#I actually have no fucking clue I just have a bunch of ideas ranked by plausibility

[halogalopaghost]

.

#I'm having anxiety for some reason which is an unfamiliar physical feeling for me #I do depression and my SISTER does anxiety we're the mental illness brothers you see #but nooo apparently she has lent me some anxiety or whatever #anyway I was feeling useless and kind of like shit about how I never do anything anymore #and never get anything done or help around the house or even clean up my own living space #so I just decided I was gonna get out of bed at three in the morning and sweep the whole house #which like. that's fine I guess #and I wouldn't sit down or take a break even when I wanted to stop because I have got to!! start fucking doing things I can't just #be a lump that complains and consumes resources all my life #but anyway that was a bad idea or whatever bc my hands and feet got real hot and red and now I feel like I'm gonna frow up #I'm laid out on the couch near the phone charger. save me phone charger. charger for my phone save me #so what do we think am I feeling unwell from the activity because I don't do the activity enough or because I am just unwell #last time I swept a large area AND mopped was less than a month ago #I. also had to lay down after that actually except I was at work #just laid across a row of seats like yeah just. gimme a fuckin second to necromancy myself here #anyway #I'm a lil anxious bc of my neurology appointment I guess?? it's either that or the Wellbutrin #OR a yet to be identified food sensitivity maybe?? #I actually have no fucking clue I just have a bunch of ideas ranked by plausibility #I'm. a little dizzy and the nausea is mcgetting me #farewell cruel world it's been nice knowing u

[rodlaveraryna]

graf cup brainworms

we! deserve! a wta! laver! cup!

i mean, just look at the wta rankings. a wta laver cup would be a lot more competitive and balanced and fun than the atp version and it would also be grounds for a bunch of great player interactions that we deserve, so i'll be going over teams :)

graf cup is named after legend steffi graf, one of three singles players in the open era to win a calendar year grand slam. the other two are rod laver, who the laver cup is named for, and margaret court, a bigot. it will be held in berlin at uber arena, same location as the atp version. yk, if this was real.

also, i have no clue how teams are made for the actual laver cup. i just made these teams because i can. i'm the tournament director of this nonexistent tournament. what are you gonna do?

team europe

edit 4/23: i had no idea navratilova was such a piece of shit lord… alternative captain suggestions are much appreciated

team roster: ― iga swiatek ― aryna sabalenka ― daria kasatkina ― jasmine paolini ― mirra andreeva ― paula badosa

notes team europe:

― i NEED daria and natalia to give us some bomb ass graf cup vlogs. i just know they would give us the best interviews and behind the scenes look at how it all goes.

― aryna and jasmine are both great in singles and doubles so that's def something they can use to their advantage

― honestly seeing players i like interact with each other was like. a major part in selecting these teams. idk i just feel like everyone here is so lovely and amazing and that's only going to be heightened because of the not super competitive atmosphere

― i have a massive soft spot for mirra. i think everyone who knows her does. i would love to see the whole team just absolutely adoring her

― iga and aryna becoming friends??? maybe??? i like my rivalries sweet off court and fiery on court so it'll be nice seeing them interact

― can't forget the best friendship in tennis aka sabadosa!!! lowkey i don't ship them because they just remind me of me with my best friends but i think a really close platonic relationship like that is SO important and valuable and i'm really glad they have each other like that.

team world

team roster: ― coco gauff ― elena rybakina ― ons jabeur ― zheng qinwen ― emma navarro ― leylah fernandez

team world notes:

― emma and coco feel like they would be a great pair. they're both close with ben it seems so i feel like they would be friends. also they're professional american tennis players. to use some terminology from @fritzes, american idiot solidarity

― the difference in vibe between coco and elena will be absolutely hilarious. i think they'd get along don't get me wrong it's just funny they seem so opposite to me. would love to see them play some doubles together that would be so fun...

― honestly i feel like all doubles permutations in this team would be so funny. if any of these people actually played doubles together (besides coco/emma/leylah with each other) i would be like "what the fuck is she playing doubles with her????" and i think that's beautiful.

― not to make too many comparisons with the laver cup but team world here isn't just america ft. canada. that shouldn't be a super tall order because this is team WORLD but we've all seen the trends for teams in the mens version.

