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pttucker · 5 months

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Among all those comments, a particular one caught her attention. – Dear author-nim. It was a great read. May I ask about your release schedule? Such an unparalleled naivete that made him use his real name as the username. Han Sooyoung stared at that name for a long, long time. She looked closer, and discovered another comment attached to it. – Are you… going to release another chapter tomorrow? She repeatedly clenched and unfurled her fists many times. Sweat was soaking her small hands. Is it really okay for me to write this? Even then, isn't it fine this way? Han Sooyoung hesitated for a long time, before typing her reply. While thinking about a certain someone, still alive beyond this screen. While thinking about a certain boy who'd breathe, eat, shout some nonsense about 'I'm Yoo Joonghyuk', and do whatever it takes to endure his own apocalypse. And so, the story of a regressor that reached 3149 chapters started in this manner. – Yes. A new chapter will be published tomorrow.

I WAS RIGHT!!!!!!!!

Well, I was right after I spent like half the novel convinced the author was actually Dokja. At least I wasn't alone in thinking that, considering Sooyoung thought so too. 😂

Though I do love that it's not at all how I thought it was. I figured she was the author and just forgot because she lost half her memories to her avatar and just assumed that Dokja wrote it because that was the most logical option that her Predictive Plagiarism could come up with.

Was not expecting all this wibbly wobbly, timey wimey stuff, though I guess I should have by the time I reached the end of the novel and all sorts of things in the beginning were being affected by the ending. Time travel. Dimension travel. Just full of paradoxes.

I loooooove though that the novel is "trash" because she has to speed write it as fast as possible based on vague memories while using Predictive Plagiarism (...plagiarizing herself...) because she only has a limited time with her own body and also because she needs to keep Dokja engaged, needs to pump out chapters as fast as humanly possible to give him his reason to live until the next day.

And I love that the reason it only has one view is because she doesn't bother to read it, not even to typo check. She already knows it has a reader. A paradox it may be, I love that the novel truly was written for Dokja and not just after the first hundred or so chapters when all the other readers fell off. Nope, it was written for him and him alone from the very beginning. Sooyoung already knows that she doesn't have to make it good, she just has to make it, and that in turn will save him, even if it dooms millions of others.

Oh man, Sooyoung seeing him in the hospital after he tried to jump out of a window and wondering where the heck tls123 is, why haven't they started posting yet, they need to hurry up and save this unbelievably precious idiot. 😭💖

Sooyoung of all people having to wrestle with the knowledge that if she saves one person, she will kill billions (perhaps trillions) of other people across multiple worldlines.

Well, actually, perhaps it's fitting that it is Sooyoung of all people because I don't know how many others in Dokja's party who would doom this entire universe of parallel worlds to save a single person, even if that single person is Dokja himself.

Like, it parallels pretty well with what's going on with Sooyoung's other half...she's the weird one in the group who wants to go save the Dokja they left on the train while even Dokja's incarnation is worried that they're going to cause a lot of harm in the process and open up another worldline of tragedy, which they all know Dokja would not want.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that Han Sooyoung is perhaps one of the few people selfish enough to save Kim Dokja at the cost of the entire universe and it's so interesting to think back on the fact that she literally tried to get Joonghyuk to kill him way back in the earliest chapters and now she's using Joonghyuk to save him.

(Oh man...when Joonghyuk finds out who his creator is...)

#granted it's almost difficult to think of hsy as yjh's creator because of all the weird circular time travel stuff #like...yjh lived as a real person because dokja read about him...dokja read about him because hsy wrote it...#hsy wrote it based on things dokja told her and things the living breathing yjh said and did or MIGHT have based on his real personality #...the personality that she gave him...which dokja read and brought to life...which made hsy write it later...around and around we go #like she's his creator but also it's almost like yjh created himself along with the help of dokja???#lol orv you hurt my brain sometimes but I love you #(also hankim shippers rise up! get you a woman who will destroy the universe for you!)#orv spoilers #orv epilogue spoilers #orv #orv novel chapter 532 #omniscient reader's viewpoint #orv liveblog #hsy #kdj

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ardafanonarch · 4 months

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Does canon indicate who is older: Elros or Elrond?

Birth Order of Elrond and Elros and Elrond

Good question. My instinct on this was no, canon does not indicate who is older, and indeed further research turned up nothing definitive. (If anyone has evidence to the contrary, please share it!) However, I uncovered a decent hint that Tolkien imagined Elros the elder.

