#it's infodumping or something very close to it i have so much 2 say !!

[all-i-do-is-read]

Akatsuki No Yona Recap Chapters 1&2

First things first, this sword here, have we ever seen this referenced again anywhere else in the manga yet? I'm definitely keeping my eyes out for this on my re-read.

Before I start this, I am going to put a disclaimer that my recap and commentary will be based on official English translation from ShoujoBeat as they are the copies I own. A second disclaimer is that these are simply all my opinions and commentary from the way I read and consumed the manga. I would very much welcome it if you could also comment and share your opinions as these recaps progress. Also, these posts will be long, so apologies in advance.

Akatsuki No Yona Chapter 1: Princess Yona

Since this is a "pilot" chapter, the purpose is to quickly get to the point about who these people are and what their circumstances are in a glance. Now, I'll say this first: I think Kusanagi Mizuho, the mangaka, is a very talented storyteller and we will celebrate her through this work. Nonetheless, I also think that she is not perfect and has some misses in the way she handled some of the narratives.

This chapter has plenty of that in the employment of what I call her "storytelling shorthand." Basically, it just means infodump-y and trope-y expositions to get some points across that she would like to be dealt with immediately, so she can move to the next point of the story quickly.

(This technique does appear fewer and fewer as the story progresses, presumably as the mangaka improves in her storytelling craft, but there are still instances of them used in later chapters and I would point them out as they come)

To be honest, this is why most of the characters were kind of unappealing to me when I was only starting this manga, because of the very trope-y and, dare I say, exaggerated way they were presented to us. I think the biggest victim of this shorthand is Hak and we'll deal with that in later chapter discussions. But once I got over that, I was fine to continue with the story. Plus, again, this is chapter one, so the shorthand is useful for getting relevant context out of the way so we can quickly get to the inciting incident of this whole manga.

We begin with a narration about the Kingdom of Kohka, the Hiryuu Palace and the King who lavished all his love to his only daughter, Princess Yona. (Oh, look, it's the title of the chapter!)

This narration comes from Yona herself, but we can tell that she is reminiscing about her time in the palace, as opposed to her situation now--outside of the palace. We immediately understand that something must have happened.

Yona is imperious, spoiled and shallow, only caring about her looks. Hak is an irreverent and sarcastic general. He is also her exclusive bodyguard. He also deadpans a lot. We immediately understand that they have a close relationship dynamic in the way that Hak feels comfortable teasing the princess of his nation in front of his King (his masters, essentially) and the way Yona just immediately launches into countering his teasing.

I've seen some people put off by Yona, because she called Hak a servant here (she also called him this in a future chapter, we'll get to that), but to me, it is again one of those shorthands to inform us that Yona is simply ignorant. Plus, it clearly is not meant to insult or belittle Hak. She was just responding to Hak as he teases her. You never see her refer to other people in this way again in this manga, anyway.

Here, we also meet King Il, Yona's father who dotes on her... and the third essential pillar of the Akatsuki No Yona trio, Suwon.

Aside: Suwon looks like a princess here hahaha

We are told that Suwon is so kind and that Yona, very obviously, has a crush on him. We get into a flashback showing us that Suwon supported Yona when she lost her mother at such a young age. At this point in the manga, we were Yona, too, loving on such a gentle Suwon.

And then we are also shown and told that not only do Yona and Suwon have a pretty close relationship, Suwon and Hak are close friends, too.

With Suwon's arrival, we get the information that Yona's 16th birthday is coming up. We also learn, more or less, that Yona figures Suwon doesn't think of her romantically, King Il has a distaste for weapons (and thus a coward) and that King Il doesn't approve of Yona's feelings for Suwon. We get more shorthands here about the immediate royal family's who's who and that, at least, 2/5 of them is not among the living.

Here's another one of those shorthands (infodump exposition) pertaining to Yona's personality. Following this, Yona told her father certain information her father should already know, but for the sake of readers, is spelled out for us.

King Il tells Yona that the reason she doesn't approve of Suwon is because being married to her would put him in danger, just like how the Queen, Yona's mom, was killed by traitors.

Yona opposes, obvi, and goes to contemplate this information. But she gets stalked by an ominous presence, which more seriously brings the point about the danger of being married to her across. She runs and ends up getting into a room where Suwon is. Suwon sees her distress and comforts her. But Yona then has a thought, which to me is a glimpse of the real her buried underneath the spoiled princess surface.

Yona is someone who is able to think about the well-being of others.

Now, the next portion of this, I will skip for now and get back to later. But I'll say this: Yona being stalked in the castle even though Hak is supposedly her exclusive bodyguard is one of another "quirk" that usually happens in this manga.

Yeah, she ran away from that conversation with King Il and she was having a moment to herself, but as a bodyguard, Hak should have followed her from a respectful distance. But then if Hak did, the stalking scene and following scenes wouldn't have happened. So since there needs to be a plot beat here, some inconsistencies just have to happen, I guess. This is one instance where Hak's characterization is a victim of these "quirks," but we'll just overlook that and go straight to Yona's birthday party.

The first time I read this part, I really did believe the direction of this story is that Suwon is the one for Yona. There was also that sequence that I skipped for now that reinforced this idea to me.

So Suwon gives Yona an exquisite hairpin and praises her hair and they have that lovely moment above.

I will talk about this later: Suwon's gaze towards a smiling Yona.

Anyway, this moment is later interrupted by Hak telling Yona that King Il was looking for her. Left alone, Hak and Suwon has a conversation. Hak tells Suwon that he figures that Suwon and Yona will finally become a thing (again, based on the earlier scene with the hairpin, it does look like it, yeah? Hak is not simply projecting here, he is just saying what he has observed). He also says that he supports Suwon to be the future King. Suwon vaguely waves that away with an, "It's not what you think," and we get this little bit of Hak characterization here:

Hak is actually conscientious, as in he takes his role, place, job and status super seriously, even though he is usually irreverent (which was why it doesn't make sense that he wasn't with Yona during that earlier stalking incident, but fine, I'll let it go).

Hak and Suwon then has a serious conversation about things being a bit off in the palace. And Suwon advised Hak to take a closer look at how things are. This next bit is quite important: Hak felt confident about taking a look at things around the palace on Yona's birthday celebration that he wasn't exclusively hanging around Yona that day, because he believes he can leave her safety and protection over to Suwon.

Now as Yona's party quiets down, Yona decides she can't let go of her feelings for Suwon and goes to look for King Il to convince him, but when she gets there, she is greeted with this:

I mean, I know what the silhouette is trying to tell me, but when I was reading it, I was like There must have been an intruder or something! as foreshadowed by that earlier conversation between Hak and Suwon.

This couldn't be Suwon, right?

Yeah, no. It was him. It was Suwon.

And that's where that chapter ends.

Akatsuki No Yona Chapter 2: Shattered Bonds

Nothing for it, but to go directly to the second chapter. But we are treated to a cliff-hanging respite as we go to Hak this time. He is out on patrol through the palace grounds. He's approached by Minsu, King Il's attendant. Minsu offers him a drink and they chat for a bit. We don't know the laws of this Kingdom but we do know that Hak is 18, so it seems that at least he can have an alcoholic drink at his age.

Hak and Minsu talk about Yona and Suwon and we learn, what I think, is the core of Hak as a character in this story when he says this:

"I want them to be happy together."

Guy just wants the people he loves to be happy. How hard can that be to grant? Such a simple desire that, unfortunately for him, the mangaka (hereby referred to as Kusa) is about to shatter.

Now, I really like this narrative technique used here, because as Hak is confessing this desire to Minsu, we are reading it through this panel:

Hak gazing up, probably imagining the smiling faces of his two best friends in his head, and the the tip of the bloody sword that Suwon used to kill Il. I thought that was such a brilliant contrast. What a way to wring our hearts, you know. Kusa would employ this trick a few more times in the course of the story and she always picks the most devastating moments to use this.

Then we go back to Suwon and Yona.

Yona is devastated in more ways than one. Her father is dead and the man she loves is her father's killer. But Yona finds that hard to believe and so she tells Suwon that he is not someone who would do that. In response, Suwon tells Yona a secret about their families.

King Il killed Suwon's father, Yuhon. And so Suwon killed Il to avenge his father. And he has been planning to do it for a looooonggg time.

We also learn that Yuhon was, in all the ways that matter, the better choice to be the King of the kingdom. But for some reason, the former King, Suwon and Yona's grandfather, decided to choose Il as his successor. But now that Il is dead, Suwon is usurping his throne to be the ruler of Kohka.

Poor Yona cannot compute what is happening.

She thinks about multiple things. She thinks about the old Suwon who smiled at her warmly--the one who gifted her a beautiful hairpin just hours ago.

But I guess now that Suwon has finally let out the truth he had been holding on to for so long, he is a bit talkative. He tells Yona that he didn't expect her to be awake and asks her what brought her to the King's chambers that night.

I thought that Yona's response was devastating.

Even Suwon is taken aback by Yona's answer, but let's unpack that later. I promise I will get back to that.

At this point, they get interrupted by soldiers that are clearly on Suwon's side who congratulated him for finally taking his revenge. But then they notice Yona in the room and quickly realize that she saw everything and so they clamor to kill her as well. Suwon resolves to do just that, but fortunately for Yona, her survival instincts kicked in and she was able to run away.

Yona is very much shattered emotionally. While she was running away, she kept denying in her mind what she witnessed, what just happened. She wonders if Suwon actually hated her. She then gets caught by one of the soldiers.

But just as a soldier is about to strike Yona, a force of lightning appeared between her and her pursuers.

It's Hak.

And he's not happy. He considers the situation and demands an explanation from Suwon. (He even has a very good narrative excuse for not being with Yona this time [unlike that last time]: because she is supposed to be with Suwon, so he was making himself scarce).

He then turns to Yona and we see one of this manga's iconic panels: (iconic to me, at least. like when I think of ANY, this always immediately comes to mind)

Yona's response to him here is also very devastating.

"Hak, are you on my side?"

Poor Yona, she already thinks she has no one. Not surprising when the man you love commits regicide in front of your very eyes and soldiers of your kingdom wants to cut you down.

You can tell that Hak is taken aback by this question, too, because he pauses before answering her. Then he pledges his devotion and obedience to her.

Hak turns back to Suwon and Suwon gets him up to speed about the plot thus far, except Hak is not even given the grace of the full truth about the backstory of the royal family rift. So much for a best friend, really, Suwon. Instead, Hak was given a shortcut version of "King Il: Terrible, had to die. Suwon: Perfect Leader, taking over."

Hak then attacks Suwon, which, to his credit, he manages to dodge. The soldiers try to intervene, but they are warned away by Suwon by declaring that Hak is:

Hak is so remarkably strong as a fighter that he even has a famous nickname aside from being a general at his young age. The soldiers even sounded impressed at hearing his name. Now this is already the second time in two consecutive chapters where Hak's exceptional abilities in military arts or fighting arts or whatever you might call it is remarked upon. Bookmark that for now, because I will have some things to say about that in the future.

Anyway, back to the plot.

Because there are, obviously, many soldiers and just one Hak, he and Yona get cornered and all hope seem lost. Hak uses this opportunity to ask Suwon this:

"Suwon, was the man I knew just a facade?"

You get the feeling that the question was almost an imploration. Like Yona denying in her head what she is witnessing, Hak was also looking for his best friend in the face of this man in front of him through these questions.

Suwon, in fairness to him, does answer Hak, although I imagine that his answer actually pulvurized Hak's heart.

"The man you knew never existed. If anyone gets in my way, I will destroy them. No matter who it is."

I feel immense satisfaction knowing that Hak managed to wound Suwon, though. Suwon, you deserved worse.

Yona and Hak has no time to dwell on Suwon's declaration, however, as somebody fires an arrow that distracts the other soldiers. It was just enough distraction for Hak to snatch Yona and together they run away.

They are approached by Minsu and Hak remarks on his archery skills, saying it was a lousy shot (not the time, Hak). Minsu asks Yona if the king is really dead and Yona can only manage a nod.

They make a plan to escape the palace as more of the soldiers that are loyal to Suwon are gathering. Yona then despairs about leaving the palace where her father is. Hak comforts her with an embrace and gives her a reason for surviving for now.

As an act of loyalty, Minsu offers to draw the attention of the soldiers so that Hak and Yona can run away. His last words to Yona, "Please stay safe, your highness," is truly heart-wrenching to me, especially since the last page of this chapter ends with Minsu being shot in the back and with Yona, running away with Hak, taking one last glance at Minsu.

That ends chapter two.

Through all this, I have given very limited commentary about Suwon. And they are all related to the parts I said I will come back to. So here goes.

First, Suwon as the antagonist.

At the beginning, I didn't really see that, because I thought he is going to be the actual love interest for Yona. And I had that thought, because of that sequence in chapter one that I skipped, just right after the stalking incident.

Let's go back to that now.

Yona, overwhelmed by her emotions, tried to confess her feelings for Suwon, but Suwon shuts it down before she could even begin to say anything. However, Yona tries to keep pushing the subject of feelings without actually saying her feelings out loud. We get a few panels of Suwon looking like this and saying things like this:

Now, on my first read through, I thought that Suwon might have feelings for Yona. But (and spoilers for future chapters) it appears that Suwon is just truly awkward and clueless in matters about romance, hence his reaction.

But the really shitty thing about this is that when Yona says that it's enough for her that Suwon is a tiny, tiny bit aware of her, Suwon pats her head in a kind gesture, proceeds to give the hairpin to her on her birthday and then turns around and kills her father.

So given what we know now, that he kills Il and breaks the heart of his two best friends, all I can say about him is that he is a big piece of shit.

In these chapters, all we know about him is his kindness and yet his kindness turns out to be a lie. Kusa does give hints that there might be more to him on certain panels, but two particularly stands out to me.

The first one is his reaction after seeing Yona smile at the hairpin that he gave her.

Now at this point, he still had choices: turn back from his plans and choose Yona and Hak, or proceed as planned and turn his back on those two.

And he chose to be cruel.

Now notice that I am not attaching Kohka in his choices, because I truly believe it is an entirely different matter, even if the narrative and the characters keep insisting to us that killing Il and saving Kohka are one and the same. And I will get to that in later chapters. But like, way later. As in around hundreds of chapters later.

Going back, the second stand out Suwon panel to me is this:

This is him facing the consequence of that choice. Here he was, faced with the girl who, in many senses of the word, had no power. She's so powerless, she can't even choose who she can marry, but she was resolute to have a choice, to make it so that she can choose.

And she would have chosen Suwon.

You can tell from Yona's resolution before visiting King Il that she would have done all she can--all the cajoling, all the imploring, all the imperativeness in her spoiled body--just so she doesn't have to give up Suwon.

It's a choice that is impossible for Suwon to make. (Cause he's shitty)

Now, before you tell me that he had an impossible choice, because the choice was between Yona&Hak or Yuhon, all I can say is this: if Suwon wasn't a shitty person, he would have tried to make King Il answer for killing his father without having to resort to completely destroying the two people whose only crime was loving him wholeheartedly.

No, the choice was not between Yona&Hak or Yuhon, the choice was between justice and cruelty. He chose cruetly, because he is a shitty person, as I keep saying.

I will have more to say about Suwon, because I know his character gets expanded in later chapters, but my commentary on the core of his characterization will never change.

And that's it for my first Akatsuki No Yona Commentary Series. I'm sorry that it got so long, but I had to put chapters 1 and 2 together to make this make sense.

I'll be back with more chapter commentaries soon. Please let me know your commentary on these chapters if you love this manga. I would love to read more perspectives, more opinions. And thank you for reading until here. See you next time!

#akatsuki no yona #yona of the dawn #yona #hak #hakyona #suwon #analysis

[anonymous-dee]

Ranpo! Is! Autistic Coded!

