the fandom, a lot of these ppl are murderers, one of them considers consent 'optional' canonically, even in her 'good person' phase. some of these people are serial killers. gordon's chill but he's also a cop so that defaultly makes him not great when, like me, you're not white. he's not white either tho, and is trying to fix the issue from the inside, but it's still not a great career. if anyone knows anything abt pamela's backstory, i'm not mentioning it here, but that girl's been through it okay.)

B/rucey Wayne, obvs E/d Nashton, unfortunately, tho he’s technically an NPC/by request H/arvey D/ent, with a different take primarily based on T/elltale, where yknow, he becomes evil whether he’s mutilated or not. stop being gross DC if T/elltale a company owned by gross ppl can do it so can you. H/arley Q/uinn, who’s been here, she’s not an original take she’s based off her og solo run but ppl think ‘oh she’s mean’ means original take when thats LITERALLY WHO SHE WAS BEFORE THEY WATERED HER DOWN TO HEROFY HER I dont accept that arc here. but i'm also not including all the canonical times she's forced consent on others, aka pushing J/oker into sex, breaking into floyd's house and laying naked in his bed and bullying him until he agrees to have sex, pushing ivy into physical contact until ivy agrees no matter how many times they say no. yeah. none of that happens here. but i do recognize it happens in canon, even if the fandom refuses to. al/exis k/aye, aka p/unchline, also a mostly original storyline not entirely following the comics, but idk i think she’s neat du/ella d/ent, aka h/arvey’s bio daughter who he was so disappointed wasn’t twins he chose to ignore entirely, bc even tho i love harv/ey he is a terrible dad. case in point, his daughter’s obsession w villains and calling herself their daughters (she’s been j/okers daughter, ri/ddler’s daughter, etc, her coping mechanism is a piece of work). pre her taking that route tho, but she is presently obsessed with E/dward post TB2022.  floyd la/wton, aka d/eadshot, based on older comics, with hints of ss2016 but not a lot, deffo inspo from jltas and games tho. i will never write fl/oyd x h/arley please never ask me, she literally wouldn’t leave him alone and broke into his house and sat naked in his bed until he’d have sex w her in canon. we’re not doing that here. keep that away from me.  s/ofia f/alcone, carmine’s legitimate daughter and therefore selina’s half sister. inheritor of carmine’s entire criminal bs, but because she wasn’t a player at the time, now has to become a player in the war for head of gotham crime.  jane mo/riarty, technically started as an original interpretation of a moriarty sibling from s/herlock h/olmes, but i plotted and developed a DC plot relating to her in the TB2022 universe, so she’s here now. university professor by day, weaving the web of gotham’s underground criminal schemes by night.  J/ames G/ordon, currently a detective in go/tham, not yet commissioner, trusts batsy entirely but doesn’t let the team know about his affiliation with him. uncle to and eventually adopted father of his niece, b/arbara g/ordon, when his brother and sister in law die in a car crash. 

P/amela I/sley, who is mostly based between older comics (including her runs in the SS) and A/rkhamverse, NOT watering her down the way the comics and shows did to just turn her into ‘har/ley’s girlfriend’ nor will i pretend the canonical interpretation of their ship is somehow healthy when they’ve beaten the shit out of and mentally abused each other to no end. in general if you want a healthy ship, don’t look towards h/arley, and i/vy deserves better, but all in all I am not watering them down for the sake of romance. they’re villains. we can write them as healthily as we can plot if you want, but pamela deserves better than what the comics and that show have done for her. and the fandom as a whole tbh, which is why i love the interpretations i follow over canon 99% of the time. and if you wanna plot/write w any of them lmk and hit me up w a plot if u have one, or if you wanna try and get to a comic point or game point or anything, it can be discussed, but i will not jump into ships w pamela, alexis, or ivy. everyone else is a case by case basis.

anyways here's the new carrd. almost none of the characters mentioned have bios btw that's why i'm posting this here lol.

[meatsouuuuup]

kind of love how when Otho took control of the kids in Yellow Jacket, they scream and it slowly begins to match the pitch that he makes

because at the end of tgwdlm, on the final chord of inevitable, Emma ALSO screams and I like to think it’s something similar happening then

[crossovereddie]

Actually, here is an alternative thing for you to occupy your time with, and a question I have been meaning to ask you for a while. I have finished 911 finally! So I'm ready for the new season. And I wonder, realistically, what do you think the roadmap would be for a buddie endgame?

I absolutely see how their story has been framed and filmed in a lot of parallels to how a romantic storyline would be set out. But there has been no outright mention of either of them being bi - although the conversation about Maddy setting Buck up with whassisface was very casual and could very easily have been an example of canonically bi Buck - and they are both at the end of season 4 in 'relationships' with women.

So, in your estimation, what's the timeline? What's the transition? How do they go about this and how long does it take? I wanna know your thoughts 👀

okay yes i have lots of thoughts on this and it's actually one of my fave questions i get asked. I've always watched a lot of tv shows so I'm just estimating on what I've seen before and what I would personally do. IMO this love story is a slow burn. We only have four seasons so far and only three of those seasons have Eddie in them. This unsurprisingly got long so ill put it under the cut.

So I'll go by seasons bc to me its important to look at everything that has happened so far by seasons and by love interests and not as a whole. Its the best way i can form a timeline that I think would make the most sense and why

S1: So we don't get any hints at Buck being anything other than straight and I think this is because he was supposed to be. They hadn't planned for Eddie yet and they definitely hadn't planned for the chemistry Oliver and Ryan were gonna have. S1 Buck was this reckless kid who didn't take anything serious. He was definitely super immature. Then he meets Abby and he starts to get serious about his job and his love life. I'm not gonna say "Abby changed him" because she didnt. He saw the person he was and the person he was becoming and decided on that change himself.

S2: Eddie!!!! So we get introduced to this army medic turned firefighter in the least heterosexual way. Then Buck is angry because Eddie is hot and really good at his job. they work together and Eddie compliments Buck and now they're smiley bffs. Seriously wtf was all that? Anyway this is all sus bc from what ive seen before in other shows when a main love interest leaves and a new main character replaces them, that means something. JLH replaced Connie Britton as far as big name actress but i really believe Eddie replaced Abby as far as importance in Buck's life. Do i think they brought him in with the intentions of turning him into a LI? No but they sure fueled the narrative from the get go. I think they saw fans reactions and started testing the waters.

Moving on to LIs in this season. We find out Eddie has a kid and the mother is not in the picture (eddie made sure buck knew that right away). Then later on we find out he's technically still married. shannon comes back and we get Eddie finally getting to confront this head on. He tries to get his family back together for the sake of his son. Its big for Eddie's character bc all he does and all he's ever done is for his son. Then Shannon asks for a divorce then she dies bringing this arc to an abrupt end and leaving eddie heartbroken.

meanwhile Buck is still waiting for Abby. Then he finally accepts that shes not coming back and decides to move on. He goes right back to being "Buck 1.0" with Taylor and feels bad about himself because that really isnt him anymore. He wants a real relationship. So then Ali calls and asks him on an actual date and he agrees. This is his first try at a relationship after a heartbreak. in tv these don't usually work out but are used to develop the main character's growth. We don't really see much of her but she breaks up with him so.

S3: This is Eddie finally dealing with his feelings/guilt season. This is also the season I think we really see how important Buck is to the Diaz boys. S2 had cute buckley-diaz family moments but those could still be interpreted as a best friend and his best friend's kid. This season though... after the tsunamic episode was when i really started to fully believe buddie was going canon. This season is solidifying their bond not only as Buck and Eddie but as Buck Eddie and Christpher. As I'm writing this I realized neither of them really has a love interest in this season do they? Ana is introduced but then is clearly presented as definitely NOT the right choice for eddie and especially for Chris. Then they counter that with Buck helping Eddie build a skateboard for Chris that he can use as opposed to Ana's ablest remarks about how he can't do it so just move on to something else. Then we get Buck's reaction in Eddie Begins. Buck has seen his team his friends his family get hurt on the job before but he has never reacted the way he did when it was Eddie in danger. Again solidifying just how much these two mean to each other. Don't even get me started on this season being when Eddie changes his will offscreen. Anyway we get Abby back and Buck finally gets the closure from that relationship that he needs to move forward into a serious relationship.

Now S4: jfc s4....IMO this is the only logical season to get the ball rolling on Buddie and they sure did that with 4x14 despite everything else. So i never thought they would be the first serious relationship for each other after the heart break theyve both experienced. It wouldn't be fair to their character developments. Buck tries dating Veronica and that clearly doesnt work but we know hes now open to dating again. We get Buck Begins where we see why Buck is the dare devil he is. The only way he got his parents attention as a kid was to put himself in danger. They bring back taylor and how to they ultimately get together after she friendzones him? She thinks hes in danger and suddenly wants him. As much as i hate it this is really gonna be a relationship where Buck finally stands up for himself and sees his own worth and realizes he deserves more. He deserves someone who sees him and loves him for who he is. He deserves to be chosen, something Abby Ali his parents dont do and what i think taylor wont end up doing. I feel like shes gonna choose her career over him. Maybe not in a "I'm breaking up with you" way but maybe she takes a new job and want to do LD (hes tried that twice and it didnt work for him. hes not gonna want that) or she could ask him to go with her but he wont. His family is in LA. His job is in LA. Eddie and Chris are in LA and he won't leave them. Then we have Eddie finally deciding to move on and try dating again so they bring back ana. To me it's not gonna work out so I'm not bothered at all lmao. It's interesting that they'd choose her though. Someone we already know Eddie doesn't trust with his son. There's also more buckley-diaz family scenes of them being coparents. The hildy episode, Chris running to Buck when hes mad at eddie, Buck being the one to tell Chris Eddie got hurt, then Buck staying with Chris and taking on the guardian role without him even knowing just how much that role really does belong to him. He didn't do it out of obligation. He didn't do it because he was asked to. He did it because he thought it would be best for Chris. Finally to 4x14. This is by far the biggest "Oh shit this is it. This is the beginning of buddie". We find out Eddie changed his will a year ago and has just been sitting on this info. I think Eddie knew back then what it meant but he wasn't in the right mindset to accept what it means so he kept it to himself. I think he finally started allowing himself to go there during treasure hunt. The man was jealous yall. Carla coming back and her comment about doing whats best for him and not chris is his oh shit moment. I think he wouldve broken up with Ana a few days after that if he had the time lol. He gets caught up in the mother/son sl then this poor mf gets shot by a sniper. The way that whole scene was filmed btw was not in a bff way. That was a lover watching his beloved almost die in front of him. Buck again puts himself down and Eddie decides this is the moment. He needs Buck to see how important he is. He wants buck to know how loved he is. So he sits there talking himself up to it and finally lets Buck know just how big of a part he is in Eddie's family. Buck's previous scene is him saying he wants someone who wants him back then here is Eddie saying he needs him...Chris needs him. wtf.

So with S5: I think Eddie knows and Buck has a feeling but he's not sure so what i would do is spend s5 with Eddie basically showing Buck his feelings but not exactly getting in the way of Buck's new relationship because Buck has to be the one to make that choice. Id also have chris feeling the different shift with buck having a gf like he did with Eddie. This newfound info wasnt just dropped on us for a "Aww so sweet" moment. This will business is gonna be a part of a bigger storyline. I'm hoping its with Eddie's family during maybe 5b.

So what I think would be the best timeline for canon buddie is 5a eddie already having either broken up with ana or is gonna break up with her, Buck choosing himself and ending things with Taylor by midseason finale, them bringing in Eddie's family in 5b and maybe then being when Eddie confesses his feelings for Buck. Then 6a we could get them walking on egg shells around each other not really knowing what to do bc this is all so new for both of them. This could bring just the right amount of comedy and angst especially them awkward and flustered around each other at work. A big blowup can happen between them for added angst (maybe an arguement before one of them or both of them is put in danger) then a midseason finale kiss. Then trying to find the balance between their personal relationship and their work relationship during 6b.

I don't know how long Fox shows last but procedurals can last a long time. I'm not sure thats gonna be the case for 911 especially with all the main cast staying that long so i think this would give us at least a whole season (S7) of canon buddie.

As far as then being presented as straight, there's been more seeds planted about buck being bi. A few i can remember off the top of my head: all of 2x1 lmao, maddie's comment about bucks boy crush on eddie, buck hinting at thinking eddie is cute when he thinks maddie is talking about him, the christmas elf, the comments on the instagram livestream, idk if youve watched it or not but TK's comment to Buck in the crossover episode, and like you mentioned Maddie's casual comment about setting him up with Josh. All we really know about Eddie's love life is he married Shannon when they were young and is trying with Ana so it could turn into a whole storyline for him.

I'm so sorry this is so long and took forever but i I hope i actually answered your question and didnt just get lost in rambles lmao.

[fangirlandiknowit101]

Here's the sad pining sasuke i wrote last night... it's not finished and who knows when/if i'll finish it. university AU, not edited and there's some naru//hina and sasuke//OC bc i couldn't think of a canon character that fit. The texting part is also weird bc i wrote it all very fast lol. i'm sharing bc why not *shrugs*

xxx

It hurts, to look at them.

Sasuke can’t help himself. Naruto is his best friend, after all, and he’s not yet so desperate that he’ll avoid him. It’s worse, somehow, that he can’t even dislike her.

She’s good for him, he thinks, when he’s feeling particularly self-deprecating. Her hair is dark and her skin pale as porcelain, and that’s where the similarities end between him and Hinata.

Sweet, and so patient with Naruto. Soft-spoken, but not a pushover. Impeccably dressed, always, no make-up needed to outshine any girl beside her. A picture perfect couple, that’s what they are. It wouldn’t be so bad if he didn’t have to watch it unfold from the front row.

How her shyness turned to surety, how her eyes would catch on Naruto and look away before, but now – now she looks at him like he belongs to her, soft smile on her plump lips.

Sasuke can’t even hate her, and he wishes he could.

It’s not her fault that Sasuke is the way he is. She doesn’t know, isn’t doing it on purpose. And yet, there’s a stab to Sasuke’s chest every time she takes his hand, every time Naruto tucks her silky hair behind her perfect ear.

Naruto will kiss her cheek and Sasuke will be looking, always looking. His face devoid of emotion, his voice carefully neutral. He can’t be mean to Naruto’s girlfriend, though he wishes he could. Maybe if Naruto got mad at him and pushed him away, Sasuke would be free to move on.

It’s more likely that Sasuke would apologize and do better, and he’d rather spare himself the embarrassment.

Sometimes he imagines that Hinata will find out, that she’ll start treating him with suspicion, watch his every move with her wide eyes. Feel threatened by him. But Sasuke is no threat. He’s tired and hurting, but he’s not a homewrecker. It would be a lot easier if Naruto didn’t keep nudging him in Sakura’s direction.

It’s not Sakura’s fault, either. She’s dreaming of something she can’t have, and the similarities make him sick to his stomach.

Sometimes he thinks he’ll date her, live the lie to the fullest. Give her what she wants, since he’s doomed anyway. He doubts he’d last long, though. If he had even the slightest bit of interest in women – but when he looks at her, there’s just no attraction. He’s not sure how no one’s noticed yet. It’s not like he’s that good of an actor. He thinks the only reason no one’s figured it out is because he’s so deep in the closet, and they’re all so heterosexual. Why would they suspect he’s gay? It suits them better if he isn’t.

“Oh, I didn’t realize it was that late already,” Sakura says beside him, breaking him out of his thoughts.

The bar is lively around them, but the music is at a bearable noise level. She’s looking at her phone, frowning. On the other side of the small table, Naruto pouts.

“It’s not late!” he objects, the beer in his glass sloshing around as he waves his hands around. “We just got here!”

“We’ve been here for three hours, I think,” Hinata says, leaning her cheek on his shoulder.

Sasuke wonders how she manages, the way he moves around so much. Perhaps her body is as soft as her voice, easily following him.

“I told you I have to get up early tomorrow.” Sakura sighs, irritated. She fishes her bag up from the floor, putting her phone inside it. “I really have to get going.”

“I’ll walk you to the station,” Sasuke offers. Not because he particularly wants to, but he’s not in the mood to subject himself to third-wheeling Naruto and Hinata. “I should get going, anyway.”

“What?” Naruto looks disappointed, more disappointed than when Sakura announced her departure. “I thought you were free tomorrow.”

Rolling his eyes, Sasuke swallows down the last of his drink.

“Doesn’t mean I want to stay up all night,” he counters with, easing out of the booth. “I still have to study.”

“You study too much,” Naruto mutters, giving Hinata a smile like an afterthought when she squeezes his arm.

“Maybe if you studied at all you wouldn’t need to panic before every exam,” Sakura nags at him, coming around the table to wait next to Sasuke. “Some of us care about our grades.”

“Nerds.” At least Naruto looks a little happier, and Sasuke hates to think that it’s because he thinks anything’s going to happen between him and Sakura. “Don’t get lost, you two!”

They say their goodbyes, and Sasuke tries to pretend he doesn’t notice how Sakura’s cheeks fill with color when they step outside the bar. She’s put a jacket on, but Sasuke’s fine in his sweater. It’s not cold enough that her blush can be blamed on the weather.

“Thanks for walking me,” she says, hefting her bag higher up her shoulder. She’d joined them straight from the library, researching her latest paper. “You didn’t have to.”

“It’s fine,” he tells her, hands tucked into his sleeves.