― everyone loves ons yall. including team europe. we all just love ons so much.

― i'm ngl i don't have too many ultra specific notes for this team i just think it'll be good vibes and good tennis. it'll also be very appealing for me personally because i love all of these players and i know most of tennisblr loves them too :)

#thank you for reading this omfg... #tagging all players mentioned #steffi graf #iga swiatek #aryna sabalenka #daria kasatkina #jasmine paolini #mirra andreeva #paula badosa #coco gauff #elena rybakina #ons jabeur #zheng qinwen #emma navarro #leylah fernandez #wta #tennis

[jumpscaregoose]

Pls tell us more about the yaoi list debate!

for context here's the final list:

this was made on a call with two of my friends, so I have no fucking clue what some of the ships on here are (if you follow me you can probably tell which ones) so if you want to get mad at me about them that's my cover story

second piece of context is that I was very much a voltron kid when I was around 13 and after years of repressing it I decided to embrace the cringe and finally do an actual rewatch of the show to see how it held up and if my opinions had changed (boy howdy did they I'm with the klance girlies on this one)

the two friends I did this with are people I met through theatre so we have very different fandom spheres as well

so we're going along la dee da putting things in tiers laughing at how my browser literally crashed when I went to get that stupid bakudeku jpg and when we get to klance I'm like "ok you guys are gonna be real mad about this" as a bit before I put them into the third highest tier

and this is APPARENTLY a controversial opinion because my friend and I proceed to have a progressively louder debate on whether or not they deserve to be there. her argument being that she knew this one annoying person who subjected her to a bunch of weird klance fics back in the day. meanwhile I'm over here newly enlightened watching the show outside of its greater fandom context like my dude my man. objectively this is pretty good. and I somehow get her to let me keep them up there

so I think we had pretty different ideas of what exactly we were ranking for this

she also said skk didn't deserve to be that high because "there wasn't enough stuff from the source material" so I think my friend might just have bad yaoi takes. it's not her thing so it makes sense

#yes my browser actually died on me when I tried looking up bakudeku #full on died. she was trying to protect me #we did kind of make the tier list to put that in the absolute lowest tier though #don't ask why all the tier names are halloween candy it was for flavour

[myherowritings]

PART 4. HOW THE RICH SUCK THEIR OWN DICKS

SUMMARY. Todoroki Shouto was a wealthy, young CEO who inherited his father’s enterprise. You were a barista at a local cafe who wouldn’t mind some extra cash. One day, Shouto came in during an early morning shift and tipped you such a large sum of money, you were certain it had to have been an accident. To your surprise and complete pleasure: It was not.

PAIRING. ceo!todoroki shouto x barista!reader

WORD COUNT. 2.9k

GENRE. ceo/barista au, fluff, eventual smut

WARNINGS. enji makes an appearance bleh, enji being classist, enji...ew, okay i swear most of the chapter is shouto and y/n being cute though 

A/N. ngl i have genshin brainrot real bad at the moment but i still have motivation for ceo!shouto and ceo!shouto only u.u there are only 7 parts to this series so we’re at the halfway mark already AHHH i hope u enjoy reading and lmk what u think!! :3 xx sof

SERIES MASTERLIST

© myherowritings — all rights reserved. reposting, modifying, copying, or translating of any kind is not allowed. do not read my writing as asmr. do not plagiarize.

Shouto’s day went from good to bad faster than it took to pull an espresso. 

It started off with a good morning text from you and having a brief, but pleasant, interaction at your work. Actually, the past few weeks have been going along a similar routine that he found himself settling into all too comfortably. You even upheld your promise of stealing him away one weekend to walk around the park, get food, and just have time to relax and be happy for once. 

Getting to be in your presence almost daily became so normalized in his life that even some of his employees heard about the cute barista with the best pastries. Yet, although he saw you often, he found himself wanting to talk to you more and more.

But for now, Shouto told himself to settle with starting the mornings off with you. They were the best mornings he’s had in a while and he didn’t want to sound ungrateful. 

Today, however, went sour fast after he heard his father was coming up to the top floor for a meeting with him. He didn’t find the idea of Enji visiting to be the most abhorrent thing, but the moment his father opened his mouth, Shouto quickly took that back. 