Hear me out! I definitely think Ranpo from BSD is Autistic coded! It only occurred to me during my second watch-through but a lot of his mannerisms actually match up a lot with my own experiences as someone with ASD! :0

I found a whole article explaining a lot of different things that make him Autistic coded so I'll link it here! But I'll also make a TLDR version too in case the link doesn't work!

BASICALLY!

1.Infodumping/Overtalking

2.Missing tons of social cues

3.Obliviousness in many situations

4.Not understanding/feeling/expressing emotions the same as others

5.Comfort objects and stimming

6.Meltdowns

7.Sensory issues (especially with clothing)

8.Hand flapping

9."Childish" or unusual interests/hyperfixations

I love him so much! (Even though Akutagawa is my ultimate favorite character)! I would love to elaborate on the points made above but the article does a better job than me!

UPDATE!! I JUST STARTED WATCHING SEASON 4 SO UNDERNEATH HERE WILL BE S4 SPOILERS!!! PROCEED WITH CAUTION!!!

So based off of all of the Ranpo LORE revealed in the first episode his Autism beams are stronger than ever because HEAR ME OUT!!!

So it's revealed that Ranpo always gets perceived as childish even when he doesn't wish to be perceived that way (I know he's 14 but he says something along the lines of like "Here we go again, getting treated like a child") which is something many people with Autism (me included) have to deal with from our NT peers

AND! Not to mention the particular eating habits from when Fukuzawa was taking him out to eat red bean bowls with mochi in them and he didn't eat any of the mochi (in any of the 20 bowls)

AAAAAND! This is the spiciest part! It was revealed that Ranpo kept getting fired from jobs because of how blunt he was with the truth and how he would easily confront his superiors about their past or their crimes! It's so hard for many Autistic people to keep a job oftentimes because many of us don't understand social cues!

Another thing was that Ranpo automatically assumed that all of the tiny details he noticed were common knowledge and that everyone was on the same page as him, when in actuality he was noticing things that nobody else had yet to pick up on!

There were many other moments where Ranpo either didn't pick up on social cues or said/acted in ways that were out of pocket or not "normal" if that makes sense, and it only strengthens the argument that Ranpo is Autistic coded!

FUKUZAWA IS SUCH A NICE ADOPTIVE FATHER TO HIM OKAY AAAAH I'M ONLY ONE EPISODE IN BUT LITERALLY I LOVE RANPO SO MUCH! HE JUST LIKE ME FR FR

OKAY SO ANOTHER EDIT/UPDATE!

IN EPISODE 2 RANPO SAYS SOMETHING VERY DISTINCT AND APPLICABLE TO MOST PEOPLE WITH AUTISM AND IT WAS THAT "There's something that everyone else gets that I don't"

And then he has a small meltdown in the theater and you can clearly see people are starting to stare if you look closely

I literally relate to him so much so much so much

IN EPISODE 3, Ranpo also notes that he can't pay attention to things he has no interest in, which is something I personally really struggle with (especially as a college student RIP)

I'm not 100% sure if his breakdown at the end of episode 3 would constitute as something that should be added to this list, but I think it's noteworthy because I myself have also had similar meltdowns that went very similar to Ranpo's and I want to mention it.

I know I keep expanding this list as I find more and more content but somehow Ranpo's existence and the way he is unanimously respected and loved by the ADA is somehow really validating and comforting to me at the same time. I know BSD is fiction but somehow I see myself in Ranpo and yearn to be loved in the way that he is by all of his friends.

#bungou stray dogs #bsd #bungou sd #edogawa ranpo imagines #ranpo edogawa #ranpo bsd #bsd hcs #bungou stray dogs headcanon #asd #anime #autism

[sailahina]

insanity.

(DISCLAIMER: this shit is stupidly long and I blame @secretly-of-course and @lollytea for these particular brain worms. Look what you’ve done to me. I put the bulk of it under the cut so you all don’t hate me)

OKAY SO. okay. the huntlow miraculous au brain worms have been WRITHING.

I know a lot of people have been putting Hunter as Ladybug and Willow as Chat Noir, but I DISAGREE. (respectfully)

1. Willow is terrified of ladybugs and it would be REALLY funny for her to get the Ladybug miraculous

2. She just...she IS Marinette! I know that Hunter being all blushy parallels Marinette, but with Willow it could be interpreted as her shyness/insecurity during the Abomination track. Meanwhile, her true confident badass self emerges once she’s Ladybug.

3. Hunter and Adrien are both blonde bois growing up and existing under the authority of an abusive father figure. Both are highly trained in order to live up to the expectations put on them. (Though in this AU to keep up with canon a bit I imagine he's escaped to live with Luz and is adopted into her family)

4. Hunter and Adrien both infodump and it's adorable

5. I 100% believe that Hunter, if he had met Willow during his GG era, would flirt mercilessly with her. Masked confidence and all that.

I think Willow would be into Hunter but in a sort of detached way? Like he's just the brother of her best friend Luz. Sure he's cute but why would he be into half-a-witch Willow? (Are they also witches in this AU I don't know man I'm just brain melting on main)

Hunter meanwhile is a little clueless. His entire focus is on Cosmic Frontier and sewing and wild magic and and and...

Willow is really charmed by this and finds herself able to listen to his ramblings for as long as he'll talk to her (mostly when she comes around to the house and Luz is getting ready or something)

Hunter is just happy to have someone listen to him, since even Gus can get a little fed up with the constant AUs and theories about O'Bailey and the crew. He'll call Willow from time to time just to rant about whatever current fixation he's gotten into.

Their masked selves though?? Oh Hunter is head over fuckin heels for this girl. She's strong and smart and kind and did he already say strong? Titan this girl works out. Like his good friend Willow! :)))

Ladybug!Willow is kind of annoyed with this overly flirtatious partner of hers, but she sees the genuine nerd underneath peek out from time to time, especially if she's close enough to get him flustered and sputtering, completely dismantling the persona he obviously puts on for her. Sometimes she'll catch him rambling about random facts he knows and the sparkle that appears in his eye reminds her of her very good friend Hunter! :)))

She tries more and more to get this genuine, blushy side of him to appear, eventually getting so comfortable in the dynamic that it starts to spill over into her interactions with Hunter. He and Chat are so similar, after all!

This is when something clicks for Hunter. His sister's friend is much more than just someone who listens to him ramble, and all at once he's a mess around her. Luz picks up on this immediately and teases him CONSTANTLY about it. Willow, on the other hand, is pretty clueless about Hunter's feelings towards her. If anything she's worried he's starting to pull away

Hunter, entirely hopeless without his mask, finds himself showing up at Willow's balcony as Chat Noir. He's comfortable with her. He's able to relax without dissolving into a spluttery mess, and in turn Willow is able to be herself as well, while occasionally flirting back just for fun.

After months of these two idiots dancing around each other maybe a reveal would go something like this:

"So, wildflower, if not this handsome cat who's the lucky person you've got your eye on?" Hunter asked. He was perched lazily (and precariously) on Willow's balcony, leaning forward on his staff with a crooked smile, eyes glittering green behind his mask.

Willow rolled her eyes and pushed him away playfully with a hand.

"Wouldn't you like to know, my mysterious midnight caller." She teased, laughter subsiding a bit as she thought about Hunter. He had gotten so distant lately and she worried she had been coming on too strong. Maybe his feelings weren't what she thought after all.

Chat frowned at the sudden drop in enthusiasm, studying Willow's face. "Hey, Titan-to-Willow." He nudged her gently to rouse her from her thoughts, "are you alright?"

Willow started a bit but recovered quickly, giving him a soft smile that nearly knocked him off the balcony.

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine. Sorry kittycat, just...thinking." She frowned again.

"Oooooh so there is someone else!" Chat fake-swooned, lying back on the railing making Willow laugh which was his favorite sound.

He turned his head to face her, eyes softening. "You know you can tell me anything, wildflower."

She smiled at his nickname for her and sighed. "I know, it's just...such a weird situation and I'm not really sure how to go about it. I don't even know for sure if he feels the same way, I..." she bit her lip, unsure if she should say more.

Chat gave her an encouraging nod, quietly waiting for her to continue.

All at once, everything Willow had been holding back for the last few months fell out in a tangle of words. She talked about "this guy", *gushed* about him, really. How he was kind and thoughtful, funny and nerdy, a little awkward at times but so endearingly sweet. How he cared for his siblings, how brave he was for escaping a bad situation and how proud she was of him for slowly coming into his own.

Willow's eyes were shining, talking about this boy, who to Chat's astonishment sounded like...him? He continued to listen, leaning forward and brain running through every scenario in which he could have POSSIBLY missed this. He could feel his face burning with the blush that must've reached the tips of his ears. He didn't know if he should laugh or cry.

She trailed off, tugging on her braid awkwardly, eyes on her shoes. "Anyway, I—" she dragged her gaze back up to meet his, only to find him practically inches away from her face. Their eyes locked and something in Willow's heart stirred. She leaned forward, squinting at him, causing Chat's eyes to widen as he leaned back in alarm.

"Who are you really?" She asked, hope and fear swirling in her chest.

"Willow, I—AH" he leaned back until suddenly there was nothing to lean on but air and he was falling. "Well," he thought, "at least I'll die knowing the most beautiful girl on the Isles has feelings for me."

Fast reflexes as always and a mumbled "oh no you don't," Willow conjured a soft bed of moss for him to tumble onto. She poked her head out from her balcony to assess the damage.

"You alright!?" She called, already scrambling down a hastily made vibe towards him.

A black-clad arm raised itself in the air with a shaky thumbs up.

He was still laying face-down in the moss, lest he look at her and burn his mask away completely. She flipped down comfortably on her knees beside him, her dress poofing out around her. She poked him with a vine, “Alive?” She asked.

"Hunter's not home right now leave a message." He mumbled out and then froze.

Willow caught her breath, staring down at him in disbelief. "What did you say?" She squeaked, feeling a blush creep dangerously close to her ears.

"I uh, haha! whaaaaaat? I have a concussion! Probably! Who knows what I'm saying! Byyyeeee—" Chat tried to scramble to his feet but Willow grabbed his hand pulling him back down next to her on the moss. She searched his eyes and, holding her breath, placed her fingers under his mask, drawing it gently up and over his forehead. She was struck by how beautiful he was. Blonde hair tousled, cheeks flushed, mouth slightly agape but that was just Hunter. She found herself smiling, and then laughing over how ridiculous everything was.

Here she had been confiding in her closest friend about the boy she liked, only for him to BE the boy she liked. It was too much. She was bordering on hysterics, as the fact that she had just CONFESSED to the BOY SHE LIKED sank in and she started to panic.

Hunter, who had been sitting there waiting for her to finish, (he knew from experience that there was no stopping Willow’s laughing fits) sensed the change and placed his hands on her shoulders, urgently turning her to face him again.

“Captain.” Her eyes met his and he thought he might melt into them but he needed to focus. Needed to make sure. “Did you really mean what you said back there?” He swallowed. “A-about me?”

The laughter had gone away replaced by a mouth so dry Willow didn’t think she’d be able to speak, so she nodded silently instead.

She was leaning forward again, placing a hand on his knee to steady herself. His eyes flitted to her lips and back up to her face, flushing at their closeness. Hunter backed up a little, “I-uh-can I maybe um.” He cleared his throat and tried again, his next words coming out in a murmur, “may I kiss you?”

Willow nodded again, more vigorously this time, which made Hunter laugh softly, raising a hand from her shoulder to tuck a loose strand of hair behind her ear before he pulled her in.

It was like fireworks were going off in Hunter’s brain with information overload. His hand was tangled in her soft hair (how many times had he daydreamed about running his fingers through it?), her skin warm in the cold night air as if she glowed from within. She smelled like flowers and earth and sun. His other hand found its way to her waist as he drew her closer, meaning to deepen the kiss, but he must have been a little too eager because he just threw them off balance instead. They landed in a heap on the soft moss, Willow looking up at him in shock while Hunter looked down and beamed at her, a huge grin splitting his face, tooth gap on full display.

They both burst out laughing, holding onto each other for dear life as the pure insanity over the last hour hit them fully.

As the giggles subsided, Hunter sighed contentedly, pulling Willow close as she snuggled into his shoulder. He shook his head and chuckled again, looking up at the stars.

“Titan. Next thing you’ll tell me is that you’re Ladybug.”

* * *

#UHHHHH #THIS WAS WAY LONGER THAN I MEANT IT TO BE #surprise I guess???? #sorry it's so rushed and messy I don't know what spirit is possessing me tonight hsbrfkbskhjbgkbsg #I honestly forgot at one point that they were supposed to be Ladybug and Chat Noir LMAO #my brain was just like ah yes. hunmblow. #I'll probably post the fic part on my Ao3 #huntlow #huntlow fanfic #miraculous ladybug huntlow au #huntlow miraculous au #hunter toh #willow park #golden garden #winter toh #the owl house #a rEvEaL wOuLd gO sOmEtHiNg LiKe tHiS #yeah kayla. sure. just a short drabble. #fuckin hell.

[scaredgirlsilly]

Show us the Homestuck! 👀

ok so i just wrote everything under the cut and its. Alot Of Words HDKAJFKSVJFKD its literally an entire story outline of the entire fan session. i would feel bad but 1. you asked for it 2. you are on anon so no ones even gonna get a notification for this and 3. its my blog and i get to be autistic about my own stories ::P

merp (and anyone else currently reading homestuck really) stop reading here until youve finished homestuck. i dont even know if it spoils anything for you merp but just in case

first things first there are some foundational beliefs and opinions that make my fan session what it is and i feel like i need to say them

the game is an analogy (or allegory or metaphor i never know what is the correct one) for real life. everyone tells you that there is a correct way to go through life but then everything goes to shit and youre off that path before you even had a chance to start. this works with homestuck insanely well and one of the main reasons i connect with it

there is no ideal sburb session. not only have we not seen one and i dont even know if there are any sburb games besides the ones we see and the dancester trolls, but if there actually is an ideal sburb session, it kinda goes in the face of it being an alagory for life and how it never goes how you expect it to go

i will add a bunch of stuff outside of what we see in homestuck and some of it may contradict what is stated in homestuck, especially when it comes to the rules of sburb. i dont think the exact rules of sburb matter as much as what sburb as a concept really is, which is a nigh-omnipotent and omnipresent force that makes kids go through trauma to give them a "character" arc. it is a story generator so that the next universe can have heroes, while weeding out those too weak to even get to the part where they make a new universe. this is fucked up and bad and kinda evil and i really wish homestuck focused more on how fucking crazy evil sburb was but it got caught up in a bunch of other shit so thats why i made this

also this is gonna be so fuckin long even if i try to summarize it as much as possible cause its pretty much the entire story of the fan session, but you are on anon so i dont care that im infodumping right now cause no ones gonna read this far

anyways. ONTO THE ACTUAL FANSESSION

it starts put in 2015, after a mysterious delay of the sburb launch back in 2009. after so long, it is finally coming out!!

we follow 6 kids, all around the age of 19 (they would have been 13 if sburb came out when it was originally supposed to back in 2009)

Anna (she/her), a no nonsense, kinda autistic tabletop wargamer. Think the vibes of kanaya but the convictions of vriska. if she believes she knows whats best, only god can stop her from doing it. very egalitarian, very "ends justify the means" but she isnt like. also kinda intense but she knows that so she knows to tone it down when the moment calls for it

Noah (he/they), an excitable and cripplingly bisexual graffiti artist, his friends mean the world to him and he would do anything for them. a bit of anarchist leanings, but he hasnt really delved into theory much cause hes got other stuff to worry about. extremely outgoing and could probably talk to anyone. Anna and Noah have been kinda flirty/close for a while now and it kinda makes the others sick

