#just in case so nobody misunderstands: she was kidding

[spider-mand]

'Worlds Greatest' wasn't my favorite run but it had some great moments early on - like of course, Foolkiller wants to be a psychologist, so all the Mercs for Money say they'll help him study.

Deadpool's eating-popcorn-with-a-mask fail is great, but the joke a few panels later is my favorite.

"Okay, cool, I get why you want to do this now."

Fun fact: I remember asking my therapist about that "psychopaths versus sociopaths" line, if it was true or not. When I told her it was from a Deadpool comic book, she replied "ah, well, can't argue with a credible academic source like that!"

#just in case so nobody misunderstands: she was kidding #peak psych 101 student behavior just passing out diagnoses like you know everything #deadpool #foolkiller #stingray #masacre #mercs for money #deadpool (2016) issue 7

[deusvervewrites]

In regards to the whole "The HPSC should have been the Main Antagonist", I ended up being reminded of one of my favourite seasons of one of my favourite shows of all time: The fourth season of Justice League the Animated Series (or the second season of JL Unlimited, if you count like that.) Because they bascially did something like that and now I am wondering how a similar plotline in BNHA would have looked like.

So, (mild) Spoiler Warning for a twenty year old show, I guess?

The fourth season pretends to be about Lex Luthor and one of his classic 5D-galaxy-brain plans that nobody can figure out or understand, but the actual main antagonist for most of the season is actually Amanda Waller and the U.S. Government.

Wallers whole point is that the League is dangerous and out of control and that, to protect the World (read: America) the Government (read: her) needs to be able to counter/neutralize them. This leads to all kinds of plots from her side, including, but not limited to:

Blackmailing convicted Super Villains to become her off-the-record Black Ops Squad,

Cloning/Creating and indoctrinating your own Superhero Team, complete with limited Life-Span and potential Kill-Switches,

Trying to create/control Monsters, that the League previously fought,

and, my personal favourite, manipulating Heroes in the League to work against the League, often without them realizing whats going on until way later.

And all of this makes for a great story, and one of the main reasons is that Waller, despite being the antagonist, is not a Joker/Luthor/Darkseid pure evil enemy. She sounds reasonable when she makes her arguments AND she is smart about her actions. It takes the League ages to start to realize that there is a pattern with some of the past events and even longer to trace it back to her. The show essentiall becomes almost a Cold-War Spy-Thriller at points, because both sides are suspicious of the other and are making preparations "just-in-case", without wanting to be the first one to escalate.

Which is also another of the great points: The League (which at this point has been vastly expanded beyond the original seven) is not a united front in this! Some want to come down on Waller, hard, treat her like any other maniac; others want to talk, clear up what HAS to be a misunderstanding, and there a lots of positions in between all of that. Waller barely does anything apart from exist and it is enough to drive the Heroes apart and create schisms between them.

Two more things of note, then I will shut up, I promise!

Firstly, while Waller and her guys keep going on about how dangerous the League could be if they ever got brainwashed (which has happened in the past!), or if they decide that killing is actually ok, or that the last election wasn't legitimate and needs to be redone under their supervision, etc...; the subtext in all of this is NOT subtle at all: Wallers main problem with the League is that they are indipendent and not under any control. Not under HER control. And thats what she actually fears so much. The fact that they can make their own decisions instead of having to go through her. This is never said out loud, but it becomes very clear, very quickly.

Secondly, Wallers undelying philosophy in this whole arc is that a pre-emptive strike against a reasonably big potential threat, i.e. The League, is not only justifiable, but absolutely necessary AND the only way to handle problems in general. At which point I will remind you that this show came out in the early 2000s. 9/11 had just happened, the War on Terror was just gearing up and WMDs in Iraq were still considered a fact. And in the middle of all of that, an American Kids Show comes out with a very clear message against exactly that. They basically said, "any government that acts like this would be opposed by the greatest Heroes in the world." That is BOLD.

So, yeah, if any of you haven't watched Justice League, you totally should, not only is it great, what I described here is barely scratching the surface!

It is however a pretty great example of how I personally could imagine a proper HPSC-storyline being written in BNHA: A version of the HPSC that uses all kinds of unsavory means to achieve their goal of total control, but clever enough to do it from the shadows, while playing the Heroes that resist their philosophy against each other.

I am just gonna file that under "WiP that I will probably never have the time to actually write" for now...

I haven't actually gotten around to JL yet but as a massive BTAS fan it's definitely on the list, and all of this is exactly the kind of thing I'd love from MHA to do with the HPSC

#asks #meta

[tsukasastavern]

Kanade is a Tenma HC and why it shows that some people don’t understand characters / WHY ITS LITERALLY KANADE TORTURE LMAOOOOOO

this is a rant with minor points, i do not mean to insult, harass or make anyone feel invalid. These are my PERSONAL feelings about this HC. you can still like do the hc, i just think its ass

Kanade is a Tenma HC just sucks, im gonna start this off with that. The headcanon itself benefits nobody, and it doesn’t even make sense since a headcanon only really applies if it can be fitted INTO canon without much modification of the story, which (as you can see) isn’t the case. So this is an AU.

Where did this HC AU even come from? A ONE OFF THING DAISUKE SAID. In one of the sections of SVR (summer vacation radio)

This is a rant within a rant, but please stop using stuff VA/CV/Seiyuus say as proof to back up your agenda. This goes for ENSEKAI typos too, just because it happened doesn’t make it concrete

In the Hc, the tenmas (saki and tsukasa) adopt Kanade as a sibling- and this is where it all goes wrong. Kanade is not fit. She would get agitated EASILY around them, she’d be overwhelmed and overstimulated- even when Tsukasa is being gentle he is still a loud and eccentric character- Saki too! Both Tenmas are FUELD with enthusiasm like 80% of the time.

“What about toya? Toya has a similar character type to kanade! This should go for him to-“ NO. NOT AT ALL. Toya is USED TO the tenmas! Hell, he can be excited and enthusiastic too! You have a fundamental misunderstanding of all of their characters if you think Kanade would survive life with the tenmas without changing all of their stories. This girl can not run! You think she can keep up with the human versions of two GOLDEN RETRIEVERS ON CRACK WITH THE ATTITUDE OF A PBS KIDS PROTAGONIST???

in a tldr: kanade would fucking seize instantly like a rabid rat eating poprocks if she was living with the tenmas so stop it /lh

anyways kanade is a kamishiro au canon /j

#tsukasastavern #tsukasa tenma #saki tenma #personal rant #kanade yoisaki

[zombiebcit]

danielle rose russell. 21. agender. they / them. ― i see you meet HARLOW DIXON, huh? they are around for… well, it will be 4 YEARS, now. time flies when you are busy and as part of THE HUNTERS, they are. if you want to meet them, they live in B1A2D, i think. people say they are LOYAL + DETERMINED, but don’t piss them off, okay? because they can be also SARCASTIC + VINDICTIVE, so be safe.

BASIC INFO

⸻ FULL NAME: harlow shepard dixon

⸻ AGE: 21

⸻ GENDER: agender

⸻ PRONOUNS: they / them

⸻ ROMANTIC ORIENTATION: panromantic

⸻ SEXUAL ORIENTATION: pansexual

⸻ SCARS / TATTOOS: small scar on their lower lip going down to chin, four on their ribs on right side, one on the left side of their neck, going down to cleavage;

⸻ OCCUPATION: before: kid ; now: hunter ;

⸻ FAMILY: william & alice shepard ( bio parents, deceased ) , open wc ( adpotive parent post-apocalypse ) , unknow name older half-brother ( status unknown ) ;

⸻ PLAYLIST: all eyes on you by smash into pieces ; medicine by hollywood undead ; haunted by laura les ; bludlust by daegho ; ditch by empara mi ; wait a minute! by willow ; nobody's listening by linkin park ; therefore i am by billie eilish ; she calls me daddy by king mala ; far from home by san tinnesz ; can't go to hell by sin shake sin ; cheers by sleeping with sirens ; kicks by barns courtney ;

⸻ INSPO: ellie williams ( the last of us ) , jill valentine ( resient evil ) , purple!hawke ( dragon age 2 ) , leliana ( dragon age ) , kasumi goto ( mass effect ) , leia organa ( star wars ) , kylo ren ( star wars ) ;

STORY

when william shepard meet alice, he was still married to his first wife. it did not stop him from pursuing her, which ended in alice's pregnancy... and an end to william's marriage.

william still kept contact with his first child, a son around 16 years old, when harlow was born. he also married alice few weeks before the birth ;

harlow was growing up as rather sneaky child, quiet most of time. alice and william relationship was not happy nor calm ; the spark disappear under new child, child support and trying to find commond ground other than sleeping together ;

all harlow remember of their bio parents are screams and fights and how they tried to attack them when the apocalypse happened ;

that's how they meet their later-adoptive parent - while running from zombies with their bio parents' faces ;

... more tba

WANTED CONNECTIONS

⸻ 01. ' 𝙱𝙻𝙾𝙾𝙳 𝙾𝙵 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝙲𝙾𝚅𝙴𝙽𝙰𝙽𝚃 𝙸𝚂 𝚃𝙷𝙸𝙲𝙺𝙴𝚁 𝚃𝙷𝙰𝙽 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝚆𝙰𝚃𝙴𝚁 𝙾𝙵 𝚆𝙾𝙼𝙱 '

adoptive parent. ( main wc ) open. this person rescued harlow when she was 9 at the start of apocalypse, took her under their wings and in time, they become the parent + child duo. their last name can be dixon if you want, i’m open to harlow taking their name at some point. they are pretty close, but i’m open to ideas.

⸻ 02. ' 𝚈𝙾𝚄'𝚁𝙴 𝙸𝚃, 𝚈𝙾𝚄'𝚁𝙴 𝙼𝚈 𝙿𝙴𝚁𝚂𝙾𝙽 '

platonic soulmates / can be roommate. open. they are it, the ultimate ride or die. they meet after harlow came to the domus spei & they hit off fast. for a moment, people thought they are romantically involved because how close they are, but no, that's not the case. cuddles, cheek/forehead kisses and 'i love you's are always present in their relationship. they might seems like opposities, but there is no doubt that if this muse is doing stupid (tm), harlow is right here to help.

