#I DIDNT CHOOSE THIS LIFE

[soteriia-art]

oh izzy~

#ofmd #our flag means death #izzy hands #IM SORRY IM OBSESSED WITH HIM #I DIDNT CHOOSE THIS LIFE #sigh...click for better quality etc #mereart #27 jul 2022

[scarletlizzard]

Texas is definitely cool to visit, especially during cold months. Pretty nice places and weather (except for summer). I recommend renting a cabin during winter, making smores and watching horror movies.

From what you just said, it makes me think you're from Bama

🫦🫦

That sounds so fun fuck I need a cabin trip ASAP. Did Gatlinburg once and it was fun! The mountains kinda scare me though at night ngl

Are you gonna block me if I say yes 👉👈

#scarletlizzard asks #🫦 anon #im just a girl #i didnt choose this life

[blobpsycho]

coming out as a fan of the toronto maple leafs hockey team. I hope you all accept me

#probably one of my dykier traits #leafs #i didnt choose this life

[cometism]

literally trying sooo hard to beat the scott pilgrim enjoyer allegations Btw. Stupid hyperfixation

#💭 #I DIDNT CHOOSE THIS LIFE #IT CHOSE ME

[bigtiddies-smalldreams]

We’re such big nerds in my family that my dad regularly threatens to disown me bc I’m not the right kind of nerd

#SORRY IM A LOTR NERD AND NOT A STARWARS NERD DAD #I DIDNT CHOOSE THIS LIFE

[hanadoesstuffwrong]

Thinking abt the air nomads:

What if, after the war, once the dust has settled a little, Aang goes back to travelling, hoping that maybe he can find at least some trace of surviving airbenders. As an added bonus, he gets to do more of the exploring and wandering that he had to put on hold.

Toph goes with him ofc. She only just got a taste of real freedom and it was overshadowed by ever-present impending doom. While she's on speaking terms with her parents, she isnt quite ready to be back under their roof on a permanent basis. The rest of the gaang have their individual homes and responsibilities that they get back to, though they join for the odd field trip or adventure when they can.

So anyway, they're touring all over the world and over the years they notice just how displaced so many people have become. EK citizens who barely escaped the blaze but lost everything; FN military now decommissioned with no idea how to carry on; people looking for a new start in the hard-won peace. Maybe it starts with Toph heading back to Earth Rumble, where a group of young runaways scrounge for cheap fights to make a little money.

At each turn they find more and more people with no homes to return to and no family to protect them; runaways escaping the roles the war forced them into. Gradually, Aang and Toph start to see that they aren't so different from themselves. They just want a new start.

So they decide to give them one. They clean up the temples and set up villages in the surrounding areas (helps to be master earthbenders), where people can arrive and stay as long as they need. Travellers and refugees pass through in droves, sometimes choosing to stay and rebuild their lives there, sometimes continuing in their wandering with a guarantee that they'll always have a place to return to should they have the need.

Over time, the lemurs grow in number and even some flying bison calfs (hybrids with a relative species maybe?), can be seen in the skies. Whenever the founders visit, it isn't the same but Aang feels a little more at home.

The first time someone asks Aang to teach him his philosophies, and expresses his desire to become a monk, how can he refuse? Maybe it's a former soldier, somebody who's done terrible things, looking for a path to redemption. So Aang teaches him, and then he teaches others. And though they may not be airbenders, they are as earnest and faithful as any nun or monk Aang knew before. The temples become filled with new faces: Firebenders, Earthbenders, Waterbenders and non-benders all wearing Air nomad orange and yellow.

Aang always feared that it would be his responsibility to have airbender children, and the idea of forcing that on someone he loved terrified him. Maybe that's why he waited so long before acting on his feelings for his best friend, his travelling companion, his fellow-village builder and temple-restorer. How could they have a truly happy relationship with this pressure hanging over them? He wishes he could be content with the new way of things that he and his friends have created. But he knows that he can't be the last airbender forever...

Nobody knows why some children can bend the elements and others can't. Is it blood? Is it blessing? Is it the land in which you're born? Or is it the simple allocation of fates decided by the values and norms you're raised believing in? Is it enough to be surrounded by the culture and beliefs of the Air Nomads? Nobody knows...