[ETA: Please see this reblog for a revised answer that confirms the Elros theory!]

The fact that they are twins at all is not even in the published Silmarillion or The Lord of the Rings, which introduce them thus:

Bright Eärendil was then lord of the people that dwelt nigh to Sirion’s mouths; and he took to wife Elwing the fair, and she bore to him Elrond and Elros, who are called the Half-elven. The Silmarillion, ‘Of the Voyage of Eärendil and the War of Wrath’ The sons of Eärendil were Elros and Elrond, the Peredhil or Half-elven. The Lord of the Rings, Appendix A

Here, the order in which their names appear does not help us as we get both options.

It’s important to note here that Elros did not even exist from the conception of the mythology of Middle-earth. Elrond son of ‘Eärendel’ does not appear in any of the Lost Tales, but he does show up in the 1926 Sketch of the Mythology, the ‘Earliest’ Silmarillion (one day I’ll make post summarising all these texts, but in the meantime Table 2 at the end of this bio has a lot of them!). Elros does not join him until the next version of the Silmarillion,* the 1930 Quenta Noldorinwa. Here he is added in revisions to the text. In those revisions, his name comes first (‘Elros and Elrond’).

(*When I do not italicise Silmarillion, I am referring to the whole corpus of drafts. Italicised means the published book edited by Christopher Tolkien.)

The same sort of revision is made to Annal 325 of The Later Annals of Beleriand (referred to as AB 2 and written between 1930 and 1937). Christopher Tolkien notes that his father pencilled a note to change the original passage (which only mentions Elrond) to:

The Peringiul, the Half-elven, were born to Elwing wife of Eärendel, while Eärendel was at sea, the twin brethren Elrond and Elros. The History of Middle-earth Vol. 5: The Lost Road, The Later Annals of Beleriand, Commentary on Annal 325.

Important! Christopher then notes, “The order was then inverted to ‘Elros and Elrond’.”

Note that the 1930 Quenta Noldorinwa is the main source for most of the last chapter of the published Silmarillion because Tolkien did not return to a full narrative of this section of the Silmarillion again. However, they are mentioned in the briefly sketched Tale of Years (1951-52), where it is again stated that they were twins and again they appear as ‘Elros and Elrond’.

[Added entry:] 528 [> 532] Elros and Elrond twin sons of Earendil born.* The History of Middle-earth Vol. 11: The War of the Jewels, Tale of Years, Text ‘C’

*[> 532] means this entry was revised to 532, the date you will find in the timeline on Tolkien Gateway (which defaults to the ‘most recent’ revision). Note that The Tale of Years (the published portion of which only covers the 6th century of the First Age) is actually four consecutive drafts: dates are revised and the entries become increasingly detailed, but each draft ends earlier than the last (e.g. Text A goes to FA 600, Text D ends at FA 527). Most of the timelines you find online attempt to consolidate all four drafts — but worth bearing in mind that Tolkien never finalised these dates.

Finally: upon investigating the source text for that one instance, from the published Silmarillion, of Elrond appearing before Elros, I discovered that this was actually an editorial decision. Tolkien himself, as far as I could find, always listed Elros before Elrond.

Now, this is not, as I said, definitive evidence that Elros tumbled out of the womb first. But I’d say it suggests that Elros was the elder, since I can think of no other reason to consistently list them in this order (it’s not alphabetical, for example). And this, indeed, seems to be the fandom’s general consensus.

But, strictly based on canon, you are free to put them in either order. In fact, if you are someone who only takes the published Silmarillion as canon, you don’t even have to make them twins.

#elrond #elros #lotr appendices #the sketch of the mythology #quenta noldorinwa #the tale of years #history of middle-earth #anon

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grandlinewiki · 5 months

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-> Chapter 532

#one piece #color spread #marshall d teach #jinbe #bartholomew kuma #donquixote doflamingo #dracule mihawk #boa hancock #salome #gecko moria

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songofstrawhats · 5 months

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ACE AND LUFFY AND IMPEL DOWN

Yes, hello, I am a youngest sibling and I am having a lot of feelings about these siblings and this arc

I am not sure why this specific panel from ch 534 has me so emotional about this but like-

Luffy is charging in to rescue his big brother.

Luffy knows that Ace wouldn't want Luffy to come rescue him.... But he's thinking of it as being because Ace has his own pride and his own adventures

This is from ch 490, right after they learn about vivre cards and see that Ace's is burning.

