#yknow I am now realizing that I do not know their ship name

[artblock-tm]

Hi I am here to ask about your OCs forever and ever. Pick a group of OCs and give me a bunch of random facts about them. Preferably little and seemingly unimportant facts like what their hobbies are or favourite foods or what their childhood dreams were. Little things yknow

Sounds good! How about we talk abouut- drum roll please- the Ambivalent Souls squad!

(They’re on the brain since I started watching Death Note and I’ve created an au that’s Death Note but with those OCs. Yes I have art I will be sharing later.)

The main cast consists of Maroon, Zerie, Krystll, Hare, and Midnight!

As much as I would like to discuss their favorite foods, here’s a fun little fact about them.

None of them can eat.

Well, hypothetically, Hare, Krystll, and Midnight could eat. They just haven’t in several years because they no longer have the need to. It’s an interesting perk of being vassal to an eldritch being- several body functions are deemed unnecessary and negated in order to maximize a human’s efficiency!

Even though they’re not working in the Syndicate anymore, it hasn’t occurred to them that they could just eat things. But if they ever do rediscover it, I think Krystll would have a real sweet tooth and Midnight would like sushi. Hare doesn’t have much of an opinion on food (mostly because he’s permanently his taste buds after experimenting on himself too much).

As for Zerie and Maroon, they just don’t have a digestive system. They’re not human. It’s as simple as that.

Out of the squad, the one with the clearest hobby is Hare. He dedicates himself to the continual study of study alchemy. Unfortunately, his hobby has severe drawbacks, namely the fact that he tests each and every experiment on himself. He’s poisoned himself several times by now when experiments have gone well so at least he has a higher poison tolerance than usual.

Krystll is in the process of rebuilding her life and she’s trying to discover something she’d like to do. She and Midnight like to walk around town and go shopping and do other girl things (such as shoplifting when they remember they’re broke). Krystll does have a casual interest in soccer, but hasn’t ever tried her hand (or, rather, foot) at it.

Maroon, Midnight, and Zerie all agree that sparring each other is as good enough as a hobby as it gets. Of course it’s productive- they’re honing their techniques and tackling each other to the ground and looking badass while doing so!

Maybe it was clear from this group’s unusual lack of direction for life, but most of them have their childhood dreams crushed if they even had them at all.

Maroon looks back on his life and realizes that he’s had no idea what he’s been doing ever. They appeared in the world one day and chose violence. Maroon has matured definitely, but their life has been a constant push and pull to come to peace with herself and figure out exactly what she wants to be (the answer, turns out, was to be gnc as fuck.)

Zerie has always had a course laid out for him and was planning to follow that to the very end of his life. And then he met Maroon. And in the best (and most traumatic) possible way, the entire plan fell apart. Now they just want to have a life that has Maroon in it.

THEY ARE SIBLINGS THEY ARE SIBLINGS THEY ARE SIBLINGS DO NOT SHIP

Krystll is recovering from her guilt and trauma left behind from the Syndicate. As the first to move on, she wants to guide Midnight and Hare through it. She likes to look at this like she’s taking her life back for herself rather than whatever the future has planned, but MAN she missed some key developmental years there.

Hare experiences an odd disconnect from his experiences in the Syndicate, thanks to the fact that at one point his memories were completely wiped. Before that, though, he dedicated his entire life to serving the Syndicate. Now…? It feels like that dream belonged to an entirely different person. He doesn’t know what to do other than atone for what his past self did. The road to recovery is especially tough for him.

Midnight has little qualms about leaving the Syndicate, considering she was never really wanted. Her goal remains unchanged: she wants to travel. Although they know the vast expanse of the multiverse, they want to explore all the beautiful things one world at a time.

Wow, all those random facts said NOTHING about what the story is, huh? That’s cool. Let’s have a fun fact lightning round!

Hare fears the ticking of a clock

Maroon is named after his favorite color

In the original story, Zerie was a prince, but that’ll probably be reworked

Both Zerie and Maroon can make inhuman noises such as growling and purring. Same with Midnight, but for different reasons

Krystll’s name is pronounced “Crystal” and Hare’s name is pronounced “Ha-ray”

Kyrstll’s hair is naturally iridescent and that’s thanks to how her soul works

Hare’s voice claim is Jeremy Jordan- specifically in his performance as Varian from Tangled the Series. However, a case can be made for Zeno Robinson as Hunter :)

Maroon can naturally tell if someone is lying but has trouble reading expressions and body language

Zerie is excellent at reading expressions and body language and gauging how someone feels at the moment. However it is hard for them to discern why the other is acting that way

Maroon and Krystll used to be boyfriend and girlfriend. Now they’re just friends. It’s complicated.

Zerie, Midnight, and Hare are in a polycule

Hare has a wide range of knowledge of how to wield a large variety of weapons, thanks to the fact that he’s the only one in the group without intrinsic magic

[yomiurinikei]

YEAH reading about whatever happened in the sdra fandom before feels so wild because of how calm everything is now that the series is finished (minus the omake that will be released. someday.) i might be desperate for fan content sometimes but hey, at least theres less wacky discourse or. shipping wars. i think.

"wacky discourse" "shipping wars"

yknow what i'll name one thing i was referencing. the first thing was ion- isle of nowhere. onion im having a crisis do u know what the isle of nowhere was. onion...

-ALSO typed up my tags already but am now realizing. this is all /lh and that vibe akjdsjksdjkdsjkds its just so funny to me like. when i say it was horrid i mean it was Evil. we didn't have soruko vs soruki we had the dub team saying shipping soruko was erasing soras "canon het identity". everyone went all out that's literally like. the lightest example i can think of. it was so. Aaagh.

[aamethyst000]

i didn't realize exacctly how slow my progress will be (july 9,24 - 10:56pm)

holy fuck i did not realize how slow my progress in life will be! it feels so weird to be 26. like, not only the progress of my name and gender change, im talking about my progress in life! the changes im gonna have, the hardships ill probably cry to. i thought teenage life was hard, no siree. the adult life is difficult. once the adults before you leave you alone to be independent and strong and whatnot, they all end up telling you how wrong you are and how you're living life wrong. one side is trying to control how you live, the other wants you to be dependant and independent and some how balance that out on your own. anyway, getting off track here. today i woke up feeling lazy but also feeling pretty good about myself! i actually wanted to clean the house and do the dishes without complaint! which is a rare thing for me since teenage hood. it can get pretty bad on most days. my little brother and i did the dishes today and a little bit of sweeping. i am planning on doing the rest of the house chores tomorrow and start on the towels that were supposed to be done last week. which kind of sucks that it is only me doing the laundry, but what the hell can i do when we got my mothers' brother staying and only doing his own laundry, a 17 who is overly cranky, yknow, normal teenager bs, hes gotta do his own laundry whether he likes it or not. and a mother whose arthiritis hurts her enire body and really bad insomnia. 10 year old me would be very surprised of where i am at right now and 14 year old me would be very confused.

july 11,24 - 11:16pm - just got through washing the dishes and cleaned up a bit in the living room. finally and now i have time to clean up my room and start washing the towels, we desparately need clean towels considering how hot the weather will be this week. you know the funny thing about this? i have stopped taking my anti depressants for nearly a month now! i think i only need to take them during the winter. they seem to work better by then, which is weird to me. anyway, now that i have more trans tapes, im going to wash the towels tomorrow and have a bath by the next day. my poor room has been a mess for too long now and it has been bugging me for a couple of days. doing this will help me feel better about buying myself a new 3ds and cases for it, being more prepared about taking care of it than i did the first time around. i ended up buying another black 3ds, kinda thought i wanted a white one but i ended up changing my mind part way through the search of the new 3ds. i found one for somewhat cheap that came up to 195 plus 10 shipping which was fckn awesome! i so cant wait till they arrive now. though they wont be here till the first week of next month. i know ill be impatient about it but that is not new at all lmao im impatient with every perchase i make, i just gotta keep myself distracted till the items get here.

july 18,24 3:43am - i am planning on rearranging my room to open up the air vent in my room. since i bought the 3ds, i feel like i need to ''earn''' when it finally arrives here, but i am hoping to god that it works for me or id cry. well, not really, i'd be sad about it but wouldnt do nothing about it until i have enough money to save again to buy another 3ds. hopefully it wont come to that at any point for me. anyway, as im typing this out, i am wathcing chuggaconnroy's lets play of kirby 3ds. i heard about his recent..situation, not happy to hear it and not sure how to feel, not entirely anyway. not gonna lie, it kind of sucks and nearly ruined my day. im better now, i heard about this a week ago, so im fine. i think. i havent been able to go to sleep at a reasonable time lately and it sucks. some nights i dont go to sleep until it is literally gets really bright outside (5am or 7am), i did not think id be slowly devolping insomnia at the age of 26. though, i shouldnt be too surprised considering the fact that my whole ass family has it and possibly autism or adhd. not gonna lie, my whole family is a mess. but they are my mess, i guess. you ever feel that way? they are not the best, toxic in their own way (the older ones, not my cousins), when it some down to it, they are there for you (until they sabotage that closeness during any death) they seem to have continued the generational trauma. i hope my cousins are doing alright, some if them have a kid or two, others are single or childless, but they all have a decent job that helps them keep their apartment. so, i hope they are doing well.

by this point, i have one more journal entry to edit and double check on, and a set of papers to look for in my room. i was supposed to mail it back to the place i was getting my legal (now dead)name to my current one, it is coming up to a year so that it is my own fault on that one, considering that all i needed to do was give them the signed papers that i have right now. well, i can do that now and be a bloody adult about it instead of putting it off for tomorrow, every single day. is it weird to still feel like a teenager (16-7) at the age of 26? should i go to therapy for this? is this normal or should i be worried? does every other adult feel like this? and not just me and my friends possibly being delusional or just dramatic about it. either way, i am not entirely sure if ill find the answer or if itll be given to me. i am going to have a puff and then head to bed, it is already very late so im gonna have a puff and enjoy whatever sleep i can get. good night/day, readers!

[leporellian]

for the characters: leporello (of course) and figaro 👀 (bonus if you have different answers for mozart!figaro and rossini!figaro)

leporello:

favorite thing about them: frankly there is so much i could answer here that it would take from now til march to list them all. literally he’s the character ever

least favorite thing about them: not so much to do with him but ohhh my god why do so few current don g productions know how to characterize him. if i see another production where he’s the ~willing enabler who wishes he was the don~ i’m going to start a got damn riot

favorite line: again how do i pick a favorite but i do love that his first lines of recitative are Going TF After the don for, yknow, a horrible murderous rapist. (being loudly rhetorical enough that a director may hear) oh if ONLYYYY someone UNDERSTOODDD that hes meant to be MORE MORAL AND LIKABLE than the don and not a GLEEFUL SYCOPHANT...

brOTP: listen (grabs you) listen i wrote and codirected an entire fucking play about the leporello and elvira bond once. i will not shut up abt this

OTP: tbh nobody in the opera LOL but i did propose as a joke once that it would be funny if he got together with fiorello from the barber of seville bc, yknow, bass servants in 17th century spain with horrible bosses whose names end in -orello but then i realized it was a cute idea actually

nOTP: makes my blood boil that mfs ship him with the don like... the Amount this misses the point. like... does leporello love the don romantically? i think so. but he also loves the don like a friend, like a child, like a god and like someone he’s known all his life; the way that the rat infected with toxoplasmosis craves the cat and the way the moth craves the flame. it’s the feeling of knowing how horrible someone is, knowing you can do nothing to stop them, and yet clinging on because theyve told you there’s nobody else who would put up with you enough for you to believe it. to quote a line that’s stuck in my head for eons, if enough things happen to you, you can learn to love something for being familiar. but who cares people would rather have their fix it fanfic i guessss

headcanon: i like to think he loves to knit

unpopular opinion: he’s not a comic relief either. i am the world‘s dealer in unpopular leporello opinions so have that one also in addition

song i associate with them: moonlight on the river by mac demarco

favorite picture of them: this outfit? was a banger

figaro (it’s hard for me to think of mozart fig and rossini fig as separate entities but i’ll do my best):

favorite thing about them: i like how complex the man actually is. there’s so much there to work with psychologically like yes he’s the wily barber but he is also the wily barber who needs to see a therapist. besides that... he’s just a likable guy yaknow?

least favorite thing about them: again like w/ leporello its more a matter of how he’s portrayed. none of the psychological Meat is there in a lot of productions which makes him less interesting as a character. very sad

favorite line: “my face is lying but i assure you i’m not” absolute s tier line but also “i laugh at every event that happens so i’ll never think of crying” from the plays sounds edgy as hell but just. So captures his psyche. you see opera productions forget he is kind of miserable sometimes.

brOTP: i love how he and marcellina get along so well as soon as The Reveal happens; i imagine they’re incredibly similar in a lot of ways. also him and rosina ofc. you ever think abt how technically after the marriage of figaro they’re essentially stepsiblings? wtf is that about

OTP: susanna ofc who else. i also think the idea of the count secretly having an unreciprocated thing for him is fucking funny as hell regardless of which opera you imagine this happens during.

nOTP: i don’t even venture into what people think of marriage of figaro in a like, fanfiction sense bc literally 90% of the time it’s people being weird about a 13 year old. but i can’t imagine him and susanna with anyone besides each other

random headcanon: trans of gender bi of sexual adhd of brain etc. also i imagine he had to raise himself in the streets as a kid artful dodger-style, which partly explains why he’s like That.

unpopular opinion: why does everyone see this guy as being happy go lucky. the dude has severe trust issues and rejection sensitive dysphoria hidden under a guise of ”underachiever and proud” he has had no parents or family for most of his life he really doesn’t have any friends and when he is kind to someone (ie the count) they regularly turn on him he is afraid of being vulnerable to a paranoid degree and he only ever really trusts susanna. also in the plays he wanted to be a great playwright and help elevate the voices of the lower class but it went so poorly he was forced to take up being a barber and actually you can see this in the opera too bc the entirety of largo al factotum isn’t figaro trying to convince the audience how cool he is. he’s trying to convince himself that this is the life he wants. bro is straight up not having a good time!!

song i associate with them: family of me by ben folds (yes it’s from the over the hedge soundtrack ignore that it’s a jam)

favorite picture of them: will get back to you when i find one

[organic-guacamole]

episode 210 here we go

awww seb doing the intro

congratulations to milky white and her baby chocolate milk😌

seb is so funny

but seriously, clean up that milk fast or else it will smell so bad in there....

was that Lauryn just randomly doing cartwheels? idk any theatre kids irl but that seems like it's a common thing...

is it just me or has ms Jenn been getting more harsh to Ricky and Seb mainly-

like what did they do to her

no because I actually snorted with laughter at the "you came back" WHAT IS THAT VOICE-

AND THE MASK OMG

yeah so my throat hurts now

I'm dying over here

KOURTNEY'S FACE

SAME GIRL SAME

Ricky's fake death got the whole place in tears /s

he looks like an asthmatic walrus

Seb's on piano, I love

we all know if he was the beast we'd all actually be crying✋

ok but I listen to Julia's version of home on Spotify when I want to cry-

right so gimme a second

is Ricky scratching his face.....while he's dying?

