#i dont know the correct words for how to describe how i feel about the pacing

[sporksaber]

So I don't like talking about specific fics if I'm not recommending them, particularly if they're not well known fics, but I want to talk about the dpxdc one I was reading the other day.

So overall it was a pretty solid fic. I liked the majority of it. But it's plot centered around danny having gone through medical torture by the giw and the way its added into the story doesn't work (the plot centering around it isnt my issue.). The graphic stuff is confined to chapters 18 and 19 of 20. I don't think how graphic it is adds to the story at all, but that's not enough for me to want to talk about this fic specifically. The quality of the build up and characterization goes down in these chapters. It's kind of in the way shows that get their episodes cut feel, but more like they added too much into too short a time frame (it's pacing is consistent (i went back to double check what was and wasnt tagged and noticed it was 100k words, its paced really well.)).

It's the characterization that bothers me the most. Specifically with Bruce. Because one of these extremely graphic sections happens because they're watching the recorded experiments, and bruce stops them from stopping the video because he wants to know Danny's weaknesses. Nightwing is literally throwing up and Tim is crying and asking him to stop because he doesn't want to watch the guy he's dating get violated and torn apart– and bruce has no reaction. It feels like character assassination except there's no consequences for this happening. I'm hopping back and forth as I write this, Bruce's characterization in the first 17 chapters was really nice and refreshing.

If the scene hadn't happened I'd of completely overlooked a lot of the other things that bothered me. Like it uses the drugging/tranquing tim bit that I really don't like, it's really dangerous and unhealthy and that kind of rest doesn't make someone well rested. The introduction of dani felt like it was only a plot device to get danny kidnapped again, and her being there doesn't do anything other than move the plot along and make the last few chapters feel- unsatisfying maybe? Jumbled isn't the right word because it's not, but she tips it over into there being too much to cover in a satisfying way. I initially went to type cohesive, but that's not an issue here. They way they transition between segments is fine, but trying to cover so much makes it so there feels like there's a lot missing and points that should have been addressed are forgotten about. Like I said earlier it's paced well and it's consistent, and I think that's why she feels like the problem.

This isnt helped by the fact that she doesn't do anything. And by that I mean she has no plotline of her own. Them finding out she was kidnapped leads to danny finding out sam and tucker have been around and ended up helping Jason and to Danny getting kidnapped and tortured again. She is explicitly written to be completely fine after the months of torture (because she's only 3 and most of her life has been a lab experiment, which is not a good reason) and her existence magically cures jason of his pit madness. And that could all be given a good reason, but it's not addresses. It happens and they move on. Like that's it, their characters are done now.

Jazz also shows up, gets tranqued after figuring out that the Wayne's are vigilantes bc comedy comes in threes, and is then there to insist danny should come to live with her despite there never being a good scene of them interacting. Sam and tucker are also written to be inconsiderate in that scene.

Anyways. I think there was somthing else about it I wanted to add but idk. Once again, the gore itself isn't what bothered me. I think, and this is a more general ao3 fandom space thing, that the specific type of graphic depictions of violence in fics should be tagged. Like if I see graphic depictions of violence and medical torture together I'm prepared for graphic depictions of medical torture but when it comes up in the 17th chapter and wasnt tagged that I don't know it'll be there, ya know. I do think the fic was tagged appropriately, but I think over time dddne has become watered down so it doesn't give the same amount of warning as it used to. Thus isn't saying the fic was tagged wrong at all btw, it was tagged fine. Although it is tagged with "vague descriptions of sexual violence" and "the idea of it more than the acts," and I feel like that could of been addressed more in the tags. It happens durring the medical torture and I feel like if it's implied while that is accusing it needs more warning.

Edit: They do put graphic depictions of medical torture into the beginning notes, I went to check because I don't read those consistently. And that is on me. I stand by vague descriptions needing more warning if they're in conjunction with what else is being graphically depicted in that scene though.

This turned into more of an overall review instead of the vague posting it was supposed to be. So. I give the fic a 6/10 but with an explanation. It feels like an 8 to 8.5/10 overall for the initial reaction, but on my scale I'd take a point for the dissatisfaction with how the plot points end and the use of gore not always feeling necessary. 6/10 feels harsh but correct to me.

The fic is wanted: dead and alive by astereae. I wouldn't not recommend it, but beware if you're squeamish, the graphic depictions are extreme although no where near the worst I've seen, and up to that point I really liked it. The ending kills the reread value for me, but I like the beginning enough that I might go back to parts of it. Idk.

#fanfiction #dpxdc #i dont know the correct words for how to describe how i feel about the pacing

[schizopositivity]

how to advocate for schizophrenics and psychotics in every day life:

correct people when they misuse the word "psychotic" (as in if they use it in any other way but a serious disconnect from reality, delusions or hallucinations)

correct people when they use the word "schizophrenic" as an adjective (its not!!! its a severe and persistant mental disorder)

correct people when they call people "crazy" aka "shes been acting crazy lately" (they likely dont actually mean it and this word is thrown around a lot, but as a schizophrenic im asking you to not use this word to describe people since this has been tied to me and my fellow psychotics for ages)

do not assume that a psychotic person is dangerous in any way (psychotic people are more likely to be the victims of abuse than be the abusers)

when talking about mental illness or the mental illness community as a whole consider, does this apply to psychotic and schizophrenic people as well? (if not, youre not talking about the whole community! its that simple)

do not purposley trigger someones paranoia aka telling people that theres someone after them (this is always harmful and potentially life threatening, its not a joke and never was)

dont assume schizophrenia is "just hallucinations and delusions" (its much more than that, it has negative and cognitive symptoms as well, which for some people is much worse than the positive symptoms of hallucinations and delusions)

dont make lobotomy jokes aka "lobotomize me" jokes (these procedures were used to turn schizophrenics into "pets" so that other people could better deal with us, its not a joke)

dont act "crazy" for shock value aka wide eyes, rocking back and fourth, shaking (our mannerisms arent for you to pretend to be crazy with, this is who we actually are, im looking at you rock bands)

dont fear the people on the street talking to themselves aka calling the cops on them (these people are suffering, these people need help, them being psychotic doesnt make them any more dangerous than anybody else)

dont use the word delusional for every idea you dont agree with aka "that conservative politician is delusional!" (delusions specifically describe strongly held beliefs outside of reality, not just beliefs outside youre specific world view)

dont expect people to express emotions the same way you do aka "why arent you reacting?" (many schizophrenics stuggle with flat affect and cant change it, it doesnt mean we dont feel things, just that we dont express them the same way)

dont expect us to be able to do the same amount of, or intensity of work you do aka "i work 5 days a week, you have it easy!" (executive disfunction is very common in schizophrenia, it doesnt make us lazy, we are just disabled)

dont post derealization without tagging it or TWing it as such aka that post with a fake european country saying that americans dont even know what country this is (we already struggle enough with figuring out whats real and whats not we dont need "pranks" or "jokes" trying to fool us without any TW)

dont assume schizophrenic and psychotic people cant see your post or view your media or anything else (we are real people interacting with the world just like everybody else, we can see your jokes about us, or your media portraying us as dangerous, we arent fictional characters)

dont assume youre superior to, or smarter than us (once again we are real people, we deserve the same respect as anyone else on the planet)

dont call someones delusion stupid aka "obviously youre not the reincarnation of kurt cobain thats stupid" (you have no idea how real these are for us, they dont always make sense to you but they do to us, please respect that)

dont ask if were hallucinating right now (its none of youre business! and if we say yes youll likely ask where it is, and if we show you youll likely look in the direction of the hallucination which is dangerous, it blends the real world with the hallucination and its already hard enough for us to tell the difference)

dont stop trusting us and what we say just because were psychotic (we still deserve to be listened to and trusted just like everybody else)

learn about less talked about symotoms like catatonia, avolition and word salad (these are just as common as the talked about ones, but just less talked about cause i guess it doesnt make for an intresting horror movie)

learn more about schizophrenia and psychosis from actual schizophrenics and psychotics (a great example is the podcast Inside Schizophrenia, scrolling through this blog, looking up students with psychosis)

TLDR: no go back and read it, its the least you could do

#schizophrenia #psychosis #schizophrenic #nd #mental illness #neurodivergent #actuallyschizophrenic #pseriouslypsychotic #mental health awareness #mental health #sanism #ableism #tw delusions #schizo #schizo spec #crazy #advocacy

[okiankeno]

Ofc most people who think damien is a monster are under 25. Their view of morality is skewed. Also can you even explain how he was being passive agressive? Cuz i read all his tweets and dont see it. But i am a stupid autist so what do i know..

Ok, I got two of these asks so I'm going to answer from my POV what I'm seeing. First of all, a shot at my age is very mature for introducing your argument (this is sarcasm). I never said that Damien is a monster. I am not demonizing him. Damien is admittedly one of my favourites on Smosh, and I think as fans, we are allowed to identify when someone you are a fan of does something wrong. I stated in my previous reblog that how he handled his interactions with Zayna was poor. You are putting words in my mouth, but I digress. My long-winded explanation of Damien's interactions being passive-aggressive is under the cut.

I'm going to straight up pull the Google search of 'passive aggressive' here.

Expressing negative feelings indirectly instead of openly talking about them. There are multiple instances of it in the interactions with Zayna and others in my opinion. However, I feel that people have different takes on passive-aggressiveness, so feel free to share with me what you think being passive-aggressive looks like. The points I will describe below are my interpretations of situation.

1) I think the most abundant example of passive-aggressiveness is Damien blocking multiple accounts, escpecially Zayna after he had apologized. Blocking someone implies you do not want to hear or see someone's thoughts on your timeline, literally blocking them out (until you choose to unblock them). He is not open to communicating further with people or does not want to communicate with them at all. I understand how this can be seen as him looking out for himself, but generally, blocking is considered a negative action, thus the action is passive-aggressive. Damien blocked some people on Twitter who have not even interacted with Damien nor even said anything remotely negative about him. Here is one such example:

I call this passive-aggressiveness due to the lack of communication with Damien and the negative context of blocking multiple accounts. It is providing more tension and confusion to others without explaining anything. We see the result of this lack of communication with the Twitter user above as it leaves something to be explained, the other party wondering, "What did I do wrong?" This is especially upsetting in the case of Zayna as reaching an apology with someone should not result in another person blocking another. I will expand on this idea below.

2) In Damien's interactions with Zayna, the passive-aggressiveness is much worse. Anon, I want you to imagine you are in a situation where someone has apologized to you. An apology is reached when one party realizes they have done wrong and acknowledges that the other party is correct in some way. It is an agreement.

Here is an interaction chain between Zayna and Damien, after their initial confrontation. It appears they have reached a common ground or the agreement I aforentioned. Unfortunately, the original reaction from Damien and the original post that Zayna had requested Damien for an apology are deleted, and I do not have that screenshotted, so we will go with what evidence I have here.

First tweet with an apology, third sentence: "While I'll never understand looking to old content to somehow negate the present, I do apologize, plain and simple."

Here, his apology is mixed - there's tension. If he truly understands the need for an apology, why mention the quote I highlighted above? In an apology, would you appreciate it if the other party apologized, but stated that they don't quite understand why they are apologizing? No. I wouldn't be satisfied with that, and you shouldn't either if you are expecting an apology. He could have ended the apology with the first few sentences. To me, it feels like a half-hearted apology given his choice of words in his third and fourth sentences.

Compare the previous apology to the second image on the right. Damien agrees that he is in the wrong here and essentially will learn from his mistakes. This is an apology with no conflict or passive-aggressiveness. There are no conflicting ideas within this tweet, unlike the previous apology on the left.

By this point, it seems that Zayna and Damien have reached a common ground and the conversation is over. This changes with the next tweet Damien sends on the left image:

Here, Zayna is replying to the deleted tweet on the left. I think this, above all, is a good example of Damien being passive aggressive because:

3) it's a direct display of miscommunication, where Damien outlines his unmet expectations of the interaction post-apology. This tweet contains a critique towards Zayna "If that wasn't your goal [depicting Damien as a bad person], your methods confuse me tbh" followed by a positive end note that comes off as strange given his opening statement. It feels like a backhanded compliment. Zayna got what she requested (an apology) but Damien is questioning her methods and even requesting something from her (Damien implies he wants tweets to be deleted after apologizing). And then he wishes her family and herself well? Do you see how this doesn't quite add up?

This could be genuine confusion on Damien's side, but given that both parties before this appeared to have reached a consensus of some sort, I don't think this is the case. Damien prolongs the conflict; he continues the conversation with Zayna, having expectations for what he envisions the resolution of the argument to be. This was not communicated to Zayna as demonstrated in her reply and she is rightfully confused. This is very weird – why is Damien, who has apologized, now provoking Zayna again if the conversation has ended? If Damien wanted to resolve this more directly, he could have also reached out in direct messages rather than continuing this publicly on Twitter just as he states in his tweet.