⸻ 03. ' 𝙵𝚄𝙲𝙺 𝚈𝙾𝚄𝚁 𝙱𝙰𝙳 𝚅𝙸𝙱𝙴𝚂 𝙱𝚁𝙾 '

nemesis / arch-enemy. open. they just don't click. maybe they got into fight when harlow was the new kid, maybe it as just misunderstanding, idk, they just don't like each other. will have each other back outside the walls, but inside? this is a war. maybe prank war, but something like this.

#bite.intro #» ⸻ harlow dixon . headcanons «

[candaru]

vent

i usually act really happy when people perceive me as "younger."

in my head there are two me's, a child and an adult. (this has been the case ever since i WAS a kid). the child is usually in charge. she handles everything creative—writing, drawing, performing, etc. and is the one that has all the strong emotions (that i take meds for now).

adult me has to keep child me on a leash. they have to handle publishing, posting, emails, phonecalls, etc. it used to feel like adult me was being held hostage by child me, but meds have helped a LOT since i have less emotional outbursts now.

in fact, i haven't felt creative at all for the past month or so, and it's different from a creative block. when that happens, i get frustrated and WANT to create. but i have felt zero desire to create anything in a long period of time (for someone who usually needs to make something every single day). i don't want to create, i just wanna live life and hang out with friends. avoid overstimulation. be chill.

i recently had a very innocent mild misunderstanding with a friend. i'm 100% aware i'm overreacting to it. if it was just on its own, i'm sure i could get over it easily.

but i'm suddenly having flashbacks of all the times people have left me for being "too young," which was code for "annoying." once i was planning to meet up with an online friend for the first time and mentioned bringing my mom, and she reacted with a volatile, "what, are you super young or something?" (i was ONE YEAR younger than her). we did meet up but she stopped talking to me after that.

i used to idolize my older cousins as the coolest people ever and want to be like them. after they got older than ~8 y/o they all stopped wanting to play with me or have anything to do with me. my mom said this was normal, it's just that i was younger than them, and y'know, i was kind of annoying. when i got older they'd talk to me again.

(i'm older now, and they do. but i don't talk to them. fuck that.)

i'm scared. i'm really scared. what if my childish side keeps me from ever having meaningful adult connections? i can work, take care of myself, even if it's hell to do. doesnt that count for anything?

do i annoy people?

i'm nobody's first choice. and that ties in with all my aro insecurities, and it just keeps spiraling.

#tw: negative #negative tw #candaru rambles #vent

[strangertheories]

Who is Will's mystery crush?

In the newly released character descriptions, it is revealed that Eleven suspects Will has a crush because of his odd behaviour. This has raised a lot of questions and speculation. Does Will actually have a crush? How is he behaving oddly? But most of all, who is Will's crush? In this post, I've laid out my thoughts on the matter and who I think is Will's mystery crush, if anyone. (Spoiler alert: it's Mike Wheeler)

First of all, there's a possibility that's it's all a misunderstanding on Eleven's part, although I don't think this is the case. Why would they make a plot line about Will not having a crush on someone? The only case they'd do that in is if Eleven thinks he has a crush on a girl and then he uses that to come out, but it also mentions he's acting weirdly so why would he act oddly if he didn't have a crush? Him acting unusually implies that he didn't act like that before meaning something had to have changed, like the arrival of an old friend perhaps. I suppose he could also be him acting different for totally platonic reasons because he's super excited for Mike to come, but I don't know why Eleven would think that's odd. Unless he does have a crush but on Mike.

I mean, let's think about it. Will is acting oddly because he has a crush. They wouldn't have put it in his character bio if it wasn't going to be a part of his arc this season. What else would the grand reveal be, that he is just acting goofy for no reason? To me, it's obvious Will's feelings will be a big part of his character in S4, what with all the focus on self discovery and the fact it's mentioned in his description for what he's doing this season. I highly doubt that they're going to make Will have a major crush on a random background character or nobody at all.

So if he has a crush, who's it going to be on? As @pigeonspige0n debunked, it's probably not going to be a random background character as they would have an introduction like Vickie's to an original character's love interest, especially one that would be so relevant to Will's self discovery. I also don't think the crush is going to be on a girl, considering the seasons of queer coding and also the fact that the only girl he seems to interact with is his sister. This means it's going to be on a male character Will frequently interacts with this season and that only leaves one person: Mike Wheeler.

Let's also look at the promo material and interviews. It is said time and time again that Will is jealous of m*leven and feels like a third wheel in interviews and heavily implied in the show/script (whole of S3 and note in script about Will looking at Mike during the Snow Ball). Match that with the shots of Will looking longingly at Mike and Eleven, seen in the trailers and the deleted interview with Noah and Millie, and it's obvious what's going on here.

I think what's going to happen is that Will is going to become unusually excited for Mike's arrival, which Eleven doesn't find odd because they're best friends. However once Mike arrives, Will seems nervous and awkward around Mike. That or he seems miserable and jealous. In either scenario, Eleven notices that Will is acting oddly around Mike and that's when she puts two and two together and realizes Will may have a crush. Will's probably not being as subtle as he thinks about these feelings as well because Eleven who has issues with socializing picks up on them.

On the other hand, they could go down the misunderstanding route, but if Will is suddenly acting oddly something would have to trigger that behaviour. It wouldn't be a kid from school because this season is in Spring break. The only thing different about Will's environment is, yet again, Mike Wheeler. Eleven might not understand this however and think he suddenly likes a girl, which could be an opportunity for him to admit that he actually likes Mike.

Will liking Mike is, in my opinion, the only explanation for his character description. And genuinely, that's not me being an optimistic shipper, I cannot think of another explanation that would make sense. I'll be shocked if it turns out Will doesn't have a crush on Mike this season, but for the first time in a while, I'm feeling really hopeful.

(Sorry if this post made no sense, it was made in real time as I thought so I may have repeated myself)

#byler #will byers #will byers is gay #byler is endgame #mike x will #stranger things #stranger things theory #stranger theories #stranger things four #mike wheeler #byeler

[ufonaut]

okay also this is the last i’ll say on it for now ‘cause i’m on the last couple issues of darwyn cooke’s parker series and i’m enjoying myself too much but like. back to the discourse at hand. i’m still baffled by the amount of people coming out of the woodwork to declare themselves the ultimate molly mayne fans who are so WORRIED about her and feel so SORRY for her and like... none of this sympathy existed before alan came out. it didn’t exist when he disappeared for like five years the month they got married or when she sold her soul to the literal devil because he didnt love her or when her presence got completely erased forever and ever past like 2007 (at best, she’d had no speaking roles for years and years prior to that and next to no appearances).

like homophobia aside (and homophobia’s the biggest part of it), i think the issue is a complete misunderstanding of who alan is as a character because they... haven’t read any alan. these people are here to be outraged at explicitly gay stories being written and published and loved, because if that weren’t the case then they’d understand that even if he were straight alan’s not a good father or husband. he’s gay because he’s gay but i don’t think he’d even be a good partner to another man at this point in time, as the person he’s become after the life he’s lived. and that’s great! i love alan because he’s a complex complicated messy character with shades of ugly humanity and that’s the rarest thing to be in comics. what i’m saying is just... if molly fans did exist (and they do not) then they’d certainly want her as far away as possible from a loveless marriage?

but also like. on the other side of this is me, a person infinitely less sympathetic towards molly. and it’s also crazy that fellow gay readers think she & alan should be friends if nothing else. this, again, tells me nobody has ever bothered to read more than the wiki page for any of the characters involved in this discussion because molly’s whole thing is creepy as hell to me. the whole basis of her character is that she’s so in love with the green lantern (a public figure who is not aware of her existence) that she becomes a villain ‘for’ him. this is proto-harley quinn behaviour. she’s so in love that she proceeds to stalk alan for literal decades and gets a job as his secretary until eventually he finally gives in and marries her. she gets everything she’s ever wanted except she finds out she didn’t want this at all because she doesn’t even exist to alan at all even while actively married to him.

where’s the potential for friendship here? where’s the molly mayne you feel sorry for? i understand this story needs to be palpable for straight audiences lest we end up with five sales total (all from me), and i understand when they do eventually touch on this it’ll likely be treated with kid gloves but until we get there can anybody use their brains

#personal

[wild-houseplant]

hello!! otp asks for dear Rhodri and Zevran 😘 32. Who's the better story teller? AND 50. Who's more likely to do something out of spite?

My GOD how old is THIS??? I'm so sorry Icy! It was here for a while and then it disappeared for a bit? >_> I don't even know how that worked, but it did work because I ended up getting distracted and forgetting it had gone into the ether until just now!

But thank you so much for the ask!! And for your patience, my god! I am loving you <3 <3 <3

Okay, let's see. Who is the better story teller?

Zev, by a country mile. He's got the flair, he's got the material, and has a way of making even the smallest things into an exciting tale. Zevvo loves telling a good story, which is half the battle. People can sense a lack of motivation from a long way off. Probably the other half of the battle is being able to sense what in particular his audience wants in a tale and adapting to that, which is where Rhodri falls short if her audience is unfamiliar.

I wouldn't say Rhod's bad at storytelling, though. She's told plenty of stories to her siblings and her students (and, later on, Zev's and her own kids). Just that she needs time and observation to know her audience well enough to be sure that she's delivering it in a way they'll enjoy.

And for Who's more likely to do something out of spite?

Hmm! I feel like since these asks are more about pair dynamics, it's asking who's more likely to be spiteful towards the other, and that complicates things a lot. Zevran, I'd argue, is the more spiteful person by nature. Or at least he can be, when he wants to be. Rhodri doesn't have time to get spiteful because if someone's being a shit, they'll hear about it early on, and that's the end of it.

In practice though, I suppose Zevran is the less likely of the two to be spiteful, because he's actively trying not to be any shade of nasty to her at all times. He's painfully aware of how hard Rhodri tries to make sure he's happy and feels cared for, and she's no stranger to spite from others. People will not-infrequently use it on her when she's inadvertently done something to offend or upset, and it's usually much harsher than whatever mistake she's made.

And Zev knows this, because he sees it happen. There's invariably a flash of hurt confusion before she rushes to an apology, and she really, really wants to put things right. For that reason and the next optional bit under the cut, he takes special pains to be very gentle, but also very upfront with her, so that she feels a hundred per cent sure that he's someone she can make mistakes with and not get treated maliciously for it.