As expected, his father reminded him about the annual charity gala Todoroki Enterprises was expected to attend. Handfuls of galas ran through the year, but the once hosted by Naruhata Industries under the guise of raising money and awareness for the charities of choice.

In theory, a charity gala ball sounded humanitarian and a way for the upper class to give back, but in reality, most of the funds collected didn’t go to the actual charities, instead they went to paying for the venue, live bands, entertainment, the most expensive catering, decorations, and more. What presented itself as a charitable event in the eyes of the public was really a way rich people could flaunt their wealth and feel good about themselves for doing absolutely nothing to benefit society. A way for the rich to suck their own dicks, if you would. 

Shouto absolutely hated it. 

It was also a press opportunity and, in his father’s eyes, a way to gain public favor for the Todoroki business. Today, Enji attempted to tell him that bringing a date that fit the mold of high society was the best way for him to establish rapport through media coverage. Apparently, the image news outlets have placed on Shouto were either a heartbreaker and playboy with no care for other’s emotions, or a monotonous stoic who seemed like a robot with no care for other’s emotions.

In either cases, there seemed to be a theme of Shouto not caring for others. 

He sighed. 

“You can’t keep that image, Shouto,” said Enji with his arms folded across his chest. “If the media sees you with someone—a nice girl with a good upbringing—then your likeability will increase tenfold. If there’s no one you like, I’ll have to set up a date for you.”

For a while, he was torn between telling his dad to fuck off and trying to do as he said to keep peace within the family. But then, an image of you popped into his head.

“Actually, there is someone I like.” 

Enji narrowed his eyes. “Oh? An educated girl with wealthy parents?”

“There’s someone I like,” he simply repeated, the tone in his voice growing cold. 

He didn’t know anything about your upbringing or family nor did he exactly care. Shouto didn’t want to bring a date to the dumb gala, but if he had to, he would want it to be you. Only if you agreed, of course. But if you weren’t willing, then he had to face the facts that his father would most likely force a date of his own choosing upon Shouto. 

“That’s good you like someone, son,” Enji said through his teeth, “but we have to make sure it’s not some sort of...loose woman. That’d be even worse publicity—”

“I like someone and if you really cared about my happiness like you said you did, that’d be enough.”

There was a tense silence in the air. Shouto didn’t have enough fingers to count the number of times Enji had told him and his siblings that he would try to be a better dad. A caring dad who only wanted what was best for his children. A better husband for Rei. A better example for the public. The first few times, Shouto believed it. But Enji said the same things over and over again with no lasting change and Shouto was just fed up. 

After hearing the same lie told to him over and over again, it seemed to lose its weight. He seemed to lose his hope in his father ever changing.

Still, Shouto had to deal with him for as long as he lived. That much he knew as a son living in this society. 

But he hoped Enji at least had enough guilt to let him have this.

“Fine.”

Shouto blinked in surprise. 

Enji stated, “If you think your date can help your public image and not be a complete embarrassment to the business, you can bring them.”

That was the closest thing to approval Shouto would get today. He nodded and listened along to whatever else his father had to say, the only thing actually on his mind was thinking about how he would ask you out on a date to some stuffy gala. And hope that you’d say yes.

— ✩ —

“Wait, so, let me get this straight— You’re the CEO of Todoroki Enterprises and even after almost two months of knowing you, I had no clue?”

He inclined his head, looking solemn. “Yes, I’m sorry. Are you upset with me for not telling you sooner?” 

Initial shock aside, you couldn’t say that you were too surprised at the revelation. You knew Shouto was wealthy and probably in some high-up position in the business industry, but you never knew to what extent. A CEO? That had to be the highest rank in a company! And a company as well known as Todoroki Enterprises? 

The thought made you a little nervous. The guy you slowly befriended over the course of short cafe visits and silly texts was Mr. Todoroki? Or worse— The guy you stole away from doing work for a whole weekend was someone as busy as a CEO? You internally groaned. That had to be against laws of the universe or something. 

“I’m not upset, no,” you said with a shake of your head. “I just...can’t believe it I guess.” Eyes widening, you were quick to amend your words. “Well, I can believe it. You seem very intelligent and well-put together and, uh, rich! But I guess I just didn’t think a CEO would be so funny and kind.” You winced. “Oh no, is that mean to say?”