4) this is more about the dramatic irony of the situation, but I think it is also Damien being passive-aggressive – the 19k followers comment. This really puzzled me. Damien pointing out the follower count of Zayna and stating that she is depicting him as a bad person is exactly what Damien is doing as well by continuing the conversation in the way he did. He adds fuel back to the fire implying this conversation is not over as Zayna did not resolve his apology (... but shouldn't he take responsibility for this issue if he is apologizing for it?) to his liking. Damien has 266k followers on Twitter as of the last time I checked, and (I want to believe this) unknowingly has depicted Zayna in the wrong by exposing his followers to this. Additionally, In a previous tweet, Damien said he would learn from reacting in frustration. I think this again is him doing exactly that, reacting in frustration with this tweet but then deleting the tweet after. His actions are backtracking upon himself.

Now, to address something else but on the same topic: I'm not sure if you are aware, but Zayna has said she received death threats from Damien / Smosh fans. See below.

I bring this up because you mentioned that my view of morality is skewed. At what point in any of the arguments in this post or what I reblogged, have I earned the title of broken moral compass? Again, I have not once stated he is a monster in my posts. This is you interpreting my words, Anon.

I am trying to defend my opinion on how I see that Damien's interactions with Zayna have been handled poorly and that he was passive-aggressive, and it has resulted in this – death threats and a whole lot of controversy on multiple social media platforms. There's a lot of collateral damage that has been done within the Smosh community.

If death threats and Damien needing to take a Twitter break from an this interaction are not a great indication of a situation spiraling out of control as a result of Damien's responses, I'm not sure what else I can tell you, Anon. I hope I have made myself clear.

As a side note, I did not appreciate you coming into my asks, and insulting me without providing any arguments to your cause. If you continue to speak to me in the same manner, come off anon and let me block you (or vice-versa, block me). We will not see eye to eye with each other and never will if we cannot present our words without malice. It will be beneficial for both of us to not aggravate each other.

Before I end my answer, I want to reiterate that I do like Damien (personally less now given the situation at hand, but I digress), and I think you and I share this opinion at least. You are allowed to like something and be disappointed in it in tandem. I want him to come out of his break with a good answer for his actions. I hope he comes out of his Twitter detox with a clear mind and learns from this experience.

Anon(s) that sent this in, I hope that this answers your questions.

#well i was notnexpecting to write an essay but here we are #damien haas #smosh #fiery rambles #asks #smosh discourse

[nereidprinc3ss]

Hello, the one anon who said Spencer wasn’t an ass based on your preview….and….

I still don’t think he is! I am SO PROUD OF HIM!!!

Obviously Derek is the only actually correct one here (well and Randall who I loved. Imaging him as a slightly crusty war vet who means well but just is too gruff and rough to come across well. His wife bakes pies and has a rose garden in my mind) -

BUT, if you pretend to not know readers side, what Spencer says is perfect. Seriously I am so amazed at how well you articulate complicated emotions!!

Spencer had to grow up to take on adult responsibilities at age 10. He isn’t the best at communicating (v obvious right now), but he also is trying. He’s doing his best to do what’s right - and to him, reader is acting like a child lashing out - saying one thing, doing another. He can’t read her mind - all this is doing to him is proving he loves someone who doesn’t love him. (Again - which has to be the worst part. Like come on, dude admitted he loved the first girl he slept with and she didn’t love him. Now he’s in basically the same situation minus the actual intercourse and that has to hurt. It has to make him think something’s wrong with him) So he uses his words as a defense.

Could he have been nicer? Definitely. But his points, while ruder than normal for him, were accurate. (Seriously - cannot exclaim enough how amazed I am at your skill in writing conflicting emotions and view points).

ON THE FLIP SIDE —

Poor, poor reader. Trying to ignore what we know about Spencer - to only think how reader is thinking. That for the very first time, they’ve fallen in love - only to not be loved in return. The very feeling Spencer describes for himself - the feeling he wants her to avoid ever having.

Then she thinks that Spencer is angry at her for loving him, that something has to be wrong with her for him to not want her love. And she doesn’t have the experience or confidence to say what she thinks - so she pouts and ices him out, trying to leave so he can’t leave her first.

Two idiots in love. Absolute giant idiots.

Derek’s the only sane one right now - and that never happens. He’s right that Spencer can be, well… a cunt. But he’s also right that reader doesn’t understand how icy and sharp her claws are.

Ugh, I seriously read this when you released it and then had to step away before typing this message because I was worked up. Part of me really hopes it is reader who confesses first - and then they both grovel to each other. But I also know however you write it will be exactly right - and I’m looking forward to reading everything you post!!

Thank you, for starting and continuing this little series. Astounding! I need more words to describe how lovely this all is!

— 🌌

GUYSSS you all NEED TO READ THIS im serious!!! anon you get it!!! if you guys read part five as if you DONT know whats going inside readers head and try looking at it from spencer’s pov this is all very real. that’s not to say he was in the right for being unkind but he thought she was genuinely just being incredibly brutally unkind for no reason and he asked her to stop because he doesn’t want to breakup but he can’t handle being treated like that forever. thank you for verbalizing these things so i dont have to and thank you for reading🩷🩷 you are so sweet!! im glad the emotional components came through well for you!!

#asks

[dollfaceirene]

hi I’ve been struggling with manifesting my df I’ve listened to subliminals but I’ve seen nothing and I’ve been stuck on this for months I don’t know what to do at this point I want to try and just affirm but I don’t know how to go about it. my df is a person not just features I want to change how would you affirm to look like someone? Do i have to be specific like saying each feature and also saying the name of the person? I feel like saying the name feels more I don’t know if powerful is the correct word than just saying desired face. I also have a not so good mindset and I have doubts just crawling in.

you do nawt need to be specific when describing your df. Your subconscious, a.k.a you, already knows exactly what u want so no matter how specific or vague you are with ur affirmation, you will still manifest ur df, regardless!

you act of manifesting u cannot struggle with (since u are manifesting 25/8 regardless) but dwelling can be a problem. My honest thoughts & solution to this is working on seeking validation from the 4D because whatever you persist in (the 4D) has absolutely no choice but to reflect to the 3D. Thats how it always has been and will be.

also no affirmations have more power than others. All affirmations work the same, it honestly depends on what you assume. Do you assume that saying ur df name is a more "powerful" than simply saying u have ur df? it depends on if the person views one affirmation as more powerful than another.

also seeing nothing in the 3D ≠ not having it. If you already have ur df in ur 4D than u already have it. The 3D is nawt a source of validation since it is simply a byproduct of your assumptions from the 4D.

Having doubts = normal. Even ur fav loa bloggers will doubt themselves from time 2 time. However, don't let these doubts define ur assumptions. If your doubts are saying "u dont have ur df" then realise, u already do have ur df and ur doubts have no power unless u give them.

#law of assumption #shifting #desired reality #dollfaceirene #loa tumblr #manifestation #loa #loassumption #loa blog #neville goddard

[ekaterina1233]

PART 1: Dazai Osamu x Fem!Reader (SFW)

Warnings: in part 1 its gonna be fluff and stuff like that, slight make out in public, but very slight. idk what else I put here, i dont remember my own story... Sorry if I wrote something wrong, english is not my first language.

Words: idk, but is quite long.

Extra: Y/N is Ranpo's sister, but Dazai do not know. yet. Y/N will have brown hair and brown eyes, but you can change if you want. Idk how to describe her personality.

Dazai Osamu x Fem!Reader

"Hello there, mind if I sit here?"

The bandaged man asked you for permission despite sitting in the seat opposite you before you could even answer.

"I'm Dazai, I work for the detective agency upstairs. I haven't seen your face in this café before... What's your name?"

He leans his face into his hands as he looks at you with some interest. His eyes then slightly widen in realization.

"Oh! But please don't tell Kunikida-kun I'm here!"

She looks at him startled by the sudden appearance, but then she says:

"Well, it's kind of inconvenient for you to ask and go sit down, but I don't really care. My name is Y/N..."

She says her name teasingly, then she repeats his movements, resting her face in her hands and gently leaning towards him, looking at him with a certain curiosity.

Dazai is quite taken aback by her reaction to him, he blushes slightly while still looking into her eyes.

"It is a little strange, even for me, I'm normally more gentle about how I get to talking with a girl. Oh, I'm just so excited to have someone new to spend time with, that's why my heart is racing. My heart has never raced like this. Hmmm,"

He pauses to take in the moment, and the woman's appearance.

"Nice to meet you, Y/N."

"Maybe you're already falling in love..."

She speaks seductively, staring into their eyes, and she could see that he was looking at her intently, first his eyes went over her long, wavy brown hair, with a short medium fringe, then to her face, admiring her slightly reddened mouth, then her deep brown eyes, but at the same time innocent and mischievous.

"I can feel your gaze on me, Dazai~"

She says playfully, but she also admired his attractive features.

Dazai's face is now a deep red. He's now looking everywhere but her face, his gaze wandering away to avoid eye contact with her.

"...I-I don't know you!"

He squeaks softly, his voice catching in his throat.

"How did you know my name!"

He asks her, seemingly oblivious to the seduction in her voice.

"I don't know you either, but this is more fun. You're so nervous you forgot the first thing you told me was your name and where you work, silly."

She says in between giggles and getting ready to leave the establishment.

"So-... you're leaving?"

Dazai feels a mix of emotions, one being slight disappointment as he watches her get up, ready to leave.

"What about a... date? You know... We could go out? Maybe to the movies or something? The park even, it's such a nice day outside. I'm sorry, I'm being so sudden with you, I-I just..."

Dazai looks away, his face a little more red.

"I just enjoy talking with you,"

He looks back towards Y/N.

She starts laughing again, and goes to the waitress, paying for her coffee and then leaving, ignoring Dazai's lines, but she gives him one last look, smiling.

"N-no wait! Give me your number at least!"

Dazai stands up, ready to chase after this woman and give himself a chance to convince her to spend a little time with him.

"I just couldn't let someone as gorgeous as you run off without at least seeing you once again!"

She turns towards Dazai, looking at him playfully, with a small smile on her lips.

"Okay then, I'll give you my number, but don't expect me to answer or call you, Dazai~"

She then quickly steals a peck from Dazai and laughs, disappearing into the crowd.

Dazai looks at his lips, which now feel rather warm, for a few long seconds. He sighs before dialing her number to verify if she gave him the correct number. When he dials her number, he realizes that she gave him the wrong number.

Dazai sighs, he wasn't really surprised by her not being honest with him. It seems as though he's just not lucky with women, but what he doesn't understand is why she kissed him to begin with.

"Why do all women do this?"

He asks aloud, feeling a bit bitter.

Dazai starts talking to himself about how he's not lucky with women, but then he puts his hands in his coat pockets and feels a crumpled paper, he takes the paper seeing that it's written her real number, on the paper it says :

"I just wanted to trick you a little, that's the real number, silly."

Dazai smiles widely, he didn't expect her to do something like this, but nonetheless he feels like a new lease on life has opened before him. He dials the number immediately, and waits for it to ring on the other end.

After a few seconds, he hears a female voice on the other end of the call, he soon recognizes it as Y/N voice:

"Who's calling me? Come forward before I hang up and block you"

Dazai hears her say those words aggressively, but still playfully.

Dazai is a bit surprised by her manner of speaking, but he's still filled with joy.

"Y/N, it's Dazai! Remember me? I was that guy who sat opposite of you in the café, you gave me a fake number earlier..."

Dazai pauses when he realizes he's talking in a bit of a panicked style.

"I'm sorry for calling you suddenly like this, I just..."

He pauses again, looking away from the phone so that she can't hear the slight blush in his voice.

He hears her laughing softly on the call and she soon says in between giggles:

"Of course I remember you, sorry about that. Sorry to give you a fake number, wanted to play with you a bit, too bad I wasn't around to see your sad face..."

She says teasingly and playfully.

Dazai laughs, his mood improving further.

"It's okay, it's okay. I did feel a little sad when you gave me a fake number, I won't lie."

Dazai is now feeling brave enough to ask directly for what he's after, a first.

"Say, Y/N, you might remember that I asked you on a date earlier, would you still like to go on one? If you're busy, a few days from now?"

He can hear her making little noises, as if she's thinking of what to say. After a few seconds, she says jokingly:

"I only date guys who are confident, you don't look confident, you look nervous."

He can feel her smiling on the other end of the call.

Dazai is taken aback, but he still has some confidence left.

"That's right, I'm nervous. I'm nervous talking to you, Y/N. You are quite beautiful, and it's making me nervous to talk to you. I've only tried to ask one girl out before, and she immediately rejected me. You know what? I'm gonna ask you one more time, Y/N. Can we go on a date?"

He can hear her make a small noise of surprise, she's clearly taken aback:

"Hmm~~ Yes, I'll go out with you, but don't get too excited, I can leave you alone in the day~"

She says clearly a little embarrassed.

"No, never. I won't make you leave me alone on this date."