All they know is that nobody sees it coming when the six-year-old daughter of two non-bender villagers from the Earth Kingdom and Northern Water Tribe sends herself flying twelve feet into the air with a sneeze.

#oops it became a taang au how did that happen #i just think it wld be neat if the air nomads worked more like irl monks/nuns #not necessarily celibate but still made up of people who choose to follow the way of life #instead of the iffy implications of all monks/nuns having no choice because they were born airbenders #i dunno it's iffy to me #taang #my posts #atla #atla headcanon #do we need to rewatch Ice Age 2 ppl?? #repopulation is not a good reason for two people to be together! #avatar: the last airbender #i do also think that given them being nomads the fire nation probably want able to wipe the air nomads out completely #bu they just had to survive in hiding/ in a very diluted form #maybe like the sun warriors do #airbender!Ty Lee my beloved #also wld reflect the themes of unity vs division well if there were more than just airbenders among the air nomads #like how a waterbender can be a ruler of the Fire Nation or a Firebender can run a tea shop in the Earth Kingdom #toph x aang #edited cos someone got upset at my introduction and while i reckon they were willfully misreading i didnt want anyone to misconstrue #to clarify -> any child of aang's wld be an air nomad but there's no guarantee they wld be an airbender #esp if he had a child with an earth or waterbender #and we see how this had a negative effect in canon #hope that clears things up xx

[appsa]

Tbh most of all what bothers me abt the "soulmates played straight" is just the assumption that the universe will choose right and in ur best interests, and any abuse that occurs is an aberration. Ik its not that serious buttttttt first of all. Thats not how any of it works. Abuse isnt an aberration it is the norm. Second of all how can u be ok putting that much trust in the design of some unknowable force of the universe. Crazy

#btw. this is also why id be all in for a tlt soulmate au where the entity choosing ur soulmates is VERY MUCH THERE. AND VERY FALLIBLE. #but alas..... #anyway this is all because i was thinking abt some soulmate au i read when i was a teenager #and there was specifically a character in an arranged marraige who had a Different Soulmate who was their True Love or whatever #and they didnt meet because the evil husband forced them into a marraige #and my gripe is like. well if that person isnt even in her life then why are they her soulmate. whats the point of that #stop shying away from it. the universe lets bad things happen to good ppl all the time #in fact the framework of soulmates would only make abuse worse

[youngpettyqueen]

Julian's line of "I needed another womb for the baby, and the only two other people on board were Major Kira and me." is already very. That Man Is Trans. and listen yes you can interpret it as him saying Kira was the only choice, but then it's literally followed up by Sisko saying "I think you made the right choice, Doctor." which I know is supposed to be a joke but the implication IS there that there WAS a choice and basically Julian is trans

#star trek: ds9 #julian bashir #he's trans what else can I say #his tboy swag is off the charts #and also I love the idea of him being trans and choosing to keep his reproductive organs like his uterus #I feel like gender affirming surgeries including hysterectomies would be much easier to do in Star Trek #so it'd be interesting if he elected out of that one #anyways can you imagine if Julian ended up with the pregnancy #Julian/Miles/Keiko fic where they all fall in love over the pregnancy #also fucking hysterical imagining Miles having to deal with Julian carrying his goddamn baby #I think that'd drive him insane #I think he would suddenly become very concerned about Julian's less-than-healthy work-life balance #I think Julian would be VERY offended when Miles suddenly didnt want them going to the Alamo anymore #im thinking too much about this now actually

[metamehta]

Me. Every time I engage in ship discourse

#shippers be like #i didnt choose the ship life #but i do have an unofficial phd in it #fandom #dair #devi x paxton #fremione #dramione

[jjfuaiz]

“tee is a victim too,” i say into the mic. the crowd boos. i begin to walk off in shame when a voice commands the silence of the room.

“he’s right,” they say. i look for the owner of the the voice. there in the 5th row stands: sammon herself.