"belle i-" *flop*

round of applause to Ashlyn for trying to make Ricky's earthworm seizure look less.... yknow

Kourtney's just dying there

WAIT IS THAT NATALIE

did she really just disappear for 9 episodes just to come back and stare dramatically into the camera

WAIT SCRATCH THAT SHES HERE TO MURDER ASHLYN AND RICKY

oh so Ricky's wearing a gay shirt now too

so that's the real reason why Rini broke up, see y'all next season when Gini and caswen become canon /j

wait that was a long intro scene-

what was that look Carlos-

TALK TO MY BOY OR ELSE

carlos' run is so funny to me

therapist Ashlyn to the rescue

"that is...super" son you good?

ms Jenn call Benjamin, he would willingly put his loved ones on a rocket and blast them into Venus for you....

maybe

"I don't want you kids to be disappointed" girl you do realise you're the one that's most invested in this?

"a smooth opening night" wasn't there just 1 show though-

like their opening night was closing night too

"I think I was Troy at one point" PLEASE THATS THE MOST ACCURATE DESCRIPTION OF THE SEASON 1 FINALE

me Jenn looks like a serial killer during that clap and I'm lowkey scared for zacky

"I have notes"

oo if you're taking suggestions, lemme get my list

"mother is freaking out" uhhhhhh

right....'mother"

"is everyone sitting down?"

*looks around awkwardly*

*big red slowly sits*

"no..."

please seb was the only one sitting-

does that mean Carlos looked at Seb as soon as he walked in and assumed that everyone else was sitting too or am I a seblos clown🤡

"is this about the transformation"

WOW MAYBE OT IS RICKY

WOW HES A DETECTIVE FOR FIGURING THAT OUT SO QUICK🤩

YO WHY IS NATALIE HERE-

she just shows up when it's convenient? is she gonna be at the sleepover too?

Seb's heavy swallow after Carlos shouts at him makes me so sad

"I never learned how to lie but I figure if I keep my mouth closed, I can't tell the truth" *nods and smiles at Nini when she asks*

why are they casually standing up all over the pizza shop, just sit at a big table and talk instead of blocking passageways and blocking off at least 6 tables-

"how about I invite myself" WHY DO PEOPLE ALWAYS FEEL THE NEED TO INVITE THEMSELVES TO ASHLYN'S HOUSE-

YOU CAN ASK BUT JUST FORCE YOUR WAY IN?

so Cash Caswell has a bigger house than... Dennis Caswell.... who would've thought

ah yes there's the good old EJ 1.0

Nini: "boys vs girls"

Gina: *looks devastated and glances longingly at EJ*

way to be inconspicuous

"but north high should be" *cracks her knuckles in the most uncomfortable way*

good for Ashlyn for getting more confident though

oo bossy big red

"i get bossy around the power tools"

is that why Ashlyn was holding up the drill in episode 8 orrrr 🤠

oh

Lily, leave him alone please

she's literally not blinking, is that what makes her creepy?

the diss at big red and his face afterwards is priceless

isn't that similar to what Gina's mom said to her in season 1? hmmmm

but seriously please don't try to redeem lily, let us have a character to hate, or to love because they're evil.

not everyone's a good guy.

"im not liked here and I don't know what to do"

let antoine finish his salad and it'll fix everything

"hug emoji" *gags*

y'all realize Lily's literally 14?

why is she calling a 16/17 year old from another school for personal advice-

"he gets weird around tools"

I shouldn't be laughing so hard

"deja vu maybe?" awkward silence

I'm dying here I love EJ so so so so much

"where's seb"

*cuts to seb being held hostage hoping that they'd notice he's missing and go look for him*

"don't ask"

"oh ok"

"100% real faux fur" as you should queen

sponsored by target

Kourtney is singlehandedly saving the entire show.

Seb making finger guns make me happier than it should

why is this kinda making me want to have a co-ed sleepover with my non-existent theatre friends

YES YOU DO NEED TO TALK/SING TO SEB CARLOS THANK YOU FOR KNOWING THAT

wait what-

you haven't talked to him all WEEK-

Carlos are you stupid /hj

Benjamin is so adorable I can't

he turned around to come back for her instead of going home. you're "what do you want Jenn🙄X act isn't fooling anyone Benjamin 🙃

10101

1+4+16= 21st?

they placed 21st?

or do I just not remember how to convert to base ten

GIRL DON'T BE RUDE TO HIM, HE'S GONNA SAVE YALL

no ms Jenn, the kids are not eccentric 35 year olds.

aww sebby

is he thinking that Carlos is only with him cuz he's the only other openly gay guy at school-

son you are a perfect little bean don't put yourself down

yes they all ship portwell as they should.

they'll be throwing risotto at the wedding.

not the chocolates. stop there are no chocolates. please stop I'm dying.

Gina you don't have to explain yourself to her

it was a misunderstanding and it's in the past

why is Ashlyn still laughing-

exactly it wasn't a big deal please just move on Nini

Kourtney really be out here saving everything

WHY IS ASHLYN STILL LAUGHING

why do I feel like when Gina finally told Ash about it, she didn't think it was that funny but wanted to feel included in the inside joke so now she brings it up randomly to show that she's in on it....I totally don't do that...

"idk, the farmer type" oh son...

Ashlyn and big red are just spilling the secrets back and forth huh?

OOO EJ AND GINA SITTING IN A TREE K-I-S-S-I-

cmon guys don't look at me like that-

"she is the best" and "we're buddies" don't sound right together

"pretty boy" "sweet boy" best ways to describe EJ

I love him.

and aw he's scared of rejection so he'll hold back just to keep her happy and not awkward how sweet

is Ricky wondering if letting her go(literally his song from last episode) was the best thing he did for Nini because he doesn't feel like it now? hmmm this is getting good

why is everyone so invested in Kourtney and Howie's relationship

PACK UP THE LAZY RICKY THING

oh yes Benji, that's exactly what she's doing

she couldn't follow her dream or whatever so now she's using the kids to gain some of the success she craves. why else would she have that massive hsm poster with her name on it in huge letters in her office.

just casually grab his hand with both your hands and stare at him creepily 🥰

ship jennzzara y'all

the first bump was a missed opportunity to do the baymax "falalala" as a reference to the fact that they watched big hero six while committing arson✋

wait so big red and EJ just left Ricky in the basement and now Ricky invited Carlos when they're supposed to be at the stage?

help no Ricky looks like he's about to tell Carlos he likes him (I know it's about writing the song for seb but still, look at his body language and tell me it doesn't look like that)

Ricky is so mature about this, he really just wants Nini to be happy even though he's hurting-

baby you deserve love, maybe Nini isn't the one for you but don't say you don't deserve it

why does he keep adding bro to the end like he doesn't know how to address Carlos

PLEASE CARLOS HAVING TO ADDRESS THE BRO THING

"let's write a song when we have like 45 minutes to get to the place and help our friends possibly win $50000 at the show in 2 weeks"

"can you hit a high C?"

"that's like the bottom of my range"

why am I laughing

this is so cool to see friendship interactions that we don't normally get to see

Nini why are you being like this-

Gina did nothing wrong??

I saw that, EJ and Gina being the only ones going in the same direction👀

right so obviously Kourtney's waiting until after the menkies to get back with Howie just in case he really is just using her as a way in to east high... obviously... right?

CARLOS

OK ITS COMING GET READY YALL

Why is portwell so awkward all of a sudden

OMG EJ

OMG GINA SAY YES or not, do what you want.

the way she doubts that EJ would genuinely ask so she has to make sure it's not Ashlyn behind it

OH

THE "NOT THAT I KNOW OF"

LIKE WHAT GINA SAID TO JACK ABOUT EJ BEING HER BOYFRIEND

GUYS THEY'RE SOULMATES

I want risotto now please

THEY'RE SO SWEET AND ADORABLY AWKWARD ITS LIKEEK LITTLE KIDS

OOOOOOO what is this place that seblos is in, looks fancy....and secluded

oh wait no Ricky's just standing there

wait is it the bomb shelter

it looks so good what

HSKAGSJAGAJAGWISGSKAUASBWKSVAIWBAISBQKSHIQBWOABWOABDOQBZIQBAIAQBSIWBQISVQKSIANSGOQBSAISBKASBKWBAIABQOSBBSJAHAJAVAJSBAJHSKAHSJAHAJAJAAJAHHHHHHHH

@youranxiousnerd ARE YOU OK?

CUZ IM NOT OK

LOOK AT SEBBY'S FACE

LOOK AT HOW ADORABLE IT IS

THE LYRICS ARE KILLING ME

SEBLOS IS KILLING ME

I AM DEAD

PLEASE SEND HELP

I like to imagine that Frankie and Joe practiced this in their apartment and just had a blast with it.

or maybe that Frankie practiced in secret like what Joe did for the climb

OH THE SUITS

THATS WHERE THAT CLIP IN THE PROMO WAS FROM

AWWW SEBBY'S SO CUTE

HE'S A LITTLE MARSHMALLOW

they're still so awkward with the dance I cant

let's appreciate Frankie's voice though

this episode really was made just for the seblos and portwell stans and you gotta love it

BIG RED GET OUT

WHY DOES HE ALWAYS DO THIS

Seb's little "yeah" IS ADORABLE

you can't tell me that wouldn't have been the best time for them to say I love you....IF FREAKIN BIG RED WASN'T THERE

ok but wait Ricky needs more hugs like that, look at his face

the boy needs love

"bro" please don't let Ricky and Carlos go back to not talking because their friendship is amazing

EJ laughing at Ricky sounding like a cat coughing up a furball is so funny to me

RICKY'S FLOP GETS ME EVERYTIME

I knew it was too good to be true

ok so Ricky's dead, next in line please

this episode was so short but I love it so much. this is what I signed up for for season 2✋

[ratcandy]

Could you give me some more hat kid headcanons I feel like shit and could use a lift

Aaahh worm! I'm sorry to hear you're not doin' well today :(

As for more Hat Kid HCs, hmmmnmm. let's see what my brain can scrounge up this time. I apologize if I end up jus rewording ones I mentioned last time, my memory's bad and I can't remember what exactly I have and haven't said hsdkgjhdsg

- I've begun scratching the surface of what her home life might'a been like after reading a whole lot of different fics and meshing it into what I already came up with. High-tech but with big magical influence; I like to believe it has a similar vibe as the metro does - if only because I want Hat Kid to show up in the metro and have conflicting emotions of "CAT!!" and "ohhghh this reminds me of home a lil too much"

(said idea came to me with the rumbi plotline happening in the metro. which. Can I add is strange? That the history of Rumbi is found in a purple rift in Nyakuza Metro? When purple rifts are formed after they fall on someone and unlock their memories?... In the Metro? Rumbi? The Rumbi we see on Hat Kid's ship? Kuzco's poison? I mean, the company that made Rumbi may be intergalatic, for all we know, and that's how Hat Kid got one despite not being from Earth... but. Hmmmmm)

- worse/better(?) if Empress in any way acts like Hat Kid's parent(s) did. I like the mompress idea trust me I do but also I will twist the idea of mompress into something awful and terrible at record speeds. Mompress in a bad way. "You remind me of my mom /neg"

- Hat Kid responds to questions about her age the same way that Millie from Smile For Me does. yknow like "how old am I?.. idk, i'm like 4" "Dude you can't do that I'm like 10." "Don't yell at me!! I'm like, 6!!"

- how old is she actually? An elusive mystery Probably doesn't work the same as Earth years, anyway. Did you know that when u look it up on Google it says she's four. Four years old. I looked this up when I was first writing her for "Fear Not, Cooking Cat is Here" to get an idea of how young to portray her, but. FOUR? no. I choose to not see it I see her mentally about the age of 10-12. Somewhere in that range, u know.

- I know you're not asking for Bow Kid but also: I like to believe Bow Kid isn't actually the same alien species that Hat Kid is. Instead Bow is just some human child on Earth that Hat Kid made friends with and stole. picked her up out of the metro like "you're my friend now. we're having soft tacos later!"

