#thank you cherry love

[colormepurplex2]

More, more, more 👀

On weird questions 5, 6 and 11 PLIZ :3

More, more, more! Yes! Here, here, here 💜

Weird Questions For Writers:

5. Do you have any writing superstitions? What are they and why are they 100% true? Oh...umm...👀 the first thing that comes to mind is not starting a fic until I have a title set for it. I know that might seem counterintuitive to some, but I need it before I can begin otherwise, to me, the story has no foundation and can easily fall apart. However, I am okay with the title changing, if the story and writing process take me in a different direction than the original title was directing me. For instance, Chasing Shadows was originally titled Shot In The Dark, but as the story developed, the title did, too.

Another one is that I can't have a character with a name that is the same as someone I know or a family member. I work so hard on names sometimes just so I can avoid a name that reminds me of someone. Unless it's the name of a villain or something, I'm working on a fic right now where a character is named Chaddick, which is a play on the name Chad + dick (all Chads that I know are dicks) and even though I know people named Chad, I'm okay with using the name because it holds more significance for my story than the person in real life holds in my life, if that makes sense? I even have a hard time reading stories that use people in my family or close friends' names. I tried reading a story a few months ago where one of the main male characters had the same name as my kiddo and I ended up having to DNF it simply because I couldn't read that name without thinking about my kid.

6. What is your darkest fear about writing? My darkest fear about writing? I think it would be acceptable to say something like rejection or low reception...but, when I honestly think about it, I believe the thing I fear the most is becoming one of those writers that don't care about sensitivities or growth. I've always tried to make it a point to not write about potentially discriminating things. I purposely try not to include a physical description or use those physically descriptive words when I write a reader insert story. At the same time, I also try to be informed on social issues and keep those in mind when writing as well. I don't want to ever come off as offensive, even if it's accidental or not intentional. The worst thing I could do as a writer is make someone uncomfortable or feel out of place in my works. It's not always been easy, and I know I've made missteps that I've learned from...but, that's my darkest fear, becoming blind to those things I've worked so hard to open my eyes to. As someone who has fought their own battles in similar areas, I understand just how important being open to learning, change, and growth is.

11. Do you believe in the old advice to “kill your darlings?” Are you a ruthless darling assassin? What happens to the darlings you murder? Do you have a darling graveyard? Do you grieve? This...makes me sad haha. I have done it...sort of. I never truly 'kill' the darling. I will take whatever bit of the story that needs to come out/be killed and I'll drop it into another doc. I hate the idea of writing being completely deleted, so I'll just hang on to it until the time is right and introduce it in another story or a different place of the one it was removed from. Of course, minor changes might be necessary for the darling, but it'll never truly die...even if it lives inside my WIP ideas folder for the rest of its life 👀

These questions were so good, made me really think. There are more if you're interested 💜

#tag game #fic writer asks #weird questions for writers #thank you cherry love #cherrysoulth inquiry

[goldenamaranthe-blog]

Puppy Love 2: Fanfiction

Cherri: Hey, Fuckheads! (Waves her phone in the air) Didja see that someone's been writing cringy fanfiction about the hotel and its occupants?!

Angel: What?! No way! Send us a link to the page! I gotta see this!

Cherri: (puts the user link in the Hazbin group chat)

Angel: Whoa-ho-hoa! What's with some of these ships?! NifftyDust?! Who pairs me with Niffty?! They also got me with Pen's Egg Bois!

Niffty: Awwww, I was hoping it would be with that bad boy at the club! Oh! I'm in a polyship with the Vees!

Cherri: Ha! StaticRadio is another big one for this writer. Never would have thought Vox and Alastor would be a mutual pining.

Alastor: (glitches out) What did you say???? (Peers over Cherri's shoulder) Oh, Zestial and Carmine are a ship, and they also put me with Rosie. That's not so bad.

Cherri: (reading one of the three Explicit rated works) Even if Rosie is pegging you with her ex-husband's dick?

Alastor: (Wendigo screeches echo through the hotel)

Husker: Why am I the hotel slut????? This guy's got me paired with literally everyone in the hotel!!!

Charlie: ......Everyone?

Husker: Even you, Princess. (Slams a bottle of Everclear) I need to forget I ever read this.

Lucifer: WHO PAIRED ME WITH SERA?!?!?!?! Who the Unholy Hell is Carmilla Carmine?! I'm paired with her, too!!!

Cherri: Awwwww~ I'm mostly paired up with Pentious..... okay, there's one for Angel. (Shrugs) Eh... Not the worst, but still not my thing.

Charlie: They can't be that bad, right? (Checks the page) I'M PAIRED WITH LUTE AND EVE?!?!?!?!?!?! (Scrolls feverishly) I DON'T HAVE A SINGLE WORK WITH VAGGIE?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Hazbins: (pause)

Angel: Wait a minute.... (scans through the ships) There ain't a single one of us paired with Vags.

Charlie: (plasters her face to Angel's) Who IS she paired with???

Angel: Some bitch named Emily? (Scrolls) Looks like about half of these fics are Vaggie and Emily.... With one rated E fic, too..... (Taps random fic) "Emily knew this could only end badly, but the way the fallen angel stared at her with a smoldering eye made her go weak at the knees. The two reached out and..." What the fuck??? (squints) "Passionately held hands"???

Charlie: (eyes bleed red as she scrolls up to the Author Name) Who's writing these?

Vaggie: (finally bothering to open the link and reads the page username) "Em-Emmie-E"

Charlie: (eye twitches, and she roars so loud that all of Pride can hear) EMILY!!!!!!!

-Meanwhile: In Heaven-

Emily: (watching Hell like it's the latest episode of Days of Our Lives and taking notes)

EMILY!!!!!!

Emily: (fumbles her notebook) Oh, peach crumble!

#hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel incorrect quotes #puppy love part 2 #fanfiction cracks #alastor #zestial #carmilla carmine #charlie morningstar #chaggie #vaggie #cherri bomb #angel dust #hazbin hotel husk #husker #husk #lucifer morningstar #niffty #sera #emily #thank you anon

[chrollohearttags]

With AOTs last episode… Imagine if rumors spread that musician!Eren and Mikasa had something going on in the past. Then reader gets wind of it and they breakup!! I couldn’t imagine what was going through Eren’s head when the media hears about this shit!!!!!

ayooo! I swear, y’all are geniuses fr. I was thinking of something like this. And here I was needing a little drama (I’ll definitely have to do this as a full fic in the future but I gotta talk about thisss sksksjs!!)

content + themes: infidelity(?), angsty vibes, lots of drama, mentions of sex, alcohol mentions

── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ.─── ── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* : ── ･

“Let’s get into this tea, honey. Cause it’s HOT! So boom, (influencer name) this girl right here..is engaged to this man, EJ The Don. This lady here is Mikasa Ackerman, or formerly known as MikaASH. Who is also the manager for both of them. Welllll, girl. Allegedly, she was over here hunching on Mr. EJ behind Miss (y/n)’s back! Mind you, miss girl got a whole HUSBAND herself—“

“Y’all already know what we’re gonna talk about so just buckle in. I could not believe this when I heard it. So word is going around that EJ the Don, Mr. Underground God, the Living Dead Boy..whatever the fuck his name is has been cheating on his girl. And if you don’t know who she is, this is (y/n) (l/n), leader of the Pole Assassins. Gorgeous, gorgeous woman..but this asshole decided to not only fuck around on her but with their manager nonetheless!—“

it was inescapable..every other scroll through TikTok’s feed was some person with a pair of earbuds, speaking over the static wafting through the microphone as they stood before and floated in front of a green screen..pictures and articles of the story plastered behind them. What was the latest topic of discussion and juiciest gossip for the masses; a sure fire way to get themselves circulating in the algorithm was your sad reality. A reality that you wish was all made up.

two people you loved and cared for deeply betraying you in an indescribable way. The woman who’d all but given you your start in this industry. Acting as that of a sister rather than a manager as she helped you navigate fame. And the man..you loved more than life itself. Who showed you what it meant to be happy for the first time in your life. Sleeping together behind your back…you had never felt pain quite like this. There were physical pangs in your chest, your stomach in knots and all of the air feeling as if they had dissipated from your lungs. At that moment, you wanted to disappear into nothing..fade away and never be seen again. But life went on!..you had obligations, business affairs, everything you’d work so hard to achieve. Meanwhile, your phone wouldn’t stop ringing. Missed calls and texts from them both, constantly sounding off back to back because lord knows if you answered, you’d only end up saying or doing something you’d regret. Much like you had hours ago when you stormed out of you and Eren’s home, bags packed with him running after you..tears in his eyes and the promise that nothing had ever happened. But there was proof. Pictures of them all over each other; Mikasa sporting her leather clad, skimpy attire she would wear on stage and him happily grabbing her hips as she bent over. It made you sick to your stomach. Physically ill even..it was too much for you to bare. Apologies, no matter how frequently and loud they were, would never absolve that hurt. The thought of them touching, kissing and doing god knows what behind your back..in your bed!

“Please (y/n)! I know what this seems like but that was from years ago. We were drunk, probably even high. Somebody took those of us, thinking they had something they could sell off to TMZ but you’ve gotta believe me when I tell you..nothing ever happened. I would never come between what you and Eren have—“

“Girl, please. Spare me the tears. If you wanna fuck him, he’s all yours. I’ll be damned if I ever compete for my spot. You got it.”

as much as you were trying to wear the brave face, you were torn apart and seeing her in full blown hysterics, trying to plead their case. But you were having none of it. As for Eren, he was in no better shape. He was devastated..heartbroken. More so than anyone could imagine. He wasn’t even going to bother heading to social media to clear his name as other accused cheaters had done so in the past. Rather, he downed the various bottles of liquor, stowed away in the studio’s cabinets. Angry and frustrated. More so importantly confused.

“Aren’t you going to go get her back, Mr. Jaeger? She can’t possibly believe that’s true. You guys would never..”

“Well she does and when she gets her mind set on something, there’s no changing it…”

how in the hell had a rumor like this started anyway?! Who was so bored as to drudge up old photos and post them, claiming that they had slept together. And most of all?….

how could he face you again..not knowing if it was true himself?

#cherry’s asks 🍒 #nonnies 🍒🌹 #thank you precious nonnie #you have given me plenty of fuel to be messy with!!! #🤭🤭🤭 #aot x black reader #black fem reader #attack on titan #musician x influencer au #eren x black fem!reader #aot au #black reader smut #this is my type of nonsense #I love me some drama #black reader #eren jaeger #eren jaeger x black reader #eren yeager #mikasa ackerman #eren x mikasa #mikasa aot #p2 coming soon #black fanfiction #aot drabbles #aot #snk #musician au #aot imagines #cw infidelity #cw smut

[safe-from-sharp-teeth]

What do you think of robotic/cyborg preds?

-🍒🥧

Pros:

Very well protected, I love preds with armored exteriors

Could utilize some INSANE anatomy. How would the throat work? I don't even know but it would be awesome.

AIR CONDITIONED STOMACH?????????

Cons:

Being on the inside of a machine sounds like a bit of a death trap (I love danger)

If the stomach is made of metal, you will bonk your head a LOT

#*appears out of the mist* HELLO #thanks for the ask cherry pie anon!! #WORK IS KICKING MY ASS IM ALIVE I PROMISE AHHhh #and i love all of you!! #zan art #extreme cuddling #safe vore #soft vore #sfw vore #v0re #tw vore #zan asks

[shadowsfascination]

The grass is greener in the good future <3

#amy rose #shadow the hedgehog #shadamy #amadow #shadowsfascination #my art #artists on tumblr #spring #cherry blossom #tarot cards #dango daikazoku #japan #sonic the hedgehog #sth #amy chao #rosie #why yes I wrote 'Miracle of Love' in japanese on the wind chime thank you for noticing <3

[aphvlion]

Good Omens fandom, I love you but I need you to realize that ineffable husbands was canon long before they kissed.