In case it needs to be said, the likelihood of Rhodri being spiteful to Zevran is next to nothing. I can't picture it at all. I don't think she's got a mean bone in her body, or that spite would even occur to her. Especially not when directed at him.

And I'm going to drop in a little bit of Sad Lore here for extra context on this (cw for internalised ableism): There was a small misunderstanding when Zevran told Rhodri he wouldn't take her with him to Antiva to take on the Crows. I mean. God bless her but Rhodri doesn't have the It Factor when it comes to blending in among an assassin's guild.

Naturally, what she missed here was that nobody except another Crow has said It Factor, because that's how you learn to survive with them. All she caught from that remark was that she isn't able to keep him safe because, quite frankly, she's rather autistic, and in fact she is a hindrance to his safety because of said Rather Autism.

Which, you know, really isn't a good thing with the whole Magister, protector/guardian/head-of-family shit Aurelio's drummed into her all her born days. By that measure, she's completely failed Zevran, who is so good and gentle with her, and who she'd move mountains for, and that's her breaking point. In the process of completely going to pieces over this, she tells Zevran quite seriously that she hates herself and wishes he'd never met her. I don't want to be too dramatic or anything, because people say that sort of thing all the time, but they usually say it in the heat of the moment and find that they mean it less and less as time goes on. Rhodri, however, doesn't say anything she doesn't mean, and it's a belief she'd take to her grave with all the conviction in the world.

And really. Of all the things she could do to Zevran, who is terribly clingy and traumatised and considers being with her to be the biggest, perhaps only real bright spot in his life, looking him square in the eye and saying she wishes none of their life together had happened so that he could have started that whole journey with someone 'better', well. It's not one of the better things. God.

The misunderstanding was cleared up, but I don't really see how you wouldn't be gutted to hear that the person who gives you so much joy and affection thinks so little of themselves, and would instantly wish away everything you treasure just so you could be rid of them.

And for a little Zevran HC Lore here, I think this is doubly offensive to him because of the dramatic impact that having someone who cares about him has. The real turnaround in his miserable, frankly appalling life is thanks to a single person person giving a damn about him. The reason I think he is able to be so devoted to just about anyone with a pulse, largely irrespective of character or behaviour, is because all of that makes them the person who actually thought to be kind to him. I really believe he is the sort whose gratitude and affection makes him embrace that person as a whole and appreciate them for everything that makes them who they are. Because who they are gave him the chance to live a good, happy life when nobody else did. So for autistic Rhodri to loathe herself for that, because of him, no less, I think it would be such a crushing thing to hear.

I think with that in mind, he is probably very sensitive to anything that might awaken that sense of inferiority. I'm sure he was already, to an extent, but she doesn't let on about the depth of her feelings, so the wake-up call is rude to the point of obscenity.

#Thank you for the ask my chilly subzero friend!! <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 #Rhodri Amell #Askin' games #misery business

[sayakxmi]

[Magi reread] Night 29: Slave

Gdi, I really want to rewatch the Magnostadt Arc, like, you don't get it. I'm in the MOOD. But I promised myself to go more-or-less chronological. Like, it's one thing to kinda jump from one thing to another in some arc, but I want to rewatch the entire thing, gdi, Saya, why do we do that to ourselves.

I'd say speedrun Morgiana Arc, but it's not that much of a speedrun, plus I have a few thoughts.

But before that, I thought randomly about the Night 17, which is an almost-month timeskip. The timeskip where Alibaba does something pretty important, and Morgiana has some character development after a lifetime of being a slave, you know, some dealing with trauma... It didn't really ring a bell until a few days ago, when I was like. Wait. It's a trend. And ya bet I'll comment on the timeskips. But, man, it's already appeared so early!

I had to share this thought, now to the actual chapter.

All I wanted to point out that when Morgiana sensed something coming closer, she instinctively stopped this little girl. Imo cool characterization moment. Seemingly gently.

Yknow, for a kid in this situation, you're being very calm, little girl.

Nadja's from Balbadd! Still pretty cool that there's some of that info sprinkled here and there. Also, didn't Nadja mean Hope?

I checked, it does!

Totally random thought, I wonder if Nadja's supposed to be, like, a symbol of little Morgiana, yknow? Kinda cuz I noticed her side ponytail. And if that's the case, then tbh that's pretty cool, because this arc becomes a symbol of Morgiana saving herself. When she was little, there was nobody else to help her, but she's capable of it now.

Like I've said earlier, it's a damn good arc, but it's very isolated from others. Don't misunderstand me, it references stuff that'll come up in other arcs, but this specific arc won't be referenced much if at all later on. Which is a shame.

Kinda made me think how slavery isn't a thing in Balbadd, so maybe that's why she wasn't as freaked out. She genuinely doesn't understand what it means until Morgiana starts explaining it.

I am both curious, and at the same time, I'm not sure I want to know what Morgiana is saying.

Also, listen, I know I have a tendency to see mah boy everywhere, but I'm kind of wondering if it's the Same Face Syndrome or maybe it's just, like, how Balbadd people look. Seriously, Nadja reminds me a lot about Alibaba, when it comes to her face. It's also kinda cool, in general, bc Hope is also something associated with Alibaba and his Household. As in, according to the wiki, the name of all the spells there are a corruption of Amal, meaning hope.

Whoops.

Another thing I thoght abt is how... desensitized Morgiana feels. Tbh, I'm gonna guess she's dissociating a bit here, to focus on the situation at hand rather than get overwhelmed, which does sound like a defence mechanism she would've created under Jamil.

Mood.

But hey, the intentions are there.

Sad as shit, no surprises. But the fact that Morgiana sees herself in Nadja kinda pushes my "Nadja symbolises little Morgiana" agenda.

She's doing her best.

Same as before, she's trying.

Aaaand fake smile falls.

The next page is really sweet, but, like.

Did she kiss her forehead? ;;

Cat-vibe.

Nadja's sick & Fatima decided to get rid of her & I'm fairly certain this is the exact same thing that happened in SnB, like, disposing of a sick slave.

Aaaand there goes Nadja's sickness, I guess.

I wish Morgiana had more opportunities to emote so fucking much.

.

Finally. I have enough space in the post for Morgiana flashbacks.

I wish Magi characters had more opportunities to face their traumas. And also for that not to be timeskipped.

C minor, put it in C minor-

#magi #saya's magi reread #morgiana

[cqlfeels]

@lansplaining encouraged me to finish this random meta nobody asked for, so let's talk about Meng Yao, Meng Shi, and 孟母三遷 (mèng mǔ sān qiān), a proverb about good parenting.

A warning: this is super long (even for me!) and is less quality meta and more my ADHD brain jumping around a maze of loosely related ideas. Proceed with caution!

Let me start by briefly going through why I decided to write this, because it’s important. In haunting Meng Shi’s tag in my starvation for Meng Shi content, I’ve multiple times come across the idea that Meng Shi pushed Meng Yao too hard, that she should’ve been more careful with teaching him to seek his father’s approval at any cost, and that she was too naïve. I’ve never reblogged this kind of post because 1) I personally think it’s rude to go out of your way to ramble about how much you disagree with someone on their own post and 2) if this was an isolated incident I wouldn't care either way, so I didn’t want to direct this rant at anyone in particular. It’s more to do with a tendency, primarily (as far as I can tell) from fans who haven’t had much contact with Chinese culture, to oversimplify Meng Shi and make her relationship with Meng Yao slightly disturbing, and I think part of it is due to CQL basically cutting out her entire storyline (so fans simply don’t have info about her to assess her fairly) and part is due to misunderstanding what a good parent is supposed to act like in the context of Ancient China.

[Of course, Ancient China is not a very useful historical concept, not any more than “ye olde Europe” - things change a lot based on time and place - but you know. It’s fantasy. Extremely broad trends are okay in this case.]

Anyway, the idea behind the posts I mentioned is, basically, that Meng Shi (usually through no fault of her own) is to blame for Meng Yao’s obsession with power, since his desire for approval was inherited from lessons she taught him. Just to start with, I’d argue that Meng Yao isn’t power-hungry as much as he craves security and respect, but that’s a different meta. Let’s assume that she really did teach him to be Like That. Was she wrong to do so? I’m not looking for “does that make for a happy, well-adjusted childhood?” or “would you raise your own son as Meng Shi did?” - I’m trying to figure out, would she have been considered a bad mother in the context of the society she lived in? I don’t think she would’ve.

It is surprisingly hard to find texts about the obligations of parents in Ancient China. Their main obligation is to raise filial children, but I feel like that’s not very useful: whether or not parents are good parents, children are expected to be filial, so a child being filial really says more about the child than about the parent. Maybe the parent completely missed the mark and society at large was what taught the child to be filial!

We can assume, of course, that parents were to raise good people, and that by learning what a good person looked like, we could figure out whether the parent was successful, but once again, I feel like that’s pinning things on the outcome, not on the process - the best of parents can end up with an awful kid and vice versa.

While thinking about all this, it took me a frankly embarrassing amount of time to remember the story of Mother Meng and Meng Zi, but once I did, it wouldn’t leave my mind - in part because the Meng here is the exact same Meng of Meng Shi and Meng Yao (yay! fun if useless parallel!), and in part because this is a story about how a woman can successfully raise a son by herself.

Okay, so important note: one of the most influential ancient Chinese thinkers is Meng Zi (孟子 Mèng Zǐ), who is known in the West as Mencius. If you've never heard of him - he's perhaps second in importance only to Confucius. When Mencius was still a young child, his father died, so he was raised by his mother, who is usually known only as Mother Meng (in Chinese, 孟母 Mèng Mǔ.)

Mother Meng's story is told in Biographies of Exemplary Women (列女傳 Liènǚ Zhuàn), which for around 2000 years beginning around the 18th century BCE, was the most commonly used book used to educate women. The book is divided into sections, each one showing a different way women could be honorable and good. Mother Meng's story is told in the Maternal Models section (母儀傳 Mǔ Yí Zhuàn.) The story has a few parts, some of which I'll quote, always from Kinney's 2014 translation.

Before I go on to quote it, though, I'd like to establish that Mother Meng's story is so, so famous that even if Meng Shi had never read this particular book, I'm almost certain she would've been familiar with at least the outlines of Mother Meng's story. I'm not cherry picking a suitable chapter from the book, I'm literally going with the most famous story in it because Meng Shi would be most likely to know this one if she knew no other story.