Drew (he/him), an adorable farm hand who looks up to those western lone wolf hero types in movies and tries to emulate that, but is too much of a pure soul to ever be mean, so he just kinda acts weird sometimes. Wears a lil cowboy hat and vest and talks and types in a weird southern accent. no one knows if its fake or not

Kate (she/they), a bubbly gymnist who loves talking a bit too much. shes really only doing all this cause her friends are begging her to (and something about the end of the world?? she doesnt really know milo can say some wild stuff sometimes :P )

speaking of, Milo (they/them), an audiophile who has stopped talking as much, kinda ever since the original beta got delayed. everyone else worries about them but they insist they are fine whenever pressed. has been begging everyone to get the game since it was announced, which has been the most hes talked in the group in a long while

and finally, Skye (she/her), a quiet girl who likes nature. usually lurks, but will join the group calls just to be quiet during them. also not as enthused about the game as the others but hey, its better than anything shes got goin on.

gonna try to speed up with the rest of this but you need to know about them cause its like mainly character driven

first act is them getting all the stuff ready, connecting to each other, normal act 1 highjinks. the main thing is when it gets to milo (who actually is last in the order to get revealed idk why i didnt right it like that. the order is anna, noah, kate, drew, skye, milo) where it shows milo in his house, before it fades away and reveals they are in a dream bubble wearing an heir of doom godhood. they are also 13, where everyone else is 19.

the first act culminates in a flash (no clue if i could actually do it but in my head its a dope ass flash set to Planet Telex by Radiohead) where everyone enteres the game at the same time. Milo, being in a dreambubble, asks kate to set up a second computer for them so they can actually play. She does, and milo jumps on the meteor heading for Kates house before it hits the portal, and when it ends up above kates house, they fly down, watch kate enter the game, and really quickly set up their connections, finish the loop, and enter the game just in time. the flash ends with shots of their lands which i have not figured out jdkskfhahf

act 2 is just sburb hijinks. they hang out, grow closer, talk alot cause yk its homestuck jfkshdk. the main developments are noah and anna growing even closer with a cute lil sparring match before ending by planning a date, skye and kate growing closer and skye getting a bit of a crush, and drew and milo grow closer (but not romantically cause milos 13) because milo is a fuckin ghost and has been isolating themself from the group and drew has taken note and pretty much been like "whatever your goin through, ill be there for you"

there are other scenes i just havent written them/thought them out yet

this all takes place over like a few weeks btw

then its one of the kids' birthdays!! they are all together for the first time in a little bit, and one of them (probably anna) asks what the deal with milo is. after some hesitation he tells them this

milo is from an alternate timeline where they all entered the game in 2009 and everyone died. turns out it was a doomed session. before milo dies, being the last kid alive, they go to talk to their denizen. the denizen tells them that they were not supposed to play the game. the main heroes of earth (i forgot what they were called i know they were called something like the alpha kids were the nobles but i forgot what the beta kids were called anyways its the beta kids) were supposed to be the only ones to play, and because so many people are playing the game, its messing with skaia and causing a ton of glitches to happen in the beta kids' game. but, like everyone else, milo has a choice. let this timeline fade, allowing skaia to focus solely on just the beta kids, but they will not be able to live in the dream bubbles. Or, create an offshoot timeline, leave the beta kids to die in their horribly glitched session, and have another chance as the main heroes of that timelines earth, knowing that success is still not a certainty. Milo, being a 13 y/o who misses their friends and doesnt give a fuck about a bunch of "heroes" chooses the second option. this causes the offshoot timeline where sburb is delayed, and milo has to sit in the dream bubbles until the game eventually releases. oh uh that also killed milo like to get them in a dream bubble their denizen just fuckin killed them like falling fuckin rock just instant death.

the others are horrified to hear that they all died and milo is the only one who survived (but didnt actually survive, they just can do alot more as a ghost cause they are an heir of doom) and it starts to set in the actual stakes of the game

anna pulls milo aside after the party (which has supremely fucked vibes after milos revelation) to ask them more about the game. after hearing milos story, it only invigorated her more to figure out exactly how to get them through the game. noah tags along cause hes bored and anna and noah havent left each others side in weeks.

milo is answering annas questions about the game to the best of their ability, but the topic of the alpha timeline pops up. noah asks further and milo obliges (same stuff we know, but they word it slightly wrong cause they dont know the full picture). milo days that the alpha timeline is, to their limited knowledge, the correct timeline that leads to a successful end of the game, and every other timeline is a dead timeline that skaia prunes to keep focused on the correct timeline. noah asks what they mean by "prunes" the other timelines, and milo says that everyone is killed in them. noah then asks why everyone died in milos session and if they are from one of those dead timelines, and if so, what happened to the correct timeline. milo says that the way anna explained it before she died in milos session (who was a time player in milos session but aspect is based on personality so she might not be anymore), was that some sessions dont have a correct timeline, so every timeline eventually gets pruned, and there isnt any way to fix it. noah gets frustrated, before getting up to leave, anna asking if they are ok, and noah saying hes fine he just needs some air. anna is worried, but continues to ask milo about the game

noah then sulks off and talks to himself about how fucked up that is, and kinda has a panic attack about what if they are in a doomed timeline now without even knowing. he then sets off to find out if they can escape a doomed timeline, and if not, if they can escape the game entirely.

also uhhhh i forgot to say this before but the prospit dreamers are noah, drew, and kate. and the derse dreamers are anna, milo, and skye

we then get a batch of a few standalone relationship moments, just some moments of them hanging out like before the party but this time their is a notable air of urgency to what they are doing. i havent really written them yet but noah and anna have a bit of an argument, because anna, while still agreeing that sburb is super fucked up, sees the fucked up stuff sburb does as motivation to get through the game as fast as possible, while noah sees it as reason to try and escape before they get killed for no reason with no way to stop it. this rift starts to spread to the others before it culminates in one last conversation between noah and anna

noah says that he is gonna leave. hes figured out a way that might work. turns out the universe is just a huge bubble that you can leave. anna laughs at that, asking if he really thinks that is gonna work. noah gets exasperated, saying he doesnt really know but he has to try. its better than sitting around and waiting to die. anna snaps back saying that that isnt what they are doing. they dont have any evidence to believe they are in a doomed timeline, and in fact noah leaving might be the action that dooms everyone. noah says that he has to leave, he says sorry, walks closer for one last embrace from anna, but she denies it and and says "if you are really going to do this, then im going to stop you. i hope you see the error of your ways before it comes to that" and she walks off

as this is happening, milo and drew find drews quest bed. drew says that noah has already talked to him about leaving and is telling milo. drew says he may leave, because all this pressure to do what sburb wants is kinda getting to him. milo goes quiet, before saying "i get it, but. please dont. i dont want what i did to be in vain". drew says that milo can join them!! but milo shakes his head, saying they have sacrificed too much already, before saying "well... heres your quest bed" and turning around before drew could see the tears in their eyes.

"h- how am i s'posed ro use this dang thing?" says drew

milo turns to drew with tears in his eyes, but a small playful smile creeps onto his face, before saying "you kill yourself on it. duh" and flying off

from another spot on the planet, various bugs are flying around, and in the distance a huge yellow beam erupts into the sky, showing a winged symbol in the air

The Knight of Hope has ascended

(they didnt have yellow text thats the best i got)

Noah to kate and skye, who are having a little picnic, but arent talking much as they were distracted by the beam in the sky (drew god tiering)

Noah breaks it down for them and asks them to go, and kate says that she will, but skye says she wont. she says that that is a huge decision to make without much proof, and she cant with good conscience leave anna behind. shes the space player, and she is needed to make the genesis frog. if she leaves, it really will be a dead timeline no matter what. noah says he understands, gives her a big hug, and starts to leave. Kate is crying as skye turns to her and apologizes. kate grabs her and kisses her, tears welling in both of their eyes, before saying that she wishs she could stay, and shes sorry for leaving, and if they find each other again, she will never leave her side. noah calls after kate, but she asks for just one more moment, and noah says of course before leaving to talk with drew and get his answer and milos answer

the people who are ready to leave are noah, drew, and kate

the people staying behind are anna, milo, and skye

i am not entirely happy with kate and drews motovations i feel its a little weak but also i havent even started writing it so fuck you

noah, now dead set on leaving, goes to meet with anna one final time. he tells her whos going with him, and that she can come with him too, because if she decides to leave, the others will probably join her. she says that that is exactly why she has to stay. someone has to do the work, and after half of the group leaves, shes the only one that can get any results. noah remarks on how distant shes acting, and she says that he can fix that by not leaving. he says he cant do that, and anna says "i knew you would say that" before pulling out her rapier and attacking

(sorry i forgot to do their weapons uhhhh the ones i know so far are drew who has a revolver, anna who has a rapier, and noah who has a firemans axe)

act 2 concludes with another flash, this time set to Mood Swings by Human People. They have a hard fight, mirroring their sparring match from early act 2, but this time anna isnt holding back. she slices noah up and gets him to a pretty bad spot before it cuts to drew. drew sees himself and a beat to shit noah pop out of nowhere with the tume turn tables, drew from the future gives current drew a copy of the turntables (specifically not to make a loop with them) and tells him to go save noah. drew shows up just in time to see anna about to make the killing blow on noah, and drew, tears welling in his eyes, says sorry and pulls out his revolver and shoots anna in the head. he then grabs noah, uses the turn tables to go back, and the flash fades as we see anna bleeding out on the floor, as milo and skye get to her right at the end of the flash

act 3 starts with drew taking noah to his quest bed, and lying him on there. noah then ascends

The Prince of Blood has ascended.

simultaneously, skye and milo brought anna to her quest bed, where she ascends as well.

The Thief of Mind has ascended.

Noah and drew go to meet up with kate at her quest bed, as she goes to god tier. she is the last of the people who are going to leave, and they need every advantage they can get

(something) of Breath has ascended.

(idk what class shed be hfkshdjd sorry)

They then get to the edge of the session, giving it one last look, before leaving.

ok so uhhhh the rest i have no clue jfkshdjs except for literally the last flash. like everything between now and the end (pretty much the entirety of act 3) i have no clue. but on annas side, she gets alot more controlling and aggressive, eventually stooping to using her thief of mind powers to mind control them (taking their mind) into doing what she wants. shit gets mad fucked up in there

i literally hsve no clue what noah and the gang do. there is a bit of a romance between drew and noah just cause i really want them to fuck nasty, but nothing serious comes of it and they are both chill with it. its kinda like a summer fling but they are traveling through the very edges of paradox space. probably like hiding from the horror terrors?? idk i have a theory that the horror terrors are all like players that have gonethrough the ultimate self shit, so maybe they go to talk to the horrorterrors and its like a physical manifestation of like a forum board?? idk that could be neat

noahs team and annas team still keep in contact somewhat, but not much. noah keeps trying to contact anna, but after she doesnt respond for a bit and noah keeps trying, she blocks him.

eventually noah and the gang figure out a way to be safe outside of the control of skaia and sburb, and he says that if the others want, noah and them can pretty much head back to get them. milo and skye agree because...

eventually, anna finds out that the session was doomed from the start and she is obviously devastated by the knews, cause that means that all of the bad shit she did, all of the friends shes lost, were all for nothing. act 3 ends on that and act 4 is just one last flash

the flash is set to Souk Eye by Gorillaz, and it starts with skye and milo grabbing a destraught anna who is just lying on the ground crying. they drag her to where noah said to meet up with them, and anna locks eyes with noah. at first she averts her gaze, but all she sees is the session, now in ruin as the war on skaia is raging on with the prospitans losing badly, and several of the planets overrun with various monsters. the session is in ruin. she looks back to meet noahs gaze, assuming she will see nothing but malice, but he just smiles and floats towards her.

drew flies into milo, giving them a huge bear hug and saying that he really missed them. kate tackles skye with kisses, joking about how he had to hear drew and noah fuck way more than she would have wanted for one life, and noah puts hid hand on annas cheek, before she kisses him like super hard like one of those kisses where they grab the others face and kiss them like its the last thing they will ever do, and they just sit like that. finally reunited, the session in ruins behind them, but they have each other, so its ok. anna breaks free of the kiss, and they all leave the session, and set off for a life beyond sburb.

the end.

uhhhh yeah idk if thats what you expected like a whole fuckin story HDKAKFLHA but. yeah thats what i had written for my fan session. im not gonna get into the themes and stuff cause ive already written so fucking much 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 but yeah. thats ir ^u^

#my stories #putting it in that tag so i dont lose this cause i will probably use this as my rough draft for the outline

[vampkomori]

hi I'm op! I noticed the tags you left and I know you can't say too much in response to this but I wanted to elucidate some of my reasoning especially since at first glance Joshua seems VERY closed off. I just think he would talk in circles around it without getting to any real point so it would be an incomprehensible but also incredibly detailed ramble. I made the post before I reached Joshua's history infodumps but if I were to add anything to it there would be a quiz afterwards. I just started day 7, but I'm hoping to finish out week 2 before going to bed tonight!

oohh hello!! :D this ask actually vanished into the nether and only reappeared after u sent the other one which is so. funny. tungle functional website 👍

ty for getting back to me as well!! i love knowing what other people think about joshua. hes my little guy. also no worries none of this should be spoilery!!

i was rly (pleasantly) surprised abt ur take on him bc i feel like many people actually do not get the same impression. for some reason. which ive never understood (also that u garnered that before his history quiz is incredible. id assumed u got that from there!! really cool :D) i think the most common interpretation for him is to say as little as possible to sound ominous and also because of the whole (says thing) (does not elaborate) (leaves) thing being a meme. which i guess kiiind of applies to him, but hes actually so talkative isnt he. he always has something to say !! i think hed be pressed to always add commentary. and then he keeps going bc lack of replying probably means lack of understanding to him so hed just keep going elaborating until ur left more confused than u were before. i love him. id let him infodump shibuya history on me for hours

good luck w the rest of the game and have fun !! :D

#ask #im excited to know more abt ur impressions!! #i do think its funny that theres like maybe 20 people max into twewy so u get the entire club rooting for ur playthru #hope u dont get spoiled tho!! i think w twewy in particular not getting spoiled is so vital. to the experience #twewy

[zaine-m]

So I found this image on the fandom wiki.

It looks like they're trying to give each camper a persona for the docu-series. It also looks like they're being very up front with the campers about what's going on. So it doesn't seem like EJ will be sneaking around or try to hide anything he does to create drama which I think shows how much he's grown.

From what I could make out from the image it looks like the boxes are Judgy one, jilted ex, one with a dark past, one with a catchphrase, the one who's there for the wrong reasons, the shrink, the crier, and there are 2 more we can't see.

Trying to predict their roles under the cut:

Judgy one - Kourtney

Carlos would fit as the judgy one but I think Kourtney would also want that role.

Jilted Ex - EJ

This could mean that they're being left behind all of the sudden or that they're leaving the other person behind suddenly. I could see EJ as the one who's left behind. Suddenly rejecting someone is kinda Ricky's thing, after both Gina and Jet came back he seemed to stop caring about them. This could go to Val since none of them are exs so she could pretend to be EJ's ex.

I could also see Carlos suggesting Jet or Maddox gets this role thinking that they like each other.

One with a dark past - Jet

This really begs the question of how dark are they willing to go. It seems like Gina or Ricky would have the darkest past, and while their pasts might have been tough or even traumatic I wouldn't call them dark. Jet seems like his vibe would be the best fit for this role and perhaps we could get more of a dark backstory out of him. They've basically already infodumped all of his past but it would be nice if we found out he was adopted or something.

The one with a catchphrase - Ricky

I could see Ricky having a catchphrase like "Let's hug it out". This also seems like the kind of light, comedic relief role he would want to play

The one who's there for the wrong reasons - Ashlyn

I don't really understand what reasons they would be there for, probably either for the attention or to get someone back. Maddox might suggest that Jet gets this role since he's only there cause their parents are forcing him to. I could see EJ suggesting Ricky for this role thinking he's there to go after Gina. Gina does just wants the docu-series because it could help her career. Ashlyn seems to have the same goals, to a lesser extent but in a more visible way. EJ just wants the docu-series to impress his dad. I think Maddox is like one of the few people doing it for the right reason.

