#ive been putting off reading/continuing the manga since like

[rieson]

i keep getting delayed hyperfixations

#rev rambles #i caught up on one piece like a week ago #and my hyperfixation is only coming back now like WHOAA #HOLD ON #ive been putting off reading/continuing the manga since like #chapter 1046 #but oh the excitement has me in a grip again now #im so excited #ill be one piece posting allot more now LMFAO

[thedeliverygod]

So there were a few things I wish would have gone differently towards the end of Noragami, but I realize Adachitoka has been fighting health problems in order to finish off everything to a reasonable stopping point so I can't complain too much.

Still, being the endless yatori simp that I am, I wanted to write something a little more romance heavy. I've been working on this bit by bit since the final chapter came out through a lot of mental health issues so I apologize if there's any errors I didn't catch.

It goes without saying that this chapter includes spoilers from the last arc/final chapters of the Noragami manga, so read at your own risk with that in mind!

read on AO3

A Reason

Hiyori awoke in a dimly lit room surrounded by curtains; clearly a hospital, but unfamiliar. ‘Where am I?’ She wondered before she noticed a wetness on her cheek, ‘Is that mine…?’

She reached up to touch her face before she realized she was wearing an oxygen mask. ‘What happened?’ As she started to try to recollect what had made her end up in the hospital, her lips started to let out a sound, “Ya…?”

Hiyori furrowed her brows. What was she going to say?

As she sat up, she felt a vague emptiness take over her. Like something or someone was missing, but she couldn’t place it. Her body ached in pain, but somehow this hurt worse.

She slipped the oxygen mask and slid carefully out of the hospital bed to not yank the IV from her hand. Moving aside the curtain, she noticed a large window and automatically moved towards it. ‘Let’s try to find out where I am first.’ She tried to soothe herself, the anxiety building as feelings of confusion continued to build and whirl around in her mind.

The snow outside was half as tall as she was; this was definitely not Tokyo. She had to be somewhere much farther north.

As she stared at the falling snow in awe and wonder, she thought, ‘It looks like sakura petals…’ Suddenly, that empty feeling welled up in her again and tears begin to fill her eyes. She reached up and put her hand against the window, the cold of the outside seeping through the glass. ‘I…I came here looking for someone.’ It was fuzzy, but she knew that statement was a fact. It explained this feeling that she had deep in her chest of loss.

‘Remember, self, remember…’ She squeezed her eyes shut in frustration and pressed harder against the window. Logically, she knew she couldn’t exactly will herself out of amnesia, but she felt whatever was missing was literally on the tip of her tongue. After all, she’d nearly said something right when she woke up.

With her eyes closed, her nose honed in on a sweet scent that seemingly came out of nowhere. As it filled her nostrils, she immediately felt her muscles relax. ‘This scent… it smells so good.’ She inhaled, slowly. ‘It’s… my favorite smell.’

The past year and a half hit her all at once and she nearly fell over. Her throat growing tight, she came to a realization.

‘Yato.’

She still wasn’t clear on what had happened since she had joined up with Nora to find him, that part was still hazy, but she could tell by his scent that he was here. In this hospital. In fact, only a few feet away at most.

She turned around, noting a doctor at the nearby desk and a nurse walking in the opposite direction. But no sign of Yato.

She moved back towards her hospital bed, closing the curtain behind her. She inhaled again as she noted no sign of him still.

‘He’s right here somewhere; his scent is so strong.’ She carefully tiptoed out of the other side of the curtain around her bed and noticed the curtain was pulled partially around the bed next to hers. Looking at the bottom of the curtain, sure enough, she noticed his unmistakable boots.

Inhaling again, this time to prepare herself, she stepped into the curtain and carefully yanked him towards him back into her space by his arm.

He practically let out a scream as she grabbed him and she forced a laugh, “You’re not very good at hiding, you know.”

“Hi—” He started to say her name, dumbfounded, before he cut himself off. His eyes were wide in shock and it wasn’t long until a tear slipped down his face.

“Hi, Yato.” She smiled brightly through her own tears, letting go of her harsher grasp on his wrist to reach up and gently pat his forearm, “I’m so happy to see you.”

“How… how…” He sputtered as the tears grew in number, not able to form a sentence.

 She let go of him and sat back onto the hospital bed, once again being careful of her IV line as she admitted, “I came looking for you, of course. I don’t really know how I ended up here, though. Was it you?”

Yato’s face darkened, answering quietly, “Yes.”

“…Why do you look upset about helping me?” She furrowed her brow in confusion.

“It’s my fault you’re here. And I tried to fix it, but… I don’t know what happened.” He answered in a mutter, not meeting her eyes.

She shook her head, “I know you’d never hurt me; I’m sure it was your father, and that’s not your fault. By the way, is he…?” She trailed off, not sure what to say.

“He’s taken care of.” He answered automatically, almost emotionlessly. His voice heavy again, he continued, “But it is my fault. You should have never been involved with any of this. I should have listened to Tenjin. I should have listened to you; the very first wish you made to me was to return to normal.”

Hiyori’s shoulders fell at his rebuttal, “Yeah, but that involved cutting our ties, and we decided that wasn’t for the best.”

“You decided, because you didn’t know any better. And I eagerly followed along because I was selfish.” Yato retorted harshly, still staring down at the floor.

Feeling a bit of anger rise in her, she demanded, “Yato, what is this about? Why are you being like this?”

“Hiyori.” He finally looked up and she realized that unlike her tears of relief and joy of reuniting with him, his were of pain. He swallowed and tried to speak with a stronger voice, “Hiyori, you died.”

“I… What?” Her breath caught in her chest.

She could remember everything seeming to shift unnaturally around her. And she remembered seeing Yato, but he looked as he did as a child. After that, nothing.

“My dad; he tore your cord. You died, and it was my fault. I named you, even, to keep you from my dad. And you saved us, just like you always do.” He reached up to wipe at his eyes forcefully with the back of his hand, “Yukine found your body and I did what I could to bring you back. But nothing would work. So I did the one thing I had always refused before; I cut our ties. And it worked. So I promised myself that I wouldn’t expose you to the far shore again. But you… how do you remember?” He looked over her, exasperated.

Her eyes widened in horror and her heart dropped down into her stomach as she processed what he had said. Ignoring his question, she asked her own, “I thought I was your lifeline? You cut our ties…?”

He shook his head and let out a bit of a scoff at her reaction, “Hiyori, that doesn’t matter. When you were dead—I was already disappearing. I figured it was too late for me either way—but you. You have so much more life to live. And that’s what you need to do.”  He started to turn away, “I guess it was my fault you remembered since I came back to check in on you. I should have stayed away and kept things the way they’re supposed to be.”

“The way they’re supposed to be?” Hiyori repeated incredulously, letting out a half laugh, “Yato, for as long as I’ve known you I’ve heard other others say how cutting ties is one of your specialties. If you cut our ties and I still remember, I think that is the proof that this is the way things are supposed to be. And if—if you named me, then you know… Our emas were tied together. We’re soulmates.” She swallowed, her voice trembling, “And that I’m in love with you.”

Yato clenched his eyes shut and he seemed to fold into himself. “Hiyori, I’m sorry. I can’t.” With that, he was gone.

It was a struggle, trying to keep him in her memories. And he certainly went out of his way to make it even harder.

When she finally returned home, she found that his shrine was gone. Her journal and photographs as well; anything that held an obvious tie to him and Yukine or any other members of the far shore. Thankfully somethings that were more vague he had spared, such as some souvenirs from their trip to Capypa Land.

She clung to those as her own lifelines and started a fresh journal, writing down the most important points and making daily reminders for herself to not let him slip from her memories. Now it was programmed into her that whenever she got that cold empty feeling, all she had to do was flip through her journal and everything would come back into place.

It’d been months since they’d last seen each other in the hospital, but she wasn’t giving up. Needing some fresh air, she went to go sit on the porch and relished the warmth from the late spring day.

Looking over the pond and appreciating the various flowers blooming, she noted something looked different. Or maybe just felt different.

“…Nora?” She tried out, quietly.

The water was still and all she heard in response was the chirps of birds in another part of the yard.

‘Of course, she hates that name.’ She reminded herself.

“Hiiro, are you there?” Hiyori tried again, and this time, the water stirred.

The small girl appeared in a flash next to the pond, donning a beautiful navy-blue kimono. Shyly, she answered, “That’s not my name anymore, you know.”

She smiled widely and leaned forward in interest, “What is it? And who named you?”

The younger girl pushed a bit of dirt around with her sandal, “…Aiko. By Kofuku, but she let me pick it.”

“It’s so perfect.” Hiyori wiped away a tear at the corner of her eye, “So Kofuku-san is the one who named you, huh? How do you like living there?”

Aiko smiled softly, “It’s a lot of fun.” Getting a more serious look on her face and brushing off her kimono, she asked, “Hiyori, how do you remember me?”

“A lot of effort,” She admitted before slipping her sandals on to walk out to where Aiko was by the pond, “Did you know about Yato taking my stuff? He’s such a pain.”

She nodded sheepishly, “Actually… What you wrote about me… That’s what helped me pick my name.”

“That makes me so happy.” She beamed and met her eyes, “I meant every word of it, Aiko-chan.”

“I know.” The younger girl returned the smile and they shared a few small giggles.

Smoothing out the hem of her shirt awkwardly, Hiyori shifted the conversation, “So, speaking of Yato… Is he back at Kofuku-san’s too?”

Aiko nodded again, “He avoided it for a while in case you went looking for him, but yes. He and Yukine are staying there again.”

“Perfect.” Hiyori grinned and cracked her knuckles in anticipation.

“…What exactly are you planning to do?” Aiko gave her a look of confusion.

“I just want to make him listen to me and not run off like he did at the hospital.” She answered with a huff of annoyance. Looking back to Aiko, she put her hands in a pleading motion, “So please don’t tell him I saw you today, okay? I assume he asked you to check in on me…”

“Naturally.” She answered automatically, “But, even if he asked, I was happy to get to see you again. I’m sorry I was so resistant at first, but… you did teach me a lot of things. So, thank you.” She gave a small bow.

Hiyori shook her head, “I’m so happy to see you again, too, Aiko. Once I get through Yato’s thick skull, hopefully we’ll see each other more often.”

She smiled at that, “I look forward to it.”

And so exactly a week later, Hiyori made her way to Kofuku’s house unannounced. She had debated letting the pink haired god know about her plans, but she figured there was a chance of her accidentally letting things slip and having Yato evade her again was something she couldn’t risk.

Luckily, Aiko was the one to answer the door. “I was wondering when you’d show up.” She greeted quietly.

“Had to keep the element of surprise.” Hiyori smiled back.

“He and Yukine are upstairs. I’m going to go back to doing the dishes for now.” She gave a small wave and Hiyori nodded.

She knew she’d never hear the end of it otherwise, so she tiptoed into the living room. Kofuku was busy flipping through a magazine but Daikoku had immediately noticed her.

His mouth agape, he called out in surprise, “Hiyori-chan…”

Kofuku’s head snapped up and her eyes welled with tears, “Hiyorin!” Within seconds, the god had clung onto Hiyori with loud wails.

“Shhh.” Hiyori put a finger up to her lips, “I’m happy to see you too, Kofuku-san, Daikoku-san. But Yato doesn’t know I’m here.”

“He said he had cut your ties…” Daikoku stuttered as he tried to get the sentence out, still in disbelief.

She gave a small but frustrated smile, admitting, “He tried to. And then when I remembered him, he tried to avoid me so that I’d forget again. So that’s why I’m here.”

Still teary eyed, Kofuku looked up at her from where she clung to her waist, “Yato-chan was just trying to do what he thought was best…”

“I know.” She closed her eyes and nodded, “But he was wrong. And I’m going to make him see that.” Looking back down to Kofuku, she asked, “Can you help me surprise him and Yukine-kun?”

At this, the god perked up and finally let go. Nodding excitedly, she agreed, “Let’s go!”

While Kofuku loudly clambered up the stairs, Hiyori made sure to step quietly behind her.

With a few taps on the door, she called out, “Yato-chan, Yukki~ I’ve got something for you.”

“Dessert?” Yato questioned in a confused but interested tone.

“Sure, sure!” Kofuku chirped back.

Hiyori heard some shuffling between the two boys before she heard Yukine comment, “I’ll get it.”

As the door started to open, Kofuku nudged Hiyori forward and moved behind her.

Yukine’s curious eyes quickly switched into one of being overwhelmed by emotions. His hand dropped and the door slowly fell open as he called out, “Hiyori!”

She wrapped him into her arms as he began sniffling, hugging him tightly, “I’ve missed you, Yukine-kun.”

He weakly hugged her back through his falling tears.

As she looked up, she saw Yato; frozen in shock. As he made the slightest movement, she sternly warned, “You better not be trying to go anywhere, Yato.”

Yukine pulled away and looked at the god in a mix of confusion of annoyance, “You knew that she remembered us?”

Yato opened his mouth, trying to think of an answer, before he bit down on his lip and looked away.

“Yukki, let’s give them some time to talk. Okay?” Kofuku gently guided him towards the door, “Hiyori won’t leave without telling us, right?” She reassured him before looking over to the other girl.

Hiyori gave a soft smile, “Of course not. I’ll talk to you more in a little while, Yukine-kun. I promise.”

His shoulders relaxed and he put on a small smile as he nodded, “Okay.” With that, he and Kofuku exited the room and closed the door behind them.

In an exasperated tone, Yato looked up at Hiyori from under his bangs, “What do you want from me, Hiyori?”

“To listen to me.” She answered, putting her hands on her hips and moving a few steps closer to him. “You need to stop deciding what’s good for me or for anyone else without talking to us. I don’t know if Yukine-kun talked to you about it or not, but you deciding to go off on your own was infuriating back then too.”

She knelt in front of him, wording her thoughts carefully though she was sure Daikoku was out of earshot, “And you know better than anyone now exactly the way that I feel whenever I forget you, Yukine-kun and everyone else tied to the far shore. I felt it back when you were in yomi and when I woke up at the hospital. It’s miserable, Yato; to know something so important to you is missing and yet not be able to place it.”

He remained silent as he bit his lip before mumbling a counter, “Maybe if you just gave it time…”

“I don’t want to give it time.” She fired back, “I want to be happy. I want my life to be whole. And that’s not possible without you in it.”

His eyes met hers for a moment before he looked back down at his lap.

“Look, after everything that happened… I don’t remember much, but I can see it really hurt you. If you don’t want to be as close as before, I get it. Emas tied or not, it’s your choice. But don’t cut me out completely. That’s all I’m asking, okay?” Her voice cracked as she finished, the anger and annoyance ebbing away into vulnerability.

He looked up at her with wide eyes as she continued.

“Honestly, I don’t think I can even leave my body anymore if that makes you feel any better. I won’t be taking on ayakashi or anything else dangerous. I just… want to be with you.” Hiyori fell forward onto her hands as all her energy started to fade from letting out everything she’d been holding in for the past few months.

She felt herself being pulled against his chest, his voice quiet, “The problem is I’d want to be even closer. And that’s what I’m scared of.” He hid his face against her shoulder, “I can’t lose you like that again.”

“That’s what I’m asking for—is not to lose you.” She gripped on to his jacket blindly as her eyes started to fill with tears, looking up towards the ceiling, “Like I said back in the hospital: for you to cut our ties and for me to still remember… That had to have happened for a reason. So, please…”

“Well it’s hard to say no when you put it like that.” He answered matter-of-factly, his voice slightly muffled by her blouse.

Hiyori smiled to herself and shook her head, her chin moving against his shoulder, “Sorry. You know I don’t really back down without putting up a fight.”

Yato sighed loudly, “Yeah, I’m aware.”

Letting a moment of silence pass over them, she questioned in a whisper, “So what’s your answer?”

He turned his head and she felt a jolt move through her body as she felt his lips at her neck. “Well, to reply to something you said before… I’m in love with you too. Have been for a while. Which is what made all of this so complicated. Maybe you figured that out already.” He continued talking near her ear, unmoving.

Swallowing nervously, she shook her head again, “No, I wasn’t sure. Not until you just said it.”

Yato gave a bit of a sarcastic laugh, “Yeah, I guess you wouldn’t remember…”

“Remember what?” Her hands let go of his jacket and she started to pull away, wanting to look him in the eyes.

“I’d been doing CPR on you for a while and it wasn’t really working.” He explained, his eyes on the floor but slowly meeting hers as he finished, “So I just kind of tried anything I could think of and kissed you? Thinking maybe I could like… give you whatever sort of energy I had. I don’t know. I was desperate, okay?” Seeing her start to flush deeply, he continued defensively, “And to be fair, it worked! You started breathing again not long after that.”

Hiyori reached up to hide her face for a moment before peeking out over the tips of her fingers, “I can’t decide if that’s romantic or creepy.”

His jaw hung open in disbelief before he answered loudly, “It’s romantic! Definitely romantic. Anyway, what happened so hard to trying to sway me to make up my mind? I haven’t officially given an answer yet.”