- since she already has her diary that I like to believe she carries around with her, I ALSO choose to think that. once she got that camera, she constantly tapes the pictures she takes with it into her diary. Scrapbook hours! She also tapes leaves n twigs n such in there too. She has no idea what these things are so it's good to have them in her "questions to ask the residents of this planet" book just in case. Once she realized the nomads knew a thing or two about flowers she went to the first one she could find and went "THESE. WHAT ARE THESE" while pointing to a daisy she haphazardly stuck into her diary

- tries to do this with snatcher too but he's not a Big Fan of Flowers ever since The Incident, so he just responds with "get that out of my face" every time and then mutters the scientific name of the flower the moment she's out of earshot

- In a world where she and Mu were friends for longer before the Mafia Boss battle, i like to believe that one day one of them found a giant stick. yknow just a huge branch. you know where I'm going with this. Children screaming and laughing while chasing each other (and the Mafia of course) around with massive stick. Mu finds a second stick and now the two can swordfight,

- myabe i just like thinksgin about children acting like children and having fun like children do . ok

AND that's all for now!! Brain otherwise empty. Wa

[stray-tori]

TPN Vol 8 - Chapters 66-70 Thoughts

[we're already on vol 9 but I'm slow with compiling]

I know I always rag on the "cop out" deaths and it is true that no corpse no dead, and I am curious if there will be any more worldbuilding regarding Lucas' survival (hello deus ex machina person) but uh. Idk. I'm sure it has a point and it makes sense in universe (having him be the reason for the knowledge among GP kids is good) but it just feels a little. Eh. Like it feels like paddling back on a small part of geezers guilt and feelings. In part it also feels like a "reward" for choosing the heroes moral side and going to help save Emma (why ever that happened - ig bc Gilda would blow up the shelter if he doesn't so. YAY).

...

Obviously the development is still his, and he obviously isn't expecting to find anyone alive there, but ig i felt like he was leading up to... healing more through the kids and not one epic Emma speech and "oh your one friend is alive btw" reveal later on. It feels like a spark of hope and happiness for him that I'm not sure if was needed narratively. He already decided he wouldn't harm them.

Like maybe they handle it very differently so i might be jumping the gun here but idk. It just feels a little... weird to me. Probably in a similar way how speeches about Norman hurt but also kind of get that "well uh about that...." Air once you know. I feel for the characters and their separation but it doesn't have the same weight it could have anymore.

In theory it reminds me a bit of the whole gate reveal structure in s2. With a setup being built up or established and a reveal just going "nvm that's not what we're doing".

It makes sense, I'm just not a huge fan of what it does for me for previously established things.

But i guess writing wise it puts its cards on the table with small scale Lucas and then Norman haha.

.

I find it rly funny how much the arc sort of mirrors the s2 arc so far (character assumed dead is alive, new cast of demon kill children introduced, a plan to kill demons).

Ig that might be intentional, for all intents it's a good method of conveying character change. Or different specifics or how things might be judged differently with different specifics (like hunting for enjoyment vs. farming)

I'm totally jumping in on this too early but idk it's interesting to think about.

That and also our whole "There's someone I want you to meet" - "ITS NORMAN" jokes made me think, like you could probably ACTUALLY restructure some of this in a way that would allow Norman's return here instead lol. Could be a fun AU, esp since we have the seeds of a (small-scale) demon annihilation plan anyway.

I also just find it funny to think about Norman grumbling from his future self that Emma agreed to some random guy's plan so easily udkhjsd

Obviously the time is a bit of a mess -- it's only been 3 months? is Adam out bc Norman's escaped already or was Adam just shipped to GP? if he already escaped, our boy is quick - plus, why would he go to GP. the supporters in Lambda probably know it's been compromised, so aside from freeing the children, there isn't a lot of reason to go there and while that may have priority, I feel like 3 months is a bit of a short timeframe for Norman to settle in there well enough -- so it's more wonky than anything BUT IT'S FUN TO THINK ABOUT.

.

btw I find it so funny how Emma has that whole "intent to kill" thing going on now, considering her later moral stance - like it's fair but coming from s2 it's a bit of whiplash haha especially since she's so determined about it right from the start. (though I have no idea if she ever addressed killing demons before this, memory bad)

Though notably she said "she wants to shut down the hunting ground too", not "want to kill them too" - and it's good that she draws a line but IDK IT'S JUST INTERESTING because what bothers her is the toying / no respect for their lives, right? - "this kind of hunt", not hunting in general.

... so like, if you were hunted by a demon in the wild, who didn't toy with you, just killed and ate you, that would be fine then? Idk, it's a very fine line and I get it, but it's interesting to think about. A quick, suffer-less death is of course a valid thing to want if you will die anyway, but you're dead afterwards in both variants.

Of course maybe I'm reading it wrong and it's just her sort of realizing that between mass production farms and GP, they really did have it good, even if they died an early death, and how this is much more hate-worthy than GF's method. Which is true, I suppose, and might expand on the building blocks of her moral development down the line (as in "there's different stages of demon-badness").

.

Also a more funny thought but imagine if Lucas DID have the pen, would... Geezer-senpai just not find the way back? And even if he did would he even get into the bunker? That'd be one tragic ending pff. Tell the person to run away and they can't even go back inside sudhdjd

.

Also i thought about it and isn't it weird that none of the books or materials mentioned what goldy pond actually is? Like youd expect sth that important to be in there.

We know WM wasn't at the bunker in the last 13 years and we know that the books he supplied to GF, the newest one was 2015. What if he was discovered or had to limit his WM activity 30 years ago?

So 30 years ago, he still sent people to goldy pond.

I'm just realizing.... That totally sounds like a setup for minerva to actually be on the demons side or a demon himself sjdhjddj. Like he orchestrates escapees (who are likely to be smart) and then sends them to GP where he and his noble friends can hunt them.

But where i was actually going with this uh, what if GP 30 years ago (potentially longer depending on how long ago he was there last) wasn't actually a hunting a ground? Why would you send kids there without a warning otherwise? What if it WAS a small human community (tho that would likely have been passed around by the inhabitants) or it was at least WM supporter base like the bunker, intended for humans to live there. Not sure about mansion then but YKNOW.

If it was, i wonder if it being discovered was a huge part in WM cover being blown OR if the demons decided to keep it secret bc you know this place is rly convinient haha

I also wonder how wm even finds and builds all these underground things lol. Bc it can't have existed since before the world split i think?

Man has some big construction projects running pfff.

I'm also not sure how that underground thing works-

.

its tori is confused about minor things hour

[Emma takes the axe with right hand, her right hand is still behind her as if she was winding up, but the axe is already thrown?]

like if she had the axe still in hand it'd make sense or if it was in her hand AND spinning, it'd be like "2 frames".

but this?? i am just-

.

im rly late with this but the glove is Lucas' memorial. the pair will only be together again when they reunite :<<

what I want to know is HOW. like the John thing is already questionable but I guess he could have gone back again?? but with this.

he has both gloves when they part he still have one glove on when his arm is gone. but the arm Leuvis has, doesn't have a glove?? So either Leuvis took it off but i wouldn't know why, and just dropped it on the ground for geezer to come pick up ORRRR he took one off for some reason?? maybe he threw it at the demon pff something is very un-continous here and i need answers-

.

the duality of man... not wanting people to know a) your age and b) your name (which you may have forgotten, who knows)

we just assumed geezer's name is censored here but I guess it could be anything haha-

[breitzbachbea]

oh oH OH! 18 and 25 for the oc ask thing? :D

AHHHH thanks for being nosy Riva! <3 <3 <3

Some OC Questions

18. Any OC crackships?

I once parodically shipped Robert (Team England) and Marco (Team Sicily). I have no idea why anymore either, I think. I think I was imagining the bullshit a big fandom would come up and they fit a very heteronormative view of M/M ships??? I guess??? Marco leaving Charlie for his archnemesis would be funny??? This ship be so cracky, I have no recollection of how it was conceived in the first place.

There is crack potential in the Arora twins (Team Denmark) playing Sex Tic-Tac-Toe for sure. (Each horizontal line is associate with a goal like 'Kiss' or 'Fumble' or 'Flirt' etc. and the boxes are assigned names. They then place their X or O by reaching that goal with a certain person. They also both have moleskine notebooks concerning their sex life; it's a joke on how organized the Danish are in the eyes of Icelanders).

OH OH OH SINCE I AM LISTENING TO FRIENDS BY SIXLIGHT - Robert and Diego (Team Spain)! I just thought "People who fight each other big sexy." And by god. It would be the funniest fucking dynamic. Diego is Aro-Ace and while he enjoys sex (mostly with women, but yknow), he doesn't really care to have it. And he'd never let Robert B. Bailey hit it. It is literally the easiest thing to do for Diego, meanwhile Robert is losing his mind that he just can't win with this fucking spaniard. He wants to fuck him so bad it makes him look stupid. Arthur and Tahir think he's lost his mind and watch the clown show with differing amounts of exhaustion and amusement. I'm going to cry, it's so fucking funny.

Also Tahir and Ethan (Team Scotland), but that was solely driven by me wanting a flirtsy Tahir and a flustered Ethan. I can't imagine them having any chemistry or, honestly, interest in each other. Tahir likes himself either a man who takes charge or an intellectual, but a failed biology major who used to work on an oil rig is somehow neither. And Ethan is too busy being unhappily in love with his best friend to have a thing for the enemy.

Hmmm, I think that's it. Everything else is either canon or I wouldn't call it a crackship (The Derry Trio as OT3, Franlie, etc.). I do realize that the Arora ships would also be canon, but still, there'd be some whacky conquests. Frankly love that they are friends with Charlie but probably fucked both of the English. (Well, Frej couldn't get Robert. Now that I think about it, these two should have tried to crack Arthur, fucking another boss, now that's a badge of honour as a right hand. One that Hugo btw gets to wear with François, but then again, who hasn't fucked the Frenchman).

25. The OC that resembles you the most (same hobby, height, shared like/dislike for something etc?)

Well, Charlie started out the most annoying motherfucker on the planet and now he is the most annoying motherfucker on the planet and blatantly informed by myself. He was the first OC with ADHD, once I realized why he was so annoying ... His mother Gwen also has ADHD and she's both modelled on my mom's best friend (especially when it comes to her relationship with Harry and Soph, her godchildren) and my mom herself. But there's differences, too - He's extroverted, I'm introverted, his interests differ vastly from mine (Car and Fashion nerd), and so on. Christoph, Ann-Lizs best friend and somewhat of a major-minor character in Herz auf Beat does study German studies like me, but he resembles my German class teacher far more than me.

I don't know honestly ... I recognize a lot of myself in many of my kids, but wouldn't call any of them 'like me'. Charlie is probably the closest you are going to get and even he's quite different.

Lookswise Maeve though, she's one of Soph's friends and she's 1,70smth m, has a blonde bob and wears glasses. Also, thin and probably a bit gangly (but I am ganglier).

[thethousandyearwitch]

Eye for an Eye

A "Medical Experimentation"/Black Market Surgery KakuHida fic, because it came to me in a dream.

"Hidan wakes up after a wild night, only to find himself in an uncomfortable and yet enticing predicament featuring a good looking stranger and the miracle of Jashin. And maybe both parties can get something out of this situation..."

Rating: Explicit due to some gruesome talk

Ship: KakuHida

Words: 1702

AO3 Link

Nauseating Darkness. That was the first thing Hidan perceived when he woke up. The feeling of a room, that you’re not even seeing, spinning.

He should have known that this would happen, after the hot bartender kept pouring drinks on the house before he could even finish them. It wasn’t his intention to get drunk off his ass, but free alcohol and shallow compliments from some goth chick can change a night quite quickly.

Reflexively, the man tried to turn to his side to soothe his nausea, only to feel a firm resistance on his wrists. The restrictive movement called his attention toward how cold he felt overall, and how fucking uncomfortable whatever he was laying on was. At the same time, he could hear some movement close to him come to a halt.

“Hey, hey, I’m not in the mood for some BDSM games, I think I’m gonna hurl.” He slurred and tested the restrains again. A gurgle crept up from his abdomen, and the suffocating darkness still wasn’t giving way to any light.

“What the fuck.” A deep voice echoed, definitely not from the cute bartender that Hidan had hoped he took home with him. It wasn’t a question, more of a baffled statement. The young man wasn’t a stranger to taking men home with him, but this was definitely not planned, and the unclear discomfort from his abdomen that stretched all the way to his sternum was enough of a boner-killer that he just wanted to get a shower and a prairie oyster.

“Dude, just, uncuff me, get this fucking blindfold off, and I promise I’ll write you a 3page essay apology for the missed sex or whatever.”

“What- No, stop. Listen closely to me.” The deeper voice came steadily closer, and Hidan was sure he could feel the warmth of another body inching closer to his. “I am not about to fuck your sorry ass. You had some real bad luck, and drew the interest of one of my clients, who paid me to remove your eyes and a couple of organs.”

The spinning inside of his head only got worse, and Hidan let out a confused groan. “The fuck is that supposed to mean?”

“There’s no blindfold, dumbass, your eyes are already sitting on my desk ready for pick-up. I don’t even know how or why you are alive; you’re probably banged up on some drug cocktail that cancelled mine out. But you’re going to bleed out any second. No hard feelings.”

Oh. He’s been tricked. Of course, free drinks are never truly free, but he’s never paid with organs before. First time for everything.

The pressure on his body became clearer to him now. He could feel the burning edges of an incision, reaching roughly from 1cm below his bellybutton up to the tip of his sternum, between the 6th and 7thrib. The foreign body that squirmed itself under his ribcage, wrapped itself with learned precision around his heart, that could only be a human hand.

“Can you not afford a bone saw like any other unlicensed doctor?” Hidan laughed and could feel the pressure on his lungs. Every muscle in his body slowly started to follow his command again, warming back up with steady relaxation and contraction.

“I don’t need to justify my expenses to a dead man talking. I don’t care about leaving a neatly chopped up body, and neither does my guy who’ll get rid of you after the job.” Something cold and sharp pressed against Hidans Aorta, a scalpel, he was sure. “Any last words?”

The pain from the incision gave way to a booming headache, itching and scratching the inside of his skull. Slowly, white spots came into his visions, like a night sky that revealed itself one star at a time. “Yeah, what’s your name, asshole?”

“…Kakuzu. Goodby-“Before he could finish his parting words, Hidan snapped his arms free of the leather straps that held him down, and he threw himself at the other man’s throat, toppling both of them to the ground. His eyes had fully reconstructed themselves, and away from under the surgery lighting, he could slowly take in his surroundings in dimmer light.