He doesn’t want to run the risk of her attempting to reach for his hand. As much as he dislikes her attention, it’s safer if she thinks he’s just playing hard to get. He won’t have to explain, then, why he hasn’t outright told her to give up. He should, he knows. But Naruto would just nudge him towards some other girl, would bother him about it until Sasuke started going on actual dates. It’s touching, how worried he is over Sasuke potentially being lonely.

Too bad Naruto himself is the cause of it.

“You’re not doing anything tomorrow, then?” Sakura asks, stepping aside as they meet a group of half-drunk businessmen. “I’m working until five…”

It would be so easy to invite her out. To suggest a movie, or trying out that new café near campus. To watch her eyes light up with hope, watch her mouth stretch into an excited smile.

“I really do need to study,” he says. “And I’m almost out of clean clothes.”

None of it is a lie, technically. He’s just not sure he’ll actually do either of those things tomorrow.

“Oh.”

She tries to hide her disappointment, and Sasuke is an expert by now at pretending he doesn’t notice. They walk the rest of the way in silence, waving a quick goodbye at the ticket gates as Sakura’s train is due to arrive in just two minutes. Sasuke buys a drink from a vending machine and takes small sips as he waits for his own, mindlessly scrolling through social media. He almost ignores the text Naruto sends.

> Wanna hang out tomorrow?

He contemplates it. On the one hand, yes, of course he wants to. On the other, having an entire day to himself has its appeal.

> I’ll be busy

> Ooh, with sakura?

The train arrives, and Sasuke snags a seat next to a couple too caught up with each other to pay attention to him.

> No

> Got studying and laundry to do

The reply is instant.

> That’s too boring!!! I’m coming over for lunch

> Whatever

He pockets his phone, and stares down at the bottle in his hands for the rest of the trip. It doesn’t help against the warmth rising in his chest. At least he doesn’t do this to Sakura – doesn’t invite himself into her space, ignorant of her feelings. It doesn’t make him feel better.

xxx

Sasuke doesn’t have a lot of friends. He’s got Naruto, and then there’s his small group of friends from high school. Naruto is the only one who still lives nearby. Rather, Sasuke had ended up staying in Konoha like him. It’s a big enough city that most of his classmates are strangers, although slightly less so in their second year. He stayed with his parents for his first year, but when one of his cousins moved abroad for work he took the opportunity to stay at her apartment instead. It’s closer to his university, and if he, potentially, wanted to bring a guy home then no one would know.

He doesn’t think his parents would mind, but there wouldn’t be any privacy. He relishes in it, and Naruto does, too.

“I should just move in with you,” Naruto groans, spread out on his couch. “You wouldn’t believe how annoying my mom was this morning.”

“I think I can believe it,” Sasuke tells him, cleaning up after their lunch. “And just to be clear, I’ve never said you’d be welcome to live here.”

“Stingy,” Naruto grumbles. “How long is your cousin gone, anyway?”

Shrugging, Sasuke dries off the counter just for something to do with his hands.

“A year at least. We’ll see. So it’s not like I’ll be living here forever.”

“But still!”

“Where would you even sleep?”

Naruto happily pats the couch. When Sasuke scowls at him, he simply grins.

“Come on,” Naruto says. “I want to watch a movie.”

“I wasn’t lying when I said I need to study.”

Still, he gives in too easily. Naruto lifts his legs to give him room, dumping them all over Sasuke’s lap once he sits down. It’s things like this that makes Sasuke’s heart refuse to give up. He leans his elbow on the back of the couch, cheekbone pressed to his closed fist. He doesn’t say anything when Naruto picks a drama at random, letting him comment on the plot as much as he wants. Watching movies with Naruto is certainly never quiet, and he winces as Naruto kicks his legs as he shouts his anger at the main character.

When the movie ends, Naruto doesn’t start a new one. Instead he chews on his bottom lip, playing with the remote. Sasuke considers getting up to use the toilet, maybe suggesting going to the corner store for snacks, but then Naruto clears his throat suspiciously.

“What?” he asks, irritated when Naruto takes his time.

“So, how are things going with Sakura?”

He resists the urge to pinch his nose. He still lets out a heavy breath, not quite a sigh but close enough that Naruto frowns.

“I mean,” Naruto continues, “you could just ask her out. She’s definitely going to say yes.”

Sasuke shifts, uncomfortable. Naruto’s legs are still on top of his. His socks have little frogs on them.

“I’ve told you I’m not really into the idea of a relationship right now.”

“Uh-huh.” Naruto rolls his eyes, pushing himself up and finally removing his legs, crossing them at the ankles instead. “Sounds like excuses to me.”

“Just drop it, Naruto.”

“But if you get together things will be so much easier,” Naruto insists, poking at his arm. “We can go on double dates, and stuff.”

Sending him a glare, Sasuke pulls a leg up to his chest. It won’t prevent Naruto if he decides to get comfy on his lap again, but it might make him think twice at least. Naruto’s only wearing shorts, and all that naked skin isn’t good for his heart. It’s definitely too cold for it, but Naruto’s never been one to care about the weather.

“We already go places together.”

“Yeah, but it’s not the same!”

Sasuke pinches his lips, looking away. If he’s not careful, those large blue eyes will convince him to cave in, and then he’ll find himself with a girlfriend. He does a lot for Naruto, but there are limits.

“I’m not going to ask her out,” he mutters, knowing it will only lead to more questioning.

Sure enough, Naruto makes a noise of protest.

“But you haven’t rejected her either!”

“She hasn’t asked me out either.”

“It’s obvious she likes you.”

“That’s her problem.”

Naruto kicks at his thigh, using his heel. He looks properly annoyed now, as if Sasuke is a petulant child, refusing to do what’s best for him.

“If you got over yourself for a minute, you’d realize what a catch she is!”

He doesn’t reply. Let Naruto think he’s just stubborn, or an asshole, or whatever. Let him think Sasuke’s just stringing her along, keeping her attention while refusing to commit. It’s better than the alternative.

“Leave it, Naruto,” he warns, getting up and moving to the kitchen. “We’re not talking about this.”

At least Naruto doesn’t follow him, though it doesn’t make much of a difference. The apartment is small, no wall separating the kitchen from the living room. He searches through his cabinets, locating a forgotten bag of wasabi peas. He throws them at Naruto’s head.

“Eat these and shut up,” he says.

To his relief, Naruto does as told.

xxx

He picks up the call from Karin half-distracted, mind still stuck on a question for tomorrow’s seminar. As usual, she doesn’t wait for him to say hi, making her wince with the volume of her voice.

“Do you have any idea how tiring it is to listen to Naruto whine about you?” she starts with, the background noise suggesting she’s outdoors. “Can’t you just tell him you’re gay and put me out of my misery.”

“No thanks.” He drops his pen on his desk, rubbing at his eyes. He regrets not going to the university library, at least then he wouldn’t have been able to pick up the call. “Was that all? I’m kind of busy.”

“You know, this is exactly why I moved away,” she continues, ignoring him. “I thought I could get away from all the high school-level drama. Just get yourself a boyfriend, and go on those stupid double dates my cousin is so desperately yearning for. How hard can it be?!”

He can feel a headache incoming, and he rubs his fingertips between his brows. Naruto had sulked for hours the day before, until Sasuke got sick of it and threw him out. It was definitely backhanded of him to call Karin and complain.

“If you really wanted to be left out of it, why are you calling me? That’s the opposite of not getting involved.”

“Because it’s really painful and I’m morally obligated as the only person with functional brain cells to tell you to move on. Juugo’s too nice to say it and Suigetsu would give you terrible advice and sit back and watch. I’m being nicer to you than you deserve.”

“By telling me to move on,” Sasuke deadpans, wondering why his parents couldn’t have settled down somewhere else.

“Well, someone has to do it! Clearly I’m the gay cousin in the family, so you’re screwed. Might as well get over it and get laid.”

“I really hate you sometimes, you know that?”

She huffs at him, traffic and broken conversations filtering through the phone. There’s the jingle of a shop’s door, and the noise cuts off.

“Your pining is just getting sad,” she eventually replies, distractedly. “Trust me, I know my cousin. He’s not worth it.”

Something unpleasant churns in Sasuke’s stomach. He wants to argue with her that he is worth it, but he doesn’t want to land himself in an hour-long lecture if he can help it. He rolls his neck, making a face. She’s got a point, but he doesn’t enjoy hearing it. His life would be a lot simpler if he could find someone who made him forget about Naruto. He’s just not sure it’s fair to expect someone to instantly replace a lifetime of friendship.

“I don’t think I should have to come out just because Naruto irritates you,” is what he says instead, leaning back in his chair. “What if my parents find out and disown me? You want to be responsible for that?”

“Sasuke,” she sighs, “your brother is literally gay and your parents love his boyfriend.”

“So?”

“Stop. Making. Excuses.”

He bites his cheek, holding back a denial. He’s not worried about his parents, he’s worried about Naruto’s reaction. That things will change between them. That he’ll think Sasuke has feelings for him, which would be correct but would also ruin absolutely everything.

“I’ll… consider it,” he concedes, after a long silence, during which Karin has finished buying whatever it was she needed.

“Really? Because I’m going to hold you to that.”

He sighs.

“Next time I’m not picking up when you call me.”

xxx

A few weeks pass, and not much changes. Naruto still takes up too much space in his head and life, Sakura continues to drop hints but refuses to make the first move, and Hinata is still as lovely as ever. She doesn’t seem to have much of a personality other than being Naruto’s girlfriend, but to be fair Sasuke hasn’t precisely paid attention or tried to get to know her. Naruto’s birthday is drawing closer, and he can’t bring himself to do anything to break the status quo before then.

He’s been considering it, though. It would be a relief to stop pretending. He can’t imagine himself finding a boyfriend, though, because where would he even meet someone? It’s too awkward to use a dating app, and he’s not precisely social. He doesn’t have any experience, either, if you don’t count those childish games they played sometimes when they were younger. And that one time Naruto kissed him by accident when they were twelve.

Because of this, he’s really not expecting it when one day in class, just as the lecture ends, his eyes fall on the messenger bag that the guy next to him has just finished packing. There’s a rainbow pin on it, and Sasuke blurts out his question before he can stop to think about it.

“Are you gay?”

He only lifts his eyes from the pin when the surprised silence stretches out a bit too long. Their eyes meet, and the other boy is staring at him like he’s not sure how to react.

“Uh,” he says eventually, fingers clenching around the bag’s strap. “I mean, yes? But if you’re thinking about the pin it’s just a regular rainbow…”

He trails off, and Sasuke feels his cheeks heat up a bit. He can’t believe he just asked, when he himself has gone to such lengths to make sure no one made such assumptions about him.

“Sorry,” he apologizes. “I shouldn’t have asked.”

“It’s fine.”

Maybe he should know the guy’s name, but he doesn’t. He’s pretty short, hair dyed a light brown and glasses perched on his nose. Cute, but Sasuke’s not sure he’s his type. He’s not sure he has a type, other than Naruto.

“Are you gay?” the guy asks him, eyebrows rising above the frame of his glasses.

Sasuke licks his lips. He could say no, but to what end?

“I am,” he forces out, breathing in a deep breath.

“Oh.” There’s red color blooming on the other boy’s face, his eyes flickering to the side for a moment. “I was kind of hoping, but, um… I mean, hoping sounds weird! Sorry, I just wasn’t expecting you to ask outright.”

When Sasuke stands up, he realizes he’s almost a head taller than him.

“I’m Sasuke,” he offers, clicking his laptop shut and slowly sliding it into his bag.

“I know. I mean! I’m Hiroshi. Nice to meet you.”

Sasuke nods, and awkwardly turns to leave. Hiroshi stops him with a hand to his arm, though, and Sasuke swallows nervously as the turns back. He’s not interested in Hiroshi, not really, but he’s never been asked out by a boy before and the novelty of the situation is getting to him.

“Do you, um, are you busy right now? We could have lunch?”

He weighs the pros and cons in his mind. As nervous as Hiroshi looks, there’s a determined glint in his eyes that sways Sasuke over.

“Okay,” he says, and just like that he’s doing what Karin told him to do.

He’s trying, at least.

xxx

Over the course of a week, including having coffee together and a visit to the aquarium, Sasuke learns a lot about Hiroshi. Or Hiro, as he likes his friends to call him. They don’t have too much in common, but they’re both gay and studying agricultural economics. Once Hiro gets over his initial shyness, Sasuke finds he’s got a great sense of humor and won’t hesitate to poke fun at him.

It’s a breath of relief, to spend time with someone who doesn’t know him from before. He didn’t realize how much he needed it – just being able to be himself, without constantly keeping himself in check.

He can’t fool himself to think it’s enough to replace Naruto, but maybe he doesn’t need to replace him. Maybe it’s enough that Hiro seems to like him. He doesn’t really think about it, when he invites Hiro over on a Saturday night, after they’d had dinner at a nice udon place.

“Oh, wow,” Hiro says as he steps into Sasuke’s apartment, making an impressed face. “Nice place.”

“It’s my cousin’s, so no need to sound so impressed.”

Hiro rolls his eyes, taking off his shoes and jacket and following Sasuke inside.

“Alright, I’ll try to keep it in,” he teases, sitting on the couch when Sasuke motions him towards it. “But it must be nice, to have your own place like this. The dorms are fine, but I can’t exactly bring guys there.”

Humming his agreement, Sasuke grabs two cans of soda from the fridge, handing one of them to Hiro when he sinks down on the couch next to him.

“Want to watch something?”

Hiro nods, and Sasuke brings the TV to life. He’s not expecting anything to happen – they’ve only known each other a week. He’s still coming to terms with having a friend other than Karin he can talk to like this, and she doesn’t really count since there was never the potential for anything to happen between them. Hiro is… potentially someone Sasuke could date. At least there’s nothing wrong with him, not yet, and Sasuke’s easing himself into the idea of getting to know him better.

He finds a movie at random, some sci-fi that doesn’t look terrible. The movie turns into background noise as they talk, Hiro’s eyes watching his face more than the screen. It’s nice, in a new, exhilarating way, to have a guy’s attention on him like this. He’s not sure what to do with it. When Hiro moves closer, knee touching Sasuke’s thigh, hand resting on the back of the couch and occasionally touching his neck, Sasuke can’t find it in him to move away.

It feels like a secret, shared between the two of them. He thinks of Naruto for a long moment, allows himself the pain lacing through his chest as he imagines light brown hair replaced with blond, dark eyes replaced with blue. Then, he pushes it away, tells himself he can have this. The emotions are only his own.

It’s all happening too fast when Hiro grows bold, leaning in to press their mouths together, but he doesn’t care. It’s no one’s business if he spends the evening on his couch with a boy in his lap, a boy who isn’t his best friend.

The pain is easier to swallow if he tells himself that he’s the only one hurt.

[autisticburnham]

1, 5, 7, 11, 12, 19, 22, 23 (for MASH, Who or Trek, I don't mind which)

I'll do Trek, since that's what this blog focuses on, but I'll do MASH and Doctor Who versions on my main too

1. What OTP's in your fandom do you just not get?

Spones and Milippa. I get that people like bickering banter and enemies to lovers, but Bones is a space racist and I CANNOT understand shipping him with Spock. And Milippa may not technically be related, but any ship where you have to specify that is close enough to incest to squick me out.

5. Has fandom ever ruined a pairing for you?

I wouldn't say ruined, since I was never a big fan anyway, but I do think garashir is overrated and I hate how frequently fics for them fridge Ezri

7. Is there anything you used to like but can't stand now?

Nothing that comes to mind

11. Is there an unpopular character you like that the fandom doesn't? Why?

Pretty much anyone from aos or Enterprise (except Archer- I don't outright hate him, but I can absolutely see why people don't like him). And like, I get it. About 80% of both of those iterations of Trek sucks, but I really love the 20% that's good and I'm sad they get thrown aside completely so much. Also Kes! Like, yes, I love Seven, but Kes was good too and I wish she got included in fan discussion more

12. Is there an unpopular arc that you liked and the fandom didn't? Why?

I know lots of people think that the Enterprise Borg episodes were pointless, but I like how they make the Borg's presence in the Alpha Quadrant an ontological paradox

19. What is the one thing you hate most about your fandom?

Uh, most of the wider Trek fandom sucks, but even with specifically the tumblr Trek fandom, there's lots of lowkey racism and a huge bias towards the white characters. I'm still bitter that Strange New Worlds is happening at all bc fans lost their minds over Generic White Man #7 when Michael is right there

22. Popular character you hate?

Probably Bones. I just can't get past the space racism and I don't understand why he's so beloved. Oh, also Picard. I fucking despise the way he treats Deanna in Nemesis and the way he dismissed Soji's trauma in s1 of his show didn't help. Paramount's so lucky I love Seven of Nine enough to keep watching his show

23. Unpopular character you love?

Just generally unpopular characters, Hoshi Sato and Gaila Vro my beloveds <3. I know actual canon gives us next to nothing so they're basically OCs, but I love them so much. As far as outright disliked characters, Keiko O'Brien and Michael Burnham. Pretty much all of the hate towards them is just thinly veiled sexism and racism

[transsexualhamlet]

the many sins of tokyo ghoul :re

or: 13 reasons why :re is fucking terrible not clickbait

Disclaimer: I think no matter how long this post gets I’m missing something, so let’s just outline the worst ones. And I mean to be transparent, the only reason I actually read :re was so I could make this post... (and bc i wanted to see the what, five panels of hide) Well, I couldn’t stand hating it without evidence beyond hearsay and General Vibes. But I knew it was gonna be bad, I knew it was going to ruin me jesus christ. Obviously I’m not hating on people that like it, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with genuinely enjoying it (I do genuinely enjoy parts of it, and by parts i mean chapters 1-50 with exceptions and 75) I think it’s wonderful if you can derive joy from it (lmao) but I can say that through my lens in life, there’s so much fucking wrong with this goddamn fucking piece of shit manga and I feel the need to yell about it because i am ✨autism✨ so let’s get going (this is r e a l l y long just a warning)

tl;dr Ishida stay in your fucking lane

1. Transphobia and Homophobia:

alright here we are first off with the big one and if I had to choose, one of Ishida’s greatest sins here. It’s quite unusual in mangas like these to have any sort of representation for such things in and of itself, and yeah of course that annoys me, but having no represntation at all is like so much better than getting actively harmful representation. Most manga that aren’t specifically about those things shy away from those topics, and it’s tiring but it’s normal. You wouldn’t want a mangaka to try to write about something like that without experience or informed opinions. So I say if you can’t write something correct, just don’t write something like that in at all. Ishida clearly,,, does not get this.