Okay, the first part of the tale takes place when Mencius is a young boy and Mother Meng is a widow raising him.

The mother of Meng Ke of Zou [a different name for Mencius] was called Mother Meng. She lived near a graveyard. During Mencius’ youth, he enjoyed playing among the tombs, romping about pretending to prepare the ground for burials. Mother Meng said, “This is not the place to raise my son.” She therefore moved away and settled beside the marketplace. But there he liked to play at displaying and selling wares like a merchant. Again Mother Meng said, “This is not the place to raise my son,” and once more left and settled beside a school. There, however, he played at setting out sacrificial vessels, bowing, yielding, entering, and withdrawing. His mother said, “This, indeed, is where I can raise my son!” and settled there. When Mencius grew up, he studied the Six Arts, and finally became known as a great classicist. A man of discernment would say, “Mother Meng was good at gradual transformation.”

According to the translator's footnote, "gradual transformation" is "a childrearing technique, whereby a child is morally formed through daily exposure to correct models of behavior."

From this story comes the proverb 孟母三遷 (Mèng Mǔ sān qiān) - "Mother Meng moved three times." It's come to mean that a parent - especially the mother of a male child - should spare no efforts to provide an environment that will give their child a good education, paying particular attention to what models are surrounding them.

I'm sure I don't need to say if Meng Shi was at all familiar with this proverb (and she would probably be), she must have been very stressed out over literally raising her son in a brothel. (Here I must mention sex workers in ancient China were often essentially owned by the brothels, so literally "moving three times" wasn't really an option for Meng Shi even if she could miraculously pick up another trade.) Meng Shi did however at least try to surround Meng Yao with the accomplishments appropriate for the son of a cultivator:

Xiao-Meng, are you still learning those things lately? [...] The things your mom wants you to learn, things like calligraphy, etiquette, swordsmanship, meditation… How are those things going? [...] His mom’s raising him as a young master of a wealthy family. She taught him how to read and write, bought him all those swordsmanship pamphlets, and even wants to send him to school.

Meng Yao actually talks a little bit about “those swordsmanship pamphlets” in the only time in canon he directly shares memories about this mother:

Lan XiChen, “Your [guqin] skills are also considered quite fine outside of Gusu. Were they taught by your mother?”

Jin GuangYao, “No. I taught myself by watching others. She never taught me such things. She only taught me reading and writing, and bought a handful of expensive sword and cultivation guides for me to practice.”

Lan XiChen seemed surprised, “Sword and cultivation guides?”

Jin GuangYao, “Brother, you haven’t seen them before, have you? Those small booklets sold by the common folk. First jumbled sketches of human figures, then deliberately mystified captions.”

Lan XiChen shook his head, smiling. Jin GuangYao shook his head as well, “All of them are scams, especially to fool women like my mother and ignorant children. You won’t lose anything by practicing them, but you definitely won’t gain anything either.”

He sighed in a rueful way, “But how could my mother have known this? She bought them no matter how expensive they were, saying that if I returned to see my father in the future, I had to see him with as much competence as possible so that I don’t fall behind. All of the money was spent on this.”

See what’s happening? Meng Shi cannot physically take Meng Yao to cultivators, but she spares no efforts in giving him the closest thing she possibly can -- figuratively, we might say she moved three times.

Of course, these booklets don’t work, but as Meng Yao says, how could she have known this? The cultivation world is very closed off - think of how the entire Mo household gathers to see Lan juniors, and how Wei Wuxian mentions once that “Cultivation families, in the eyes of common folk, are like people favored by God, mysterious yet noble.” Not just noble, but mysterious. That tracks, too - I mean, they live in inaccessible households and mostly leave to night hunt or visit each other, neither of which is an activity that would allow commoners to get much more than an occasional glimpse of them.

Now, if Meng Shi doesn’t even know that a pearl for Jin Guangshan was just a trinket, if she doesn’t know even the wealth of a major sect, how can she read booklets and decide whether that’s genuine cultivation or not? All that she sees is a chance for Meng Yao to be surrounded by the ideas and skills of the people she wants him to emulate - cultivators - and therefore she does everything she can to get him that chance. Mother Meng moved three times.

Okay, but maybe the argument is not “Meng Shi shouldn’t have pushed Meng Yao to cultivation” but rather “she should’ve pushed him, just not too hard." To that, I present another tale from Mencius' childhood:

Once, when Mencius was young, he returned home after finishing his lessons and found his mother spinning. She asked him, “How far did you get in your studies today?” Mencius replied, “I’m in about the same place as I was before.” Mother Meng thereupon took up a knife and cut her weaving. Mencius was alarmed and asked her to explain. Mother Meng said, “Your abandoning your study is like my cutting this weaving. A man of discernment studies in order to establish a name and inquires to become broadly knowledgeable. By this means, when he is at rest, he can maintain tranquility and when he is active, he can keep trouble at a distance. If now you abandon your studies, you will not escape a life of menial servitude and will lack the means to keep yourself from misfortune. How is this different from weaving and spinning to eat? If one abandons these tasks midway, how can one clothe one’s husband and child and avoid being perpetually short of food? If a woman abandons that with which she nourishes others and a man is careless about cultivating his virtue, if they don’t become brigands or thieves, then they will end up as slaves or servants.” Mencius was afraid. Morning and evening he studied hard without ceasing. He served Zisi [a great scholar whose grandfather was Confucius] as his teacher and then became one of the most renowned classicists in the world.

Notice that Mother Meng moved three times to ensure Mencius would have the highest of aspirations - to become a scholar. But just aspiration isn’t enough. Not by any means. Now that Mencius is actually studying, Mother Meng is willing to take an extreme action to ensure he's taking it seriously. Mencius doesn't have a father to smooth his path to success. He has to learn that aspiring to greatness isn't enough. He'll have to put in the effort as if his life depended on it. And if he doesn't persist in his hard work, everything he's done thus far will be useless. Sounds like a lesson imparted on young Meng Yao, doesn’t it?

A lot of fandom rage towards Meng Shi would apply to China's Best Mom Contender, Mother Meng. She gives her son big dreams, and teaches him how to go about achieving them in a society where failing is easier than succeeding. Yes, it's fair to say that Meng Shi taught Meng Yao to refuse to settle for anything less than being “Jin Guangshan's son, a respected cultivator.” Yes, it's also fair to say that she probably didn't allow him much time to play like children his age did. But unfortunately, in the world of MDZS, poor children probably wouldn't get to play anyhow, the difference is that they'd usually be working, not studying. Studying is a privilege! It’s a privilege Meng Yao could not afford but was given to him anyway, through his mother’s many sacrifices. We can even say that while she was alive, Meng Shi was trying to ensure Meng Yao would one day have a better life, at the expense of a fun childhood - and that's very Mother Meng of her, whatever our modern Western sensibilities might have to say about that.

Finally, I’d skip other tales (which show Mother Meng and an adult Mencius) and go straight to the poem that ends the Mother Meng section:

The mother of Mencius

Was able to teach, transform, judge, and discriminate.

With skill she selected a place to raise her son,

Prompting him to accord with the great principles.

When her son’s studies did not advance,

She cut her weaving to illustrate her point.

Her son then perfected his virtue;

His achievements rank as the crowning glory of his generation.

I’d like to focus on the last verse - “His achievements rank as the crowning glory of his generation.” All that Mother Meng wanted was for Mencius to not completely ruin his life, but he became great. You can so very easily see a parallel with how Meng Shi hoped Meng Yao would be a cultivator but he became Jin Guangyao, Chief Cultivator, styled Lianfang-zun, one of the Three Venerable, hero of the Sunshot Campaign.

Of course you can say “Jin Guangyao did many Very Wrong Things to get there, though!” Which, sure, okay, fair point. How many and how wrong depends on which canon we're discussing, and your own interpretation, but there’s no version of the story in which Jin Guangyao is 100% an innocent child uwu. But blaming that on Meng Shi is just... straight up weird? I don’t see anyone going “If Jiang Fengmian hadn’t adopted Wei Wuxian, he’d never have dared become Yiling Laozu!” and that’s pretty much the same logic. Would street kid Wei Wuxian have invented a new type of cultivation if he had never been taken in by the Jiang? Probably not, but raising undead armies is very much not something Jiang Fengmian could’ve predicted. In the same way, how could Meng Shi have predicted that teaching her pre-adolescent son “You are the son of a cultivator, act like one and earn your place in society” would’ve ultimately resulted in innocent deaths? How could she predict “You’re not destined to having the same horrible life I did, you can get something better than this” was a bad thing to teach? I quite honestly don’t know.

Finally, I'd like to point towards a much flimsier evidence that Meng Shi did great as a parent. And that is Meng Yao’s love. Nie Huaisang at some point comments Meng Shi is someone who Meng Yao "cherishes more than his life," and I think his assessment is correct.

Even putting aside the fact he built a whole temple to get his mother to reincarnate into a better life, and even putting aside how he refuses to flee the country without her remains, there's still crystal clear evidence that Meng Shi must've done something right. Because a lifetime of people using his mother to bully him doesn't seem to have made Meng Yao resent her. Had their relationship not have been very strong, odds are he'd feel bitter and/or ashamed of her. That doesn't seem to be the case. He's attached to her even decades after her death.

I want to be very careful with equating mutual affection with good parenting, though. When I was a rather rebellious teenager, my mother (in typical Chinese fashion) used to say that parents and children don't have to love each other as long as they're dutiful to each other, by which she meant that a parent-child relationship isn't informed by warm and fuzzy feelings, but by whether you'd be willing to do anything for each other. Specific to my case, she meant "I don't care if it makes you hate me, you will do as you're told because that's what's best for you." (That may also be the reason why people more familiar with Chinese culture see the Jiang family less as outright abusive and more as #complicated, but that's another meta.)

Whether your kid wants to hug you every time they see you is of no consequence to traditional Chinese thought - raising them to be the best they can is all that matters, because at the end of the day, you won't be around forever, but you can definitely set up your kid's life so that it goes smoothly and virtuously. How that's accomplished varies depending on many factors, but to have the goal be "I want my child to love me" rather than "I want to raise my child right" would've been considered selfish as hell.