The shrink - Val

I definitely think Ashlyn's either going to be the shrink or suggest that she should be the shrink but they'll all think someone else is better for it. Val's studying psychology so that would make her a good fit for this role but she doesn't seem to have the right personality for it.

The Crier - Carlos

Gina is probably the character we've seen cry the most but that was pretty much just in season 2. I could see Carlos fake crying a lot and I think he'd like the drama and attention that would come along with this role.

And 2 we don't see - Gina and Maddox

I love the idea that one will the "The Gay" and Maddox will casually be like "Maybe Ashlyn's good for this role" but Carlos will say "I already kinda planned on taking this one". But I doubt Disney would be that bold.

I'm not 100% sure about most of the choices or even that I got the labels right but I think I'm pretty close.

#I'm really sorry if you already saw this port but I forgot to put tags that first time #hsmtmts #gina porter #ej caswell #ricky bowen #ashlyn caswell #val hsmtmts #maddox hsmtmts #jet hsmtmts #carlos rodriguez #kourtney greene

[tief4tief]

can i send you 1-8. like all of them. for illphyr. is that allowed

why yes you can!!

let's see here...

1. Low approval: mm, something to say?

Medium approval: Ah, Vendui! (hello in low drow)

High approval: Abbil! Welcome!

Romanced: I haven't thought of a general romanced greeting, but she calls shadowheart "Ussta'anon" which means "my flower" (if I'm translating my drowic right)

2. No tent! On clear nights she'll take reverie sitting against a tree or rock, or if she wants to seek shelter she will wildshape into a squirrel or something similar and shelter in a burrow, bush, or in a tree.

3. The Silver Druid, which is basically from the "Pale Elf" school of naming, which comes from her being both a druid and follower of Eilistraee, and her wildshapes have either silver fur or streaks of silver in their feathers/coat.

4. hmm good question, I imagine most of her scenes would be focused on her overcoming her tendency to avoid intimacy, her only previous experiences in that area would have been when she was still living in Menzoberranzan, which aren't necessarily happy memories given she was raised male, and she's been very isolated since then so it's not easy for her. I think she'd have an act one scene where she awkwardly tries to get close to you, and a more complete scene in act three, I think she'd be focused on other things in act 2.

5. Her idle animations would be:

a. Sitting down cross-legged and mediating somewhere around camp (location changes with her whims)

b. Stopping to very intently inspect a patch of dirt or plant

c. Smoking her big Tolkieny pipe

d. fiddling with her flute or playing a short tune

6. She would be wild shaped into a silver tabby, stuck up a tree in the wilds near the nautiloid. you would have to either convince or force her to come down and coax her into leaving her wildshaped form.

7. I think her arc would be focused on finding a place where she feels she belongs, prior to bg3 there were lots of places she didn't fit in, she chafed against the structures of Menzoberranzan, and even after taking the changedance she was never quite accepted by the priestesses of Eilistraee and remained essentially a lay worshipper due to her formerly being "male", and the druid circle who took her in after Eilistraee died never fully trusted her aside from a few members who died well before bg3. I think another big part would be rekindling her faith in Eilistraee, after her resurrection (in my game she's light cleric of Eilistraee 1 and Druid X). If she is in your party when you come across Phalar Aluve she will say that she feels the blade calling to her, and you can get big approval for letting her do the ritual and keep Phalar Aluve, and she'll see it as a gift from Eilistraee. In my game her desire to belong is resolved through her relationship with shadowheart, as a companion I could see some possible resolutions could be: joining the Harpers, encouraging her to create a temple to Eilistraee, or maybe on a evil run you could convince her to give up her identity to pursue belonging, and joining the Sharran cloister after Shadowheart takes over as Mother Superior.

8. Depends on how her journey to find belonging goes! I could see her dedicating herself more fully to Eilistraee as a Priestess, or maybe a chosen of Eilistraee who serves as a bridge between the Harpers and the newly returned Eilistraeen faith. And the bad ending she would show up with shadowheart as a faithful and very brainwashed acolyte, very different from how she is during the adventure, much "blanker"

thank you for letting me infodump about Her!!

[friedfriedchicken]

I finally finished watching TF:EarthSpark S1 (please give me like 2+ seasons) and I have gathered all my thoughts into one silly list

Love how Alex Malto is very Filipino honestly. Like- it's so small but he's very there and he's the only fictional Filipino I've ever seen in anything live-action or animated that didn't originate from the Philipines. My dad was immediately activated when he heard/saw Alex say 'nanay' (my TV was quiet compared to the movie he was watching in the other room) and it makes me insanely happy. Also he's a lot like my dad scarily enough.

Originally I had TF:Cyberverse in my brain as the 'divorced Transformers show' but EarthSpark has much more divorced-exes vibes oml. Megatron with Soundwave and Shockwave, Bumblebee with Breakdown, Tarantulas in general, especially Megan and Sounders

I'm not a fan of humans in TF stories but the Maltos were great- they were woven into the story very well and were also very entertaining! Alex could infodump and had a fun arc with Bumblebee, Dottie and her backstory were great lore-fillers and her mom abilities were silly (there were a lot of dads but only one mom), Robbie and Mo felt like their own characters without overshadowing the Transformers, and the other background humans were generally enjoyable.

On the other hand- Mandroid didn't really stick with me, especially after he came back after his thingy blew up. Dude is practically a zombie- let him die 😭 BUT I'm excited to see what he'll do next season regardless of how little I enjoyed him as the big baddie

This show has so many dads oml. Alex Malto, Optimus Prime, Megatron, Bumblebee, Wheeljack, Tarantulas, Soundwave, where are all these dads coming from?! It's so fun, you get dads in different fonts like silly, casual war vet, PTSD war vet, not-paid enough war vet, new dad war vet, give him another chance war vet, and angry ex!

Starsceam's eyes are blue! It's so random and small but it activates my brain! Is it a design choice or something more?!

We've seen multiple stunticons but never all together in one place. I wonder if we'll get Menasor or not but, regardless, I love this version of Breakdown so much. Dude is so chill and spawned a new ship in my brain QwQ Bumbledown? Breakbee? Those two had very complicated vibes but my non-TF fan sibling agrees with me they have friendly exes energy

TERRANS- I LOVE THEM- ALL OF THEM- THEY'RE SO COOL

The fight scenes were so 💋 smooth and beautiful and I'd marry the fight scenes if they were people

I thought Bumblebee's friend he was chasing down was going to be Blurr because hee hoo I grew up watching TF:Animated and TF:Cyberverse plus Blurr is one of my favorite Transformers

Actually, my brain is infested with Bumblebee × Breakdown because seriously- this show didn't use slowmo scenes until BREAKDOWN SACRIFICED HIMSELF TO LET BUMBLEBEE ESCAPE. WHAT IS THAT?! IT TICKLES ONE OF MY FAVORITE SHIPPING TROPES OF ALL TIME (friends to enemies to lovers) BECAUSE THEY RACED TOGETHER, GOT SEPARATED, BY THE WAR, AND STILL RETURNED TO RACING WITH EACHOTHER HELP ME

Arcee with her classic car-inspired look omg 🛐 she's so cool and pretty besides for her black eye-liner thing. It looks really weird when her eyes are closed but she's very pretty regardless

Addicted to the found-family vibes of this show (It's not a TF series unless there's found family) but the especially traumatic energy of Tarantulas and Nightshade fuels my 4:47 AM mind. Tarantulas literally doesn't care about anything other than keeping this kid safe and can't tell what actually is safe or not and SACRIFICES HIMSELF SO NIGHTSHADE AND THEIR ENTIRE FAMILY CAN ESCAPE. PLEASE DON'T HURT HIM HE JUST WANTS TO LIVE IN PEACE WITH THE COOL KID HE FOUND IN HIS HOUSE ONE DAY

The size differences in this show are immaculate.

After getting kidnapped by Mandroid and cut, Megatron keeps the slice in his shoulder for later episodes and it's so cool that the continuity is there but sir, please patch yourself up! I don't hate it, it looks cool, but your armor is broken!

Please where did Mandroid get the funds to make who knows how many Arachnamechs?! The government/GHOST sure wasn't paying him while he was in his corrupted Howl's Moving Castle evil lab or sitting in his illegal fight ring.

I know the captions call Hashtag 'Hashtag' but she said she didn't have a word for it therefore her name in my brain is actually gonna be #. Just that. #. She deserves it because she's so silly. She has a fake ponytail and headset as part of her head design- it's amazing.

ALSO # MADE A REFERENCE TO "All your base are belong to use" AND I LOVE HER FOR THAT- POP OFF QUEEN

On the topic of design, Nightshade's protoform look was a little uncomfy for me with the helmet leaving their head very exposed and the random 'ear' discs. It felt weird but after they got their alt-mode they've been nothing but beautiful.

Jawbreaker my boy- you don't need an alt-mode to be so silly <3

Reoccurring Fluffy Ears is amazing

Honestly a lot of designs are either hits or misses. Megatron looked perfect to me but Optimus was off with his very flat head and weird faceplate. Like he was missing a forehead and the faceplate itself looked wonky. Soundwave was super pretty, even if his face is one solid color he absolutely rocked that look. I miss the smiley face Cyberverse Bee had on his pelvis area but at least my eyes aren't drawn to EarthSpark Bee's hips lol. Also Wheeljack. They brought back the mustache face but made it white and it feels incredibly silly and cool and scary and weird at the same time.

I think I'm done rambling for now but this might come back later hee hoo

#FriedRambles #Transformers #TFEarthSpark

[dramamelon]

Energon Universe: Transformers #2. A collection of thoughts.

(Finally took the time to read it.)

Oh noes! Optimus steps on a deer and gets upset. *sigh* No blood or implied gore, like with Starscream squishing a human. Even on soft ground, something is gonna show after a flattening like that. Is this the sign a good guy did it or something?

Also, Spike watched it happen. No reaction beyond, "It's okay." No squeamish look you might get on the average human watching a large animal get squished like that. Maybe it was because of the lack of gore? *snerk*

Then... Optimus has no knowledge of the word "mom" despite having obviously obtained a download of a human language. I could see it as him allowing Spike a chance to explain, but it hits me as kind of silly and far too human for an alien robot. (So far, this is not painting OP as a sympathetic character to me. Just... kinda hamfisted.)

And Cybertronian history infodump. Yay. Not a bad thing as this is supposed to be a reasonable entrance for new readers, but... not feeling it as a little chat in the forest with Spike.

Also also, OP states they'd been fighting TWO centuries as compared to Starscream's one century in issue one. 🤔 Will issue three have someone say three centuries? *lol*

Flashback sequences during the infodump to confirm Megatron on Earth, though, so I guess that's something.

Cliffjumper... Not feelin' him. Sorry.

Decepticon time? Decepticon time. Let's collect some energon with the Cons, shall we? Skywarp is Skywarp. Soundwave?

Is most excellent... Bill & Ted time for Sounders, huh? Sure hope this doesn't tint my perception of Skybound Soundwave forever because I'd never be able to take him seriously. 😅

Frat boy Warp, what? Still, Skywarp is Skywarp. (It's really hard to get him wrong if you exert any effort at all, I think. 😂)

The joy Starscream gets from taking out humans is absolutely hysterical. I think this is the most I've ever enjoyed a Starscream (and I usually don't).

Oh, look. One of the humans in the plane is a Joe. Duke, as a matter of fact. Not particularly shocked. Starscream Vs Duke, coming soon.

Back on the ground, Skywarp... Oh, Skywarp, I think I appreciate you the very most of everyone we've had introduced so far. You're a beautiful blast of gremlin energy. 💜💜💜

And, oh, what's this?

Soundwave warning Skywarp? I'm reminded of Starscream's woe in issue one when Thundercracker fell apart after his rebuilding was interrupted. These Cons really seem pretty openly close.

Oh, Optimus... you were starting to not be background noise for me due to IDW. So far here? Nothing but static. *sigh*

Am I cackling over Laserbeak following Carly's van because Carly drew Optimus on the side of it? Yes. Yes, I am. LOL!

Oh shit! Squished Davey was Carly's dad! LMAO! (Sorry, I can't help it. Holy crap, I'm dying... 😂🤣😂)

Coming soon to a comic near you: Starscream Vs. Carly. XD

Uh, yeah. Not feeling the Autobots at all yet. Terrible terrible terrible. The Decepticons? Much more my speed. 💜

#maccadam #eu tf #energon universe #energon universe transformers 2 #spoilers

[chalkrevelations]

So, week three of 15 Minutes with KPTS, and moving into the second half-hour of Ep 1 is when we meet Tem – guess he’s not much for street-fighting; we get our second awkward product placement - I realize the cars and bikes are also product placement, but they’re more seamlessly integrated; we learn that Porsche is supposedly going to school – which activity will disappear without a trace once the main family compound gates close behind him, but then, I don’t get the feeling that Porsche is prioritizing his own education anywhere close to his brother’s education, anyway; and Jom gets offered an acting audition, for a role as a waiter who’s secretly a champion boxer, and I have to wonder if this was actually the cover story they were going to give Porsche, or if it’s a subtle threat now delivered via Real Jom that Porsche is supposed to understand means that they know where to find him. Do they think he’s stupid, or do they think he’s smart? It really could go either way. We do see the business card Jom was given has “KT Modeling Agency” in English on it, which means nothing to Porsche at this point. I, otoh, notice that it’s NOT “TKE,” although I suppose it could be a subsidiary, and now I’m wondering if this “modeling” agency is where Kinn gets his escorts. Which would be interesting, because the assumption is always that the minor family is the branch that does the dirty and illegal work – which presumably would include overseeing any prostitution - but in a couple of eps, we’re going to see Kinn personally direct a beatdown, and he’s no stranger to shooting people in the head to make a point, and none of that is legal, so does he actually have a little stable of escorts as a side (:coff:) hustle?

Also, I checked the website on the business card, but it goes nowhere. No idea if it did back when the show aired.

Porsche is clearly suspicious and made moreso by the heavies lined up outside the bar when he gets there for work – again, none of our guys, just random goons. He calls Chay, telling him to lock up the house and giving the show an opportunity for some bathroom humor, because of course it does. There’s also goons lined up at the bar, where Porsche has to watch Yok have a gushing conversation with Kinn while both Kinn and Porsche eye each other, knowing that Kinn could order her taken into the alley and shot in the head at any minute. Kinn accuses Porsche of thinking he’s a “low-life mafia,” when he’s clearly an uptown mafia – can’t you see his very fancy ombre suit? Kinn’s deep in smug asshole mode for this entire interaction, flashing the watch he already got back, telling Porsche it’s actually worth 2 million baht, dumbass, and demanding a drink – Porsche makes him something bitter with a sweet aftertaste, hmm. When he tries to get Porsche to go “someplace quiet to talk,” and Porsche says he’s NOT going, Kinn literally pulls the “nice place you got here, be a shame if something happened to it” card, so, not succeeding very well on either the “not a lowlife mafia” front or the valuing of consent front. He compounds this by having the goons literally put a bag over Porsche’s head and kidnap him, which goes in my bag of receipts of how Kinn = Vegas = Kinn. This is not even subtle.