And it’s not just the case of Mutsuki, who, well, gets it bad enough, there are three full fucking trans characters Ishida made like, just to shit on. 

Big Madame- god, made like that specifically to perpetuate the predatory trans woman trope jesus christ is Ishida friends with JK fuckface Rowling. Ah yes the ugly, human trafficking, predatory, pedophilic killer that tried to make their male child more feminine? Has a dick. Really? Could you be a single bit more transparent about your fucking agenda here? I really don’t have to say much here.

Kanae von Fuckwald- Technically Ishida says here that basically this bitch was just like??? Pretending to be a guy for years just to what?? I don’t even know?? Get together with Tsukiyama? Cause he’s fucking gay or something? I don’t even get it but like i read this post yesterday and that’s a whole ass thermian argument. It’s like “oh well this is fine because well this person’s not actually trans and therefore the representation thing doesn’t apply”... it’s useless. You created the character that way and you made it intentionally to for whatever way promote this idea that people would “pretend” to be a different gender and that eventually they’ll realize that it’s a “lie” and they never really wanted it. This is what you’re saying about the real people who are,,, actually trans? Jesus christ. Also thinking that a twink like that would be trans? God yeah trans guys can be feminine but buddy that’s clearly not what you’re going for here.

And of course, Mutsuki- There’s just... so much wrong here. I mean like. Before we even get into anything about his character and what they did to him let me just discuss his entire design. Buddy like if you had to choose one person in that show to be trans that’s the least likely one. Ah yes, the feminine one. With the androgynous haircut and the shy disposition and the physical weakness compared to the others. God that’s like, a fujoshi’s take on ao3 of what character should be trans. As much as yeah of course, trans guys can be feminine, they are in no way obligated to be such and you shouldn’t make them more so to be more “believably” so. Ask any actual trans person ever. A character like that is just perpetuating the notion of trans guys being inherently more feminine or trying to pretend to be otherwise.ThEn, of course, there’s the ridiculous sexualization, infantilization and fetishization of this character, going through a thousand plot hurdles to make him constantly stripped, put in girls clothing, chased by perverts, assaulted, ET FUCKING CETERA. Give him a fUCKING BREAK. Creating this character the way he’s portrayed in canon (including so called backstory of murdering parents because of sexual and physical abuse) is perpetuating a notion that someone would be a trans guy because of internalized misogyny and/or trauma instead of because they’re just... a guy. It’s just it’s just it’s just Really bad. Plus taking his character, demonizing him and making him like, supposedly love haise (which i Really hate for a thousand reasons, god that’s like, a parent and child type relationship they have there not romantic,,, god,,,) try to like fucking murder touka and stop seeing sense, and then just... return him to being infantalized. God. Jesus christ fucking goddamn it I love Mutsuki and he deserves better.

Oh yeah and then the homophobia, this one’s smaller because... most of the trans people are here to go “it’s gay... wait it’s not Really gay so it’s ok” but I would like to leave a small note here for all the gay characters who got thrown under the bus not just in re but in the original, like, you know, Nico and shit? I really do not know shit about Nico but all the things about Jason? God if I had a thing for one person that you shouldn’t try to portray as representation it’s Jason. IDK what’s up with him and Naki but god it wasn’t healthy. (i’d like to say here that i love naki and i think naki deserves the world but honey there are better heroes than yamori) Anyway yeah I think that’s also bullshit and Ishida should stay in his fucking lane. (or her i guess, i just feel like it’s probably a guy bc of just... so much sexism)

Ok, now that we have the big one out of the way-

2. The mishandling of portrayals of various mental illnesses:

I’m not an expert on this one like I can say about the gays TM but just like in general, the whole manga’s very messy and portrays a lot of gritty stuff, and Ishida clearly attempts to throw in some mental illness for fun, but god fUcking damn it they’re bad. I couldn’t really even give you examples bc it’s pretty widespread and i’m stupid, but it was really like trump throwing paper towels “and you get a demonization, and you get an infantalization, and you get a butchered character, and you get a fetishization-”

3. Ishida having no fucking clue how science works

This particular factoid led me to have a very hard time reading this manga because it went from being about like, yknow, torture and fights and crying and stuff to weird experimentation bullshit and mutated whatever and everyone’s a hybrid now I guess. When I heard this thing about the quinxes, I thought that made no sense, because I was like “yeah but wait,,, how tf does that work didn’t Ishida say earlier that kagune literally were fueled by human meat isn’t that like the entire point the ccg is against?” and then Ishida’s explanation of how they’re not just exactly like Kaneki is that “oh yeah well there’s like, metal around it, so it’s different.” OH YEAH OK THAT MAKES PERFECT SENSE NOW, THANKS.

The thing is... there’s no way of actually regulating that. You couldn’t move a kagune unless it was attached to your cells, and if it’s attached man, it’s attached and it’s part of you. Also yelling “frame two” won’t like make it any bigger lmao, either you’re gonna have it based on theoretical science in this universe or you’re going to have a dumb supernatural magic pokemon fight deal. The whole thing makes no sense. The science issue isn’t just about this either, it’s also about how the entire thing basically undermines the point of the whole story. When you blur the lines between human and ghoul with little to no real rules or basis in real science, every rule kind of just becomes cheap plot convenience.

So the Quinxes can eat human food unless they use their kagune too much, alright, but Kaneki couldn’t eat human food before he’d even ever used his though the only difference between their bodies was this,,, theoretical metal thing?? And Haise... was never really covered, before he went black hair emo bastard and like vored Eto, did he eat human food like the rest of the CCG? He certainly cooked it. And the squad that lived with him wasn’t aware he was a ghoul until he pulled out the kagune. So I’d assume so, but then how could he have a kagune, how could he survive when his body still was like that?

Is it the RC suppressents? Then couldn’t he just have taken those and lived as a human the entire time? Is that all he fucking needed, is that the only difference between human and ghoul? It doesn’t make sense and the rules are bent so much they don’t function anymore. Ishida like write down your rules somewhere even if they’re bullshit, they shouldn’t contradict each other.

Damn man I’m not even going to go into the dumbass rules of the half humans or the special fast aging thing or the fucking,,, folded up cells deal,,, or the Imagination Kagune, or the fucking,,, Dragon, or the zombie ghoul apocalypse or the “whole new species made of just kagune” i don’t even have the time it is fucking ridiculous and I can’t even with it. Physics. Laws of physics. If not biology, at least follow physics Ishida??? Please???? And if you’re not you need to do that consistently??

4. character glow ups actually being character glow downs 

(with the exception of nishiki, he baby now, and akira, i think her development was valid af)

God, this one gets me every time. Touka was cool. Touka was fucking badass, she had a complex character with many motivations and wants, and in the original having her eventually kind of soften bc of Kaneki is valid. But taking her and turning her into like literally nothing but Pretty Housewife Yearning For Husband At War? God, kill me. She’s a strong person. She can like Kaneki without the guy being her only character trait. Also uh, Touka and Kaneki being a couple was valid before this change, now I honestly can’t stomach it. Like they were the kind of “both bisexual” m/f couple that we stan. No longer I guess.

She’s the most egregious example, but I’d also like to point out Juuzou, not everything they changed about him is bad, honestly we fucking stan his knife legs, but he’s kind of like a rip off L now? You got rid of his ~unhinged~, we do not stan. I’m on the fence about him bc i think that kind of is a valid transition to adulthood and I guess he’s grown up, but again, why change his fucking hair color? What is the explanation for this?

Also Hinami. I mean, I don’t really care about her a lot in general, but it’s weird to see her as like an adult when Ayato emo boy looks like exactly the fucking same and they’re like,,, supposedly the same age. 

There are definitely more I’m missing here. Honestly, Hide was valid. God him with his fucking burlap sack. With a fucking lenny face on it. I can’t with him. That’s so Hide. But there were some bad ones.

5. one hair color change was my limit, enough said

black white black and white black white more white god bitch get some variety

6. Showing me great new characters and then promptly ruining them

And you can tell this one’s about quinx squad, my favorite bastard children. God, I love them. They’re the only good things about Re other than Hide and Haise and like everything else, Ishida took them and went “what if i *guts*” god why. I love these kids with all my heart. Why. Why. Why did you do that to Mutsuki. Why as soon as Haise isn’t in the room they all get themselves tangled up with pedos. Why they gotta break up the squad. Why make all of them lose all the wholesomeness and lessons they learned from Haise. Why do you ruin them all with weird unreciprocated random crushes on each other when they’re like basically siblings. Why fuckinG KILL SHIRAZU HE IS THE APPOINTED CHIEF DUMBASS OF THE SQUAD WHY HIM. WHY. WITH SO LITTLE IMPACT. YOU COULD FUCKING MISS IT SO EASILY. THAT’S NOT RIGHT. AND KANEKI JUST FUCKING ABANDONS THEM BC HE HAS HIS MEMORIES AGAIN N O ? NO ACTUALLY NO.

7. the casual racism and sexism :)

i just :) can you stop having girls constantly bring themselves down for being female :) and making them be oversexualized, less full characters :) always in some way connected to a guy :) more weak and hurt more often :) my fucking god :) also yeah it’s way less prevalent but there were a few racist caricatures thrown in there for taste if you don’t know how to draw lips just don’t

8. Ishida being too much of a pissbaby for a real death scene

Basically: undermining the impact of “deaths” fom the first series while also randomly and badly killing off new characters. Oh that character that died in the original in a really cinematic way that made you cry and think about the meaning of life and how beautifully tragic this story was? Oh lol they’re not Actually dead. (x10) Doing that with Hide (at least in the manga, not the anime, god root A really did it with him but we’re not talking about that) was valid, seeing as I love him your honor and in the manga one of the lessons that his character hinges on was like in chapter 75 to live on instead of giving up even if it hurts and all that... (this is obviously kind of the opposite from root A where his character was like more about sacrificing for kaneki since kaneki had already done so much, i think both are valid but we’re Talking About The Manga) he was done well. That was right (even though i think they should have done More of it) but there were so many characters this kind of thing was done to without the proper adjustment in the handling of the messages given here. 

Like with Koma and Irimi, who,,, honestly should have stayed dead because their entire character arc kinda ended there and showed how they were sorry for their actions and this was how they were making it up. And then they just like... come back. And fight more. Really? This wasn’t the only instance either, same deal with Shinohara (though him coming back made me cry) it like, kind of undermines it if you’re going to have Juuzou derive his character development from that. Either Juuzou gets to keep his unhinged and his dad, or he loses his dad for real and he also grows up. God guys choose. What’s the message you’re playing here. (at least they kept Yoshimura dead, his death made me cry and I would have stabbed something if it wasn’t real, probably Ishida.) And even with Kaneki himself, god, if he can’t die from being stabbed straight through the fucking eye, what COULD kill him? It really diminishes the anxiety you feel about “omg is this person gonna die i want them to be ok” if they basically evade the laws of physics and their own previous character arcs 70 times. I’m definitely forgetting more of the same, Ishida can’t write a good death, he needed the anime writers to do it for him.

9. Kaneki. Just. Kaneki. 

God they fucking butchered this man. I could go on about his character is weird and confusing in the manga from the beginning, but we’re focusing on mostly all his weird :re character development, the bad handling of Haise and his memories, and all his iterations.

Before I read :re, what I could glean from fanart and the occasional fic that wasn’t tagged properly was really confusing and kind of a mixed bag. I knew Haise was Kaneki but without his memories, now in the ccg trying to be a pacifist and going :DDDDD a lot yknow. And what I came up with in my own mind for that change was a deal of (this makes more sense with the anime canon tbh, the manga honestly doesn’t do any of this well) like Kaneki after The Shit Went Down With Hide (whichever canon you’d like to interpret that as) he basically realized that he really couldn’t be a ghoul, he didn’t want to be, he didn’t want to hurt people and he wanted to be happy and make other people happy instead of what he thought was right before (trying to fight to protect others on his own etc) because that mentality had gotten people he loved hurt, and well subconsciously I guess that kind of factored into his development into Haise and maybe caused his memory loss (along with the, yknow, shanked eye.) So when I started to read it that kind of checked out, this is what he’s trying so hard to be now. But then this whole bullshit of the whole other like, 37 different versions of kaneki complicated things. 

Haise was scared that when he got his memories back he would cease to be, well, Haise, and he would just like revert back to what he was before everything. Which I can understand him being scared of and I think was a good point in the plot for him to worry about that, but I was like “oh honey don’t worry that’s not how it works” and was kind of vying for him to eventually get his memories back, come to terms with the fact that those were his memories, he did do those things, he was half a ghoul, and maybe come back to his original fight of wanting to bring the humans and ghouls together, still caring about his human people in the ccg and all. That development was real, and it wouldn’t just go away if he got his memories back, he learned a lot and grew a lot and he has a different outlook on life now. Right?

Fucking wrong I guess. Dude gets his memories back (very ambiguously, it was really hard to tell when that even happened tbh) and like. Turns into a flaming ass looking like ebony darkness dementia raven way. Haise gone. Fucking completely. No trace left. Doesn’t care about his kids anymore. When he’s done with that and goes white again he’s just Kaneki again and there’s really not enough left of things that like, really wouldn’t go away? He loses the flair? The dumbass? The :D? The Extra? WHY? Why would those things go away? Haise shouldn’t have been right that he would disappear when he got back his memories. That killed me. I love Kaneki and all but H a i s e. He is my b o y. H i m. With his e n e r g y  s h o r t s. And his m o m. And his c o o k i n g. And his k i d s, I l o v e him. And Ishida doesn’t seem to realize that they’re... literally the same person. Haise isn’t just some stupid bastard occupying Kaneki’s body, he’s a valid part of Kaneki himself and to be honest, peak Kaneki. Should have stayed that way. Would have been great for Hide tbh. Not just having him pretty much revert to his old self, but basically respond equally to both names and balance the world between human and ghoul. I would have loved that. What happened for real? It doesn’t make sense and it breaks my heart.

Some people on the interwebz try to kind of even that whole deal out by trying to say he like, has DID, which although is obviously a valid thing, like, so does not apply to him. God I’m like so not an expert on this but I feel like it’s not that hard to tell. His 87 little Kanekis in his head aren’t separate personas, they’re metaphorical representations of his past morals, experiences, and ideologies that all conflict. Again Haise here is peak conflict because when he gets his memories back, he has all these different conflicting ideas that were all previously separate. They’re all him. Tortured Kaneki constantly yelling at him in Jason’s chamber is basically again, a metaphor for how he’s denying his ghoulhood and the trauma that he’s been dealt. It’s not that this dude still exists just the way he is ready to show up at any moment lmao. Ishida kind of dealt with that badly too because Haise really said

after his memories happened so I can see why people might, but it’s... not right, and it’s Ishida’s fault about that which is Incorrect

Also just blanket statement, black reaper Kaneki? Fuck him and all he stands for. 0% valid. I can excuse literally every other version of him. But wh y. God he leaves the room and Urie starts misusing his power and getting groomed by a pedo, Saiko is just, left behind and sad, Mutsuki gets captured by a perv and mentally destroyed again, Shirazu dies and the bitch is like like “lol it’s your fault” yeah helpful, die

10. P- the- the porn chapter-

Idk about you but that was so fucking unecessary??? Not even going off of how terribly awkward and weird it was to have it there when the opening was “i’m sad about my best friend who’s gonna get executed what do you do when you’re sad about your best friend” “i simply do not think of him or i might actually just curl up and die” “yo lmao same” “wanna fuck” Like ok um I’m biased bc i’m not straight but I like, really hated that. Even just flipping through the pages as fast as I could to get to the end of it like. God. It’s not a fucking hentai. I’m here for the plot. If you’re not gonna release the director’s cut of kaneki fucking voring hide, i don’t think i need to see 20 pages of straight fucking sex. And if you absolutely must have porn, kaneki is a fucking bottom. That man gets pegged do not try to prove otherwise. You started it out that way god I love how they’re like “oh god wait that looks kind of gay, the woman being dominant, better stop that right now” god Ishida not having a single iota of knowlege about his own characters aND THEN SHE GETS PREGNANT? NO. Excuse me. No. I just. I. Why. This isn’t. A fucking porno. This isn’t tentacle porn i swear oh my god kill me

11. Giving the wrong characters attention

Basically, redeeming characters that should have been redeemed and not going into/discussing characters that should have been redeemed/had more backstory. For example, Tsukiyama can go fucking die. I like, do not even care rich boy. I don’t understand how anyone could think he needed to be redeemed he’s just a gay attention whore who really needs to let this kid get on with his merry fucking life. I don’t care. I literally did not need to read three whole books about his dumbass hangup over eating Kaneki. Kaneki doesn’t fucking want you bitch move on. He didn’t need to be redeemed or seen to be in any way sympathetic, no one wanted it. Same with that bitch ass Furuta, he wasn’t really redeemed but he was given w a y too much time to play out his sob story. God man Rize doesn’t fucking want you. These gross ass simps. I swear.