She ignored his outburst, asking quietly, “Do you want to try that again? You know, now that I’m conscious.”

Yato was ready to fire back another retort but quickly backed down, stuttering, “T-try again?”

“This.” She touched the side of his face gently, her eyelids lowering and her mouth parting.

He hummed an affirmative as he mirrored her, quickly gathering her into his arms again and pulling her closer as he melted into her. Finally, he affirmed in a warm mumble against her, “I’m not going anywhere, Hiyori.”

“Thank you.” She answered back, a few tears of happiness sprinkling past her eyelashes.

#noragami #yatori #noragami spoilers #my writing

[deafeninggardenerpanda]

who doesnt like a bit of audience participation? im deciding what to translate from manmaru nikki next. this time im thinking about working on an arc instead of random chapters like ive been doing, and im letting yall vote because its fun

poll: https://strawpoll.com/polls/xVg7dG5MOZr

some notes and comments about each arc below the cut:

super kirby clash:

i really like this one! even though the game its based off of wasnt particularly spectacular, this arc has a lot of fun gags and callbacks to itself that make it fun to read in one go

kirby fighters 2:

this entire arc is very cute just in general imo. shadow kirby is the villain but they arent very good at it so shenanigans ensure. meta knight and dedede are mostly out of it this entire time so theres not a lot of bonding between those two like in the game, if that was what anyone was hoping for though

dreamy gear:

this one is a special case! its not actually part of the regular volumes of manmaru. these chapters are only published in the kirby fan magazines once a year. while yeah, that means you only get a chapter a year, these chapters are a lot fancier than the usual ones. they get larger page space to work with, theyre longer than usual, theres cool cameos from certain characters in the later chapters, and the art is a lot more detailed and exciting since the tone of this is a bit more serious than the usual manga. the mangaka really gets to show off his skills as primarily a mecha artist in this. theres currently 4 chapters out as of right now

forgotten land:

i havent actually read this arc yet but its New and Shiny and elfilis is here and does things. also meta knight hits a bunch of people with a truck. good for him, im putting this on the list

the final option of the poll is to continue doing random chapters like ive already been doing. ive only been translating chapters from volume 2 so far, but if this option wins i would start doing more from 3 and 4, which imo have much stronger humor than volume 2

#kirby #kirby manga #manmaru nikki #tbh i might do random chapters in between arcs anyways #but also i kinda just wanted to ramble a lot #so go vote

[dailylumi]

Jan 5th

Well looks like I forgot to write the second part for yesterday but oh well we move on and don't think about it.

I think today was a better day overall than the past few days in all honesty. I mean it was still a mixed bag kind of day but the good really carried me through the day to be honest.

To start, I've been really sleep deprived lately and today was no exception. I slept somewhere between 6-7 but I forgot about ember's appt so I had to get up at 9 to take him. Feel like that was my own fault among my other issues with sleep and my avoidance of it. But yeah very off state as usual and while I wasn't grumpy I felt a bit sensitive and just overall dread this morning.

I already feel embarrassed writing this next part cause I know they read this SAKSLDJ

I think the main turn around for the day was a phone call with my bff. I don't know it just meant so much and was just so nice. They're such a grounding person for me and I'm always so grateful with just everything. I dont know just the phone call made me finally feel like time slowed down for a second and forget about everything for a little while. It's kind of ironic since the time went by so fast on the phone LMAO. Really it was the sense of connection for me through the phone call. I know that I am always connected with them and I bother them literally all day but mental illness and boundaries just makes me feel disconnected when I know that isn't it all.

I feel like that left me with a lot of serotonin and feeling of ease like I was okay for the day. I feel like they do that a lot for me :( I tried to make myself sleep but I couldn't really force it so I read manga until I passed out for like 40 minutes. It was really short and I felt more tired when I woke up but I think it's probably good I got a bit more rest.

The rest of today felt slow. I didn't know what to really do but I ended up cutting my hair since it has been a bit. I think I'm always frustrated with my hair. It feels like there is nothing I can do with it and Ive just had the same overall short hair style my whole life. If it grows past a certain point it just becomes too curly to manages and dries out super fast. I wish I could experience a different hairstyle but that feels like a reach both from logical standpoints and from my lack of self esteem on the matters. I feel like id just look weird doing something new. One day I should try dyeing it maybe I wanna try.

Thinking about the future there is just so much that feels overwhelming but at the same time I know I'm not completely alone regarding it. I don't really wanna talk about the things changing in the future but maybe my worries.

Ive been so worried about the future and meeting people. I am someone who is so bad at first impressions and worried about upsetting others. I know that I would try my hardest to get along and not cross lines with people but Ive begun wondering if any of my habits would cause any issues. I just don't want to be hated or do something off putting especially since I can be unaware of things at times.

On a separate but slightly connected note I feel like I should try to be more outgoing and form an actual friendship. I think I am still acting a bit stand offish and shy and thats because I really am but also like what if I am hated lmaoo I usually don't care if others hate me because I am mostly disconnected from people but it feels like I can't be like that right now. It helps nothing and my anxiety won't let me.

Sometimes I really wonder if I ever let myself breathe or am I just someone stuck in an endless loop of mental illness and self deprecation lmao

I'll never really know but I don't think the answer matters as long as I don't cause others to feel suffocated by my issues and presence.

I think tomorrow might be a bit of a better day. I might see a friend in person that I haven't seen in like 7 months. So that might be interesting.

Can't believe I'm on a three day streak of posting. Hopefully I can continue

#jan5th #daily blog #daily life

[barbatusart]

Your art is so amazing, I am in LOVE. What/who inspired your art style? If there were any.

hahaha shoot thank you so much!!! ive been working with MEANBOSS super closely on our collaborative freak comix since 2018 so over time i definitely starting aping off what he was doing & vice versa, i loved his hatching & studied what he was doing with faces super closely cus theyre amazing

ALSO im in my 30s & grew up back when they used to play old ultraviolent 80s anime movies at 6am on the scifi channel on saturdays, & one of my true loves to this day is yoshiaki kawajiri. he directed vampire hunter d bloodlust, bio-hunter, wicked city, demon city shinjuku, cyber city oedo 808, & like 5billion other weird movies with the word city in em LOL. im not a one-for-one copy but if you look at kawajiri's stuff you can absolutely see his fingerprint on what i do! the general influence of gritty weird cybernetics & overall cyber terror before technology became a normal thing to culture at large is also firmly from this era, & it's something i wanna continue to emulate going forward in LOVOS4017.

ALSO another big influence was masayuki taguchi's work on the 15 volume-long battle royale manga which is just about the most alienating & disgusting extreme gore comic you can find, significantly worse than anything uziga or kago is putting out imo. (quick addendum but fuck uziga.) i read this in highschool with my buddy at the time, we used to own different volumes & trade them back and forth during class depending on which one we were missing LOL. my roughs for sad sack had battle royale manga all over it, i LOVE how grotesque taguchi pushes faces, like not one person is pleasant to look at.

ALSOOOO definitely kouta hirano of hellsing fame but only the first 2 or 3 books when he was doing really sloppy inks as i only read the first couple books back in the day & didnt check out the rest of it until years later. my hair movement, inks with white outlines, & every tooth in the mouth thing are straight outta hirano's playbook!

ALSOOOOOOOOO id be a liar if i didnt give jhonen vasquez the credit he's due with johnny the homicidal maniac, hail to the king baby lol. i dont push it as hard as he does, but his stuff gave me total permission to completely shatter skull anatomy in the service of a Bigger More Crazy Facial Expression, & i still use that trick to this day!

there're smatterings of suehiro maruo, shintaro kago, junji ito, francisco goya (disasters of war era specifically), francis bacon, art spiegelman, & charles burns in there as well, but those up there in the list are the big influences! fun fact ive gotten comparisons to the old æon flux cartoon from mtv in the past, but i actually never saw æon flux until like Super recently so i just assume peter chung & i had similar inspirations lmao, like you can already follow the inspiration line pretty clearly with gustav klimt -> peter chung -> jhonen vasquez so i figure i just took my inspo from someone later down the line in that thread lol

ok thats all i got for this question THANK FOR PLAYIN i sincerely love getting the opportunity to talk shop!!!!!!

#q&a

[lance-space-mommy]

Struggle Of Survival (In More Ways Than One)

CURRENTLY UNEDITED

Izuku Has An Older Brother

Hisashi Midoriya dead

Mild Manga Spoiler @ end

The Midoriya family was small. It was Izuku, Inko, Hisashi, and his older brother Haru. Haru had stopped going to school halfway through high school, needing to help pay the bills. Hisashi had gotten sick during his business trip in Germany and could no longer work. Inko went from being a stay at home mom, to working 40 hour weeks with paid overtime. Haru would be out working as well, helping to fill in the other expenses of the apartment and everyday necessities.

Izuku grew up taking care of Hisashi. Izuku would give him his baths, make him take his pills, put on his chapstick, and make sure his IV was working properly. When Izuku was in his first year of Junior High, Hisashi passed away. Inko never told anyone, but many people from Hisashi’s work came, both from Japan and from Germany. He had been highly respected and had been an incredible man. Izuku sobbed, missing school for a week. Inko had kept up with work, having to pay off debt. Haru continued working, but lowered the amount of time he was working to keep an eye on Izuku. Izuku spent most of his time wrapped up in Hisashi’s clothing, laying in the bed he spent almost every hour of every day in.

Izuku still cleaned the house, made them dinner for after work, and would even spend his free time teaching Haru the stuff he learned. Izuku would give Inko back massages, fix her tea, and cuddle her to let them mourn and push past their grief and loss. Haru would always watch Midoriya with sad eyes, seeing him wear the same shirts everyday. The shirts were basic and they were all bought from the clearance section in a random clothing store. He watched Midoriya buy the same red shoes every time he needed a new pair. They were the cheapest pair of shoes manufactured for quirkless people.

Izuku would sit there, all alone in the kitchen, finding online coupons for Haru to use since he cut back on work hours. Izuku would do every single free give away for All Might merchandise and would only ask for one poster or figure for his birthday. Inko and Haru would often cry, knowing how this was a lot for Izuku to deal with when he was only 12 years old. Nothing really got better when Izuku started experiencing severe bullying in school. He never told Haru or Inko, but they knew.

Izuku was in his second year of Junior High when Haru decided to surprise him. Haru planned to pick Izuku up from school and take him out to grab something to eat. It would just be Haru and Izuku since Inko switched shifts with someone and was working the night shift instead. Izuku had gotten out of school, phone held in his hand as he read an article about a villain attack. Bakugo and his lackeys weren’t too far behind Midoriya, stalking him like wild predators.

Haru waved at Izuku calling out. “Izuku!”

Izuku’s head snapped up from his phone. Spotting Haru, Izuku beamed at the sight of his brother. “Haru!”

The bullies immediately backed off. They were stunned to see Midoriya with an older guy who was definitely nearing the end of his teen years. Bakugo felt his blood boil, frustrated and confused at the presence of the unknown person. The other bullies were just shocked to see someone greet Midoriya happily.

Haru smiled, looking down at Midoriya fondly. “Mom switched shifts, we going out to eat tonight. I know it’s long overdue, but consider it your birthday dinner.”

Bakugo stilled a bit, confused on how Haru spoke to Izuku. He wasn’t sure if Haru was acting like he was Midoriya’s older brother or if they were actually brothers. Bakugo stalked closer casually, trying not to bring attention to him or his lackeys.

Izuku smiled, head tilting to the side. “Nonsense. I can cook us something a home. I just won a raffle the other day and got us two fresh briskets!” Izuku started rambling, getting excited. “We can have one tonight. I was planning on having some beef stock soup and enoki mushrooms with a garlic and scallion sauce! I could even save some for mom and we can drop it off at her work!”

Bakugo’s eyebrows narrowed with his eyes, growing irritated. Since when did Inko work? There was nothing wrong with her working, but since him and Izuku were in diapers, Inko always took care of Izuku and was a stay at home mom. On top of that, Midoriya was winning food raffles and talking about making a fancy meal? Since when did Izuku want to be a chef or focus on anything other than being a hero. The bullies were shocked by that part as well.

Haru frowned, looking at Midoriya with guilty eyes, ashamed of how Midoriya was so prone to saving money for the others sake. “No I was hoping we could go out and grab something together. I love your cooking and that sound amazing, but mom already took some leftovers yesterday to work and I saved up some money to treat you.”

Bakugo felt his eye twitch, hands growing sweaty.

“Money?”

He couldn’t understand why money was such an issue suddenly? It seemed that everything was perfect for Izuku financially. He always had All Might merchandise and his uniform was always in perfect condition despite the amount of them he personally had ruined. He didn’t know who this mystery guy was or why he wanted to take Izuku out on a late birthday dinner.

Izuku smiled, taking Haru’s hands gently. Most of the students had disappeared at this point, many already in their clubs or heading home or to hang out with friends. Bakugo and his lackeys pretended that they were not paying attention. Midoriya wasn’t facing them so as long as Haru didn’t grow suspicious then everything would’ve been fine.

Izuku had taken Haru’s hands gently and smiled. “Are you sure? I don’t need a birthday dinner… all I needed was to spend the day with you and mom. I don’t need you to go out of your way to do this for me.”

The group of bullies felt guilt creep in, uneasy with how Midoriya spoke.

Haru frowned, eyes whelming up slightly with tears at how gentle his younger brother was. “I’m sorry Izuku. I’m so sorry.”

Midoriya raised a hand to wipe Haru’s tears.

“Don’t apologize brother.”

The group instantly froze, finally noticing the faint freckles Haru must’ve also inherited from his father. They noticed the black hair that matched the black patches in Midoriya’s. Bakugo noticed his hair was similar to Inko’s, thick and straight. The boy was wearing a black dress shirt and some slacks, revealing his probably worked as a server at a restaurant. His eyes were tried, but he looked at Midoriya so adoringly that they would’ve mistaken the exhaustion for relief.

They all watched the older boy, now known as Midoriya’s brother, shiver under the kind touch of the boy they bullied.

“Brother… why are you always apologizing?” inquired Izuku.

“I… I don’t,” denied Haru sheepishly.

“Yes. You do. You and mother stare at me with apologetic eyes all the time. You use actions, not words, to say you are sorry,” stated Izuku firmly.

The brother felt his eyes widen, cheek heating up at the fact he had been caught. He found himself embarrassed, thinking he had tried to appear strong when Izuku saw through it all along.

Bakugo saw the expression of Haru and knew instantly that Izuku saw deeper into Haru than what Haru assumed he was capable of seeing. The other bullies watched, crouching to rest their legs, but listening at the same time. Bakugo wanted to know everything, he didn’t know why he didn’t know. Inko told Mitsuki everything and Mitsuki told everything she talked about to him and his father at dinner. Why did he not know about Haru? Why did he not know about the money? What else didn’t he know?

“Does being poor make us unhappy? If I can’t wear popular clothing or buy a new uniform, should people pity us?” questioned Midoriya, gently rubbing Haru’s cheek with concern.

Haru looked at Midoriya with widened eyes. Desperately wanting to tell Midoriya that yes, he was happy even though he was poor. Nobody had to pity them because of their circumstances. He wanted to let Midoriya know he deserved those things. Not that because of them being poor, they had to be miserable and appear miserable.

Bakugo on the other hand felt his heart stop. Not only was Midoriya struggling with money, but they were classified as poor. Not only that but he and the other bullies were astonished how well kept the uniform was. It looked perfect despite the amount of times they pushed him and made him scratch up the uniform or how they made him get stains on it, or the times where they’ve burnt it or spilled things on him. They couldn’t fathom the work he put in to not get a new one. They felt guilty, not only were the hurting Midoriya, but the entire family when they were financially distressed. They felt like the shit people the truly were.

They couldn’t do anything but look at Midoriya love and console his older brother, finally deciding to talk about the issues they most likely danced around.

“Are you do determined to blame someone that… that you blame our father from dying of illness?” softly persisted Izuku, asking gently in the worry of Haru being so torn up over what happened that his grief turned to anger.

Bakugo and the bullies felt as if their world shattered in the moment. The distraught look on Haru’s face matched the bullies as they felt like they had just recieved the biggest slap in the face.

Bakugo stood there is disbelief. Hisashi was dead, that’s why Inko was working and they were struggling for money. He didn’t know when Hisashi got sick, when he died, how Hisashi died. He didn’t even know if there was a funeral. This side of Midoriya’s life had been hidden so well it never once occurred to him something changed. The other bullies all unanimously agreed they would back off with Midoriya’s uniform.

“While I was taking care of him, bathing him, feeding him… he worked so hard… but it wasn’t enough. Nothing he could’ve done was enough. Even though the medicine was keeping the illness from developing, it weakened his kidneys and liver,” explained Midoriya, taking Haru’s hand again, squeezing them tightly.