Dazai's voice is no longer tense, it is now filled with confidence and joy.

"Well then," he pauses to look at his watch, "How about we meet in the park in ten minutes?"

He waits for her answer, he's feeling more excited than he has in a while. A big smile spreads across his face.

She responds gently:

"In 10 minutes? Maybe I'll be a little late, I'm a little far away, but I'll come~"

She hangs up suddenly, not waiting for him to answer.

Dazai puts his phone back in his pocket, thinking that he finally got the girl of his dreams. He looks at the time on his phone again.

"Okay then... I've got ten minutes."

He whispers to himself, and gets up to walk to the park and wait for her. It doesn't take long for him to reach the nearest park, and as he's looking around it appears that he'll have to wait for her. Dazai sits down on a bench and waits, looking at his phone every 5 seconds.

After 15 minutes of waiting, Dazai starts to lose hope and starts to get up from the bench, thinking about calling her.

Just as he's getting up from the bench, his phone rings.

"Huh? Who's this?"

Dazai says as he pulls out his phone, feeling a slight bit of disappointment as Y/N didn't show up. He then sees the call is from Y/N phone number. He answers the call,

"Yes? Y/N? What happened? Where are you?"

He hears her laughing hysterically, then she starts talking between her laughs:

"Maybe I got lost, Dazai~ I'm near a corner and a church with a pink tree next to me and I don't see any park that close"

She says laughing, but Dazai can feel her tense and nervous.

"Pink tree?"

Dazai scratches his head, wondering if she's making things up to get out of going on this date or if she's truly that lost.

"You know what? Stay there, I know where that tree is. I'll be there in around five minutes."

He says with a sigh, this girl is giving him a hard time but he's not gonna give up. He starts walking in the direction of the tree, trying to find Y/N.

"Ok then, I will wait for you here~"

She says between giggles again and then hangs up the call.

Dazai doesn't take his time, so he gets there relatively soon, five minutes or so. When he reaches the area she's in, he looks around for her, but to no avail. He looks at his phone, and sees that he's got another call from Y/N. He answers it and says in a bit of a panick.

"Where are you? I can't see you. Are you playing a trick on me?"

"I asked a cute old lady for help and she brought me to the park"

She responds and then sends him a selfie of her and the park he was just at.

Dazai stares at his phone for a moment, relieved, but his face then turns nervous again.

"Y/N… please… Don't play these games… I'm not very good at these things."

He sighs and starts walking quickly towards her.

"Please wait for me, Y/N…"

He can hear her sweet laugh over the phone

"Sorry about that, but don't tell me you're tired of walking already?"

She asks jokingly and teasing him, still sitting on the park bench, but she gets distracted when a cat approaches her, she is completely distracted and enchanted by the cat that her doesn't even notice Dazai coming up behind her. Dazai walks up to her, but then he pauses to look at the scene, her and the cat. She's completely distracted by the cat, so he just stands there and waits til she notices him.

She doesn't notice the presence behind her and starts muttering to the cat softly, with a completely different personality:

"Hey cutie, did you know I'm on a date with a tall, dark, attractive guy? He seems so much fun, I don't know if he'll like me, I know I've already stressed him out."

she keeps muttering to the little cat next to her:

"What will he think of me? I'm very nervous. I teased and joked with him until now, saying that I only go out with confident guys, but that was a lie, I don't go out with anyone, neither am I confident, or pretty enough... I don't know why I said so many provocative things, I get embarrassed just remembering. By the way, can you believe I stole a kiss from him?"

She talks to the cat gently caressing his fur, giving the cat a little kiss and finally noticing the presence of a certain brunette.

Dazai chuckles quietly at her monologue as he's listening to her, and she's just ranting and venting to this small cat who understands nothing that she's saying. He doesn't move an inch until she says something about a kiss, which makes him want to just burst out laughing. He has a hard time containing his laughing.

"Y/N… I'm right here. And don't lie, you're beautiful. And very cute when you're acting like this."

He says while still trying his best to keep a straight face. He turns quickly towards his voice, jumping off the bench scaring the little cat over there.

"Hey…Dazai… Thanks, I guess…"

She says blushing heavily and looking away.

"Did you hear everything? Like, everything?"

Dazai laughs some more, and then walks closer to her, saying:

"I did hear everything. And in my opinion, that little cat wouldn't understand a single thing you said."

He then smiles at her and asks:

"Hey, could I ask you to do something for me?"

"Well... Can I ask for that kiss you stole from me? If you're comfortable with that, that is."

Dazai says softly, still smiling kindly.

"I saw you give this cute cat a lot better kiss than you gave me... I want a kiss too."

He says jokingly, yet still hoping for a simple yes from Y/N.

She looks directly at Dazai, blushing slightly again, Dazai swears he saw a little lust deep in her eyes...

"So you want a kiss...~"

After she says that, she stands on her tiptoes and wraps her arms around Dazai's neck, leaning towards him and waiting for him to initiate the kiss.

Dazai doesn't wait long to initiate, as he leans in and goes in for a kiss. He's never had such a beautiful girl kiss him before, and he just has to kiss her back. Y/N hair is soft against his cheek, and her head fits well in the space between his neck and shoulder. Her lips were soft, and they tasted sweet, like honey. He closes his eyes to enjoy the moment, and then takes a step back, smiling.

She finds his kiss addictive and pulls him back to her, kissing him passionately again, not caring if they are in public or not. Dazai laughs softly as she pulls him back towards her. He puts one hand on her waist and the other on her hip, he doesn't stop kissing her either and kisses her with passion. He pulls her closer and closer to him, her body fit perfectly with his. Dazai was starting to enjoy this. Maybe he could even… no, he's getting ahead of himself.

She gently bites his lips and gently pulls his hair, looking deeply into his eyes, and then she looks away at the little cat and sits back on the bench with her body feeling hot after that kiss, she tries to cross her legs to relieve her lust for the man beside her.

The way she bit his lips and pulled his hair, made him feel something deep within himself. He was starting to feel a bit hot too, and he looked at her lustfully. Then she looked at the cat... and he decided to do something that would surely make the day memorable. Dazai sits close to her on the bench, his right arm around her and his left hand holding her hand. He pulls her close to him, leaning back onto her, and then whispers in her ear.

"Let's find somewhere a little more private. To uh, talk...~"

She laughs softly and blushes heavily.

"I've known you for 30 minutes"

She looks at him with innocent eyes, like she's a doll that could break any minute.

"I know"

He says teasingly, putting his hand on her knee and looking at her as if he's been completely seduced.

"I know that we've only known each other for a short time, but I feel like I've known you for years~"

He leans closer to her and whispers again.

"I want to know you better. Your tastes, who you are... I'd really appreciate it if you'd come with me to my apartment for a while... to, uh... talk some more~"

He looks at her with a sly smile.

She smiles seductively and pulls him by the collar, giving him a memorable kiss.

"Ok then ~ show me the way.."

She says getting up from the bench...

PART 2 IS COMING SOON....

THANKS FOR READING <3

SORRY AGAIN IF I WROTE SOMETHING WRONG, ENGLISH IS NOT MY FIRST LANGUAGE... <3

#bsd x reader #bsd dazai #bungou stray dogs #dazai fluff #dazai x reader #dazai x y/n #dazai smut #osamu dazai x reader #dazai osamu x reader #dazai bsd

[stealingyourbones]

Congrats on 2000 followers homie!! You deserve it! Take this too, it's about 70% of a squirrel skeleton that my cat brought me a few weeks ago.

Also, for your consideration. Everyone in Gothem knows that at least one of the Wyanes isn't human. It's somewhere between a meme and gossip that they are just a little off, surely one of them must not be human. Some people hear Damian be refered to as "Demon Brat" and take it as literal, debating what kind of demon he is. Others see how Dick moves like his bones are made of rubber and insist that he is the non human, likely some kind of mimic or angel from how kind he always seems. Though there is a group who insist he could be nothing but a Succubus, which only fuels the Damian Is A Demon belief more, saying there are two demons in the house.

Some others suggest Jason is a werewolf or Mummy, some say that Cass is a Ghost or possibly a third demon. Anything and everything you can think of is proposed for just about every member of the family because something always seems Off about the family pictures and videos they take but no one can quite say which child isn't correct or when it started.

The family knows these rumors well and Oracle keeps a close eye on them, for they know that one of them is Other, and they can't have the truth leaking. Anyone who gets to close suddenly has their internet go down, or their account hacked, or something else. Something to keep them from The Truth. The Bats protect their own after all, even if they are Other.

When Danny enters the house, he can feel it and knows the rumors are true. Somewhat at least. It isn't his ghost sense that is going off, but something else. Something deep inside him that says, "you are not the only Other here." For the life of him though he can't figure out which one is Other. He doesn't want to drop hints to the wrong person though so he will keep his mouth shut for now. Perhaps they hide for a reason?

The Other in the family can sense Danny as well, and knows it is him who is Other as he is the only new addition to the family. They aren't quite sure how to approach him though. They know just how scary it can be to tell someone you are Other, as so, so few would ever accept them. But They know the family is safe, that they will accept Danny no matter what kind of Other he is.

Tim's butterfly wings flutter softly under the Glamor Spell used to hide them and his long, pointed ears. Perhaps a few pranks would help Danny settle in?

Homie I cannot describe with words how much awe and joy and happy emotions filled my heart reading that last paragraph. Had to set down my phone because the impulse to do hand flapping stims was so strong.

Like genuinely

The build up to it all: fucking perfect.

I so so sososo want to add to this but I also dont want to mess with peoples ideas but fuck it this is my blog we ball.

Danny notices a few things in Wayne manor that are just… off.

The occasional coffee mug, blanket, or book perched far too high on an impossible to reach nook in the buildings architecture.

The strange attitudes shifts of the Wayne’s and their odd rules around the house.

The occasional presence of eyes that he can never see but whenever he sees something move out of the corner of his vision, it’s simply nothing. But Danny swears that he can hear the faintest merry twinkling sound of a bright and happy laugh the moment the presence leaves.

#danny phantom #dp x dc #dc comics #writing prompts #dp x dc prompt #dpxdc #bones replies #seersnake #faerie!tim Drake #fae!Tim Drake #oh man i love this so much dude im sjsjfjfjnsmnsndjksskjsb aaaaaaaaa <333333

[kiyocuck]

kiyotaka tumblr user ramble

was thinkinf about this yesterday and i think ive cracked the idea of taka having tumblr, im an absolute genius and you will hear me out Okay

basically hes like a gimmick tumblr account that got famous for posting specific stuff and being Odd about it

the things he posts are like 5000 word posts just talking about his day in excruciating detail, talking about his studies and whatnot. it feels *weird* reading it bcuz hes describing oddly specific things like what he uses to clean his boots or whatever but its still Somewhat normal-ish.

he gets asks and replies to them with some unrelated tangent, some people ask him if hes autistic and hes like That is a very interesting question, I have actually done research in my spare time, because alot of my acquaintances are on the "Spectrum", and one of them, who thinks hes some 'Overlord of Ice', threw his pet hamsters at me and they scratched me on the face, and I had to go to the nurse in case he did not vaccinate them, I did not want to get rabies potentially, and-

basically letting his thoughts out without needing to sound like hes lecturing someone, he treats his blog like a diary and barely even realizes just how much attention he gets bcuz he logs in to post and then logs out

Occasionally, however, he will post something like "I cannot do this anymore I hate my life" and right after that he will post again "Apologies for the previous post, I was unmedicated, I am okay now. Anyway," and start talking about his studies again or whatever. and the funniest part is that he will not delete any sudden episode posts like that. he knows he can delete posts, but he doesnt think its worth hiding anything, which is why if he makes One grammar mistake in the 4 pages essay long posts, he will just reblog it correcting the ONE error like "*you're. I misspelled, sorry." and you are left to go look for that mistake he made in the first place

he will occasionally turn his posts into vents or nonsensical rambles like "I was reading a book about self-care recently, it was very informing. One of the chapters said 'It's important to have people in your life to support you'. Why does no one love me? Who should I rely on for support? What is wrong with me?" and people will reblog it like OP are you alright you can talk to us:( and he'll be like I'm perfectly okay dont ask me questions please (<-about to have another episode)

this turned out a bit depressive but take it in a funny way okay i just like to think about him alot even though i hate him and want him to die again by My hands

#danganronpa #danganronpa trigger happy havoc #kiyotaka ishimaru #danganronpa 1 #danganronpa post idk #should i mention now i headcanon him having bpd or #kiyotaka ishimaru bpd haver is real if you think about it SAME AS MONDO IM SO SMART GUYS

[itgr]

ITGR and the Aromantic and Asexual Spectrum

aka a long, pretentious, non coherent, semi analytical ramble I took a month to make about ITGR and how aspec coded it feels to me. Brought to you by someone who re read the series three times in the last nine months

I was originally going to write about how aspec coded every character feels individually in reference to this post but then I realised, I've always found that ITGR as a general narrative and comic had aspec vibes and I couldn't pin point why until recently. So I wrote this analysis (?) dissecting different patterns I noticed with characters and the general narrative themes and why it just feels aspec to me.