So even if all that Meng Shi had given Meng Yao had been stern lessons about the need to go get his birthright, she would've still have been considered a good mother!! In fact, she would've been doing everything she was supposed to do, under extremely difficult conditions! (Remember the importance of environment? That Meng Yao grew up to want to be a cultivator despite having probably never even met one speaks wonders about Meng Shi's childrearing powers!!)

But just based off how over the top Meng Yao's filal dutifulness is, I'd go a step further and say that even as she did the impossible, she was also loving enough to inspire genuine affection. This is complicated because children who have present fathers could expect their mothers to be tender with them. The first century BCE text 禮記 Lǐ Jì or The Classic of Rites says that:

Here now is the affection of a father for his sons - he loves the worthy among them, and places on a lower level those who do not show ability; but that of a mother for them is such, that while she loves the worthy, she pities those who do not show ability - the mother deals with them on the ground of affection and not of showing them honour; the father, on the ground of showing them honour and not of affection.

But when the father figure is lacking for any reason, the mother must abandon her tenderness because someone must guide the child, and without a father, the role falls to the mother. A single or widowed mother had to be very careful to not smother their children with affection and raise useless, spoiled kids, or so it was thought. (The presence of Qingheng-jun and Lan Qiren is why Madame Lan can be so affectionate with the Lan boys, by the way - if she was raising them by herself she would've been expected to be much more practical. AUs where she just gets her kids and runs away could do very cool things with this idea. But I digress!)

Where was I? Oh, okay. Because Meng Yao seems to not just respect, but actively miss her, it seems that Meng Shi somehow managed to deal with her son on the ground of both honor and affection, to paraphrase.

So basically, all things considered, it seems not only would Meng Shi have been considered a great mom (if people could look past her being a prostitute, anyway) but she also went above and beyond the bare minimum. She truly spared no efforts on any front to make sure her son had everything your average gongzi would have - someone to teach him and someone to love him, access to education and confidence in his birthright. That she couldn't actually make him a cultivator, that she couldn't actually raise him in a proper home with no one being cruel to herself or him - that's immaterial. Even Mother Meng couldn't control what her neighbors did, only what she taught her son! The key point is Meng Shi tried. She did everything she could to educate her son right. You couldn't ask more of her, and quite honestly, you should probably be asking less.

Of course we can't err on the other extreme and say she was Perfect. Given MXTX only ever writes flawed characters, we can safely assume that if we'd known more about Meng Shi, we would've seen many flaws. Indeed, just the fact she didn't teach Meng Yao the guqin when he apparently wanted to learn it might point to some conflict we don't know enough to speculate about (maybe she focused too much on cultivation when Meng Yao's interests lay elsewhere? Maybe she wasn't able to sufficiently shelter him and he felt it'd be a burden to ask her to teach him anything? Maybe maybe maybe, go wild with your fics.) Nevertheless, I would never hold a female character to a higher ideal than a male character - if the male cast of MDZS can be a hot mess and still be admirable for what they're trying to do, then so can Meng Shi.

At the end of the day, when I look at Meng Shi - and I've made myself a document with all the references to her in the novel canon so I could easily contemplate her life and character - all I see is a woman every bit as determined and resourceful as her son, willing to do everything it took to raise her little boy into the sophisticated and ambitious man he became.

Finally, here's a fun little parallel that I'm 100% sure was unintentional but I still love. I said Meng Shi couldn't have moved three times. She couldn't, but I think maybe she taught her son he was worth moving three times for. Qinghe Nie. Qishan Wen. Lanling Jin. Isn't that super fun to think about?

Alternatively, tl;dr: Oh My God I Can't Believe We're Blaming Women For The Actions Of Their Adult Children In The Year Of Our Lord 2k21, Meng Shi Was Doing Her Best, Chill!

#drinking game #take a shot every time i say 'finally' #this post refused to let me get to the end of it lol #i think because i'm extremely salty about fanon stage mom meng shi #(to not say tiger mom meng shi which crosses into outright racism. but i'm giving people the benefit of the doubt)

[hashtagartistlife]

IR hunger games AU

pt 4/???

pt 1 | pt 2 | pt 3 | pt 4

bonus comics under the cut + some more exposition 

bonus cut 1: 

bonus cut 2: 

Recap of the story so far: yuzu gets picked as tribute for the hunger games. Ichigo manages to volunteer in her place. Rukia gets drawn to replace yuzu, and ichiruki end up being the tributes for district 12. 

Ichiruki then meet urahara, their mentor, on the train to the capitol. On this train they may or may not have a conversation regarding the fact that Rukia saved Ichigo’s life as kids, and that they have consequently been dancing around each other for years now. I reserve the right to add more to this section later. Either way, they are awkward at best and frosty at worst as they enter the capitol. 

At the capitol, they meet their stylists, uryuu and orihime. They are new stylists, who only graduated last year. This is their first official stylist job. This in itself is not that surprising, as district 12 was unpopular and often stuck with the inexperienced or not-quite-so-talented stylists. However, though uryuu and orihime are inexperienced, they are the furthest thing from untalented or unpopular - since they had been students, they have been somewhat of a rising star in the styling community. So, everyone is surprised when they both (separately) apply for the district 12 styling job, because they really could have had their pick. 

Ishihime were both born and raised in the capitol, but their childhoods were far from the lavish, glamorous lifestyle commonly associated with capitol citizens. If the capitol had a caste system (which they do — it’s just unspoken, is all), they would be on the bottom rung — orihime grew up under her brother in as close to poverty as what you can get in the capitol, dreaming of the glitz and glamour of the upper crust life. Ryuuken, meanwhile, is very rich, but for whatever reasons uryuu ran away from home young and has been surviving on his own since. The fact that they both clawed their way up the ranks to become hunger game stylists out of pure talent and tenacity was a novelty for everyone, and contributed to their rising stardom. 

Ishihime hadn’t met prior to their appointment as district 12 stylists, but they HAD heard of the other— it was a pleasant surprise to both of them that the other had also applied for the job. Though they only meet on the job, they click instantly and develop an easy working partnership to create a sensation with ichigo and rukia’s opening ceremony outfits. The outfits had a fire + ice theme, based on the fact that district 12 was a mining district (coal > fire, diamonds > ice). 

Orihime applied to the district 12 job because of Ichigo— she saw him volunteering for his sister on TV and maybe fell a little bit in love with him, with the idea of him— how romantic, how heroic of him, how noble to be able to volunteer for his sister like that— the same age as her, and so handsome, too, she wants to be by his side, she wants to help him, she wants to make sure he looks his best at the games so that he can maximise his chances of returning to his sister… as stated previously Orihime grew up entrenched in the capitol mindset so she is not yet aware of how fucked up the whole system is. Uryuu, meanwhile, nobody is particularly sure why he applied for the job… he said something trite about wanting to use his skills where it’s most needed, how he likes a challenge, but orihime wonders if that’s really all there is to it— outwardly, he’s the picture perfect new graduate, enthusiastic, happy, proud of his job— but there are moments when they are being applauded for their latest creations when she thinks his expression goes a little sour… it’s always fleeting and gone so fast that she can never be sure however 

Ichiruki, meanwhile, are the talk of the town. What with their stunning entrance at the opening ceremony and rukia’s public confession, all they have to do now is ride this wave of popularity all the way through the games for an easy win— unfortunately, they are both terribly bad at knowing how to manipulate this situation to their advantage. They both understand the gist of urahara’s plan — act like they’re falling in love— but neither of them understand WHY or HOW this will work. Why would the audience be invested in their falling in love? What exactly do they want to see? HOW do they act like they’re falling in love? (and, in Rukia’s case— how much of it should be pretend, how much of it is real?) 

Enter Rangiku, the previous district 12 stylist. She and gin grew up in one of the districts, both hating the games and the capitol, until one day at 14 yrs old, gin said to her ‘i’m gonna make it so that you don’t have to be afraid of your name being called at the reapings no more’, volunteered as tribute, won the games, and promptly disappeared from her life. 

Years later, rangiku sees gin on tv as the new host of the hunger games. She’s stunned and infuriated— she thought they both hates the capitol for what they did to the districts and now he’s WORKING for them? What the hell is he thinking? So rangiku packs up and moves to the capitol— her plan is to try to see him, to talk things out, surely there must be some kind of misunderstanding— but gin is all rich and famous now, and very heavily guarded, and she’s a nobody. There’s no way anyone will let her within ten feet of gin at all— so, rangiku decides she’s going to have to join the circus to talk to its head clown, and becomes a stylist. 

Unfortunately, even as a stylist, she can’t get a word to him edgewise— and she’s starting to suspect that maybe it’s not that she can’t get to him, but that gin is actively avoiding her. She COULD climb the ranks until he can no longer avoid her— she is very good at this stylist gig, much to her surprise— but she doesn’t have the heart to do the backstabbing and bribing necessary for that. She is constantly warring between ‘I cannot pour my talent into something this morally bankrupt’ and ‘but maybe if I do my best, I’ll give my district’s kids a fighting chance’. 

Eventually, by the time ichiruki step up, rangiku is so sick of having to dress kids up nicely for slaughter that she hands in her resignation, gives up on gin, and is getting ready to move back home to her district. That is, until she sees what an absolute record-breaker ichiruki are becoming, and start to hope again— that maybe, this year things will be different. That maybe, they will be different. That maybe, at least one of ‘her kids’ won’t go home in a coffin this year, will instead require outfits for a victory tour instead— a victory tour that is accompanied by their stylists… and the host. 

So, rangiku comes back in an unofficial capacity to help ichiruki refine their act a bit more. But with less than one month left till the games commence, will what they come up with be enough to carry them through the entire games? And, even if it does— what will happen if at the end of it all, the two people who remain are ichigo and rukia— when only one person gets to return home alive? 

Very unrelated point, but: ichigo apologised to rukia for grabbing her wrist post-tribute interview. Just wanted to clarify it is NOT alright to grab at people under any circumstances— ichigo did it in the heat of the moment, but when everything was cleared up he apologised for it. Had to mention this somewhere because it bothered me so much while drawing this installment— Ichigo you have NO room to be scolding the reporter for grabbing rukia, you did it not too long ago yourself! Having said that, that’s probably why he’s being very touchy about this— it was something that had been a sore point for him too very recently. 

To be continued! 