Asexual relationships exist and- even though Ace relationships can be physical- don't NEED to be for them to be valid. The physical aspect of a relationship isn't the only one and certainly not the one that matters the most.

And some things I've been seeing sound a tiny bit too much like thinly veiled acephobia for me.

[edit: canon as in they both had love for each other, not necessarily canon as in a romantic relationship]

[edit 2: not aimed at you tumblr peeps, this was about sth I saw on TikTok but Tiktokers scare me so I needed to air out my frustration here; All of you have been very lovely 🤍]

#good omens #good omens 2 #good omens spoiler #ineffable husbands #asexuality #friendly neighbourhood asexual here #stop invalidating us thank you #crowley and azi were in love long before they kissed #it becomes so crystal clear during the first few episodes of s2 #the kiss was nice and the cherry on the top but if you needed that to see them as a couple idk

[sergle]

I think my favorite thing about doing ginger red hair instead of cherry red hair is: lying to people about it

#I love the cherry red / wine red and I'll probably go back at some point bc it's my Origin. #but for now. #I don't actively lie to people but bc it's a Natural and Plausible hair color #and I'm already pale and I dye my eyebrows to match my hair. ppl figure it's natural #and it has come up MULTIPLE TIMES. and I've recently been rolling with it instead of correcting ppl. bc who cares? #recent examples that come to mind (but I did correct them in this one) my surgeon assuming it was natural #and using my genetics as a natural redhead as a baseline to tell me about what I can expect from my future scarring #and then again later with the anesthesia. they were going to dose me differently #the anesthesiologist glanced at me when I came into the OR and was getting the stuff ready on his cart #and when he heard me talking to my doc and re-telling him that oh the hair isn't natural #he was behind the curtain like FUCK #taking shit off his cart and quietly redoing his setup #that's how I learned that redheads need higher doses of anesthesia than other ppl. #they also need more of the topical stuff like lidocaine. apparently they metabolize it faster(?) #ANYWAY he was going to up my dose thinking I needed it lol #so i almost got way more sedatives and pain meds than i needed bc of my hair dye LMAOOO #other more Normal Life examples was a country dude in full hunting gear holding a door open for me someplace #and I said thank you and he lifted his hat up to point at his (natural) red hair and said ''twins!'' #this one sticks with me because that was such a cute thing to do. what the hell #and at snakefest I was talking to some people at their food truck. there was an older guy who trapped me into a convo for like 30mins #he was Very Nice. and they were going to some type of irish festival next and said I should go too bc I'll be right at home #flat out just was like. this bitch looks irish #and I don't know why all of this is so funny to me. it has no reason to be.

[deedala]

Colorwheel Timestamp Roulette ⇆ 10x11: Location, Location, Location ↳Sage + 11 for @too-schoolforcool

#shamelessedit #shamelessnet #shameless #shameless us #gallavich #gallavichedit #ian x mickey #lip gallagher #ian gallagher #mickey milkovich #debbie gallagher #liam gallagher #tami tamietti #giffed🍂 #colorwheel timestamp roulette #i love season 10!!! thank you cherry <<333 #s10 #10x11

[ambivartence]

#poll #i couldnt rlly think of a cult class nct dream song.... maybe my first and last? or boom? #also nct 127 also has cherry bomb but i like kick it more #wanted to put mx love killa and tbz the stealer and got7 you calling my name #but all of them had much fewer spotify streams and i wanted to list only the most popular ones ! the truly iconic 🤭 the ones i knew #before i even knew any of the members' names i knew these songs #honestly i knew some of these before i properly listened to kpop #the power the inFLUENCE these hold on me !!! anyways maybe u wont agree 🫠 hence the poll 😃👍 #EDIT SORRY I USED THE TERM CULT CLASSIC JUST PRETEND I MEAN KPOP IS A CULT BC IT IS #ofc tumblerinas would get sensitive about me misusing that term i get it i get it we all love to hate on mainstream kpop 🤭 #thank u for at least reblogging w ur feedback 🫡 the more the merrier

[eurydia]

Inferna Victoria (Portrait of the Archdevil and Archduchess Supreme of the Nine) a royal portrait of Raphael and Tav in the style of a Van Dyck for my fic, The Lover's Gambit. it's now my most popular fic, thank you so much for your support! you all have exquisite taste ❤️

Raphael's outfit was inspired by a beautiful gifset by @cherriesandsulphur

details, context below

[Solo Raph painting]

Baroque is one of my fave art movements. the in-game art looked inspired by it, and I wanted to do a piece that combined my love for it and royal portraiture. this was inspired by the works of Flemish Baroque master Anthony Van Dyck.

this is one of the most ambitious and detailed pieces I've done so far: the fullsize is 22 x 32in, and it took over 50+ hrs. royal portraiture usually has extensive detail, so I wanted to make it as detailed as possible. it was challenging and time consuming, but a lot of fun!

framed version (Cassetta frame from the Met website:)

process

spoiler details (for the game + fic)

- their ship came about because I wanted to give Raph a chaotic evil counterpart to his lawful evil. basically he’s the “mansplain, manipulate, malewife” to her “gaslight, (Baldur’s)gatekeep, girlboss” lol.

- I hc this Tav’s ending is the “In my name” one. though I hc she says “In our name” instead ;)

- visually, it looks like Raphael has more power but I hc it’s actually Tav for several reasons: many elements of the composition lead to her (Raph’s sash, arms, the curtains), she’s wearing her crown and is seated, and is also foremost while Raph is in the back.

- Raph’s crown is ceremonial/for vanity only while Tav’s tiara has enough fragments of the stone to be fully functional.

- The crown’s design is based on concept art, and if you look closely it kinda looks like it has hearts on the sides. I added the red gems.

I hc that Raph is a romantic and some of his lines seem to allude to this (code phrase of “my heart’s desire”, the Amulet of Greater Health, which Tav is wearing here, in a prominent place in his house, and his words to Hope in a transcript: “…serve me with your whole heart”)

- I hc they’re married at this point. Tav’s ring has two additional gems, and her outfit in general was inspired by the canon design of the Crown of Karsus.