“This place is a fucking shithole.” The floor was dirty, the walls and even the ceiling were covered in dark stains, an oakwood desk near the wall was held together with layers of yellow-ed glue, next to it a beat-up office chair with scotch-tape adorned seating. His eyes wandered to the man he kept pinned below him, covered in Hidans spilled out lower intestine. “You’re not too bad though, damn.”

His hands were wrapped around the throat of a well-build man, probably a couple years older than him, with rich, sepia brown skin, black hair tied in a knot. He wore a surgical mask, but it couldn’t fully cover the ends of what was clearly a not yet fully healed Glasgow-smile. But what was most striking about Kakuzu were his eyes; His sclera was a dull red, and his Iris were a bright emerald green. “Why would anyone want my eyes when you’ve got the grand prize resting in your skull?”

Under Hidans firm grip, he could feel the strength Kakuzu had to use just to speak up. “What the fuck are you?”

“I’m my gods most favorite little bastard! Now, how about a little trade, ‘kuzu?” He shifted his weight off of the other man’s windpipe, just enough to let him breathe under a strain.

“What do you want?”

“My guts, ideally back where they belong. And in return- “He grabbed Kakazu’s hand, which until now had been busy digging his fingernails into the immortal’s arm, and guided it to Hidans restored eyes. “-I’m sure your client would go bonkers over two sets of eyes.”

There was a pointed silence between the two, Hidan grinning as his internal organs tried to work against the pull of gravity, tissue already trying to reconnect itself with a painful burning sensation. For a moment he thought that the incision would close over his exposed organs before he’d get a response.

“Get on the table. I’m not going to waste anymore anaesthetics on you though, or else I won’t turn enough of a profit.”

Hidan climbed back on the operation table, arms rested behind his head, legs crossed leisurely. “Money greed is a sin, y’know?”

“That’s fine by me, I’ll buy myself a VIP seat when I get there.” Kakuzu readied a medical sewing kit, and unceremoniously crammed Hidans intestines back into his abdominal cave, to which he squirmed in response, but snickered as well.

“It’s not too late to repent! Jashin takes every poor soul that knocks on his door with the correct offerings, and I have a feeling you’ve got what it takes. And I’m living, breathing proof of his miracles. Or else how will you explain all of…this?” He waved his hand around in the general direction of his eyes and his open wound, and Kakuzu swatted his hand away.

“I don’t know, I don’t care. Maybe you’re the result of a radioactive freakshow. Maybe I’m finally succumbing to asbestos poisoning. Now hold still or I will have to tie you back down again.”

“Kinky! Say, after you’re done stealing my eyes again, wanna grab some drinks?”

“Drinks is how you got into this situation in the first place.”

“I’m not regretting it~”

This earned him an eye roll, though more importantly, he realized Kakuzu didn’t say ‘No’ to his proposition. The surgeon finished the final stitches and gave his work a satisfied nod. He placed a glass jar, filled with some strange liquid, on a smaller table next to the operation table, and leaned in closer to Hidans head. “Now for the money-makers.”

“Wait-wait-wait, how are you gonna take ���em out? You’re not just gonna snatch them out with your fingers, right?” Hidan fidgeted, though his manic grin didn’t falter. His chest was rising and falling heavily with rapid breathing, pulling at the fresh stitches.

“You really are an idiot. The eyes are too delicate and firm to be taken out like that. I’ll be using a tool that looks like a spoon, but has the sharpness of a scalpel, to basically scoop them out. Getting scared?”

“Are you kidding? I’m really getting excited now…”

Kakuzu huffed and placed one hand on the right side of Hidans face, using his thumb to pull the skin under his eye down. “No squirming, or I’ll take your teeth as collateral.”

“Don’t entice me, ‘kuzu.”

The sharp, cold tool slid smoothly between eyelids and eyeball, and without much resistance it curved into the eye socket and severed the optical nerves. In just a second, Hidans vision on his right side went black, and his heart beat violently against his chest. The pain was overpowering, searing, and exciting.

The surgeon dropped the disconnected eyeball into the formaldehyde jar, and switched hands to get a better grip on the left side of Hidans face. “Halfway done. Need a break?”

“Stop being a fucking tease…” Hidan breathed out, face flushed with excitement, fingernails helplessly scratching at the side of the solid table.

And without any further warning, the tool slid behind the second eyeball, severed nerves, and discarded it into the jar.

Back to nauseating darkness. All of Hidans other senses felt enhanced, he could smell the preserving chemical mixed with his fresh blood, he could hear the buzzing of the lamp above him, he licked his lips and tasted only his sweat, and most of all, he could feel the lingering warmth of Kakuzus hand still on his face, his thumb brushing over Hidans cheekbone.

“You’re a walking organ bank.” The younger man didn’t reply, too busy with catching his breath. “I could save money on anaesthetics and trying to lure idiots to operate on. I’d have any organ anyone could want – on demand.”

“I’m not gonna let you cut me open every day for free, yknow?”

And suddenly Hidan could feel hot breath ghosting over his ear, so close that cold shivers ran down his spine.

“Maybe I do have some free time for a couple drinks, and a little business talk.”

[transsexualhamlet]

tg anime vs manga *sighs*

i have the power of hyperfixation and anime on my side! AAAAAAAA

Ok now that we’ve gotten the sins of re post out of the way we need to discuss this. And I just feel that this needs to be covered because I can’t ever get away from constant discourse on this, mostly fueled by manga readers who feel entitled to always think they’re superior for reading the manga, that the manga is the only real canon, that it’s more complex or better, I’m so fucking tired of it. I am also a manga reader, and I tend to get like that sometimes too with many series (for example no. 6 and the promised neverland.) I get it. It can be really annoying to see something butchered on screen to what the original is, changed or represented differently or given a different message or simplified. But just. Some people like the anime and it’s not a goddamn holy war for y’all to fight. It only makes anime fans not want to read the thing even more yknow cause manga readers are pretentious assholes, and I am aware of this as one of them.

(again ok i’d like to mention i know this fandom is basically dead but a certain p*nterest is always like 4 years behind on fandoms so i keep fucking running into Discourse that’s like, still current, whenever i want old random ass content) (and youtube, why do i look at youtube comments, because I personally enjoy being offended? yeah probably)

And that brings me to the point of this anime vs manga. 

This is a lot harder to compare than a lot of other series, because there are just... so many more differences not just in the style and vibe but the story itself.

Disclaimer, I’ve never watched the anime for :re and i don’t intend to, because I honestly have no earthly clue how tf you can get from the highly diverged tokyo ghoul root A to re and make it make sense, and I don’t really want A ruined for me. So you can call me biased towards the manga in the case of re, i guess (which makes my eventual conclusion even more strong I’d say) Honestly I just see them as two completely different stories, the manga’s version connecting with re and A just like... ending there. So how we’re drawing the lines is basically tokyo ghoul A versus the manga and :re. God, I know this isn’t a fair fight because I already hate re so much, but I feel like the manga’s story is much more intertwined with :re than the anime’s is, so that’s what we’re going with.

oh god also another disclaimer this opinion is coming from the biggest fucking kanehide whore, you can disregard anything i say if you ship The Straights and/or do not care for my boi hide

To be honest, if I can take my own conclusions and liberties to the story, I like both versions, each have their pros and cons and kind of a conflicting message. They can’t really coexist. Usually I’d consume all versions and then create one consistent canon in my head for what I accept as the true events (for example my main owari no seraph, first season of the anime is canon but after that we only follow the manga since those can come together and make sense.) but it’s very hard to do that in tokyo ghoul, since I must confess... I really like root A. Like of course, it’s a lot different from the manga, but tbh I think it’s super valid. (unlike most Fans TM like this Fan TM who i’m sending this post to just to spite their singular Youtube Comment Section Discourse, yes I did write this post for you and many others like you) But the ideas that make up root A conflict a lot with the ones of the manga, so I just have to accept that they’re separate things and treat them as such.

Now to break it down so people can understand where I’m coming from I guess? God this is already so long here’s a read more

The Case for The Manga (including :re manga)

More Lore + Plot Shit: One of the main reasons that manga readers are pretentious little bitches is a valid reason, namely that, as is the case with most manga, there’s simply more to it than people can fit into an anime. (Although people need to understand that’s because,,, it’s simply a different medium, so it will have different pluses and minuses, such as for example a soundtrack, color, moving pictures,,, you know, all that. Anime onlys don’t say that the anime is better by stating these things that a manga won’t have... because they’re fucking obvious. So manga readers should stop acting like an anime is inherently sub-par for being less in depth, but we digress.) I can understand that reading the manga is kind of important for wanting to understand the lore (though there are like so many other reasons ppl might want to watch it other than to get the lore) and without the explanation of how all this came to be and how it works, everything tends to be really mysterious, confusing, and seemingly random. It’s really nice to know what’s all going on, of course, and stuff like the washuus, rize’s backstory, the explanation for like, kaneki in general, all that- if you’re looking for like, plot shit, manga is definitely your go to. But like, sometimes, you like, don’t actually care about those things.

Haise: Of course one of the most important things about well, including re is that I fucking love Haise. Like he is my favorite Kaneki. He’s just so wonderful, look at him in he glasses and he floofy hair and he striped pants and he energy boxers and he s p i c e and he MOM. And I really like how they took Kaneki’s character and developed it more with Haise, you can see his turnaround from innocent--> Emo--> Trying To Be Innocent Again But Failing and I think that’s really sweet tbh. I rejected that at first because I didn’t understand it but once I actually read re I thought it made a lot of sense and was a logical thing to do with his character. (though, uh, moving forward, after his hair changes again i disagree with it, haise 1.0 is a good take and i love him and i want the best for him) I could go on I’ve already written a post of what I think is wrong with :re so if you want to hear my take on kaneki’s 37 pokemon evolutions that’s in there

Good New Characters: And of course there are my favorite bitches such as quinx squad, oh my god, there was a terminal lack of dumbass squad vibes in the original and ishida fucking gave it to us, I love them, I love them with all my heart and I think that if I wasn’t attached to them I’d probably just cancel all of :re but like this is just my personal problem. God I love them. Ishida always pulls through with characters I’m now too attached to.

Vore Lmao:Ok like hear me out. I just get a laugh out of it every time the manga has to remind me of this little fucking fact. Like ok I just. Cannot get over it. It’s so serious about it too and like I realize it’s a serious deal but o h  m y  g o d

Ok and now that we’ve got that little rant over I do want to say that it is like actually really important past the “lmao that’s pretty gay” bit, like??? In some ways it’s more fitting than the anime because well, ishida’s point always seems to be “what would mentally and physically hurt kaneki the most right now” and does it because that’s who this bitch is. But it just?? Kind of makes a bit more sense for the storyline if we’re being picky here, it’s so,,, painfully on point? Like the entire reason he gave in to Being A Ghoul and all was so he could save his friends and shit (i actually do not remember if this was a thing in the manga but like? when he was being tortured and he like imagined hide being really mad at him and getting killed by jason and shit?) LIKE AND THEN HE GOES AND HAS TO BASICALLY BE THE PERPETRATOR OF THAT HIMSELF, FUCK, it’s a lose/lose situation of “don’t do the bad thing and watch your friends suffer” or “do the bad thing and watch your friends suffer but like, later” ishida please

The meaning of Hide being alive: Ok this is just me crying over chapter 75 still but like. Instead of in the anime, where hide’s point seems to be that instead of letting kaneki sacrifice anything more he’d be the one to give his life up and such, and save kaneki, in the anime tbh he just really wanted to be with kaneki right then?? and like ouch but understanding that in the manga he wasn’t just planning on dying and leaving kaneki to deal with it afterward he wanted to go on and continue to try to help the guy no matter the shit he had to go through, no matter if the dude just like forgot that he existed for two years and all- LIKE UH CAN WE TALK ABOUT HOW HIDE DOESN’T EVEN EXPECT ANY APOLOGY? like kaneki’s like “OH MY GOD I’M SUCH A TERRIBLE PERSON” and hide’s like lmao nah it’s cool i’m thriving- that his big motto was “live” rather than “peace out motherfuckers it’s been fun”. Cause. Fucking. Ishida. Can’t kill off characters well but like at least he made keeping this one alive justified. 

The D e t a i l s: Ok well I feel like this is something everyone knows but the anime is missing a lot of really,,, crunchy details that the manga throws in there, like, well, kaneki’s fucking,,, bones thing, and other assorted details, g o d like those are missable if you want to never understand half the memes but also like,,, sometimes you just gotta read that shit. It also like, makes more sense when you do but sometimes it’s just stupid things that aren’t important but are fucking hilarious.

The Flavor: In general I’d say the greatest difference between the anime and the manga is the general flavor of the thing, the vibe in the manga is a lot, to be frank, darker and grosser and bloodier than the anime, which is a lot more focused on being pretty and Tragic than “HOLY SHIT WTF” but like. That’s valid. With that comes it being a lot more, real, and although the art may not be as polished as the anime’s, sometimes that’s exactly what you need, and the really gritty sketchy shit that’s in the manga sometimes is exactly what it’s supposed to be for the manga. (in the anime, i’d say that the colored and polished style fits it better, so we’re good there.) It’s a lot more real, in the manga, when the anime hesitates to “go there” a lot (and well, sometimes that’s welcome, but sometimes it’s like y o u  g u y s  c o m e  o n  r e a l l y maybe i DID want to see that did you ever think of that)

So like, to sum it up i’d just like to say it’s more detailed, sharper and darker and is simply So Much. There is just More Content

The Case for Root A

ON THE OTHER HAND, (buckle up fuckers)

Depth of Emotion (that Ishida was too much of a pissbaby for): God like you know what I mean if you read the last post, we spent a whole episode on these gay fucks in root A, with backstory and dreams and drawn out suspense and emotion and GUYS LOOK AT THEM NO REALLY OH MY GOD YOU HAVE TO UNDERSTAND HOW IMPORTANT THIS IS whereas hide’s limelight in the manga is a whole... two pages, oh whoopee, and that’s mostly due to the fact of ishida putting himself in a spot of “oh fuck goddamn if i drew that in i’d get flagged for gay porn” but that’s his own fault, so he downplays the whole scene and really keeps it in the dark, whereas in this anime it’s understandably a lot less,,, like that, but how it plays out here is simply... really nice and makes you cry and shit, whereas in the manga I’d go “oh god oh damn oh fuck” *laughs my ass off because i really can’t take this seriously*. You get just... more here.