And again in 522 when Luffy hears about the scheduled execution.

Luffy trusts his big brother to manage on his own. His brother is strong, and capable, and doesn't need Luffy worrying about him.

It isn't until Luffy hears about the execution that he decides he needs to intervene.

(from ch 522)

And in all this, it doesn't even seem to OCCUR to Luffy that the reason Ace wouldn't want Luffy trying to rescue him is because Ace doesn't want him getting hurt.

(from ch 532)

For some contrast here is Ace, the first time we meet him all the way back in chapter 157. Looking for his baby brother.

Ace jumps in front of a punch that would have hit Luffy, deals with the guy doing the punching, thanks the crew for taking care of Luffy, invites Luffy and his crew to join the Whitebeard Pirates (even though he knows Luffy will say no), and gives Luffy his vivre card- with zero explanations about what it is!!! But he trusts that Luffy will keep it safe until he needs it! (And Luffy does!!)

(from ch 159)

Ace is looking out for his kid brother in every way he possibly can!!!

AND THEN!!!!! ACE SAYS THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(from ch 159- and echoed in Luffy's POV in that panel from ch 522!!!)

I am the baby in my family. My older siblings worry about me in ways I never learned to worry about them.

I will never forget the look on my older sister's face when we finally met up again after we got separated while running to catch a train. I realized that she didn't know if I'd even made it on, and worried about me the whole time, and was so relieved to see me safe.

Meanwhile, I had been pleased to make it on the train, and it hadn't even occurred to me to worry about her. She was my big sister, of course she'd be fine!!

It was jarring to realize that my big sister had been looking out for me so seriously this whole time, and that maybe now we were grown up it was also my job??? To look after her?????

Luffy has these same younger sibling vibes all over him- Zoro agrees.

(from ch 159)

I'm reading this arc for the first time and I only know a little about what's what's coming but this relationship is already so incredibly real and so incredibly heartbreaking. I'm not ready.

In conclusion, this panel from chapter 522 is filled with so much love, and I'm entirely fine about it!!!!!!!

#one piece #impel down #Luffy #Portgas D Ace #one piece meta #i guess!!!!#reading op #op manga #HEY I HAVENT EVEN GOTTEN TO THE FLASHBACKS YET #HAVENT EVEN MET SABO #SEND HELP PROBABLY LMAOOOOOO

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nerdieforpedro · 1 month

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Interlude Two - Tell me about Her (during chapter 6)

Ezra (bayou AU) x Seraphina (plus size OFC)

Word Count: 532

Summary: Cee calls to check in on Ezra. He's different, in a good way.

Warnings: fluff between Cee and Ezra

Notes: A small insert to explore Ezra's and Cee's relationship. I like it, it's cute.

Main Masterlist/ Ezra Masterlist/ The Lake Between Us Series

She had called to check on him, he answered as usual and sounded - chipper. It was good, weird to hear, but good. He also called out a name, ‘Moonbeam’ and told her that he was stepping outside for a bit. Also strange, in her formative and teenage years, Cee could count on one hand the number of women she’d seen leaving his room. He’d been rather careful about that. She asked who ‘Moonbeam’ was and he told her that she was someone he was getting to know. When Cee called the following week, ‘Moonbeam’ was now ‘Sundrop’ since it was still daylight out, he stepped into his bedroom, and she was helping him to sleep better, finding comfort with her by his side. On the third week when she called, Cee heard the elusive ‘Moonbeam’s’ voice for the first time. Apparently this week, Ezra had not stepped in another room or outside. She was nearby, laughing at something he likely had been saying when picking up the phone. Her voice sounded gentle and it made the university student smile. Sly old dog. Cee thought to herself as they spoke, Seraphina as she learned her name was from Ezra telling her goodnight before she departed.

“You old coot. Where did you find a nice lady like that?” Ezra hears a shrill laugh over the phone.

“How do you know she's nice Birdie? I haven’t told you anything about her.” The gentleman shakes his head.

Cee scoffs. “You’ve mentioned her for three weeks in a row, each week you keep increasing her importance. And I know unless there’s a point to be made, you don’t use names. Which you made sure without fail to tell her goodnight and to stay safe. Something I’ve never heard you do for a person who isn’t me.”

“It seems I will continue not to suffer a fool. I taught you well. Moonbeam is important to me, that I will confirm. She is quite…alluring.” Cee chuckles and so does Zora who’s been listening in the background. “Good evening Zora. You both can continue in your laughs. I’ll call back when you finish.”