- there’s a lot of red because according to Hope, Raph’s favorite color is “blood”. my hc for the painting overall is that it was done by his personal painter, maybe a debtor who has to paint for him for all eternity (not a bad deal right? /s) so it reflects his and Tav’s requests.

- I picture this hanging either above Raph’s fireplace in the dining room. or bedroom - much to Haarlep’s dismay 🤣

#bg3 #bg3 fanart #raphael x tav #bg3 raphael #raphael the cambion #tav x raphael #raphael/tav #baldurs gate 3 #baldur's gate 3 #oc: leilana #inferna victoria = 'delusions won' in latin #fun fact - i had an easier time drawing raph than my own Tav lol (been staring at his smarmy face too much probably) #really proud of this one and thank you again for all the love on the fic <3 #please check out cherries' other edits!! they're amazing!!

[colormepurplex2]

Hiiiii 👀💜 How are you doing?

I would like you to answer 1, 7 and 10 from fic writer questions ☺️

My lovely Cherry! Hi, hello, you beautiful soul 💜 I'm doing much better now that you're here 😍 Questions For Fic Writers: 1. What fic of yours would you recommend to someone who had never read any of your work? (In other words, what do you think is the best introduction to your fics?) If someone who had never read anything of mine wanted a suggestion, I would offer them two for the sake of covering all ground. If they're okay with reading something that is ongoing and gets updated maybe once every few months, I'd offer them Fickle Flame, it's the first fic I ever wrote/started that truly embraced my inner writer's voice the way I want it to be. I stepped outside of the boundaries that I was keeping myself in, the ones that I was trying to keep to because I was more worried about appeasing the masses instead of giving myself writing satisfaction. Fickle Flame is dark, dirty, gritty, and holds the best parts of me as a writer, I think. It's also probably why it takes me so long to write updates for it, I pour so much of my writing prowess into creating it. Now, if someone would prefer a finish piece, something that's completely and wholly done; then I would offer them Lights, Camera, Action. It's a fairly underrating piece, in my opinion. It's a Namkook x Reader and it's my first true full-on smutty mmf outside of an ot7 situation. Similar to Fickle Flame, this was me stepping outside of those boundaries I had in place, writing something that was more true to my nature as a writer and something that fit my creative voice more. P.S. I might also suggest Til Death Do Us Part if the person wanted less smut and more angst/action, though 👀

7. Any worldbuilding you’re particularly proud of? It would have to be the world-building I've done for Fickle Flame. It's far more extensive than any other fic I've published to date. There are so many small details and complexities that I've worked into the fic, I had page after page after page of notes on it. I've written more notes for this fic revolving around the world-building and lore than I have for any other piece, hell the notes are longer than some of my actual works. I really wanted this fic to be something special, and I think I achieved that. I'm super proud of it.

10. How do you decide what to write? I'd like to think the stories pick me...is that cheesy? Honestly, I use a lot of dreams for inspiration. But, my longest-running fic (series), Souls of Seoul-nearing 50 chapters (across two fics), is based on a poem I wrote in 2010. I've spent the last 10 years periodically working on the lore for it and waiting for the right opportunity to turn it into something more. Fickle Flame is based on a dream I had in 2014, just the opening scene, the rest came after I couldn't get the dream out of my head. A few others are dream-based, too. Though, a lot of my other works are from writing events or prompts/requests. I also have a series I've based on music (though, I've only posted 1 from that series so far). I guess, all of that is to say there are many ways that I find inspiration. 🤭 Still open for more of these asks 💜

#tag game #fic writer asks #getting to know me #thank you cherry love #cherrysoulth inquiry

[zarnzarn]

IS THIS A DEFEAT OR A VICTORY CAN I GET A HALLELUJAH????

(requests for one-shots open in celebration!)

#WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCKENING #ao3 #helluva boss and hazbin hotel you crazy sons of bitches #thank you. to everyone who brought me to this moment and for all the incredible love and joy i recieve from you all #dipping into emotions for a second. ao3 has kept me going for the past 4 years and its been such a lifeline to get such enthusiasm #in response to my silly little indulgences #but also i really need to reply wow #and on this note!!!! as celebration!!! WRITING REQUESTS FOR EVERY SINGLE HELLAVERSE PROMPT YOU CAN THINK OF ARE OPEN!!!! #stolitz #radiohusk #moxmil #huskerdust #chaggie #radioapple #royalflush #sir pentious #cherri bomb #fizzblitz #barbie wire #fizzmodeus #but really. i should fucking reply to my inbox. #helluva boss

[chrollohearttags]

thank you all for your well wishes and love, I really appreciate it. I didn’t exactly plan to go on hiatus or leave. Honestly, I was just fine, nothing major even happening in life (at least I thought so) but I ended up having an unexpected mental break of sorts. School and work has always been manageable but work has began its busiest season and this last class was a little trying so I’m guessing it became too much. I started isolating from everyone and hadn’t been very social lately. Not to mention, I’m preparing to have surgery in a few months. Truthfully though, I think I just became exhausted with this app and its nonsense..or the clock app I should say. Like I said, I’ve been working on being less combative and confrontational on here bc it’s not who I am and as I stated in my post a couple months ago, if I have to be in defense mode, I don’t want to be here. Although I’ve gotten no anon hate recently, I can see posts. I can see anons being sent by proxy of my friends and I can see screenshots of my name being mentioned in comments on apps I don’t even use. I’ve always been very passionate about my writing and I try my best to pour as much of myself into it as I can. I know people say ‘passion project’ or ‘magnum opus’ but that’s what I strive for with each of my works. I never wanna give bare minimum, hence why I deny certain anons or don’t write certain tropes if they don’t align with that purpose.