To elaborate on this, in the anime, as a gay fucking bastard, I can get practically an endless amount of content from episode twelve, and endlessly stew over all Those Things about it, every hard hitting line, the expressions, the music making it even sadder, the ways the VAs say the words, the cinematic beauty of the blood dripping on the floor and like how it’s supposed to make you think it’s kaneki’s, GOD I COULD FUCKING GO ON, but if we want to get that in the manga... 

we get three incredibly basic lines, a blackout, and then a “QUICK LET’S MOVE ON TO SOMETHING ELSE BEFORE ANYONE NOTICES THE IMPLICATIONS OF THAT HAHA”

So if we want to have more, we need to write it. (sadly) None of it is ever played out canonically so like,,, all we can do is infer and make shit up. It’s like, I am a writer so like that’s my whole job but I really would rather have more content, and have the content that’s there get to be emotional instead of *blank face* “this is plot that is happening, sadly” but like maybe it’s just bc i’m gay

Really Fucking Beautiful (aesthetically as well as story-wise): This kind of just goes hand in hand with the depth of emotion bit, and I think it can’t really compared to the manga here because I’m gay so I see pretty colors and cry so the anime is understandably appealing for me, but I’m also talking emotionally, yeah. There’s a lot of plotlines and implications of the story that are really well played out, I always love to watch the original because it does a very good job handling a lot of the harder topics and stuff that makes the whole thing worthwhile- like the whole point you’re supposed to see that the ghouls and humans are both just as monstrous when you break it down, that there are good and bad people on both sides, everyone just wants to live and feel good in their own life and perspective, everyone has reasons that justify their behaviour in their mind, sometimes you just can’t win no matter what, all that... they’re all really important messages and make the whole story, and they were handled much more delicately and with more expertise in the anime. 

It’s hard to pin down, but I feel like the manga was just based more on Fight Scenes Characters OoH Fake Science and kind of just gave kaneki infinite power ups after Trying Harder no offense, obviously those things were there and they were still very good in the manga it’s just sometimes they were cheapened a lot by ishida really not keeping track of what he’s trying to say with his story and sacrificing it a lot for “BUT WHAT IF KANEKI’S HAIR AND IDEALS CHANGED AGAIN” instead of making it a whole cohesive work. (and yes, I am VERY aware of your “well aCtuAlLy the hair represents his sanity” thing i know i know and i’m about to rip it to fucking shreds so)

Understandable Character Development And Staying True To It: Which brings me to this point, character development. This was another thing that was just... handled with more expertise in the anime, whoever was in charge of it. Mostly this has to do with Kaneki, since like, no offense but he’s the only one who ever gets much character development other than like, juuzou (asmr you only get character development if your hair color changes) oh and i guess there’s tsukiyama but he’s someone who shouldn’t have gotten character development. Touka gets character development only before re for some reason, and like tbh that’s kind of it. I do think Juuzou’s character development was valid, because well... it made sense? I complained about it before because I was like “well he just turns into spicy L” but i’ve since changed my opinion, he’s best boy. But Kaneki? They went way overboard with him in the manga, and generally? Calm tf down ishida.

Breaking it down, one of the main things that most of the tried and true manga stans seem to hate about the anime the most is Kaneki going over to Aogiri in root A. Since they’re much more acclimated to the manga, they don’t understand why he would do that (quoting a particular ‘probably made sense in the manga!’ yes i know that whole thing was poking fun at the show and i felt it lmao) and they just pin it to “ahaha he has now become Edgy for the fans ehehe time to make fun of him” and TO BE FAIR YOU’D BE COMPLETELY RIGHT. I love to make fun of Kaneki when he does his edgy bitch thing because that’s what he is. A basic edgy bitch who is just,,, such a main character. But like. He does actually have his reasons despite popular opinion and to be honest I think they’re a bit more valid than in the manga, where he’s just like “well I’ve been tortured, that was not pleasant and i kinda did a bad thing, let’s go back to anteiku but i’m just gonna Try Harder To Fight this time”. I can understand that, but like, it seems like in the manga every Character Development of kaneki is some form of “i will now be stronger” except for the singular “I will now be a different person” which, well, we’ll get to that. 

In the anime though, even if it seems like more of a basic edgy bitch move, it’s like?? It makes perfect sense to me, and to be honest more than the manga does? Obviously he doesn’t wanna be best bros with Aogiri, he realizes they’re all bad people who have done really terrible things, but the fact is he now sees himself as the same thing, he now understands their motives because in his mind he is also now Bad TM. His whole character development of being tortured was that peace wasn’t an option no matter how much he wanted it, he couldn’t live being a pacifist and the world was forcing him to give the “i am the only one that understands! we need to stop fighting!” bullshit up because there was no way to achieve it. He realized if he kept himself the way he was more people he loved would be hurt like they already had because he couldn’t, so he doesn’t just Decide To Become Stronger, he gives up his humanity. And that includes basically letting himself defend his own actions and try to do “the right thing”. 

Him then joining aogiri makes sense because well. They’re the people who are the strongest, who have the power, who are the same as he sees himself. He still wants to protect the people he loves, he just also realizes he can’t do it by working with them since he now understands that their more peaceful ways will by definition get them fucking killed. His understanding is flawed, of course. He’s not really right. But this is his understanding and from that it makes perfect sense for him to join up with aogiri and try to still do as much as possible from that standpoint, realizing that most likely the people he’s trying to protect will hate him for it. I think that makes sense to me, what do you not understand about it? (I also understand that may make some people mad because he’d Doing Bad Things but I point to you he’s so soft, remember when he was really nice to naki when he was literally the one who killed the guy naki was crying about? remember when he was doing a raid and he saw that guy hiding and he never mentioned it? remember like the seventy times he Cried TM, yeah he’s problematic obviously but if you want problematic I’ll point you to a certain fucking black reaper. Shironeki has nothing on that asshole.)

I think what Kaneki did in the manga was fine, but in general the anime (again) had more depth of understanding and emotion versus a steady Try Harder Get Stronger shonen deal, which, well, fair, but like, nah. Continuing why I think the anime dealt it better is the ending of A, which was a lot more well rounded then *kaneki gets stabbed and then there’s a lot of random plot shit going on in the background*. Here Kaneki then got to round out the end of his character development by realizing slowly through the second half of this season, him becoming a kakuja and then basically deciding like, not to

((kakuja kaneki was dealt with again different in the anime and manga because he basically stopped trying to use it in the anime bc he realized it was a bad fucking idea but this goes along with the ‘his character development of “i’m gonna do bad things for good reasons” --> “actually no wait that was a bad idea” was actually done in root A instead of being dragged out into :re and it’s appropriate for its own medium and the messages it’s trying to get across so manga loyalists hate it’ but we digress))

So in root A we got to see him actually develop and realize himself through the second half of the season starting with cochlea, his interactions with Amon, and ultimately through Hide, that he’d been doing the wrong thing by becoming more monstrous/fighting harder because what he did was ended up forgetting the most important thing, *smiles in gay* HIDE.(well, his humanity. yeah. i cite the terrible opening for root A with the fun ‘the hands taking off kaneki’s mask are hide’s’ bit.) He then remembered again why he wanted so bad to stop the war between humans and ghouls, he wanted to be able to live in peace and not have to be a monster- something that was not dealt with in the manga (though for understandable reasons of We Need To Fuck With Him In Re More, they then didn’t deliver on creating something like that later so I take this.)

That’s most of the difference between the original manga and anime, but I’d also like to discuss (briefly, I’ve already yelled about them) the ridiculous amount of hurdles ishida went through to fuck with kaneki in the manga, Of course there is the fact that well, the slower transition of his character does make some more sense for the manga because if you take :re into consideration, his eight billion character changes are more tolerable when they haven’t like, already happened before in the manga (just the anime). It makes more sense there for Haise to be tormented by past kaneki telling him He’s Too Weak because in the manga he hasn’t already had that development prior to “dying”, and he lost his memories still believing he had to be strong even if he did bad things, whereas in the anime it doesn’t track because at the end like i just said he kind of gives up his ghoulhood on purpose because he realizes that joining aogiri and fighting and shit was really wrong because, hide. So I can see why those character decisions were not made in the original when planning for :re, but... the fact remains that those previous decisions do not make up for how absolutely weak :re’s game ended up being with kaneki. 

So tldr this entire section, All the manga’s defense of how they handled Kaneki’s development is basically void because all those choices were buildup for development in :re which ishida then COMPLETELY fell down on. So the alternative is better.

And now comes my yelling about how exactly Ishida fucked it up: hair colors and kaneki’s 80 kanekis. If black is supposed to represent sane and white is supposed to represent insane or, whatever, i dunno, who tf thought black reaper kaneki was sane? Who tf would think kaneki in the end isn’t? I haven’t looked into this really, and I’d really love it if someone explained it to me the way ishida was going for bc I do not understand it. Like that tracks with Juuzou, and with Kaneki up to Haise Original, but they don’t really make a cohesive sense seeing as after Haise’s hair color changed again that whole deal kind of goes to shit. Not to mention... I just... they completely failed to make those character changes actually part of the story, I’m mostly complaining about black reaper haise, none of him makes any sense. What’s his deal? He wants to protect who he loves? Tracks with the ghouls but fun fact he abandoned his kids? He actually cared for them? What then, he wants to be the strongest as possible? Sure but then?? Why?? I don’t understand his motives at all.

We also didn’t get to see him get his memories back either, which I was actually very much looking forward to, it just,,, like all of a sudden he’s talking with eto about yoshimura and i’m like bruh when tf did that happen? It’s bad, and although chapter 74-76 is super valid, and his change back into white hair kaneki makes sense, I also have the complaint about how haise basically disappeared just like he was worried he would. I think that was bad and I’ve said that already, it doesn’t make sense, he just literally throws those entire two years away to go back to the way he was before he was with the CCG and just forgets everything he’s wanted for the last few years? Fiction logic test fucking failed, and you’ve also broken my heart. Love Haise. You got rid of him. I love kaneki too but like. Why don’t they just. Like. Merge. He is one whole complex person, not one and an imposter, god. 

This is a big negative for re and the manga, so automatically a positive for root A where I simply Do Not Have To Deal With That Bullshit and the character development actually makes sense. I can understand the decisions in the original manga could have set up for good development in :re, but they completely failed to deliver.

root a didn’t fast forward to re at the end god damn let us process this shit first before you try to connect it to something else: The thing with this point is that it’s really difficult to separate the original manga from the continuing story in :re because the thing intertwines so much and immediately moves us forward with a ton of plot points for the next part of the story before we’re done with this climax and the end of this story. Sometimes that’s ok and I can see doing that from an author’s perspective because you want people to continue reading your story instead of taking that as the end but it’s really annoying on a reader’s end, because I’m picky and I want to be able to just be able to enjoy my original canon without it like, metaphorically touching :re on a plate. It’s something that I don’t even do with my own longer stories, like for example I have like a trilogy of >100k fics that like, well i’m technically not done with them but like. 

People really like the first one because it’s more focused on a more popular ship and basic elements people like about the thing, and then by the second book it moves on to talk more about the plot and lore and brings in more secondary characters. And so I knew that a lot of the readers of the first one wouldn’t want to have to deal with a lot of the “oh well stuff is happening elsewhere that will effect stuff later!!!” random plot shit that none of my readers actually cared about. So I kept it to wrapping up the points of the first book and then leaving the introduction of new characters and plot for the people who actually wanted to read it. Ishida didn’t do that, and of course it’s within his right to like?? Want to promote the next series but I’d have enjoyed it more if we ended it at kaneki’s “death” and wrapping up the deals with the rest of the characters instead of quickly shoving in the beginning of seventy more plotlines before the book ends. Like honey I simply do not have the reading comprehension for that. In the anime we get something that... makes sense.

In the anime, however, it’s quite the opposite, for example the reveals like Eto=owl=takatsuki sen were pushed before that and they saved episode twelve for, well, the end bit. Like what was actually the ending. There were detriments to this I had to say (LIKE GUYS I GET IT HE’S CARRYING HIDE HE’S CARRYING HIM I GET IT YOU’VE BEEN DOING IT FOR HALF THE EPISODE NOW OK I UNDERSTAND CAN WE MOVE ON) But like, I prefer the concept of a simple idea with as much emotion squeezed out of it as possible to a ton of confusing and contradicting ideas that are touched on for a second before moving on. So the *cries for half an hour* ending was much more appealing to me, and I can keep that separate in my head from any of the ideas that :re creates, letting me pretend it doesnt exist and imagine that’s the end and there’s nothing else to worry about. If we want to move forward and hear more, then we can, but it isn’t necessary like it is with the manga.

No Bad Takes that are hard to pry apart from good plot and characters:This is basically the downsides of the new characters, which is well, if I had to make a whole ~keep reading~ post about how problematic everything in re was that does have to count as a downside. I love the new characters, but they also come intertwined with a thousand really bad takes on like, everything, and of course I can ignore it and just act as though they were written in like, to be perfectly honest, a non transphobic way, it’s a real downside when the original anime was pretty pain-free in the way of their takes on their characters. They fucked everyone up in re and I will not elaborate, we’ve talked about this, it’s just the anime, and which i mean season 1 and root A, don’t really have any bad takes I need to try to get rid of, it’s surprisingly something I have little complaint about at all and I ALWAYS have complaints.