On the other hand, I kind of liked Eto even though she’s a pile of shit, and I got mad when they didn’t really go into much about her. And you know who could have gotten much more screen time/development? TOUKA. God, I love her and she was just sitting around in the background being straight. Let her have some spicy development. Also obviously, Hide. He was... so underappreciated and underexplained? What happened with him? He didn’t just pick himself off the ground in the sewers and go ‘well i’d better get back to the ccg now’ we have a whole two years which are completely unexplained, most of which he was off mysteriously being involved in things but completely missing the eye of Haise and other major players. Where tf was he? How did he get around? What was he even doing??? I wanna know about that! Not all the characters I hate’s tragic backstories that make me feel 0% more sympathetic towards them :)

12. ARE WE ALL JUST GONNA COLLECTIVELY IGNORE THE WHOLE VORE THING???

Ok like i know i say “the entire reason I read :re was __” but like to be honest this was the turning point, I saw pictures of hide’s vore face and went like

So I was like “god fucking damn it ok, Ishida would you care to explain this to me” *cracks open re*

And then they DIDN’T.

Like. It’s actually laughable how much that entire situation was just glossed over. They gave that maybe like two pages. Like what. I. This manga has more sex scene than no homoing that. They just don’t even bother to. I feel like Ishida had that as a plot point but realized halfway in how it looked (i.e., really fucking gay) and decided that was something that he was just gonna, not deal with. Just act like that’s a completely normal heterosexual bro thing to do. Like of course anywhere would be pretty gay but Kaneki chose his face. His face. Like his face and his wholeass neck and his shoulders and nowhere else. (and assumedly like, his tongue, seeing as how the dude can’t talk... bruh) Dude really said extreme hickey. French kiss to the max. Ishida clearly did realize that generally, you can only get a bitten off face by,,, having your face bitten off, which is just inherently really fucking gay. Like, I’m just at a loss as to how it even makes sense. You wouldn’t think that the skin off his face, and specifically around his mouth, would really be the most nutritious thing to consume? I can get like the shoulders but generally you’d think something like his arm or leg would be 1.less inconvenient, and 2.much more logical and nutritious? But NO, Kaneki was like “you know what i’m gonna do? eat your Face” and hide’s like “lmao sounds cool”

(not to mention, wasn’t there another guy with a vore face somewhere? like that old guy in the ccg with the bigass turtleneck, i wanna know about him) But like... my bro Ishida went “yeah this happened but i’m going to cover it up with speech bubbles and the ends of panels guys they clearly had their socks on” Dude didn’t even TRY to explain otherwise. Like hey man, that’s pretty damn gay, you are kind of at liberty to either tell me why otherwise, or accept those implications and acknowledge them?? It’s really hilarious when you ignore it cause it’s like

kind of

pretty damn

WEAK of you to leave it at that fucking pissbaby

hmmmmmmmmm however could this happen i guess we’ll never know

13. What the fuck was even the plot omg

God I’ve been writing this post for like five hours so like, I’ll keep it short but like it made sense in the original, not to be like an anime fan but the anime made fucking sense (not re i mean like the original) this lore is so fucking stupid god, the horrors of the entire fucking dragon arc bleach my eyes, unresolved plotlines who???? (the whole ‘oh yeah also ur dying of old age’ thing etc, is kaneki like??? still doing that?? or was that randomly resolved with the whole spewing ovary bullshit i’m going to fucking kill myself) and to top it off, good job Ishida at a real fucking cheap ending. 

You gave them. Fake human. Really? They just come up with artificial human at the end. Kind of undermines the entire fucking story my guy. Ah yes throw out our whole plot. That was the whole tragedy. You gotta eat human. The ghouls have to eat human and that’s tragic bc they have to kill people or whatever. Or i guess they fucking don’t well fucking ok. God you could have just had them negotiate a kind of peace where the ghouls can get dead humans and such, there are plenty of them and no one has to kill anyone then, there could be a rule system for it, it would be messy but eventually everyone would be ok with it, and I think that would work a lot better than “quick fix i made some hamburger helper human you can eat it fine” guys wtf. It’s like Ishida started plotting out the ending for re approximately 2 hours before his deadline. Anyway yes I hate re and I love yelling about it thank you for coming to my ted talk.

[yunsoh]

could u rank aaaall the characters u can think of from fave to least fave?

i won’t do every single one because there’s literally too many characters in this series but i’ll rank the ones that i have opinions about;

1. yuki -- a shocker i know but it cannot be helped. he’s been my favorite since day one. hands down my favorite character arc in the story, i think it’s just so impactful not just for a romance series but for a story so focused on cyclical trauma. he’s a cryptic little weirdo but he’s also just like..... achingly normal and relatable. (i mean........ isn’t that just his whole character development......). big romantic, so kind and genuinely good but also he’s a big bastard and i love that for him. his and tohru’s relationship? his development surrounding it?? the best of the best. just standout to me. mwah. absolutely iconic.

2. kakeru -- for a character i didn’t even remember when i went back to reread the series a few years ago he is like....... quite literally on the brain all the time now lmfao. technical-wise i think he stands as a really interesting juxtaposition to our main trio in the sense that he has the qualities they initially lack, but he struggles with and has to actively work on aspects that are very inherent to all three of them. he just holds a unique perspective that i appreciate, esp since it’s so critical to challenging yuki’s. vibes-wise i think he’s both interestingly complicated and a fucking fool. absolutely lame and refuses to acknowledge it. love him.

3. machi -- the ways in which my opinion about her character have changed over the past year....... okay so if we’re talking like, strictly canon machi i don’t think she would be this high up (still top 10 probably) but considering the mental energy i’ve put into reconsidering her character & story and just like.... the fact that i think about her as much as i do..... i kind of can’t not have her up here lmfao. idk i think she had a lot of potential that got dropped in canon which is a shame, but i think i’ve talked that point to death so. anyways. i do just love her. she just has those vibes you know. no bullshit, secretly rabid, depressed & doing her best. yeah. takaya nerfed her because she realized she would just end up giving her the same gay subtext she gave yuki and u know how she feels about that.

4. haru -- god what is there not to love abt him. i think he makes me laugh the most throughout the series but he’s also sooo fucking intense at times it’s sick. especially since he usually stands as a chill and grounded point while everyone else is going crazy..... again just immaculate vibes. just so much love in his heart. like he genuinely just wants people to be happy and having a good time. i do also wish his character/issues were explored a little more (maybe in lieu of characters who like.... didn’t really need a character arc lmao) but it’s not a dealbreaker. boy rlly almost exposed the sohmas to the whole school though huh.

5. kyo -- he’s actually somewhat tied with tohru but i think he has just an edge above her for me because he’s such a grouch LMAO. idk there’s just something about how he’s very prickly but suuuch a softie and romantic under it all that just gets me. in a weird way though, he ticks a lot of my boxes but isn’t exactly a character that i’m strongly drawn to? i like him, but i don’t really reread his chapters/rewatch his eps. something about him doesn’t click exactly right for me..... maybe bc his story is strictly romance-focused (and honestly tends towards the melodramatic that i’m a bit ‘hm’ about). that said he lucked out with getting a satisfying ending to his arc and he’s made me cry at least once so gg. 

6. tohru -- every time i think about her i’m just like. can we pleeeeease get this girl a therapist. yes they all need therapy but like..... hello can someone help..... anyways she’s just so lovingly made and i think her progression is super super well done. how her issues and grief manifest and really take form in the series over time is just...... oog...... it’s just perfect. i really appreciate that we get to see a character who is stereotypically feminine and mother-like actually struggle under those traits, but doesn’t abandon them once she overcomes her issues. she’s not a go-to character for me like, personality-wise ig (again.... melodrama....) but i do love her. icon.

7. uo -- back in middle school i think she was actually my favorite character after yuki.... and tbh is it such a coincidence that i couldn’t remember the second half of the series when i visited it again in my 20s lmaoooo. first-half series uo is just so fresh. i love that people find her threatening and yet she’s just this chill harsh-mouth who’s also incredibly tender-hearted and vulnerable. just genuinely funny and insightful every time she’s on the page. her friendship with kyo is also pretty standout to me it makes me laugh every time, and ofc her love for tohru... well u know. meanwhile second-half series uo um.... who’s that lol..... she only takes a place above hana here because i have really affectionate memories about just loving & admiring her when i was younger. 

8. hana -- more or less tied with uo. she’s a constant mood and i love her for it. i guess i could say “second-half hana idk her” here too, but that’s just more because she just literally drops off the face of the earth after a certain point. but whatever, i love that she walks around with psychic powers and everyone knows it but it’s never questioned because everyone is just so fuckin weird it doesn’t matter. takes no shit, could kill you without leaving evidence. vibes. i also think her backstory is really beautiful and her relationship with tohru is just gorgeous. just a perfect support character.

9. shigure -- okay he actually also used to be a fave back in the day. i think he’s just fun to think about...... his perspective and his purpose in the story is pretty fascinating and i think it’s one that you gain new insight on with each reread. he just stews in this incredibly morally grey area and that’s where he stays. truly a character that you either love or you loathe. i mean at the heart of things he’s a conniving bastard who has fuckin problems LMAO but he’s also just so.... aggravatingly lackadaisical when he’s not actively being a shit-stirrer.... just “cause problems on purpose & chill” energy. ends justify the means to the bitter core. problematique. his story w akito is fucking batshit and the series wouldn’t be the same without it, the energy of that with the rest of the story?? what the fuck dude. meanwhile i do love his relationships with the main trio & the other sohma kids.

10. ayame -- king.... he’s just 110% all the time and i think that his existence is just the most exquisite dunk on his family’s rigid upholding of conservatism and tradition it’s truly sexy of him. he does what he wants and tbh, it’s worked in his favor for the most part. when he’s on screen you know some stupid shit is about to go down. and of course i really love his and yuki’s relationship and how it impacts them both over the series...... good shit rlly. a fabulous menace.

11. kimi -- she’s literally just up here because she’s goddamn funny and i love her relationships with kakeru and yuki. no deep traumatic lore just a girl owning the fact that she’s cute smart as hell and knows how to get what she wants. a brat to the core. idk she’s just pure fun and i think that’s necessary in a story where even the designated clown characters (kakeru, ayame) have fairly dark moments. also i think about the “his wallet 💖” moment too often.

12. komaki -- okay. so. she is not this high up on the list because of who she is in canon. she’s this high up purely because of how i’ve recreated her in my brain lmfao. i think she’s borderline unnecessary in canon (i like that we see the other side of the accident, but the execution of it is just. not it.), but my extensive daydream universe where i just overload her with headcanons to give her any sort of character beyond “kakeru’s cute girlfriend” lands her up here. i also just think of her too much as an extension of thinking about kakeru too much. sue me.

13. momiji -- honestly i’m having kind of a hard time placing him because i do like him, i think he’s funny and sweet and of course has his own brand of issues going on, but...... i don’t think i have any strong feelings about his story? i think he brings a necessary lightness to the cast, but when it comes down to some individual aspects of his narrative (involving his mom/momo, his unrequited crush on tohru) ...hm.... i think his complicated feelings about the curse are really poignant though and that part of his story especially slaps for me.

14. akito -- hmm... hm.... i like how akito stands as tohru’s narrative foil and i think the parallels between the two are pretty rich...... but i really struggle with just how fucking exhausting she is lmfao. the lengths of her derangement are just 2 much for me personally, and i feel like the ending really failed her as far as her personal growth goes (which? i think is super fucking detrimental considering how takaya tries to portray her as like, “reformed” or something along those lines.... i just don’t buy it. her having a normal functioning relationship with SHIGURE??? lmaoooooo. please). i do appreciate the level of darkness she brings to the story, and how her behaviors form and completely fuck the family over, but...... i don’t necessarily enjoy her........ tiring queen.

15. rin -- ah... tragic, vitriolic goth.... i do like her, and i think i could place her above akito depending on the day, but her story doesn’t really stand out to me. like, it’s obviously incredibly sad, but it’s really unfortunate that we don’t see her develop in a way that actually..... you know.... develops her character.... idk it sucks that she’s written in a way where she’s fruitlessly sacrificing herself mentally and physically for haru and there’s never really a point where it feels like she can just relax and consider herself and her own needs (or even like. like herself). she starts and ends the story feeling completely broken from trauma and i just think there should have been more of an intervening point somewhere in there, which i think could have been achieved with more time between her and tohru. as is she’s just kind of all-around tragic which :’/ bummer. she deserved more growth.

16. mayu -- honestly i still don’t really get why she of all of the characters has a backstory chapter. i think her friendship with kana is pretty heartbreaking but it also doesn’t... do much for me.... after the fact... so i don’t know what to think about it. her crush on hatori is kind of weird and i don’t fully understand it in canon. but you know what. she’s funny and i like her attitude. for the most part, i like when she’s on-screen. i think she has a really funny relationship with her students and is this chill no-bullshit kind of figure. her friendship with the mabudachi boys is nice even though i think it’s delivered a little weird at times (which is more or less because it can be easy to forget that she. knows them lmfao). yeah. i like her but takaya really made some decisions with her huh. also i originally didn’t add her to this list but i’m just sticking her in here last second so yes there’s a note in hatori’s bit that doesn’t make sense now but it’s staying.

17. kyoko -- so i kind of have some blasé feelings about kyoko, except when it comes to her backstory, in which case i am just... upset lmfao..... the adult version we see of kyoko is sweet and at times like, pretty funny in just how blunt/harsh she can come across as, but in general my feelings about the parents in furuba are just like.... oh you’re a nice parent.... oh you’re a fucking horrible parent..... etc. you know? it’s usually pretty one or the other (some parents are a little more complicated than others -- tbh kakeru’s mom comes to mind), and she’s obviously portrayed as a good parent, esp since we see her primarily through memory. anyways, her backstory is just tragic. she went from one abusive situation to the next and was then left to be a single mom at like, 19/20, traumatized and with just about no support system, and while i understand that she was able to become the kyoko we see in the present because of tohru.... idk i think i still feel a kind of unresolved dissonance between backstory kyoko and the kyoko we see later on. and i think that largely has to do with the fact that we (purposefully) don’t see the parent’s perspectives -- so she ends up in this transitory stage. i have no idea how this would be resolved lmao i think it just is what it is.

18. hatori -- i’m also struggling to place him because i think he’s sooo so poignant in the beginning of the story but i don’t really pay much attention to him later on. which is a shame considering his introduction is to me the first real punch to the gut regarding just how deep the issues go with the sohmas. i don’t feel inclined to really think of him very often, but i just think there could have been more done for him. i think trying to tie up his issues with a romance just doesn’t really work and is also irrelevant to his? actual problems? (also sorry i’m just remembering that this is another symptom of takaya pulling another wacky coincidence maam they don’t all have to know each other i repeat they don’t all have to fucking know each other--) anyways i feel like his resolution wrt his issues with his family/the curse is kinda.... glossed over..... unless i’m just completely forgetting something. 

19. hiro -- i used to hate this kid. straight up. now i think he’s just like.... a typical smart-mouth 12 year old...... so he’s alright lmfao. i think his relationship with rin is interesting but it’s pretty forgettable. i don’t really care about his relationship with kisa or the parallel it makes with kyoru, but i do like the scene where he tells her about his curse breaking. he does mature in a nice way over the series. oh and the panel of him holding his sister makes me cry idk dudes. alright maybe i’ll place him above kagura just on that right alone.

20. kagura -- do i feel justified putting her this far down on the list? i dunno. her relationship with kyo isn’t my favorite (i just find it obnoxious) but i think she’s pretty funny and cute otherwise..... thing is kyo takes up like 95% of her story so there isn’t much otherwise 2 speak of. really wish her relationship with rin could have been explored more tbh i think that could have had potential. honestly my feelings about her change with the phases of the moon so while i don’t care much about her right now two weeks from now i’ll probably feel more inclined to bump her up to the momiji-rin range. which i feel like says enough about her character for me lmfao.

21. kisa -- she’s alright? i think she’s cute but she doesn’t really do much for me after her intro chapters (which. i only like so much bc they’re a big part of yuki’s narrative tbh). yeah. honestly not much to say about her :( 

22. ritsu -- sighs.... man...... ritsu could have just been so much more but canon doesn’t give us much and i really don’t think about them otherwise. like truly they just completely disappear for the whole meat of the story LMAO...... what the fuck..... 

23.  nao -- he’s not so far down at the bottom because i hate him, he only has this placement because you could literally take him out of the story and i wouldn’t fucking notice lmao. i never think about him and i don’t rlly want to. next.

24. kureno -- uuuugh uuuughhhhhhh. the wasted potential of this fucking guy. would it have been so hard to drop the creepy romance plotline and just put more effort into his story regarding his place in the family....... his symbolism...... fuck even just giving him a personality. ugh. honestly i think we could have benefitted from a pov chapter from him to get a better sense of all of this instead of just extrapolating but. alas. looking at him gives me the residual taste of cardboard and regret. i had actually originally placed him above both nao and ritsu because at least he gives me something to think about, but it didn’t feel right. i actively dislike seeing this dude because i just know that his storyline is fucked from start to finish -- not in a narrative way like akito or rin, but in a way that just gives me the impression that his character was never 100% there. all this drama over a man who only wears button-ups and khakis. despicable.