Again, I’m perfect by no means and my fics are not for everyone. However, having these straw man fics about baby mamas and drug dealers attached to me is infuriating (not bc I have an issue with them, but bc it shows some of you don’t truly read my work) With that being said, I’ve got the next two weeks off from school and I’ve been working on some stuff I’m really excited to share. My only request is that y’all start spreading more love to ur writers..show ppl that you love their works. The energy that you use to critique and throw hate, use it to be reblog and show appreciation. I’ve seen so many great writers leave this app and I hate to join them, but I’m just not going to burn myself out for mediocre feedback and diet lite racist commentary. I have Google Docs and my drafts, I’m good. Be blessed everyone <3

#cherry chats 🍒 #anyways hope everybody has been doing okay #love you all so much #thank you for checking on me #mini Thursday morning rant #can’t wait to be back posting

[ctrl-alt-cel]

when i was 13 i wrote an essay explaining the rationale of puppyshipping to some guy in a skype chatroom. found the essay again. wanted to rewrite it. without further ado:

HERE’S HOW PUPPYSHIPPING CAN STILL WIN: THE SEQUEL: 2 PUPPY 2 SHIPPING (4.3k words)

⠀

kaiba and jounouchi’s relationship stands at an awkwardly undefinable place in canon: they're not on good terms, but they're not enemies either. they know each other too well to be called passing acquaintances, but kaiba hardly acknowledges jounouchi as a duelist, let alone a potential rival. at best? they're mutual nuisances.

or, that's how jounouchi and kaiba choose to define it. both of them would love if their dynamic were that simple, nothing more than a back-and-forth of petty insults—but that’s not the truth. and they'll dance around the truth for five whole seasons, purposefully downplaying why they’re so obsessed with provoking each other whenever they’re in the same place.

they're foils.

—but the term "foils" is so dulled within fandom lexicon now that it can mean literally anything from two guys who just disagree with each other sometimes, so i'll sharpen this further. jounouchi and kaiba see their counterpart less as an individual person but more a representation of who they could have become if they had respectively, in their eyes, never learned the lessons they needed to. they project their own ideals onto the other and come away thinking they already know how the other operates, and the fun thing is, even when working from conjecture, their assumptions of one another happen to hit far closer to home than they have any right to.

so really, they can't leave each other alone because they can't stop seeing their failures reflected back at them. the other is a defective version of themselves that they need to correct because they can't stand constantly acknowledging who they used to be, so they try to bend the other to be more like their own image—an "i can fix him (by dragging him down to my level)".

⠀

jounouchi and kaiba’s parallels run down to their origins, both set up against abysmal family situations they have no choice but to make the best of. seto and mokuba are orphaned at a young age until seto gets them adopted, while katsuya is separated from his sister and stuck with a deadbeat father who can't carry his own weight. trapped in an environment where nobody expects anything worthwhile from him, katsuya joins a gang and lives out a self-admittedly miserable existence before befriending yugi, while seto is in a battlefield of his own, faced with protecting mokuba while enduring against the nightmare that is gozaburo kaiba’s parenting.

what they do to survive those conditions determines the outlooks they carry for the rest of their lives: jounouchi learns that losing is inescapable and the best you can do is learn how to cope with it, whereas kaiba learns that losing is something you must protect yourself from because there's only so much you can afford to lose.

jounouchi is positioned as the underdog, fighting tooth-and-nail for every victory he can manage, while kaiba has power in excess and holds to the belief that it’s all he really needs. one would argue that they have the perspective the other lacks—they argue that they have the perspective the other lacks. but in my opinion? it doesn't actually matter. what interests me is how they treat each other as a result.

⠀

side: seto kaiba

kaiba degrades jounouchi a lot. like, to an uncomfortable extent. you know that one post that’s like “why does bullying exist? why are you mad that i’m ugly?” why is kaiba so mad over the fact that jounouchi loses so much?

it’s projection. he’s just holding jounouchi to the same standard he holds himself to. you need to be powerful if you want to play the same games as kaiba, and seeing jounouchi so openly lean on his friends, ask for help, and have the audacity to lose sets kaiba off because he’s not playing the way he’s supposed to. kaiba rubs jounouchi's losses in his face because he believes that's what loss is supposed to look like, and that it’s jounouchi’s fault for not understanding that yet. kaiba is trying to teach him. to kaiba, this degradation might as well be an act of generosity.

while kaiba stayed true to his own ambitions, seizing kaibacorp from gozaburo and turning it into a children's entertainment company, he beat gozaburo at his own game not by inventing new rules but by playing it better than his adoptive father ever could. and as impressive as that is, it’s not sustainable. gozaburo kills himself when faced with his own defeat, and kaiba internalizes this lesson: that all losses are final, and it’s better to die than adapt to the consequences of a defeat. gozaburo’s death was a suicide, but in the context of their game, kaiba might as well have killed him regardless.

he mirrors this when he threatens to kill himself in duelist kingdom, his heightened emotions catastrophizing losing the duel to immediately equal failing mokuba and coming to the conclusion that if he loses mokuba he’d rather be dead. being someone so fervently self-reliant, any alternate solution, a possibility that he can lose here and still find a different way to rescue mokuba never crosses his mind. and, look, this isn’t his fault. this is the only way of living he’s ever been taught. he’s never learned how to cope in the event of failure because he’s never had the luxury to fail to begin with.

he's burned and rebuilt himself over and over again to survive in the world he operates in, and that’s why jounouchi pisses kaiba off so personally. jounouchi loses so much and so messily, and kaiba tries to show him that if he doesn’t start reinventing himself from the broken pieces of his defeats until all that’s left of him are jagged edges the same way he has, he’s never going to win. but jounouchi…does win. and keeps winning. and even when he does lose, it’s as if he creates new victories for himself, like there’s still value to playing a game with someone when you don’t win it—power of friendship bullshit and whatever. jounouchi is still here, a competitor that kaiba can no longer write off as much as he desperately wants to. (and, yeah, it is pretty ironic how jounouchi will jump through a million hoops to get kaiba to look at him, but he doesn't realize that he doesn't need to do anything to keep kaiba’s attention, only continue being himself.)

jounouchi refuses to compromise who he is and still manages to get far when in kaiba’s mind, that shouldn’t be possible; he’s supposed to be punished the way kaiba was. jounouchi is proof that you can take a devastating blow and move on from it, that even when you do fuck up spectacularly, there’s still something worthwhile in starting again tomorrow.