Hide!!!!: Obviously, you can tell that a lot of my opinions are going to be hide based because he’s the only thing I ever think about. But we have to take into account just how... hide???? This goes a lot into the depth of emotion bit but it also offers the other side of the argument for Hide’s part in the :re manga, which well. Was mostly chapter 75 if we’re going to be perfectly honest here. He doesn’t get any other limelight. Even in the chapter where Kaneki meets him again he gets a whole what, three pages? In the manga, he has an extremely valid deal about basically, living, keeping going no matter what, and that is a fitting part for the manga, considering the rest of the points there ride more on Keep Fighting instead of Think About Your Emotions And Morals, but honestly chapter 75 was really valid. So why do I still think the anime’s version where he like (ok I don’t know about the re anime we’ve discussed this, i don’t even know how they choose to explain that) he like, dies in kaneki’s arms is better overall? Again, I would have totally accepted that deal if it was made a part of the story because it made me cry, it was super valid, and if they’d continued in that way I would have agreed with it completely over that. But the fact is again that they failed to deliver, and Hide got largely ignored, suffered so much with so little outcome. There was so much buildup and it was incredibly valid, but when the time came for them to meet again and basically show... why it was important that Hide lived in the end? 

They didn’t. They straight up didn’t. Kaneki’s like “oh sorry bro... glad you’re alive and all...” *goes off and fights* and like? Honestly? @everlastingspiral is right, if that’s all they’re gonna do with him what’s the point of keeping him alive? I love every single panel of him and I wouldn’t have read re if he didn’t, but hide gets absolutely NO payoff. For letting kaneki literally vore his entire mouth off, leaving him disfigured and unable to talk, then kind of disappearing for two years and doing seemingly nothing but trying to help kaneki even though he’d forgotten the guy existed, risks his life like a thousand fucking times, eventually gets back to him and the dude’s running a fucking anti-human organization, helps him like Not Be A Volitile Pile Of Flesh Anymore and then what should have been a very important moment of them meeting again gets completely overshadowed by touka and random plot shit and more fights and they barely interact, they don’t even hug or anything, they barely talk, and at the end hide is still there but to be honest he’s gotten absolutely no thanks for all he did and ishida acts at the end as though he’s done very well with hide and gives him a tiny bit at the end throwing in a tragic backstory for fun (which hot take he really didn’t fucking need on top of it all) and... there’s no real hint that Kaneki is better off with Hide there, even though there should be. In 75, in his dream, kaneki is sobbing and crying and all like i’m so lonely without you but when they actually meet each other again? “yo” “hey” “uh sorry about,,, the thing,,, you know” “nah man it’s ok” “let me talk about myself for a bit” “yes you always do do you want to hear what I’ve been up to” “not really” “that’s fine i’m only here to support you”

...So you can understand why I’ve gone a bit sour on that. If that’s all you’re going to give him? Hot take? Let him die. Hide deserves better. (and i will deliver that in writing, but for the purposes of canon.)

In the anime, however (not counting re again... although he still gets the short end of the stick just in the original manga too compared to the anime) he’s properly dealt with! he gets his proper limelight and he gets acknowledged for what he’s done thusfar in the story, which is already so much. Kaneki then realizes that, but it’s already too late (or it isn’t, and they like negotiate with the ccg and then they get to live happily ever after) either way he gets appreciated and he gets hurt, but it’s properly acknowledged. And after all that, after saving kaneki and getting him to the cafe and doing it all while bleeding the fuck out, he gets to spend that time with kaneki and die in kaneki’s arms. And frankly? That’s all I think he’s ever needed. It’s really poetic and pretty and brings kaneki’s character around full circle, and even if it’s overly sappy, cliche, drawn out... he gets the attention he’s due and he gets a fucking break. He wanted to show Kaneki he wanted to do something for him and save him instead of the other way around, but then HE GOT ACKNOWLEDGED FOR THAT, instead of just well, tirelessly working towards it forever and having to be content to be a background character with practically no value to Kaneki anymore.

Keeps The Same Vibe: The big thing about this is that with the manga and with re, shit just goes all over the place, and I feel like I’ve amply showed that already through this essay or whatever this is. Again about the consistency and the professionalism, It’s a concise story that makes more sense than the manga while also being simply neater and more deep, making sure all the points, themes and messages work together and make sense to create a cohesive deal even if it’s not as long. (the manga is like ishida had a TON of good ideas for an essay but then fleshed out the thing ten minutes before deadline and managed to completely lose what his original thesis was even if the thing was 10 pages long.) Basically. yeah. That kind of sums it up, my last point concerns the ending.

Not Cheap Ending: If you want to hear my take about how absolutely terrible re’s ending was, check out my The Many Sins Of Tokyo Ghoul :Re post, and we’ve discussed how the original’s manga ending was bad and well not really an ending, it just leaves you unfulfilled and takes you into “well I guess I have to start a whole nother sequel series ig...” but root A like? Actually ends it? If a reader didn’t know that there was any content after that, they could pretty much infer that hide’s death or almost death whatever you inferred out of that ending (again we’re ignoring re) allowed Kaneki to finish his character development and realize they needed to stop the war, which basically tracks with what’s going on in everyone else’s perspective- eto’s problem with the world because of what happened with everything, is basically like, all of aogiri, juuzou and shinohara, amon and akira and kaneki and they can realize all they have to do is just sit down and fucking stop it because none of them want to be fighting, hide is the catalyst for that because the CCG can see how Kaneki cares for him? And it’s so open ended that you could just like literally believe that and there’d be no way for that canon to tell you otherwise, or you could go onto re and whatever if you wanted to. I think that’s the best thing. 

In conclusion, both have valid points, and in general I’d say that the manga goes better with :re and the anime is better as a stand alone but if I had to choose overall, this particular anime is better (taking into account only seasons 1 and 2), for mostly the reasons of favoring a simpler story taken with much more care and depth versus a more complex story with many, MANY imperfect elements, and I am aware I will get shot on sight for this opinion. So sue me.

[august-anon]

Shark Attack

As I was reading this back, one last edit before posting, I was like "how are they holding their breath for so long" but yknow what, whatever lol, it's a fluffy fanfic I am allowed to take liberties lol. Hope y'all enjoy!

Also this was based both off a real-life game I used to play with a friend at my neighborhood pool (who I don’t think I’ve talked to in like 7+ years now actually lol) and off of THIS ancient prompt that I forgot existed so like,,,, whoops??

(Also I’ve had this written for like 2 months and I’m only now finally posting it whoops lol)

Fandom: Sanders Sides

Ship(s): platonic Analogical

Characters (lee/ler): Switch!Virgil, Switch!Logan

Word Count: 1209 words

Summary: Logan and Virgil are together again for summer break, and Virgil decides he'd like to play one of their childhood games to reminisce.

[ao3 link]

---------------------------------

It was summer break, which meant Logan and Virgil were finally back in the same city.

Going to different colleges (and colleges so far from each other) was difficult, but they knew they couldn’t put their futures on hold just because they’d miss each other. They made do with phone calls and texts and skype and discord, but nothing beat the real thing when meeting back at home during holiday breaks.

And of course, the preferred house between the two friends when home for the summer was Logan’s, seeing as he had a decent sized pool in his backyard (and a hot tub, but that was saved for the evening when things were cooling off finally).

In said pool was where they found themselves, now, in old swim trunks they dug out from piles of Logan’s old clothes because neither remembered to go shopping for a new pair. They swam around for a while, splashing and laughing and enjoying the difference between the cool water and the warm air.

Then, Virgil said, “Remember that game we used to play, like, ages ago?”

Logan snorted and splashed him. “You’ll have to be more specific, Virgil.”

Virgil rolled his eyes with a grin. “That--that shark attack game! We should play that, for old time’s sake.”

Logan shook his head with a fond smile. “Sure,” he said. “Though it’s probably not as fun as it was when we were eleven.”

“Shut up,” Virgil said, and dove beneath the water.

Logan snorted again and continued moving innocently about the water, awaiting Virgil’s “attack.” He could see Virgil’s form circling his legs under the water, but he paid little mind and kept swimming. The name of the game kind of gave away any element of surprise Virgil might’ve been able to hold onto.

After a few more moments, Virgil tugged on his leg. Logan went easily, allowing himself to be pulled underwater with a chuckle muffled between his pursed lips so he didn’t swallow any chlorine. Virgil grinned at him and swam up, and Logan followed soon after.

“So entertaining,” Logan said dryly as he slicked his hair back.

Virgil mock-scowled at him. “Come on, we loved this when we were kids.”

“Yeah,” Logan laughed. “When we were kids!”

Virgil gave him a set of puppy-eyes to rival Patton’s. “Just a couple rounds, alright? For the nostalgia.”

Logan sighed and gave in just as easily as before. “Alright, alright. I guess it’s my turn, now?”

Without waiting for a reply, Logan dove under the water. He trailed after Virgil as he walked across the shallow end and proceeded to swim into the deep end, treading water when he reached the middle. Technically, to “win,” you had to grab the other person’s ankle and pull them under, but it was so simple.

So Logan figured, why not update the rules.

With a strong kick, he propelled himself toward Virgil. Instead of grabbing his ankle to pull him under, Logan wrapped his arms around Virgil’s torso and tazed his sides. He heard Virgil yelp above the water before slipping under the surface to squirm out of Logan’s grip.

Logan breached the surface and immediately started laughing. Virgil popped up not long after, scowling at him.

“That’s not how you play!”

Logan shrugged. “I figured the rules could use a bit of spicing up.”

Virgil grumbled, and Logan thought he would protest further, but he relented rather quickly. 

“Fine,” he said. “Update your rules. I’ll show you.”

 Virgil dove beneath the water again. Logan swam around, but Virgil held off on grabbing him. Suspicious, Logan swam over to where he could stand and just barely keep his head and shoulders in the water. 

Then, Virgil attacked. Predictably, he still went for Logan’s ankle, pulling his foot off the pool floor. Unpredictably, his fingers were suddenly scritching away at the bottom of Logan’s foot in the most horribly ticklish fashion.

Logan squealed at the unexpected feeling and it briefly slipped his mind that the whole point of the game was to fall under the water. He started trying to hop away, tugging his foot to try and escape the feeling. He toppled into laughter as he realized he couldn’t escape. The water slowed his movements too much, and he couldn’t get enough strength behind them to throw Virgil off.

It wasn’t until Logan felt Virgil’s pinky start drilling slowly between two of his toes that he took a deep, giggly breath and fell beneath the water to fight Virgil off. The second his head went under, Virgil pulled away from the tickling and darted up. They were both gasping for air when the reached the surface.

“Tickling?!” Logan said. “Really?!”

Virgil shrugged with a smug grin. “You wanted to change up the rules,” he said. “So I changed up the rules.”

“I’ll show you ‘changing up the rules,’” Logan growled, but he was smiling, too.

He launched himself at Virgil with a shout, and Virgil squealed and darted away. There was a lot of splashing and accidental-chlorine-swallowing in the following scuffle, but eventually Logan dragged Virgil into his grasp, holding him tightly, back to chest, as they thrashed where they now stood in waist-deep water.

“That wasn’t even a new rule!” Logan said as he dug his fingers into Virgil’s sides, right at the waist. “You pulled that all the time when we were kids!”

Virgil shrieked and laughed, struggling in Logan’s grip. “No, that was you!” He argued through his cackles.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Logan replied, moving to dig both hands into Virgil’s stomach. “I took that game very seriously.”

“Jerk!” Virgil squealed at tummy tickles, finally thrashing enough to slip from Logan’s grip.

They didn’t stay separated for long. Virgil immediately lunged back at him, wrapping him in a tight hug so they were chest to chest, arms wound so far around him that they were able to dig straight into Logan’s hips.

Logan borderline screamed and was suddenly slightly worried about the neighbors calling the cops on them. He cackled and thrashed, but it was much harder to escape than he thought it’d be, with them both dripping in water. Virgil had too good of a grip, and Logan was weak and off-balance from the laughter and he couldn’t get the leverage to thrash away.

“Virgil!” He cried out through his frantic, borderline-hysterical guffaws.

“Yes, Logi?” Virgil grinned against his neck, blowing a quick raspberry there before making a disgusted sound. “Oh, gross! Not doing that again, you taste like pool.”

If Logan wasn’t already laughing from the maddening tickling, he would’ve been laughing at that. As it was, his laughter was starting to get a bit wheezy and his strength was fading even faster. Virgil must’ve noticed, because he let Logan go after just a few more moments.

“Truce?” He said with a grin, holding out his hand for Logan to shake.

Logan rolled his eyes, frame bouncing with residual giggles. “Truce,” he said, grabbing Virgil’s hand.

Virgil tugged Logan back into his side instead of shaking his hand, locking him in a headlock to give him a noogie.

“Virgil, quit!” Logan laughed, shoving at Virgil.

Needless to say, the truce did not last, and a lot more roughhousing followed.

[poppytuft]

i can’t figure it out, and i think when it comes down to it it’s just the plain and simple fact that i have too many faces.

i do this a lot. people don’t always see it and it isn’t always clear to those who don’t look, but i can spell it out for you if you ask or if you take the time to notice. look, here it is: i am an actor.

and i don’t mean that i lie. i do, but not about what you’re thinking. not about feeling, not after middle school, but i am still an actor—so i have a lot of faces.

there are a lot of things i hide, okay? and you can read all my letters and attend all my shows and sleep under all my sheets but you still won’t know me. most people don’t know me. people don’t like me, they like the me i put up for them. people like to think i have it together. i don’t. people like to think they see me fully. they don’t. they see what i let them see.

and i think this is what scares me. that i showed her, yknow, some of the most “me”s that anyone had ever seen, and she went and called me a manipulator, and a bully, and non-empathetic, and a spineless bitch! so i guess there’s a part of me that believes the core faces i have really are those things. and i hide them.

so when you like me, i doubt you like, yknow, me. because you like what i let you see. you like gentle hands and you like laughing in a courtyard and being an active listener. you like counting for a swear jar and swallowing judgement that has been bred into me like i’m a show dog for gossip and you like hearing me say your name. you like when i look at you but still can’t always look you directly in the eyes, or maybe i look too intensely, because my social anxiety kicks in and i go on autopilot.

you don’t like the trenches. which, okay! we all have trenches. but these are bad, and ugly, and they make me sick to think about. people don’t know about what is buried between mud and gore here and i don’t like to tell them. but vulnerability voluntarily means they have to know. and then i am put up for judgement.