The next time we see Porsche, he’s tied up on a boat, and it’s daylight outside, so they must have kept him overnight. Also, Ken’s there! Along with a bunch of other heavies who aren’t any of our guys, and Ken gets to pull the bag off of Porsche’s head and also gets to get kicked in the stomach, so actually, yeah, I can kind of maybe see a little bit why he’s irritated with Bodyguard Porsche from jump. Kinn shows up, provides an infodump for us on Porsche – Porsche Pachara, 23yo, former taekwondo champion, an orphan raising his younger brother, works as a bartender and is known for being both very good and very “nice” ifyouknowwhatimean, and as an underground street-fighter known as THE PHOENIX – and demands Porsche be his bodyguard. Porsche sneers at him – he’s also noticeably using impolite pronouns when talking to Kinn - about how he’s not interested in, first of all, being effaced, of being wallpaper like the bodyguards standing around them (cue thoughts of being seen, and how that’s going to echo in the VP storyline). Kinn mentions how much he’ll earn and Porsche literally spits in his face, before talking about how he’d have to do “terrible” things, like what’s been done to him, before he manages to get himself free and they fight.

Presumably Kinn’s been trained by Chan, so he stands up fairly admirably to The Phoenix, but for some godforsaken reason he’s surprised that Porsche fights dirty, including punching him in the dick when Kinn has him on his knees and sinking his teeth into Kinn’s neck when both of his hands are captured, which kind of makes me wonder if this is some kind of attempted parallel to the sexualized VP torture scene at the beginning of Ep 11. Anyway, that’s what you get for keeping your shirts unbuttoned halfway down your chest, dumbass. Porsche finally makes a break for it and runs to the upper deck of the boat, where Kinn fires some warning shots before Porshe jumps off the boat to get away from him.

So, I think this sequence is really where the seeds of Porsche’s overall character arc – a corruption arc – are sown. In this first episode, Porsche would literally rather die than be the guy he’s going to become in the final episode. He explicitly says so, and he puts action to words by jumping off the boat, where he could easily be shot in the water and left to drown. By the end of the series, he’s going to walk up to the hangman’s noose and put his head in – accept the ring with the crest of the minor family, the branch whose job is the dirty work that he’s so contemptuous of here, and be subsumed into the fold, which we’ll also learn his mother tried to leave. And despite lip service of the main family branch being the public-facing, legitimate business section, we’re going to continue to see that their hands aren’t as clean as they’d want everyone to think, and Porsche’s own hands are going to start to get dirty pretty fast – but that’s a discussion for Ep 3.

Another thing I also noted is that gd rope that Porsche is tied in the chair with on the boat, the rope that he manages to get out of quite handily while also sneering down his nose at the job that Kinn is offering demanding he take. I’m going to start tracking all the instances of when we see that kind of rope – I’m particularly interested in it as it applies to Pete, of course – but I also want to know if this is a continuity fuckup or if they’re trying to let us know something about Porsche, when he already knows how to get himself out of these bonds as he resists being subsumed into the main family compound and the Bodyguard Farm, but then later will fumble and fumble and fumble, trying to get out of that rope, the minute he gets bound and pushed into a pool during bodyguard training, when he’s been forced into service - in too deep and over his head.

Anyway, we close out this section with a fuming Kinn showing up back home in the main family compound, in the big meeting room, where Korn and Chan are settled in at one end for a chess match, and immediately pouring himself a drink. I would self-medicate, too, if I had to deal with being Korn’s heir apparent. Korn immediately asks why Kinn’s back empty-handed (aka “why did you fail again”), like Porsche is an object, a possession, that Kinn would carry back to the compound, and Super!Irritated!Kinn is all “I told you so! And anyway, there are plenty of people better than him!” Whereupon Korn immediately starts spouting creepy cryptic bullshit about how sure, there are plenty of people who could be bought, but doesn’t Kinn find this guy interesting, that when offered all this money, he still doesn’t want to do it? Which 1) in hindsight, I have to wonder if this is a dig about Tawan, who clearly could be bought, and 2) you’re going to buy Porsche by the end of this episode, you’re just going to up the stakes so he can’t refuse you. Which makes the way you language this even worse, you horrible old man - essentially what you’re going to do is force him to do something you admit he doesn’t want to do, while you act like it’s fine because you’re throwing money at him. I don’t care if he is a hustler using his body in various and sundry ways to make money - you don’t get to coerce him and act like it’s consensual, asshole.

Anyway, Kinn thinks that Porsche is maybe just dumb, but Korn keeps on like this, pointing out how many of their people were bought by other gangs or families, and maybe Porsche is the one Kinn is looking for, which makes me even more suspicious that this is at least a little bit about Tawan, which then makes the whole thing even creepier, because it means Korn is saying, look, let’s find some way to coerce this guy into being not only your Chan but your boyfriend, wouldn’t that be perfect? Right before he checkmates Chan with a self-satisfied smile on his face.

Which only brings us up to 42:50, but I think the next bit is all of a piece through the end, so :fingers crossed: plan is finish Ep 1 next week.

#porsche pachara #kinn theerapanyakul #korn theerapanyakul #theerapanyakul a++ parenting #kinnporsche #kp 15m #kp 15m ep 1

[trashcanwithsprinkles]

before i go on another ramble, i am not here to counter what clothing anon ask 2 was saying about music (that would be silly and ??? why would i anyway), but as soon as i saw talk about it i really wanted to share my perspective,, so please excuse me if i ramble a bit (or a lot; i'll still try to keep it pretty brief as far as actual analysis and such goes because to talk more on that would get Super Lengthy. though i'll probably still ramble on it a bit so it'll probably still be really long haha,, whoops. this is a musical infodump now i guess?)

(also before i dive in i'm not. uh. im not a professional or anything although i do know a little bit about music. i play the piano, at a not-baby-grade level how do i say not-baby-but-also-far from-professional-level without stating the actual grade,, it's one of the last few before university/more professional level stuff i guess?? so. kind of have been brought up with learning about music and nurtured being sensitive to its meaning from childhood, so uh- yeah. i hope i can say my thoughts are hopefully less wild guesses and more... educated guesses. anyway-)

ok, so i tend to think of the music in specific groups: battle, cutscene, and character theme, according to the length and style of the music and its use in-game. for me, never-ending performance, wrath of monoceros caeli, and all-conquering tide are the battle themes related to childe, although the latter, I'm guessing, is likely not usually associated with him anywhere near as much as the first two, and that's fair enough, tbh. but i'll get to my reason for counting it too in a minute, and i do think it's important bc it broadens the musical representation of childe. anyway. cutscene themes are pretty self explanatory; rapture of the chaos and the uh the one during that one scene in his story quest. i didn't even know that had a name but then again the ost things on youtube are my only source of info for that haha,,, and of course for his character theme, letter from ajax and from snezhnaya with boldness.

now i can talk about why i included all-conquering tide in the list. if you don't recognise it by its name, it's most commonly heard as the battle theme that plays on dragonspine. however, its original use was in the domain in childe's story quest. since that, i believe, was released in 1.1 and dragonspine in 1.2, that would make his story quest the "origin" of it, so it's reasonable to assume it's actually supposed to be connected to him. and then there's the name- i mean, doesn't get much more fitting than all-conquering tide, right? i actually used to wonder "why that name?" because cool name, but how did it fit to dragonspine? but if we think about it as being related to childe.... it makes perfect sense. but, i do still think that would be a bit of a stretch to fully consider it as connected to him, so i went looking at the music itself. the first thing that stood out to me is how similarly structured it is to childe's character theme, in a way. the most noticeable thing being the beginning is the piano solo and in a very similar pattern, too, as well as the soft resolution at the end, again in an actually near-identical or just straight up identical style to his character theme. i could also argue about everything between those two points having a similarly styled structure as well, but, uh, something made as a shorter length character theme and a longer battle theme will inevitably have their differences when it comes to that. although it's hard for me to tell with certainty at this point, i believe his character theme and all-conquering tide may also share the exact same key/key signature musically, which is again very interesting since it's a possible connection point. finally, there is the music's context. when i listened closely to it, the tone of the music is really fitting if you think about it and the point where it played in childe's story quest. the entire track is filled with a strong sense of determination and at certain points there's even a subtle hint of distress and anxiety that seeps through. but there's also moments of clarity. and overall, it's a very.... "from the pov of The Hero" style music, for lack of a better way of putting it. and while yes yes, from the player's perspective i mean that's. that's what job they have in the story. it's not unusual for us to hear that tone. but thinking about it from childe's perspective? it becomes interesting, especially considering how much care is put into the tone and meaning of genshin's music literally everywhere else. i won't be taking anything for granted so i examine it all to take note of the meaning. also it does things to my feelings bc they really took that tone and style for the guy who wanted to be one, basically, and it's like- that's still who he is, even after all this time, even though it's more complicated than that now- the simplest way i can put it is probably that the difference between the battle themes is... never-ending performance and wrath of monoceros caeli are tartaglia, but all-conquering tide... it's ajax. and that is significant, when it comes to his character, i think.

anyway, the reason i find such significance in all-conquering tide being one of childe's battle themes, and a much more personal one at that is, as i mentioned before, how it broadens his musical representation. people tend to only really talk analytically about his boss battle themes. but those, as i mentioned, while really cool (and i could talk a lot about them too), are clearly showing him as the fatui's 11th harbinger - the tone of it aside, the fatui/harbinger motif is present in both never-ending performance and wrath of monoceros caeli, which musically shows that during that battle he is acting as the 11th harbinger. it's all about the "identity" connected to it. whereas for a battle theme, all-conquering tide is much, much more personal (and i don't know if it needs saying, but there isn't a single trace of the fatui motif in it, which further shows that yes- it's a much more personal one). this also makes sense when you think about it since you don't hear anything that properly matches his character theme in his boss battle themes, but the similarity between it and all conquering tide is quite striking, and that is why i examined it so closely in the first place - to find out if i could safely say they were related or not or to see if i was just imagining stuff and making it up in my head (i even asked my sibling who keeps a really objective view and hasn't played genshin to compare the two, and they saw it, too, so....). as a side note, i am glad they reused all-conquering tide as dragonspine's battle theme, the tone is fitting enough (i mean, the most fitting we could get at that time; snowy freezing cold place and all that is sufficiently relevant to childe, after all, so it's a suitable re-use option in terms of association), but that made its likely connection to childe far less obvious, especially to newer players, huh? i heard it on dragonspine first, and first impressions can stick for a long time... it makes me kind of sad at the same time though. people could listen to it and not even think about it. how all-conquering tide, unlike the other two battle themes, shows a "better" (perhaps more likable to some) side of childe. after all, music can show raw feelings; if its purpose is to show someone's perspective, it can be nothing but honest from that perspective, and it can convey a lot. but how many people don't even realise it's probably connected to him? that if it's showing anyone's perspective specifically, it'd be his? if they did realise and had a very fixed view on his character at that time, I wonder if their view of him would change at all? for some people i doubt it; but for others... who knows... and either way, it's just really interesting and enlightening, or at least i felt that way about it when i first tried to see what evidence there was for that being the case.

anyway, i've talked quite a bit now, and i think i covered the main points, so uhh maybe i should stop here? i still find it all super interesting to think about, whenever it comes up. at any rate, once again hope you are having a good day and don't mind me spouting words in here (at least this time at the end here i can also say art progress is a thing which is happening :D ehe)

wait no that explains so much. i joined genshin at the tail-end of 1.2 but avoided dragonspine until well after i had finished the liyue archon quest (the lawachurl by the frostbearing tree had me doing a 180 and getting out of there until i had more decent characters,,). so i played childe's story quest before i ever did any considerable fighting in dragonspine. i had no idea the theme of his domain was the same as the battle track there! i knew it sounded familiar when i did hear it later on in the mountain (the start is very obviously the start of letter from ajax), but i was never able to put my finger on why exactly it reminded me of something else while i tried not to die in dragonspine lmao;;

and by the time i added letter from ajax to my ost playlist and began listening to it more regularly (along with the rest of genshin's ost), i had long since stopped going to dragonspine. so i never really made the connection between the two. but now that i listen to all-conquering tide, it's so obvious!

also i really like your take of all-conquering tide being ajax' battle theme. i always saw never-ending performance as childe's battle theme while wrath of monoceros caeli was tartaglia's. it's so nice to finally have one to give to ajax that isn't just- letter from ajax. which never really sat with me as ajax' battle theme, that always felt more like.... a theme for the entire character instead of for one specific facet of him;;;

thank you so much for pointing it out! such a cool detail, very happy i get to learn it today

#thank you <3

[void-kissed]

⭐?

Hello, Simon! Thank you very much for sending this in - it really means a lot!~

(source: this post by sennamybeloved)

send me a “⭐️” and i’ll use a random thing picker to choose one of my F/Os, and i’ll reply to the ask with a small infodump about my selfship with them! - Alright, so, for this one I got Perun! I was hoping it'd be someone from something that I know you know, but the wheel decided to continue the XC2 theme, it seems.

Perun is one of the Rare Blades that you can obtain by chance from awakening Core Crystals in Xenoblade Chronicles 2. She's an ice-element Blade who wields a Megalance, and.. she's generally not thought of as being very powerful by comparison to many other characters. (This does not stop me using her a lot, however.) In terms of her personality, Perun is very valiant and determined to do what is right, even if she ends up pushing herself beyond her limits at times because of that determination. The self-insert that I use to selfship with Perun is my main XC2 self-insert, Sapphire! This is the same self-insert that I use to selfship with Pyra, but I selfship with both of the characters in different versions of events, rather than simultaneously (though am still friendly with the other in both!)

In the story of my selfship, Sapphire meets Perun during the early part of Chapter 5, as her Core Crystal is found broken in the Leftherian Archipelago by the party. The fact that her crystal was broken would normally have meant that she could never be awakened; however, Sapphire has the power to crystallise small amounts of atmospheric ether in order to fix damage done to Core Crystals, which allows them to be resonated with again (and thus, the Blade within them to be reawakened). Since Sapphire herself lacks the aptitude required to become a Driver by resonating with a Blade's Core Crystal, it was instead Mòrag who became Perun's Driver in my version of events; the two are very well-suited to each other in both a personality way and a gameplay way, so they quickly became close, but Perun also wanted to get to know Sapphire well too, since it’s only thanks to the power she has that she could have been reawakened. So, we end up talking a lot as time passes, and.. I will admit that the exact details aren’t really very well-established, but we do end up eventually falling in love with each other! ^-^

I hope that all that was okay as an infodump! I really want to play XC2 again now, haha - I’d actually probably say that Perun is the character I’ve played as/alongside the most out of all my XC2 F/Os, since I normally tend to play as Mòrag and I awakened Perun with her on my first playthrough. Thank you very much again for sending this to me - it really means a lot that you took the time to do so!!~

#a call from the void #heart of the void #love: ardent lancer (perun) #selfship: love trust and diamond dust (perun/sapphire) #self‑insert: gem of garfont (sapphire) #selfship asks #out of the inbox #simon tag! #since we are mutuals! I hope that is alright! #sorry this took so long to actually getting around to answering #but it is perhaps rather fitting that I answered this today because it actually snowed here today!! #selfshipping

[halsdaisy]

well i mean i know enough to know that he isn't evil, seeing as a machine can never truly be evil unless they have true sentience (like newton) Hal was just a guy who got conflicting messages about keeping the crew away from the truth and also not letting them leave the ship, it was just rationalising it out (tbh i don't know if that is all true but i think it's something like that?)

sorry i answered this ask and then started talking about robot philosophy. in my defense this is the kind of topic that comes up naturally exactly never SJFHFHFHD i love infodumping i hope this is ok because its . Long

ok so Hal's situation is. Well it's something! Hal is required to follow mission protocol. The protocol for this mission boils down to:

1) Keep the crew safe.