so kaiba constantly needs to prove that he’s better than jounouchi, that jounouchi isn’t even worth his time in order to justify his worldview. because if kaiba isn’t right, then he'll have no choice but to confront the fact that the war is over. that his circumstances aren’t instant life or death anymore and that even though he’s freed himself from gozaburo’s influence, there’s still further growth as a person he could stand to undergo, now divorced from the harsh conditions of his upbringing. jounouchi is a testament to how it’s possible to make peace and move on from the past without constantly bleeding for closure, that maybe, kaiba’s headlong quest to get the last word on his rivalry with yami yugi may not actually be as fulfilling as he thinks.

but admitting that you might need to change the way you live feels like a defeat in and of itself—it’s infuriating to hear that after everything you’ve had to learn, the way you live now isn’t good enough. that surviving insurmountable trauma doesn’t inherently make you better or more worthy than other people—it just traumatizes you, and is something you must heal from. so, instead of reflecting on these revelations, it’s so much easier for kaiba to tell himself that jounouchi is only ever graceful when he’s dead.

⠀

side: katsuya jounouchi

jounouchi is very stuck on this idea that he needs to be useful. his dad is an alcoholic with a gambling addiction and he believes it's not only his duty to pay his father's debts, but to be the household's sole source of income. his sister needs eye surgery and he believes it's his responsibility as an older brother not only to pay for it, but to act as her primary emotional support to get the surgery and throughout her recovery process. haga throws yugi's exodia into the ocean and jounouchi blames himself for not stopping it. jounouchi gets mind-controlled by malik and blames himself for causing his friends anguish from it. mai literally gets jounounchi’s soul stolen and he apologizes to her for messing up and making her sad. it's habitual, jounouchi doesn't know how to stop taking on the burdens of other people.

if you live with the mentality that you’re inevitably going to fail for long enough, you’ll come away with the belief that caring about your own wellbeing isn’t worth the effort. it depends on how pessimistic you want to read it, if it’s just his love language or jounouchi compensating for the damning act of being himself, but jounouchi quantifies his worth by how much he provides for other people. he’s always jumping in the line of fire for the sake of others because if you constantly undervalue your own wellbeing, you always have less to lose. as the underdog, he may not be as overtly powerful as kaiba or yugi, but he can still give himself away, and he’s convinced himself that it’s what he’s supposed to do. jounouchi is still new to this whole friendship thing. after a lifetime of supporting himself by himself, he doesn't know when he's allowed to ask for help yet—he’s supposed to be the help, dammit.

a key distinction between jounouchi and kaiba’s upbringings is that while kaiba’s biological parents died in an accident, jounouchi’s parents are still alive and they choose not to be responsible for him. jounouchi is conditioned to fend for himself by himself because having a parental figure actually present in his life isn’t a luxury he gets to have. to jounouchi, there has to be a reason why his mother only takes shizuka and never goes back for him in the six years he’s left with his father, and he rationalizes this with his notions of masculinity: he’s a strong man who can handle it. jounouchi is not delicate, he can endure it. men are responsible for their own circumstances. kaiba is hyperindependent out of a mixture of spite, paranoia, and self-defense. jounouchi is hyperindependent because he believes he deserves it. it’s the reason why he believes he’ll finally have a good relationship with his father if he just wins enough money to pay off his gambling debts—jounouchi can fix everything if only he were man enough to, and he can get people to stay if he demonstrates himself useful enough.

so death doesn’t carry nearly as much weight to jounouchi as it does to kaiba. in kaiba’s eyes, death is the punishment for failure, but to jounouchi, death is just the natural consequence for the kind of life he leads. he can't stop himself from fighting for the people he loves until he’s spent everything and forced to stop (read: dies), so during the several times jounouchi is confronted with his own death, he meets it with a solemn acceptance. like, yeah, it sucks, but he doesn’t regret the actions he took to end up here—he’d do it all over again, frankly. it’s better to die than not give everything he can, and at least he was able to give his life in service to someone else. it’s not necessarily good to die, but it doesn’t matter as much if he does.

so where kaiba is afraid of losing, jounouchi is afraid of outliving his usefulness (and being abandoned as a result), and kaiba disrupts jounouchi’s worldview specifically because he puts his ideology on the defensive. to jounouchi, kaiba’s presence never demands a question of “what can you do for me?” (nothing, kaiba doesn’t want jounouchi to do anything for him, and frankly, he’d be insulted if jounouchi even tried) but “what makes you worthy of standing on the same level as me?”, and jounouchi can’t sacrificial lamb get set on fire die a billion times into getting kaiba into seeing it his way (rather, that would only prove him right: kaiba would love nothing more than for jounouchi to lose the ability to fight and finally align with his preconceived notions of how the world works), and he can’t argue that his value is in how much he provides for others because that’s a non-answer. kaiba doesn’t care.

kaiba’s presence forces jounouchi into a position of self-reflection: jounouchi works so hard to preserve the friendships he’s created, but who is he—what does he value about himself in the absence of it? jounouchi needs to acknowledge something inherently valuable about himself if he wants to counter kaiba in any meaningful way, and it’s not like he doesn’t have valuable qualities either: he’s tenacious, he’s resourceful, he’s a quick learner—it takes intelligence to rank as high as he does in tournaments, but he undervalues all of it. these traits are all to be expected, they don’t actually count as extraordinary when it’s him. they’re only remarkable when they’re being applied to something greater. jounouchi believes he has the potential to become strong (and valuable by extension), only with the stipulation that he’s never actually there yet. he focuses too much on his inadequacies, constantly pontificating on how he needs to become a “true duelist”, but by the way he speaks about the title, the only way to be a true duelist is be named yugi muto, i guess.

so it’s very jounouchi-esque for him to miss this point with near deliberate precision and try to make himself useful to kaiba anyway. while kaiba is bent on seeing jounouchi fail to prove that his cynicism is superior to jounouchi’s altruism, the inverse is that jounouchi sees his old self in kaiba and he’s dying to teach kaiba a lesson. during battle for bronze, jounouchi states that they used to be the same, people who only relied on themselves and thought they’d be fine living like that. the argument jounouchi makes is that living that way is fucking miserable. he calls kaiba out: you’re supposed to be having fun. why are you playing duel monsters if you’re not having fun? he’s trying to show kaiba that he can be useful and teach kaiba things if kaiba would just let him, but for reasons mentioned in both of their sections, kaiba isn’t interested in being taught anything.