“Wait! Wait! Sorry for laughing. It’s just who says that? I know that’s not the only thing about her, otherwise, you wouldn’t be bothered.”

“You are correct. You will find out when you meet her, the next time you come to visit.”

“Does she know that?”

“She will soon.” Cee gave a soft hum in agreement, having never heard Ezra speak like this. She had never thought he would sound sweet to her but he did. It was a very good thing she surmised and they spoke about his tours and her classes. Cee was studying business and taking some cooking classes along with Zora. Ezra told her she didn’t need to pay for that, he could teach her on home visits. They both laughed about that, knowing that Ezra never measures anything when cooking so it’s extremely difficult to teach.

Once off the phone, Cee discussed things with Zora, and settled on this being a very good thing. He sounded a lot better and she was excited to meet the woman inspiring such change in him.

Chapter six Chapter seven

Taste-testers of Ezra’s gumbo 🍤: @rav3n-pascal22 @maggiemayhemnj @morallyinept @survivingandenduring @bonezone44 @magpiepillsjunior @yorksgirl @gemmahale @missredherring @missladym1981 @alltheglitterandtheroar @megamindsecretlair @readingiskeepingmegoing @pedroshotwifey @tinytinymenace @inept-the-magnificent @vivian-pascal @jessthebaker

#pedro pascal characters #fanfiction #pedro pascal #pedro pascal fanfiction #ezra prospect #Ezra prospect x ofc #Ezra prospect and Cee #Cee #The Lake between us #Nerdie fic

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reggieblk · 7 months

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i finished reading The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt yesterday and i have a lot of thoughts and feelings about every single thing about it, but what I would like to address here, and it speaks for itself;

"8R, two keys and a combination padlock, 7522, the last four digits of Boris's home phone in Vegas."

- The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt, IV, chapter 9, X, page 532

and and and.....8 yrs later, the passcode is still the same.....it's the way Theo, 8 yrs earlier, didn't hesitate a second....it's the way Boris's home number guards Theo's dearest possession, the remnant of his mother, his very heart....it's the way it isn't Pippa's bday, or anything like that.....it's the way i sobbed when reading this line

(not to mention....not to mention....how "Popper" is "Popchyk" for as long as Theo gets back to NY and is with Hobie, never once Popper always Popchyk until.....until Boris comes back, and calls him Popchyk, and then, immediately, for the first time since Vegas, Popchyk is Popper in Theo's mind....because....because the rightful person who calls him Popchyk is back, and Theo no longer has to fill in for him, and, and, and--)

#hey i'm in the trenches over here #every single character i could talk about for years #and this is without even mentioning how Boris literally hunts that fucking painting down - at the detriment of his own life - because he #feels bad for what he did to theo - feels awful - and will do anything to make it up to him #“boris loves theo more” “theo loves boris more” you're all WRONG they were everything to EACH OTHER. and i mean EVERYTHING #their love for each other is uncontested - unquantifiable - ineffable -- desperate and all-consuming #i'm dying over here help me #the goldfinch #theodore decker #theo decker #boris pavlikovsky #boreo

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shellstown · 6 months

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Impel Down - Chapter 532

#impel down #one piece #manga #manga cap #chapter cover #.png #mihawk #bartholomew kuma #doflamingo #blackbeard #boa hancock #jinbei #gecko moria

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everykabuto · 2 years

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#i rlly like this expression #naruto #kabuto #kabuto yakushi #mangacap #everykabuto #fourth shinobi world war: confrontation #chapter 532

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shiftingtomydrs · 6 months

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Bcs I have no one else to talk to about this (it's not technically about shifting but my blog, my rules):

I started to read a fanfic on ao3 that is called everything changes and is like the 2nd longest ok ao3 (almost 6 mio words, 532 chapters and still updated regularly). Just to compare, all 7 harry potter books combined have around 1 mio words. It's so good tho (I'm on chapter 33) so I will just shitpost about this once in a while probably lol

For anyone interested, the pairing is sebastian vettel x mark webber (not my preference usually but it's really good)

#fanfic #everything changes #ao3 #shifting #f1 #sebastian vettel #mark webber #reality shifting #fanfiction #f1 shifting