Bakugo felt himself join the others crouching down as he was overwhelmed with even more information. They all exchanged a look, realizing how bad this was. Izuku was bullied during the day, taking care of his dying father at night. None of them could even begin to imagine how mentally challenging it must’ve been for him.

“We just have to accept it,” cooed Midoriya, looking down at Haru’s hands.

Haru felt his eyes water, amazed with his little brother’s beautiful maturity and innocence. I made the cold bitterness in his heart turn into a warm and sugary lightness. With Izuku’s words alone, he felt ready to accept how things were.

Midoriya looked up at his brother with tears falling from his eyes, his heart racing. “We’re only humans. We can’t just expect things to go the way we want.”

The group of bullies felt their eyes widen, listening to Midoriya in awe. His ability to push forward with pride and passion to take life head and heart first stunned them. They all knew if they had been put in his shoes, none of them would be handling it how he was. Hell, they weren’t even sure if they’d still be alive. Bakugo’s whole existence was based off of his quirk, without it, he’d have nothing. He never would admit it, but it was true. To hear Midoriya explain that he accepted life for what it is despite the odds being against him, was powerful.

Haru was frowning, beyond upset. It wasn’t toward Izuku, Inko, or Hisashi. It was toward himself. He had wallowed in self-pity and self-deprecating thoughts when he should’ve been pushing forward to smile and laugh. He should’ve been working harder, towards a brighter future that Hisashi would want them to go chase after. Izuku tended to his family because he wanted them to smile again, live comfortably in the comfort of being alive with one another.

“Whether or not you are happy… all of this is up to you. What matters in now. That your alive, you’re healthy, and that I’m here and mom’s here,” rationalized Izuku, trying to speak his heart, his voice, his thoughts and feelings.

One of the bullies nodded to himself, agreeing. Izuku was completely right. Haru had every right to focus on the past and reflect, but the past shouldn’t be controlling everything he does in the future. Haru and Inko were trying to live through the past and it wasn’t helping them or Izuku. From what they heard, Midoriya heart was pure despite the scars is bore. Bakugo felt the protectiveness he once felt as a young child. He felt that longing need to be the stronger one that would protect the meek kid Izuku was. The bullies didn’t feel the need to protect, but rather they felt respect. They all felt the strong vitality Midoriya possessed, and they respected it.

“Let’s push forward together, focus on what’s going to come! Yes, we must work hard and do things that we’d rather not worry or stress over… but we must fight for it!” Midoriya raised his voice as he spoke, finding himself growing emotional.

The life in Midoriya’s voice, the overwhelming emotions that couldn’t be easily defined, shook them to their core. They hadn’t ever heard Midoriya’s raise his voice, let alone sound defensive.

“So please, stop apologizing. You out of everyone I know should understand… I want someone to understand how I feel!” cried Midoriya.

The bullies felt their eyes widen. Out of all of the times they’ve seen Midoriya cry. They’ve never heard it. They’ve never listened to his voice break as he tried to finish his sentence despite his soul howling in despair. Bakugo knew things were going to change, he wouldn’t make it too obvious, but he was going to lay off. The bullies were more than willing to comply, using him being quirkless didn’t seem like justification for their actions after what they heard.

Haru felt his eyes widen, panicking. “Hey, hey, hey. I want to understand how you feel Izu. I can’t imagine what you had to go through taking care of dad alone. I can’t imagine what it felt like watching him die as you waited for someone to come help. I don’t understand you emotional connection… but I want you to have everything and more Izuku.”

Haru pulled Izuku into a tight hug, rubbing his cheek in Izuku’s wild curls and breathing in the wonderful scent of their 2-in-1 shampoo and conditioner. He clung to Izuku like a lifeline, rocking back and fourth. Midoriya hugged back, his whole body sinking into Haru.

“You deserve everything you want in life Izuku. I’m apologizing because I can’t offer you what you deserve. You don’t deserve anything you’ve been through.”

Izuku grumbled, smacking the back of Haru’s head. “Don’t worry about what I deserve. Focus on what I need. I need you and mom to smile and stop wallowing around. Let me do what I’ve been doing to help without having you two stare at me with sad eyes.”

The bullies all watched the two interact with grins. The sight of Haru being serious and wanting the best for Midoriya, only for him to get disciplined by his younger brother. It was laughable, but they remained quiet, pretending to just be worried about something else. Haru had acknowledged their presence, but didn’t think anything of it because they did appear to be on their phones and casually “talking”.

Midoriya pulled away and quickly dabbed away his tears. “Let’s grab some bubble tea and go home and grill sole brisket? I don’t want to eat out… it gives me anxiety.”

Haru looked at Midoriya and his mood immediately lightens up. “Okay, let’s go. Wanna talk about your day at school?”

“School was stupid as always. How about you tell me how work went. I’m sure some crazy person made an interesting story,” deflected Izuku, quickly putting the focus off of him.

The bullies as sank with relief, glad Midoriya didn’t bring them up. They couldn’t help, but be surprised nonetheless as he didn’t even show any sign his day was bad, giving a generic response like any teen would normally say. They couldn’t help but wonder if Midoriya never brought them up period.

Midoriya patted his brother on the cheek before Haru turned around to walk with Midoriya to the cheapest place to buy bubble tea.

The following day, Midoriya comes to school and rather being greeted by a punch, he only met with insults. Not once had Bakugo and his lackeys laid a finger on him since the beginning of the day to the moment Midoriya stepped into the comfort of his home. Midoriya noticed the way their words seemed to get caught on their tongue as they made snide comments and their usual stale remarks and insults. He noticed and wondered if they had a change of heart and a change of attitude. Maybe someone said something to them that made them think about their actions. Whatever it was, it made Midoriya smile to himself. All days after that, it was the same. His bullying became strictly verbal and he could live with that.

Time passed and nothing really changed until the fateful day the teacher purposefully told the class Midoriya wanted to go to UA. Bakugo lost his temper and proceeded to be just as awful of a person as he had been the previous yesr. The bullies even called him out for it, pointing out how he was far harsher than usual. Bakugo had burned Midoriya’s shoulder while death gripping it. He chased his physical attack with one of the worst things he could’ve ever said and proceeded to leave as if nothing had happened.

Midoriya got into UA anyways and made Bakugo eat his words. Bakugo didn’t understand how Midoriya magically got a quirk, but that was a confrontation for another time. It wouldn’t be until after the Paranormal Liberation War when Midoriya was in recovery that Bakugo finally met Haru one to one.

The first thing Bakugo did was bow down before Haru and Inko.

“I’m sorry.”

A/N: anyone notice the scene from Demon Slayer I used 😉

ALSO HOW DO YOU UNLIKE YOUR OWN POST???

#izuku midoriya #midoriya izuku #dekus bullies #middle school deku #middle school bakugou #inko midoriya #angst #mha fanfiction #my hero academia #boku no hero academia #deku angst #deku au #good ending #bakugou #bakugou katsuki

[a-crimson-lion]

“It Makes Me Wanna Keep Him At Arm’s Length” An Overview On Katsuki Bakugo’s Development

[I should by no means be the one writing this analysis, but here we are. Obviously it’s an overview on Katsuki’s character development, but there’s a bit more to it than that. Keep reading if you want the details.]

Table of Contents

i) Prologue

I) A Brief Explanation

II) The “What The F*** Is Your Existence” Phase

II.A) Breaking The Barriers

III) The “I Can’t Let You Get Ahead Of Me” Phase

IV) The “Why Don’t You Care About Yourself” Phase

V) Final Address+Conclusion

Word Count: 4415

[Warning: Contains manga spoilers up to Ch. 284. Will also include spoilers for the movies and OVAs, as well as the special Deku & Bakugo: Rising two-shot manga. Reader’s discretion is advised. Not scared off yet? Good. Let’s do this.]

i) Prologue

Alright, no beating around the bush, I guess.

We all know this has to deal with Ch. 284, and the milestone that came with it. We got a rare look inside Katsuki’s perspective, and we saw firsthand how much his perspective has changed from the start of the story. I don’t think we’ve ever gotten such an in-depth look into Katsuki’s psyche since Deku vs Kacchan 2. It’s honestly impressive.

...which is why I’m so confused by a certain kind of response to it.

When you look past the swarms of tumblr posts absolutely losing their s*** over Katsuki getting further character development, you come across an… admittedly troubling response. The idea that “Katsuki always cared.” The idea that as early as the Battle Trial, if not middle school, Katsuki was secretly keeping an eye out for Izuku in their tumultuous relationship.

...no. Just-. No, what the-

I’ll get to why this particular response pisses me off in a bit, but before that, I wanna give a run down of Katsuki’s development, according to the narrative. Anyone who’s been around my blog long enough knows that I don’t exactly hold Katsuki in good graces. (Pretty much the opposite, actually.) However, in light of recent developments, that’s not what this post is gonna be focusing on. And as such, I’ll keep the snark and branch conversations to a minimum… to the best of my abilities.

So… how are we gonna do this?

I) A Brief Explanation

After we finish this brief “tutorial” section, the next three segments of the post will cover the various time frames of Katsuki’s development. I’ll be going through a general rundown of Katsuki’s perspective and the various evidence points that lead me to my conclusions. It’s essentially a glorified retelling. Sound good? Alrighty then!

II) The “What The F*** Is Your Existence” Phase

Time Frame: Ch. 1-Ch. 116 [Sludge Villain Arc-Late Provisional Hero License Exam Arc]

In case the Prologue didn’t make things clear, let me spell it out: Katsuki didn’t always care.

At least, he didn’t “always care” in the positive sense.

To clarify, this isn’t just 3rd Year Middle School Katsuki to UA Katsuki. This is all the way back to the River Incident. Katsuki has had this mentality for that long and then some when you shift out of backstory territory. We’re talking about the same kid who nearly murdered Izuku in the Battle Trial, blasted Izuku to kingdom come in the Training of the Dead OVA, and decked Izuku during the Final Exams. So…

The following hinges majorly on the line Katsuki stated in Chapter 284, and the title of this analysis: “It makes me wanna keep him at arm’s length.” Contrary to popular belief, this does not just apply to the idea that Katsuki wants to stick around Izuku to keep him from destroying himself.

...it’s also a major contributor to the reason Katsuki bullied Izuku in the past.

So let’s backtrack to the River incident. Katsuki takes one wrong step on a log, slips, and falls down into the river below. Izuku is the only one that goes down to help him. This infuriates Katsuki because he was fine, as was said by him and everyone but Izuku that was present that day. This is also the first time Katsuki becomes aware of something he echoes in the Ch. 284 flashback:

“He just… Deep down, he doesn’t take himself into account, y’know?”

This is Katsuki’s first run in with Izuku’s inherent selflessness. Initially, he takes it as pity; in his words, Izuku is “looking down on him.” And this bothers him a great deal. Then when it comes to Quirks, Katsuki gets one and Izuku doesn’t. This assures Katsuki of something he shortly discovered previously: Izuku isn’t all that special.

It’s a brief comfort. Because Izuku hasn’t taken the damn hint and stopped hanging out with him and his friends. The Quirked kids. The normal kids.

And worst still, he’s willing to get in Katsuki’s way just because someone else is in his line of fire. In the back of his mind, it’s the River Incident all over again, though he’s not being feared for; he’s being feared of. It’s all wrong. Deku isn’t strong like the rest of them. Deku can’t be a hero. Deku knows that.

...he knows that he doesn’t stand a chance, right? He knows how the world really works. Is he… is he putting on an act?

One of the few remarkable traits Katsuki has right from the get-go is his disdain against dishonesty. So, when he sees Izuku putting on a brave face and acting like a hero, and Katsuki decides that Izuku’s just “pretending,” Katsuki takes the matter into his own hands. He’ll get Izuku to show his true colors in due time. That’s what heroes do, right? Take down the bad guys? And Izuku faking about caring for others when everyone else clearly puts themselves first and foremost sounds pretty bad guy-like, at least at the time.

So, Izuku keeps on trucking, occasionally trying to join back up with Katsuki’s group on a near frequent basis. Even when that fails, he tries his damnedest to catch up.

But what many people forget is that at some point, Izuku stopped following, at least actively.

By Chapter 1, he’s making sure to keep from drawing attention to himself. He’s not as enthusiastic as everyone else in the class, he tries backing away from Katsuki and shrinking down on himself, tries defusing the situation. That doesn’t sound like Izuku’s still trying to keep up. Even in the special two-shot manga dedicated to Heroes: Rising, Izuku isn’t the one to draw attention to Katsuki’s presence. And even when he does go after Katsuki and the villain, his attention is more so focused on the villain, thoughts of staying out of Katsuki’s way to not offend him likely somewhere in his mind.

So then why does Katsuki keep antagonizing him in the first chapter of canon proper? And even before that, most likely?

“It makes me wanna keep him at arm’s length.”

...Izuku didn’t stop being Izuku. Izuku didn’t stop being selfless.

And his selflessness is what pisses Katsuki off to no end. So, he keeps pursuing Izuku, keeps trying to get him to “drop the act.” Makes him a “punching bag,” as Izuku states in Chapter 8. Because the way things work, Izuku should not be trying to be a hero. He should not be trying to put on a brave face when he’s scared s***less. He should not be sticking his neck out for others when he doesn’t (or rather, didn’t) have anything to stick up for himself.

Katsuki was born with something that made everyone consider him prime hero material. Izuku was born without that, and was considered the opposite… and yet, he still tries.

And this character trait, this selflessness, it drives Katsuki insane. And it continues to do so well beyond the Battle Trial Arc. Even when Katsuki is able to begrudgingly accept that Quirkless Deku has a Quirk now, somehow, his selflessness continues to bring Katsuki grief. While it’s never inherently brought up, this is the dividing factor between Izuku’s fight against Shoto in the Sport’s Festival and Katsuki’s fight with Shoto in the Sport’s Festival.

Izuku was willing to go all out at the cost of himself just so Shoto could accept what was his. Katsuki just wanted a good brawl, to be the undisputed first place.

This even continues well into the Final Exams, though the fact that Katsuki is running high on arrogance and anger does nothing to soothe matters. It takes a deck to face and later an explosive kabedon wall smash to get Izuku and Katsuki working together, and let’s not forget that when Izuku was trying to get Katsuki to realize they were still fighting All Might, regardless of whatever handicaps he may or may not have, he gets decked in the nose for his efforts. While it’s technically a subtler play on Izuku’s selflessness and concern for others, Katsuki likely took it as further mockery, another attempt for Deku to try and get under his skin and throw him off.

In any case, throughout this time period, Katsuki cares f*** all for Izuku or his philosophy, opting to brute force things up until the very end of the time frame. But what causes the eventual shift?

II.A) Breaking The Barriers

A number of things, actually.

None of the proceeding events ever do a clean cut on Katsuki’s worldview. It’s more like chiseling through a wall than breaking it down with a hammer.

The Sludge Villain is the first hint that Izuku might not be faking and Katsuki might not be at the top. While many claim that Katsuki leaves Izuku alone because he feels indebted to him but doesn’t want to admit it, it’s more than likely that he’s more focused on his own self-loathing. This incident is what defines him for a good chunk of the series, to his chagrin.

The Battle Trial is just another nail in the eventual coffin. Katsuki thinks he’s finally got Izuku right where he wants him, only for Izuku to pull a 500 IQ play and prioritize the exercise over his and Katsuki’s squabbles, taking the brunt of Katsuki’s attack and attention while giving Ochako the opportunity to capture the bomb. That look of frustration is Katsuki realizing that not only did Izuku get ahead, he got ahead with the very thing Katsuki despises. Needless to say, it f***s with him well until the aftermath outside of UA’s gate.

Shoto refusing to use his flames is another chip off the marble that is Katsuki’s pride. It reinforces the idea that Izuku is doing something that Katsuki isn’t, something that Izuku shouldn’t have in the first place, beyond a Quirk at least. So, Katsuki rages, because he can’t understand why it’s such a big deal, in both Izuku’s and Shoto’s cases.

The Final Exams just hammer the point home further. Katsuki’s one-track minded attempts to bring down All Might are met with no results. He would have failed that exam if it wasn’t for Izuku’s selflessness or Katsuki “lowering himself” to cooperate with him. Had Katsuki not gotten decked in the face and dragged off or got saved at the last minute while he was knocked out, he definitely would have failed on account of becoming a liability.

The Training Camp attack is an odd mix of Katsuki’s current philosophy and the next stage in it. He knows Izuku’s gonna go and save his ass, and he wants no part of that because hasn’t he made him suffer enough already? Hasn’t he already proved time and time again that he’s getting better, despite the fact that Katsuki doesn’t want or believe it? Despite the fact that it shouldn’t even be happening if things were right in the world? Izuku does recognize Katsuki’s wounded pride, however, which is instrumental in getting him out of All For One’s clutches during Kamino.