while less malicious in display, it's important to note that jounouchi’s method of trying to teach kaiba doesn't make him the better person here. jounouchi isn’t coming from a place of understanding when he lectures kaiba, he’s coming from a place of misdirected self-flagellation. and from kaiba's perspective, jounouchi is just dispensing unwarranted advice for the sake of his own ego. the most egregious example is when jounouchi picks a fight with kaiba in duelist kingdom, demanding they duel when kaiba is clearly not in the mood, busy with more pressing matters like, i don’t know, trying to rescue his abducted brother? so, okay, maybe a little bit inconsiderate on jounouchi’s part.

they're two ideological extremes: kaiba lashes out at the world while jounouchi gives himself to it, and jounouchi will keep barging in on kaiba with his life lessons because it’s the only way he wants to engage with kaiba’s arguments otherwise. jounouchi interprets kaiba’s rejection of his ideals as the equivalent of the stubbornness jounouchi had before befriending yugi, and he uses it as a reason to keep pushing, not understanding that while he may have found the most honorable path for himself, you can imagine how constantly burning yourself for others isn’t very…appealing. or sustainable. and that maybe it’s something you need to work on, actually.

⠀

conclusion: how i WIN

what’s fun about jounouchi and kaiba is how wrong they are. they genuinely can't live the way the other demands them to, their respective environments won’t allow it. if jounouchi chased victory with the same cutthroat relentlessness as kaiba, he probably never would have left his gang. or, at least, he’d lose the selfless devotion and consideration he has for others, traits that helped him build his support system, and he never would have found the friendships he values in his life—his willingness to change and start again was how he was able to befriend yugi to begin with. (and if you wanted to get really extreme with hypotheticals, his self-destructive tendencies could have grown so severe in the absence of a support system that he probably would wind up getting himself killed somewhere. lol.) inversely, if kaiba granted himself the freedom to worry less about the outcome as long as he enjoyed himself, he’d put mokuba’s safety at constant risk. kaiba’s guarded nature isn’t without reason, there are powerful corporate executives who would love to see him fail, and there are very real consequences if kaiba slips up for even a second and gives his opposition any leeway. the way they live works for them because it’s theirs. it’s not so much that either of their lifestyles are in dire need of correction, but that the other represents the possibility that they could be living better.

and this is fantastic because it means that, despite what they think, neither of them are in the “wrong” and must learn to change their idiot ways or that the solution is to strong-arm each other into some kind of compromise. it’s a battle of perceived weakness. they need to, naturally and individually, accept that the traits they’ve always deemed immature and beneath them can be just as vital for survival, even when it’s not necessarily their own.

jounouchi and kaiba are essentially the most extreme example of two people who want what’s best for each other (gone wrong!) and puppyshipping is appealing because them getting together requires that they stop punishing themselves for who they used to be. they expect too much out of themselves and then inflict those demands onto each other, but if they’re not wrong for the ways they’ve overcome the circumstances they were left in, then it’s equally true that the ideals they abandoned to survive weren’t inherently naïve just because they weren’t given the space to utilize them. sometimes life will push you to your limits in the hope that you fail, and there’s no deeper meaning to it. it’s not life’s way of teaching you a necessary lesson to make you stronger or a test to see if you deserve to live, or that it’s your fault when it breaks you. sometimes there’s no great meaning to suffering. things happen, and you will adjust to it in order to live. when kaiba and jounouchi believe they know each other as much as they know themselves, pairing them is the hope that they’ll respect themselves enough to respect each other, that they’ll one day be able to embrace the parts of themselves they’re the most ashamed of.

(or, you know, for the alternative crowd, they most definitely can make each other worse.)

for two men who claim to be so self-assured in their own lifestyles, jounouchi and kaiba are fascinating because there’s so many layers of denial at play: the denial that they see anything in each other, denial that there may be aspects of the other that they’ve come to envy, denial that they even care, and it's so tempting to imagine if all of it was forced open. jounouchi and kaiba choose to maintain this delicate equilibrium where they never actually confront anything because the idea of admitting vulnerability viscerally disgusts them, and it begs what would happen if the balance irrevocably tipped for once. watching them is like watching a pencil teetering on the edge of a desk, always this close to some kind of breakthrough. i won’t even lie to you puppyshipping pisses me off half the time because i just want to shake them around until something metaphorically breaks.

kaiba and jounouchi never let each other become complacent in their pasts: whenever their personal tragedies and childhoods are brought up in the context of one another, it’s never because they are being vindicated for continuing to dwell in them, but because they are being contested on how much the mindsets they’ve carried over from their pasts should be allowed to determine their futures.

returning to canon, kaijou operates through the language of competition. jounouchi tries to prove himself as a competitor so remarkable that kaiba can no longer deny him, while kaiba already knows he’s remarkable, and that is precisely why acknowledging it pisses him off so much. so they’ll play their game: jounouchi will provoke kaiba into fighting him because he enjoys going up against challenging opponents in the hopes of becoming stronger, whereas kaiba keeps trying to set up situations where jounouchi will lose to the point of letting him die because he wants so badly to believe that losing does equal death and jounouchi’s existence is the most inconvenient counterargument of all. and obviously, jounouchi keeps not dying. and it's endlessly infuriating—almost slapstick at this point, that much to kaiba's frustration, no matter what he does, he can never make jounouchi submit for very long.

jounouchi and kaiba spur each other on to a ridiculous extent: kaiba enjoys pushing jounouchi past the breaking point, whereas jounouchi enjoys getting pushed to his limits to test his own capabilities. whether that’s necessarily a good thing though is…well…hmm. anyways. 