Obligatory disclaimers and preface: I will be using "aspec" as a shorthand term for both the aromantic and asexual spectrums (I will use "acespec" when talking about the asexual spectrum and "arospec" when talking about the aromantic spectrum specifically). I'm not trying to claim any of this was intentional on the part of Grave or trying to speculate that Grave is secretly aspec. I know a lot of the things I view as aspec coding could be explained away by a character's trauma or implied mental illness but I'm going to be largely viewing things through an aspec specific lens for the sake of this specific analysis (also aspec people can have mental illnesses or trauma that can feed into eachother and that doesn't take away from the fact they're aspec or vice versa).

This is all just a very aspec centered interpretation of ITGR and I'm not trying to claim it's the "correct" or "only" way to interpret the comic (also i will be sprinkling in aspec headcanons here and there and you will just have to deal with that, sorry <- some characters dont have specific orientations that come to mind for me. they're just somewhere on the ace/aro spectrums/hj). Some of this is based on 'evidence' in the text or like narrative implications and framing and the other half is based on vibes/hj and, I can not stress this enough, just because I headcanon a character with a specific label doesn't mean I think the character would ever use that label or even know what that label is. It's more about finding a term I think generally describes how I interpret that character as experiencing attraction

Word count: 4869

Part 1 : ITGR and the Performative Nature of Love and Attraction

Idk, there's just something about the way love and attraction are represented in this comic that feels aspec? Unlike a lot of other stories, I've read, ITGR kind of portrays love and attraction in such a detached manner I can't quite describe, especially early on. Love's ironically not romanticised and is either portrayed as something fucked up or as something performative with some exceptions (more on those later). Let's start with the examples in which attraction is portrayed as performative, starting with the most obvious example: Satan.

Satan spends most of his time, taunting and toying with his reapers in a number of ways with various levels of flirtation, with Scarlet being the one he flirts with the most. He makes a lot of passes and allusions to love with her because he likes toying with her and is really possessive over her. In some scenes, especially early on, he comes across more like a jealous ex-boyfriend than he does a boss. The way Satan acts around Scarlet and Brook is so interesting because I honestly dont believe Satan actually wants to be worshipped or that he has any attraction to Scarlet. He's just a bored million year old being who's trying to have fun, and he's doing whatever he thinks will make them uncomfortable because that's fun to him. This becomes more apparent with the fact that the only time we ever see him be uncomfortable is in Episode 94 when he's meeting with Ashe. Ashe (at this point) is someone who practically worships him and treats Satan how he implies he wants Scarlet or Brook to treat him. And he hates it.

Its so interesting that when Satan's given something he has been implied to "want" this whole time, he absolutely hates it and is uncomfortable. Which signals to me that he doesn’t flirt with Scarlet or mess around with Brook because he genuinely wants them to submit or because he actually wants Scarlet to fall for him. He does it because he enjoys the fun of getting reactions out of people and he likes being entertained. He likes the chase but I don't think he'd be happy long term if they ever actually completely submitted and did everything he claims he wanted. Something about the way Satan does sexual and romantic coded things in a performative way without actually wanting anything feels so aspec coded to me (diversity loses! the worst person you know is acespec and aromantic coded!).

The other most obvious example to me is Azrael (I have a separate already semi written ramble about the general queer coding in Azrael's character, but that's for another day). He's probably the other only character in ITGR that is as openly flirty as Satan and despite that, all of his scenes flirting with people just convinces me he's not interested in the people he flirts with😭. All his scenes flirting with Celeste and Bernadette feel performative and hollow because of the fact that he doesn't seem to be genuinely interested in them romantically or sexually. He knows how and when Celeste and Bernadette are going to die and I think flirting with them is either a way for him to either please them and make them happy before they die or a way for him to entertain himself or both. Like his interactions don't read to me as "Oh guy flirting with women because he wants to date them/have sex with them because he thinks they're hot." They read to me as "guy who wants to have such much fun as he can and explore as many possibilities as he can with people he knows are going to die." His entire date with Celeste was essentially a way for him to learn more about her and almost 'test' the extent of her loyalty to God because he was curious. When Bernadette dies, there's no romantic element to him comforting her at all, despite the fact he spent so much of their interactions flirting with her.

The only other person we ever see him 'flirt' with is the princess from his time being alive and even there, at no point do we get any narration of how he feels about her or any comments about having feelings for her. It's heavily implied he was only being romantic with her by agreeing to marry her because he wanted her to have one good thing before she died so her death wouldn't be as painful. I have a theory/interpretation that to Azrael, there's an inherent relation between flirting and death and that he only flirts with people if he knows when they'll die (even if the flirting isn't genuine on his part). This idea is supported by the fact that post season 4 and Nyra destroying his ability to see the future and how she'll die, he doesn't flirt with her at all (which also more evidence that his interest in her was never genuine). Anyways, because of the performative nature of his flirtation with different characters, he's aspec coded to me (and he likes men but that's for another ramble).

I think the other example of a character expressing attraction only to reveal romance/sex isn't what they're after is surprisingly Wrynn? I have less compelling case for her compared to the others but I find it interesting that it would have been very easy to just make her in love with Ashe in a conventional romantic and sexual way but no. She doesn't want to date him. She wants to go back to being one with him (something something love as consumption but we don't have time for that). Episode 182 sets them in such a specific way (by giving them a lot of romantic and sexual tension and also an almost kiss) but even then, the reason she's doing all of that is so he can eat her and they go back to sharing a body because that's probably what an ideal relationship is like to her. I guess to me, having a character have so many signifiers of conventional allo (aka not aspec) attraction only to reveal they're actually not after sex or conventional romance and more into their own unconventional form of romance (if you can call it that) feels very aspec to me.

I've just noticed this consistent pattern with characters performing acts to signify attraction only to subvert that but either implicitly or explicitly showing that sex or romance isn't what they're after and it'd be one thing if it was one character (i'd still argue that this hypothetically character would be aspec but it'd be an isolated case) but the consistent pattern is borderline fascinating to me? It just creates such an interesting narrative and almost world? In a lot of media, romance and sex are just considered normal or expected but here, in ITGR, they're really not. Characters can perform attraction but that doesn't take away from the fact that more often than not, they're usually interested in something else and I dont know, I've always found it interesting.

Part 2: ITGR and the Horror of Attraction

I feel like a lot of media treats romantic relationships and attraction as generally good things that can be fucked up but usually when it is, it's framed an isolated event and I find it interesting how ITGR highlights a lot of the more fucked up aspects in romance and relationships. ITGR doesn't frame love as something inherently good or benevolent and I think there's something about that just feels aspec to me. I'm not trying to say romance or sex are inherently bad or fucked up. I just think that, like with anything, there is a certain amount of horror that can be drawn from and created from the concepts of attraction and I feel like the potential horror of romantic relationships (not necessarily even abusive relationships. Just the horror that can be drawn from the concept of being in a romantic/sexual relationship or being in love), or the ways love can be warped and turned into something terrifying is something that stands out more to aspec people than allo people if that makes sense.

I feel like ITGR frames love and attraction as something capable of being bad and hurting people as much as anything else. Jordan, the first sinner Scarlet ever kills, uses romantic flirtation as a weapon to lure women and kill them. It highlights the darker flipside of flirting and how flirting, something very common in romantic and sexual situations which is usually seen as positive or alluring, can be used to lower someone's guard and commit harm and violence. The reversal of using something romantic/sexual that is usually used to make characters look cool or charismatic only to use it highlights how dangerous it can be in a specific context has aspec undertones to me.

Another example is how ITGR deconstructs parts of the tsundere trope in Chase's past in Episode 15 and showcases the darker aspects of being in love. Here, love isn't framed as a good and positive emotion, it's framed as something fucked up that can leave you vulnerable to abusive and harmful situations because of the ways it can make you idealise someone which can make you blind to their abusive behaviour. I find it interesting how ITGR deconstructs some parts of the tsundere trope (aka a trope where a character acts cold and hostile to their love interest but gradually opens up) by showing how someone who is constantly mean and demeaning and physically abusive to you can be harmful. I find it interesting specifically because I feel like tsundere characters' hostile actions are sometimes justified by people using the fact they're in love, which implies that just because they're in love, it justifies them hurting someone, therefore framing love as a benevolent force that can excuse certain bad actions as long as they're for the sake of love. (BTW I feel like saying: I don't think the tsundere trope is a bad character trope. I think it depends on the execution and just find the way ITGR handles it to be interesting T-T). In this episode, ITGR instead implicitly claims that love can't justify bad actions, which further its grander treatment of viewing love as an emotion as any other, instead of putting it on a pedestal or treating it with extra importance like a lot of other media.

I think the other main example of ITGR highlighting a fucked up side to the concept of love is Liam's entire character. Liam's spiral after he realises Ana is dead is both terrifying and tragic. Liam killing an innocent man so he can be with her takes something that in some contexts would be seen as romantic (the fact that someone would be willing to go to such great lengths for someone they love) and twists it to an extreme to highlight how terrifying it is that love can be so all consuming that it warps someone's values and makes them do terrible things in the name of love. I feel less strongly about this but I also feel like there's something mildly horrifying about the fact that he's willing to do this for someone might not returns his feelings. Something about him assuming they were meant to be, despite never asking her, kinda also hits that "love as something horrific" horror spot but I feel like that's a weaker point.

ITGR just consistently frames love like another other emotion that has the capacity to do harm and in contrast to the way most media places extra importance or goodness on love and relationships, ITGR views it in a very detached perspective that feels very aspec to me and I hoped I managed to express that idea with these examples.

Part 3: ITGR and OOPS! THE MAIN COUPLE'S REALLY QUEERPLATONIC AND ASPEC (coded)!

Okay so up to this point, you might be thinking "Wait, what about Scarlet and Chase? They're the main characters and they're in love and are explicitly sexually attracted to each other" and to that, I say "Well yes, but no, but yes"/lh. I'm going to preface this by saying that this is probably going to be the most incomprehensible and hard to explain part of this analysis (?). When I said there's a few exceptions to ITGR framing love as something performative or fucked up, they're one of the main examples (I WROTE THIS BEFORE VER AND EVERETTE OOPS). Chase and Scarlet's romantic and sexual feelings for eachother are framed positively and tragically, you're supposed to be rooting for these two little doomed by the narrative dorks. That being said, they're both aspec as fuck 😭 sorry, not sorry, the aspec agenda doesn't end I'm afraid. I'll start with Scarlet because my interpretation of her is a lot more based on tangible evidence (while Chase is half based on vibes tbh/hj). She reads to me as demisexual and some flavour of arospec (greyromantic or even demiromantic). I think it's largely the fact she doesnt really seem to experience sexual attraction towards anyone, including Chase, until way later on. You could argue it didn't even start appearing until after she left the 9th layer (so it took her 25+ years to start experiencing sexual attraction towards someone she has romantic (?) feelings for). I know that you could probably argue that it's a trauma thing but that doesn't take away from the interpretation (demisexual people can have trauma and still be demisexual).

I feel less strongly about her being greyromantic but I still feel like that's another possible interpretation. It's mostly because I can't really see her being attracted to anyone? I think I know why scarlets orientation is hard for me to pin down. I think it's because I can't really imagine her being interested in men or women?? Like, I'd make sapphic jokes about her but I honestly just don't think she'd be interested in women. Or men. Honestly I feel like she's not attracted to any gender. If she ever is "attracted" to someone it's because they're someone who gets close to her and she's grown an attachment to them. Like she'd still be in love with chase if he was a girl. But also, I don't think she's attracted to any specific gender or any gender in general but also has the capacity to like any gender and I feel like calling her pan just doesn't fit so. Um. Yeah, I hope you enjoyed my unlabelled Scarlet side tangent. All of that being said, her not really feeling attraction for anyone except one person and it has to be someone she's formed a pre existing strong bond with…. Yeah. Need I say more/hj. (The unlabelled demisexual arospec Scarlet agenda is real)

Now onto Chase, also known as the vibe check. I'm going to be honest, something about him screams aromantic allosexual to me in a way I can barely convey. I think it's maybe the way when he talks about his ex, he talks about how hot she is, instead of talking about what parts of her personality attracted him to her. Also, I might be projecting but something about him canonically having a lot of failed relationships also just kind of contributes to the aroallo vibes I get (I'm not saying every aroallo person is going to inherently have dysfunctional relationships but I am saying it's not an uncommon experience for aromantic people to have a lot of past relationships that didn't work out due to "something" feeling off. Gestures). There's also the fact that while Scarlet takes a while to show any overt signs of physical or sexual attraction towards him (I was gonna say, this is except for her blushing when she sees him shirtless in Episode 13 but I went back and no she doesn't so demi Scarlet is so real), he does it a lot sooner than her and I don't know, there's something about how his feelings for her derive more from the fact he sees her as his equal or even above him while he struggles with human connection and attachment with most people and how his expression of romantic love isn't really conventional which feels very aromantic and queerplatonic to me. I guess I've always interpreted Chase having queerplatonic feelings for Scarlet that are romantic adjacent (Not saying all queerplatonic relationships are the same as romantic relationships, it heavily depends on the people in the relationship and how they feel and I just think Chase seems like a romance favourable aromantic person who'd label their queerplatonic feelings as romantic <- I don't think any of these characters know what the aromantic spectrum is, much less what queerplatonic relationships are. I just feel like, if we wanted to be technically, Chase's feelings for Scarlet, to me, aren't really romantic but I think he'd feel comfortable labelling them as such. I hope that made sense). To be fair, in a comic where like, over the half the main cast is heavily coded with at least one cluster b personality disorder/hj (I might make a post of how many characters in this comic have cluster b coded traits or symptoms as someone with two cluster b disorder but that's for another day), it makes sense that a lot of the connections and attachments characters make feel unconventional because a lot of these characters have issues related to attachment but even that, I'd argue that doesn't take away from the aspec reading.