(it is here, where i am a manipulator and a bully and a spineless bitch, by the way.)

this masquerade tells another story. one with which i am poison fanged and angry. i fantasize about tearing everything i have down and sinking my teeth into the people i love just because i know that my words hold that weight, that with one sentence and a well timed snark i could ruin everything. it is here that i know that i am a lighthouse, and i can guide any ship to any harbor and you may think you are in control of a situation but i am the one guiding you home, you see, and i will take whatever secrets you will give me and hoard them in the captain’s log. and in the past, i cried crocodile tears and i wailed at the thought of people i love leaving me in the hopes that they would pity me. i fished for days and never caught a carp. even just yesterday, i spat out words like they were teeth and laughed in the face of reality and still, now, i hate the people i am supposed to love the most but i would never tell them. i believe i am a god, i know in my chest i am a saint and i am better than you and i want to rub it in your face but i don’t, i contain this and instead i smile gently and tell you everything is going to be fine, while my body contorts in my mind’s eye to a jungle song of perverse pride and greed. i am stingy, i am gluttonous, i am cruel.

so those are the trenches. this is what i am dealing with here. so it will never truly be someone else’s fault. and i have a hard time saying this (this is a trench in of itself, okay?), which makes this all the harder to verbalize that i am terrified of loving when they don’t know me in this way. people leave when they find out, people wrinkle their noses at me and i laugh it off and take note and compartmentalize instead. so i don’t let them see it at all, and people end up enjoying the company of a girl who doesn’t exist. (the child inside of me, however, does, and it is very angry.)

and yknow, i realize to an extent i’ve always been this way. i don’t like people in ways that really, really mean something to me until i have them for a year or so and they see me for a year or so and even then that’s not a guarantee. there’s some sort of tint on romance for me, but they aren’t rose colored lenses. grey, maybe? half moon glasses and something soft and shapeless in my hands. it has always taken me longer. i never understood how you could like someone without really knowing them. that truly blows my mind. i could never, ever imagine loving someone without having any basis of a connection with them and i guess that’s why this time is working out so well for me emotionally? so i guess it isn’t totally her fault, but i don’t think getting a knife twisted in my gut helped very much. trauma is one hell of a drug.

i hide a lot. people don’t realize it. whether they choose not to or i just have secured my masks that well, i’ll never know. but i have a lot of guilt, over this. i know people want to know me. i want them to know me too! i just can’t get it to happen. i keep spoonfeeding them a superficial stew of “me”s and hope they get enough flavor to guess the mystery meat in the bottom of the pot. i should probably give up, i think, and resign myself to the fate of eight, but i can’t bring myself to do that either. i am obsessed with being seen. i guess i just want to know how your me fits in with my me and how to curate the catalogue of personas to fit you just right. i want you to be happy with your purchase, don’t i?

fucking hell, this whole thing is a mess. i am exhausted, and tired of how complicated i make things. (trench number three: i can’t communicate for shit. i am a huge pussy bitch. i am terrified of hurting any feelings so i generally make things worse instead of dealing with anything. my mom dug this one for me, actually! go mommy issues, aka trench number four—but that’s a different story.)

(besides that, it’s pretty roomy inside here, if you ignore the blood and rats. do you want to take a seat?)

[ravs6709]

How did you figure out you were asexual? I'm questioning whether or no I'm asexual, and wanted to hear what advice you had..

Not gonna lie anon, I really needed that ask. While I'm ace and proud, there's still that small part of me that internalizes stuff, and I've gone on rants in my head, but to be able to articulate my thoughts is super helpful. And wow, I'm honored that you came to me!

Because you asked me about being ace, I didn't really talk about me being aro (two completely different experiences for me). If you wanna know more about me being aro, just ask!

This is super rambly and it includes a lot of details that are very likely unnecessary, but I think that to me, they mattered a lot or give context. I'm gonna put a read more just for convenience sake.

My mom's one of those parents who kinda brought up the topic of marriage and the future when I was really young. Jokes about "your future husband..." (yeah, that's why I have stuff internalized). I can't really remember a time she didn't do it. All I remember was that she said I wasn't allowed to date until I'm an adult at least

Me being like... 10 was like, "ew dating" because I'm sure a lot of young people would be like that. Or maybe not, who knows. Maybe it's because my parents aren't lovey-dovey whatsoever (let's not delve into that).

I never vibed with the concept of kissing and dating and all that, but in my head, I kinda just figured that oh yeah, I guess when I do grow up, I'll get a crush on some guy and yknow, romance?

Fast forward like, 3 years, its middle school. My friend reads kotlc and fangirls over Keefex. I read kotlc, and see that Keefex is a gay ship. Me back then didn't actually know what being gay was, so when I learned that mlm relationships were a thing, I immediately did research

Found the LGBT community. From there, I found asexual. And well, I still never really vibed with romance and sex, so well, when I found it, I just thought that it described me at the time.

It took a little bit before I properly started iding as both aro and ace though. My confusion wasn't as much towards the ace part as it was being aro. I still hardly knew what sex was at the time, tbh, but I knew that the health classes had always made me queasy. So I realized that nah, if just the mention of parts made me nauseous, sex itself was worse.

Im sure my experience is kinda common, the feeling of being disgusted at the topic of sex and genitals and all that (it took me years to even say or type the word sex, and I'm a little more open to hearing about it, but would prefer not to). For me, being ace was actually easy to figure out, because I always had the feeling, I just didn't realize that it was actually important, and that there was a name.

But I also know that some people aren't disgusted, it's just that they don't vibe. It's different for everyone. Some people are even fine with sex, they can read and hear and watch and have no problems, its just not something that you want.

Now this isn't quite the same, but I guess one easy question you can ask yourself is, "do I want to have sex?"

[Edit. Ace people can want to have sex. The question is about feeling attracted to another person. Like, looking at a person and thinking, "oh, do I want to have sex with them?"]

Another thing is, asexuality is a spectrum. There's being full on ace, which is what I am. But there's being demi, which is when you're close and have a bond with someone. And grey just means that it's super rare. There's others, but I'm not familiar with the terms yet.

Non ace people can answer no, but ace people will mostly likely say no, or at least, that's how I think it would be.

[Second edit, but I say this as an sex-repulsed ace, but some are neutral or even favorable. If you don't fit in with being repulsed, that's okay!]

I think the most important part of what I'm going to say is here though. Sexuality is fluid. It changes. So if you choose to id as ace now, but then you don't later, you're not betraying anyone. I promise, your feelings are valid.

I hope that my advice helps you sort through your feelings a little. And even if it doesn't thats okay, it's okay to question yourself! Also, if you have any other questions, I will gladly take any other asks, or you could pm me. I'm always up for discussing about experiences being ace!

[waterfallwritings]

15 Questions Tag - again!

@livvywrites immediately tagged me back in this after I tagged her because she wanted to see it done with another one of my characters!

Your wish is my command~

Rules: answer these fifteen questions as one of your characters and then tag 15 people

I will be doing this one as Adrian! My favourite loveable dumbass fish boy. I’m going to do it from the perspective of if this was Morgan asking the questions, in particular Morgan post finding out that Adrian is a triton— cause she figures it out in like what chapter five I think? Idk. This way he doesn’t have to hide that fact and you can get some actual answers!! Oh and written from some rando narrators perspective, aka not how ASH is actually written.