25. katsuya -- yeah i know boring typical answer and surprise to no one but there is just nothing redeemable about this dude to me. i won’t lie, i think i would consider his character differently if the narrative had any intention whatsoever to condemn him, but obviously that doesn’t happen so here we are. anyways tohru baby you were right to dislike him just like...... lean a little more into it yknow........ yeah. i considered maybe not putting him on here because of my general attitude about the furuba parents but the fact that the story tries to paint him in a positive light just makes kyoko’s backstory borderline unbearable to read. bad.

[callioope]

HEY GUYS! I watched the livestream of Rogue One with writers Gary Whitta and Chris Weitz. I took notes. Because that’s what I DO. I jotted down some of my takeaways. Please note I was watching RO, watching the stream, taking notes, and also doing a few other things so these MAY NOT BE PERFECT. Please feel free to correct me if you see something I misrepresented. That said I tried to be accurate. 

YES they DO TALK ABOUT the romantic chemistry between Jyn & Cassian but that is literally at the end, but feel free to peruse the rest of the points because there’s some pretty interesting insights (some good and some bad O_O like Cassian’s original storyline, yuck)

ANYWAYS let’s go

Inglourious Bastards inspired the Lah’mu scene (Gary Whitta wrote this scene, although he admitted it changed a lot but a lot of the structure and ideas stayed in)

In the original version of the script, Lyra was a Jedi in hiding, but this was one of the first things that got killed

Mads thinks he plays a bad guy, but Gary thinks he played a good guy

They talked about how Galen originally wanted to use kyber crystals for energy, but it got weaponized (which is talked about Catalyst)

stormtrooper doll is a gareth edwards touch

idea was that there’d be good people on the Imperial side and bad people on the rebel side

Cassian’s first scene on the Rings of Kafrene was written by Tony Gilroy (who wasn’t present in the stream) later. In the earlier versions, the DS is something that Jyn goes and finds. It was much more like Zero Dark Thirty where she was putting together the clues, and it was a battle for Jyn to get the rebels to take it seriously, but that was too much of a slow burn. So the Tivik scene was to replace that and introduce the idea that Cassian can be dark. Everyone admired Diego’s beautiful bit of acting as he's just lost a little bit of his soul in the fight for justice, the morality is the first victim. It’s very subtle but it’s one of Gary’s fave pieces of acting in the movie

Chris said for awhile they had Ord Mandell, then shifted to the notion of something more like in Casablanca, so a bit of a flavor of that, a part of the Empire that has been taken over that is under violent oversight

Gary said in the original, Jyn went to Ord Mantell (mentioned in Empire?) to find an arms dealer to help her find Saw, then went to another planet where Saw was living on a moon called Yarid

Budget realities played a part in the decision making to scale this back; they wanted to put so much more but just couldn’t fit it in

Originally we were supposed to see the rebels evacuate Dantooine and move to Yavin 4, but it didn’t really accomplish anything in the story accept to nod to SW fans. It didn’t move the story forward and would have cost too much

It was Tony Gilroy writing with Jyn getting freed on Wobani. Some original ideas had toyed with possibilities that she was a deserter or Rey-like scavenger, but obviously you can’t do that once you learn what the the Empire does (chris)

Only time they didn’t use a title card was Mustafar bc they wanted fans to go OH SHIT IT'S MUSTAFAR, also worked bc Mustafar would have been one of those off-the-map planets

Gary was responsible for getting Mothma in the movie

How much did the Yavin 4 briefing get worked on? A lot. sort of inspired by a scene from Apocalypse Now.

“I think this movie really beautifully bridges the gap between the original and prequel” and one of the ways it does that is JIMMY SMITS

Lots of gushing over Yavin. “Gareth just shot the shit out of this movie.” so much praise for Gareth’s vision. “Gareth can compose a shot unlike anyone I know.”

The Yavin 4 set was fully contiguous; you could walk from the inside all the way outside in one continuous shot.

K-2SO is a great example of how one character can have many fathers. John Knoll originally came up with him and he was originally a rebel logistics droid envisioned to be a “black C-3PO” (whatever that was supposed to mean - Gary wasn’t sure). Gary proposed that he could be an Imperial droid that was captured by the rebellion and reprogrammed. K-2 was really limited with what he could do working for the Empire, but once he was liberated, he was going to speak his mind. Chris and Tony and Alan all gave him more life, everyone has a little piece of K-2′s parentage.

Only ever one casting choice for Saw, which was Forest Whitaker. Gary also knew Ben Mendelsohn would be cast as krennic, but no one else was cast at that point -- he knew it was down to 3 choices for Jyn, but wouldn’t say who

Chris brought Bodhi into the story (Gary said so but Chris wasn’t sure)

For Tarkin, they took shots from the ANH and unused takes. There was also a mold of Peter Cushing that had been sitting in a prop shop for decades (I didn’t get what movie it was, something where he needed a large prosthetic eye or something), and they scanned that.

Binoculars that Jyn and Cassian look through on Jedha were inspired from the scene in ANH (like when luke looks through them on Tatooine)

Chris was responsible for Jedha, Temple of the Whills, and Chirrut’s connection to the Force. And Bor Gullet, I think. They said Bor Gullet delights in traumatic memories (more delicious to him). There was a cut idea/scene: Bor Gullet made Jyn trade her traumatic memories for information she wanted.

They talked about the two dudes Jyn runs into that are also in ANH and how they survived the destruction of jedha only to get killed by a Jedi the next day - they must have needed to get a drink at a cantina after narrowly leaving Jedha. Puts their presence at the cantina in a new light.

Screenwriters would tell you this [Jyn saving the girl on Jedha] is a classic “save the cat moment” so that we like that character that otherwise we might not -- like jyn [RUDE, but I think they were joking]  [also i took beginner screenwriting in college and YES the “save the cat moment” was like lesson 1 lol

They wanted this war to look like a proper war, and [Jedha] really looks like something you might see happen. Wanted people to feel like it wasn’t just about stormtroopers hassling the guy on the street corner but there were real lives at stake

Commentary on Jyn’s Awesome Fight Scene: this is the first moment Cassian really realizes that Jyn is no one to be messed with 

They guessed that Tony came up with the K-2 gag after Jyn’s fight sequence

Lots of good commentary here about how action scenes need to serve a purpose, they can’t just be fighting: they gotta reveal character and story -- don’t write the specifics of the fight, but write what the action is supposed to mean, let choreographers make it look good

Chris said Gareth kind of requested a character like Chirrut, and Chris had been messing around with a Force priest and they became the same guy. Baze was originally a murderer and criminal, and Chirrut was his confessor figure, and they had a weird codependent relationship in which Malbus would commit crimes and Chirrut would forgive him for it. But in this they are both Guardians of Whills. Baze saving Chirrut reminds Gary of Indiana Jones shooting the guy with the sword. Good example of action sequence having a purpose: showing Chirrut & Baze’s dynamic

Coming up with names in SW -- no real formula, you just know it when you hear it

Lots of freedom to come up with new stuff as long as it doesn’t grossly violate canon. Two Tubes was Tony Gilroy or maybe someone just before him

Allegedly Bib Fortuna’s cousin is in scene at catacombs

Someone wanted a Tusken Raider to leave Tatooine to be one of the rebels, but that was vetoed bc they don’t leave Tatooine

“you don’t want every star wars movie to feel like a remix of your greatest hits” - gary [me: LMAOOOO not everyone got that memo!!!]

Guardians of the Whills: Chris said when he came on board, he wanted to go into some deep George Lucas stuff so he looked at the OG screenplay of SW which is pretty “cuckoo bananas” but it’s unfilmable because it’s so gigantic. but there were so many cool things in it. Originally the Force was known as “The Force of Others" by Lucas so he had Chirrut often referring to it as such

There had to be physical tapes because that’s what was mentioned in ANH. Similarly, Tarkin said it was the first time they destroyed a planet in ANH, so they had to do a smaller test that didn’t conflict with canon but we still get to see the DS do it’s thing

Gary said he got sick of everyone on the internet saying “If the empire’s so smart how come--” so he wanted to make it happen for a reason

Chris said - John Knoll, who apparently has some kind of engineering background, said a project the size of the DS, there’d be hundreds of flaws that would bring down the station. Gary responded - it makes sense that there would be a flaw, but it’s more interesting if the flaw would be there deliberately

They went back to the idea that SW was a fairytale and “only one key that the lock fits in in a fairy tale”

They talked a bit about the “nerdy stuff” and technical details, like how fast does a Star Destroyer go, how fast is travel through hyperspace,” but they were pretty insistent that Star Destroyers go at the speed of narrative. Hyperspace moves at the speed of plot. They don’t think about the gritty details. Story always wins. You try to hide those bits. If tech stuff comes into conflict with story, the story has to win. If you can make it work great, but story should win otherwise. [MY TAKE: I think it’s lazy and you might as well try to make it work if you can, BUT I agree that it shouldn’t necessarily hang up the process, per se.]

They talked about Jyn & Co witnessing the test on Jedha and how it’s important that Jyn & Co witnessed the terrifying destructive power of this weapon, so they know better than anyone how important it is to stop this thing

They said Saw always died in the weapon test. Originally it was on a different moon, but always planned for him to die like that.

Gary mentioned in ANH, there’s more than one empty chair in the DS conference room, but Gary wished there had been only one chair so it could have been Krennic’s specifically and he wasn’t in it.

The idea was that Mothma and other Generals were desperately trying to avoid a war and trying to find a political solution to this crisis, but Palpatine is stringing them along long enough for the DS to be ready. So the Rebels have been strung along and played for fools by Palpatine, but once we realize the Empire has built a genocide weapon, the Rebels finally wake up to the idea that the only solution now is war. Empire has forced our hand. the movie is about the idea that tyrannical regimes always fall bc they go too far and they do something so terrible that people are forced to stand up and fight back. If the empire had never built the DS, Gary thinks they could have won the war and ground the Rebellion down. but bc they got greedy they forced the entire galaxy to take the war seriously, so the DS was really the Empire’s undoing

The Rebellion was like the equivalent of the Second Continental Congress, with squabbling factions and not able to get anything done, and the Empire was able to win in the beginning bc they are authoritarian, unified top down

Gary came up with Eadu, but it was originally in the first act. The whole movie got restructured. Originally they went to Eadu very early and discovered they were building the giant dish for the DS. That was the first scene that Jyn had the clue that the Empire was building something terrible. Later it became less a place where the dish was built and more just where they were harvesting and refining the kyber crystals.

It was originally Saw’s X-Wings that attacked Eadu

“rain = mood” idk who said it but that line popped

originally there were local people called Eadui who told story how facility had poisoned rivers and valleys and farmland. Gary wanted to put a face on the crimes the Empire had committed

Mads doesn’t believe that what Galen did absolves him

In Gary’s version, Krennic came to inspect final version of the dish

Cassian was always meant to be compromised in both Gary and Chris’s versions. He was a double agent: for a long time, he was working for the Empire. Chris added: he had lost people who had been killed by Saw Gerrera, and all he wanted from the Empire was the go ahead to kill Saw rather than Galen. That transmogrified along the lines post-Chris and post-Gary into a rebel intelligence officer who had done terrible things. In the original idea, he changes heart after seeing the Death Star bc it wasn’t what he signed up for, and he had to win back Jyn’s heart bc that DS reveal happens after his double agent ness is revealed.

In the original, Jyn actually gets Galen back to the rebel base, but he’s beyond saving, but his whole speech he gives Jyn in his last moments happened in a medbay

They talked about the score instead of the awesome fight scene after Eadu so BOOO on that. I mean yes the score is brilliant but still I wanted insight into this scene.

I blanked out a little because I was mad they didn’t talk about the Eadu fight scene argh

They were talking about Krennic standing his ground against Vader. and then someone said it was probably something among the Imperial officers that “you haven’t really made it until you’ve been choked by Vader.” O_o sorry we could be talking about Jyn and Cassian DAMNIT

the debate scene on Yavin 4 was recontextualized. always this idea that the rebellion is not one monolithic entity, it’s a collection of worlds all of whom have own leaders and own opinions. rebellion historically messier because it’s democratic and harder to get things done. 

briefly toyed with a Leia appearance (chris) at the big conference scene, but best for Jyn to give the most rousing speech here. 

Who wrote the hanger speech? Spirit of it might be Chris’, but Chris thinks it’s Tony Gilroy. Big difference from version Gary wrote: Jyn convinced the rebels. But he thought it was cool now that Jyn goes rogue and it’s only when Mothma finds out she’s committed to that that she makes the decision to back her up. But in the original she convinced Mothma, and everyone got around the table and said here’s the plan. Chris thinks it was in one of his drafts that they went off on their own. 

in Gary’s version Jyn was Rogue Leader. 

Chris had grunts complaining all the flyboys create dramatic names for their squadrons but that got nixed

Gary had idea that K-2 had scraped off his markings but had to have them painted back on to go to Scarif and K-2 hated it

Mothma talking to Bail is one scene that survived word for word form Gary’s original script

They talked a little bit about the decision to have the characters die, but I was drafting a question and missed it

They talked about how they came up with Scarif and decided to make it tropical -- what sort of place hasn’t been seen before? sort of coming from production and gareth. but also building these places to fulfill the needs of the story -- like building a walkway that only one person can get across

a lot of extras in Scarif were real ex-military, and Gary said a couple of the X-Wing pilots were real-life RAF tornado pilots

didn’t have Blue Squadron in the ANH bc it interfered with the blue screen

Gareth said “give me a mon calamari that looks like churchill’ and that’s Raddus

Chris and Tony killed pretty much everybody. Sounds like Gary just killed K-2? Unclear bc I missed the main part of that when they were talkinga bout it.

They commented on how RO is one of the darkest tonally movies but also so colorful, beautiful blue sky

They wanted to pay tribute to Battle of Endor

they couldn’t remember who was responsible for ‘stardust’ but it wasn’t gary or chris

who’s idea was it to cut off the “I’ve got a bad idea about this”? gary had a different version of it, Jyn said “I've got a good feeling about this” (which ultimately got used in Solo) 

Someone asked about the footage in trailer that wasn’t in the movie: Chris heard on good authority that the TIE fighter in front of Jyn was actually never intended to be used, was always a trailer-specific moment. he said he didn’t know how she would have gotten out of that one. k-2 died on the beach. chris wasn’t sure but as the scenes get cut together in production and post, the narrative necessities can change bc of logistical needs. but some shots were so cool they were perfect for trailers. Some talk on how trailers and movies are very different things in general.

Gary said originally there were two separate facilities on Scarif: vault and comm tower were separated by stretch of beach. so needed to liberate plans from vault and get across beach to tower. as they looked at what they had, there were too many moving parts and they wanted to simplify, so they put vault and tower in same complex.

did they ever consider letting Chirrut pull the lever using the force? NOPE. 

“I am one with the Force and the Force is with me” was Chris. it goes on, it’s supposed to be like a psalm for Jedi, but eh wanted a sort of lord’s prayer type of thing. 

HELL YES someone asked about the romance between Cassian and Jyn! Was there any romantic potential in any script? YES!!! they said!! yes!!! And Chris said he wouldn’t be surprised if a kiss was shot either! 

BUT they went on to say they wanted to side-step the trope that every male and female hero have to be involved.

But clear GARY said yes early on, there was definitely romantic chemistry that got scaled back to a mutual respect, but they’ve obviously grown close. Gary doesn’t think there was anything romantic and they said people found that refreshing. ‘what they’ve been through is the meaningful part” and “‘the stuff that is happening around them is too important" and “it speaks to their character that they wouldn’t let that intrude”

someone said it was like they were walking into a sunset but it was a mushroom cloud and THEN someone QUIPPED that it was sorta like the sunset walking into them RUDE

There was more after that but that was pretty exhausting to keep up with!!!! so i’m wiped. anyone else get any fun takeaways that I missed?

[thejudgingtrash]

You know those Estelle child of Poseidon/Neptune aus and such? I feel like those are just a more accepted version of the trend of oc Poseidon/Neptune kids. bc since now folks like to discount those ocs as cringe 2012 shit but now Estelle is a canon vehicle for Percy sibling dynamic funsies, people wanna project it on her instead bc ocs have been deemed cringe. Personally, I love both cringey ocs and demigod Estelle, but I can’t help but think that’s what’s happened, you know? Just random thought

No, I absolutely think it makes sense what you’re saying. I’m guilty of that “another sibling of Poseidon/Neptune” or “Estelle as a child of Poseidon” wave because it’s fun and a mostly harmless headcanon. Also, the fanfics we used to read back in those days? Rough, my friend, completely rough.

Personally, I do think that the way Estelle was brought up set her up to fail.

It’s just not believable to me that Percy would have a sibling all of a sudden. Not only that, but a sibling with an incredibly large age difference. Percy could technically be her father age wise. That much of an age difference. The minute Percy moves out they’d probably see each other realistically on birthdays and holidays, so not that often. That hinders a deep sibling bond (and Sally having a free babysitter I guess). What’s a college kid going to do with a kid that isn’t his? Hit up the clubs and leave her there? Nah.

Estelle is not a character, she’s a plot device which could be easily discarded. She’s nothing more than background information which doesn’t even bring that much to the plot. I have seen posts from bipercabeth, blackjacktheboss and others touch on that topic but I don’t really think people dove that much into Estelle and mostly made their points about Sally, which is fine and makes sense as the only true connection we have to Estelle as a “character” is through her mother.