Ever since I started reading ITGR back when season one and two were coming out, I'll never forget just. Not seeing the romance between Scarlet and Chase at all and being jumpscared when it became overtly canon because there was always something about their romance that felt, for lack of a better word, empty (NOT IN A BAD WAY) to me? And I just couldn't articulate what it was about their interactions and romance that felt so off and unconventional to me until now. I think it's partially also because of the way all their romantic scenes pre the season three finale focus more on affirming how much they care about and are attached to eachother as people, rather than how "in love" they are? And also the way their main forms of affection is hugs or physical touch and there's not really any "OMG O////O ARE WE ABOUT TO KISS???/!??@?@?" moment. Even in Episode 42, when we get a bit of a kiss tease, there's not blushing on either of their ends and Chase is talking more about how much he cares about her as a person and how much he's come to respect her and how even he, someone who in a way views himself as superior to most people and tries to position himself as someone worthy of deciding what's just and what isn't, has come to view her the ultimate judgement and he respects that (THAT WAS MORE INTIMATE THAN ANY LOVE CONFESSION BUT WE DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THAT). And even when he says he wants to see her in the eyes when she kills him, it's more about wanting to see her as a person before she dies. There's love there but it feels different than romantic love to me. Like, it's so intimate and unconventional and something about how we're four seasons in and they haven't kissed yet and the way their entire relationship is written and the way they express love and attachment to eachother has major queerplatonic undertones to me.

There's just something about how the main romance in this comic has a surprising lack of emphasis on romance. Anyways, I love my little murderous aspec people in a romantic QPR/lh.

Part 4: ITGR and The Aromantic One and the One That Wasn't (aka ITGR and the Devastation of Amatanormativity)

Amatanormativity is the common belief and societal assumption that everyone desires to be in a monogamous romantic and sexual relationship and marriage and it has caused a lot of pain to a lot of people but aspec people specifically (it's similar to heteronormativity and gay people). There are two examples of ITGR critiquing amatanormativity and highlighting how much pain it can cause, one indirect and one direct. Critiques and depictions of the harm amatanormativity causes are generally hard to find in most media and are mostly confined to media explicitly centered around aspec people and that's why it's actually surprising to me that (while I don't think it was intentional at all), on top of all the aspec undertones ITGR has, it also directly and indirectly critiques a societal expectation that inherently hurts and deeply affects aspec people.

I'm actually surprised I made it this long without talking about Brook at all. That being said, there's actually one character I need to talk about before I talk about him: Ana. Despite Brook being the explicit and more blatantly canon example of an aromantic character, Ana's backstory indirectly represents a common issue aspec people face. I know it's later revealed by Liam in Episode 48 that the man Ana married was a man she hadn't met prior but I still think there's a way to interpret her backstory through an aspec lense (Misogyny definitely has a part to play in Ana's backstory but I don't think misogyny being a factor takes away from an aspec interpretation of it and vice versa). There's just something quintessentially aspec to me about Ana's horrified face in episode 11 when we see her and her fiance as she remarks that she "didn't feel anything".

Her entire life fell apart because her abusive parents pushed amatanormativity onto her. It's the way she literally tries to tell them she doesn't want to get married or have children (implying she was happy being single and pursing her writing career) and they dismiss her and call her stupid and tell her that every woman wants to get married. They dismiss the notation anyone (any woman specifically) could be happy without marriage, or a relationship. Ana decides to do what they say and I know it's never explicitly shown but I think she wanted to believe they were right and that she'd develop feelings for her husband and be happy eventually if she just conformed and did what they said. It's possible she could have felt like she was wrong (or. broken/hj) and that she wanted to believe that marriage would "fix" her and make her happy (because society and amatanormativity consistently pushes the idea that marriage = happiness) and that would explain the horror in her face when she realised she didn't feel anything. It's also further supported by her line "Where was that happiness I was promised?". Her parents, society and amatanormativity literally kept telling her that she couldn't be happy if she stayed single and childless and sold her the idea that getting married would fix her and make her happy and that destroyed her life and, regardless of if Ana was supposed to represent an aspec struggle, it still stands as indirect commentary on how amatanormativity can hurt people who don't want to be married (or in relationships) (semi related but I personally headcanon Ana as aroace or arospec asexual ^^).

And with that said, let's move onto the only actually canonically aspec character in this comic: Brook, who's canonically aromantic. Also Brook being aromantic is canon regardless of it's explicitly said or not. I could go on a whole tangent about queer representation and the double standards between other queer rep and aspec rep when it comes to needing authorial intent to be seen as "real" rep but the short of it is that Brook's aromantic, not only because he said he's not interested in romantic relationships but because, on a fundamental level, he doesn't understand what romantic feelings are like and how they work. He's confused by the concept of romantic feelings, because he doesn't feel them. I don't think there's another way to interpret that. He's literally textbook aromantic. I'm not saying that trauma hasn't maybe influenced that and vice versa but you can be aromantic and have cptsd. I also feel the need to debunk the idea that Brook's time as reaper "made him detached from romantic love so he's not really aromantic" because that doesn't make sense. Yes, Brook's time as a reaper probably made him even more detached from human connections than he already was but there is no indication that he felt romantic feelings before being a reaper. He quite literally shows no interest in romance at any point in the comic, even before he died (also, again, while his lack of general ambition in anything could be interpreted as the product of some kind of neurodivergency or mental disorder, but that doesn't mean he can't also be aromantic). The fact he doesn't understand romance to begin with heavily implies he's never experienced it and doesn't experience romantic feelings in general, hence that he's aromantic.

Now that that's established, I want to talk about how ITGR depicts the feeling of isolation that can sometimes come with being aromantic, which in itself is kind of caused by amatanormativity. There's several scenes in the comic (Episode 176 being the most obvious example) where Brook laments getting attached to Chase and Scarlet because they're in love (well. Wellllllll, adajcent anyway/hj) and he feels like he'll never mean as much to them as they mean to eachother. He feels like because he's not romantically with either of them, he'll never the first priority to them (I personally headcanon as Brook having mild queerplatonic feelings for Scarlet but its not relevant right now and we don't have time for that). I feel like it's very common for aromantic people to feel isolated as a lot of their friends gets into relationships and because of how romantic relationships are seen as "superior" and it's nice of ITGR to represent that in a way. I feel like we do sometimes get canonically aspec characters in media but usually, if they're not the main main character, we don't really get much about how being aspec affects their lives and relationships? Or what their specific relationship to being aspec is? I feel like a lot of media ignores the complexities of being aspec which is why I really love Brook as a canonically aromantic character. While in most media, the aspecness of a character is more of a footnote and is usually treated as a label that's simply slapped onto a character, Brook's aromanticism doesn't exist in isolation and it directly ties back to several parts of his characters. It informs some of his feelings and thoughts. It feels like something tangible. I think it says a lot about how the writing that Brook is written so much like an aromantic character and his struggles with not feeling romantic attraction are treated with complexity that I genuinely forgot it's not explicitly ever said he is aromantic. I don't know, I really like him as aromantic rep.

Part 5: Bonus Headcanons + Conclusion

I didn't have any specific sections to put these headcanons in so I'm just going to through a bunch out there. Ashe is so greyromantic and greysexual to me. Like he definitely had feelings for the wife he's implied to have had when he was alive but I like to think he doesn't really feel attraction outside of that one specific person. Nyra screams arospec asexual lesbian to me. That's it. Send post. Need I say more? (I'm never getting over how her date with Azrael just convinced me that neither of them are attracted to the other's gender/lh). Oddly enough, I don't have that many headcanons about Bernadette. I'd say she could be ace? Vibes anyway. Scarlet's unnamed childhood best friend is so aroallo to me (vibe checked). I wrote a lot of this before Ver and Everette's interactions were revealed so you can either interpret them as the token allos or they can be acespec as a treat/hj.

With all of that done, thank you to anyone who actually read this whole thing. I am so sorry I'm insane/lh. I hope you enjoyed hearing out this interpretation. I feel like this analysis (?) has finally allowed me to be able to articulate why ITGR has always read to me as an aspec heavy piece of media despite only one character being canonically aspec, it's a combination of several things but mostly just the way the comic views love in such a detached and unglamourised way compared to a lot of other media. Love and attraction are still in the comic but the forms of love we see are unconventional. It kind of creates a world where genuine love and attraction aren't really the default, like out of the most openly flirty characters in the comic, most of them have ulterior motive and their flirty is performative and I find that so interesting. I don't think this is necessarily the only way to interpret a lot of the characters and themes but I hope I've opened your eyes to the aspec ITGR reading ^^

#YES THAT WORD COUNT IS NECESSARY #im the grim reaper #i'm the grim reaper #itgr #webtoon #analysis #meta #???? #happy pride month i guess oops #i do a bit of speaking <3 #shout to itgr for inventing acearo and aspec people

[bumofthewild]

what are your thoughts on the stormblood characters. did you like fordola at all

i wanted to organise my thoughts (oxymoron) on the sb chars actually so this is a good opportunity to start. none of my thoughts are positive though bc i think sb's writing is really bad so when i probably start to sound aggro during this while remembering this expansion i'm sorry.... i try not to be mean when criticising things but i have very little respect for stormblood. also this is about to be extremely long like im not kidding but i figure ppl expect that by now? i hope

i can't really talk abt the stormblood chars without mentioning how much this expansion worships whiteness. and thats even after playing heavensward????? with all of the stuffy white (though beloved) elves who love their white elf history??? fantasy rpgs in general ig. and from square enix. idk why i was so shocked by sb... its a fantasy rpg from square enix....that was truly my bad...................

but fordola isn't who bothers me the most anymore at least. while i was playing sb she used to be the worst sb character to me bc i just thought she was silly and hard to take seriously. initially i was just uninterested in her personality solely being a traitorous attack dog for the empire. that's not to say i don't think sellouts are interesting--i actually think characters like that are very interesting, hence why yotsuyu is one of the more interesting chars (but not by much). it's more that i dont think a single stormblood character was doing anything interesting enough for me to really appreciate, or if they were, it went nowhere or was so poorly developed that any new thing i learned about a character felt random. i feel like anything that could have been interesting in sb was squandered constantly. a lot of them had the potential to be interesting, but were instead so bizarrely flat and almost kind of cliche that i genuinely struggle to put it into words how sb managed to achieve this. possibly bc the story was so preoccupied with repeatedly driving home the same uncomplicated ideas about war and oppression (this would require a separate post) that any sort of actual personality was more or less lost? maybe because it didn't really have a foundation it was working from to keep itself focused? i feel like a lot of time would pass with the characters making the same realisations over and over again (we have to defeat zenos...!) and then when it came time for actual developments it had to rush, thus the feeling of being random. of course, unless, the character was from othard, which the game obviously gave more of a fuck about developing as a location.

like i think fordola's really serious and unwavering personality, the fact that she would do literally ANYTHING to accomplish whatever it is she wanted, could be interesting. if there wasn't so little else going on with her. and also that unlike her fellow ala mhigans she's white. i can't stress how ridiculous it was to watch her or lyse be presented as so important/be the more relevant ala mhigans and everyone else is brown and they're just white. but it wasn't only that she was white. there was just nothing else really going on with her whenever you saw her that provided any kind of intrigue or texture to her scenes. nothing about her character ever changed. until they reveal her motivations for joining the imperials (????)