If we briefly direct our attention to the Make It! Do-Or-Die Survival Training! OVA, Katsuki is pretty adamant on claiming he only got the power back on in the underground mall to complete the exercise. And I don’t think that’s Katsuki’s “tsundere” talking, either: I genuinely believe that Katsuki’s only thoughts at the moment was getting the exercise done. Everyone else was just secondary. And remember, Katsuki hates dishonesty, which is probably why he doesn’t take credit for “saving” Izuku and Shoto. While his actions did save the two of them and everyone else in the mall, that wasn’t his intention, which is an interesting flip on Izuku’s performance back in the Battle Trial. Couple that with the fact that Katsuki is injured (and therefore weak, and in need of help), and it’s no wonder he’s in a sour mood towards the end of it all.

And this sour mood carries over to the final nail in his coffin: the Provisional License Exam. He only gets by the first half because other people had the sense to tag along, but the second half regards his undoing because he still doesn’t get the whole selfless aspect of saving people in the second half of the exam. This was also foreshadowed back in the aforementioned OVA with Katsuki’s excessive animosity towards the victim dummy. Whether they be real or fake, Katsuki’s disregard of either victim doesn’t grant him his hero license.

This is the straw that breaks the camel's back for Katsuki. And ultimately, this sparks the start in his shift to the second phase of his development.

III) The “I Can’t Let You Get Ahead Of Me” Phase

Time Frame: Ch. 117-~Ch. 257 [Late Provisional Hero License Exam Arc-Early Paranormal Liberation War Arc]

Since this is only the second phase of Katsuki’s development (and given that this is Katsuki we’re talking about), don’t expect to get much of an upgrade with this shift.

Essentially, it boils down to two things: Katsuki stops viewing Izuku as an annoyance, and starts viewing him as an obstacle. Simultaneously, he starts seeing the viability of saving, at least as a tool in a hero’s kit.

Let me explain.

While Deku vs Kacchan 2 is the first time Izuku and Katsuki have attempted to talk out their issues… not much gets addressed. Sure, Katsuki becomes aware of Izuku not looking down on him, but Izuku is never made aware of the deeper issues regarding Katsuki’s loathing beyond that. It primarily serves as a half-barebones narrative checkpoint, a segway for Katsuki to get in on the secret of One For All.

...let’s also talk about that, shall we?

So Izuku’s been getting better as a hero and with his Quirk. Then Katsuki finds out after he gets kidnapped and rescued that Izuku is the successor to their mutual idol. And that’s after essentially being told he can’t be a hero in his current state due to the PLE. And what is his usual response to adversity? He decides to get ahead of it.

He’ll surpass Class 1-A so there won’t be another Battle Trial. He’ll surpass Izuku and One For All so he can truly claim that he’s the best of the best.

Unfortunately, we don’t get to see more of this development until the Joint Training Arc. However, keep in mind that this is only the second stage. Katsuki wants to prove that he’s the best, so of course he’s gonna step up his game. That means taking advice from the LITERAL (former) #1 HERO, and making the victory as flawless as possible. After all, Katsuki himself said in Chapter 208:

“I’ve decided! We’re gonna win this match with a perfect victory! 4-0, with everyone unscathed! That’s the kind of victory there is for the strongest guys out there!”

...it might be a slight exaggeration when he says he’s hardly changed at the end of that chapter, but then again it is a stretch to even call it an exaggeration.

That aside, Katsuki also makes it part of his agenda to keep tabs on OFA. This would fit into the “Katsuki secretly cares” agenda, but we haven’t reached that point. Right now, in these moments, Katsuki figures that if One For All starts getting freaky, he wants to know about it so he can get a leg up. And maybe part of him still wants to call Izuku out.

He was minorly ticked when Izuku allowed himself to make a mistake during their unauthorized fight. And he constantly reminds Izuku to not forget that he’s supposed to surpass him (or the other way around).

Taking off the rose-colored glasses for a moment, it does make sense for Katsuki to say this beyond the context of positive motivation. We are talking about the same Katsuki who lashed out at Shoto for holding back. It’s reasonable to assume that he doesn’t want Izuku to do the same, and lagging behind more or less equates to holding back.

And Katsuki still isn’t completely invested in Izuku’s training for Izuku’s sake. After the Joint Training, Katsuki tries getting Izuku to manifest Black Whip again, and nopes out shortly afterwards when nothing comes of their sparring sessions in Chapter 217. This still isn’t the Katsuki we see in the 284 flashback. He’s still got a ways to go.

Yes, this even rings true for Katsuki during Heroes: Rising. While the film might be the ultimate Bakudeku dream come true, there really isn’t… much depth in regards to Izuku and Katsuki’s past. Y’know, the thing that most people are hoping gets resolved? It only gets referenced a few times in the film, but doesn’t overall factor into anything meaningful. Most of the time when Izuku and Katsuki team up, Katsuki only gets to the fight because he wants to throw hands with villains on an island where (if the status quo had remained unchanged) was likely selected because it had little to no serious villain activity. It just so happens that protecting and working with Izuku is an unintended byproduct of these fights. Katsuki even drops the infamous “lowering myself to work with Deku” line just before the big climax. And even with the transfer of OFA to Katsuki, it strikes less as overcoming a longstanding obstacle and more as plot convenience, especially since by the end of the fight OFA nopes back into Izuku so hard that Katsuki gets mind wiped about the whole thing.

Even during the Endeavor Arc, we don’t see much growth beyond the Ending fight, where Katsuki prioritizes saving Natsuo over throwing hands like he usually would, learning to take saving as more than a tool. This is significant considering it’s Katsuki, but unfortunately, there’s not much else thereafter. The entire arc won’t get referenced as an overall stepping stone until Ch. 284.

And thus, we head to the final phase.

IV) The “Why Don’t You Care About Yourself” Phase

Time Frame: ~Ch. 257-Ch. 284 [Early Paranormal Liberation War Arc-Paranormal Liberation War Arc (Present)]

So here’s an interesting tidbit: Katsuki can’t handle nonphysical confrontation.

Leave him with the fact that his kidnapping could have gotten most of the class expelled because they decided to go rescue him or avoided such while knowing of the operation? He’ll pay back Eijiro for the expensive night vision goggles and make Denki suffer Quirk overuse so he doesn’t need to be reminded.

Get stuck in the middle of a Todoroki Family Drama scene? He’ll try bragging about how he did better than the current #1 Hero to attempt curbing off the situation.

Put him in a discussion with Izuku where they address his additional Quirk manifestations and the full weight of his potential/legacy? Katsuki will brag about having a skill already in his toolkit to ignore the fact that he has the potential to fall behind.

This defines the earlier days of this phase. We don’t see what happens in the timeframe between that and the start of the War Arc until the Chapter 284 flashback. I believe that during the gap between 257 and this flashback, Katsuki allowed himself to process the full weight of what he and Izuku were told during that meeting.

And this marks one of his biggest revelations to date.

Izuku’s selflessness is no longer something annoying. It’s a potential fatal flaw.

For the first time, it’s hitting Katsuki that Izuku is no longer an obstacle, or just an obstacle. Izuku is a person who is working himself to the bone and past that, who would die at the drop of the hat if he thought the payoff was well worth it. He’s finally starting to see that what Izuku is doing to himself is dangerous, and he wants to know what he can do to prevent the serious ramifications.

This is a big phase in his development, no doubt, but um… it’s not the last phase.

If I’m being honest, we’re nowhere close. Why? Well, two reasons:

A) Katsuki still has yet to properly take a loss.

Any and all of Katsuki’s losses are either in his head or narratively negated. And his disproportionate win/loss ratio doesn’t do him any favors either. He’s culminated a philosophy that he can’t and shouldn’t lose, but losing is a crucial aspect of improvement and being human in general. In the case of the story, Chapter 275 suggests that Katsuki wants to face off against Tomura as payback for Kamino. He essentially wants to extend the narrative and treat that loss like a delayed win, as if the loss hadn’t happened yet. Many people claim that this is a bluff he used to cover his true intentions of keeping an eye on Izuku, but I don’t think that’s the case. While sticking by Izuku is a contributing factor, getting a win is equally so, because Katsuki hasn’t properly adjusted to a loss. His strategy for dealing with any kind of loss is just to bulldoze through it like nothing happened, instead of taking the time to understand why he lost and to apply that knowledge for future encounters.

Be aware of your surroundings during the Sludge Villain.

Focus on your priorities and communicate with others during the Battle Trial.

Don’t ignore the situation just to focus on your own intentions during the Training Camp attack.

HELP PEOPLE during the Provisional License Exam.

There are so many lessons Katsuki could have learned sooner if he had taken the time to properly digest his losses. But he didn’t. He still doesn’t. He might have learned some of them eventually, but the fact remains that he nearly ran head first into a suicide mission just because he couldn’t take the loss and was dead set on getting even.

And keep in mind, Katsuki was lamenting on struggling to keep up with Izuku earlier before their encounter with Tomura, and how he couldn’t afford to stay a loser, so this is likely less far-fetched than you think.

Okay, so then what’s the second reason Katsuki’s development is far from over?

B) He hasn’t fully connected the dots on what he did to Izuku.

So far, Katsuki has recognized that he was off-put by Izuku’s selflessness, and that he bullied him over that.

What he hasn’t recognized is how much of a role he played personally in that part of Izuku’s personality, or at least it’s present day incarnation.

Let me clarify a bit. Katsuki is aware that he was distrubed by Izuku’s selflessness. He is aware that bullied him and that, at some degree, was wrong. But I don’t think he’s quite connected the dots on how his intervention has led to Izuku’s current brand of martyrdom.

At the start of the series, Izuku just cares about others. After making sure he gets down to the river safely, he’s willing to lend a hand to Katsuki, who fell from a pretty concerning height ig we’re being honest.

But this unnerves Katsuki. And it leads to his physical altercations with Izuku from time to time.

Remember, Izuku followed Katsuki at the time, but somewhere down the line he stopped. But he never stopped being Izuku, so Katsuki continued to pursue him. Izuku had already been willing to give up in some degree on ever keeping up with Katsuki the way he used to. He knew, at some level, that he wasn’t accepted.

That he wasn’t worth as much as everyone else.

Katsuki bullied Izuku because he was selfless. But Katsuki’s bullying, coupled with the rest of society’s ostracization, twisted and warped that selflessness with low self-esteem, low self-worth, and self-destructive tendencies. Katsuki wasn’t the sole bully of Izuku, but he was a primary perpetrator. And his actions only made the very thing he despised so, so much worse.

...and until he can recognize THAT aspect of his relationship with Izuku, his journey is far from over.

So yeah, Katsuki’s making progress, but we’re still not out of the woods yet.

V) Final Address+Conclusion

So now for the obvious question: why did I write all of this?

I said it at the beginning, about how some people claimed that Katsuki cared all along. I brought up a bit about how it pissed me off. Why, exactly?

Because when people insist that Katsuki threatening Izuku to not go to UA comes from a place of concern, they disregard Chapter 1 Katsuki’s gigantic ego and utter disregard for others, much less so for Izuku.

Because when people insist that Katsuki’s shocked face at the end of the Battle Trial was because he was upset with how he hurt Izuku, they disregard the fact that Katsuki was willing to almost murder Izuku, and if not that then brutalize him, and that at this point Katsuki absolutely loathes getting shown up, which is what Izuku inadvertently did.

Because when people insist that Katsuki always cared from the very beginning, they (un)intentionally undermine one of the few things that draw people to Katsuki’s character: his character development.

On his own, Katsuki is an prodigious, antisocial and angry teen looking for fame and fortune in the industry who grows into a dedicated source of confidence and understanding as he finally allows himself to branch beyond his initial handicaps. If you insist that Katsuki always had the awareness and concern he displayed in 284’s flashback, what do you get instead?

A selfish, self-centered, fickle, emotionally-constipated asshole whose growth is more comparable to a ramp instead of a mountain.

...not as impressive, is it?

While I’m pretty sure this is just a minor trend, that doesn’t excuse the lack of care it demonstrates. If you aren’t willing to admit and live with the fact that Day 1 Katsuki is the worst of the worst and that he did progressively get better through trials and tribulation, why bother? When you insist a character like Katsuki was fine from the start, you take away part of what makes that character so endearing. If they were never an ass to begin with, then what the hell was their problem at the start, or even now? Why the hell would we condone that? It’s important to recognize character flaws and to give them their due, because seeing a character grown out of them is far more self-fulfilling and relatable than insisting that they were always in the right place from the start.

...but then again, that’s just me. Thanks for reading.

-Crimson Lion (20 September 2020)

#bnha #boku no hero academia #mha #my hero academia #character analysis #character meta #meta #drabble #long post #...i'll refrain from putting this in baku's character tag for now #if people wanna find it they'll find it #don't know if this was worth staying up so long to finish #i would make it prettier but i'm tired #i already put in enough effort as is #hope y'all enjoy #...or not #your choice not mine #edit: adding one more tag #bnha 284 #...alrighty you guys had nine hours i'm going into the character tag #let me just... *gets in bunker* #okay here we go #katsuki bakugo #katsuki bakugou #bakugo katsuki #bakugou katsuki #yeah that should cover everything #i feel like most people aren't talking about this enough #i honestly have no idea what will come of this #...guess I"ll just have to wait and see

[musubiki]

Hello!! I've followed you on twitter for a while for your pokemon stuff, but stayed for your cute ocs and art style! I really adore your comics, and I was wondering if it's okay to share some tips or tutorials on how you make them (panels/expression/dialogue)? Or maybe just your general process!! I also want to improve on drawing comics and you have been a big inspiration 💕

AAAA THANK U SO MUCH!!! 😭💖💖💖 IM JUS GONNA PUT SOME TIPS CUZ DOING A WHOLE TUTORIAL WOULD TAKE TOO MUCH TIME I THINK,,,these are just newbie tips cuz i dont rly know what im doing so far either 😭😭😭

- i always do the script for a comic first!!! and i usually wait a while between doing the script and actually drawing it since i usually end up changing/thinking up new ideas after a few days!!

- ive read that a good way to break panels is “one panel per emotion”!! so dont try to fit like 3 different emotions into one panel!! (BUT ive seen official mangas like GSNK bend that rule and they end up putting normal tone at the beginning of one panel and ending it with an angry tone without the characters face changing!! that also can work!!)

- i just put one tone over the whole page and set it to overlay. my stupid ass is too tired to give each hair/article of clothing a different tone (unless you wanna make ur character stand out a bit more, like all my characters right now are just gonna have normal toned hair but i wanna give taffy sandpaper toned hair)

- i try not to break up my script into pages, but instead i open a canvas, and make boxes according to how i picture it in my head!! before i used to pre-break the script into pages just to find out the pacing was weird/off and found its better to go back and forth between your script and your comic page so you can make boxes as you go if that makes sense????

- like sometimes you might wanna add an extra pause panel because one wasnt enough, or something like that, its better to just add it instead of having to go back and re-seperate your whole script again

- Clip studio has a lot of manga panel/page resources but i am too lazy to figure it all out so i just use the grid and put boxes how i want using the grid as a guide!!

- gotta decide which colors classify into which monochrome color 👁👁 mine is a little funky cuz obviously pastel pink is lighter than the orange of limes hair, yet limes hair is white in my comic and the pastel pink is a light gray..,,.,,just gotta work with your colors to make sure theres not too many similar grays right next to each other or else it gets confusing/hard to see 😭

- BIG TIP: if a panel is ugly, just accept it. dont spend 5+ hours trying to make it absolutely perfect cuz lemme tell you, you can draw a whole ass mona lisa of a panel and 90% of people will spend 2 seconds on it reading the dialouge and will just move on and forget about it cuz theyre trying to read the story. no one will notice or care it looks a little off (unless its one of those PAGE LONG panels AND/OR the pic is the main focus of the panel then yknow,,,,obviously u gotta make it nice. but if its just “i need a picture for this dialouge panel” dont worry too much. it ees what it ees.)

- figure out what process works best for you!! whether its “i sketch all my pages, then line all my pages, then color all my pages, etc” or “i do one whole page at a time and dont move on until its fully colored and texted up” or “i skip around depending on what panels i want to draw more” (me)!!! 

- its a learning process!! for me too!!! im sure in a month or a year you’ll know a lot more about comic making if you make more comics!!! first page is gonna look bad anyway. just gotta power through pages like a steamboat and not look back at them and hopefully you’ll eventually get to a point where you can read your own comics without cringing (im not there yet shdhdjdjd)

- for me, making comics is just a continuous process of “this panel is ugly” and “i hope im conveying the right emotion” and “i hope the read understands this part”, and the whole time youre doing it just repeating “its fine, its fine, its fine,” over and over again until your comic is finished

- EDIT: ONE MORE!!!!!! you only need a minimum of one background panel per page just to remind the reader of the environment!!!! no need to have background on every panel!!! have some pattern/plain backgrounds too!!!