Estelle’s essentially Riordan‘s OOC OCand completely unnecessary? There is no need for her. If you’d scratch her out of the PJO universe would that leave any sort of dent? No. Even that wacko and “Camp Jupiter’s version of Jeffree Star” Octavian has a larger significance (regardless whether you hate him or not) than Estelle. And yes, I do believe that many people use her as a projection punching bag. We don’t know anything about her apart from the fact that she Naruto ran out of Sally’s vajoochie, so there’s really not much essence to her, but there’s so much people could just pile onto her. I’m interested to see if there’s going to be a little bit more info about her in the Tower of Nero (or a standalone novel), but I doubt it.

I think the factor that Riordan as a white Christian male wanted to portray the fantasy of the perfect happy family that rose from the ashes comes into play. We’ve seen Sally and Percy growing up in disfunctioning partially abusive households which bonded them together as Riordan decided “as a making up gift” to give Sally a harmless husband for a change who she’s marrying after only two goddamn years (also here’s my old Paul rant for free if you’re interested!). The problem is - it’s so incredibly rushed and sidelined it really doesn’t make that much sense to me? Sally got barely any rest with Percy. He had a strong demigod scent which made monsters chase him since he had been a toddler and things only got worse once he became a pre-teen to a full blown teenager. Sally has been through hell and above and then her son goes missing and she’s pretty much getting pregnant around that time or a little bit after? I know people call Sally strong and all of that blablablabla. But... there’s no need to rush with further family planning in the context of the plot? Isn’t she like in her mid-thirties? So yeah, she could still pop out a kid or two, but damn sis. Relax for a bit, will ya? Cooch won’t run away.

Pregnancy, giving birth, babies and having/raising children is not as fun and sweet and cute as romanticized Hollywood movies are trying to sell you (and that’s coming from someone who actually likes kids). Screaming, all kinds of gross fluids, being tired and sore from giving birth, close childcare for the first two years and I don’t know what Paul’s family is looking like - Sally has no one apart from her adult son who is trying to manage his own life and wants to grow into adulthood. It could be overwhelming. While I don’t think money would be the issue it’s just that the bond between Percy and Estelle that would probably not be as close-knit as some people headcanon it. Especially if the former leaves for college.

The only way I could see Estelle work as a character would be if the Heroes of Olympus or the Trials of Apollo saga would be rewritten. It would make more sense if Estelle is a child of Poseidon/Neptune with no association to Percy. That would mean that one of the two series (or both) would have to be pushed further into the future as while Poseidon said/joked about unleashing his inner whore after The Last Olympian, it would still take a while (at least a decade) for Estelle to grow and move into either camp. That would automatically mean that Percy is an adult in his late twenties at the bare minimum (but we know Riordan, he refuses to age his characters and he refuses to dive into YA, which is his right, but trying a continuation with the same rules doesn’t always work out in your favor, Slicky Rick). Still means that there’s not much of a bond for Estelle and him. But it would make her appearance... more realistically?

Additionally, if people are against the thought of demigod!Estelle, they should be against Estelle entirely as a sibling because why are people thinking that Percy near her toddler ass wouldn't put her into danger? Unless there’s next to no sibling relationship of course. But that would be probably also not the way most people would love to paint the narration. Can’t please everyone. But please people. Try to enjoy your headcanons. They can be fun and nonsensical or on the more realistic side.

PS: Estelle’s also a kinda funky fugly name. I thought she was named after her maternal grandmother who was named Laura? Then again, could also be her paternal grandmother’s name but I don’t know?

[memoriashell]

hey i really like you ( can we go out? )

Characters /  Pairing: Fukawa Touko / Naegi Komaru, techincally some background Ishimaru / Oowada, Makoto gets a few lines, and Syo’s present for a bit in the begining.

crossposted on ao3

Notes: hello here's your late day five of @tokomaruweek​ week!! valentine's day prompt!!

the format for the texting section might look a little funky on tumblr since there’s no easy way of aligning right side / left side text but hopefully it’s obvious enough who’s texting what.

heads up i'll be skipping day 6 for now probably! i’ll come back to it when i’ve finished the rest of the week, i just might get stuck on it for a hot minute and i’d like to get the rest of the week out of the way first since i'm already behind.

anyways it's probably also noteworthy to mention that this drabble works on the basis you have a basic understanding of the cultural differences in how japan celebrates valentine's day. i was originally going to try and incorporate white day into this drabble instead of just mentioning it but i wasn’t super happy with how this one was turning out anyways and figured it was best to just get this out as it is!!

i also feel like i should clarify bc that i realize the way i characterize toko in everything this week has made it seems like she hates kiyotaka’s guts but honestly i think they’d be real close!! i really like them as two outsider kids who can relate to each other. they are two sides of the same narrative coin and in this essay i will /j anyways please understand she rags on him from a place of ( platonic ) LOVE. and also bc they r both my cc’s i could never be that mean to either of them. well. no meaner than canon is to them.

edit: forgot tws. nothing super huge bc it's mostly fluff, but it does refrence bullying ( although would you consider faked love confessions / etc as bullying? it's just cruel :( anyways. )

Summary:  valentine's day has never been good for ugly girls ( and hopeless romantics ) like her. 

Valentine's Day. Every girl’s least favorite day.

Or, well, at the very least, her least favorite. Uh, one of her least favorite holidays? Then again, it’s not like Touko really has a ‘favorite’ in the first place, so maybe her point is moot— but she’s getting side tracked here.

One would presume that a romantic like her, an author who writes romance for a living, would live for a holiday that's practically centered around love and romance, but they would be wrong. It’s a miserable reminder of a day for her who has practically been scorned by the idea of relationships. It is a bitter reminder of failed loves and societal norms that she’s never been able to meet.

( Ugly. Rude. Awkward. Unsociable. So what if they’re right? Who is she to tell them they’re wrong? )

If it is not for the fact that she is pretty sure Ishimaru will be at her door if she doesn’t show up, she would probably skip class today. Oh, to be a confident gay man on Valentine's Day and not a closeted lesbian who feels the need to meet heteronormative societal norms. It’s unfair because not only is he ( mostly ) unaffected by this kind of holiday, he’s probably one of the people who care the least about the delicate social intricacies ( and romanticism ) of a holiday like this one. If nothing else, so she can’t say she envies the position this puts Oowada in, because Ishimaru would probably just see this as a learning moment. Anyways before she sounds too envious of her peers for getting their shit together, she just wants it to be unknown that she thinks it’s really unfair that he would get to judge her reasons for wanting to skip school.

( Actually, if she fessed up the deep-seated issues related to why she’d rather not have to be present on a day like today, the last thing he’d do it judge but that’s not really something she wants to acknowledge right now )

Moving on.

Despite the fact that, internally, she is making a fuss about a holiday, she suspects that most of her class probably doesn’t really care about these things. That doesn't mean she feels any less pressured to conform. It’s not like any of them would want chocolates from someone like her anyways, so it’s not like she really needs to be worried...

It’s not the end of the world, stop being such a debbie downer! Syo butts in, ever so helpful. By which she means is very, very unwanted and unhelpful. All the same, they ( unfortunately ) have a point and if she has to put up with this shitty day then at the very least she’d like to have breakfast before someone sees fit to break down her door.

You technically don’t have to do anything. Syo sounds almost too enthusiastic to help with the ‘issue’ at hand.

Using you to escape my problems isn’t always a viable strategy. Touko rebukes. Nor is it a choice, usually.

Only because you try and make yourself as miserable as possible by making things worse for you.

She has nothing to say to that, and instead focuses on braiding her hair to be passably presentable.

“Fukawa-san?” Oh, what she wouldn’t give to not have to hear her name today. Granted, Touko doesn’t think hearing her name being called on any given day is usually a good sign, but it still feels too early in the day to willingly put up with anything and shoots a glare at Naegi, standing in front of her desk. It probably doesn’t help that he sounds nervous for some godforsaken reason, but that’s technically not out of the ordinary, and she’s pretty sure Syo has something to do with that. “Sorry, uh...I was going to try and catch you at your locker this morning, but I guess I must’ve missed you, huh?”

She gives him the most deadpan, withering stare she can muster at the moment as if to say obviously. She’d even turned up to class early because she figured that dealing with whoever else would be in class would be more manageable than having to deal with anything going on in the halls ( because Hope’s Peak is not a normal school and god knows if something can go wrong, it will, and she is not having any of it today ). She assumed that if she looked busy, anyone with any common sense would leave her alone, but Makoto is not the brightest, clearly.

It still kind of throws her for a loop, however, that he chooses to approach her today, of all days. If she were anyone else, or if this exchange happened in any other context, she is sure that him acting like this on Valentine's Day would seem like it was setting up for a love confession. If it weren’t for the fact that Naegi already had a partner so, that’s probably not an issue— not that that would be a theoretical issue, because hey it’s not like Naegi was likely to be the kind of person cruel enough to fake a love confession. That’s definitely not something that’s happened to Touko before and gotten her hopes up only to be horribly crushed and definitely not the reason she’s been particularly defensive today. Nope.

( Yeah, okay, she’s not fooling anyone, but thankfully the only one aware of this is herself. And Syo, but both of these things are clear givens )

It occurs to her that Naegi hasn’t said anything, waiting for her to say something to him, and she grits her teeth irritably. “Wh-What? Spit it out already.”

“Err...are you...” He starts to say something and then seems to think better of it, sheepishly ducking his head for a moment before holding a bag out to her. “Sorry. Komaru asked me to bring these to you. Kirigiri-san had to convince her to not try and sneak into the main building just to bring these to you herself.”

It takes a long minute for her to process what he says before snatching the bag from his grip and holding it close to herself. Friendship chocolates...? That’s probably what’s in the bag. Which is a pretty nice thought in itself— Touko doesn’t usually get gifts like this. It almost makes her not want to touch the bag and ruin the illusion, refrain from eat whatever’s in the bag: but honestly if she doesn’t, Syo will probably make sure to savor it, so she won’t even pretend like that’s an option.

( There’s a part of her that feels a little guilty too, that she hadn’t even considered that Komaru might do something like this and have something prepared for her in return, but if she’d made something and not gotten anything then she’d look like a fool, and it’s not like she would’ve been able to get it to her easily anyways, so she really shouldn’t feel guilty about accepting it, but— )

“I’m glad you like it. She was kind of worried about how you’d take it.” Naegi speaking breaks through her current train of thought and is he still standing here? Had she been stupidly smiling to herself? How embarrassing!

“It’s n-n-not like that...and what kind of person do, do you take me for, anyways...!” Well, if she had been showing any sort of positive emotion on her face, she isn’t anymore. Touko takes this as an opportunity to shove the bag into her book bag, before anyone can notice. For some reason, he looks vaguely disappointed. “I was...ugh, I was just th-thinking that it was surprising she’d trust you with it given the, the track record with how your l-luck turns out!”

Makoto opens his mouth to refute this but thank god someone calls his name from the doorway, and she takes that opportunity goes back to her books before he can try and say anything further to her.

touko-chan!!!!

makoto said he gave you my gift successfully so i know u got it

i think

i didn’t expect u to thank me or anything but it’d be nice

pls tell me u got it right

did u at least read the note i left in there for u

Does Komaru not have homework, or what? She could at least give her a few minutes to try and get a word in. It’s not her fault math is a bitch and Touko is too stubborn to maybe talk to one of her peers into explaining the subject to her.

                                                     Yes, by some miracle I did manage to get it.

                                                                                                             Thanks.

                                                                                        You’re a good friend.

                                                                                                               Sorry.

                                                                                         Is that all? I’m busy.

That is not all, apparently, because Komaru forgoes texting to call her directly. If it were anyone else, she’d ignore it; but since it’s her she figures she can probably talk and do math at the same time.

“So you didn’t check the bag at all?” Komaru speaks before she can even consider greeting her, and Touko rolls her eyes despite the fact that she cannot see it.

“Hello to y-you too. Uh…honestly, I shoved it in my bag earlier and...and haven’t checked on it since. I assumed it was j-j-just candy, and it’s probably safer hid from Syo there.”

“Ugh! I told Makoto to mention to you that I put something else in there. And there’s a box for Syo in there too!” She can practically hear her pouting through the phone line. “Well, uh— I guess that’s fine since you’re busy...? Just check it when you get the chance, okay? Please? I promise it’ll make sense.”

“I got it, I got it. I’ll take a break once I finish this up and check it out. Good enough for you?”

“Mhm! Thank you Touko-chan! I’ll let you go now, so you can focus. Bye!” If Touko wasn’t mistaken ( but probably is ), she sounded almost nervous, the way her words come out in one rushed breath.

Admittedly, now she’s too intrigued by whatever had Komaru pressed enough to make sure she was aware of it, and she doesn’t think she’ll be able to focus now, so...opening the bag it is. She grumbles and groans to herself for a moment, stretching as she gets up from her desk to grab her bag.

She hadn’t really noticed at the time, but now that she thinks about it, there’s some definite weight to this thing, more than she’d expect from some candies ( even now knowing that apparently Komaru had accounted for Syo as well ). Not much though, and she probably would’ve just passed it off for the box the sweet is stored in if she were to really think about it, but now she figures that’s probably not the case. Touko peeks inside the bag a little hesitantly— curiosity wins out over anxiety in the end, and spots what appears to be a small booklet along with a box of chocolates.

Oh god.

She braces herself because, this is probably some kind of manga if she knows Komaru and ( unfortunately ) not a mini-novella but otherwise has no idea what to expect. And once she opens it, she has to thank whatever higher being made sure Makoto didn’t say a thing to her about it because there’s absolutely no way she would have been able to keep a straight face if she’d looked at this in class.

One, she forgot how generally talented Komaru was at this type of stuff. Obviously, still room for improvement, but not nearly as bad as Touko would have thought. Two, this is not really a manga, but a fucking thinly veiled love confession, complete with the most casual ‘Hey I really like you, can we go out?’ Third, she’s extremely glad Komaru did not insist on being on the phone while she checked this out because she does not think she can coherently answer that right now.

In fact, it takes Touko a good half hour to calm herself down enough before she can even consider texting her a response. There’s no way she’s embarrassing herself any further by calling her about it, even if that might have been a more meaningful exchange, but like Komaru just confessed to her through manga so clearly they’re already past that point.

                                                                                                     You’re a dork.

                                           I hate that you’re using your talents for this though.

:)

thats not a no?

                                                                                                          Not a yes.

                         Very tempted to make it a no for making me suffer through this.

touko-chan;;;;;

be gentle to my poor heart if ur gonna reject me :(

                                                                                              Ugh. I was kidding.

                                                                                                      Yes you idiot.

                                                    Just don’t use manga for this stuff next time?

ok!!!!! :)

actually i promise nothing

lol sorry ♡

                                                                                                  You’re the worst.

hehehehehe >:)

i love you too!!

are you busy this week??

let’s meet up!!!

                                             Some of us care about our grades. As should you.

                                                            But Thursday and Friday are lighter days.

                                                                      Yeah yeah. I like you or something.

thank uuuuu ♡♡♡

She chews on her lip as she rereads the message and mulls over it as she tries to ignore the flip-flop of her stomach. It’ll be fine. She’ll just aim to have something planned out for White Day in return.

[ziracona]

T-The gang playing Among Us? Oh!? That's chaos I'd love to know more of!

They had a lot of legendary matches, but the three best were with Dwight and Jake as imposters, Quentin and Jane as imposters, and Jake and David as imposters.

So, Quentin and Jane get imposter pretty early. Jane is competitive, and does a great job. Pulls off some legendary kills with lights off in the middle of a group. Quentin and she tag team well, and provide alibis a few times without being suspicious. Gets down to him and Jane still alive, four crewmembers left. Crewmembers have lost three and ejected one, and know they’re in deep. One more kill will probably lose them the game. Claudette, Nea, Adam, and Jeff are still up. Meg ejected, David, Susie, and Min killed. Claudette is off with Quentin for repairs. Jane kills Nea across the ship. Nobody has found the body/reported, but he knows that she went with Nea and wants to get one and have him kill another, and Jane works fast so he knows it’s probably already happened, and as soon as he kills her He kills it’s game. But when they’re pairing off in chat no one wants to go with Claudette bc she found two of the bodies and has been alone a lot, so he volunteered too be nice,’ but jokingly was like “You’re not gonna kill me though, right?” And she was like “No! Of course. I’m not an imposter, and even if I was, you offered to come with me even though it was risky so I wouldn’t be a sitting duck alone. I’d never kill you. : )” and the guilt is so real. She’s just happily bouncing alongside walking to a dark corner to repair a sabotage, totally security, total faith in him. Philip has been banned from Among Us because when they played Mafia he sold out his team because he didn’t want to kill Claudette and Quentin knows the stakes but he can’t take it. Is super ready and in position to off her, but. :’-] She’s so trusting. She was like “if one of the others pops up and comes at us, you run away and I’ll slow them down, so you have time to report and call in who it was and can save the others. You died last round and I didn’t so you should get to make it this time if one of us can’t!” And Jeff walked past a doorway while they were walking and she ran out in front of him just in case and he can’t do it. Gets her to come with him and runs off and bc she trusts him she follows. They book all the way to Nea’s body, which Quentin knew would be there, and Quentin reports, goes “I’m an imposter and Jane’s the other one I can’t do it just kill us” and throws the match. Jane is furious, then decides it’s actually hilarious and doesn’t mind. Quentin has to go sit the next six matches out in the shame corner with Philip, though, but Claudette is happy. Until she gets super tunneled for like six matches back to back.