#bleach #ichiruki #bleach fanart #artist life #bleach art life #kurosaki ichigo #kuchiki rukia #hunger games au

[sapiowoman28]

I can, I can't : Part 1 of 3

Pairing: Jaemin x female reader

Gener: best friends to lovers au, smut, fluff

Warning: mentions of sex, masturbation (Female)

Summary: Jaemin and Y/N are part of a group of best friends. One day, things change.....

They called themselves the dropouts. Brought up in good Catholic families, active within the Church community as kids, Catholic school education... the works. They then grew up and stopped going.

It wasn't some group thing were everyone agreed to stop going altogether at the same time. It was more like, one by one, they stopped going.

Jeno was the first to stop, at 15, after his parents got divorced. He became angry and withdrawn. By 16 he was mixing with the wrong crowd - think underaged drinking, partying, It was only after a close brush with the law that he - literally and figuratively - sobered up and decided to focus on healthier pursuits like education and sports. Thankfully too, the old Jeno that everyone knew and love came back.

Then were was Renjun. Renjun was always the one who wasn't really into religion anyway. He was more apt to believing in aliens and ghosts. His mother kept him going for as long as she could. By 18 he was out.

Haechan, as he got older, became a sporadic goer. After moving out on his own to live with the guys and Y/N in an apartment closer to campus, he stopped too.

Y/N? The older she grew, the more she learnt about the importance of gender equality. The more she embraced feminism, the more she found some church teachings hard to swallow.

All was left, of course, was Jaemin. Now Jaemin, he was still a "good boy", faithfully going to Church every Sunday. It wasn't that he was extremely religious. It was more that he had gone to Church every single week all his life. To not go one week felt odd and different.

The good thing was, nobody made fun of him or tried to stop him from going. Jeno even woke him up on Sunday mornings before he went for his 10km runs just so Jaemin would get to mass on time. (Mass is what Catholics call a church service.)

Y/N enjoyed hanging out with her friends. She was like one of the boys. It had always been like that since they were young. Everyone who knew Y/N knew she was not to be messed with. Not only was she capable of kicking anyone's balls, she also had four bros who would come after their ass too. In fact, guys who were interested in dating her would often try to get in good standing with the four guys so life would be easier for them. So it was hardly surprising that Y/N had never had her heart broken.

The problem was, Y/N was the one breaking hearts. Commitment wasn't her strongest suit, and more often than not she'd break off with whoever she was seeing with very trivial reasons, First she was dating Xiaojun. Then 7 months later she broke it off with him because apparently he "sucked at making out". The truth was, Xiaojun was good enough in bed but Y/N wanted to date the more exciting Yang Yang after meeting him at a frat party her gal friends dragged her to and making out with him. So Yang Yang it was. For a while she was happy. But then 10 months passed and Yang Yang was history. Now it seemed, was some guy called Lucas.

"Now, before you guys misunderstand, Lucas is not my boyfriend." Y/N declared over a pizza with Jaemin one Saturday night. "He's just... a friend..."

Jaemin raised his eyebrow. "You mean a friend with benefits? Cos based on what we have to hear every single Friday night, none of us think you guys are friends. Speaking of which.... Jeno wants me to talk to you."

"Let me guess, you lost rock paper scissors. Again. And that's why you're the one speaking to me."

"Well, we have house rules to follow..." Jaemin started, looking somewhat uncomfortable.

"Jeno and his stupid house rules." Y/N sighed. "What now? I can't bring Lucas home?"

"It's getting kind of weird for all of us...."

"You guys bring girls home all the time!" Y/N protested.

"I don't." Jaemin said. It was true.

"Jeno does. Haechan does. Even Renjun! Remember that weird Yoga chick he was seeing?"

"But they're not loud. Lucas sounds like he has a loudhailer in his throat and it's weird hearing him......we end up having to use headphones."

"I've tried asking him to tone it down. But he gets too excited when I blow him..." Y/N grinned as Jaemin covered his ears with his hands, not wanting to hear the details.

"Look, Jeno says he appreciates that YOU have gotten less loud since that time you were dating Yang Yang. But Lucas he's just.... too expressive. Can't you do it at his house or something? It's not the moaning as much as the dirty talk, you know?" Jaemin's voice was getting tinier and tinier.

"If Jeno has a problem, why can't he tell me himself?" I know it's not Haechan or Renjun who are complaining. Haechan's always gaming with his stupid headphones on and Renjun's always listening to music on his noise cancelling ones."

Jaemin sighed. "Don't put me in a tough spot, Y/N..."

He looked at her with puppy dog eyes.

"Fine. I'll speak to Lucas. But I'm only doing it cos of you, cos you good Catholic boy and virgin and all."

Jaemin rolled his eyes. "For the last time, Y/N, I'm not a virgin!"

Lucas took the news surprisingly well and he was happy to have her hang at his apartment instead. Which turned out to be a better thing, since his apartment was bigger and his housemates were never around. Y/N wondered why she insisted on making out at her apartment to begin with.

"I'm surprised Jeno was the one with the problem.." Lucas said after they had made out and she was snuggling in his arms.

"He has all these rules. The worst part is he makes Jaemin speak to me instead of telling me directly."

"It makes sense. You and Jaemin are close."

"I'm close to all four of them."

"No no no." Lucas said, "Each of them has a different thing with you."

"Explain, Mr Wong." she said, looking up at him.

"I think Jeno knows both of you have strong characters so he has Jaemin speak to you instead when there's an issue so you guys won't argue. He prefers to keep things light, so the most you're gonna get is Jeno making fun of you for having a thing for foriegn men."

"What about Haechan?"

"Haechan's your gaming bestie. You talk about gaming, and game together. But he'd kick the ass of anyone who gives you trouble."

"I think I'm least close to Renjun."

"I don't think it's that. It's more Renjun is kind of in his own world. He's like that with everyone. But he feels close to you guys."

Y/N was impressed.

"What about Jaemin?"

"Jaemin's like your total opposite. But you guys get each other. I like him. He's a good guy."

"Yeah he's a virgin." Y/N joked.

"He's a good looking guy! Heck, if I was a chick I'd go after him man!" Lucas said, his eyes expressive as always.

"Well, he's a good guy. I've never seen him bring a girl home."

"Come on man, when it comes to hormones, even good guys turn bad."

Lucas was driving her home when she got a call from Jaemin.

"Wassup?"

"Are you alone?" Jaemin asked. He sounded strange. "I need help."

"Are you ok?" Y/N asked. "I'm with Lucas. Where are you?"

"Oh. I'll call someone else..."

"Don't be an idiot, Jaemin. Where are you?"

"Hospital." he said. "Can you come? Just don't tell anyone anything. Not even Lucas."

She found him in a bad state at the hospital. Sitting in a daze, blood stains on his crumpled shirt. Y/N had never seen Jaemin look so small.

"Hey" she half whispered. He looked up.

"I can go now. I got an x-ray done. My nose is not broken. And it's finally stopped bleeding." he said. "I already collected my medicines. Mostly painkillers."

"What happened?" she asked.

"I don't want to talk about it." he said.

"Let's get home and get you out of these bloody clothes. And then you can tell me after you've had a good night's sleep."

"Can i sleep in your room tonight?" he asked. It was an unsual request. "I'm feeling quite shaken."

"Yeah. Sure. Let's do that."

It was 2am and he still couldn't sleep. She could feel him toss and turn next to her.

"Jae."

"Sorry."

"No, I can't sleep either."

He sat up.

"I need to get my ID card back. Can you follow me tomorrow?"

"Your ID card?"

"I was fooling around with a first year chick in her house. Her parents came back and caught us. Her dad took my ID away, said he was going to lodge a police report against me for tresspassing his house and taking advantage of his daughter. Well, that's after he beat me up."

Y/N sat up. This was interesting, she thought.

"She's 18?" she asked.

"Yeah."

"18 is legal you dumbass." she slapped her forehead.

"I thought it was 21.."

Y/N groaned. "I can't believe you're so stupid."

"But the trespassing thing?"

"They don't have a case Jae. I'm sure you can prove you were invited there. Even if she lies and said she didn't invite you. They can't prove it beyond a reasonable doubt."

"I'm so glad you're studying law."

"And Jaemin?"

"What?"

"It's illegal for him to detain your ID. YOU can report him."

"Oh. I didn't know that."

"Can you go sleep now that you know you're not actually in trouble?"

"Yes. Thanks Y/N." he said, turning to face the opposite side.

But Y/N couldn't sleep. Her mind was running a million miles a minute. Jaemin made out with someone. What was he like when making out? Was he gentle? Was he sweet like he always was to everyone? Was he a dom or sub? What did he do with the girl? Did he have fun?

Her own thoughts made her sick. Feeling a stir in her stomach made her sick. This was her best friend she was thinking of. She had to stop. Maybe she needed a shower.

Taking a towel with her to the bathroom, she shut the door, stripping quickly and getting under the hot jets of water. Damn it, Y/N, she scolded herself. Not Na Jaemin. What happened to your thing for Chinese guys?

She soaped herself trying to escape the mental picture of Jaemin, between the girl's thighs, lapping on her clit mercilessly, his eyes twinkling like they would whenever Jeno or Haechan said something witty. Suddenly, she was thinking of him between her legs, lapping at her core.

She brought her fingers to her clit, rubbing them from side to side. She leaned against the bathroom wall, moving more aggressively. She was wet. Biting her lip she pushed two fingers into her pussy, thrusting them in and out, the sound of the shower masking the wet noises as her fingers moved.

The muscles in her stomach were tightening. She could no longer hold back, thinking of Jaemin thrusting into her, looking at her with an intense gaze. She wanted him bad.

Slowly she came undone, as she moaned into her hands while cumming.

Suddenly, someone was knocking aggressively on the bathroom door. Y/N froze.

"I need to pee!" Haechan shrieked. "Hurry! I need to go back to my game!"

"Give me 2 minutes I'll be done." Y/N said, drying herself with her towel and getting dressed, mind still dazed from thinking about Jaemin. She knew their friendship was never going to be the same ever again.

She was just wondering how easy or hard it was going to be, to get Jaemin to join her on the other side.