#i love tee #he didnt choose the money laundering life #and it didnt choose him #his uncle did apparently #dead friend forever #dff the series

[itsredpaint]

what will you choose?

bonus dh

#hsr #nikiki's art #honkai star rail #jing yuan #dan heng #yingxing #realized i never posted this outside of readmore #anyway throwing this out there for ppl to. take it i guess? the au idea i mean #bc fuck knows what im doing with this #au where df lets dh experience his life as dh #'if you lived my life if you loved them like i did would you choose differently?' #it starts with dh having knowledge of the future events #but he eventually forgets it #bc df didnt get the advantage of knowing the future so dh doesnt get that as well #'if we are so different then prove it to me' #fish hsr aus

[low-res-hermits]

[Image ID: a low resolution screenshot of Goodtimeswithscar in New Life. The image is so low resolution that he only appears to be a small dark splotch on a gray background. End ID.]

#my friend Assured me this is him. i choose to trust them. i didnt watch the ep #goodtimeswithscar #hermitcraft #new life smp #low res hermits

[hassianlovebot]

i absolutely love how the devs portray reth and his relationship with tish. i feel like so often in media we see siblings hate each other when one of them was sick/disabled/otherwise needed more care, and i do understand why this is common and important to see, but i also love that their relationship Isn't like that. reth still loves, appreciates, and wants to protect tish. he's also not completely overprotective either. he just. loves his sister! and wants to see her happy! and it would've been so easy for the devs to make him spiteful or envious of her but instead they made him a good brother which is So refreshing to see. i love that they have a good relationship with each other

i just,,, reth <3

#my man <3 #its the whole glass child thing #and trust me i Get it and i understand that its very real and needs proper representation #but its also nice to see a sibling relationship in media that isnt like that #since so many of them are #especially since their parents were disappointed in reth choosing a different path! #like.. it just wouldve been so easy for them to make him mean to her but they didnt and i love that #i love that tish and reth have a genuinely good relationship with each other despite their parents being like that #and in spite of tish being sick for a better part of her life #it wouldve been easy for the devs to make them not really know each other too but no <3 theyre besties <3 #they may not always understand each other but theyre besties <3 #palia #reth #tish

[canarydarity]

having a normal one watching Bdubs lim life tonight and thinking about how when Bdubs betrayed Tango in last life, Skizz told Tango that for the sake of team best he had to go and forgive him.

But when Bdubs boogey kills Skizz in lim life before team ties is even really formed, Skizz is allowed to have it out for Bdubs for almost the entire first half of the season, even when the clockers ally with them and it would've been easier to let sleeping dogs lie.

Tango, the perpetually extraneous and undervalued member of his alliances...the too often shoved aside and betrayed...being told it was his duty to the team to forgive bdubs and move on....

But no one—especially not Tango—tried to tell Skizz to let it go.

#and like. now im thinking about how no one is ever really ride or die for tango. ever #people are allied with him but no one PRIORITIZES him #as a team rancher fan myself id be tempted to argue Jimmy is but you can just as easily point to how that was in a way self serving #and I dont just mean with the soulmate mechanic so worrying about tango was worrying about himself for jimmy #but i mean it in the way of jimmy was so worried about tango because #jimmy was worried about HIMSELF being the thing that hindered him and dragged him down #whihc is not to say that jimmy didnt also worry about tango #but it is to say that the dl rule set played heavily on jimmys insecurities and fears #he was most of the time worried about himself. YES because of how that affected tango. but also because it served his guilt complex #and so his intentions were colored by that as someone whos incredibly willing to make himself the problem whenevr he sees fit #whihc is again nothing on him hes my fave ya know i love the guy #i just mean even in double life where by design it shouldve happened tango wasnt made anyones top priority #not in the way that we come to see it across many other pairs. not in the obsessive worrying about his safety #or just in the general Being Weird About Each Other Way #sure you could argue skizz and tango last life...tango was for a while skizzs priority—until skizz shifted his sights to team best #even when team best wasnt giving their all backt o him that was skizzs focus #and if tango were really his priority over the wellbeing of the team such as it was for bdubs and etho #skizz wouldnt have tried to make tango forgive bdubs after he was betrayed #skizz wouldnt have kept asking tango to give more and more to a team he got little if not nothing out of over and over.....just #GAH! NO ONES EVER DEVOTED TO TANGO!!! NO ONE EVER CHOOSES TANGO TO BE THEIR //PERSON// THEIR. HES NEVER SOMEONES TOP PRIORITY #again im nto saying teh ranchers werent devoted to each other you know i love them more than anything in the whole world #i just mean. not in exactly the way i mean.... #and not completely when jimmy was so (understadnably) preoccupied with trying not to carry on his curse again #especially while attached to someone else #worm says