Jake and David get imposter while Quentin is still in the banned corner. They have an agressive strategy that causes so much constant pandemonium it’s really hard to think. It’s going great—Susie, Nea, and Dwight dead. Forced all votes to a pass becuase no one knew shit, except one time, which bumped off an incredulous Adam. Kate, Laurie, Min, and Meg still up. They see Kate and Laurie off near each other, go to kill both. Laurie dies, and Kate sees Jake coming, connects two dots, and books. Runs for where Laurie was last. David is on cooldown and can’t touch her. Makes it to Laurie’s body right before Jake is in range, fkn by the skin of her teeth, reports body, screams to the chat it was David and Jake. David and Jake are like “she’s flipping out becuase we saw her kill Laurie” and Kate is like “Listen to me. We’re down to three. One more dies, it’s all over. If we vote off Jake, and one of us can hit the emergency meeting button right after, we win. We’re at the table, it hasn’t been used. If not we dont do this, and pass a vote, or vote the wrong person, or anything, we die. Min you know it’s not me. I don’t have an alibi but you were railing on me for being a predictable imposter when we were a team, becuase I killed the people who trusted me last. You know I’d never kill Laurie before Jake.” And Min’s like “Damn she makes a good point 🤔” & Meg is like “Mmm and if Jake and David were together when she made the call, then if Kate is an imposter, it can’t be either of them. Becuase they’d have just killed the other and won if it was Kate and one of them. So that would mean it’s me or Min and her, and it’s not me, and it’s not Min. Because Nea died right after Susie, and Min would have either killed Nea first or last for the drama and maybe not at all, and I am not killing my girl like that. So it’s not us. So it can’t be Kate. So it’s Jake and David.” And they vote off Jake and it’s a “who can slam a button first” contest the second the meeting ends, but Min gets lucky and is immediately able to call a meeting before David can even kill another and they get David too, and win.

The Dwight and Jake match was second to last one, and they’d both had failed turns as imposters before, and some quite frustrating, and during a snack break together were like “Ok if it’s ever us, here’s the plan.” Keep not getting picked together though. Claudette is frustrated to tears because after Quentin gave up for her, people keep killing her, and last match she got voted off when she knew who the killer was, and she is sad because no one listened /and/ they killed her. Gets imposter and tries really hard, but gets unlucky and kills like right when someone is checking cameras and it’s legit just bad luck, but gets teased and is not happy about it. Jake and Dwight are like, ‘Hey. So you’re annoyed too right? What do you say to being in on our plan. We could pull off the /ultimate/ scam. If we ever get picked.’ And she’s like “I don’t know I don’t want to play sneaky...” but then she gets killed first by Nea, again, like, 13 seconds in, and is like >:-[ “ok yes I want to scam.” So they hash out a plan. And then? Second to last round? They finally get imposter and the boys are like 😏.

So. Dwight and Jake do the totally normal seeming little pre-determined movement that is code to Claudette it’s them and it’s game time. Dwight and Claudette go to the same area, Dwight kills her, Jake sees him, immediately reports. Avenges Claudette and outs him, Dwight is ejected as imposter. Acts betrayed by Jake for not covering and Jake is like “I’m a boyfriend, but I draw the line at murder” and they hold character really wells Survivors feeling great. Round one seems to be a big win. It ain’t. It’s a trap. From here on, Dwight causes basically /all/ sabotages, step by step doing it where some teammate went solo as a ghost imposter, or near where Jake sneaks off to kill someone, but is careful to make sure he gets clear. They get doors shut, lights out, it’s executed to perfection. Whoever dies is usually a person who walked off with someone else, or Jake has an alibi, and he’s never near the issues. Always with someone except the very first time there’s a sabotage. Also, he’s out there doing Crewmate tasks, which have /always/ been done like he says, which he shouldn’t be able to do as an imposter, but people see him. So? And he kills Nea, Laurie finds and reports, Meg is voted off. One imposter left, five Crewmates: Laurie, Quentin (finally allowed back in), Jeff, Kate, and Min. Kate is killed, Quentin finds and reports. They pass on a vote becuase numbers are dwindling and they just don’t know, but Laurie hella suspects Jake. Says “I think you voted off Dwight to make yourself look innocent.” Jake is like “I swear to god, I can prove it. I have been doing my tasks—Jeff, you were with me! You saw!” And Jeff is like “I wasn’t paying a bunch of attention but I think he’s telling the truth. I’m pretty sure I saw him using the canons—like 90%.” So they pass on a vote. At Laurie’s insistence, though, they go in a group and Jake is like “watch. Could an imposter do /this/?” And does a Crewmate task. Bodyscans himself for all the world to see. Only, he doesn’t. Claudette’s ghost does, like she has been. But uh. Since none of them can /see/ it. 😏 And Laurie is like “Well shoot. I thought I was onto something.” Min finds that sus, and when Jeff turns up dead a little bit later, convinces the others to vote off Laurie. Leaving her, Quentin, and Jake. And Jake immediately kills her, leaving Quentin up per Claudette’s request, and snags a win that makes everyone lose their mind until it is explained how they did it. The trio could not be more smug. Claudette feels a little bad because they kiiinda cheated? Technically broke no rules, but, it was a dick move. But Min is like “Nah if I died first for six rounds in a row and then the one time I saw a murder my team voted me off, and proceeded to have the gall to ignore my good intel and lose, I too would have totally done that” and she feels better. Jake has 0 regrets and neither does Dwight period. Last round is just a normal chill one, and less memorable, but that second to last lives on in infamy. Also makes people super suspicious forever about what they can trust as proof of crewmate. Jake loves the legacy. 😏 Dream-team trio really did that.

[immortalbeigewizard]

The Big RWBY explainer:

OK So I’m going to try to take the lore and worldbuilding in RWBY and make it more clear because the writers in the beginning weren’t great at explaining the technical fantasy stuff in RWBY and I’m going to try to make a concise post that doesn’t spoil much. Although I’ll say right now spoiler warning for World of Remnant and some things in RWBY volumes 1&2.

Table of Contents:

1Geography, Kingdoms, the world, and political climate

2 history, faunus, and the mundane magic-y bits

3 grimm and huntsmen

4 meta stuff

1 The world:

So the land of RWBY is called the World of Remnant, that the “earth” that RWBY is in. 

It contains 4 “kingdoms” along with settlements outside of those kingdoms. I use kingdom in quotes bc kingdom is a bit of a misnomer because they’re more like city-states and don’t occupy too much land on their respective continents.  Each kingdom is on a different continent. 

One more thing: yes the moon is shattered (It wasn’t in the Red trailer because I think they added it later, but it is shattered) (they explain why later, but I’m not going to)

The Kingdom of Vale:

This kingdom contains the huntsman schools 

Signal: which is like a school for younger kids, we know that Yang graduated from Signal to go to Beacon

Beacon: the main school where the show takes place, the first year students start (usually) at age 17 (however they haven’t said how many years of school a huntsman has to go through until they graduate). It is located decently close to the city of Vale ( the only surviving city of the kingdom).

The city of Vale has a kind of contemporary/fantasy America feel to it (more in that it doesn’t scream any other culture than that it is trying to be American). 

The Kingdom of Mistral:

This kingdom has the huntsman school Haven which is a school that functions like Beacon and Sanctum which functions like Signal.

Mistral is on the largest continent and is said to frequently have bandit problems. They have a very east Asian feel to the kingdom in its architecture, clothes, and food. 

This kingdom has 2 cities Mistral and Argus. Haven is in Mistral (the city) and Sanctum is in Argus. 

Mistral has a bit of a tense relationship with the next kingdom, Atlas because of the complicated agreement with Argus. (If i say anymore it's a vol 6 spoiler so I’ll stop here).

The Kingdom of Atlas: 

The kingdom of Atlas has 2 cities, Atlas and Mantle. This is the only kingdom that has a military ( the other 3 don’t) and it also has its huntsman academies function as military academies. It’s very European in design, imperial European . This kingdom is on the tipping point of starting a war, and has peace on a razor’s edge. They have 1 known huntsman academy in Atlas.

Atlas used to be called the kingdom of Mantle, because Mantle used to be its capital ( look in the history section for an explanation).

The Kingdom of Vacuo:

This is the only kingdom that hasn’t shown up in the show yet, but it’s in the books. It’s a desert that has mostly migrating settlements. It’s government is a bit of a sham and the huntsman academy, Shade, is really in charge of keeping the peace. Atlas extracted many resources from Vacuo in the past in order to build its own kingdom, turning a lush jungle into a desert. More of a dangerous and unsafe place than Vale.

Other non kingdom places of note:

Vytal: An island off the coast of Vale, the treaty to end the Great War (see below) was signed here, and every 2 years the Vytal Festival takes place, a festival where cultures come together. Also students from the 4 elite huntsman schools (Beacon, Haven, Atlas,Shade) come together for a fun tournament. 

Menagerie: The island was given to the faunus (see below) as a sort of homeland for their contributions during The Great War, however many faunus see this as a slap in the face because the land is 2/3rds desert, leading to overcrowding in the inhabitable areas. 

Patch: A small island off the coast of Vale that Ruby and Yang live on. It is also where Signal is.

2 The History:

So this is going to talk about the history that the average citizen of Remnant would know and not the cool protagonist knowledge that team RWBY gets later.

The Great War: 

About 80 years before the start of the show the most memorable war apparently in the history of Remnant took place. The war starts like this: Political tensions were high, Vale and Vacuo were getting uncomfortable about Mantle and Mistral’s closeness, until one day Mantle decided to ban artistic expression and self expression. Mistral followed along as to not lose this alliance. Vale already wasn’t happy about how Mantle and Mistral treated their citizens, slavery included in that. But it wasn't until settlers from Mistral started fighting settlers from Vale on an unoccupied island that an actual war began. The TL;DR is that Mantle's ago was wounded so they still had a military, the other 3 kingdoms disbanded their militaries and set up huntsman academies, the in- canon reason everyone has a color name is because of the war (more on that in the meta section), this is the reason the Vytal festival exists, there is peace, they banned slavery, and the faunus rights movement starts soon after the war.

The Faunus: 

The faunus are a fantasy race of people that have an animal characteristic, like ears, tails, teeth, antlers, w/e

So the faunus are discriminated heavily (At least in the past, the only place in show present where there is still blatant discrimination would be Atlas/Mantle). The most common type of faunus would be mammal faunus (ex. cats, dogs, deer,) Some faunus are able to hide themselves in order to blend in with humans. The only faunus rights group mentioned in the show is the White Fang. They started off doing non violent actions like boycotts, but when their leader stepped down they became increasingly more violent. (This is actually explained decently well in the show so I’m going to leave it here because I’m trying to give the least amount of spoilers)

Aura:

Aura is a projection of one's soul. It sort of acts like a protective bubble, and functions like HP in a video game, you can’t get permanently injured (cuts, dismemberment ,die) if you have your aura up (the exception is in the white trailer because I don’t think they solidified this rule yet for the trailer). Your aura color is unique to the individual (or at least our main cast) and that is, essentially, your soul’s color. Not everyone has activated their aura (civilians and background characters) but if you have you may be able to access your Semblance.

Semblance:

It’s like your own personal superpower. Think like the X-men. Anyone can have any type of Semblance, but there are a few common varieties. Such as augmenters, cloners, and emitters, or absorbers. (these are all names I’ve come up with, but they kinda help make sense because RWBY has a lot of characters so you can’t remember everyones’ Semblances). Augmenters would be Semblances that change how much your body can do, like a speed enhancing Semblance. Cloners would be a Semblance that allows you to make copies of yourself ( or others). Emitters would be a Semblance that allows you to change the physical space, or someone's perception of physical space (ex. An illusion Semblance or a Magneto-style Semblance). And an absorber would be a Semblance that allowed you to absorb some kind of energy and redirect or use it in some way (like if there was a Semblance that allowed you to absorb damage and shoot it back at the person who fired). Again these are labels that I use and aren’t official, they just make it easier for me to remember because these are the most common types. (a quick clarification because I wasn’t sure if I said this already, but faunus have souls, they are able to produce an aura, and they can have a semblance, they are people. Aura = soul = people)

Dust:

So Aura and Semblances aren’t the only magic-y thing common in Remnant. The last thing on our list is Dust. Dust are magic crystals that contain elemental abilities( like how in the White trailer Weiss is able to strike the ground and summon ice). In RWBY these are most commonly seen as bright crystals and powder, but also are incorporated into the bullets the characters use (Any time a character shoots not a grenade or rocket launcher and there’s an explosion they were likely using combustion dust). This is most easily seen with Weiss because of how she uses dust. Dust can also be manipulated to make forms not found in nature (like fire or ice) into something like hard light dust (or it can make a force field). Dust can also be used in tandem with semblances (for example if there’s a cloner they may be able to make an exploding clone). It is also used for non combative reasons, such as running cars, trains, planes. Dust functions as the main source of power on Remnant everything from homes being heated with fire dust to machines being powered by electricity Dust. (The reason I refer to Aura, Semblances, and Dust as “magic-y” is because RWBY is very specific in saything they aren’t magic).

4 Grimm and Huntsman:

Grimm:

So, grimm are monsters made of darkness and shadow. They are basically just mindless hordes. They don’t eat, they aren’t animals, and they don’t really do much beyond wander around looking for humans (and faunus) to kill. They are drawn to negative human emotions, like fear, anger , and sadness. (that’s why Mistral and Mantle wanted to take away people’s expression, so they wouldn’t accidentally attract grimm(still not right tho)). Grimm are hunted and killed by Huntsman and Huntresses, people trained and taught how to fight and that’s their job. But the people of Remnant don’t know much about the origins or biology of grimm (I honestly think it's kinda like a virus thing where they aren’t alive but really look it and all they do is kill living things) Because they disappear after “death”. 

Huntsman and huntresses:

So, as I’ve kinda halfway explained throughout this thing; Huntsman and Huntresses are people who chose to (it's a trained profession) go out there and fight grimm, along with bandits and murderers or whatever (basically Remnant’s superheroes). They are trained at Huntsman academies, (listed above; Beacon, Haven, Atlas’, and Shade). They use their Aura and (usually) have access to a Semblance. Use Dust (usually) and are all around good people fighting for what's right (generally). 

5 Meta Stuff:

Alright this is where I put all of the stuff that isn’t canon to the world of Remnant, but is important to understand the story.

So, there are a few fairy tales that exist in Remnant that will come up in the story (You can easily find these online, RT published a book of them) One of them is a story about the gods of Remnant (the story itself doesn’t matter for my point) there are 2 of them and they are called The Brothers’ Grimm (Like the fairy tale writers) this is because every (important) character is an allusion to a fairy tale, mythological, or legendary figure.

For example, Ruby is Little Red Riding Hood. Some of them are obvious (ex Ruby) and some are not.

(I’ve noticed that there’s kind of a pattern; There’s characters who are just aesthetic allusions (ex Ruby) characters who are story allusions (spoiler Penny is Pinnochio), or characters who are both (Weiss and Blake), characters who have their own allusion, but pick up another due to their relationship with another character (Qrow and Raven), and characters who don’t look like they have an allusion, but theirs is revealed as a plot twist (I’m not giving an example here).

There’s stuff I’ve leaving out here that CRWBY doesn’t explain well right out of the gate, but this stuff is necessary in order to clearly understand at least volumes 1-2.

[fanfalc-616]

(Master of Emotion) Can you write a day off for ninjas and Nya (add both Pixal and Skylor) after hard work and it can help the ninja get to know each other better,especially Kai ( maybe spa day)?

Sorry this took so long, I wrote much more than I expected.

((I’m gonna place this after s7, bc I haven’t seen the end of the whole Oni thing. So I can’t put Pixal here like requested, sorry about that))

(((Watch me spend thirty minutes doing research so I can put in a minor character that’s technically canon.)))

Kai rolls his eyes as Jay starts complaining again. “I really don’t wanna go to the spa, I’m so close to finishing this invention-“

Cole shoves him playfully. “We’re already here, Sparky. I’m not exactly fond of the idea either, but I’m sure it won’t be that bad.”

“Skylor should be meeting us here...” Nya mutters, looking at her phone, starting to type something- likely a text message.

The six of them stand outside the Ninjago City Spa, and Kai feels himself internally dreading seeing Skylor. He had flirted with her in the past, but they never really went official- how could they have? Kai had realized he was in love with someone else, and now they haven’t really found closure from their kinda-relationship.

“Is everything alright?” Zane prompts, speaking in a low tone to avoid drawing more attention to them.

Kai internally groans as he realizes his clothes turned purple. Great.

“Everything’s fine.” He bites out. His clothes have started to shift more towards magenta, which is only a slight relief- it’s still obvious he’s worked up over something.

“Skylor!” Lloyd greets. He waves as the crimson-haired girl walks up. “Glad you could make it.”

“I wouldn’t miss it for the world. It’s been a while since I’ve seen you all!” Kai doesn’t miss how she’s looking at him when she speaks, and he internally complains about everything as he realizes his clothes are turning a darker shade of purple.

The others have started to notice the color change, and he can tell that Lloyd’s about to ask, so he speaks up first. “Let’s do this! Spa day!” He flashes a smile that probably would’ve been convincing if his actual emotions weren’t plastered all over him.

… sometimes Kai hates his powers. 

Without waiting for someone to call him out on his bullshit, he heads into the spa, walking up to the reception desk. 

The woman behind it stares, wide-eyed as she recognizes him. Which Kai probably should’ve been expecting, they all are pretty famous.

He flashes a charming grin. “Hi, I’ve got a reservation for…” He trails off, frowning. Glancing back at the others, who have now stepped inside, he gives a nervous laugh. “Who was the reservation under again?”

Zane walks up to the counter, and Kai internally curses, backing away. Of course it’s Zane. Of course it is.