Oh yeah and Adrian doesn’t speak, remember? Lol.

~~~~~(I would put a readmore but I’m on mobile. Sorry!!)~~~~~~

1. What is your full name?

He grabs the parchment and quill and scribbles out the letters. He pauses, seeming to look at the paper fondly, before handing it to Morgan. ‘Adrian Cadmus.’ It says. Adrian is smiling.

<< I haven’t been able to share my last name in so long... it feels good.>> He signs to her.

2. What does your name mean?

Still smiling, he signs,

<< I was named after the—>> stopping, he grabs the paper back and flips it over. Unfortunately the homemade sign language doesn’t yet cover everything.

‘Adriatic sea’ he writes.

<<As for my last name..>> he continues, sighing. His smile is gone. <<I was told it means ‘brave warrior’. In... my home, it tells of a night. Sword. Role. Given name. >>

“Wait, you were a knight in Myrddin? Is that what you’re trying to say? Are you kidding me?” Morgan exclaims.

<<... yes>> Adrian signs hesitantly. Morgan shakes her head in disbelief.

3. Do you have any nicknames or other names?

Adrian pauses. His hands then float in the air for a moment, as he searches for words. His eyes are downcast.

<<no...no one has ever given me a nickname. I am always Adrian or just another night.>> he glances up at Morgan.

<<you have called me ‘fish boy’ twice, but neither seemed... well. Positive.>> He drops his hands into his lap. Morgan sighs.

“Remind me to tell Miles that you need a proper nickname.” Her tone is edged with sarcasm, but Adrian lights up.

4. What is your gender?

The seemingly eternal look of confusion appears on Adrian’s face.

<<what is...?>> he trails off.

“Ugh. Nevermind. For human reference, your answer to that question is that you’re a man, okay? Like human?” Adrian nods.

5. What is your sexuality?

Cue the confused look again.

Morgan sighs and shakes her head.

“Like, who are you attracted to, who do you like, what type of person would you, uh, well, mate with, I guess?” Morgan explains awkwardly.

<< why do you want to know that?>>

Morgan smirks, and glances around to make sure Miles isn’t anywhere nearby.

“Oh you know me... curious as ever...”

Adrian sits there for a few minutes, thinking. Staring out at the sea. Morgan becomes impatient and clears her throat loudly.

<<human, or...?>> he hesitates, then points to himself.

“Whichever. Whatever.”

<<Well,>> he signs, pausing. << I normally just admire females of my people. But personality is what matters to me most.>> He scribbles on the paper again.

‘Loyalty. Honesty. Compassion. Happiness.’ He writes.

6. Where are you from?

Adrian gives a lopsided but knowing smile.

<< You want to know about—my, under, water, city?>> he struggles to find signs they’ve created that can express what he’s trying to say.

Morgan glares. “Yeah yknow, the one selkies aren’t ever allowed in.”

<< Marble. Elegant. Everyone has a strict role. But poor too. Most happy anyway. Ruled by crown. Crown makes those rules, not me.>> he tells her. Her glare does not subside. They move on.

7. How old are you?

.... <<how old do I look?>> he asks instead of answering, after a moment of thought.

“Um. I don’t know. In human years, maybe mid twenties?” Morgan suggests. Adrian smirks- and he doesn’t smirk often.

<< What if I told you I was two hundred and eight years old as a.... fish person?>> they don’t yet have a word for triton. He awaits a reaction. Morgan pauses.

“I believe it,” she decides.

<<what, really?>>

Morgan shrugs and nods. “Why not?”

8. What is your magic form designation?

<<.... Morgan, you know what I am. And now you know I was a night. What more?>> he asks.

“Fair point. You had fins and scales and stuff right?” He nods.

9. What does your human form look like?

“Don’t give me that look, just, describe it. Yourself. In your own terms.” She explains. Adrian is still a bit confused, but he listens. Which is nothing new to him.

<< I have shoulder length black hair... narrow face, green eyes like the sea.>> he pauses and looks at Morgan. <<slightly different skin colour than you... darker. Slightly. Stronger than I seem.>> Morgan scoffs at the last bit.

10. What is your aesthetic?

[[ after Morgan, slightly annoyed, explains what an aesthetic is to him ]]

<< Ah. Green ocean foam. A purple sunset. Stars. ..... My old spear.>> He decides.

11. Who is your best friend?

[[ after Morgan briefly explains what a best friend is: ]]

Adrian’s eyes light up like fireworks after the explanation.

<< Oh! Miles! That is Miles. Yes. >> His face softens into a small, warm smile. << I have a... best friend. Miles is my best friend.>> He seems to be signing automatically, but speaking to himself, as if the realization had just dawned on him.

<< I don’t think I’ve ever had a best friend before.>>

“Okay okay I get it, I already knew the answer it’s very obvious. Now stop it with the mushy sap, ugh.” Morgan groans.

12. Would you ever get a tattoo or piercing?

[[ after Morgan explains what they are. Complains that Miles is normally the one explaining everything to him, and how on earth does he do it all. The. Time. ]]

<< mm... would it stay when I... go fish?>> he asks, catching Morgan off guard, who starts laughing loudly and has to clamp a hand over her mouth so she doesn’t attract attention.

“W— when, when you, go fish?” She cries, laughing again. “What, a-are you playing cards now??”

Adrian huffs.

<< we really need a word for what I am. But to answer, maybe to the permanent photo. None of the hole with metal through it though. >>

13. When are you the happiest?

Adrian turns and stares out to the sea, and his features darken. It takes him several minutes, despite Morgan’s nudges and annoyances, to return to their conversation.

<< For now, when I am spending time with Miles and can see the ocean.>> He finally signs. But untold emotion swirls begins his eyes.

14. What is your biggest secret?

Morgan smirks as she asks. She isn’t expecting much of an answer— or the fact that he’s not human as his answer. But his face is still dark and gloomy after the last question. With no emotion on his face, as if he’s holding it back, he signs;

<< I did a very very bad thing, years ago. No one can ever know. Not here, not there. I was just trying to defend an innocent.>>

His lip quivers. Morgan stares at him in shock.

Tears start to well up in his eyes, his face trying to push them back down.

Uh oh.

“Uh—I— I’m going to go get Miles for you. Um. Uh. I’m sorry. Miles!” Morgan sputters before running off.

————————————————-

((15th question was if he has a sidekick, which he doesn’t, and I figured here was a better more natural ending, considering.))

Since this ended up being quite long & quite informative about certain things in ASH, I’m going to put the taglist. Anyone in the taglist who hasn’t done this tag game before is now tagged to do it!!

PS. Quill? QuillOfTheClouds? Mate? I think I’m gonna pretend that this conversation is canon & happened in the three day time skip before they docked and left the ship. Maybe. Probably. I’ll just add a mention that Adrian and Morgan spent a few minutes together during that time. Or something. It’s too much dialogue to actually write in.

Taglist: @quilloftheclouds , @abalonetea , @penzag , @livvywrites , @bookish-actor , @bookenders , @starrywritingg , @atbwrites , @lordhoekage , @royalbounties , @maple-writes @writings-of-a-narwhal , @yeraswifey , @smudged-glasses-writing s , @tenacious-scripturient , @sunlight-and-starskies , @marlettpines @disfunctionaldeity-writes , @fandom-child-4life , @mezvii , @purpleshadows1989 , @phahbiyah

[0nlywateristheriver]

My Second Wife

Link to story with original pictures: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1O9-fjebl_2IBrzJxBdK0zVDJ04gQLD7zc6BzmBJLzDw/edit?usp=sharing 

@doctor-of-fair-play

My Second Wife

@onlywateristheriver

After over a thousand years married to the woman, the Doctor had gotten the knack of pinpointing about where River was along her timeline, without the aid of their diaries. They had to have been married by now - she looked older than she had that day. As of yet, however, River didn’t seem to know her which, despite being a bit offensive, also offered the opportunity for a bit of fun…

“D’you know?“ the Doctor couldn’t help but have the corner of her mouth twitch into a smile just barely contained. River had pulled this on her once, though now she realized that River might have been talking about her. Timelines. “You remind me of m’second wife. Well, second proper wife… there were a few others just for the fun and the party. The resemblance, s’uncanny. Course, her hair’s a bit curlier, and she has this nasty habit of carrying ‘round weapons. Once shot m’hat! Very rude. Never carry ‘round weapons, makes you look weak,“ she paced around River, tapping a finger against her holster, “Naughty, naughty. And… this is the silly bit. She’s an archaeologist. Can you imagine it? Time travelin’ archaeologist. That’s cheatin’! Don’t you think that’s cheatin’?”

onlywateristheriver

River’s eyes narrowed as the woman in front of her went on about weapons and hats and archaeology. “I’ll have you know, archaeology is the best way to find some of the most precious things that would have otherwise been lost to time. I was lost when I went to university and becoming an archaeologist helped me to find the best thing in my life. Led me to it again and again. And saved my life and the life of those I love more than once, so don’t you go on about weakness and silliness and cheating.” River tutted.

doctor-of-fair-play

The best thing in my life. Did she mean…? The Doctor stood a little straighter, a curl of guilt moving inside her. She’d never really stopped to think, stopped to consider… Anthropology she could understand, she was a bit of an anthropologist herself, but archaeology? Climbing about in the dust, going through old scraps of papers and wisps of lives long since ended when all of it was there, within reach, when one was to just step past the barrier of time. Alive and real.

“M’sorry. I was just havin’ a bit of fun.” The Doctor pulled up a chair, leaning in a bit closer to her wife, “S’really important to you, isn’t it? S’not just a way of… Why though? When you can step out in the world, amongst the living, why limit yourself to fragments? S’a vortex manipulator, isn’t it?” the question didn’t sound very convincing, she barely even glanced down at it. “You could go back, see it all for yourself. Nothin’s really lost.”

onlywateristheriver

“I didn’t have this from the beginning. I was left on my own with nothing. I had to find my own way with nothing but my own will and determination. All I knew was that there was someone I needed to find. Someone who could be anywhere, anywhen. I was as weak as a kitten and as knowledgable as a newborn. But I grew up fast and I used what I had around me. Archaeology was the best way to find what I needed. It’s served me well.”

River leaned back in her chair and looked the woman up and down. “Why am I telling you any of this anyway?”

doctor-of-fair-play

“Just have one of those faces, people can’t help but talk when I’m around. Sometimes. Honestly, I’ve not the knack for it I used to.” It was probably the height. Or the breasts. The Doctor leaned forward, elbows on the table, and twirled her straw around the emptying glass.“And, I mean, m'also your husband and I’ve been dropping hints all night. So there’s that. Really, River, you’re usually quicker on the uptake. How many people d'you think have a time travelin’ archaeologist for a wife?”

onlywateristheriver

River stared for a good minute or two at the woman in front of her. It was the eyes that finally convinced her. “I never thought I’d see you again.” Slowly she smiled. “And I certainly never came across this in my research. How long has it been for you?”

doctor-of-fair-play

The Doctor waited for some reaction from River, trying to read the expressions that passed over her face. Eventually, River smiled and a smile brightened the Doctor’s face too. “Y’know me, m’like a bad penny.” Her smile wavered, the unwelcome memory of their last goodbye pressing into her mind. “Been a while on my end, haven’t seen you since a bit before I last regenerated - don’t think you’re there quite yet. M’two thousand and something if that’s any help?”

onlywateristheriver

“Two thousand? It has been a while then. For me as well. I haven’t seen you in probably a hundred years, maybe a hundred and fifty?” She tried to hide the sadness that always surfaced when she realized how long the Doctor had left her alone. She knew they couldn’t spend all of their time together, that was dangerous. But she still missed him, ‘her’ she corrected, terribly when they were apart.

“I’m glad you found a way to go on. I know you were worried that you were at the end.”

doctor-of-fair-play

“S’not what I was worried about. But you know me, never liked endings.“ She let out a slow breath, hands stuffed in her pockets, and looked inside the cafe. The light of the grimy fixtures shone a warm gold, and the clink of dishes and silverware, the murmur of voices could be distantly heard. It would be better to laugh, better to pretend they weren’t both moving towards a goodbye, than to stand out here in the rain speaking of things that couldn’t be changed. “Come have dinner with us. I think you’ll like them, m’friends. And there’s a lot of catchin’ up we have to do, you and me. All the bits we missed.“

onlywateristheriver

River took a deep breath and put on a smile she didn’t really feel. “Okay. Lead the way.”

doctor-of-fair-play

Slipping a hand into hers, the Doctor led her back into the cafe. The chill of the rainy evening faded as the door closed behind them, though the Doctor’s hair was dripping and her shirt was tight to her skin, sticking and cold. She gladly slipped back into the booth, as it was near to the faux fireplace in the corner which gave off a very real glow of warmth from glowing plastic logs. Humans, they couldn’t just stick a space heater in the corner. Very few races were so focused on the ‘atmosphere’ of a place.

“We got you both another round of hot chocolates,“ Graham said, holding one out to each of them. The Doctor took hers gratefully, wrapping icy fingers around the warmth of the mug. “I’m amazed you’re not half froze, standing out there.“

“So is one of you going to explain?“ Ryan asked. “I didn’t take you for the married sort, Doctor.”

Yaz gave him a nudge under the table with her foot - the Doctor knew this because she missed Ryan and caught the Doctor’s shin instead. “What he means is, we thought you’d have been around, River? We were just saying, we’re a bit surprised we haven’t met you before, that’s all.”

onlywateristheriver

So, they were going to hold hands then. They’d never actually done the couple-thing before. Not with anyone they actually knew personally outside of her parents and not even then, as her dad had always been a bit overprotective for the brief moments they’d had as dad and daughter. River found that she liked it very much. She didn’t release her wife’s hand even when the older man held out the hot chocolate for her. “Thank you.”

She turned to the girl. “Well, the Doctor and I have had such an interesting history, always meeting out of order. Has she told you about any of it?”

doctor-of-fair-play

No. The answer was ‘no’. She’d not said a word. So many names she never let past her lips, because it hurt too much, because she didn’t want to scare her new friends by letting on how many had been lost while she’d carried on. The Doctor, such a survivor. Always living while those she loved… Perhaps the tension showed - a tightness in her neck, an expression on her face - because Yaz seemed to understand and saved her. “I think we scared the Doctor off talking about personal things when she let on she was two thousand and we threatened her with two thousand birthday parties.”

A small look of confusion touched against Ryan’s face, for she’d once mentioned her age in passing but there had been no talk of parties, but he caught on after a moment, “Right yeah.“

“Love a good party, me,“ the Doctor said, feeling able to take a breath, “but so many candles. Don’t really want to be blamed for another fire - Rome was bad enough.” She took a sip of her hot chocolate. “Why don’t you tell them ‘bout the Byzantium, dear? That was a good one. This one decided the best was t’drop by the TARDIS would be to fling herself out another ship’s hatch.”

0nlywateristheriver

“Two thousand birthday parties? I don’t even think she’s ever had even one.” River nudged the Doctor with her shoulder. “Dad and I tried to throw him a surprise birthday party once. Mum was supposed to keep him occupied for a couple of hours. They didn’t come back for two days! He never could quite explain why, but I think Mum had let it slip somehow what we’d been planning.” River’s eyes got misty for a moment.

She gathered herself back together. “The Byzantium. Right. You were so young then.” She smiled at the Doctor then winked at Yaz. “He looked about twelve years old, and so easy to get all flustered. Particularly when I landed right on top of him when he pulled me into the TARDIS.”

[tumblunni]

Gradually working my way thru learning about the yokai watch 3 villains, lol. Cant manage to restrain myself from taking just a teeny lil peek at spoilers! I blame that person drawing all the super awesome redemprion headcanon comicry with the cute oc YOU HAVE CURSED ME WITH YOUR GREATNESS

Ok so apparantly mafia ghost dude fuckin loves space and then GOT EXILED TO SPACE FOR 555 YEARS?? His only fuckin crime at the time was believing in ufos and everyone else was like 'nah bro' LIKE CMON UR LITERALLY GODDAMN GHOSTS BUT ALIENS IS TOO ABSURD FOR YOU??? So somehow this dude ended up making it to space and getting trapped on a meteor completely alone for like a bazillion years and holy shit no wonder he turned evil. Like what sort of ironic karma bullshit is it to be like 'i heard u like this thing how about we lock you up there forever unable to move or scream'.

Also seriously AGENT X WAITED 555 YEARS TO SET HIM FREE AND MAKE HIS DREAMS COME TRUE!!! He says he has no regrets! Aaaaa man i really think this whole plot would be even more emotional if they were a couple. Im just getting that vibe!! Im sorry i cant help it u give me two weird ghost dads in stylish suits and a I'LL WAIT FOR YOU FOREVER plot and a MY ONLY DREAM IS SEEING YOUR DREAM COME TRUE and just seriously man look at that quality ship angst. WHY NO HAPPY ENDING THO

And i'm just thinking now about how emotional their reunion probably was. Like i'm imagining Agent X has a hard time being honest about his feelings cos yknow ghoulfather is the boss of the organization and so far out of his league and such. (And he totally doesnt realize that he's his super valued second in command) So when ghoulfather comes back he's probably wrestling with his gut instinct to run forward and embrace him, because Seriously He Is Your Superior It Will Never Happen, Why Am I Like This. So he's just trying to play it all cool and be like "welcome boss i was totally confident that our plan would work and not incredibly depressed for the last few centuries umm here's your coat" And that thing where the character is crying but they dont notice until they put their hand to their face!! That! That scene!! Have one of those in there, yes! And then possibly mid sentence ghoulfather cuts him off and hugs him, and theyre both just finally honest about how much they missed each other. Aaaand then probably five seconds later theyre like *ahem* *professional voice* "well better get back to work"

Also the game probably wouldnt go into any detail with stuff like muscular atrophy or readjusting to earth gravity or the sheer level of phobia that must be in this man's brain from the constant isolation and how hard it must be to adjust back to talking to people when all he's had for so long is his imagination. But fics can explore all that recovery progress! This is our power, to heal the sad villains with our words!

I was just randonly thinking a sweet date scene for them early on in this plot could be Agent X and Ghoulfather going to a random italian restaurant NOT because its a date totally, but just because its been so long since he's been on earth and its something that could maybe cheer him up. But then they just end up complaining together about how modern restaurants in america are so often not run by italian people and have all this weird american versions of stuff, so it ended up not being very memorable after all. Also crappy wheelchair access! (Cos he'd still be recovering at this time) So yeah it ends up being weirdly fun and romantic for two hours of getting pissed off at terrible service. Getting pissed off at terrible service... Together~!

Also probably eight days later Ageny X suddenly realizes "holy shit taking my boss out to a candlelit restaurant just the two of us is MAYBE slightly flirty". I feel like he's a bit of a disaster at expressing his feelings and only ever manages to make the first move when its accidental. But also has like a natural charisma of accidental flirting which means half the damn mafia has a crush on him, lol. Oh also i was considering like a love triangle thing with rongo? But not any of the stereotypical awful love triangle fighty plots. Just rongo having a crush in agent x and sadly agent x was already in love with ghoulfather and doesnt recipricate. But theyre still best friends even though agent x turned him down, and now rongo is the only one who knows about agent x's crush on ghoulfather and he tries to play ultimate wingman between the two. Like 'i want you to be happy even if it isnt with me!!' So he'd probably be the most pissed off if ghoulfather ever betrayed agent x's trust, i feel like agent x would just blame himself for it and rongo would stand up for him like DAMN DUDE DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH HE MISSED YOU WHEN YOU WERE GONE, YOU RIGHT DENSE BASTARD? That sort of conflict between them, not the more cliche conflict of all three people in a love triangle just being all jealous and secretive and dumb.

Oh also unrelatedly i think Slackerjack and Rongo would be friends? Cos the only time ive seen that slackerjack has any dialogue about him he calls him "a good boy who's quite loud but means well". I can imagine Slackerjack being like that nice grandpa who comes to all of 'little rongo''s music recitals, lol. Or like that meme of 'momma needs her tunes' *death metal blares*. He has all of rongo's cds! Ok actually that mental image is super adorable of this big rockstar dude being like 'omg grampa look im here omg i have to make you proud'. I just feel like rongo is 100% adorable at all times and also has positive relationships with every one of his coworkers like the ray of sunshine that he is. He probably memorizes the names of every single minor minion and gives them all birthday cards. I love this big ol dork.

Anyway this has been Bunni Rambling About Potentially Redeemable Villains They Know Very Little About But Are Very Eager To Meet And Fandomize Over

They all just so good, u guys