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pttucker · 5 months

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"…I want to meet that idiot." Almost immediately after saying it, Han Sooyoung couldn't believe what she had done. Why did she blurt that out, of all things? ⸢"Because you are also there."⸥ ⸢"I believe in 'you' of the 3rd turn."⸥ She wasn't sure what this frustration in her heart meant. Just that, meeting that guy again might help her understand what she felt so frustrated about, or so she thought. The Dokkaebi King tilted his head. [When you say that idiot, you…] Han Sooyoung pointed to the panels with her chin. The Dokkaebi King jumped up in shock and roared out. [Are you freaking blind or something?? That great one is no longer an existence the likes of me can ever meet.] "I don't care if it's a version of him from another world-line. I also don't care even if he's a version who hasn't seen the end yet, too." Kim Dokja couldn't be seen anymore within the panels. "I want to meet that idiot one more time."

1863rd Sooyoung managed to get to the end of the scenarios too and the only thing she wants for a reward is to see that stupid squid one more time. 😭💖

Oh man, and he didn't even spend that much time with her??? Kim Dokja, everywhere you go you manage to make such an impression on people.

I mean, I guess she's also getting information from her other half but still...both Sooyoungs wanting nothing more than to see Kim Dokja again, if only for one more time. 😭💖

Also, this makes me wonder if all of the "pieces" of the characters are going to join back together. Because the main party has regressed with 49% Dokja (and could be considered to be back in the original TWSA timeline in the 1865th turn???), 51% Dokja is slowly making his way through the main TWSA story turn by turn (probably screwing things up as he goes) and now 1863rd Sooyoung (whether she's the original or the avatar) is heading off to the pre-TWSA world where it all began.

And it really does seem like it's confirmed that 51% Dokja is slowly turning into the original Oldest Dream that we saw as a little kid. He's not only getting smaller and slowly forgetting things, the Dokkaebi King also goes out of his way to say that there's "only one of him in this universe."

That actually makes me wonder about the status of 49% and what exactly he's considered to be in the grand scheme of things. I mean, he has Fourth Wall and everything. So technically the Dokkaebi King is wrong, there are two in this universe...unless he's still only considered "one" since they're just halves of the same person.

Also, veeery interesting that the final revised version of TWSA seems to be about Sooyoung and not Joonghyuk. It actually makes me wonder what was in the version that Dokja never read, the one that he's been holding onto all this time that just suddenly morphed into the "final revised version" right when he clicked on it.

#and the story continues on with its 10 characters who've somehow become 40 characters #orv #orv spoilers #orv liveblog #orv epilogue spoilers #omniscient reader's viewpoint #orv novel chapter 532 #kdj #hsy

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fangirling-tussisque-noncaelatur · 8 months

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Got my @topguncommentbingo blackout!! 🥳🥳🥳💘💘💘