“I don’t think it’s mean.” He shrugged. “You’re right to say most people in this field aren’t known for their delightful temperaments.” 

You absentmindedly drummed your finger against your thigh, trying to process this new information. “So you’re Todoroki Shouto...and you want me to be your date to the Naruhata Charity Ball?” 

“Yeah. I know it’s a huge favor to ask, and I promise you can say no if you choose,” said Shouto in earnest. “I don’t want you to feel obligated to agree.” 

With a hum, you stretched your legs out under the table before crossing one over the other again. It was a Saturday afternoon where you had no work and Shouto managed to escape from his for a few hours of the day. You took him to your favorite ice cream place nearby and the two of you ate at a dining area outside the establishment. 

Just a mundane day as two friends hanging out with each other where you found out one of those friends was the chief executive officer of a billion dollar business headquartered in Japan. 

Totally normal, everyday occurrences, obviously. 

“And you need a date for this event?” you asked. In all honesty, you would be more than happy if Shouto asked you out on a date. He was fun and you enjoyed getting to know him. But these particular circumstances made you a tad bit more nervous.

“I normally wouldn’t need to bring one, but my father insists it’d help my public image and in turn the image of the company.” With a pinched look on his face, he took a bite of his ice cream. “In other words I bring a date or he picks one for me.” 

You weren’t the most caught up on super rich people drama, but it was almost infamous how estranged the Todoroki family was. Again, you didn’t know much but you did know enough to say that Todoroki Enji seemed like a Class A asshole. If you could help Shouto out with his weird dilemma, you saw no reason not to. 

“So this charita gala is like where they have those live auctions and silent auctions and get tipsy on fancy wine and champagne for hours right?”

He tilted his head to the side. “Yeah. Have you attended one?” 

“Not quite,” you said with a sheepish smile. “I’ve volunteered at one in school though. As one of those runners? It was fun. I got a bunch of those tiny complimentary candies!” Your mouth watered at the memory. “What kind of drug were in those candies? I’ve never had candy so good before!”

“The tiny, circular candies with the excessively big wrapper? The fruity ones?”

You shot up in your seat, excited he knew what you were talking about. “Yes! That’s the one!” 

The corners of his mouth quirked upwards. “I always see those at these types of events.”

“So… The candy will be there at the gala you want me to accompany you to?” 

“Most likely.”

“Can I take a bunch of those from candies there…?” you asked with an optimistic grin.

“I’ll be your accomplice in sneaking them out.”

“It’s a date!” you said before Shouto could get another word out. 

You’d be reunited with those yummy, fancy candies you’ve been separated from for far too long. What other reason did you need to agree? 

With a determined look on your face, you held your hand out for Shouto to shake to seal the deal. 

He blinked. “Wait. Did you want to discuss it some more? Maybe have a few days to think it through? I’m grateful, of course, but I don’t want you regretting anything.”

“No. I won’t regret it. I’d do anything to taste those candies again.”

Shouto looked unsure what to say. “Isn’t there some parable warning people not to be bribed by candy?”

“Not to take candy from a baby?”

“No. Not that one.”

“That’s the only one I know.”

“Never mind then.” 

The two of you exchanged confused looks before letting out fits of laughter. You weren’t sure if either of you knew exactly what the other was laughing at, but the moment was an enjoyable one nonetheless. 

“Yet another reason to bring me to that fancy event— I’ll make sure you’re entertained all the way through,” you playfully bragged, smoothing down the front of your shirt. 

“The event will definitely be more bearable with you there.” He licked a small bit of his ice cream from his pink spoon, making a sound of approval. “But you can change your mind about coming at any time, Y/N.”

“I won’t,” you said, holding a pinky out. “Pinky promise.”

With what seemed like a bashful expression on his face, Shouto extended his own pinky to interlock yours. You sealed it with a kiss and a heart, like you were a kid again. 

“Now, am I supposed to be in love with you at the gala?” you asked nonchalantly, finishing off your last bite of ice cream. He offered you a spoonful of his and you tried not to grow too flustered at Shouto feeding you his dessert. You murmured a quiet, “Thanks.”

He gave you a small smile. “You’re welcome. As for being in love… I don’t think that’s necessary. Just pretend you like being around me, I think.”