#sorry theres a lot that goes into my personal process so making a tutorial would take too long i think!! 😭😭 #hope these kinda help!!! #god i worry so much about effectively communicating tcwg lore #its been in my head for so long i might forget to explain some things in the comic #yall just gonna have to roll with it and die with the questions like howls moving castle #i also always worry about the balance between magic and slice of life because this comic DOES involve a lot of magic but also a lot of NO MA #GIC episodes

[lunatic-fandom-space]

Comparing RWBY and YGO DM: The Handling and Evolution of Themes

Hey! Its been a hot minute since I last posted anything RWBY-related but Im laying in my bed right now and Im sick and bored so I guess we're doing this. Today I will do my best to analyze what I percieve to be the main themes and messages of both of these shows, or more specifically, how theyre handled narratively. Im mostly focusing on that part because, while these series do have similar themes and messaging, they are still a few things in which they are wildly different. And with that, lets start with this essay-post-thing!

1. Theres something we need to adress first

Okay so, before we can really talk about this, theres something I feel the need to clarify here: Neither of these stories was "planned from the beginning".

Now, I dont think a story being planned from the beginning or not nesscessarily makes the story any better or worse by default, however, it is still important to acknowledge because the way the story is planned is going to affect every facet of it. Things are not going to be foreshadowed properly, things are gonna be set up only for nothing to come of it, the story might drastically change directions, characters might act differently, etc, etc.

And, this is bit off-topic but, it's much better to just admit that the story was not planned than trying to pretend that it was. Like, there are a lot of reasons why I tend to be so forgiving towards YGO even though its not very good, but one of them is definitely the fact that, as far as Im aware atleast, the guy who wrote it isnt pretending to have had this big master plan all along and neither is the fandom. With RWBY on the other hand... yeaaaah, its kinda the opposite. From what Ive seen of RWBYs fandom, there seems to be this pretty popular narrative that everything was planned even though it clearly wasnt. Thats pretty bad and honestly lowers my opinion of the writers so much more than if they would just admit to not having a proper plan.

Like, I initially consumed YGO like this: Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Monsters, Yu-Gi-Oh (aka Season 0), like, a quarter of the Yu-Gi-Oh manga (I still havent finished it)

In all three of these we have the character of Yami Yuugi, or just Yami. Broadly speaking, he is an ancient egyptian gamer spirit who lives in a magical puzzle that has not been solved for 3000 years until this highschooler named Yuugi Mutou comes along and solves it, thus setting him free and allowing him to possess Yuugi and have access to the vague magical powers of the puzzle.

In Duel Monsters he's perfectly fine most of time, morally speaking. There is an instance of him almost murdering a guy and its a bit unclear what exactly happens to those he mindcrushes but overall he's very much a pretty good guy. In Season 0 most of what he does is set up these games for bad people, where they will go insane no matter what they do. From how I understand this whole Shadow Game, Penalty Game stuff, if you lose a Shadow Game, you get violent and intense hallucinations and you will always cuz yknow, gamer spirit. But if you try to cheat, which most of the bad people do in this show, you get violent and intense hallucinations as a punishment.

Since the two anime are generally considered two different continuities, its perfectly fine that Yamis characterization is wildly different in both of them. But in the manga both of these characterizations appear, basically one after the other with no real arc or consequences, for that matter. Why is that? Simply put, someone thought it was a good idea to try to turn an episodic, very slice of life-y light-horror manga into a more traditional, more plot-driven battle shounen. From what Ive heard, it was apparently largely because of network interference or something, but the point is, it changed directions incredibly drastically with little planning and everyone knows this and I can understand that for the most part.

In RWBY we have the character of Blake Belladonna, who, in the first 3 volumes/seasons atleast, was this aloof, more toned down loner-type character with a pretty strong sense of justice. She's an in-universe marginilized racial minority and she clearly cares about racial injustice. The way its initially framed makes it seem like she had a very hard life and no stable support system, which is what eventually pushed her to join a Civil Rights group/Terrorist organization (good god, the Faunus subplot is so awful, I could write a whole essay about it but Im already de-railing rn so I'll just save that for later).

Then, in volumes 4-5 it turns out her father is actually like, the mayor or chief of this island-place called Menagerie and she grew up in this big mansion with multiple guards/servants. Oh and also, apparently "space is a commodity" on there, so theres that. She still retains large parts of her personality but she's kinda like, worse somehow I think. I cant really describe it in a meaningful way but I hope you get what Im saying anyway. Then in Volume 6 she confronted her emotional abuser Adam (sorry for not mentioning him sooner but yeah, he was like, her abusive boyfriend, which is something that a lot of people disagree with but I wont really say anything about it either way because I dont really feel any specific way) with her friend, Yang, and ended up killing him.

After all that, she pretty much lost the rest of her personality, as well as her arc about all the Faunus stuff. She just kinda became the meek, generically nice, recovering abuse victim. Why? Well, the actual reason is that they didnt plan out shit and are just kinda flying by the seat of their oversized clown-pants and if they and the fandom just admitted it, I would have less of an issue. I still wouldnt be as forgiving towards RWBY as I am towards YGO because the crux of the issue, for me, is just that I dont particulary like RWBY but also like. Do you really expect me to take MKEK seriously as writers after admitting to not have a timeline because iT wOuLd CaUsE pLoThOlEs?

However, since they want us to believe that everything was planned out from the beginning, the explaination would be.... Idk, they deliberately butchered one of their main characters?? Because.. they hate her?? Maybe????

So yeah, that was quite a detour however, I would like you to keep this mind going forward.

2. Themes of the Early Series'

First, what do mean by 'Early Series' for both of these shows respectively? Well, for YGO that would have to be Season 0 or if youre reading the manga, everything pre-Duelist Kingdom. Basically, the part of the series thats a episodic, very slice of life-y light-horror series.

For RWBY that would be the first three Volumes, also known as the Poser-Era. Back then it was just kinda an action series that took place at Anime Warrior Academy (also known as Beacon) with some pretty bare minimum worldbuilding, character-driven plots and developments but now its more of an epic high-fantasy story with more of an emphasis on plot as opposed to just action.

The themes and messages in Early YGO are kinda vague, very confusing to me and if you were to follow any of it literally that would be pretty bad. For now Im just gonna say the main themes are Friendship and Identity and mostly focus on the Identity aspect.

Now, it took me a little while to figure out RWBYs deal but I think the main themes for Volumes 1-3 are also Friendship and Heroism. Once again, I'll mostly focus on Heroism and touch on Friendship more briefly later.

I dont have much more to add to YGOs themes right now, so I'll briefly go over Heroism in RWBY.

In RWBYs setting there are these man-eating monsters called Grimm that have basically infected the planet. In order to deal with that, they have people called huntsmen and huntresses that kill them and protect people. Theyre trained at special academies like Beacon and go on missions there and stuff like that. Our four main characters, Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang, are training to become huntresses and one day they go on this mission to clean up a grimm infested city block with one of their teachers. Obviously, that takes a long time so they have to camp out in one of the empty houses. Weiss, Blake and Yang cant sleep because theyve been thinking about this question that their teacher asked them when they were fighting grimm: "Why do you want to become a huntress?"

They have a heart to heart and we find out about their motivations; Weiss wants to bring honour back to her family, Blake want to distance herself from the White Fang (that terrorist organization I mentioned earlier) and as an extension from Adam, Yang wants to have a life of adventure. They also talk about why Ruby wants to be a huntress and it turns out that she judt wants to help people. Unlike the others, she has no motivation besides that. We're meant to listen to that and look at her as a sort-of personification of Heroism: kind, but not naive, strong and most of all, selfless. The others on her team are not portayed as bad for not being like Ruby by any means but we are clearly meant to admire her the most out of all of them.

Okay, now comes the part Ive been looking forward to the most:

3. How did these themes evolve in the Modern Series'?

Alright, before we can really delve into the way they evolved in YGO I'll have to give you a brief summary of the character progression. At the start of DM, during the Duelist Kingdom arc, Yami Yuugi is just that; A darker Yuugi. Hes more confident, bolder, his voice is deeper, hes somehow taller, more ruthless, all that good stuff. Notably, he doesnt actually seem more skilled than Yuugi even at the start of this story, but he's still dependent on Yami. Yami on the other hand, has no identity of his own or even hints at one at this point. He's just The Other Yuugi.

Then during the Battle City arc, they find out that Yami was actually a pharao prior to being sealed in the puzzle, he just didnt know because of amnesia, I guess. So now they need to find out his real name and then send him to the afterlife because hes meant to be dead, but not before saving the world from being swallowed by darkness, which is also a thing they have to do now.

Then we finally get to the Memory World arc, where Yami, Yuugi and the rest of the gang astralproject to ancient egypt via puzzle magic. Yami is trying to figure out what the hell is going on and who all these familiar people are, while Yuugi & Co are trying their best to help him. Then some weird shit happens and it turns out that all of that is not just Yamis sealed away memories, but also a giant D&D Shadow Game that will destroy the world if Yami loses. So now theres Pharao!Yami who is still clueless on the metaphorical and literal playing field and Player!Yami, who is kinda controlling himself now? I guess?? Yamis opponent, The Spirit of The Ring, has something similar to that going on where hes both controlling and properly participating in the game. So Player!Yami is now fighting against Player!TSoTR, Pharao!Yami is now fighting against Thief King Bakura (who is like, the human, ancient egyptian version of the Ring Spirit) and Yuugi is now fighting against Yami Bakura (who is like, the human, modern japanese version of the Ring Spirit). Yuugi gets Yamis real name, he and the gang go over to Pharao!Yami and tell him his name, meanwhile Player!Yami is also somehow helping as well and they defeat the Ring Spirit, thus saving the world. Then they travel to modern Egypt, the Ceremonial Duel happens and Yuugi wins, sending Yami to the Afterlife where he can finally rest and that was the series!

I originally wanted to recount the stuff that was going on with the Ring Spirit and his host as well because they parallel eachother, but this summary is already far too long and I think youll get the point without me needing to explain any more.

My point here is, that the story went from being vaguely about Identity, maybe? to being very clearly about Self-Discovery and Learning to Be Independent. I think this is a very good way to evolve the messaging of your story. How does RWBY track on that?

Well, uh... its not great. I will acknowledge that they have tried to introduce new themes and ideas since, even though I wont really be talking about them in this post. But yeah, the whole Heroism thing really regressed.

Like, I didnt explicitly say it when I was explaining grimm earlier, but theyre not going away. The grimm have always been there and people who sign up to become huntsmen and huntresses are effectively signing up for a job that will never truly be done, no matter what they do. Characters like Ruby and even more minor ones like Phyrrah have shown us that that doesnt matter when youre a hero. No life isnt worth saving, no grimm isnt worth killing, no criminal isnt worth arresting. Then, in volume 6 they find out about Salem. Salem is the Big Bad of the show, shes immortal, controls the grimm and is supposed to be very powerful.

What do our heroes do? They give up. Sike! They were just mindcontrolled by monsters or some shit, of course they didnt give up their mission (which is to bring an Important Macguffin to a city called Atlas, sorry I didnt mention it)!

But then they arrive in Atlas (which is llike, a city thats floating over another city called Mantle) and yknow, they do some plot stuff thats not really important right now until the city gets invaded by Salem and this big grimm army she has.

What do our heroes do? Well, Ruby, Weiss, Blake and some side characters are chilling, drinking tea in a mansion and Yang and the B Team were actually trying to do something, but even those efforts seem incredibly minimal.

Oh wait, I also forgot to mention that Ironwood (a fairly minor, vaguely antagonistic character up until now) wanted to lift Atlas even higher to save Atleasian civilians from danger while leaving Mantle vulnerable to Salems invasion.

What would be the most heroic thing to do?

A) Let Ironwood lift Atlas, get as much support as they can down to Mantle and save as many Mantle civilians as they can from the invasion

B) Prevent Ironwood from lifting Atlas but then split up in order to protect both Atlas and Mantle civilians

C) Prevent Ironwood from lifting Atlas and then dont do anything else

Congrats! If you choose C, you think exactly like the writers!

And I just

This is so mindboggling to me, I feel like I shouldnt even have explain how this is bad. And like, it wouldve been so easy to actually make them seem herokc through their actions, to make it seem like they did try but no.

I have never seen a central theme be this botched, how in the world did they do that? Why did they think it was a good idea for Ruby "The Embodiment of Heroism" Rose to sit in a mansion doing nothing, no planning, no organizing just ..... God, how are they this bad? Like, this doesnt even have anything to do with it being planned in any way, this is just straight up incompetence

4. Very briefly touching on friendship

The friendship is awful and its not solely because they all have the same opinions. They barely interact with eachother outside their designated pairs which leads to it all feeling incredibly hollow. Theyre also practically indistingushable from one another now, which is a shame because it wasnt always like that. Like, I dont think the characters were that well-developed in earlier volumes but they were very well-characterized. But now we've gotten to a point where you can literally copy and paste one characters dialogue onto another and literally nothing changes, it really sucks.

5. Some closing words

Damn, this took way longer than I thought it would and now Im pretty exhausted. I have no idea how yall always write these but props to you! I feel like this ended up a bit rambly but overall, Im pretty proud.

Please let me know what you think of the points I brought up! Id also really appreciate some tips on how to get better at these longer posts because I am planning on writing more in the future (not the near future, probably but yknow).

Thats all I have to say for now, thanks for reading!

#rwde #rwby critism #anti mkek #yu gi oh #ygo duel monsters #yu gi oh analasis

[burnedbyshoto]

but like.. bakugou told deku to kill himself and bullied deku to the point where he had a fight or flight response instilled in him how is that romance...

im assuming that this is in response to me being a bakudeku shipper, and it caught my eye while switching back to my askbox, so I will answer now.

there is no denying that. as a bakudeku shipper never will I ever deny that bakugou was a bully towards izuku because if i did I would be lying. but i think a lot of antis are super transfixed on this idea of how bakugou used to be. 

through that logic of bakugou being a bully, why you you ship him with anyone? how can you say bakudeku is wrong because bakugou is a bully, but ship any other bakugou ship??? it doesnt matter that bakugou bullied izuku and not them, the point is that hes a bully, so why would he deserve love??? 

moreover, I see the bakugou versus deku fight pt 2 as an apology. it was a battle of equals. for the first time bakugou acknowledged izuku as an individual, he finally saw him. bakugou, as is izuku, was a product of his environment. people expected him to be the best because his quirk is phenomenal. he was told he was a genius, a god, someone who could rival all might, and he put in the work to prove that he could be. 

the fact of the matter is that everyone bullied izuku, not just bakugou. 

sure, bakugou was the biggest face and name in this bullying, but its a given. bakugou isnt made to be weak in front of people because of his superiority. if he just ignored izuku people would call him out on being kind to the quirkless -- which for only 20% of the population being quirkless in the ENTIRE WORLD not just japan -- its better to be a bitch. and after the instance with the sludge monster villain bakugou also sorta stops his bullying... why? i don’t know, I think its because truly for the first time ever izuku proved to be more than just words. for years izuku wanted to be a hero but never put in hard work. as cruel as it is to say, how would you like it if someone aspired to have the same goals as you and never put in a single ounce of work into it while you worked your ass off for it (after all it is heavily implied by momos detailed insight of how bakugou is able to throw himself around midair and not be affected by the large blast of his grenade that hes been training since well before ua).

anyways so when izuku enters ua, hes suddenly not bullied. remember izuku was bullied because he was quirkless -- not because he was a fucking loser or something -- but because he was QUIRKLESS. when he enters ua he’s no longer quirkless, he has a quirk, and a fucking powerful on at that. which means bakugou can no longer bully izuku, because again he only had the quirkless part as ammo and that was it. bakugou doesnt really have an issue with who izuku is as a person, he uses damn nerd as an insult but like,,, hes a nerd too so it means nothing.

I mean look at all the moments where bakugou “bullies” izuku while at ua, far and few between and most of it coming from that first arc where he was stupefied about the fact that quirkless deku finally has a quirk. hell, id be pissed off too because how can someone not have a quirk for 11 years of their existence and then one day wake up with a quirk that rivals his own without any fucking training. besides that instant I truly cannot remember a time where bakugou truly bullied izuku. sure, hes been a hardass and ruthless, but thats just who bakugou is. just because he was cruel to izuku doesnt mean calling him a crybaby isnt the same as him calling kirishima shitty hair or hair for brains.

moving on, ive also read the manga.

to say that their relationship hasnt improved is a bigggggg fucking lie. theyre friends now and thats the truth. they’re equals. 

now about the entire romance thing, outside of izuku and uraraka there has been no romance surrounding either izuku or bakugou and thats the honest truth. people may rave about this and that, of how kiribaku held hands and theyre more than just bros, but the truth is there hasnt been romance, just implied, and just personalized romance. i think that bakudeku have the potential of having a good romance because I do.

I hope I havent lead you to believe that im a bully sympathizer or some Stockholm syndrome person because had they still had their relationship from the first 10 episodes of season one it would be, but theyve evolved. izuku isn’t a quirkless crybaby anymore, and bakugou isnt the asshole time bomb. 

theyre the wonder duo and thats something that cant be touched. 