He doesn’t have the mental energy to deal with his stupid emotions. Warily, he looks down at his outfit to make sure it’s not pink.

Oh, thank the First Spinjitzu Master. He knows that he’ll have to tell him eventually, but today is not that day.

“The reservation should be under Lloyd Garmadon.” The nindroid explains to the receptionist. 

Still clearly in shock, the woman- er, Cathy, as her name tag says- types something into the computer. 

“Uh, yes, you seven can sit down in the waiting room, you’ll be taken back shortly.” Cathy informs them.

“Thank you.” Zane smiles. 

So they all go back to the waiting room, and Kai makes sure to sit as far away from Skylor as possible.

And since he was so focused on being away from Skylor, he completely missed who he was actually sitting next to: Zane.

Look, it’s not that he’s avoiding him or anything, he’s just… uh… 

Yeah, okay, he’s avoiding him.

Quiet conversations start, the ninja all chatting with each other, and much to Kai’s chagrin, Zane tries to speak with him again.

“Are you sure everything is alright? You seem very tens-“

“I said I’m fine, okay?!” 

As soon as the words leave his mouth, he wishes he could take them back. He shouldn’t have snapped at Zane, he didn’t mean it!

He barely notices when his clothes start to turn shiny- but really, he should’ve paid more attention, because that’s the first sign of his embarrassment, and- 

And now he’s invisible. There’s surprise on everyone’s faces as he suddenly vanishes from sight, and he quietly groans.

Today’s spa day is off to a great start.

—————————

They all realize it as soon as they’re about to be led back into the actual spa.

Zane smiles. “It’s quite alright, I don’t mind. I can just wait out here-“

Nya shakes her head. “No! Zane, you need to come with us-“

“A spa day would not be as beneficial for me; I am not an organic life form. I can wait outside for your return.” 

What annoys Kai the most is how little Zane seems to be bothered by it. He just doesn’t seem to care that he can’t enjoy things like they can.

Kai narrows his eyes, cutting off Cole mid-sentence by stepping into Zane’s personal space and grabbing his arm.

“You can still feel things, right?”

Zane frowns. “Yes, but I don’t have skin or nails that would be affected the same way a human’s would-“

“Not what I’m asking.” Kai interjects. “You can feel things. Would the spa treatments feel nice?”

Zane seems uneasy. “I- I suppose, they most likely would be at least somewhat enjoyable to my sensors-“

“Good. You’re coming in with us.”

“But there is no purpose-“

“Yes there is! You’re always concerned about other people, take a damn break and let other people take care of you for once! You’re just as much a member of the team as the rest of us, and I shouldn’t have to tell you that!”

The room goes silent. Zane stares at him with wide eyes, and while Kai is aware that everyone else probably is too, he doesn’t care about them at the moment. 

Kai let’s go of Zane’s arm and takes a step back, closer to the actual entrance of the spa. “Well?” He demands.

The nindroid gives a small smile and nods.

Kai smiles back. 

And then he’s drawn back to reality by the woman taking them back to the spa. They all start chatting again, although a bit softer this time.

Jay tugs on his sleeve. “Hey, uh, Kai?” He speaks in a low tone. 

“What.” He really doesn’t want to listen to whatever rambles Jay has at the moment.

“You’re pink.”

Kai blinks and looks down at his outfit. Pink?! He’s fucking pink?!

Okay, okay, hopefully they’ll think it’s platonic, it can just be platonic, it’s fine-

He turns invisible again. 

God damn it.

—————————

Kai has to admit, maybe the spa thing wasn’t such a bad idea. 

The aloe vera face mask is pretty nice, and when it’s taken off, he thinks he looks pretty good. 

He also gets a sugar scrub, and then heads into the sauna. Luckily, it’s the seven of them- and just them, so there’s not any strangers.

“So Zane, how have you been doing?” Cole prompts.

Zane hesitates a moment, and then sighs. “They attempted to give me a deep tissue massage.” 

There’s a beat of silence. 

Then everyone starts laughing. 

“But you’re a nindroid! You don’t have muscles to be massaged!” Jay giggles.

“FSM, how long before they figured it out?” Lloyd snorts. 

Zane shifts some, and Kai glares at the others. How are they not realizing that it’s making him uncomfortable?!

“It took a few minutes.” The nindroid admits. “It was frustrating for the both of us.” His smile is strained, and it’s obvious that he’s covering up his emotions.

Obvious to Kai anyway.

Thankfully, the topic changes soon enough.

“Jay, what’s up with your nails?” Nya frowns.

The lightning master gives a nervous chuckle. “I liked the shade of blue.”

“They’re sparkly.” Cole adds with a mischievous grin.

Lloyd shakes his head with a smile. “I got mine done too.” He holds out his hands to show off the dark green with a swirly gold pattern. 

“Ooh, those are pretty.” Jay nods. “I thought about getting a lighter blue design on top.”

“To look like lightning? That would’ve been pretty cool. Why’d you decide against it?” Cole frowns.

So caught up in everything, Kai doesn’t notice Skylor coming over to sit next to him.

Shit.

“Kai, we need to talk.” Her voice is soft, clearly trying to avoid drawing attention to them.

“I’d rather not.” Kai chuckles nervously, the robe he’s wearing flickering over to a dark purple.

She shakes her head with a sad smile. “It’s Zane, isn’t it?”

Kai freezes, his eyes wide. Then he sighs, running a hand down his face. “That obvious, huh?”

Skylor laughs. “To everyone except for him.” She confirms.

A quiet groan escapes him. “I hate everything.”

She pauses a moment, and then sighs. “I wish you would’ve told me.”

“At that point, I was still figuring it out myself.” Kai admits sheepishly. 

“Even if our relationship was kind of complicated, I think we could still be friends.” Skylor smiles.

Kai smiles back. “Yeah, I’d like that.”

Much to his surprise, his outfit is now a light yellow. Happy. Huh.

While it started a little rocky, this spa day seems to have gone pretty well.

Kai looks back over to the others, and finds Zane watching him with a pained expression. But as soon as he turns around, the nindroid looks away and rejoins the others’ conversation.

Though he’s confused at that, Kai decides to join the chatter, and Skylor does too. 

By the time they leave the spa, Kai’s clothes are bright yellow. 

Today went well… 

But who knows what tomorrow will bring?

[locktobre]

You asked us to remind you that you wanted to make a post about Elina and the Summers 👀?- That PCS Anon

Oh boy I have a LOT to say, some of it actually involves Elina and some not but here we go.

Lately I’ve been feeling like I should maybe adjust Elina’s place in the Summers family, bc she... almost doesn’t have one. And a lot of that has to do with me feeling like she wouldn’t really like Earth, and since she’s pretty independent in the movies, I feel like she wouldn’t necessarily jump at the chance to get to know her biological family, especially since it involves a fair amount of travel on her part. At least to see Rip; Lucinda is a distance away, but at least she’s on the same planet.

I also don’t know how Elina would reconcile her parentage yet. I don’t want to get too far away from her canon characterization, of course, so it probably shouldn’t be too angsty... but it also can’t not affect her at all, and I don’t know where the middle ground is. So, there’s all that to figure out, and this really has to be decided before I can decide where (if anywhere) Elina really fits among her siblings. (And not really being involved is a valid choice, imo. I say this as someone with 4 estranged half-siblings myself lol.)

And that’s just where she begins. She can, and should, develop as time goes on. I’ve got stories for some of the Summers going out for decades, and regardless of what Elina decides when she’s 16, by the time she’s 92, she should probably be different. Otherwise she’s just a static character, and Elina grows a lot over just three movies (which at least one of the novelizations have within just a few months of each other), so the idea that she would never change over that long of a time is just absurd. But she’s so up in the air, I can’t really decide on an arc for her to have. It’s just a long, tedious process unfortunately bc it’s a lot of analysis to decide where she starts, and then where I want her to go.

One thing I do want Elina to do would happen when she was 33. See, for his 16th birthday, Rillian wants to visit Mermaidia. He’s really interested in mermaid history and wants to know what mermaids are like when they’re not from Earth, bc he’s heard stories but obviously never met any. Roxana wants to go too, but since she wants to become Queen of Oceana in a year and a half and that’s already a lot for her parents to process, she’s not about to piss Rip off by asking to traipse off to Mermaidia.

However, Rillian doesn’t have any such designs, so he’s ready to push the issue, and Rip is not happy.

Rip’s time in Fairytopia wasn’t... awful. It was interesting, of course; he saw a lot of things he couldn’t have imagined, and was very aware of his (probably) being the first human to ever do so. But he didn’t choose to go there, and he couldn’t leave, and the whole time he was there he was thinking about the fact that Merliah was growing up without her father (or maybe that she wasn’t, that something could have happened to her and he wasn’t there). So it was emotionally very taxing, and even 17 years after the fact, he really doesn’t want any of his family to go there. Even if it’s safe and there’s virtually no chance of them getting trapped like he did, he doesn’t want to take that risk.

Rillian’s aware of this, obviously. And he also knows that even if he’s technically an adult by mermaid standards, he’s still got 2 years left in his parents’ eyes before he can really go out and do whatever he wants. (Calissa is on Rip’s side as far as adulthood is concerned.) He could just wait 2 years and go and Rip couldn’t stop him, but frankly he doesn’t want to wait. He’s an impatient kid. So he calls in the big guns: Elina.

(Is this perhaps a shitty thing to do to your dad, knowing perfectly well how he feels? Yes. But he’s a kid and he’s going to try to get his way.)

Anyway, so then Elina shows up, and she’s very much on Rillian’s side. Fairytopia’s perfectly safe, or at least as safe as Earth is; as long as you don’t do anything stupid, you’ll probably be fine. And she’ll be there to show Rillian around on land, and she has mermaid friends that can show him around underwater. He won’t just be wandering around by himself somewhere where he could get into a dangerous situation. Elina knows about the 18 vs 16 thing, but she doesn’t really think it matters bc Rillian won’t be a kid forever, and would it really be better if he just goes in 2 years when you can’t stop him? He’s trying to work with you, he called me in here to argue for him, and that alone proves that he is taking this seriously.

At this point, Rip is very torn, bc they are technically making good points, but he’s still so anxious at thought of any of his family being there. (Including Elina, btw. But he didn’t meet her til she was already grown and she doesn’t like Earth and he couldn’t exactly tell her “abandon everything you know and come live with me, a stranger” so he’s just kept his mouth shut about it.) No amount of thinking about it being safe (even while he was there!) will really change the separation anxiety in the back of his head.

Calissa, for her part, has mostly sided with Rip bc she thinks that Rillian should wait and go on his own time. She’s not opposed to him going at all, and in fact she wants to visit Fairytopia one day herself, but she’s basically decided to wait until Rip is dead so he doesn’t have to think about it lol. (The perks of it basically being guaranteed that you’ll outlive your spouse, I guess. You can do whatever you want when they’re gone! Not that Rip would actively prevent Calissa from doing what she wanted, certainly not, but she knows how much it would kill him.) She knows Rillian won’t wait that long, but he could wait a few years more, like Roxana’s going to, since she also wants to go, but she’s gonna wait til she’s Queen and Rip can’t tell her no anymore.

But Rillian’s not the waiting type, and even if that’s a dick move, he feels like it’s also a dick move for Rip to not let him take a supervised trip to a place that he’s already been. Like, what if he wanted to go to Paris and stay with Alice for 2 weeks? Would that be fine? And if it is fine, then why not Elina in Fairytopia (and Mermaidia)? And what if I do wait 2 years and essentially go behind your back, do you really think that’s better?

Anyway, the discussion goes on for a long time, but eventually Rip agrees to a weekend trip, and if that goes well, they can think about more visits in the future. Rillian’s disappointed bc 2 days really isn’t that long, but he pushed it this far and knows to quit while he’s ahead, and he’s actually pretty far ahead. So that’s the story of how Rillian first visits Fairytopia and Mermaidia, with Elina chaperoning (and also Nori and Nalu, in the water). Big sister Elina to the rescue, for perhaps once in her life... or maybe not, depending where she ends up. But I do think that would be a significant moment, and Rillian would probably end up closer to her than anyone else bc of it. (“Closer” being a relative term, tho, no pun intended.) We’ll see.

The only other one I think of her getting close to, farther in the future, is Roxana’s daughter Ariella. Maybe. I’m still deciding what I want to do with her. But so far, that’s it. And I might keep it that way, bc Elina’s got her own thing going on and that’s fine, she doesn’t really have to be tied up with her family that she doesn’t really know just bc they share blood. If it happens, it happens, but if it doesn’t, she’ll just pop up occasionally when someone reaches out.

All my posts these days are rambles but I’m getting into the future parts of my barbieverse, which means I’m leaving canon behind so I have to decide everything and it takes me years to make decisions lmao

[edda-grenade]

yes hullo i'd like to hear more about feral verse it sounds G R E A T

@lesquatrechevrons replied to your photoset  “when you’ve just awoken from millennia of slumber and trying to figure…”

I am Delighted by this (as per usual, that art, her glee his ‘oh fuck but also cute but also no’ also she’s so Strok.  gold a++++) and I’d love to know more! Take this as a formal and kind request to see how you see All The Evens play out in this universe, plz *chinhands with starry eyes*                   

STRAP IN :DDD

the basic conceit of feral verse is, as mentioned, that a) solas wakes up like 16 years earlier than in canon, and b) saar’s family wasn’t attacked by an arvaarad troop when she was 17-ish, so she’s still with them by the time she’s 21

and then she finds this strange forest sprite of an elf who is capital W Weird but also A MAGE HOLY SHIT YES TEACH ME

(fun fact, solas goes from WHAT NO ABSOLUTELY NOT to ASK ME ANYTHING in the span of like 3 days. saar’s persistent. and, lbr, he’s drowning on his own)

so these are the big inciting incident changes, and everything else basically flows from there. solas gets progressively pulled into saar’s life despite his best efforts, her vashoth community, the dalish clans with whom they trade and on occasion travel with, mercenaries and surface dwarves and the list goes on. and, like the world and its people do in canon during da:i, it gets under his skin

he teaches her magic and she teaches him whatever random shit he for some reason doesn’t know. it’s very much a give and take, with him being knowledgable about magic, spirits, the fade, and her being knowledgable about this new world that he’s only seen through fragmentary memories (yeah, ngl this verse is also fueled in part by me being grossed out by how often solavellan gets written into a creepy teacher/student dynamic all like, ohhh hahren, ohh da’len BUT I DIGRESS)

far more importantly, saar keeps a running list in her head, ‘reasons solas is most likely not an elf but a sprit/elf hybrid, demon/elf hybrid, some kind of abyssal creature taken physical form, abyssal creature Forced into physical form, escaped blood magic experiment, etc.’ to the point where when she eventually Does find out who & what he really is it’s almost a letdown?

solas: i am fen’harel, ancient not-god of rebellionsaar: fuck, really? my bet was on escaped tevene blood magic experiment, now i owe my mom a new knifesolas: …………excuse me, what

there’s still a looot of stuff where i’m working out the details of how and when but the trajectory then is that saar eventually finds out basically everything the inq also knows by the end of trespasser, MEANWHILE solas goes through his usual crisis re: His Duty but the point is. the point is. eventually, they end up on the same page: the veil needs to come down—but slowly.

bit by bit they want to let magic bleed back into the world to some day end up in a future that isn’t arlathan restored exactly as it was, but a better version of it, with magic and spirits but without the godkings and the slavery and all the terrible shit solas tried to seal away the first time

that’s the plan, anyway.

and they set out to make that happen, scraping at the veil, finding places where spirits get twisted into demons and, idk, cleansing them or smth, this part is still very vague in my head (though i’m def gonna incorporate that live-action thing with the mask of fen’harel somehow)

and then, one day, they figure out where solas’s fucking focus is. the orb.

EXCEPT they’re not the only ones after it—corypheus gets his hands on it, meanwhile the mage-templar war is happening and it’s all a big fucking mess and they barely manage to track him to the conclave to try and get it back before he does something terrible and we all know how that goes

the conclave goes up in flames, the breach appears, saar wakes up with the anchor in her hand. and then, when cassandra takes her to the temple and they meet varric and cullen and solas, solas introduces himself

and saar is like WAIT WHAT.

and she gets him alone at the first opportunity to be like, why the fuck are we pretending we don’t know each other??

and he admits that he panicked, maybe, a little bit, in the aftermath of the explosion? but the thing is: they’re both mages, neither of them human, which already puts them at a disadvantage. second, cass & co think saar murdered the divine, she’s the one with the mark and solas is the only one who seems to know anything about the mark, if it was known they came here as a unit it’d make them look GUILTY AS ALL HELL

also, like. technically. they are planning to bring the veil down. just not all at once

tl;dr: da:i happens, but saar and solas are in cahoots and have to pretend they didn’t know each other beforehand, cue shenanigans (& PINING, pls, these two fuckers trying to pretend they’re not in love? hilarious)

and like, obviously this set-up changes A Lot of the character dynamics, i’m working on that, but also pls imagine every fucking instance of solas dropping Hints and Clues bc he can’t fucking help himself and meanwhile saar knows and has to maintain pokerface

vivienne: solas has basically no history and i find that just a tad suspicious, don’t you agree?saar, knowing full well why his backstory is paper-thin and wouldn’t hold up to proper scrutiny for a second: UHHHHHHhave you considered maybe he really is just a feral little forest man, they don’t tend to feature prominently in. like. history.solas, later that day: ‘feral little forest man’, REALLYsaar: you ate a raw rabbit once with your bare handssolas: vhenan, we shared that rabbit