Under the table, you nudged his shoe with yours, pulling a face. “I don’t have to pretend about that, silly.” 

“Ah, well,” he paused, offering you another spoonful of ice cream, “I don’t either.”

“I’m glad.” Then, “Is this strawberry? I was never a big strawberry ice cream fan but for some reason this tastes so good.” 

You ignored the nagging voice in your head that said maybe it wasn’t so much the ice cream flavor but who you were enjoying it with. 

The two of you finished his dessert in peace and after cleaning up the area with a napkin, Shouto turned to you with an intent look on his face.

“Before the gala, would you mind if I talk you shopping so you could pick out what to wear?” he asked. “I would pay of course— It’s the least I could do to say thank you.”

You shook your head. “You don’t have to thank me! You’re my friend and I want to help.” You thought about it for a moment. “And get the candy.”

“Anything for the candy.”

“Exactly,” you said in complete seriousness. “But I wouldn’t mind going shopping with you. You could help me decide what to wear! I’m not exactly sure how to dress for an event as fancy as this.”

“You could wear anything to the event and still look amazing.” His words were ones of flattery but his tone sounded completely genuine. 

Heat rose to your cheeks at the compliment. “Look who’s talking— You’re practically runway ready no matter what time of day.”

“I’ve never walked a runway before.”

You stifled a laugh at his literal interpretation of your words. Cute. “Me neither.”

He looked confused at why you were grinning, but it still brought a smile to his own lips.

By now the sun had begun to set and Shouto was walking you to the train to see you off before you went home.

“Can I pick you up next weekend in the morning?” he said. “So we can get your outfit for the gala?”

“Sure! I’ll text you my address.” 

He nodded in contentment. “And again, you don’t have to worry about any costs.”

“Is this why my friends have called you a sugar daddy?” you teased, bumping your shoulder against his as you walked down the street, side-by-side. “But thank you. Shopping will be fun— We can even match colors!” 

“Mn.” He looked between the both of you, as if trying to picture what colors would complement each other. 

You crossed the sidewalk in a comfortable silence, enjoying the scenery by Shouto’s side. A few times, you even felt his knuckles brush against yours and you had the undeniable urge to hold his hand. Would that be weird? you asked yourself before deciding against it. 

Just because he asked you to be his date for the Naruhata Charity Ball didn’t mean he actually liked you, right? It was just a favor from a friend to a friend.

Something about that though made your stomach unsettled. Maybe part of you wanted it to be a real date— Wanted this to be a real date. 

“So I won’t be seeing you tomorrow,” you said after a moment’s silence, trying not to look too dejected. 

You knew he’d still text good morning and good night and ask you random things throughout the day (all of which you found really endearing, by the way), but it was still different from seeing him in person. Even though your time together in the morning was small, they still were enough to make your day. The thought of your waking hours being so entwined made you nervous, but for some reason it didn’t bother you as much as you thought it would. In fact, it was sort of...nice. 

“I’ll see you Monday morning, right?” you asked hopefully, though you were already fairly certain of the answer.

Shouto nodded. “Of course. It’s already marked on my calendar.”

“Ever the flatterer, hmm?” 

“Not flattery, just the truth.” He pulled his phone out and showed you his (rather packed) calendar app. To your surprise, a little reminder that said ‘See Y/N :)’ was marked on his Monday schedule. 

Unable to stop the beam from spreading across your lips, you hid your face in your hands. Gosh— Did he have to be so cute? He was making it harder and harder to only like him as a friend. And even now, you weren’t sure if you liked him only as a friend.

But you pushed those thoughts away.

That was something to deal with at a later time.

When you reached the train station you normally took home, you turned to Shouto, giving him a big hug. He was tall and warm. You could feel his lean muscles through his button-down shirt as you rested your head against his chest and arms around his waist. 

“Thanks for today,” you mumbled. “I’ll see you again soon.”

After a pause, he gave you a hug back, hands rubbing hesitant circles on your back in a way that made you smile. “Text me when you get home safe,” he said as you both reluctantly released each other from an embrace.

“I will,” you promised. “You do the same! Later, Shouto!” 