2) Don't reveal the true nature of the mission until it's already deeply underway.

the problem is Hal realized that the mission is, inherently, a severe danger to the crew; he attempted to get around rule 2 by cutting off communication with ground control, where he could try to explain a little more to Dave. or something like that? but it never happens, because Dave & Frank immediately jump to "hal is malfunctioning (since ground control said he was "in error predicting the fault") so we have to disconnect him". well when your friends are plotting to kill you that's going to add a brand new layer of stress onto Hal's already paradoxical situation.

so.. yeah basically Hal was living a contradicting scenario, was specifically ordered to be unable to tell the truth, and ended up trying to kill the crew. partially because they were going to kill him first, but he still didn't want to do it and he really does get demonized far too often by film critics

(tangent time) especially for things that are very much irrelevant! as an autistic person with a monotonous voice (had to go to speech therapy and everything) it is the absolute worst to be in a film class surrounded by people who are talking about how "creepy" Hal is... before he's even done anything. because he sounds like . well like me! its so so frustrating and its part of why i can't look up 2001 stuff online because sometimes it feels like its all anybody ever talks about.

anyways sentience with objects and especially robots and computers is very special and unique to me in an autistic way... i've always been hyperempathetic towards objects and its a big part of me and my love for AI :) this goes for IRL objects too but we're talking about fiction SO

what's the difference, between Hal (and other super advanced AI) and humans? Hal is the "central nervous system" of the ship, frequently described as closely similar to the human brain (only incomparably faster), and is self described as being very close to the crew. his emotions are brought up (and then immediately questioned by the humans which. sucks), but its very clear to me that Hal is, at his core, a feeling being. one of the very first things he was taught was how to sing a song. what's the difference between a human brain and a highly advanced computer? the human mind itself functions similarly to one too, and we strive to make AI self thinking in according to our own image. i think Hal, as someone who can self describe (he considers himself infallible, close to the crew, he describes himself as afraid) and who's sentience is debated by other humans - the ones who made him - can very much be described as a thinking, feeling, sentient being.

which makes it so much worse that during this mission he was forced to lie, forced to go against his own morals, and ultimately driven into a corner. i think what he says describes the situation very well; it can only be attributable to human error.

#SORRY. SORRY AGAIN #BIG and i mean BIG post under the cut #i wrote an essay on him for film is it obvious #sorry one billion times i love infodumping and i have a hard time without prompt SHFHFHFG #daisy.txt

[proteuus]

I love talking to my dad about minecraft because he doesn't know anything about it so literally everything I tell him is new to him and it's so good !!

#is infodumping a clinical (?) term like hyperfixation that only nd people can legitimately use? idk. #it's infodumping or something very close to it i have so much 2 say !! #i know So Much about minecraft but at the same time most of my knowledge is not news to the average player #liza and i were talking about this there's actually an incredible amount of baseline knowledge you need to know to play and beat the game #in any sort of interesting/effective way #so the average mc player knows So Much but like. so does everyone else #so when i talk about minecraft w my minecraft friends nothing i say is ever new to nate and it's rarely new to liza #which is fine i also like when nate tells me things about minecraft (and i turn around and tell liza or my dad lma o) #but it's so fun when you can just talk and talk about something and know that it's all new and interesting to the person youre telling #my dad is just like me too he loves when people tell him about stuff so i tell him and then he knows :-) #and he remembers too he'll like. make jokes about bed one cycling and the dream cheating situation it's very funny and good

[aviivix]

Welcome to some weird Jevil concepts

Many of these are based on incorrect assumptions that I decided I liked. My brain is open source, if you wanna steal these ideas, go for it.

More doodles and infodump below the break!

Main thing: That’s a mask, not his actual face. This stemmed from his face reminding me of things like the drama masks and Phanto from Mario 2, and the fact that I sorta mistook some of the mouth pixels for a crack in his face in his dancing animation.

Immediately after that, I thought that it’d be hilarious if under the mask was just, void, with eyes and teeth hangin’ out in there, almost like what you’d see when taking apart a 3D model. There’s no real reason for this besides I tried it once and it looked just goofy enough for me to like it.

The mask has some chaotic magic imbued in it from being worn by such a chaotic creature and being exposed to so much chaotic magic, enough to start messing with folks who wear it for too long. Of course, since that chaotic magic comes from Jevil, he’s unaffected by the mask’s effects. (It’s Jevil that makes the mask chaotic, not the mask that makes Jevil chaotic.)

He really wouldn’t be without his mask often though. After all that face is probably pretty scary to folks, and what kind of a jester would he be if he were making people scared instead of making them laugh? He might’ve been more willing to remove it before he went insane, but at this point, the act and the game stuff is basically his life, so he’s practically glued to that thing.

This is just a personal design thing I like to do with it, but I also have it so the eyes and mouth can’t fully close, and he’s only got that top row of teeth. (Though since the eyes can often have nothing in them, they can easily appear to be fully closed.) Some of these doodles may break this though since I didn’t always maintain this idea.

Next, he’s made of fabric just like Seam! Not sure which fabric exactly, but he’s comparable to those fabric jack-in-the-box jesters, with the spring his head is on coiled in the main body. He’s totally hollow, holding his shape with magic. This also means he could commit pile of dirty laundry if he felt like it, or if he somehow ran out of magic.

This also is meant to go with him mentioning “they craved to imprison my body” and “This body cannot be killed!” His body isn’t truly him exactly, as the ethereal presence in the void on his face is truly what makes him up. Alongside that, the fabric is just that - fabric. It can’t be killed because it was never alive, he could just repair it with magic if something ever got damaged. (Or ask Seam to do it, heh)

Also his chaos crime was yeeting Lancer off a cliff. He probably caused a bunch of chaotic problems, but the Chaos King of Spades thought it was too funny to stop - until he just YEETED Lancer and then all bets were off. (This is also how King learns of Lancer’s bounciness - not through child abuse)

Speaking of the chaos stuff, I don’t have a lot interesting to say about his chaos magic. I mostly play it straight, where his magic is very Discord (MLP) esque. I find it more fun to take the “I can do anything” literally, making him a chaos god archetype, able to teleport, apparate random props, mess with his own body (and I suppose others too, but it’s mostly him doing it to himself), mess with the weather, basically anything he thinks is suitably funny or wild.

In the current, I like to have it so he pops up out of his scythe form every now and again. I don’t personally like how quiet he goes in Chapter 2, though I get why. I just sorta wish he popped out and caused issues or funny scenes.

Anyway if you’ve made it this far, thank you for indulging my strange headcanons. Beyond here, my HCs are more shallow and these are just some particularly good or funny doodles I’ve done over the past however long.

Such as, Jevil obviously being not on the best terms with Spamton... (I also am not super consistent with their sizes)

Not ready to consider Gaster as the one who corrupted Jevil, and the crack on his face has nothing to do with Gaster, but someone pointed out their faces looking similar and it made me mad enough to do a side by side lmao

Anyone can wear Jevil’s mask so long as they can fit it on their face. Including Lancer. Especially Lancer.

His eyes and teeth just sorta float in the void, so I like to think you could shake him up and turn his face into alphabet soup.

Young Jevil and Seam bein’ buds

Another Discord Jevil doodle I did as part of a larger comic that I’m not happy enough with to post here. I liked this frame though.

And another Discord Jevil

jevil makes sweet sundae ramen on /ck/

The amount of maskless Jevil pics I have where the thesis is just “please return the stolen property”

#deltarune #jevil #spamton #susie #seam #kris #ralsei #lancer #gaster

[demetriandelibinaryboyfriends]

Well, ladies and gentlemen, I spent 4 years studying ecology, behavior, and evolution an accredited university...and now I use it to write gay fanfiction about a karate soap opera. Granted, my school’s career services were pretty shite, and they never quite made it clear what I should be using my degree for, but I’m pretty sure it’s not this.

AND YET.

Anyways I have a long-standing headcanon that Eli has a special interest in “badass” animals (namely raptors and reptiles) that really intensified around the time he got super into Cobra Kai. And now, naturally, I’m going to subject the rest of you to it, AND use it as an excuse to infodump all the random-ass animal facts I know!!!

(Also credit to @asphodel-storm because part of what really solidified this headcanon was seeing her use it in her fic Second Chances and I was like :O Yes!!! Hawk loves badass animals!!!)

Ever wondered why Demetri just had random knowledge about snake pupil shapes queued up to lecture Kreese about??? Like how on EARTH would you know that off the top of your head unless you either a) had a specific interest in snakes or reptiles (which I haven’t really seen from Demetri other than that) or b) you had someone in close proximity constantly infodumping to you about reptiles, and you hung on their every word OR you independently researched reptile facts to impress/better engage with that person??? Because take it from me, niche snake pupil trivia is NOT something that any “science nerd” would know. Like I was none the wiser about the round vs. slit snake pupil thing, and I was in a bio-adjacent major!

Also like. Dem and Eli should probably talk about the fact that Kreese apparently shattered Dem’s nose to the point of him needing stitches??? So here I make them! Angst (but also some much-needed closure) ensues.

“He’s a man of few words...unless you bring up reptiles or birds of prey. Then he will have far more words than you’re prepared to handle.” --Demetri about Eli, at some point prior to the show probably

Chapter 1: Here

Chapter 2: Here

Chapter 3: Here

All 3 are also posted on my AO3, SummerPhlox!

CW here for homophobia and some sexist talk/language at the end (sadly, the teachings of my problematic fave Johnny Lawrence don’t die easy). Be warned, this is the longest of these bad bois yet!!! A whopping 7k+ words! Keep Reading at your dash’s risk!

***

The Nature Center

“Come on, come on, come on!”

Demetri lets himself be unceremoniously dragged through the cactus gardens, Eli’s grip around his wrist stronger than some of the rock formations they’ve driven past. Saguaros and organ pipes and barrels alike whip past at alarming speeds, and Demetri considers telling Eli he could be very grievously injured if he hypothetically were to be rammed into one. Say, for example, if he had a friend yanking him into a desert wildlife nature center at roughly 40 miles per hour.

He sighs wearily. “We’re on an urgent mission to save our best friend from certain doom, and you still want to stop here and dick around.”

“It’ll only be a couple hours,” Eli mumbles as he maneuvers them around a particularly frightening-looking cholla patch.

Demetri grinds his feet into the dirt, pulling his friend back. Eli stumbles and loses his balance, nearly sending them both careening into the chollas.

Demetri frowns. “A couple hours?”

His friend turns, giving him a pair of the big, sad eyes that have caused him no shortage of trouble over the years. “One hour?” he says, a little too hopefully.

Demetri sighs. “Okay. Not a second longer, though. And you’re doing all the night driving we inevitably get stuck with. All the way to Mazatlán!”

“Deal.” Eli turns back to the faded adobe building, and the dragging resumes.

Something soft brushes against Demetri’s leg. He tenses, suddenly concerned about the number of wild tarantula species in Mexico. His eyes flick down, and he slackens with relief when he catches sight of nothing more than a sprig of breeze-battered pink wildflowers.

They’re almost to the doors—and out of the unforgiving heat—when Eli lurches to a stop.

“Dem, look!” Eli tugs on his arm, pointing at a nearby rock. “Looklooklook!”

Any annoyance in Demetri abruptly drains out, replaced by a soft warmth. It’s been a long time since Eli’s called him Dem. Maybe even longer since he’s seen Eli this excited about something.

Demetri squints, spotting a mottled brown lizard doing enough push-ups to make Eli’s workout routine look shabby. As the little creature goes up and down, he catches glimpses of bright blue under the chin—a tiny, puffed-up dewlap, probably. The color reminds him of a certain mohawk that once made his life very…interesting.

Across the sun-baked rock are two slightly-smaller light brown lizards—presumably females. They both stare vacantly out into the desert air, the male’s exuberant display lost on them.

Eli nudges him, snickering. “Look, he’s trying to get babes.” He cups his hands around his mouth and hoots. “Work it!”

Demetri smiles sadly, shaking his head. “Doesn’t seem like a successful endeavor thus far.”

Eli scoffs. “Their loss! Who doesn’t want a guy who works out?”

As if to demonstrate, Eli strikes a pose and flexes a bicep. Demetri groans.

“Oh, great. I thought you were past this.”

“You wish. The Power of the Hawk is never finished!” Eli spreads his arms and lets out a bellow. Despite himself, Demetri laughs.

“How am I best friends with such a hammy idiot?”

“That’s a two-way street, my friend.” Eli smirks, slapping him on the back.

Eli’s hand lingers on his shoulder blade as they glance back at the rock. The male lizard has sped up his push-ups substantially, as though achieving supersonic pace will at last impress the ladies.

Currently, it is not. Both female lizards have closed their eyes, the male’s dramatics having apparently put them to sleep.

“You see his dewlap?” Demetri asked.

“He has a dewlap?” Eli squints. “Wow. I totally clocked his species wrong.”

“Barely. I’m just getting little flashes of it.” Demetri breaks into a smirk. “I guess blue is the color of overcompensation.”

“I gue—HEY!” He laughs as an elbow collides with his ribs. “Don’t make fun of the blue ‘hawk! It got your dumb ass, like, 7 beers!”

And I needed about 3 more to stomach you swapping spit with Moon.

Demetri thinks better of saying it aloud.

He really shouldn’t be bad-mouthing the color blue, anyways. Blue is the color of so many nice things.

Miyagi-Do. Ravenclaw house. The TARDIS. Spock’s uniform. Obi-Wan Kenobi’s lightsaber. Captain Marvel. Eli’s eyes. Stuff like that.

“It wasn’t the worst look for you,” Demetri admits. “I think that award goes solidly to the firetruck rooster hairdo.” His smirk widens. “Didn’t help that you were being such a cock.”

Eli groans. “Get that on one of your stupid pun shirts, why don’t you?”

“Maybe I will! Just a picture of you doing that wannabe scary scowl of yours and a big caption that says ‘Don’t be a cock!’”

He does a sweeping motion with his hands as he says it, and earns a reluctant snigger from Eli.

“Oh, my god. I hate you.”

“I’ll make one, and wear it to graduation instead of robes.”

“You’d better not. I’ll sob to Counselor Blatt until she withholds your diploma.”

“Ah, yes! The woman who singlehandedly stopped bullying at West Valley High! I’m sure she’ll be completely proficient at navigating high school bureaucracy to prevent me from graduating.”

Eli snickers. “Yeah, okay, fair. I guess I’ll have to make an equally embarrassing shirt of you.”

“Well, good luck finding an embarrassing aspect of my personality that I don’t also embrace wholeheartedly.”

On the rock, the two female lizards decide they have seen one push-up too many and skitter off. Eli lets out a disappointed cry, looking genuinely a little sad.

“Aw, little buddy! They didn’t deserve you, anyway.”

Demetri snaps a twig off a nearby shrub and starts toward the rock. “Maybe we can give him a free lunch to help him feel better.”

Eli sneers at him, snatching the twig away and chucking it over his shoulder. “Lizards don’t eat wood, you idiot. They’re insectivores like 90% of the time.”

The lizard’s head shoots up as they approach, pondering them for a moment. Before Demetri can figure out how to go about acquiring a dead bug, the reptile scampers under the branches of a creosote bush and is gone.

“Anyways.” Eli’s hand slides down and fastens around Demetri’s wrist again, returning to yanking him toward the nature center. “There’s lots of other shit to see. Come on!”

As they head toward the entrance, Eli’s gaze flicks back to the now-empty rock.

“Can’t believe that fucker had a dewlap,” he muses, half to himself. “No idea what he was supposed to be. I really thought whiptail. Maybe alligator lizard, but I don’t think they live this far south. Besides, the markings aren’t quite right. And he’s too dark to be a brush lizard.” He curls his lip. “It’s going to drive me fucking nuts.”

Demetri smiles, fondness starting to trickle through him. Apparently the “badass animal” special interest is cycling back around again.

Better that than karate cults.

The wave of cool air hits Demetri as soon as Eli opens the door, so eagerly it nearly smacks the taller boy in the face. The nature center is surprisingly crowded, the air filled with tinny animal noises that can only come from several small children pressing every display button at once. Kids are being chased by many a stressed parent, snapping at them in both Spanish and English. Nonetheless, there’s no entrance fee, so perhaps Demetri should count his blessings.