ok anyone can correct me if i'm wrong, but her goal is to free the ala mhigans from the imperials.....?????? like i'm 100% sure that's what she said. but how does upwards mobility in an imperial nation that relishes in using the word "savage" to describe your people seem even remotely like how that's going to happen? i actually could not fathom for a long while that was what she had said. like i fail to find another way to describe this aside from idiotic, and i often try not to consider things in those terms, but i really don't know how else to describe this. like. this is what i mean when i say the backstory for the characters feels so poorly constructed it genuinely feels random. nothing about her behaviour to me suggested she gave a fuck about ala mhigo. it didn't turn out to be some grand farce when she had her skulls or whoever stomping on the brown guy who they collect dues from in the middle of the road the first time she was introduced. so i just have no idea why that's what her goals are or how i'm meant to believe that's what she wants. i have no idea why she would care about ala mhigo except that her father does or something? but that explained so little to me bc it was lazily done and she definitely does not demonstrate any resolve re that memory except for the one time you see it so okay

similarly, nothing suggests to me that she's deluded enough to believe this path she's on will lead to freedom, either. she didn't seem unaware of the cruelty of the imperials. she's actually meant to seem very capable and smart considering she's established her own unit amongst the other garleans and ends up getting the apparently desirable prize of being zenos' little pogchamp but then what???? why does she think that zenos will give her what she wants?? i literally do not understand what her angle is supposed to beeeee

so i considered the angle that what she said is actually not what we're meant to believe and we're actually meant to extract from the story that she's on a revenge quest for her father against the ala mhigans, and the best way to enact that would be to join the side that's oppressing them. except how she's expressed her motives and how the game makes it clear shes carrying on her father's beliefs for a better ala mhigo doesn't really imply that this is out of revenge either? also she'd be doing the exact same thing yotsuyu is doing, which could be possible bc this expansion can't write. but i just don't think that's it. i think if she truly believes that's what will help ala mhigo like her father did i don't care about it being wrong or right and whether she learns that won't work... but then it just seems so silly.......like girl there is literally no way..................... i am stumped trying to think of what this was supposed to mean or what insights her character could possibly be providing aside from the extremely banal "everyone deserves forgiveness" argument stories about colonialism are OBSESSED with trying to make. hmm i wonder why that is, square enix japan? why cant you properly research colonialism? why is media so obsessed with sympathising with colonisers and pretending its even remotely original to keep saying "if we kill this imperialist...we're just as bad as the people who have been systematically oppressing us for decades...." well...!!

im ngl i actually forgot about fordola until u brought her up bc post-sb really seemed to be gearing her up for the aforementioned redemption arc. but then i forgot how much ala mhigo gets pushed aside to put the spotlight back on doma. bc after she helps you fight sri lakshmi (another character who they just had to make white btw despite the vira/qalyana being brown bedlah babe snake women. they worship a white god. whatever i hate my life) she just vanishes. i thought that was maybe the most interesting thing they did with her character even despite my hatred for lazy redemption arcs for colonialists and cheap backstories about dead parents, bc i liked that she wasn't forgiven and that she herself didn't seem to know what was in store for her own life anymore, but stubbornly chose to help everyone fight and was still really driven despite all her L's. and then you just never see her again. as far as i can tell anyways, and i do not want to know actually bc im still in shadowbringers.

in a parallel world where stormblood is well-written i see myself liking fordola a lot. but this is not that world and i can't keep spending my time imagining a world where sb could be good. like... she just lacked a foundation that really made any of her actions make sense to me. was i meant to feel bad her dad got stoned for selling out to garlemald? i'm not being sarcastic i genuinely dont know if thats what the game wanted. i assume it is bc this entire expansion reeks of endless humanisation for white characters, but ive said the writing is so bad as to leave me genuinely confused abt its purpose many times already.

anyways the absolute worst waste of a char to me is zenos. i haven't had such a hard time taking a character seriously in a long time, and asahi gets introduced shortly after so competition was definitely fierce. i think part of it was that he was one of the few chars id seen fanart of b4 i got to him in the game which gave me the impression he was going to be insightful or something, so maybe i had given myself expectations. but ultimately i was left with maybe the most simplistic main villain this game has produced thus far. which is a shame, bc like fordola there's aspects of his char that i found really interesting, only for them to be routinely squandered with each new cutscene. initially i thought his disinterested, calmer demeanour was interesting in comparison to the other imperial chars, like gaius, who had a lot of thoughts about/passion for what he was doing. i like characters who feel a sort of existential boredom...like a real dead inside char who discovers a sort of esoteric way to live or regains meaning thru someone else--i love that trope! wanting to forever be locked in a cycle of violence with wol. sure. why not! i like that sort of thing! i was even willing to ignore the blonde hair and blue eyes (i wasn't) like i've done this before as someone who used to devote a lot of time to dimitri fe3h. this is not new to me.

but the thing is the moment zenos started talking about the thrill of the hunt i felt something in me wither and die. that trope is not interesting! i will never find it interesting!!!!!!!! if you do i'm happy for you but not me. his nihilism could have been interesting if it wasn't manifesting itself thru the subjugation of the fantasy brown people this game invented just to subjugate like...can we be serious. even just the scale of that was so beyond moronic to me. i had such a hard time suspending my disbelief whenever he opened his mouth... that i was supposed to care about this prince who was deathly bored of it all but somehow still gave a fuck about maintaining the occupation and fetishising the struggle? it was so hard to reconcile any of what he said with his actual apparent years of behaviour. like okay, i already know whiteness is synonymous with violence and ppl are unwilling to take that seriously, but seeing that realised in the sheer scale of colonial violence zenos apparently engages in and then for him to turn around and be like grr i'm gripped by such potent ennui and this is really deep. what about this was supposed to be complex or interesting or well-thought out. i genuinely have no clue

what made it even funnier (worse) to me was that before i got to stormblood i was back at home watching my dad play two separate video games where the main villain was a white guy with the exact same motivations: everything else in life now bored them except for this very specific (and not socially constructed at all apparently!) thrill of hunting real people/framing life as some social darwinist thought experiment that definitely has to be true bc look at how many ppl ive killed and conquered? what's left for me in this life now that i'm at the very top of the very real and not invented and not racist social pyramid.........? but it's not just a me thing humans are just like violent and actually love killingand i am very smart <- like how is this not just a blatantly normalised concept in life in general. nothing about zenos having this outlook reads as crazy or interesting to me, it actually just feels monumentally simple. he was just reading from the coloniser textbook. my sis actually told me while we were talking about the game that there's a book called "the most dangerous game" where i'm assuming this trope as it exists in media probably stems from, if not just the like usual racism/unfortunate fascination with imperialism over and over and over and over again. i just...that his thoughts on the consequences of his actions, the sheer amount of conquest he's engaged in, are largely due to some fatalistic boredom that comes from just being way too strong and too powerful and elevated above the savages. like okay dude.

i think if they had just removed that shit (except idk if thats possible the colonialism is so entrenched in this expansion bc ff couldnt conceive a non-white race without oppressing them) then his character would have been a lot better......maybe..? idk all that shit he says to you before he goes shinryu mode about violence or his being self-serving wouldn't have been original but at least it'd have been a lot easier to believe as his ideology without this nonsensical pile of bodies behind it that i literally could not take seriously. his final monologue was hard to sit through bc it all felt so random. my sis also pointed out that he doesn't feel relevant to the story, especially ala mhigo's story, at all, and i genuinely agree. i feel like they must have had a lot of ideas for him separately and then shoved him into this expansion because they needed a strong villain or something to keep their already thin plot running. with other villains you can see where they get their ideas from or why they're doing what they do and how their actions might progress the story. gaius for eg is a char i find really interesting bc i thought his opinions on primals in arr which is about primals was really interesting, and his conceptions of an ideal empire as well. like he actually has a leg to stand on and compelling things to say. nidhogg is also a good enemy to me, and i dont care so much for thordan but i still think he had interestingly selfish motivations and contributed ideas to the story. maybe that's because hvw didn't wallow so much in a simplistic good vs. evil like stormblood did...like hvw isnt just war its revising centuries of propagandized history and learning to change your own beliefs and going thru a lot of interesting discomfort (to put it mildly). stormblood i thought tried to be complicated at times when for eg meffrid (one of the only chars i liked in sb btw) would occasionally argue with lyse on what's "right" for occupied ppl to be doing during their occupation, like how a lot of ala mhigans wanted to keep their head down. you can see where that idea gets used throughout sb like in namia, but it never actually gets complicated into something worth thinking about bc again the chars are constantly reachign the same realisations over and over by the end (we have to kill zenos...! ANDTHEN THEY DONT EVEN FUCKIGN KILLGHI). like the ideas don't go anywhere, which might be for the best bc in my perfect world this game would not be writing about any of this. and now meffrid is dead bc ff doesn't give af about the ala mhigans or developing their thoughts/beliefs beyond the occasional potentially interesting idea on the map dialogue. atp i just feel blessed zenos doesn't have a backstory so that his personality isn't the result of some lazily done traumatic event. well i say that but the game couldn't even keep him dead so fuck my life. who knows what's in store for me. plz dont tell me.

all the thoughts i have are negative i'm so sorry but the chars i actually liked like gosetsu just get ruined by the time post-sb gets its evil evil hands on them so this expansion is genuinely just dead to me. i used to like gosetsu a lot, and i thought the shame he carried with him for abandoning hien a long time ago was a fun addition to his character. one of my favourite tropes is when a character just wants to die...like they feel like they've emotionally exhausted themselves and don't know what to do with the end of their life. i find that kind of thing really poignant. and i'm pretty satisfied w how they wrapped up his arc, actually, with him deciding to go on a sort of pilgrimage. it was just how they got there i absolutely hated.

it just keeps going back to an inability to write. for eg, if what they wanted was to complicate gosetsu's character by demonstrating how someone extremely self-sacrificial and devoted to his country's cause could actually really want to indulge in something, they choose to do it by having him play an uncomfortable game of house with someone who's murdered an innumerable amount of their country's people. but its okay bc instead of giving that idea any meaningful thought, here's a throwaway line about how he had a granddaughter so it makes sense he's doing this, also we're going to age regress the coloniser so its okay she's basically a child now which isn't a total slap in the face for everyone involved including the player, and then we're going to play these scenes for laughs and everyone is totally fine with it and it's not lazy writing at all.

asahi too i thought was an example of just poor writing, bc why is a single almost zero-context scene of zenos saving him supposed to do anything to explain his behaviour. does that not just seem lazy? he doesn't like zenos for any other reason...? we don't see asahi's thoughts on zenos except for this one cut scene where the chars could be replaced with how meaningless it is and then from then on his suddenly passionate behaviour is just supposed to be engaging...? i personally thought he was a lot more interesting when he seemed to genuinely believe in the bullshit he was saying about the empire being gracious and forgiving and rubbing his hands obsequiously at wol and being overly flattering and just a sort of greasy spoiled bastard. but then of course this totally obvious reveal happens and he's just some "crazy" guy who just wants to be his coloniser's lapdog bc he's sooooooo strong. fascinating. post-sb felt like a bad tv drama. its like the ideas in somewhat isolation are alright but they just stopped caring

tbf to asahi i did like his moments with yotsuyu. if they weren't so steeped in like....the weirdest plot points ever (random-ass yandere behaviour and yotsuyu behaving like a child) i would have been a lot more invested in the punishment they enacted on their parents for grooming one to be an imperial officer and the other being sold off. yotsuyu's backstory is still kind of typical but i thought she was like. interesting enough. she was ok. i could believe in/enjoy their callousness a lot more readily than a certain other character ive already said too much about. i think their truly awful sibling relationship had potential. dare i repeat myself about what happens to potential in this expansion

i wish i had more to say about hien and yugiri and lyse but they kind of just...idk. they just feel kind of shallow......... i don't think they really get developed much, i mean i definitely have things to say but there's just nothing really there that inspires me to do so and this post is already way too long. maybe when i finally write like an essay on how mjuch i dont respect stormblood. i like yugiri though. her hometown is very cool but she just gets relegated to "dutiful ninja" that they use when something needs to be done that wol isnt going to do, and they don't go into much detail about what really pushed her to leave or how exactly she felt, they just kind of have her parents tell you thats what she did. i liked the part though where she was like WE NEED TO KILL ZENOS RN bc it suddenly seemed out of character almost but then well where did that go...ok. hien just feels genuinely evil to me like his vibes are so off and i could not tell you why but he's kind of just there to move the plot forward so i really don't have much to say about him. and talking about lyse would just make this post even longer and more hateful. i used to really like her too.

time for something positive...? i really liked the azim steppe when it wasn't being so randomly misogynistic. that was where i was most interested in what was going on bc it had less to do with the war, but then you bring the war to them so...*screaming*. like it's a shame to me that the xaela are still framed by a focus on war, but the dotharl's concept of rebirth and the other practices the different groups had were maybe the most interesting things to me in the entire expansion. also how gosetsu had that moment with one of the dotharl warriors who died without it being some weirdly ignorant clash of beliefs. i liked that part a lot. sadu and magnai and cirina arent developed enough for me to have much of worth to say about them rn bc like yugiri and hien they kind of just become channels for the story, but at least they have a lot of personality and there's a lot to work with. also its 2am. i'm hoping to have more ideas re the xaela when i get around to doing the sidequests in that area, which i think will help me round out their characters more. i called cirina having a thing for hien from like a mile away btw bc this game is so unserious. anyways i think there should be like a spin-off about sadu magnai and cirina and if it doesn't come to exist soon i will grow like ten extra hands and make it myself

#ffxiv spoilers #stormblood spoilers #post-stormblood spoilers #seriously like actual spoilers #asks #anonymous #maybe my longest reply to an ask yet #goodnight #spoilers

[pastanest]

if you’re wondering why I’m having to repost this, or why you were perhaps previously following me but no longer are, please refer to this post. I was able to retrieve this thanks to @rosieathena - thanks so much!! ♡

Spencer Reid x she/her!reader

part one can be found here

Gone - Part Two

Spencer blinked rapidly, his brain feeling life kicked back into it for the first time in two years as he storms into Hotch’s office, barging in without knocking on the door and slamming the piece of paper on his desk. Aaron’s eyes widen as he reads it.