I dont care much if you dont like them, youre welcomed to have your own opinion! go ahead and hate bakudeku and think its unhealthy until the day you die for all I care, i’m going to continue to squeal and look at my bakudeku fanart because they make me happy. it is only an anime and a matter of opinion after all!

[ryqoshay]

Tri-Arame: Neso Display

Primary Pairing Trio: YuuAyuSetsu Words: ~1.6k Rating: G Time Frame: Sometime during their second year Story Arc: Stand Alone

Author’s Note: Setsu’s reaction to the Kasumin Box was adorable and got me thinking. This is the result.

“Ayumu!” Yuu called. “Ayumu! Look! Look!”

Ayumu turned her gaze to here her friend was pointing excitedly. “Eeeeh?” She recoiled in surprise.

“They finally made merchandise for you guys!” Yuu cried joyously holding up a fan with a picture of Ayumu from a recent photoshoot. “I need to buy something! What to get? What to get?” She began searching the display.

Ayumu felt a strange mixture of embarrassment and pride as she scanned the collection. It felt odd knowing people would be buying items with her image on them, but she was learning to accept the support of her growing fanbase. And the fact that companies deemed their group popular enough to invest in creating merchandise was a testament to the effort everyone had put in, particularly for the recent School Idol Festival.

And of course, Yuu was thrilled, which didn’t come as any surprise, but it made Ayumu happy anyway.

“Ooo… Nesoberis!” Yuu suddenly reached forward to grab a plush. “Look, Ayumu! It’s you!” She held out a small, stuffed version of the redhead. “And it’s almost as cute as you, too!”

“Y-Yuu-chan…” Ayumu felt heat rise in her cheeks.

“Oh, they have Setsuna-chan as well! And Rina-chan! And… looks like everyone. I should take a picture.” Yuu fumbled for her phone. “I’ll bet Ai-chan will want one of Rina-chan.”

“And probably visa versa.” Ayumu found her voice again.

“That’s true.” Yuu agreed. “Say, do you think Kasumi-chan would want one of herself?” She grinned at her own joke.

“Perhaps.” Ayumu chuckled. “Although are you sure she wouldn’t want one of someone else?”

“Hrm…” Yuu considered. “I dunno. Maybe. But she would probably want one of Kasumi-chan.”

“It’s a shame they don’t have one of Yuu-chan.” Ayumu lamented for a moment.

“But I’m not a school idol.” Yuu laughed. “Why would they make one of me?”

“Sorry to keep you waiting!” Setsuna announced as she approached the other two, holding up the bag with her newly purchased manga. “Thanks for coming with me.”

“Ne, Setsuna-chan! Look!” Yuu held out the plush still in her hand.

Immediately, grey eyes began to sparkle. “It’s so~ cu~te!” Setsuna cooed, reaching forward to touch it and practically squealing with delight as Yuu let her take it. “Almost as cute as the real Ayumu-san.” She held it close for inspection.

“I know, right!” Yuu nodded enthusiastically.

Geez, now Setsuna-chan’s doing it too. Ayumu was thankful there were no mirrors around as she no desire to see what her face looked like at that moment.

“And look, they have the whole club!” Yuu motioned dramatically to the display.

As far as Ayumu was concerned, Setsuna looked like she was about to die and go to heaven. And now that the focus seemed to be off her for the moment, she smiled as she watched her friend excitedly examine each version.

“I can’t decide.” Setsuna suddenly said as she stared at her armload of stuffed toys. “I want them all.”

Yuu laughed. “Setsuna-chan is going for a harem.”

The shorter girl shook her head. “A commemoration.” She corrected as her expression became more wistful. “You guys are all the closest friends I’ve had.” She explained. “I haven’t always had the easiest time making friends, what with hiding my hobbies at home and my identity at school.”

“What about the other members of the school council?” Yuu inquired.

“They’re more like coworkers or professional acquaintances. They only know Nana. They don’t know Setsuna, or any of this.” Setsuna motioned to the school idol merchandise.

“I see.”

“Perhaps someday I’ll let them in on the truth, but for now, I’m happy with the friends I’ve made in the club. And making a display of these would help me celebrate that fact.” Her normal smile returned as she hugged the nine nesos. “And I really can’t get over how cute they are.”

“Since you put it that way, I kinda wanna get one of each as well.” Yuu turned back to the display. “But I’m a little short this week, so I may have to collect them a few at a time. So today…” She picked up two “I think I’ll just one of Ayumu and Setsuna-chan. How about you?” She turned to the tallest girl of the three.

“Oh, uhm…” Ayumu scanned the display. “It would feel strange to get one of myself…”

“It’s fine, right?” Yuu shrugged. “Setsuna-chan is getting one of herself too.”

“No, I mean I feel like I should get at least one other…” She picked up one of her own and… Geez, they really are all as cute as Setsuna-chan said. Setsuna-chan… Her hand moved in that direction. “There, now I won’t get lonely.” She joked, holding up the two.

“Ayu-pyon needs her company after all.” Yuu chuckled.

Though that was the reference to which she herself had alluded, Ayumu still wasn’t quite used to hearing that nickname. But that was fine for now.

With new purchases to be made by all three, the girls headed to the registers.

Setsuna stood back and admired her newly set up display, the first idol themed thing she had put out in the open in her own room now that her parents had accepted her participation in the club. They were still slowly coming around to anime, so Setsuna hadn’t broken out everything from her storage places in her closet, at school and with various friends. However, a small shrine to school idols was probably alright now, especially since they represented her friends.

Her friends…

She stepped over to her desk and picked up her phone. She then aligned a shot of the collection, took it and sent it to the other members of the club through their group chat. Almost immediately, responses started to come in from the other girls and Setsuna smiled as she read the positive comments.

Idly, Setsuna picked up the Ayumu neso. It was a shame there wasn’t a Yuu to go with it, but Yuu wasn’t an idol. Still, Setsuna thought it would be a cute one. Cute… They were all cute. However, despite someone like Kasumi proudly proclaiming her cuteness, Setsuna found she much preferred the pure and unassuming cuteness of someone like Ayumu. She touched the tiny bun on the side of the Ayumu’s head and smiled.

Ayumu had shown Setsuna how to make the stylized bun surrounded by braids a while back. Setsuna had managed to do it on her own, not once but twice, to give herself twin buns during the club’s summer camp. However, in doing so, she had realized she preferred letting someone else do it for her. Someone more skilled and who seemed to enjoy working with hair. Someone like Ayumu.

Wait, what am I doing? Setsuna blinked back to reality as she realized she had been hugging the nesoberi tightly to her chest while lost in her thoughts. But… was that actually wrong? Hugging cute plushies was a normal thing to do, right? Even when they looked like…

Blushing, Setsuna put the nesoberi back in its place and went to her desk to study for a while. However, every now and again, she found herself glancing back over at her new display of idol merchandise. And each time she couldn’t help smiling as she recalled why she wanted all of them.

She was glad she hadn’t decided to wait to collect all of them like Yuu and Ayumu were doing. Sure, she would have to put off getting a couple new books immediately upon their release for the next month or two, but it had been worth it.

Her attention kept returning to the nesoberis even as she closed her books and started getting ready to turn in for the night. Part of her wanted to take one down again and bring it to bed with her, but another part of her was hesitant, stuck on trying to decipher the details of the desire.

Her phone vibrated.

TakasakiYuu: Sorry for the late reply

TakasakiYuu: I lost track of time working on new songs for you guys

TakasakiYuu: Hope you havent already gone to bed

TakasakiYuu: If so sorry if I woke you up

ScarletStorm: I’m still awake

TakasakiYuu: Oh good

TakasakiYuu: I wanted to show you my display

TakasakiYuu: Ayumu already got to see it in person

TakasakiYuu: She even helped me figure out where to put them

A picture arrived showing the Ayumu and Setsuna nesoberis on the bookshelf beside Yuu’s keyboard, turned such that it looked like they were watching.

TakasakiYuu: Normally Id have them facing out into the room

TakasakiYuu: But when I turn them like this its kinda like you two are here with me to help me when I get stuck on something

TakasakiYuu: Its already helped me twice tonight

TakasakiYuu: I dont think Ill have room for all seven like this

TakasakiYuu: Well I mean I can fit them all here on the shelf when I get them

TakasakiYuu: But theres really only room to turn two like this

TakasakiYuu: But thats alright

TakasakiYuu: Im happy its at least you two

ScarletStorm: That’s a cute idea

ScarletStorm: I love it

ScarletStorm: Thanks for showing it to me

TakasakiYuu: Anyway I hope you guys like what Ive written

TakasakiYuu: Ill have something to listen to before practice tomorrow

ScarletStorm: I’m sure it will be good

ScarletStorm: I’ll look forward to it

TakasakiYuu: Have a good night!

TakasakiYuu: Sleep well!

ScarletStorm: You as well

Setsuna turned off the screen of her phone and set it next to her clock in her headboard.

Sleep well… She would sleep well while snuggling something soft and cute…

With that thought in mind, she grabbed her Ayumu nesoberi again and lay down. It was fine just for one night, right? She had a test coming up the next day and needed a good night of rest. And if Yuu had new material to work on, practice would be intense as well, so she would also need to sleep well for that.

Setsuna hugged the plush to her chest and closed her eyes.

Author’s Note Continued in Followup Post

#YuuAyuSetsu #Takasaki Yuu #Yuki Setsuna #Uehara Ayumu #Tri-Arame #Love Live Nijigasaki #fanfic

[shytiff]

Apr 2021 Wins

Started typing this on 4th apr lmaooo

1 - went to mcd. bought chicken + rice with the app promo. there’s a staff helping me on the order machine lol i feel badd there’s no need to do thatt. ate my lunchmade by mom at mcd’s muschola and went to sbux bcs its tumbler day. green tea latte w skim milk as usual. sent dr triya’s translation. ecmocard. started rereading goong (AGAIN. i probably have read it like 3 times minimum). still bring some feels

2 - its holiday today. spent almost the whole daylight rereading goong (turns out its pronounce ‘gung’ not ‘gong’ lol ive been wrong all this time) and finished it. the scene where they stare at each other, separated by the castle door, always gets me. got the old ipad charged (the screen are like 30% close to detaching and falling apart) and started AOT

3 - spent the whole day reading AOT. i like it when i have mini purposes in life (eg: finishing a manga series). AOT rly talks a lot about what do you want to do in life, the consequences of your choices and how you have to live with it. i felt triggered in a good way. the characters dont rly judge other’s choices, but they question them. discuss about it. give you some moral push. second gladi today. my vbg was still filpped hhhh. read aot until i felt sleepy and fell asleep. woke up very near subuh and prayed isya. my toxic trait is the horrible self care (and im talking bare minimum lol hehe lmao)

4 - finished aot. Asked irun about some aot explanations and she sent 5 paragraphs in one bubble. Slept. Flavola, kopsus coklat and somay. Also ate japota honey butter. Did 1 long input of ecmocard. Followed baepsae choreo. Moved my body a bit. Wow im not immediately sleeping. Amazing

5 - arrived at harkit 11-ish and went back about 1pm loll. super hungry when im arriving in kalideres. bought tahu colek worth 3000 (i wonder how the seller hears me through my 2 layers of mask), roti sisir and some ice cream in alfamidi. my fitlife protein powder ran out again. its my 2nd already. did some ecmocard, wasted my time after maghrib

6 - woke up late. did not have the mental strength to go to harkit so i decided to just stay home. bought sbux 1L green tea and macchiato. wasted the daylight and finally did some ecmocard in the evening,,,,

7 - off to harkit 7.30-ish pm in the rain. Took some data for ecmocard. Went to salemba to get tabung and surat bebas pustaka. Had breakfast slash lunch first, tried guudfuud (red rice, beef and omega egg). I like that the rice was not too much. Met up w ness ren and talked about isip dilemmas at sky. Afterwards went to flavola. Ordered mie rebus and roasted milk tea cause i somehow feel sooo hungry and in need of calories. It tasted so good, i was sitting in my usual seat facing the window, and the sky was a mixture of blue and grey. Brought croissant and sakura pocky at indomart. Ate the bread immediately after indomie. Went back home. Juan brought tahu gejrot that was delicious and crunchy. Internship files briefing by akis. Fell asleep

8 - woke up. Saw that dr retha was up for interview. Panicked. Thankfully it was at 12. I left home at 9:40 ish and arrived 11:50. Its a long ass way. Turns out i was interviewed with ka agassi. The doctors are so kind. They explained the gist of anesthesiology profession, and how its a choice you make, and its okay as long as you like what you do. Tried halo bowl for lunch. Sous vide chicken, rice, caesar sauce, beef bacon, and the deliciouss butter broccoli. Went back to kalideres and to starbucks. I only spent <2 hrs in there (a waste of money, i know). Bought decaf hazelnut latte (apparently the beans were kenyan something? Medium?) and butter croissant (need to cushion my stomach). Did GCP certification and sent it to the ever so kind mba Ai. Still got energy from the caffeine, did some ecmocard, read quran, read.... Toji fanfic 🤦‍♀️

9 - went to rsf w mom. We took the wrong way and had to take the long way but thank god theres still time to spare. Met dr rara. Some briefing. Went to rscm w agassi, submitted files for ijazah, went back to RSF. Girlll the cost of transport. MRT: 12K. Grab: 16-17k. Thats one way trip. Bought food at rsf canteen. Eocru briefing by the research coordinator. Ward tour w dr retha. Snacked on ovaltine provided by mba ai. Went home after maghrib by tj. Liqo along the way. Glad bersih (came late). Drank macchiato for some strength but still fell asleep quickly.i shouldnt have laid down

10 - kebakaran jenggot in the morning due to green screen positioning. Finally got the appropriate setup (after many fabric tries and cutting my mukena) at 08:30. Finished showering 08:45. Zoom was opened at 9 lmao. Somehow finished before 09:30. Zoompah w mom and dad along side me. After its ovee, some "photoshoot" w fam. At this point i was truly rly sleepy. Took of my makeup. Changed my clothes. And then racil silv dev showed up lol. I got gifts c: and then atikah came. And then i redid my makeup, this time with the help of friends to create fantastic eye make up look (which i can never pull off). Eyebrows by sil, eyeshadow and liner by cheldev lol. Took some photos. Dajen came. Talked. Videocalled w pupuy. A surprise gift from fianti came. And then chel dajen went back at 8. Still cant sleep. Slept at like 11-12

11 - lazed. Woke up, ate pizza (mom bought 2 of phd's 1m pizza) and bakwan, slept again. Matcha latte and ecmocard. Watched a bit of 2nd sinau

12 - off to rsf at 06:20. Arrived 07:15 ish. Lunch was ayam penyet accompanied by snacks that mba ai bought. Off to harkit at 14:05 (bcs my laptop somehow shut down and i lost all the unsubmitted data). And then off to kalideres at 15:30 ish to meet up w clara and search for clothes for almira's wedding. Went to lippo bcs clar saw this dress that kinda looks like the brokat given. We ate at ramen ya. It doesnt rly make you feel full, the filliny sensation was kinda like indomie. Saw that the dress looked different. Ate 1 boba pancake together at banban. Continued on to the tailor in kebon jeruk. The location was in an alley, and it was raining lol. Quoting clara: "the unnecessary struggles". The tailor was quite helpful (and she looks experienced). Arrived at clara's at 8 ish. Picked up by mom with car (it was raining) and arrived at abt 9. Hurriedly showered and tarawih and tidied up AND ITS ONLY 09:45. Its crazy how efficient one use time (and at the same time, how wasteful one can be)

13 - first day of fasting. The morning was spent taking samples. I stupidly took a sample thats not yet labeled im sorry :(((( i felt kinda tired and wanted to give up this. Give up anesthesia. Went back home at 14:00 and its cloudy. The bus was the nicer types and it was COLD. Read quran along the way. Picked up by juan. Opened laptop. And then its iftar time. I was sooo sleey and the tarawih was so long thst i closed my eyes along the way. Fianti called after tarawih, we talked til abt 21:30. And then i fell asleep

14 - went to rscm. Submitted serkom files. Met dr dyah and i hope we could somehow meet her again if we study in fkui again aamiin. Went to rsf by mrt. Arrived in lebak bulus just before it was raining. The bus took a while to arrive (usually theyre there, waiting). Its still raining like crazy so i took grabcar to AR from pesakih (39k). Played with my phone til iftar. Played phone again after tarawih and fell asleep

15 - i felt rlyy lazy and cant bring myself to wake up. Off to rsf at 07:15. There were coordinator ppl. Took sample. It was raining when i went back but i took grabbike from kalideres. Wasted my time and did not do ecmocard

16 - sampling. Snacked on keripik pisang at the room. Went back early at 13:15 ish. Picked up by juan. Sleeeept (and this is before the nightmareish mistake began)

17 - i did a mistake by telling dr retha (who took the sample today) the wrong patient (it switched in my unreliable memory. I feel terrible. Thank god shes quite chill abt it (?). Read jujutsu kaiseeen. Went to flavola. Did 1 ecmocard. Went to bandar jakarta baywalk by motorbike. Spent 135k and was quite full with many varieties. Arrived home at about 20:50. Turns out juan also had bukber with his friends. Phone call with fiiii, talked abt dimrob

18 - lazed all day, read jjk, finished my part of ecmocard (gave genky to ekal cause i was a dumbass at getting data). Ate mom's mentai rice, siomay. Drank green tea latte. Read jjk til 145 (mentok) at night. Proceeds to consume all things jjk lmaoo

19 - we took sooo long to get samples. Finished at 13:00. Went to rm with dr rara. Went back home. Watched the third sinau. Read the IMMACULATE jjk fics by celestialmechanics im IN LOVEEEE with the way s/he writes ughhhh

20 - samples took faster than usual. Mba ai did not came today. Went to RM and did some work there. Off to AR by 15:00. Arrived close to maghrib. Did not do any work afterwards lmao. Did not even wash my face

21 - magang as usual. Note to self: sit on the right side of the bus. Did nothing yesterday. Felt like shit after tarawih (but i showered before maghrib!!)