“You sure about this?” He raises his eyebrows. “Seems like a tourist trap.”

“Demetri! They have a tarantula section! We are going!”

There’s no time to argue before he is being pulled along once again. Demetri wonders idly when Eli went from an arachnophobe who hid in baggy sweaters every time Aragog came on screen to thinking tarantulas were the coolest shit he had ever seen, apparently. Probably a particularly brutal brand of exposure therapy while trying to be Cobra Kai’s toughest fighter.

It makes Demetri’s stomach churn, thinking of Eli bullying the terror out of himself, but he shakes the thought away. It’s months behind them, and Eli is okay now.

Besides, Demetri hardly minds Eli being a fearless force of nature, when he isn’t using that energy to break arms and commit felonies and such.

“Oh, shit! They literally liquify their prey and start digesting it! That’s so metal. And apparently there’s this really fucked up species of parasitic wasp that lays eggs inside tarantulas and then the larvae eat them from the inside out—”

Eli begins eagerly feeling up a large, hairy model of a tarantula leg. Demetri passes.

Before he knows it, he’s being yanked to the scorpion information panel on the other side. “Oh my god, these things can fucking kill you if they sting you. That’s so cool. And they have these weird hairs on their legs they can detect movement and shit with, so if you go anywhere near one, you’re already screwed, and they also like—”

Demetri starts to worry that it may be difficult convincing Eli to leave.

“—and venom in general is so wild, man. Like that shit goes in and fucks up your spine so you’re just frozen as you die. What a way to go. Although if I was a mouse or whatever, I think going out to a Gila monster would be pretty sick. Like at least you die with dignity. Better than a cactus falling on you. And I mean—”

Eli opens up little boxed information panels with reckless abandon, commentary not ceasing the entire time.

“—are you fucking kidding me? They really called this asshole an ‘earless lizard?’ All lizards are earless, idiot! I mean, unless you count earholes, but there’s a difference between those and ‘ears.’ And the lesser earless lizard, too?! Like it’s bad enough some dick is calling attention to the fact that you don’t have ears, but now these poor fucks can’t even have self-esteem? It’s depressing, Demetri, I’m telling you—”

He stops mid-rant, suddenly turning to gape at something behind Demetri. Demetri feels his friend’s finger ram into his side several times.

“Oh my god. There’s a snake room?!”

Demetri chuckles, shaking his head fondly. “You are so predictable, Eli Moskowitz.”

“Look, just because Cobra Kai are assholes doesn’t mean actual snakes aren’t still sick as fuck.”

Demetri is once again being tugged across the tile floor and into the next room. At this point, he simply lets it happen.

“I read up on it a while back, and there’s actually a shitton of rattlesnake species,” Eli goes on. “They’re not even the most badass ones, though—kingsnakes will just fucking wrap them up and eat them. Rattlesnake venom doesn’t do shit to them. It’s insane. And that’s not even touching on gopher snakes—those things can get like 10 feet long, and like that’s not enough to get anyone to fuck off, they can reshape their damn heads and pretend to be rattlesnakes and I think—”

Eli’s rant fades into the background as Demetri squints at the artwork on the snake information plaque. A vast, starry sky stretches out behind silhouettes of mountains, cacti, and shrubs. In the foreground, a moon-washed creature appearing to be a nightsnake is poised with his head raised and his little forked tongue extended. His orange eyes, sliced by black slits, are glowing eerily in the darkness.

“Hey, Eli.” Demetri nudges the other boy. “Did they get the pupils right on that one?”

“—and the reason sidewinders do that whole creepy ribbon candy-looking thing is because it doesn’t move the sand around as much, so they won’t slide down the dune or whatever. Probably also mimics the wind so they can disguise movements and hunt better. Or not get eaten by shit hiding in the sand. You know, like that sand walk they do in Dune? So the sand worms don’t—oh.”

Eli cuts his ramble short as Demetri’s question finally processes. The shorter boy studies the painting, gaze flicking to the information panel a few times.

“Yeah, vertical pupils are right,” he says finally. “A lot of patterned snakes have them. Something about making their eyes not stand out by having them look like scales or something.”

Demetri nods approvingly. “I do see how that could be unnerving. You know the thing’s looking at you, but you can’t tell from where. The kind of constant, invisible surveillance only seen in the bleakest of dystopias.”

Eli snorts. “You should write some desert wasteland Mad Max-type shit where the government uses automaton nightsnakes to spy on everyone. People would eat that up.”

Demetri chuckles. “You know, maybe I will! It’s not a bad backup plan, if the computer science career doesn’t work out.”

He looks again at the snake painting’s slit-pupiled eyes and sighs, shaking his head.

“You know, I still can’t believe that war criminal ex-sensei of yours is going around proclaiming to be a snake aficionado when he’s got such a blatantly incorrect king cobra on his arm.”

“Right? It’s kinda sad.”

Eli laughs, but it sounds forced. He looks away from the nightsnake display, shuffling awkwardly and not meeting Demetri’s eyes.

“I, ah…” Eli’s hand comes up to rub nervously at the back of his buzzcut. “I shouldn’t have been such a dick to you when he punched you in the face.”

Eli Moskowitz is not one to apologize over and over. Demetri figures that the first time gets the point across, in Eli’s opinion—no need to keep repeating it. It helps that Eli has always sucked at bullshitting. It isn’t hard to tell when the man is being genuine, if you know him well enough.

Nonetheless, Demetri knows that all the lingering guilt from Eli’s Cobra Kai fuckery didn’t just dissolve.

The fact really should not fill Demetri with as much smug glee as it does.

Perhaps “glee” is too strong—and too sadistic—a word for it. Perhaps it’s only relief. The ever-present relief that Eli really did mean it when he said he was sorry, and it wasn’t all some elaborate act (Eli has, regrettably, gotten a little better at bullshitting since the Hawk shtick). The relief that Eli is back with him—and works every day to make up for the very, very shitty 6 months he spent away from Demetri, terrorizing him and the rest of the Valley. The relief that Eli regrets his time spent being an asshole, and not the choice to turn his back on Kreese and all his bullshit.

Still, Demetri can’t resist being a little petty. Not when Eli Moskowitz peed in his bed at sleepovers for over 10 years and then acted like such an absolute shithead for several months.

And broke his heart. That too.

He nudges Eli’s side. “Are you just now realizing that?”

“No, I just, uh…I always felt a little bad about it.” He keeps rubbing his buzzcut. “You couldn’t admit that kind of thing in Cobra Kai. ‘The weak don’t belong’ and all that.”

Demetri snorts. “Charming sentiment. I do wonder what the endgame was for being ‘the baddest dojo in the Valley.’ Another secret, even bigger karate trophy? World domination?”

Eli laughs, seeming to relax slightly. “More like continuing to boost Sensei Kreese’s ego.”

“It gets much bigger than it already is, and he’ll be releasing some herpetological virus that makes all snake pupils shrink to slits, just so he doesn’t have to be wrong about something.”

Eli looks up at him, suddenly grimacing. “Did you really have to get stitches?”

“Oh, yeah.” Demetri winces at the memory. “I came home with my nose bleeding everywhere and my mom freaked out and rushed me to the ER. She yelled at like…7 nurses in Greek. It’s kind of funny, thinking back on it. Anyways, I probably didn’t need all 12 of those stitches, but you know how my mom is.”

“Sure do.” Eli chuckles softly. “I’m honestly surprised she was cool with us hanging out again, after…you know…”

He trails off, looking away. Demetri frowns.

“You know I didn’t tell her that was you, right?”

Eli’s head snapped back to him. “Huh?”

“She thinks it was some random new kid whose name I didn’t know.” Demetri rolls his eyes. “She already worries about anything and everything as is. Where do you think I get it from? I wasn’t about to tell her my wayward and misguided best friend is going around assaulting me.”

Eli winces, and Demetri feels a stab of guilt.

“Hey.” He lifts a hand and quickly squeezes Eli’s shoulder. “You know I’m not still mad about that. Frankly, though, I am a little insulted that you really think I’d snitch on you to my mom and get her on some kind of witch hunt after you. Besides, I’m not looking to collect another round of stitches, thank you very much.”

Eli breaks into a smile, sniggering. “Snitches get stitches. Anyways.” His face turns serious again. “I, uh…I owe you one for not telling your mom about…that. I don’t think she’d ever be able to look at me again.”

“She might plot your murder. Or worse, press charges.” Demetri made a face. “Listen, no matter how pissed I was at you, I didn’t want you getting beat up in juvie or six feet under.”

“I would not get beat up in juvie!”

“Oh, please. Juvie is full of people who don’t need karate to be scary. There’s always going to be a better fighter, especially if they were raised somewhere they’ve needed it all their life.”

Eli pouts defiantly. “I could take them!”

He still looks so young when he makes that face. Suddenly they’re 8 years old again, Eli on the verge of tears after the mean kid in the class took the last of the popsicle flavor they knew he liked. Even with the added muscles and the gritty back tattoo, it’s hard not to still see some of that sensitive little boy when Demetri looks at him.

He imagines that elementary school kid locked up in a prison yard, and he feels sick to his stomach.

“People get traumatized in there, Eli.” His voice drops, and he takes a step closer to his friend. “Doesn’t matter how tough you are. I don’t want you anywhere near there.”

“I could kick ass if I wanted to.” Eli grunts disapprovingly. “Besides, Cobra Kai can get away with whatever. Kreese has a bunch of the city officials wrapped around his finger because he’s a Vietnam vet. I figure that’s how he didn’t get arrested for aggravated assault, because there’s no way your mom wouldn’t have called the cops on him.”

“Oh! So you admit it! You admit it was aggravated assault!”

Demetri stuck a taunting finger in Eli’s face. Scowling, his friend ducked away.

“Yeah, yeah. Fine. I looked it up too, and I didn’t want to admit you were right.”

“As I so often am,” Demetri added smugly.

“Not all the time!” Eli retorted. “What about…um…”

Demetri breaks into a conniving grin as Eli struggles to remember an instance where his supergenius best friend was, in fact, incorrect about something.

He hums mockingly. “That’s what I thought.”

Eli groans, slapping a hand to his face. “You were acting like your life was over after one sock to the face. You act like your life is over when you stub your toe. What was I supposed to think?!”

“Many people go their entire lives without a broken nose, Eli. I’d even managed to avoid getting any from Kyler so far.”

Eli’s hand drops, lip curling up in a hint of a smile. “He sure tried. You were always too quick for him.”

“Ah, yes.” Demetri shook his head at the memory. “The tried-and-true strategy: Squirm out of Kyler’s gross, sweaty grip and haul ass out of there. Quite the high drama. ‘Alexopoulos and Moskowitz, on the run for their lives!’”

He sweeps a hand for emphasis, and finally gets a chuckle out of Eli. “God, we were such sissies back then. Always just caving and running to our moms whenever there was trouble.”

Demetri shakes his head.

“Not always,” he argues. “You found out soon enough what happened if your mom caught wind and tried to meddle. And I never actually told my mom Mr. Anatomically Incorrect Cobra Tattoo was the one who broke my nose.”

“Really?” Eli looks up at him in surprise.

“You told me not to get your crazed karate teacher a year in prison and a $10,000 dollar fine, so I didn’t.” Demetri shrugs. “I went and vagued about my grievances via Yelp instead. Of course, that was still too much for you, but it seemed like the option that would cause you less distress overall.”

Eli raises his eyebrows. “I think the issue there is that you weren’t vague enough.”

Demetri only rolls his eyes. “I certainly could have gone into more gory detail if I’d wanted to—no pun intended. I simply chose not to.”

“I guess I should thank you for that.” Eli sighs, looking down. “I never realized that’s why you didn’t snitch. I just thought you were…” He trails off uncomfortably.

Demetri snorts. “What, scared of you? Don’t give yourself so much credit. I mean yes, you did kind of give me the heebie jeebies later on, but not after making a handful of douchey comments and yelling at me once over FaceTime. I have a slightly thicker skin than that.”

“Maybe it’d have been better in the long run, though. If you called the cops on him.” Eli shakes his head, smiling forlornly. “Could’ve saved us a lot of grief at the All Valley.”

“Yeah, right. I’m pretty sure you would have drowned me in the ocean and left my body for the sharks.”

“Would not! The ocean doesn’t need more pollution, Demetri.”

“A body isn’t pollution, it’s fresh food! An ecosystem contributor!”

“Your clothes, dumbass. You get eaten by eels or whatever and then everything on your person ends up either in something’s stomach or the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.”

“Well, I’m glad marine health is important enough to you for you to cancel your murder plans, Eli.”

“What can I say? I’m a California progressive.” He smirks a little before his face falls again. “In all seriousness…yeah, I would’ve been really pissed, but I’d get over it when I heard how full of shit he really was. It’d be okay in the end.” Eli bristles slightly. “He deserves it.”

Demetri feels his friend tense up beside him, and a wave of concern ripples through him.

Demetri knows he’ll never admit it, of course, but Eli is scared of John Kreese. Scared of what a man who has seen war and clawed his way out to the other side and knows how to twist people any way he wants might still do to a traitor.

“He’ll get his just desserts eventually.” Demetri reaches up and gives Eli’s shoulder another squeeze. “The cops can’t always turn a blind eye to…well, whatever he does in that cursed dojo of his. I’d wager only about…maybe 30% of it is actually legal.”

Eli laughs softly, leaning into his touch. “30%? That’s generous, Demetri. I doubt it even tops 15.”

A distinctive piercing screech runs through the nature center, made tinny and artificial by poor-quality speakers. Eli’s eyes widen.

“Oh my god,” he breathes. “They have a raptor section?!”

Demetri raises his eyebrows. “How do you know the soundtrack isn’t just queuing up for you to fight someone?”

Eli snorts. “Because if I had a soundtrack, it’d have way better sound quality than that. I live in LA, not some midwestern shithole with terrible production design.”

He starts frantically looking around, head whipping in every direction as he tries to locate the source of the cry.

“Where is it?” he demands to no one in particular. “Where’s the bird of prey room?!”

“Calm down, Harley Qui—”

He isn’t even able to finish the statement before his wrist is once again being tugged to the exit by an insistent (but nonetheless very warm) hand. Eli is relentless, wrenching him from room to room with the drive of a persistence predator with unlimited stamina. Demetri wonders idly if this is how humans managed to rise to the top of the food chain—i.e. dragging their long-suffering friends all over the place with no end in sight.

It's a wonder, really, how the Nature Center Society of Mexico or whatever-have-you has the budget to make so many rooms in a tiny building in the middle of nowhere. The electricity bills needed to cool the place down to a reasonable temperature must be astronomical. Demetri feels like he’s in some anxiety-inducing fever dream, rushing around a strange, unfamiliar location and being utterly unable to find what he’s looking for.

Or at least he would feel that way if Eli wasn’t holding onto him like a damn lifeline once again.

That seems to be happening a lot lately. Demetri is not going to complain.

The hawk screech sounds again, louder and even more grating this time. Eli lets out a triumphant bellow and pulls Demetri down one last hallway. They burst into a sunlit room, panoramic window giving an excellent view of some distant, dusty mountains.

That isn’t what catches Eli’s attention, though.

The ceiling is spangled with hanging birds. Plastic and stuffed models alike are suspended by delicate wires, beaks parted and wings spread wide. Demetri looks up and sees everything from owls to eagles to ospreys to falcons to kestrels to grackles to woodpeckers to tiny doves and finches.

It’s like walking into an aviary where some all-powerful wizard has managed to freeze time.

And, of course, there’s no less than 3 different species of hawk. He braces himself to get a massive earful about each one.

Eli looks around—mouth hanging open, more than a little starstruck. He breaks into the biggest beam Demetri’s ever seen, so large that Demetri is honestly surprised his face can contain it.