[oceanwithouthermoon]

ok update on saiki k tomodachi life cuz there was so much drama 😭

nendo and imu broke up, then mera confessed her love to saiko, her best friend, and got rejected (which made their relationship really bad but theyre still "best friends") and then MERA STARTED DATING NENDO... AND THEN SAIKO CONFESSED HIS LOVE TO MERA !!! BRO SAW HER HAPPY WITH ANOTHER MAN AND TRIED TO WIN HER BACK !!! but she rejected him.. somehow, saiko and mera are STILL "best friends..."

also kubosai had a baby<3

#pinkie pie confessed to imu after this also but got rejected lol #teruhashi and arisu are married and hii and toritsuka are married btw but i cant remember if i told yall thay already #aiura and akechis relationship is still goin strong but havent gotten married yet for whatever reason #kubosai babys name is zachary btw lol i just let them choose and didnt change it #also saikis dad briefly dated princess zelda but they broke up lol #saiki k #tdlosk #the disastrous life of saiki k. #meows post

[note-boom]

Life and Death Parallels within the ADA

Someone in a tag said a while back to throw some of my tags of this post onto a post, and I meant to do it way back in February but kind of got lost to the timestream.

But I'm back and I really do have thoughts about the way the ADA is structured to really be, as Atsushi was told just before the Kamui revelation, a place where the members give the organisation unique strengths that cover each other's weaknesses. And I thought about how there's a sort of equal divide between the older generation (Ranpo, Yosano, Dazai, and Kunikida) and the younger generation (Kyouka, Kenji, Tanizaki, Atsushi) and how each of these characters have both a similar aged parallel to them in the agency as well as a minor-adult parallel.

I'll try to be as concise as possible (I failed), but hear me out...

We have Ranpo/Yosano, Dazai/Kunikida, Atsushi/Tanizaki, and Kyouka/Kenji as similar-aged parallel sets that pair a death-coded individual with a life-coded individual. On the the adult-minor side, you have Ranpo/Kenji, Yosano/Atsushi, Dazai/Kyouka, and Tanizaki/Kunikida as parallel sets in their story arcs rather than thematic ones.

So, to start with the first set.

Ranpo (life-coded) and Yosano (death-coded): I feel as if these two have sort of reached the most balanced level of thematic parallels than any of the other pairings. Ranpo's past was full of this enjoyment with life where his parents' occupations dealing with darker forces of the world were hidden from him. Meanwhile, Yosano's past was full of death and darkness that was not hidden from her. And in Yosano's backstory, she was called the angel of death; in Ranpo's Origins tale with Fukuzawa, he confronted an angel of death of a sort. Yosano was deteriorating into death while Ranpo was slowly thriving under Fukuzawa. And then they met...and Ranpo found someone to bring back to life, and a place in the ADA where he could use murders and death and the darkness of the world to spread light/life by literally shining light on the mysteries, while Yosano found a place where she could use death to bring life in the ADA.

Dazai (death-coded) and Kunikida (life-coded): I think this parallel of life/death manifests the most in their ideals...Dazai's ideal is sort of entrenched in death and trying to die a painless suicide while Kunikida is all about spreading life for himself and others no matter how much pain it brings him. What's so wrong with these two is that they also have inclinations towards their "opposite coding," so to speak. We constantly see people pointing out Kunikida's secret desire to die while we clearly see Dazai doing his uttermost to live a good life and carry on Oda's legacy. Life haunts Kunikida as much as death haunts Dazai, and yet death chases after Kunikida (all the people he's witnessed dying, RIP) as much as life comes after Dazai (all his failed suicide attempts, double RIP)