#nct dream imagines #nct dream scenarios #nct dream smut #nct dream jaemin #nct dream jeno #nct dream haechan #nct dream renjun #wayv lucas #wayv yangyang #wayv xiaojun #nct imagines #nct scenarios #nct smut

[fleetwood-mac-andcheese]

My thoughts while watching Holes for the billionth time

It’s fucked up that the movie starts with all the supporting characters watching their friend attempt suicide

How long was Stanley’s trial and how short was Zero’s trial? Because we know that Zero got arrested the day after Stanley did, but he arrived at Camp Greenlake significantly earlier. Like, he knew Barfbag, he already had a nickname, people knew he liked to dig. How long was he there before Stanley showed up?

In the book when they sing the song, they howl on the word moon (it’s written “moo-oo-oon”) and I wish they did that in the movie

The Yelnatses screwed Stanley over by not getting him a lawyer. The little bits we see of his case prove they had no clue what they were doing. And when they eventually do get a lawyer, he’s let out almost immediately.

I love how Dr. Pendanski is written. He’s such a terrible person who has convinced himself and is trying to convince those around him that he is the nicest guy around. He fucking sucks and I love how he’s written and how Tim Blake Nelson plays him.

“Today’s menu: Chili, string beans, re-fried beans, garbanzo beans, green beans, and banana jello” — aren’t green beans and string beans the same thing?

The cinematic choices made in this movie are just *chef’s kiss*. The way they jump from timeline to timeline without ever losing pace is masterful

Eartha Kitt is flawless.

While Eartha Kitt is flawless, I want it noted that in the book, Madame Zeroni is described as a one legged Romani person (Sachar actually used the G slur) and Eartha Kitt is neither one-legged nor Romani.

Zero is the fastest digger in the camp, but they never really explain how big the camp is. Like, is he the fastest out of 25 people? 60 people, 140 people?

Just to revisit point 8, I fucking love Eartha Kitt

The yellow spotted lizards are such an excellent plot device

All the inmates are either A) mentally ill B) people of color or C) severely traumatized. But most of them are D) all of the above

When Squid throws out Stanley’s letter, catch Zero in the background with a pool cue ready to beat the shit out of that motherfucker

It’s weird that they show Sam as some kind of snake oil salesman when we know that his product actually works. The yellow spotted lizards won’t bite you if you’ve eaten his onions. Why claim they cure baldness or that Mary Lou is over 100 years old?

Zero back at it again ready to throw hands for Stanley, this time with a billiards ball

The fact that magnet got locked up for stealing a thousand dollar puppy

“You are here on account of one person. You know who that person is?” “Yeah, my no good, dirty rotten, pig-stealing, great great grandfather. That’s who it is”

Henry Winker provides such comedic levity

When Zero asks Stanley to teach him how to read and it’s such a nice moment of vulnerability, only to be shot down by Stanley. I just want to cry

What happens if someone actually dies at Camp Greenlake? Like, Zero and Stanley ran away and Barfbag got sent to the hospital, but they all survived. What would the protocol be if someone just dies while digging? Clearly there’s not a lot of oversight because Stanley can get away with Zero digging his hole, so what happens when one of those kids get overheated working all day in the Texas sun and just collapses in their hole one day and nobody thinks to check on them until the next day when the buzzards are all gathered around their corpse?

I’ve waited long enough to say this. Sigourney Weaver in this movie is one of the best performances I’ve ever seen. I fucking love her

Sam and Katherine. nuff said

“Well then I guess you’d be in a lot of trouble if your boat leaked.” *sobs*

Just casually reciting Edgar Allen Poe from memory as a way of professing my love to a woman I legally cannot be with due to racist laws forbidding interracial relationships.

I can’t help but remember that Scott Plank died during the post production of this movie. Respect to him and his ability to play such a good villain as Trout Walker

“No one ever says no to Trout Walker.” “I believe I just did.” SAY IT LOUDER, KATE!

Sam

I love that Kate’s MO came from a racist sheriff sexually harassing her

The sunflower seed thing reminds me of something that happened to me at RTC and it’s just a really nice moment for me

Stanley acting so casual by not doing the one thing he’s supposed to be doing

The look on Magnet’s face right before Stanley covers for him

I really want to know more about the Warden and Mr. Sir’s relationship

I also really want a bottle of that rattlesnake nail polish, but maybe that’s just me

I also really like that Sachar didn’t shy away from the racial implications of a white guy having a black guy do his labor for him. Then again, the whole story is an indictment of racism and the American prison system, so it makes sense he wouldn’t ignore that

The way Stanley gets so excited when Zero mentions that park. Like ‘oh, we have something in common. We used to go to the same park!’ and Zero just shuts it down with “I used to sleep in the tunnel next to the swing and bridge” Stanley may have been cursed, but he still had a home

Zero finally gets to throw hands on Stanley’s behalf. He’s been waiting to do that since point 14

Pendanski really is the shittiest

“No one cares about Hector Zeroni” “I do”

I love that Twitch was just instantly ready to help Stanley steal Mr. Sir’s car

What are the chances of Kate, Zero, and Stanley all finding Sam’s boat in the middle of the desert? And I know Kate probably spent years looking for it after the lake dried up and for Zero and Stanley it was destiny, but still

Zero, you gotta ration that sploosh

One more time for emphasis: I love Eartha Kitt

Kate dying and she hallucinates Sam, only to be snapped out of it by Trout Walker. Just Trout stopping them from being together one last time

“It hasn’t rained here since the day they killed Sam” and you think whatever deity made that happen is gonna let anyone in the Walker family end up with Kate Barlow’s fortune?

“I can’t leave without Hector.”

“Call my mom. Tell her I said I was sorry. Tell her Theodore said he was sorry” cue Small Steps

Justice reigns over the Walker family and rain falls over the Walker estate

I would love for someone to find out just how much that treasure chest was really worth. Can one of those theorist channels get on that, please?

Hector finding his mom is nothing short of heart-melting. I’m not crying, you’re crying

“Camp Greenlake was closed and the boys were released on time served and sent to real counselors” Wait, are you implying that forced labor is an unjust prison sentence? Someone better tell the prison industrial complex!

So what happened with Sweet Feet? Did they sit him down and explain the misunderstanding before or after signing him as the spokesperson for their product? He was the prosecution’s lead witness at Stanley’s trial, but nope! All is forgiven!

The soundtrack slaps

Point 53, however you have Shia Labeouf and Eartha Kitt in the same movie and you put which one of them on the soundtrack? Just wondering who made that call. Like, you layer ‘I Want To Be Evil’ or ‘Burned As A Witch’ over any of Kissing Kate Barlow’s scenes, it’d be perfect. But no, instead we get the dude from Even Stevens trying to rap.

#holes movie #holes by louis sachar #movie analysis #long post #Shia Labeouf #tw suicide #suicide tw #tw racism #racism tw #tw food #food tw #tw prison #prison tw #tw money #money tw #tw homelessness #homelessness tw #movies #Original #Jamie Talks

[ackermanshoe]

They said "eyes are the window to the soul"

Why is it that from Levi's mind's perspective the most prominent feature of Mikasa are her eyes?

* the eyes of determination that she choose over and over again*

The eyes-

representing clairvoyance, a gate way to the soul, honesty. No matter which way you choose to look at it, it all comes to a similar end. And what intrigues me about Levi's memory picking up on Mikasa's eye details is the fact that most of my rivamika moments are based off on Levi looking at her. It's the way his eyes changes while interacting with her too!

Low-key more interesting is that all the three images I put shows Mikasa with just one eye.

I asked Google to tell me all kinds of symbolism of eyes and

What does one eye mean in the Bible?

"the light of the body in the eye" do you get how this refer backs to the infamous quote "eyes are the window to the soul"? Both of these meanings are telling me that the eyes leads to a inner part of someone that is far more significant spiritually than physically. More specifically, if we go back to the "light of the body is the eye" we can interpret it in many ways with rivamika. It's the fact that Levi sees her so soulfully that his mind subliminally focuses on her "light of the body". I can bravely say this goes hand in hand with the fact that nobody, and I mean, no body sees her like Levi does. For example, Jean when he first encounterd her the thing he noticed about her was physical, it was her hair. Obviously this feature was noticed due to jeans own personal taste, based on his ego, hence it was more about himself than Mikasa. Just like that many people views Mikasa as the woman worth a 100 soldiers due to her strength which is the focal point of her character but to most people that is all she ever is, the strongest. Eren views Mikasa as someone who treats him like his kid brother and is often annoyed at that fact, thinking of freeing himself from her grip as he sought freedom but this perspective that he has on her is based on off his taste, his desires.

In simpler words, everyone's personal opinions influences how they view people, in this particular case, Mikasa.

In spirituality when we talk about the third eye or opening the third eye chakra what we are saying is connecting with one's inner self and opening yourself up to powers that existed within yourself, which would allow you to see the world a bit differently. Feel and read energy more accurately, connect their inner self, a self which does not bow before any boundaries of time, age and such things alike. Yes, I'm trying to say rivamika are spiritually connected, because Levi having this "opened third eye energy" perception towards Mikasa might be the exact reason why, not only us as biased rivamika fanodm, but also new aot watchers instinctively sense the tension between Levi and Mikasa. This might also be the reason for their uncanny similarities and parallels, their unspoken words that gets so kindly heard by only these two. Their odd ways of commuting or the lack of language night be due to them being spiritually connected.

SO going back to Levi's subconscious mind's focus suspiciously being on Mikasa's eye symbolises the fact that he sees Mikasa without the influence of his personal taste or ego. Even without isayama confirming, with this fact I can interpret Levi as a honest character who seeks honesty in Mikasa ( another symbolism of the eye : honesty). I come to the conclusion that Levi is the one person who sees Mikasa for herself no matter how strong how beautiful or obsessed she is with Eren.

Isn't this why no one but he questioned Mikasa's feelings towards Eren in the first place?

And no matter what, he understands her. Understanding is the baseline of their relationship. Misunderstanding is the cement that mikasa's perosnal walls were built on and with Levi's understanding nature challenging her walls to be broken down, and it did.

Lastly is like touch on the part that

The tree trunk with darker colour is the part that allows the audience to clearly see the visuals of his memory, and to place mikasa's face right in that spot over and over again makes other parts of the scenes in the background become blurred out. Thus Mikasa being the absolute focal point of his memory. We this was just something I wanted to point out but I'm sure we have all noticed this.