22 - todays problem was the swab sample not being there even though the staff allegedly already took it. Huft. Took a shower and out on vitacid (i cant remember the kast time i put on vitacid 😳 its probably been... a week or two?

23 - samples finished quite quickly. Already going home at 12. Lazedddd and lazed and lazed. Waited for emir to pick me up so i went to dm. Read an immaculate itadori x megumi fix thats just full of feels. Started demon slayer lets see

24 - literally just laid in bed reading manga and seeing tiktok and slept again and suddenly its 1 am. Showered. Still in a lazy mode. Havent begun clires work. Watched leah's vlog that said "go do things youve been putting off!". Finally finished the third and last video of Sinau Yuk ICU class with dr. Zeta, SpAn lolll even though the actual last class was on 7th apr. iftar was fish and chips and salad yuum

25 - woke up at like 1am since i slept too much yesterday. Ate tan ek tjoan bread and drank sbux matcha latte. Did some intern work. Read a bit of quran. Sahur. Cant even sleep again so i showered. Off with mom and dad (09:30) since dad’s going to get vaccinated at skk migas. Mom drove me to ara’s place (11:00). Talked a bit and even read quran again there. Off to GI (13:00) to meet up w regen. Walked around. Bought a discounted TBS green tea facial wash. Went back home by TJ (16:00). the bus station is a bit closer now. Arrived home close to maghrib (17:30). hurriedly showered and went to sleep (properly) after tarawih. A good good sleep since i got 9400 steps today and that tired me out lmaooo (bare minimum yall, i know). 

26 - woke up still sleepy. Slept again after iftar and woke up at 07:30. Skipped shower and off to RSF lmao. Went to medical record. Walked to the front of RSF originally planning to go to lebak bulus by angkot but i saw none. So i went through mrt instead. Stopped by at kebon jeruk and walked 800 meter (that tireeed me and made me feel parched under the sun) to risma busana for clothes fitting. Took gojek to jembatan gantung (turns out the closer halte to flyover was taman kota). Iftar was chicken noodle and risol and banana and i felt fullll and i slept

27 - today is off day since im alternating with agassi. read quran. watched shadow and bone (with 1,5x speed except for kanej and matthias nina scenes). didnt rly do any magang work except the table asked by dr retha. i feel like usually im operating on 70%. sleeping more doesnt rly add that. i need caffeine or physical activity. before i know it, its close to iftar.

28 - i ((felt)) like i had a decent amount of energy today. shouldve done some work between sahur and leaving the house but i ended up reading vampire knight lmaoooo the scenes had no business bringing so much butterflies. sampling together w agassi. mba ai didnt come in today. after agassi left did some magang work. i also went to RM to ask for more RM to bu dian. took angkot to lebak bulus for the first time. paid 5k. i had no idea which angkot went to lebak bulus and the driver (somehow knowing the right words to say) said “lebak bulus lebak bulus”. didnt read much quran on the way back. i just close my eyes and relaxed. felt kinda low on sugar. watched more shadow and bone on the way back and at home until close to iftar. didnt do anything after tarawih. slept hoping i woke up early (which i did, at 3am. but i slept again)

29 - im supposed to have ample energy but i just stuck around my bed until its time to get ready to go. read some kanej fic lol. I dont rly do anything productive after arriving home

30 - made intern log, magang as usual. Did not go to rm. Finished watching shadow and bone. Rested bcs tomorrow's saturdayyy

[space-------kid]

can’t keep my hands (off you).

Anime/Manga: One Punch Man Pairing: Garou/fem!Reader Additional pairing/characters: platonic Metal Bat/fem!Reader, Zenko, mentions of other heroes such as Saitama, Watchdog Man, etc. Genre: Romance, comedy Warning: Absolute silliness. Language – Garou and reader both ate rainbows for breakfast. Dumbassery. Teeth-rotting fluff, maybe? Reader is hella strong like Saitama. Half-assed spice because you’re good at cockblocking Garou despite being low-key thirsty for him. And LOTS of dumbassery from the reader, most probably. Additional tag: Dream-based fic, canon-divergent, Garou is horny af A/N: This is supposed to be a lengthy one-shot, but I’m a dumbass who can’t keep my word so the supposedly one-shot isn’t a one shot anymore.  Now I have to worry how I should properly divide all those parts (I mean, they’re already divided, but–) 😅 Happy New Year! *snicker*

You and Garou continue being friends. And he still couldn’t get enough of your thighs, damn it.

Summary:

Your life had its general ups and downs, pros and cons, the good and the bad.

You were admittedly a coward and afraid of being targeted by people for it. Following the advice of your (best) friend you trained hard, like, FUCKING hard, and now you’re blessedly, utterly strong you can take down enemies with just one hit. A good thing, really. Can’t let any bad guy harass you or something.

But-

You were probably cursed with the biggest, baddest of luck. Not only were monsters chasing you, suddenly there was this fucking hot bastard weirdo who kept on calling himself the Hero Hunter. “I’m not a hero, goddamn it!”

i. and ii. | iii. and iv. | v. | vi. | [more to be added]

“i can’t keep my

hands

off…!”

- can’t keep my hands off you/simple plan

vii.

You were acting skittish around him, and not because of his constant teasing.

Garou was secretly thankful that you weren’t stupid like other people despite being such a dumbass sometimes. He liked that you were being straightforward with him, and it was something that he could appreciate at the moment.

He also loved liked the fact that despite coming to terms that he was indeed the wanted Hero Hunter, you never actually banned him from going in and out of your home as he pleased.

“I mean, I really am a dumbass, right?” you were telling him as he watched you cooked dinner for the both of you. Garou had uncharacteristically held off his hero hunting to discuss things with you, and he could see how relieved you were about it.

“You already told me yourself who you are the first time we met and here I am, still surprised that I’m actually letting the Hero Hunter inside my home!” you continued. Your expression turned contrite when you turned to look at him. “B-But that didn’t mean that you’re not allowed here anymore! I’m just too shocked by my sheer dumbassery to actually- a-and you’re just beating heroes up and not killing them, I heard, so… fuck my logic, right? But as long as you’re not outright murdering anyone, I don’t have the right to tell you to stop doing whatever you want with your life, right? I know you don’t need someone telling you that and-“

He shouldn’t even be here in your house right now. He should’ve left the moment you broached the topic about his identity. But just as Garou thought that you would ask him not to return anymore or else you’d call for help (not that you needed it, anyway), here you were: telling him that he was still free to come and go to your home as he pleased.

What kind of a coward would let a wanted criminal to enter their home as they pleased? A dumbass, you said it yourself.

“If you’re scared of telling me to leave, don’t be,” Garou told you insouciantly. “All you gotta do is ask, jeez.”

You shot him a dumbfounded look at quickly shook your head. “Why would I do that?” you asked him, flabbergasted. “I told you already that you’re still allowed here, did I?”

He frowned at you, steadily feeling annoyed by the wary light in your eyes and how it contradicted with your shaky yet genuine words. Could you decide which of the two you would remove off of you already?

“Then decide if you should be scared or sincere already, for fuck’s sake!” he barked at you, making you squeak and nearly drop the ladle you were holding. Garou caught the thing when you threw it at him in retaliation, glaring half-heartedly and pouting at him.

“I AM sincere, you dork! And maybe I’m just feeling scared because I don’t want my best friend to throw me in jail himself or beat you up because he might think that-“

You stopped talking, looking as if you said something that you shouldn’t have and turned your back to him. Garou narrowed his eyes at your behaviour, curiosity gleaming in his golden eyes.

Why did you just suddenly sport that ‘shit I fucked up’ expression?

The self-proclaimed Hero Hunter crossed the distance between the two of you in a few quick strides and corralled you against the kitchen counter, arms caging you between his body and the countertop in front of you. Garou could see your body tense at the proximity, couldn’t stop himself from admiring your exposed skin thanks to your hair tied up in a messy bun and the tank top you were wearing. He was so close, he could practically nuzzle his nose against your neck should he dip his head down to your level-

Nope, not now, though. He had a curiosity to sate at the moment.

“And why would your best friend beat me up, huh? Lock you up in jail?” he questioned, raising a brow at you when you peeked up at him over your shoulder. Garou fought the urge to grin at your flushed face but he wasn’t opposed to the idea of flustering you further.

Wait a damn moment. How did he get from teasing you in hopes of awakening the thing that took over your body to defend yourself TO teasing you just to see how you looked like while blushing?

Oh, right. You and your fucking thighs, Garou answered himself. But back to more current pressing matters….

You looked away again and stuttered a reply.

“B-Because he m-m-might want t-to! C-Can’t anyone do t-that?” was your shitty excuse.

Man, you could really be a dumbass.

Garou leaned his body towards you, his broad chest touching your back. You let out a surprised squeak at the contact, trying but failing not to take notice of the hard planes of his muscles against the fabric of your clothes.

“[Name],” he whispered in your ear. The gasp he elicited from you sounded so good, and Garou could feel his self-control slipping just a tiny bit. He bit back a groan when you pressed your back against his chest in an attempt to push him off of you.

“C-Come on, haven’t you heard o-of citizen’s a-a-arrest or s-something?” you yelled at him indignantly, your voice turning up a pitch higher in your panic. “Bat is just-“

“Bat?” Garou asked you, perplexed. Did he just mishear you, or…? “I thought you said your best friend’s name was Badd?”

You hurriedly turned around to face him and planted your hands on his chest, pushing him away weakly. Garou, however, didn’t budge and kept his questioning gaze on you.

“That’s what I said! Badd!” you lied frantically, eyes shut tight as you continued your feeble attempts. Damn, where was your strength when you needed it?

Too bad for you, Garou was secretly the sharpest tool in the shed. He was quick to pick up on the erratic pitch of your voice and sudden ungainly body language. “He’s a hero, ain’t he? Your best friend?”

“He’s not!”

You could lie all you want, but you’re not fooling him anymore.

Garou should be angry. He really should. After all, being lied to was one of the things he hated the most. But the reason for your deceit was not to harm anyone – he could clearly see that you were hell-bent into uttering a falsehood just so you could protect your (hero) best friend as well as Garou himself. Not that he needed your protection, but-

He almost smiled at the concern you were inadvertently showing him. More so when he heard what you had to say next.

“He’s not!” you lied still. “And what if he is? I-I can’t let my friends beat each other up, you dummy!”

Ah. Garou should have expected that you two were way past being acquaintances with how much he had been frequenting your home and interacting with you. The thought of being friends with you struck a chord in him that had long since fallen asleep ever since he was bullied as a kid.

You might be a dumbass sometimes, but you were still quite welcoming despite all the previous scares and continuous teasing he put you up with. And aside from making it his goal to fluster you (as his stupid teenage hormones commanded him), Garou found the companionship rather… nice. Not that spending time with that kid at the park and reading the Hero Guide Booklet together wasn’t something he wouldn’t call a form of camaraderie. Maybe spending time with someone his age without having a care in the world was something he sort of sought and found in you.

Garou had no qualms being a lone wolf, but he won’t deny that human interaction  – well, aside from beating heroes up, that is – was a nice change of pace in the life he now led as the Hero Hunter.

You were a coward, but you were never judgmental. And that was one of the things he quite liked about you, if truth be told, other than your perfect thighs-

And there went his mind again. He had seen women sexier and much prettier than you, so why were you the only one who piqued this kind of interest on him, the kind that he usually didn’t even bother entertaining?

And you calling him friend right now wasn’t exactly helping-

“Are you gonna beat my best friend up, then? If I tell you he’s a hero?”

Garou blinked at your distressed question and leaned down at you, grabbing your wrists and placing your arms around his shoulders while he grinned at you playfully.

“I don’t even know which of those damned heroes is your friend,” he told you jauntily. “Ah! Maybe the reason why you didn’t tell me is because he’s weak? Scared I’ll beat him to a pulp, [Name]?”

He was just making fun of you, you told yourself. But Garou implying that your best friend wouldn’t hold his own against the silver-haired male pushed you into your protective mode. People could badmouth you all they wanted, but to hell with it if they demean your number one supporter and his little sister!

“How dare you?! Badd is way stronger than me! He can beat you up real easily!” you angrily defended your best friend. Not realizing that Garou was riling you up into telling you who Badd really was, you unwittingly took the bait and could only stop yourself the last second.

“He’ll beat you up and it’ll be a piece of cake for him ‘cause he’s Metal Ba-“

Hurriedly, you stopped yourself and pulled your arms off of him to cover your mouth with your hands. Eyes the size of the moon, you winced when Garou gave you a look as if he’d hit the jackpot.

“Ding, ding! And so she finally tells me who her best friend is,” he tells you in a sing-song manner, grin splitting from ear to ear now. “And what a surprise, he turns out to be S-Class, rank 15!”

The look you gave him was full of annoyance at being one-upped and ire directed at your own folly. You covered your face to muffle the frustrated whine bubbling from your throat and mindlessly shoved your head on his chest.

Caught off guard at your sudden movement, Garou raised his hands but not quite knowing what to do with them. He settled for patting your head with one hand, his ears turning pink when you unconsciously purred(?) like a cat at the action.

“You’re gonna hunt him now, aren’t you?” you asked him, your voice muffled. “You’re gonna hunt Badd, and there’s nothing I could do to stop you from doing so.”

Garou huffed, hand still petting your hair gently. “Yep. Nothin’ you can do about it.”

This was it. Guess he had to cut your friendship short since he didn’t really want to make you choose between some guy you just met recently and the one you call your best friend.

He was the Hero Hunter, and you were a civilian with a pro-hero for a best friend.

What an uncanny arrangement.

You shuffled slightly and craned your neck to look up at him, your eyes wide and imploring. “Can I make a request, though? Like, don’t try to kill Badd, maybe? Since there’s no stopping you from being the Hero Hunter and I can’t exactly dictate you to drop the act…”

Garou gaped at you, face filled with incredulity. Did you just give him the permission to fight your best friend as long as he didn’t commit murder? And did you just imply that you accepted him for who he was?

And it’s as if Garou was actively trying to kill those he beat up

He watched as your eyes filled with awe and admired the way your cheeks turned red when he smiled at you – and a genuine one at that. Garou squished your cheeks with his hands and lowered his face to yours, his smile turning roguish when you blushed harder at the proximity.

“And what if Metal Bat kills me, huh? Don’t you think that’s a bit unfair?” he questioned. “Can’t make a request like that if it’s gonna put me at a disadvantage, y’know. But… I might be willing if-”

One of his hands crept down and poked your thighs with a finger.

“-I get a handful of these?”

Garou dodged, laughing, when you swung a hand up at him for a slap.

“Pervert! Leave my thighs alone, thirsty bastard!”

---

to be continued

#garou x reader #platonic metal bat x reader #garou #garou the hero hunter #garou the human monster #metal bat #badd #opm x reader #one punch man #one punch man season 2

[fauzhee10069]

The Wildest Theories of Caato (JoJolion)

This might be my last post about analyzing and debunking the hype of Caato. Maybe some of you are also getting tired, though I myself am also tired with those Caatofags who still appear occasionally. Back to the topic, here are the theories I mean:

”Caato is a rock human with an agenda”

Due to the strange shadow in her eyes during her first intro, the readers were theorizing about the possibility whether Caato is a fusion-human like Josuke or a rock-human.

But according to the colored manga, she doesn't have two different eye colors like Josuke. Besides, I noticed that Caato's eyes do not have the small cracks that signaled a fusion like him, only weird dark shadows.

I have also explained further about this issue in my previous post below:

How the manga coloring team determined that Caato doesn’t have split eyes

So I will skip this and immediately explain the theory of her as a rock-human. If the basis of this theory is her so called splitted-eyes, this is less acceptable, because it is not part of the rock-human’s characteristic.

Yagiyama Yotsuyu

Dainenjiyama Aishou

Damo Tamaki

a rock-woman

Moreover, it also contradicts the need for rock-humans to blend with ordinary human.