“Where did you-“

Spencer cuts him off. “It was on my desk this morning. You know what day it is, this isnt a coincidence.”

He nods. “We can open the case back up, I’ll inform the team.” Aaron stands to his feet, but Spencer shakes his head.

“No, we cant. Last time we got involved, the unsub went dormant and has only come back 2 years on, when he knows we arent working on the case, when he thinks I’ve given up. He’s taunting me.”

Aaron‘s eyebrows furrow with concern. “What are you suggesting we do?”

Spencer begins to explain. “We have to act like nothing has happened. Im going to keep this note in an evidence bag inside my jacket, but when I walk out of this room we are going to act like we are talking about something completely different. We dont know how much this guy can see, we dont know how he operates, but by sending this letter he’s revealed one thing about himself.”

“And what is that?” Hotch questions.

“He wants to torture me. The first letter was sent to (Y/N)-“ His throat dries up just saying your name, he clears his throat with a cough and continues. “-because he knew that would get my attention, the rest of the letters were then sent to me because he knew I was gripping onto his every word. He wants me to be the only one thinking about this case, he wants to torment me while thinking Im getting no help from any of you. Our best shot at getting more information is to continue to act like nothing has changed, then he might send further clues.” Spencer explains.

Hotch nods. “I understand. This case is completely under your control, I’ll leave it up to you whether you decide to tell the rest of the team about this.”

“Thank you, I’ll tell them as discretely as I can.” Spencer turns to leave, but Aaron has more to say.

“As much as this unsub wants you to feel like this is hopeless, it isnt, Reid. This is a really good sign.”

And for the first time in two years, Spencer cracks a smile. “I know.”

Over the course of the next week, Spencer found ways to inform the team of what was going on. He managed to bring you up in conversation in a way that only one person would recognise. Spencer visited Penelope and he called her adorable, a word that (Y/N) used to describe her every time she saw her. Tears entered Garcia’s eyes and Spencer nodded at her, so she nodded back.

“Adorable, but quiet.” He clarified, and he could see the momentary confusion in her eyes before she made the connection.

“Only quiet when I have to be!” She chirped back, and Spencer knew she’d understood. Something new had happened with you, but she had to keep quiet about it.

“Does the rest of the team know how adorable you are?” He asked, already knowing the answer to his coded question.

“No..?” She said, unsure.

He nodded and smiled. “You should tell them.”

There was no way of telling what the unsub was capable of, whether he was listening or watching, but everyone had to be cautious of what they said. He could tell when the team began finding out through Garcia, because they all gave him knowing, excited smiles.

Sure enough, Spencer’s theory was correct. When he returned from the next case a week later, another note from the unsub was waiting for him on his desk.

“I’ll make sure Juliet knows you’ve given up. She’ll be with me forever.”

That told him you were still alive, he couldnt believe the unsub had willingly given such information out of sheer desperation for Spencer to pay attention to him and give him a reaction. He wanted Spencer to react so that he could go dormant again and torture him further, so Spencer had to act like he wasnt at all excited. He went to Hotch’s office again and showed him the note.

“She’s alive!”

Aaron hugged him and the two man laughed together. The situation was funny in the sense that they were successfully tricking the unsub into giving them more information, but the laugh wasnt one of humour, it was one of relief. Obviously, everyone had hoped that you were alive, but knowing for certain that you were was the best news Spencer could have possibly gotten.

He went to visit Garcia in her office again straight after.

“Guess what else you are Penelope.” Spencer said, accidentally startling her.

“What?” She asked eagerly, knowing he was going to give her another coded message that gave an update on you.

“Adorable...and alive.”

Penelope gasped, standing from her seat and running over to Spencer, who hugged her and hid his beaming smile in her shoulder.

“Thank you.” She replied, acting as though him calling her alive was a compliment, in case anyone was listening.

“I’ll make sure everyone knows.” She whispered to him, too quiet for anything else to pick up what she’d said.

When Spencer came out of the bathroom that day, Derek approached him and pulled him into a headlock that anyone else would have viewed as him messing around with him, but there was so much more meaning behind it. It made Spencer laugh, much like the interaction would have done 2 years ago. It was this hidden sense of things starting to go back to normal, hope restored.

The unsub makes a truly fatal mistake in his next delivery. This time it isnt a letter, but a gift, a small box. Spencer opens it and finds a tape inside. A tape gives a clue to the unsub’s age. Penelope manages to find a tape player for him and he takes it into one of the interrogation rooms. There is no image, it‘s only audio.

“Juuuuuliet, tell him what you want him to know.” The unsub was so desperate for attention that he made no attempt to mask his voice at all.

“You’ve given up.” Spencer chokes upon hearing your voice for the first time in two years. “Im staying here forever. I cant believe you would leave me here.” Your voice was hoarse and you were sniffling, he knows you had been crying.

That was all that was on the tape, so, where is this fatal mistake, I hear you ask? Well, Doctor Spencer Reid is very smart, but the thing is, so are you. At a few intervals in that message, you coughed, and when you did, you whispered things that would be unintelligible to anyone who didnt remember absolutely everything about your voice. And the only person in your life with the memory capacity to recall every single minute detail about your voice, happened to be the one the tape was delivered to.

Notes. That was the first thing you whispered, he knew you were referring to the post-it notes, telling him the man you’d written about seeing was the one who had taken you.

‘15m’ was the next thing you whispered. You likely wouldnt have been able to tell how many miles or metres you had travelled, and the only other value for ‘M’ that was useful in this scenario was minutes. 15 minutes away from your home, you’d counted the minutes it took for you to get to where you are now, and for two years you have held onto that.

Wear, that was the last thing you whispered in a cough, and that was the most difficult one for Spencer to figure out. It took a whole 7 seconds. Were you wearing something in particular? It cant be that. Could you have meant where? But that gives no clue. Ware! As in warehouse! That has to be it!

With no time and nothing to lose, Spencer bolts back to Hotch to fill him in on everything he’s figured out. The team meets at the round table to officially re-open the case, and Penelope starts searching for warehouses in a 15 minute distance from your home. Spencer is beyond frustrated at how quickly Penelope finds where you are, he cant believe that all this time you were held captive by someone foolish enough to only keep you 15 minutes away. But maybe that makes the unsub the opposite of a fool, because even a detail as small as the actual distance between you and Spencer is meant to torture him, knowing that you were so close by all this time is another wound to him. The team pile into separate vehicles, all heading to the same warehouse, and on the way there Spencer begins to overthink. What if you really do think he’s given up? What if you’ve given up on him? What if you dont love him anymo-

Derek nudges Spencer. “Hey, kid, I can see you doubting yourself in your own head just by the look on your face, stop it. She’s gonna have missed you just as much as you’ve missed her.”

The suddenly insecure Spencer looks to his friend for answers. “You really think so?”

Derek smiles. “I know so, she’s always been crazy about you, man.”

This reassures him, and he settles back into his seat with a deep breath, watching the streets blur by as he makes his way to you.

Thanks to the speed they were allowed to drive, the team makes it to the warehouse in under 15 minutes, and they position themselves at different entrances to the building. Derek kicks down the main door and Spencer runs in, gun aimed and ready to fire, but he falters. Because directly in front of him, little more than a few steps away, tied to a chair, is you. Spencer stumbles over to you and collapses to his knees in front of you, pulling you into his arms as you both sob into each other.

“Spencer, Spencer oh my god you’re here, I’ve missed you so much!” You cry, and he’s quick to untie you so that he can hold you again.

“I never stopped looking (Y/N), not even for a second!” Spencer tells you, pulling away enough for you to see his face so that you know he isnt lying, but you can tell he’s not.

“I know, I know! I never stopped believing you’d come and get me.” You reassure him, smiling for the first time in two years, and despite being muddy, bloody, bruised and beaten, Spencer is absolutely certain that you have never looked more beautiful.

An ambulance is called to the scene and you’re assisted onto a stretcher, while Rossi and Derek bring a handcuffed man out of the warehouse. Spencer sees red as he strides over to the middle aged, seedy, stubbly man that held you captive.

“Ah, Spencer Reid, I was wondering when we’d finally meet. How’s my Juliet?”

Spencer is not going to let that smug tone continue to live.

“She is not yours. I’d rather you called her Juliet than her real name, because if you breathed so much as half a syllable of that I would tear you limb from limb.” Spencer seethes.

The monster leans closer. “I ruined her.”

Spencer laughs darkly. “Do you really think that the woman Im in love with would let herself be ruined by some middle-aged, poor-excuse-for-both-a-Romeo-impersonator-and-a-killer, pervert? You underestimated her, and you underestimated me. We won.”

The kidnapper rolls his eyes, but Spencer can tell he’s taken aback. “I wont get much time for this, and once Im out, you’ll rue the day you insulted me!”

“Tell that to the pictures of little girls and boys we found under your bed upstairs! Along with letters about tax evasion, fraud accusations, the list goes on.” JJ calls as she makes her way out of the warehouse with a stack of papers in her hands.

Spencer takes a step closer to the man, towering over him and speaking in a low voice with wrath unmatched. “I dont know what your name is, and frankly, I dont care. You are going to prison for a long time, I will make sure of that. And once you’re in prison, I will find out which one, and I will personally deliver the message to every single one of your inmates that you are a pathetic pedophile low life who thought he could challenge me.”

Spencer turns away from him and starts walking towards the ambulance, but the idiot speaks up again and stops him dead in his tracks.

“She’ll be mine again, Agent Reid, and that’s a promise!”

Spencer is back in front of him in an instant. “I’ll also make sure to inform your inmates that Im the one who broke your nose.”

The scum frowns in confusion. “What?”

And just like that, Spencer’s swift right hook pummels the man’s nose.

“It’s Doctor Reid.” He tells him, voice low.

“For the record, we’ll say that happened when we arrested him.” Rossi says, and Derek nods.

Finally, Spencer runs back to you, sitting at your side in the ambulance as you lie on the stretcher. You smile at the sight of him.

“Hey love.” You greet him

“Hi sweetheart, sorry Im late, I had to break someone’s nose.” Spencer replies, his voice far softer than it had been a few seconds ago.

You chuckle and take ahold of his hand. “Of course you did.”

Spencer’s hands wrap around yours and bring it to his lips so that he can kiss each of your knuckles, so softly you barely feel it, but you do. Placing your hand against his clothed chest, you raise an eyebrow.

“Did you start wearing necklaces while I’ve been gone?”

Spencer’s eyes widen as he realises what you’re referring to. “N-No!”

Your curious expression intensifies as you reach around his neck to tug the chain out from under his shirt. “Then what’s-oh my goodness, Spencer...what’s this?”

In your hand is the engagement ring that Spencer planned to give you, and has been wearing every single day since you were taken.

“I-I was planning to ask before, but then everything got in the way and I was going to ask once I came back from that case, and then you were gone so I kept it because I didnt know what else to do with it and it felt like part of you was with me even though you’d never even seen it let alone worn it but I dont think this is the right moment to ask so maybe if we just-“

“Yes.” You cut him off.

Spencer feels all words escape him, and all he can manage in response is a stuttered, “Wh-Wha?”

You giggle. “Yes, I’ll marry you, Spence.”

Attempting to lean up on your arms to reach him, you hiss and fall back down in pain, but Spencer catches you before you hit the stretcher and lowers himself to capture your lips with his.

You passed out from exhaustion a few moments later, and Spencer sat beside you holding your hand as you slept. She wants to marry me, the words repeat themselves in his head like a mantra, and he finds himself utterly dumbfounded. How he managed to woo a heart as beautiful as yours, he doesnt know. He beamed all the way to the hospital but naturally, the moment you woke up, Spencer was sure he’d misheard you.

“Are you positive you said you would marry me?”

“Yes, Spence.”

“Do you actually want to marry me?”

“Yes, Spence.”

“Are you completely and utterly 100% sure about that?”

“Spence.”

“Yes?”

“Yes.”