// thank you for reading my long asf analysis or whatever it is, hope you like it. I genuinely don't understand why it sometimes hurts to look at rivamika or just engage with the manga at all. Anyway byeeee //

#levimika #rivamika #levi x mikasa #rivamika analysis #just my thoughts and opinions

[shinsoussimp]

all right, you said it’s fine, so here’s another one 🤍 (yes, i’m addicted to your writings so :0 )

mirio? big yes. hurt/comfort with a gay reader? definitely.

so like, the reader used to study in another school, and had been outed and everyone in his class were very mean and rude about that. so now it’s his biggest fear to be outed again, but he really falls in love with mirio after some time. they spend a lot of time together, and get really close. reader doesn’t know mirio likes him back because for him, every person will be mad at (y/n) for liking boys (because of the past trauma yk). and one day someone from their class accidentally activated their “saying truth” quirk on reader and confession to mirio just slips from his lips in front of him and the whole class. and like, after that he runs away in absolute panic, thinking everyone will mock and hate him again. he starts avoiding mirio just not to see him disappointed, when in reality togata just wants to say he likes him back? 🥺 so one day he just catches him and doesn’t let him to run? 🥺 saying he would love to be his boyfriend 👉🏻👈🏻 maybe a bit comforting from classmates yk? sorry it’s so long again 😞🤍

a/n: sephiii you’re requests are always amazing :) i would never say no to you sending one in! i hope you like it!!

a/n: y/h/n= your hero name, also i said parent (they/them) in an effort to be more inclusive, i don’t know people’s family life. if you have any other ideas where i can be more inclusive, please let me know!

TW: homophobia, violence (shoving), blackmail

a/n: requests are open! (p.s. i’m on a mirio kick right now to let everyone know ahaha)

Mirio x homophobia

becoming a hero was always your dream, since you were a little kid. you didn’t want anything standing in the way of that. so when you finally made your way to shiketsu high, you were determined to never let anyone find out about you being gay. but somehow, it still happened.

“yo, y/h/n!” a second year student ran up to you as you were walking to the cafeteria and threw his arm around your shoulder, “can you do a favor for me?~” he always would get you to help him cheat on exams, but at this point, you were tired of breaking the rules.

“dude i can’t keep doing this. i’m not gonna risk getting in trouble so you can get good grades. try studying.” you huff while shaking his arm off you. he moves to stand in front of you to block your path as you try to get to your table, and he gets visibly more and more angry.

“seriously?” he says through clenched teeth. you could tell he was one of those kids who was too used to getting what he wants whenever he wants it, and he doesn’t know how to handle anything different. 

“i’m serious. we would’ve been caught some day.” you try to move around him but he grabs your arm and starts pulling you to the middle of the cafeteria. 

“fine. then i guess i’m gonna have to tell everyone your little secret.” shit. you had gotten so used to helping him you forgot the reason why you began your little deal in the first place, he knew you were gay. before you could stop him, he had already begun.

“hey, everyone! i have a little announcement that you all would enjoy. y/n over here, y/h/n if you will, is gay.” you weren’t able to cover his mouth without him grabbing your wrists and holding them down by your sides so he could continue talking, “that’s right, he likes dick. do with that what you will~” he shoves you back a bit when he finally lets go of your arms, and waltzes out of the cafeteria like nothing even happened. everyone starts gossiping around you, giving you weird looks as you run off into the bathroom. 

once the bell rang and you needed to go to class, you tried to get there early, so you didn’t need to walk in front of a full classroom. you sat in the back today, but that didn’t mean you were invisible. it started with the girls that sat in front of you giggling, then one of the boys that only had your number for a group project sent you an eggplant emoji. but the cherry on top was one of the most well known boys in your class coming up to you and asking, for everyone to hear, if you were trying to suck his dick. luckily the second bell rang and the teacher came in, forcing them all to back off for now, but this lasted for the next week. it lasted up until you couldn’t take it anymore. you stood up and stormed out of the classroom and never returned. you didn’t go to school for the rest of the year. and with you refusing to return to shiketsu high, you thought your dream of being a hero was ruined. but one morning your parent mentioned the idea of applying to ua. 

even though you thought you had no chance of getting in, you took a chance. you went to the admissions office, sent in your application, did all the interviews, and now it was time to wait. and now after a long summer, you finally got a letting from ua.

you got in.

not only were you thrilled to be admitted to the best school for heros, you were thrilled that you never had to go back to shiketsu. you could start over, continue your hero journey. and hopefully you would not get in another situation like last time. 

your first two months at your new school went great. you were a second year now, and getting to do many new and exciting things with your training. you made great friends and even developed a bit of a crush. this was dangerous territory, since you didn’t want anyone to know about your sexuality, but you couldn’t stop yourself from hanging out with him. the person in question? mirio togata. the cute third year you passed by in the halls and always came in your class to talk about his experience as lemillion. and you got to call him your friend. you two trained together, you hung out with him and the rest of the big three after school, and he always made sure to join you during lunch breaks at school. in such a short period of time, you two became best friends. and you would never risk messing that friendship up. 

but then one day, the unthinkable happens. you thought since things had been going so well for so long, you were in the clear. nobody seemed to know, shiketsu kids didn’t snitch, and training was going incredibly. you and a group of second and third years were hanging out in an empty classroom when someone suggested playing truth or dare.

the rules were simple, pick dare and someone picks a dare for you to do, pick truth and you would be hit by your classmate, asami’s quirk. her quirk was called confession. when in effect, you will be compelled to spill one of your deepest secrets. but you seemed to have a bit of a misunderstanding of her quirk. you didn’t get to choose which secret. so little did you know, your fake secret that you ‘once called your teacher mom in 3rd grade’ was not going to be of use.

“you excited?” mirio plopped down next to you happily. you nodded, because you were. you were genuinely excited to have a friend group and play stupid games like this. 

after a few rounds, mostly of people picking dare, you wanted to be the one to switch it up. so once mirio finished bawking like a chicken and walking all around the room with his arms bent like wings, you prepared for your turn.

“truth or dare, y/n?”

“truth.” everyone dramatically gasps, then all bursting out into a fit of laughing, talking about how you had some balls to pick truth. asami sat down in front of you and took a deep breath to prepare herself.

“you ready?” she smiles. you nod, letting her hand brush yours. you felt a rush of warmth through your body then suddenly your mouth was moving.

“i’m gay. i’m really fucking gay and i like mirio.” your hand slaps over your mouth, your stomach dropping as your whole body starts shaking. that was not what you wanted to say. but there is no going back now, and you didn’t want to be here when everyone started teasing you. you especially didn’t want to see what mirio had to say about it. you didn’t want to see the disappointment that would surely be on his face. you jump up and race out of the room, ignoring mirio’s pleas for you to stop running.

he was sent to talk in your class that day, but he didn’t see you. you had decided to go home early for the day. would you really have to leave ua? you were beside yourself with anger and sadness, having to leave the best school because of a stupid game spilling your secret. you knew when you returned there would be endless teasing. it was possible that your friend group spilled the beans to the whole school and now even the first years knew. your parent tried to take your feelings into account, but they wanted to remind you of your dream, your biggest passion.

“you want to save people. it doesn’t matter if you’re gay, you can still protect people, that doesn’t stop anything.” you keep your face shoved into the pillow you were hugging close to your chest as they spoke. they took a deep breath and placed a comforting hand on your back, “look worse case scenario, they told everyone, and now people tease you. they’ll probably get over it, and if not, it’s only two more years. then you get to live your dream happily, as yourself.” 

their words encouraged you to return to school after about a week. but you still couldn’t face your friend group. especially mirio. so when the lunch bell rang, you left the school building and made your way to the side of it to eat lunch out on a bench by some trees. you figured that mirio or some of your friends saw you, but you prayed that they wouldn’t follow you. sadly those prayers would go unanswered because next thing you know you hear a familiar voice shouting your name. you turn around and see mirio jogging towards you. you turn around and start walking faster in an effort to avoid him, but right as you arrive at the bench you’re stopped by his hand wrapping around your arm.

“would you talk to me?!” he pulls your arm, making you turn around, “you drop a bomb like that and then fall off the face of the earth for a week?!” you sigh and set down your lunch and bag behind you, still not saying anything.

“y/n seriously. what the hell?”

“if you came here to make fun of me, just get it over with.” you finally look up at him, all of your walls up taller than ever before as you prepared to have your heart broken. 

“what are you talking about?” his face has confusion written all over it but it has to be fake. he’s trying to trick you into thinking you’re safe then he’ll talk about how stupid you are to all of your other friends that has to be-

“you really think i would make fun of you?” his voice is soft and even in such a high stress moment, still puts butterflies in your belly. but he’s lying.. he has to be. he’s gonna react how everyone else did.

“y/n, i would never.” he takes a step towards you and reaches out his hand, but you slap it away taking another step back.

“i’m not gonna fall for it! you all are gonna react exactly how all those dumbass shiketsu kids did!” tears start streaming down your face and you realize that you’re shaking again. you sit down on the bench behind you and put your face in your hands as uncontrollable sobs kept coming. mirio knelt down in front of you and put his hands on your knees.

“i like you too.” your head shoots up and you look at him with wide eyes.

“w-what?”

“if you hadn’t ran out the day you said it, you would have heard that i like you too. and i didn’t know if you were gay or not but i really wanted to find out.” you relax a bit as your brain tries to comprehend the idea of something like this happening, “they all said that i was a lovestruck idiot... and they were all accepting.” he held your hands in his as you lifted your head so you could look at him.

“they all love you. and they’ve been worried sick, wondering what happened to you. but most of all me. i thought you left the school i-” he pauses to take a deep breath, “i thought i lost you.” his grip on your hands tightens. suddenly the tears streaming down your face were tears of joy, accompanied by a few laughs. he stands up and pulls you up with him, wrapping his arms around you, swallowing you in a warm bear hug.

“i would love to be your boyfriend, if you’re okay with that.” you giggle into his chest and grip onto the back of his shirt.

“i am okay with that.” he pulls his head back a bit to look at you, for a few moments not saying anything just making a smug face at you.

“i was hoping you would be, i mean you are ‘really fucking gay’“ he teases. you smack his chest as you shake your head, laughing. he explains how you should go talk to your friends and explain what happened, then you two could tell them the good news. he even started planning a date as you two made your way back to the school building, while holding hands of course.

you didn’t know it was possible, but you were going to be okay. you were going to be able to be yourself. you couldn’t wait for what the rest of your time at ua would hold.

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