I'm so happy I joined this event, and I also had fun rereading some fics I loved, that I never commented on (shame on me). I wanted to choose all different authors and I'm grateful for all the great content creators our fandom has. Many thanks to all the mods for running this ✨💞✨💞✨

~~~

My round-up: 19 "Hangster", 1 "Icemav", 1 "Maverick & Rooster" + "Maverick & Carole", 1 "Hangster" + "Icemav", 1 "Hangster" + "Maverick & Rooster", 1 "Maverick & Rooster", 1 "Coyote & Hangman". (No-sweat win for Hangster)

Under the cut, the complete list of the fics and contents I commented on, if you want to show some love to the authors and their blogs 💞

1. art rated gen / teen

Parents!Au Hangster meme / @pochiperpe90

(comment + reblog)

2. fic where the last comment was 5+ months ago

Field Day / xo_em (@jakeseresins )

Hangster, Teen and Up Audiences, 810 words

3. fic tagged angst with a happy ending

I can see you now (with open eyes) / Saturn (@icemav86 )

Hangster, Mature, 6 717 words

4. WIP

unglued (thanks to you) / emseebeans (@emseebeans )

Hangster, Explicit, 2 565 words

5. fic set between the movies

in another life / lemqnie (@lemqnie)

Hangster, Mature, 6 284 words

6. fic set during TG86 canon

Shower / wildglitterwolf (@wildglitterwolf)

Icemav, Mature, 1 863 words

7. fic from a fandom event

Tropical Contact High / theinsouciantknitter (@theinsouciantknitter)

[event: Top Gun Endless Summer Exchange] (@endlesssummerexchange)]

Hangster, Explicit, 2 360 words

8. song fic

An Ode To The Boy I Love / perishablealex (@perishablealex )

Hangster, Explicit, 3 104 words

9. fic with more than 5 additional tags

we could blame it all on human nature / thegeckbros ( @katiesharms )

Hangster, Explicit, 2 470 words

10. fic completed in June 2023 or later

Hide and Seek with Mr. Mav / plingo_kat ( @pushthequorumbutton )

Maverick & Rooster + Maverick & Carole, General Audiences, 1 106 words

11. fic with fewer than 5 comments

Questions that Need Answers / multishippingtrashfire (@multishippingtrashfire )

Hangster + Icemav, Teen and Up Audiences, 1 393 words

12. fic with more than 15k words

Can't Fight This Feeling Anymore/ Renai_chan (@renai-chan)

Hangster + Maverick & Rooster, Explicit, 15 191 words

(5 chapters, 5 comments :D )

13. FREE CHOICE

One Glimpse of Relief / dalearden (@dale-arden)

Hangster, Mature, 909 words

14. art rated mature / explicit

Hangster 69 / tonogyom

(comment + reblog)

15. fanvid

fill the void; hangman & rooster / LonelySpeaker

(comment + reblog)

16. platonic fic (character & character)

Tapped into what once was / Lacerta ( @blendinginthecrowd )

Maverick & Rooster, General Audiences, 1 249 words

17. fic that's the first part of a series

Your everything combined / buckybraciole (@nicedaybucky)

Hangster, Teen and Up Audiences, 1 065 words

18. fic with your favorite tag

jealousy fills up their hearts in pairs / Notchka88

[how to choose one tag? "First time" was already in the bingo card, ...I went for Jealousy+Idiots in Love+Possessive Behavior]

Hangster, Explicit, 3 898 words

19. fic tagged first time / getting together

Feels Like the First Time / ReformedTsundere (@film-in-my-soul )

Hangster, Explicit, 12 532 words

20. fic completed between Dec 2022 - Feb 2023

10,000 Miles / Earthangel_44 (@yikes-00 )

Hangster, Explicit, 1 843 words

21. fic rated mature

The Road to Ruin (We Started at the End) / MadeItUp ( @gothampot )

Hangster, Mature, 4 747 words

22. fic rated explict

you're a part of the dawn where the light comes from the dark / acetonitril (@acetonitril )

Hangster, Explicit, 1 383 words

23. fic focused on a POC

You Were There / boobooblue (@letsboo-boo )

[character: Javy "Coyote" Machado]

Coyote & Hangman, Teen and Up Audiences, 988 words

24. fic with an archive warning

sunshine boy / SOBERHYUCK (@soberhyuck )

[archive warning: Underage]

Hangster, Explicit, 6 920 words

25. fic tagged established relationship

Relax / lovelybattle (@sereshawl)

Hangster, Explicit, 1 775 words

#TopGunBingoComment #fandom event #comment fest #tgm event #top gun event #top gun #top gun: maverick #tgm #top gun fandom #tgm fandom #top gun: maverick fandom #hangster #fic rec #hangster fic rec #hangster fic #sereshaw #hangaroo #roohang #rooshang

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midnightactual · 1 year

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How Zanpakutō Are Made

We have enough pieces of the puzzle to guess how zanpakutō are made and how and why zanpakutō spirits manifest the way they do. I'm going to outline it for you presently.

We're told in chapter 540 that:

Asauchi are created in the same way as White was: many different Shinigami souls are used to create them; both are examples of what I call a "Cyber-Hollow".

With natural Hollow evolution, Hollows will eat other souls (with all of these being "interned" rather than destroyed) and each other until they gain enough "mass" to become a Gillian, all of which look and act totally identical. Asauchi are actually essentially Cyber-Gillians. They too look and act identical, as we're shown in chapter 523:

Ōetsu goes on to call them:

This is akin to how an individual Gillian can become just about anything when it transforms into an Adjuchas, after one soul achieves supremacy over the others. Now there's an interesting point to make here: Ōetsu claims White was made from the souls of many Shinigami, whereas Kaname says in chapter 532 and 533:

Now it could be that this is yet more singular/plural confusion in the translations here, but Kaname seems to be suggesting that White was made from a single Shinigami.

At any rate, White's purpose is confirmed in Kaname's second statement: White was meant to infect Shinigami as it did Masaki. It is, in effect, a Hollow equivalent of a zombie carrier for a zombie virus, a refined "bioweapon" compared to direct infection with the Hollowfication agent as seen in TBTP; Kaname & Co. were basically playing Umbrella Corporation from Resident Evil or Weyland-Yutani from Aliens and creating Bio-Organic Weapons for military purposes. The infection vector being through bites is more readily controlled and less dangerous to the operators than the original form of a loose agent. This is again confirmed by chapter 529:

Whatever the truth is with regards to Kaname's construction of White, it's sort of immaterial as Ōetsu tips his hand: his Asauchi are made from many Shinigami souls layered together. Before we go on to the obvious problem of "Where does Ōetsu get the souls from?" we should finish up with the distinction between asauchi and zanpakutō. Our first clue is in chapter 522:

You can visually see the difference between the two entities. Asauchi are "blank", zanpakutō are "actualized" and can seem extremely human. He goes on to openly mock Ichigo and Renji's inability to distinguish them from Shinigami:

We get told in chapter 523 that:

This hints at the full story, as does chapter 529:

Until finally, we're told the truth in chapter 540, right before and after the comments about White:

So we need to take a step back and clarify something here as Ōetsu is being sloppy: Zangetsu is not White, or the remnants of White. White did not "enter" Masaki. Kaname tells us directly that White is a Hollow with "the ability to convert others into Hollows like itself," emphasis mine. White infected Masaki and Masaki began to Hollowfy, a process arrested by Kisuke. So what Ichigo absorbed was not White, but rather... Hollow Masaki.

This, plus her Quincy blood, fused with his Shinigami powers from Isshin. This is "the will and destiny Ichigo inherited." In a very real sense (in the same sense that Ichigo is Masaki and Isshin's flesh and blood) Hollow Masaki is Ichigo's zanpakutō.

Certainly puts the "I will protect" lines during the fight with Ulquiorra in a different light, doesn't it?

It was never about Orihime. It isn't, "I will protect her," in the original Japanese, it was only, "I will protect," and it is Zangetsu speaking about Ichigo. This is confirmed by 1. Zangetsu almost immediately taking several actions that threaten to kill Orihime (and Uryū) and 2. by Tensa Zangetsu later saying during Dangai training that the things Ichigo wants to protect are not what he wants to protect. Orihime almost dies during the fight because Zangetsu doesn't care about her, just like Zangetsu doesn't care about Karakura, as we're told in chapter 429 (admittedly also involving the sentiments of "Zangetsu", that is to say, not-Yhwach, which is also why Yhwach claims to be Ichigo's "father" later on):

In a very real sense, "Full Hollow Ichigo" can be read as Hollowfied Masaki protecting Ichigo yet again. Don't believe it? This parallel from chapter 680 ain't for nothing:

The Quincy power was mingled with the Hollow power because both were Masaki.

In another sense though, Zangetsu is Ichigo, as chapter 221 shows up with Ichigo beginning to dehollowfy Zangetsu into himself:

This presages the final revelation of the reforging of Zangetsu in chapter 542:

Now, we can all readily see that Ichigo's backstory is extremely convoluted compared to every other Shinigami's, but from his example we can generalize the truth of how an asauchi becomes a zanpakutō. It lies within two statements from Ōetsu:

"I used the asauchi just now as a trigger to extract this zanpakutō from within you."

"… And became your zanpakutō."

Again, Ōetsu is being a little sloppy in his terminology here, but we can divine the basic truth: your zanpakutō (essence) is something that's inside you all along. The asauchi is simply a mechanism for drawing it out and materializing it. So if you ever wondered why Tōshirō already has Hyōrinmaru in his soul in chapter -16, that's why:

The essence of a zanpakutō comes from within, not from without. In some sense, Hyōrinmaru is and always was part of Tōshirō. The same is true of every other Shinigami as well. (The correct way to think about Kusaka, if one credits that movie, is therefore that he shared an essence with Tōshirō.) It is the form of it that changes... on exposure to an asauchi.

To recap:

all Shinigami have a zanpakutō essence within them already

an asauchi serves to draw out this zanpakutō essence and fuse with it, creating a zanpakutō sword

this zanpakutō sword can manifest a zanpakutō spirit, its own personification

At this point you should be wondering: why do zanpakutō spirits look so different from their wielders if they are their wielders?