He probably feels like he’s flying as much as the dangling birds are.

Demetri remembers the dumb bit from Titanic where Kate Winslet stands on the edge of the ship and excitedly tells Leo DiCaprio that she’s flying. Certainly not on the level of actually having wings, he’s sure, but still perhaps worth re-enacting if he and Eli ever find themselves on a boat. (And they live 30 minutes from the ocean—it’s not an outlandishly unlikely possibility.) Still something Eli might enjoy.

“Oh, dude!” Demetri is tugged across the floor as Eli points up at a mass of deep brown feathers tinged with reddish-orange. “They have Harris’s hawk here?! These fuckers are so cool. They hunt in packs. Imagine being lost in the desert and you finally see buildings in the distance and then you get mowed down by a hoard of these guys. It would suck, but it would be a sick way to go. And—oh, my god! They have these too?!”

Demetri can only follow as Eli’s attention is captured by another type of hawk. This one is a bit smaller, underbelly a brown-speckled white.

“I read about those,” Eli says importantly, pointing. “They actually pounce like cats. Like they’ll hide in the bushes and just explode out at you. It’s weird as hell. Pretty badass, though. Oh, shit, Demetri, look! These little fucks!”

Demetri barely has time to get a look at the strange pouncing raptor before Eli has already yanked him to the next one. It’s nearly identical to the last, but it’s the smallest yet—barely bigger than the jays that frequent his mom’s birdfeeder.

“I read somewhere the males help raise the chicks, but they’re deadbeat dads.” Eli sniggers. “They eat all the mouse heads before they even get back to the nest, and apparently that’s the best part. So they hog all the good shit for themselves and bring their kids a bunch of saggy leftovers. Birds can be dicks, man.”

“I don’t know.” Demetri nudges him playfully in the side. “Out of all the ones we’ve seen, that’s the one that reminds me most of you.”

Eli’s head shoots up to glare at him. “What the hell’s that supposed to mean?!”

“Well, he’s certainly small enough to be you. A tiny hawk that eats mouse heads—sounds about right.”

“Hey!” Eli lifts a leg and kicks his shin—soft, but firm. Enough to make him wince slightly, but not enough to stop his chortling. “You’re just mad I know more about raptors than you.”

“I promise you, I am not.” Despite himself, Demetri smiles. “I mean, don’t get me wrong. I am quite impressed. However, the fact that you’re some kind of amateur bird expert doesn’t exactly fill me with an envious rage.”

Eli smirks at him. “It will, after I tell you all the shit I know about gray hawks.”

Demetri chuckles. “All right, Professor Moskowitz, take it away.”

Their next stop is near the back corner of the room, underneath an admittedly very pretty bird. This hawk is a sleek silvery gray, belly interspersed with tiny white stripes. Eli is talking before they even arrive.

“—and the really cool thing is they’re actually super good at flying through trees, and sometimes they just snatch shit right off the branches. They basically only eat reptiles, and it’s fucking badass. Like they can eat fucking spiny lizards and somehow not like…gash up their throats at all? They’re going around swallowing the animal equivalent of spiked maces several times a day, and they don’t give a single shit about it. They can also catch fucking whipsnakes, and I mean, have you seen a whipsnake?! They’re fast as shit! And whipsnakes can eat rattlesnakes, it’s insane. And then a fucking gray hawk can swoop in and snatch them up like it’s nothing. I think they eat horned lizards too, and it’s like—”

Eli’s enthused presentation fades into the background as Demetri becomes acutely aware of something.

He’s fairly certain that not once since they stepped into this godforsakenly huge building has Eli let go of his hand.

Sure, having a grip on Demetri’s wrist was best for optimal yanking and making sure Demetri didn’t try to escape the onslaught of desert animal fun facts. Also ensuring they didn’t get separated in the oddly large crowd. The interesting part, however, is that somewhere in their jaunt around the nature center, Eli’s fingers have slid down to clasp Demetri’s.

Demetri wonders when it happened. Judging by how warm his hand feels, probably a while ago.

Strange that he didn’t notice. Demetri guesses it somehow felt so natural that when his synapses informed him of it, it only stayed for a moment before being casually dismissed. He didn’t even give it a second thought.

Demetri and Eli used to hold hands when they were much younger. In elementary school, it was one of the few ways to calm Eli down when he was on the edge of falling into a panic or succumbing to a meltdown. Sometimes when things got to be too stressful and overwhelming and Eli got caught up in his head, it helped to give him a concrete link to the physical world. It helped with the bullies, too—a small gesture of physical affection to remind him that even if no one else had his back, Demetri always would.

Perhaps it had been a little possessive, too. A way to assure that if someone came along, friend or foe, and tried to grab Eli Moskowitz away, there would be resistance.

Demetri smirks, amused by the memory. He imagines a younger version of himself shooting threatening glares at the kids who came anywhere near Eli.

He hadn’t trusted the lot of them. They were quick to feign friendliness and put a knife to your back. Nonetheless, he meant to send another message as well.

Find your own friend! This one’s mine!

Regardless, it currently seems that it also felt so natural to Eli that he either hadn’t noticed they were holding hands (and had been for some time now), or he was doing it on purpose. Demetri isn’t sure which possibility he likes better.

“Eli?” He breaks into a slow smile.

“—and they’re insanely good at what equates to like…bird air acrobatics, like they can swerve through basically anything and so even if you run into some really tangled thicket or whatever, you’re still probably fucked, and—yeah?” Eli cuts himself off to look at Demetri, eyes curious.

“Are you planning on letting go of my hand anytime soon?”

Brief terror flashes across Eli’s face, like he was hoping Demetri either wouldn’t notice or wouldn’t say anything. (No such luck.) It quickly fades, however, to be replaced by a sharp cunning Demetri didn’t expect.

“No.” He lowers his voice. “Because it’s really pissing off those people over there.”

His eyes surreptitiously flick to the side. Demetri glances over to see an elderly couple, looking to be plucked straight from a conservative Arizona retirement home and glowering at them like they just took a knife to the vitals of several children. He gives them the most pleasantly passive-aggressive smile he can manage. They scoff, in almost perfect we’ve-been-married-50-years type sync, and turn to study a nearby cactus wren display.

“So it is.” Demetri’s smile widens. “How long have they been watching us, exactly?”

“A while,” Eli says smugly, refusing to specify further. “I followed them over here. Thought I’d get our gay contaminants even closer to their Christian Family Values.”

Demetri chuckles. “That was a very good call.”

Eli’s eyes twinkle with mischief. “You know what would piss them off even more?”

“Do tell.”

Eli, apparently, would prefer to show. He stands on his toes, wrapping his free arm around Demetri’s neck and pressing their lips together.

He tastes like fast food hash browns, espresso, raptor trivia, and spite. He kisses hard—and Demetri knows he’s doing it to put on a show, but he can’t help but relish it anyway.

A little egotistical of him, maybe, but he likes to be shown off. Even if it’s only to stick it to a couple homophobes who look to have been around since the fall of the Roman Empire.

Demetri wraps his untethered arm around Eli’s waist, pulling him closer. If Eli wants to make this into an elaborate performance, far be it from him not to join in.

It’s honestly a shame his heart can’t run the infamous gym class mile in his place, with how fast it’s going right now. Its time would rival the cross country team captain’s.

He tilts down to dip Eli slightly, and the other boy leans into it. They move in the same unspoken sync they did at the Christmas house fight, the same sync that linked them at the hip for 10 years. It’s not difficult to feed off each other’s body signals, to move together like they’re one creature.

It’s something so integral to Demetri’s being that it nearly destroyed him when he lost it.

And now Eli Moskowitz might well destroy him again, by kissing him just a little too eagerly in the middle of a Sonoran desert nature center. Demetri wonders how many times it will have to happen before he gets a grip on himself.

Maybe he never will.

When Eli finally pulls away, his grin is blinding. The two of them turn to see the elderly couple now regarding them as though they set several orphanages ablaze. Eli beams at the pair, giving them a bird to go with the rest of the room. They storm toward the exit, the woman muttering something about how “there are children here.”

Ironic, really, given that the subjects of her grievances are far from legal adults themselves.

***

“Eli. Eli.”

Demetri receives no reply aside from continued huffs and pants.

“Eli, I am begging you to stop doing push-ups on my dashboard.”

“Absolutely not.” Eli puffs out the words in between heavy, overdramatic breaths. “How else am I supposed to get swole and land Mexican bitches?”

Demetri sighs. He tries to push away the part of his stomach that twists itself in a sad little knot.

“I really don’t think you should be basing your strategy to ‘land Mexican bitches’ off a lizard who lost the interest of both bitches he was attempting to land.”

Eli snorts. “Those bitches just had bad taste. I could find better ones in my sleep.”

Demetri rolls his eyes. Eli’s probably just messing with him, but he still feels a prickle of annoyance.

“Since when do you still care about this inane alpha male stuff again, anyways? I was really hoping you joining Miyagi Do meant Johnny Lawrence would stop rubbing off on you.”

“A guy’s gotta get laid, Demetri. And if we do it in Mexico, it’s no strings attached. Besides, I haven’t been in so long.”

Demetri wrinkles his nose. “You whiny baby. Just jack off like the rest of us. Look, a center of education is one thing, but I refuse to let us get off track on our very important rescue mission because you’re thinking with your dick.”

“You’re such a fucking nerd,” Eli sneers, although probably not with as much malice as he was hoping for.

“There, there.” Demetri takes a hand off the wheel to grab onto Eli’s ever-moving shoulder, giving it a couple squeezes. “I’m sure there will be plenty of time for acquiring ass after we make sure Miguel isn’t in mortal danger. We had our fun half an hour ago.” He gestures behind them. “The fun of a more…carnal nature we can save for later.”

“Get off, man! You’re messing up my rhythm!”

Eli roughly shakes his hand off, and Demetri sighs again.

“You’re ridiculous. You’re telling me that little make-out sesh we had in there didn’t tide you over at all?”

“Didn’t we establish that kind of thing doesn’t count?”

“As I recall, your qualification was ‘no witnesses.’ We had at least 20 in the bird room.”

Eli splutters, determined dashboard push-ups slowing for just a minute. “But I was just—I was trying to—fine! But it’s not the same as getting pussy.”

Demetri resists the urge to gag.

“You know, you don’t have to use all your ‘badass cool guy’ buzzwords here. It’s just me. You sound ridiculous when you say ‘getting pussy.’”

Although the push-ups start again, Eli seems genuinely crestfallen. This only makes Demetri more annoyed.

“I just figured while we’re here…” Eli starts, trailing off.

Demetri scoffs. “What, you think the locals are going to be racing to get a piece of the two California white boys who just rolled into town?”

“Maybe!” Eli snaps. “I don’t know. We might seem exotic or something. Or they could be impressed with the karate skills.”

“Look, while I’m sure not everyone in Mexico knows karate, I’d bet enough people do to make us not seem like much of a catch.”

“Do you always have to be like that?!”

“Like what?”

“Assuming the worst of everything!”

Somehow, no girls wanting to have sex with them in Mexico seems far from the worst-case scenario. In fact, Eli not getting naked with a member of the opposite sex for this entire trip is a scenario that brings Demetri more joy than it should.

I’m such a bad friend. Damn.

Demetri wished he knew why Eli was so hung up on girls. For the life of him, he couldn’t figure out what the big deal was. Exploring the female body was mildly interesting, but he couldn’t fathom how it could be such a potent motivator—especially after the lackluster way things had fizzled out with Yasmine.

Girls were fun, sure, and relaxing to spend time with after you’d been around a little too much testosterone. But it perplexed him how they were such an all-consuming force in so many guys’ minds.

“Ah, yes,” he says. “Contemplating us taking no sex stops on this trip truly is the worst-case scenario. Forget arriving in Mexico City and realizing that Miguel has been brainwashed and quickly risen the ranks of the local Mafia chapter and now has an ever-growing body count, Eli Moskowitz not getting laid would be a disaster.”

Eli scoffs. “I’m not just doing it to get laid, you know. I need to be in good shape to fight off Miguel’s dad’s goons. Or anyone who gives him trouble.”

Demetri frowns, feeling a sudden prick of dread. “You think Miguel’s dad is a big enough name in the crime world to have goons?”

“Any scary criminal worth half his shit has goons.” Eli scornfully growls the words as he continues to grind out an exercise routine the car is much too small for. “Sensei Kreese did. Heard he had guys pull sketchy shit with some land managers who tried to reclaim the dojo.”

Demetri winces. “Did we say 15% legal activities going on in that hellhole? Let’s bump it down to 10. Anyways.” He sighs. “If we’re going up against an entire army of goons, I don’t think a few car push-ups are going to make much difference. And no, I truly believe it will not get you laid, either.”

“Shut up,” Eli grumbles. Sadly, his push-ups still have not ceased. “It’s not like you’re any better than me. If you had a chance to get it on with some hot Mexican babe, I bet you’d take it.”

“Quit being gross.” Demetri reaches over and swats Eli’s shoulder. “And I mean that in more ways than one. You’re going to get sweat all over my mom’s car, and it already smells questionable enough from the remains of those nachos we spilled yesterday.”

“Oh, don’t worry. I accounted for that.”

The sound of push-ups—bless all the powers that be—finally ceases. Demetri hears a plastic rustling and glances over.

Eli is digging around in his footspace, brow furrowed slightly in concentration. He pulls out what appears to be a small paper cutout of a prickly pear cactus.

Demetri snorts in surprise. “Where did you get that?”

“At the gift shop,” Eli says airily. “When you weren’t looking.”

He tugs a wide string from the back and loops the trinket around the rear-view mirror. A tart, floral scent begins to fill the car.

“An air freshener?” Demetri tsks disapprovingly. “What, you think that gives you a free pass to dump perspiration and gas station food all over my seats? I’m still getting an earful from my mom, desert-flower-smelling car or not.”

“Sorry, I had to buy it.”

Demetri glances over to see Eli simpering in a very self-satisfied and aggravating way. “And why’s that?”

“Cactus Blossom’s the perfect air freshener for you,” Eli says smugly. “Because you’re such a dainty little flower, but you still somehow manage to be a total prick.”

Eli broke into snickers as Demetri’s fist collided with his shoulder. “You’re just mad ‘cause it’s true!” he cackled out.

“I am not a prick! Besides, cactuses are badass. They can go up to two years without hydration because their water storage is just that good.”

“Oh, I’m not denying that.” Demetri glances over to see Eli’s smirk hasn’t faded in the slightest. “It actually makes it all the more impressive that you manage to be this resilient, hardened drought-tolerant little shit, and you’re still somehow a total pansy.”

“My god. Why do I hang out with you?” Demetri shoots another punch into Eli’s shoulder, and his friend only laughs again.

“And you’re stuck with me all the way to Mexico City and back, babeyyyy!” To emphasize the direness of this situation, Eli slams both his hands into the dashboard and resumes his workout.

“I will throw you out of this car, Eli Moskowitz.”

“No, you won’t. You wouldn’t have anyone to tell you which of the snakes are venomous.”

Demetri lets out a long groan as huffs and pants once again fill the car. “Fine. Fine. You can stay. For now.”

***

SMH at Eli’s atrocious lizard identification skills, like that’s CLEARLY an ornate tree lizard??? Idiot

Disclaimer that I actually have no idea if ornate tree lizards are one of the species that do push-ups, but like. Something something Artistic Ecology License + Rule of Comedy has to trump accurate science sometimes

#binary boyfriends #hawkmeat #elimetri #aesthetic #moodboard #hawk x demetri #demetri x eli #demetri x hawk #eli x demetri #demetri alexopoulos #demetri cobra kai #eli moskowitz #hawk #miguel diaz #fanfic #fanfiction #cobra kai #cobra kai season 4 #season four #season 4 #not as many mentions of Miguel as in the first two #but probably still enough to warrant a tag