The other basis of the theory is the youthful looking Caato had, especially when she was compared to Holy's first appearance. It has been explained that rock-humans don’t age gradually, instead they grow by molting and changing their form all at once. They have longer life span than ordinary human and can look much younger than their actual age.

Even so, her youthful looking had little relevance to the plot. I think Araki simply likes to draw hot milf as callback to Lisa Lisa.

This theory also continues with the notion that Caato has an agenda… or mission, either as an agent or the mastermind herself. Whatever the agenda is, it is also associated with Higashikata family curse, the hereditary rock disease. Readers have thought about the theory of how the Higashikata got the rock disease curse, one of them speculated that they were cursed by the rock-humans. I also believe that this has something to do with the rock-humans (hopefully Tooru will reveal it in the future).

From this speculation, a crazy idea emerged from a reader that there was a forbidden love relationship between a rock-human and a Higashikata (as a mere human), born of the fruit of love from them who since then passed on the rock disease.

Then the connection with Caato as a rock-human is that she had a role in Johnny Joestar's death and the birth of equivalent exchange ability in Higashikata’s land, perhaps the rock-humans also needed to obtain the Holy Corpse.

In her current mission, Caato approached the Higashikata and successfully married to Norisuke IV, which should have made it easier for her to complete the whatever mission. But on the way, she made mistake and accidentally ended up having four children with him. Hmmm… that sounds intriguing- nah, THIS SOUNDS STUPID!

Why would you make this mistake by accidentally having kids… repeatedly?? It would make sense if it is only once (like Diavolo->Trish’s case), but four times? I doubt they were accidents, of course they were planned as it was implied in the family tree.

In addition, this reader must have missed a crucial fact about rock-humans: they could not have children with ordinary humans as they are biologically incompatible.

JJL chapter 46: Love Love Deluxe - part 4

If Caato is a rock-human, it is impossible to her to bear a single Norisuke IV’s child, let alone four- NO, it’s still possible actually.

!!! Spoiler of chapter 99 !!!

The most recent chapter of JoJolion (ch 99) added more information about rock-humans that:

JJL chapter 99: Endless Calamity – part 5

Therefore, if Caato a rock-human, it’s still possible for her to have child with an ordinary human (Norisuke IV). Theories regarding rock disease curse as a result of “this relationship” have also become increasingly possible. However:

The rock-women don’t have strong affection or bond to the child they gave birth and Caato certainly has affection and strong bond to her children as it was shown in her flashback.

Besides, the rock-baby at birth is only as big as beetles.

And we have seen how big Caato was when she was pregnant.

We’ve also seen baby Daiya in the flashback as well and how her children grew up like any normal human in contrast to the rock-human who lived as parasites in a wasp hive for 17 years until they began to venture into the outside world.

Wise non-Caatofag readers have said:

I like how the chapter 99 raises the theory that Caato is a rock-woman, with the fact that only rock-women and humans can have children, and AT THE SAME TIME disproves it by literally showing us how rock-women give birth to their children.

If Caato was a rock-human then that would've meant everyone except Norisuke IV and Mitsuba were rock-humans, and Tsurugi wouldn't have existed.

Moreover, if Caato was the reason for the curse upon the Higashikata, what about Rina who also contracted long before Norisuke IV and his children were born?

JJL chapter 21: Shakedown Road – part 4

If indeed the Higashikata family was hit by a curse due to forbidden relationship with a rock-human, rather than Caato, I think it is more appropriate to suspect Teru (Norisuke I's wife) that she could be a rock-human.

Caato was created as a comparison between Higashikata mothers’ role regarding of their decision and action in dealing with rock-disease and the knowledge of equivalent exchange as shown in JJL chapter 64 (her infamous flashback).

It is acceptable if this theory was created before chapter 64 was released, but pretty dumb if it came after the chapter was released.

There are still a lot of forced arguments issued by her supporters that you can read further here: Is Caato a Rock-Woman?

”Caato is descendant of Funny Valentine”

WHAT THE- How? I believe this is just a pure crack theory, there is absolutely no basis to strengthen this theory… other than their sorta similar hair curls:

The second one kinda reminds of Valentine’s under the effect of Tusk Act 4

And a silly word play in which the connection between Valentine and Caato would form the word: "Valentine Card." If you want to use puns, I recommend learning Japanese first! Because the explanation of the name "Caato" as a reference to "Card" is much more complicated than you might think.

Other than that, their links are very far away, one is American and the other is Japanese, one is blonde and the other is dark haired, etc (it is still possible though, considering the generation gap).

Hair curls aside, the hype of Caato’s Stand which often compared to D4C due to the similarity of their theme and mechanism (dimension-based and caught-in-between) might strengthen the relation of her as Valentine’s descendant.

But I think this should not be considered, given that some Stand users with blood relations such as Joseph-Josuke-Jotaro-Jolyne, DIO-Giorno, and Diavolo-Trish, even Caato and her own children (etc), each have Stands whose mechanism, design and theme are very different to each other.

Perhaps this theory was created to validate Caato's relation with the Holy Corpse and her hype as the main villain. However, the main villains in JoJo never had blood relationship between them. Their relationship is only “causal connection”:

and it should have been connected to “Dio” instead (LOL)

Besides, the curls in Caato's hair are also inconsistent, often not visible or even ignored.

her hair resembles more like bee abdomen

Also, don’t forget how her hair looked in her first intro:

where’s the curl? her hair looked very straight

She also has different hairstyle in the past.

It is not her curls that are consistent, but her “twin buns”. Of course, based on her hairstyle, it will make much more sense to regard her as an AU version of Jolyne than to link her as Valentine’s descendant. Moreover, Araki also put some call-backs such as the name of the prison where she was incarcerated (Stone Ocean), the duration of her sentence (15 years, the initial sentence of Jolyne) and the reason of her incarceration (murder).

And last, this reader again missed (I'm more sure that he deliberately ignored) an obvious fact that Valentine and his wife had no children.

SBR chapter 61: Both Sides Now - part 2

Maybe this reader used the argument that some characters in JoJo such as Joseph and DIO have illegitimate children they didn't know about. Considering Valentine's willingness to have sex with other woman and his relationship with his wife which implied not so harmonious (he didn't really mind his wife’s death & his wife was a cheater as well), he might accidentally sired bastard child.

But this possibility is not confirmed yet and it will be more ridiculous to use this unproven theory over the canon statement Valentine said in SBR chapter 61!

The idea of Caato as Valentine’s descendant is too silly and ridiculous, I’m gonna laugh my ass off.

These theories are too far-fetched and extremely forced.

#jojolion theory #kaato higashikata #jojo spoilers #my thoughts #jojo meta #jjba part 8 #jojo's bizarre adventure #jojo's bizarre analysis #caato #rock humans jojo #funny valentine #stfu caatofags

[lokh]

(longtime loveless fan here) yeah i think i remember reading her publishers are the ones who push her to give it a kind of Weird Vibe but anyway think the text in canon is decently strong towards their relationship (whatever it may be) being mostly condemned by canon. there are even like a lot of hints that soubi isn't doing the things he's doing entirely out of his own free will and might be being manipulated by seimei (into Being Weird about ritsuka), esp. on rereads. not saying she'll 1/2

2/2 stick the landing though, where loveless is going is anyone's guess.  it's my all time favourite manga but it does explore some very VERY dark subject matter and i wouldn't expect a lot of people to be able to stomach it if they weren't like. braindead fujoshi (loveless is very good but its fandom on the whole had historically been vile about shipping ritsuka with soubi, though this was before modern fandom.  i actually hoarded sourits url years ago to keep it from being used for evil)            

its been a while since i read i feel like i should have a reread ghhdfg, a lot of it i guess was me wondering whether the author really meant it one way or another bcos the fandom at the time was Definitely taking it a different way,, OH that does remind me though ive had a look, the more recent chapters have been moving to a stylistic change that im personally not fond of so that also put me off continuing tbh

also u are so valid anon re the url

#i have several stopseimei urls ahfsdhfhsdhfhsdf #anon #ask #have a nice day!! #whats the name of soubis teacher again?? that guys gotta die too #bring kouya and yamato back.. #Anonymous

[cheekymochiiii]

100 Year’s Quest Chapter 18-20 Tea Time

*camera pans to me sleeping on loveseat only to be woken up by my producer throwing a mug at my face*

Me: Mother*beep*! damn it Craig you *beep*! throw that at my mother *beep* face again and I’ll cut your *beep* off and shove it up your—

*screen displays message that says: please stand by*

*screen returns and shows me sitting with my cup of tea cool as a cucmber*

Me: *clears throat* Sorry about that. I haven’t been getting much sleep lately and as a result I’ve been *says through gritted teeth while glaring at Craig* very irritable.*relaxes* I realize I haven’t aired any shows since Chapter 17, but if you haven’t read the new chapter of Fairy Tail’s 100 Year Quest then that is your fault and I’m not bothering to put a spoiler warning right now. Despite my doubts to having a guest on today’s tea time, production—I mean I thought it would be best to have one anyway. Today we’ve got someone who is on Team Natsu and has had a front row seat to all the exciting *beep* that’s been happening in chapters 18-20.

Me: *gesutres to side of stage* Please audience give a warm welcome to the little braveheart Wendy Marvell!

Wendy: *walks in waving with her cute smile* Hi everyone it’s good to see you all!

Me: *admiring her adorable innocence and then remembers I have a show to shoot * Thank you so much for coming on the show Wendy it means the world to me.

Wendy: Well I heard from Panther Lily and Carla that you’re really...*hesitates to find right word* passionate.

Me: Awe that is a very accurate word to describe me, especially considering I’m a Pisces but sometimes I’m an Aquarius. It depends which website you read but for the most part I identify myself as a Pisces more than an Aquarius.

Wendy: *confused* you don’t look like two fish to me or like the terrifying Aquarius I know.

Me: *laughs at her innocence* actually Wendy here in my world our zodiac signs are given to us based on the month and day we are born in. Each zodiac is given a season in the year.

Wendy: then what happens?

Me: absolutely nothing. zodiacs are basically there just to make excuses for ourselves and how we act.

Wendy: so it’s like...alcohol?

Me: *considers this and shrugs* I mean you’re not wrong. Anyway we’re getting way off topic. Let’s focus back on what’s been happening in your world or at least in chapters 18-20. Most of these chapters were pretty *beep* short so there’s that but I’ll take whatever dose of Fairy Tail I can get.

*production tells me in my ear piece I need to stop cursing due to Tumblr restrictions and reminds me I could get flagged for being inappropriate again*

Me: *states outloud* that’s what the beeps are for you mother *beeps*

*production slaps forehead*

Me: Sorry for that interruption Wendy. My producers are being a bunch of *beep*

Wendy: *stunned at language*

Me: *continues casually* I’m not going to focus too much on Chapter 18 because I’ve already briefly talked about it in my last show. I want to give a simple summary of it. For starters I want to talk about you Wendy and what a bad *beep* you were for being able to find a spell that allowed the non-dragon slayers of Team Natsu to actually do some harm to the dragons y’all will be fighting. Naturally, I’m curious about how obtained this spell but I’m assuming you nor the creators will be willing to share that information with me.

Wendy: *genuine tone* I’m really sorry but I can’t share that.

Me: Coming from you, I’m okay with it. So Team Natsu is officially in the battle with the Water God Dragon and boy are y’all struggling. He’s just really letting y’all have it with his magic and this is still only the first dragon y’all have to defeat for this quest.

Wendy: This Quest will definitely be the hardest one I’ve ever had to do.

Me: You guys have been through so much you barely got a breather.

Wendy: I like the adventures with my friends though. It makes my life more full.

Me: Awe

Audience: Awe

Readers: Awe

Me: You are so precious Wendy and you need to be protected at all times. I’m getting off topic again. Chapter 18. Team Natsu. Battle with Water God Dragon. *stops short statements* I mean, that’s basically it. *remmebers* oh yeah Touka defeated all of your guild mates back in Magnolia.

Wendy: I know I was worried about them too. I still am since you guys haven’t figured out what happens.

Me: *waves and says nonchalantly* I’m sure by the next chapter we will. *wonders internally have I been spelling Touka’s name wrong this whole time?*

Wendy: What makes your so sure?

Me: We’ve been focused a lot on Team Natsu these last few chapters, so I’m going to assume with the screaming-into-pillow ending the creators gave us. The scenery will most likely change come next chapter. Anyway, now it’s Chapter 19 and we are still worried about the favorite team in the world, Team Natsu. Y’all are putting up a good fight but it’s not doing much good. In fact, Natsu tries very hard with all kinds of new and secret spells he’s been holding back from us to defeat the Water God Dragon. However, it nearly becomes too much for our favorite pink haired weirdo hero and he begins to be sucked up into a deadly looking whirlpool created by the Water God Dragon.

Wendy: *nods at the memory* I remember. We were all worried about what was going to happen to Natsu.

Me: *sideglances* even Lucy?

Wendy: *doesnt get what I’m hinting at* yes of course she’s always worried about Natsu on missions and if he might get hurt. Natsu too. They both want to protect each other.

Me: *grinning* most interesting *sips tea* Natsu nearly gets sucked into the whirlpool when ta-dah! *makes spirit fingers* a scaley hand snatched Natsu from it. I had a strong feeling from that ending that the hand was extremely reminiscent of a certain dragon we all love...loved.

Wendy: *nods solemnly* Natsu’s father Igneel. All of us lost our parents that day too unfortunately but not in the same way Natsu lost his tragically.

Me: *trying not to cry* I hear that *sniffles* so that’s how we are left in Chapter 19 those bastard creators. *pauses* hey why wasn’t that bleeped?

*production informs me that bastard isn’t that bad of a word compared to the ones I had been using and reminds audience that this show is for mature audiences only despite the bleeped out words because beeping everything is a struggle for the editing team*

Me: okay now it’s on to the most recent update, Chapter 20. We find out that scaley hand that rescued Natsu is indeed a dragon! We, being the readers, also notice how incredibly and unmistakingly similar this dragon and Igneel look.

Wendy: We were all honestly terrified when this dragon revealed himself. We didn’t know whether he was there to help or hurt us.

Me: Understandable I mean look at that thing. However we find out he’s mostly there to motivate Natsu to defeat the Water God Dragon and ultimately decides the best way to help Natsu is to set the fish city on fire using its own fire. While this seemed discouraging the dragon wants Natsu to consume the fire so it will help him defeat the Water God Dragon. The dragon also says he wants to fight Natsu at his best himself. So why does this mysterious Igneel-looking dragon want to help Natsu and also fight and defeat Natsu? Well that’s what the big reveal of this chapter was.

Me: *takes dramatic pause*

Wendy: *smiles knowingly*

Audience: *holds breath*

Readers: *yawns*

Me: *SHOUTS* ITS IGNEEL’S MOTHER *BEEP* SON YALL. *STANDS UP CAUSING TEA TO SPILL* HIS “TRUE” SON. AND BOIIIIII I’D BE LYIN IF I SAID THAT BOI AINT FINE BECAUSE HE IS ONE GOOD LOOKIN DUDE. I MEAN DO YALL SEE THOSE TATTOOS?!? ALSO WHAT THE *BEEP* DOES THIS MEAN? HES A FIRE GOD DRAGON! HO-LY HELL

Wendy: *nervously sips her tea and realizes why Panther Lily and Carla called Me intense*

Me: *still raging* I JUST CANT BELIEVE IT! I CANT WAIT TO SEE WHERE THIS IS GOING AND IVE GOT A FEELING ITS GONNA BE GOOD *relaxes and sits back down* Just wow Wendy I cant wait for what this Quest has in store for us because we are only 20 chapters in and it’s been ridiculous.

Wendy: *still smiling* I know it’s an exciting quest and adventure that truly tests the feelings, will, and strength of our team.

Me: *tearing up* I can only imagine. I can’t wait to get to the end of this long and winding road but I also want it to last forever because I don’t want Fairy Tail to end.

Wendy: *stunned* what do you mean, end?

Me: *saddened* we originally weren’t going to find out what happened to y’all on the 100 Year’s Quest but then, thanks to this super cool and awesome fandom, we were able to push the creators to continue the manga.

Wendy: Wow we really owe a lot to our fandom then

Me: *nods respectingly* yes yes we do. I know I owe a lot to my followers here on the blog, er, show.

Wendy: Why’s that?

Me: Apparently 500 people like my blog, I mean show, enough to follow me for every time I post something new. *begins meaningful speech* I couldn’t be more happy or thankful for every single one of them. I never imagined I would have this many followers because I started with 0 followers and had no connections or friends on here who already had followers and give shout outs to me, right away of course, but now people seem to like what I post and I literally couldn’t be more thankful for them. I post for them.

Wendy: *tearful* that was a really lovely speech.

Me: thanks Wendy. I suppose I should make an edit dedicated to all of them.

Wendy: that’s a nice gift and very kind of you.

Me: no *shakes head and looks off into the distance* how kind of them.

To be continued...

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