Atsushi (life-coded) and Tanizaki (death-coded): This is honestly pretty tricky because we barely know anything about Tanizaki. Even though Kunikida and Dazai's past-pasts are still pretty mysterious, we have a good grasp on their characters. But Tanizaki's personality dissonance and as-of-yet unknown past with his sister definitely contrasts with the way we're know Atsushi's past and values. Both, however, are incredibly protective, but the way Tanizaki and Atsushi approach it is pretty different; Tanizaki seems to have this mentality that he must kill the threat while Atsushi seems determined more to save the victim. (I also find that one throwaway about "wimp of the east (Tanizaki)/wimp of the west (Atsushi)" interesting because maybe it's just in western lit, but west denotes sunsets and death while east denotes sunrises and rising, except in Buddhism where the west is shown as a direction of enlightenment(info check?)...which provides another host of interesting parallels to Atsushi and his relation to the book but let's not go there). All in all, these two are a bit of a stretch, but it's interesting to see that Atsushi's mysteries lie more towards the future (usually associated with life) while Tanizaki's life more in the past.

Kenji (life-coded) and Kyouka (death-coded): This one's pretty straightforward, not just because they're the youngest members of the ADA. But you see their life philosophies and personalities lean towards what they're coded as, as well as their pasts (Kenji as a farmer, cultivating life, and Kyouka as an assassin, dealing death). And yet what drew each to the ADA....Kenji was drawn to the ADA after witnessing death after a lifetime of growing new life while Kyouka was drawn to the ADA after being given life after a long childhood of killing.

However, in the end, the Armed Detective Agency is a detective organisation devoted to saving people, and all of them end up choosing life for it. But the different ways they go about it just go to show that you can have any crazy skill and still spread some sort of life through it. All of them are haunted by death, anyway, and yet all of them choose to spread life regardless.

Now onto the second set, which I'll keep shorter by simply saying that the pairs - Ranpo/Kenji, Yosano/Atsushi, Dazai/Kyouka, and Tanizaki/Kunikida - just have similar story beats, in a sense.

Ranpo and Kenji raised fairly happy, rudely awakened by the world, and yet choosing to believe in continuing to keep up a positive attitude; I'd say, though, that Ranpo does it primarily through shutting his eyes to the world while unmasking it while Kenji does it through acknowledging its pain and refusing to let it bring him down.

Yosano and Atsushi both with honestly terrible childhoods spent witnessing some of the most cruel sides of human natures growing up to be champions of life, only Yosano has definitely developed more steel and walls while Atsushi's definitely softer and more open still (they're both crazy stubborn, though).

Then Dazai and Kyouka's past with the Port Mafia and a disillusionment in reality that was abruptly interrupted when they realised they had to do something about it as useless as it sounded; Dazai thanks to Oda dying and Kyouka thanks to Dazai telling her to save people anyway.

And again, Kunikida and Tanizaki's probably a stretch given we know nothing about their pasts, but I really really find it interesting that Kunikida was a former teacher and Atsushi first assumed Tanizaki and Naomi to be students; also, I've mentioned this in other posts but Kunikida and Tanizaki are paired together a lot and have...their moments. It's pretty interesting to perceive these two people with strong ideals that are almost the reversal of the other ("the world for one person" vs "myself (one person) for the world").

But yeah...that has been parallels within the ADA concerning themes of life and death and their character's narrative arcs.

Bonus? Fukuzawa and Naomi....a middle aged president and a teenaged clerk, both protective about the people they claim to be their own, smart in their own ways, with seemingly "support" roles.

#the bonus was mostly crack but i didnt want to leave fukuzawa and naomi out of it #anyway that has been a short look into character parallels with someone obsessed with character parallels... #...whether they exist or not #who knows maybe im just very much... #spitting nonsense #but also im onto something right?? #anyway it means a lot to me that the ada is all about surviving despite what the world has thrown at you #and despite what i said about being coded more one way than the other... #...i also take it back #because what theyve all done is face the horrors of death AND life and choose to make things better...whatever that means #and i love them all for it #character analysis #armed detective agency #bsd musings #bsd #oh yeah but what about that thing about buddhism and atsushi's west?