their dynamic is the type of messiness only two prideful high schoolers can get up to. maybe it’s just kaiba's repression and jounouchi's recklessness, but there is a fascination with each other that they’re incapable of leaving alone. there’s intimacy in knowing someone so well and fearing that fact, but kaiba and jounouchi never respond to this fear by avoiding it—they’re engaging with it time and time again. they infuriate each other with a passion that never sits still. kaiba and jounouchi seek a validation from their counterpart while simultaneously denying each other from it, and it’s mean, but invigoratingly so.

at some point, it’s not even about wanting validation anymore, but point-blank wanting its keeper by any capacity: wanting a visible reaction to their effort as proof of reciprocation, proof that says “i’ve finally affected you just as much as you affect me.” because kaiba and jounouchi want to leave a mark on each other, they want their counterpart to fully understand how much they’ve affected them, and they want to witness that reaction themselves. it’s no longer this big, nebulous ideological debate with a reflection: the pull between them is made both physical and personal. so, like, not to go the trite route of arguing that two men who can’t stand each other were ~secretly attracted to each other this whole time~, but how else are you supposed to word this?

in some hypothetical universe where they do come together, even the ways they love manage to compliment each other in its own clumsy way. seto kaiba never does anything in moderation: if he hates something he will destroy it, if he loves something he will possess it, and if he is obsessed with something, he will single-mindedly pursue it at the expense of everything else. his repression manifests itself in a passion so pressurized it’s all-consuming against everything it comes to contact with. inversely, katsuya jounouchi loves freely and transparently: showing affection comes as naturally as breathing to him. he embodies the belief that love is not only about the grand gestures, but the day-to-day acts of warmth and casual acknowledgments that it's there. a man who wants to be wanted by someone so badly it aches paired with someone who makes no reservations as to what he's committed to, capable of a love so overwhelmingly insatiable that it is neither fickle nor delicate, and a man who finds the act of trusting others with his affection so unthinkably humiliating that he’s convinced himself it’s something beneath him paired with someone who makes it look infuriatingly easy. they are going to invent a new language to love each other with. i believe in them. i would not write two separate essays titled “here’s how puppyshipping can still win” if i did not believe in them. 

ultimately, it feels cheap to build kaiba and jounouchi’s relationship off what life lessons they could "teach" each other reformation-style when they already have a legitimate dynamic in play. they can be good for each other, or they can tear into each other in ways they’d never expect to be capable of. there’s something exhilarating in knowing there’s someone who has that kind of power and wanting to keep them within your reach, a buzzing excitement in knowing someone who can not only withstand you at your worst, but fight back at you with twice as much vigor. sure, there’s potential for growth here, but that’s because there’s potential for literally anything.

kaiba and jounouchi inspire reinvention and self-determination from each other at the best of times and enable each other’s most self-destructive tendencies at their worst. so i think. puppyshipping is the most fun. when you ship them the same way you leave a fork in the microwave to watch it explode. the end.

TL;DR: me x the guy who keeps breaking my worldview and forces me to reevaluate myself every time i see him which i hate so much that i just want him to DIE

#puppyshipping #violetshipping #seto kaiba #joey wheeler #ship analysis #character study #not intended to convince anyone of anything this was a silly project to do on the side for MEEE #also i genuinely dont think any of the points i make are new #in my quest to be as holistic as possible and read every puppyshipping-adjacent meta analysis i could get my hands on #defense essays. criticism. livejournal blogposts #ive found several times that every point i make has already been made before in some kaijou 200k longfic posted in like 2011 #so if this essay is for ANYONE who isnt me. #its for the kaijou fic authors who have put in the work. god's strongest soldiers etc etc #actually. might reblog with an actual afterword citing my favorite ygo analysis i read in prep for this lol #i allude to a few of them in certain sections but i think youd have to be REALLY chronically online to notice #(coughing) #anyways special thanks to the friends who kindly beta read a document titled 'YAOI THESIS FINAL.docx' #fer + voski + cherry + sully + eric + cleo + gabby + chris + clover + vio #dear god i have inflicted this essay onto so many people #i love you. #you have enabled me and now we're all paying the price #yugioh

[katemagic]

we truly do need to talk more about how fucking insane achi is like okay yes karan is karan but achi literally moved in with the first person he ever dated after TWO (2) dates and was like wow 10/10 best life decision I ever made I'm so glad I did that I love my boyfriend

not to mention that he bought a ring and then presumably carried it around with him???? just waiting so that he could propose after karan did like. he literally bought a ring. after dating him for like a couple of months ????? maybe ????? absolutely fucking unhinged they're perfect for each other. who does this.

#I do genuinely love that there really isn't any drama at any point about this rlshp moving at lightning speed #or karan being too much and too intense and him needing to chill out in order for their relationship to work #a lesser show would've made that a source of drama but NOT CHERRY MAGIC TH #like is achi shy sometimes? not sure how to respond? sure #but he clearly loves how insanely obsessed karan is with him #look how overjoyed he was when he found out karan was stalking him a;skldjf;lasdf and how sad he was when he thought he wasn't #it's not an issue or something he just puts up with to make karan happy he clearly basks in how much karan loves him #and the insane way he shows it #thank you karan for being my smile and energy etc etc #like yes it is nuts to ask someone to move in with you after two dates but IT IS ALSO NUTS TO SAY YES AND BE LIKE WOW BEST DECISION EVER #WHEN PONDERING IT LATER #who is doing it like them!!!!! #karanachi #cherry magic th

[whatsanameanyway]

MAJOR SPOILERS

TIMMMY BEAT THE CURSE LETS GO

#traffic smp spoilers #secret life spoilers #I KNEW HE COULD DO IT #I WAS ROOTING FOR HIM FROM DAY ONE #HES GONNA WIN THIS SERIES SO HARD I AM TELLING YOU #NJEFLVDHNJVBCKDV #BHHBIHFODUSJVDOIVJ #THE CANARY MADE IT OUT OF THE COAL MINE #I WAS A TIM WINNER TRUTHER THE WHOLE TIME I CALLED IT #CHERRI CALLED ME DELUSIONAL #LOOK WHOS RIGHT NOW #WOOOOOOOOO #MY MAN BEAT THE ALLEGATIONS I AM SO PROUD #THANK YOU XXXXXX FOR DYING I LOVE YOU