Well that's very simple: they're mixed with the asauchi. Remember: the asauchi is a collection of Shinigami souls (or parts of them, it's not clear). The essence of a zanpakutō is absorbed from the wielding Shinigami, creating a new entity. But that collection of Shinigami souls still has a massive influence on the manifestation of the completed zanpakutō, thus its radically different appearance and personality. These come from some kind of amalgamation of the souls used to create the asauchi.

Ichigo did not have this issue because there "was nobody else" influencing the expression of his zanpakutō (except the shard of Yhwach, which was also dormant until his powers woke up). Zangetsu simulated a normal zanpakutō using Hollow mask matter, but there were no "outside influences" in the form of an asauchi to change his appearance or behavior, hence why he's a mirror of Ichigo. Not so with every other Shinigami.

(This is bolstered by the assertion by Kubo that when someone else comes into possession of a deceased Shinigami's zanpakutō, although it can be completely overwritten, there is sometimes a "mixing" where the current owner's aspects mix with the previous one's.)

In other words, just like an asauchi is a Cyber-Gillian, a zanpakutō is a Cyber-Adjuchas. The wielding Shinigami provides the dominant soul to bring the component souls of the asauchi into order and advance their evolution to the next step. However, whereas natural Hollows become more animalistic as Adjuchas, Cyber-Hollows become more human as Adjuchas. This is why Ichigo and Renji couldn't tell the difference between all of Ōetsu's zanpakutō and Shinigami.

This also strongly suggests that the zanpakutō essence already residing within oneself is also what is unleashed via Hollowfication. It's simply that in Hollowfication, this essence is twisted and corrupted by the loss of heart, whereas in an asauchi-release, it's kept whole and pure. This in turn suggests that the zanpakutō essence is essentially a personification of the individual's will. This will be important momentarily.

So now we know how this process occurs once someone is handed an asauchi. But where do the components for asauchi come from? Well...

As @uraharashouten has recently noted, the Maggot's Nest is a prison exclusively for Shinigami who are believed to potentially be future problems. It's essentially the Shinigami equivalent of a CIA black site used by Minority Report's Pre-Crime Division.

Notice also what Kisuke says here in chapter -106:

The Maggot's Nest is not Kisuke's main responsibility, nor is it where people who have done normal crimes end up. There is an entirely separate facility for those, which is his main duty, and the Maggot's Nest is just a side-gig. That's why it's such a rinky-dinky little jail. We know of exactly one big prison in the Seireitei: the Central Great Underground Prison. That was his actual main job (although that facility is likely under Central 46's direct supervision, not the Onmituskidō/2nd Division). This is why Kisuke's punishment in TBTP was to be depowered—the warden of the CGUP would know too much to be imprisoned within it.

Now, why would you put the pre-crime prisoners in a separate facility from the normal crime prisoners? Because you want to do something else with them, of course.

Haven't you ever thought it was weird the Maggot's Nest looks more like a psych ward?

I'm going to move a little faster now. We get told in Can't Fear Your Own World, volume 3, chapter 21:

Oh-Etsu had initially planned to hold back the thing by turning him into a full Asauchi, but the Soul Reaper was still in the process of doing that research and was not capable of entirely erasing individuality in those days, so the monstrosity ended up becoming a demonic sword with the ability to devour his own wielder’s konpaku.

We're told in Spirits Are Forever With You that it takes much more time for Azashiro to assimilate people than objects, because their reiatsu resists the effects of his Bankai. As is usual, everything in Bleach is a test of will. So, in other words, the Maggot's Nest exists to break down a Shinigami's will:

This way it's much easier to erase their individuality before shredding their souls and forging asauchi out of them. The listless and broken cannot resist.

Which in turn ensures that the soul of the wielder of an asauchi will always be the dominant soul and properly inject their zanpakutō spirit into it. It's like a rigged version of a Gillian where a particular soul will always effortlessly dominate the others, regardless of how strong it is. There is no competition as in wild Hollows. Even the weakest Shinigami can subjugate an asauchi. And when that soul is strong enough...

They will all acknowledge it and submit automatically.

So there you have it: potentially dangerous Shinigami are mentally broken before being turned into asauchi, those asauchi then draw out an inner zanpakutō essence in a Shinigami and actualize it into a weapon, eventually forming its own "person" which is the same-as-but-different-from the wielder. All of the unsightly Hollow aspects of this are conveniently hidden from all parties, and no Shinigami ever suspects that they're using tame Hollows made from their dead comrades.

It's all nice and "clean".

#Out Of Character #Bleach #Meta #Long Post #Blood TW

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