#spencer reid #spencer reid imagine #spencer reid x reader #criminal minds #x reader #imagine #imagines #fanfic #fanfiction #headcannon

[chososdiscordkitten]

PLEASE GIVE ME SMUT WRUTING TIPS..GOJO BREEDING KINK MADE ME WANT TO WRITE SOMETHING FOR MYSELF. (EVEVN IF U DONT LIKE GS BREEDING KINK, ITS ONE OF UR BWSTS) PLEASE GIVE ME DIALOGUE WRITING HELP. HELPPPPP DONT LEAVE ME HELPLESS

UHHHH smut writing tips... hmmm. (yapping below the cut)

this may sound very wrong and not pc BUT, ive been reading smut for years. Since I was like 10, ive read countless different writing styles, and millions of words of pure filth.

And as I read them I developed a taste of what I like and don't like- I write in a way as though I am reading to the reader- you/your/yours, because I don't like y/n or I don't like using third person pov nor first person.

What I do- is I think of the scene, picture it and if I can't get a body part- or a hand placement correct, I go look at porn videos or hentai- whatever. Not because i derive like arousal from it- but I truly use it as a form of studying. (im asexual)

I also use shows, movies and songs for inspo- certain lyrics I can picture on x character I write down.

I find it helpful to use a physical notebook for my ideas, there are times I don't have access to my computer so actual paper helps.

And as for dialogue, I try to keep a mix of x characters physical state while they speak, an example;

("blah blah blah" she said, and he said "blah blah" and then-) ive never liked this specific kind of writing so I include the way their eyebrows furrow- or the way their nose crinkles after saying something.

with smut I think its helpful for the reader to picture the way x characters face churns, a trembling bottom lip, dilated pupils, it helps make everything seem more intimate and inclusive for the reader.

And when it comes to describing the way something feels- if its something small like a trailing touch- I take a second and do what im writing about onto myself-

example; if im writing about a gripping hand on a hip- ill press the tips of my fingers onto my thigh to see the way the skin indents and how it feels? (embarrassing)

One thing ive learned- just because you write it with a specific image in mind- doesn't mean people will be able to see it the way you do unless you provide details.

usually when im doing laundry or at work a specific sentence pops into my head that id picture x character saying.

Let's use gojo for example, in my head when I think of his dialogue I think of playful, sweet, but with kinda mean undertones. Because in the anime/manga he keeps a playful tone while saying some very mean things.

once ive finished a very rough first draft- I spell check everything and read it outloud to myself- I say the dialogue in the tone I pictured while writing to be sure it sounds correct. and if it doesn't I brainstorm different phrases or words. (use of different words is soo important.)

And once ive corrected any words that don't fit together- or changing certain things that make me squint- I feed it into Siri nd have it read it to me outloud while I follow the sentences.

I do this 3-4 times till the whole thing sounds correct and how I mean for it to be read.

And I do one final skim once I paste the story onto Tumblr.

it's a tedious process, I know, there's times where im on my 4th reread and it seems boring or uninteresting- but only because ive reread it a million times and combed through it carefully.

There are times where I think my writing sucks because it seems over processed it and it's not entertaining- but!!! I proceed regardless.

And remember- you shouldn't write for the likes of other people, write for yourself and to your likings.

The masses shouldn't tell you what you should enjoy writing, pls don't take this as rules or as like a demanding thing- this is just my personal experience and the way I like to do things.

Writing should be a fun hobby and something you do to get the filth out of your mind, nd im not a very big writer on here, so don't listen to me too much

thank u for the question :>>> (I know how it feels to reach out for some help anon, im happy you enjoy my writing enough to ask me this, ily)

#jjk #⋆ ˚｡ ⋆୨ten speaks୧⋆ ˚｡ ⋆ #jjk x reader #writing #⋆ ˚｡ ⋆୨10 asks୧⋆ ˚｡ ⋆

[etherealspacejelly]

Hey dad, sort of rant incoming? (sorry if I swamp you with the amount of text)

I heard someone use he/him on me yesterday irl and the gender euphoria was real. Like a person saw me sitting there not passing, looked at my gender bracelet, and corrected themselves on my pronouns afjsgkdgdh.

Also thinking about coming out at scouting but idk how many people will actually pay attention to my pronoun bracelets and I don't want talking about me to become tedious to them so I'm thinking of telling them I use one set. But then I don't know which set. Or just any pronouns all the time?

Definitely gonna tell them my new name tho. Soon. Maybe at summer camp. If you've got any advice about the pronoun situation it would be welcome. I know it's my decision to make eventually but I have to tell people about my dilemmas before I actually make a decision.

i think its worth a try to tell them about the bracelets. you never know how many people will be supportive, and those that aren't are assholes anyway and you dont want to be friends with them

you are worthy of respect, and you deserve to be around people who respect you unconditionally. as long as you feel safe doing so, asking people to use the correct pronouns is a surefire way to weed out the disrespectful ones. because if they cant respect something as simple as the words you use to describe yourself, they dont actually respect you at all.

#inbox #ask #inbox open #ethereal space dad #trans #transgender #advice

[elftwink]

finished reading lightlark yesterday. ben-affleck-smoking.jpg

i want to complain but there's so much that i genuinely dont know where i would even start. got out the second book from the library because i was curious to see if it was any different since it had been published after the criticisms of the first book were published and i quit after 3 pages because this time I already know nothing will change. if you describe most stories as being woven, this novel was fraying and coming unravelled. loose plot threads everywhere and it only became more obvious it would not come together.

words cannot describe how fucking irritating, presumptuous, needlessly stubborn, and flip-floppy the main character is. if you're asking how she can both be stubborn and change her opinion on a dime it's because no matter what her opinion is she believes in it 100000% and will not ever let up on it UNTIL some stupid ass plot contrivance happens and suddenly she believes the opposite thing with equal enthusiasm but without any actual character reason. girlie acts suspicious of everyone all the time and is somehow STILL betrayed like FOUR TIMES??? her stubbornness is I think meant to be a character trait (or flaw, idk) but due to the way the world is so fucking undetailed and the characters only act because the plot requires it (because they are paper thin and have no motivations. Isla also has no motivations or agency its just harder to spot because she keeps telling you in her narration that she has sooo many motivations omg she's so complex... ok well then can ms. complexity like do ANYTHING other than follow other people's plans???) it comes across as though obstinate stubbornness simply is the correct way to act because of how the plot bends itself to make isla's stupid assumptions correct. shes never incentivized to change her behaviour nor is it challenged in any substantial way (one characters calls out her stubbornness but it's clearly meant to be part of a cute bicker back and forth to build the romance. it isn't cute it comes across as though they dislike each other. when they end up together the characters also seem confused. wow what a great romance where neither party is quite sure why they like each other. ok)

and I want to be clear I have no problem with stubborn characters, nor do I think all characters need an arc to be less stubborn. but it's so poorly written it seems even the author, hell, even the character herself, has NO IDEA why she is acting this way other than that she is a stubborn person. no thought is given to why people are stubborn or how being stubborn (and needlessly antagonistic) will impact your interpersonal relationships. there is no consequence, by which I mean there is no causal link between the events of the plot, the facts of the world, and the way people behave. at all. this book was a series of events, none of which ever connected together in any meaningful or even slightly clever way. the plot twist comes out of left field but you can guess it several pages in advance of the reveal because of how hamfisted it is so it starts to feel like isla is just stupid or pretending to be stupid because there's no other reason she should not be able to see this coming because of how spelled out it is (I mean, aster clearly thinks her readers are stupid enough to need that kind of spoonfeeding, but in her defense I suppose you need to spoonfeed is you refuse to lay any fucking groundwork or do properly paced foreshadowing)

Isla is a characters whose internal monologue tells you all about how skilled and talented and independent and strong willed she is, all the while following orders from anyone who gives them with only a snarky quip to try to cover the cognitive dissonance produced by the lack of agency Isla actually has vs the amount she tells you she has. Isla barely passes the sexy lamp test, and the only reason she does is because sexy lamps can't be injured dramatically. also the other women basically exist exclusively so isla can be #notlikeothergirls, and by the end of the book all the other female main characters end up being evil anyway. maybe this kind of shitty faux feminism would have been compelling 10 years ago, but this was published in 2022(?I think). what the hell is this

can't even get into the worldbuilding because it would require another 17 paragraphs. soulmate pov tiktoks have more consequential worldbuilding than lightlark

#good idea generator #i will talk about the worldbuilding tho bc it pissed me off the most #second long ass post incoming LMAO

[nikethestatue]

I’m just amazed at how Gwynriels can twist canon into something that’s just sooo incredulous like their theories are always full of assumptions to make sense and they think it’s the correct one! Also, I saw one today described elriels as “cancer of the fandom” when the truth is before gwynriels came along the fandom was never this bad 😭 They’re the ones who brought this bad vibes to the fandom and I know this because I’ve been here since day 1.

Now I’m worried about elriel book. Bloomsburys gotta come up with a strategy to make gwynriels accept elriel endgame before the book is out otherwise sales will be doomed. I feel sorry for SJM but she and Bloomsbury brought this upon themselves lol.

Gwynriels are very loose with the insults and the name calling.

They are so not shy about calling complete strangers on the internet completely awful names. Considering that Elriels have been around since 2016, they have a lot of words to say about the confirmed ship and the people who are logical and who can read.

I dont think that BB give a shit about marketing anything towards any ship. I am not even sure that they know what the books are about. They just push them out and hope that enough hype will be organically created to sell the books. Even if someone hate reads, that's not a biggies for them because it still means sales and still means publicity. Also, you can't control public opinion. I am sure that SJM and BB went into HOFAS thinking that it will be super well received and it's been pretty much panned. So you simply never know.

[froggymarsh]

(accidentally unfollowed u when trying to send this ask dont mind that) HI i think abt caspian a lot do u have any caspian thoughts? - teddy

(hihihi no worries !!! waving at u very fast)

caspian my beloved <3 <3

very very caregiver coded! he probably regresses sometimes but i don’t have any caspian regressing thoughts as of writing this post and i’ll make one if i think of any yesyes

this man has all the patience in the world. he is the main caregiver of a trauma regressor who hates being vulnerable and will fight anyone who looks at her the wrong way, so he’s very used to getting straight up bitten any time he offers any form of comfort

(gill bit him on accident as a trauma response when he was stressed out small and caspian assured him it was fine over and over and over and gill wouldn’t stop until lizzie came over and was like “i bite him so much here watch” and she just bites caspian’s arm and he doesn’t even flinch and that startles gill into laughing,)

idk. how to describe what i’m thinking. he understands that regressors are different people with different needs and adapts accordingly, so his caregiving style will change depending on who he’s with

Lizzie hides a lot of things behind her anger. when she regresses she’s scared, she’s angry, she screams and cries a lot, and caspian is very good at redirecting and diffusing her anger. he can verbally disarm any attempted arguments and has a very smooth, calming voice, but isn’t afraid to be firm with her when he needs to be

a lot of his caregiving isn’t like. treating his wards like they’re kids? he used simpler words and is gentle with them but a lot of his caregiving is just reassuring lizzie that he’s here for her, that the big scary storm isn’t going to swallow them up, that he still has a heartbeat, see? it’s right there in his chest, his neck, his wrist, (she checks all three every time. one of the signals that she’s triggered and might regress is when she subtly reaches over to check the pulse point in his wrist)

He probably wouldn’t ever caregive for chip but i think lizzie and chip would have a lot of overlapping triggers. if caspian recognizes that one of lizzie’s triggers just happened (usually storms or gunshots, etc) then he isn’t surprised at all when chip regresses

he babysits gill on call all the time. gillion doesn’t even realize he’s regressing but caspian hears the slightly higher tone and the slight jumbling of gill’s words as he starts talking really excited and really fast about usually birds but also about the ship and his crew and the cool surface things he learned and he wants to tell caspian about all of it and caspian just smiles and encourages him through the entire conversation, correcting what he gets wrong and praising him for knowing so much

it’s been an hour since i wrote that first “idk if he would regress” thing and i have a thought now. he does regress sometimes, when he’s super super stressed or triggered out of nowhere, but he prefers caregiving? it’s more comforting and productive to him

when he regresses lizzie goes into Protective Big Sister Mode and takes care of him. she can absolutely carry him around. she is intimidating but loves him a lot idk how to describe what i’m thinking but u get the vibes

i have an image in my head where caspian is cuddling with lizzie (she’s asleep and he’s rubbing her back or petting her hair or somethin) and he’s on call with gill and he’s just happy and content because it’s a beautiful thing, being trusted with this

uhh what else. lizzie has told him, in a moment of quiet vulnerability, that she feels the safest when he’s hugging her and he tells her it’s going to be okay

he and lizzie are very open about the regression stuff. they can beat up most of the pirates they come across so who cares? if someone is mean about it they’ll kill them no big deal, /silly

uhhh yeah i think that’s all i’ve got :3

#dad shaped. uncle shaped? big brother shaped. idk i just really like him #asks #jrwi agere #caspian tag #cap. lizzie tag #teddy beloved