And with that, you waved goodbye and boarded the train, unable to shake the unwavering grin on your face all the way home.

a/n: when shouto started feeding y/n spoonfuls of his ice cream i cried (Ｔ▽Ｔ) that’s so cUTE OF HIM LIKE PLS SIR STOP BEFORE I FALL MORE IN LOVE WITH U !! >:O he’s such a sweetheart ahhhh,, i hope all the fluff made up for the brief appearance of endeavor ಠ╭╮ಠ  FHDJKF 

what to expect in the next part:

shopping for the gala time !! 

y/n struggles with their fEeLiNGs~ part 2

oh my, y/n has to try on dresses? oh my, it’d be a shame if they needed help putting it on :o *fake gasp* 

yeah things get just a lil steamy but shh

#bnha x reader #bnha #bnha imagines #bnha fanfiction #boku no hero academia #mha #mha x reader #mha imagines #mha fanfiction #bnha scenarios #todoroki shouto x reader #todoroki x reader #todoroki shoto x reader #shouto x reader #shoto x reader #todoroki imagines #shouto todoroki x reader #shoto todoroki x reader #bnha x you #bnha x y/n #todoroki x y/n #bnha fluff #mha scenarios #todoroki shouto #todoroki shoto #bnha todoroki

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 303: And What, Pray Tell, Is a “One For All”

Previously on BnHA: The Todorokis (really just Enji) looked at their children and went “how can we screw up all four of them in uniquely different ways” and proceeded to do just that. Touya was all “just because practicing how to set myself on fire better hasn’t worked to win my dad’s affections YET doesn’t mean it will NEVER work”, because child logic. Turns out setting oneself on fire real hard isn’t so effective at winning affections, but is actually incredibly effective when it comes to burning oneself to death, so there’s that. Back in the present day, the Todorokis basked in their various misplaced (again, except for Enji) feelings of guilt, and were all “anyway but get over yourself already Enji, you still have to do something to stop this kid”, and Shouto was all “I’ll help too”, and Enji was all “(╥_╥)”, and Hawks and Jeanist were all “[surreptitiously listening in from outside the door]”, and that’s basically where we left off.

Today on BnHA: Hawks and Jeanist are all “mind if we join you on this family journey?” and proceed to stroll in uninvited with their puns and their perceptive insights. Hawks is all “so to sum everything up, we’re fucked, but at least you have us here to help you out! by the way, no clue why I’m the first person to ask this in three hundred chapters, but wtf is One For All.” We then cut to Deku, who’s still all “[(－－)]z”, and All Might, who is all “I’m just going to ignore the extremely loud racket going on right outside this room.” Which, btw, is happening on account of Bakugou, who is all “(╬◣Д◢)” as Satou, Tsuyu, and Mineta cart him away. Anyway so that’s a lot of antics, and also it looks like Hawks has gotten tired of the Todorokis refusing to put the pieces together on their own about OFA and so he is fast-tracking that shit. And meanwhile Deku is chatting it up with the Vestiges exactly like we all thought. And now we have to wait another whole week for updates on all of this. This really is not fair.

omfg lol

“our bad, we were kind of accidentally listening in on purpose.” like I said last week guys, no fuss. it’s a tradition

OMG

I am absolutely fucking floored. Hawks literally said that so casually that it’s impossible for me to rewrite it so as to be even more casual. that’s literally what I would write in the “today on bnha” section. in fact I probably will write that

(ETA: just for laughs I tried it and it really worked.)

a couple more things to point out about this panel: 

“TOP 3” omg yes. more like “top only” at this point, honestly. interested to see how that goes

Hawks’s phone is freaking the fuck out about something, calm down there

I know this is a standard Jeanist hair-fixing gesture that he does all the time, but I can’t help but form hypotheses about this being a stress reaction because Hawks’s hair is making him internally freak out. Hawks, if this man tries to get you alone with him and some hairspray and a comb, please for the love of god do not listen to him. get out of there and call the authorities

omg Shouto’s face

okay confession, I wasn’t really sold on the whole “Shouto has a schoolboy crush on Hawks” thing until exactly now, when I became 100% sold on it. that is adorable

and heck with it, gotta show Enji and Rei’s reactions here as well because lol

“omg my son who’s not my son, and he just overheard everything about me being a terrible shitty father and person overall, oh and plus my actual-son set him on fire and called him out on a national broadcast. I’m just gonna stare at him baffledly.” versus Rei, who is all “hmm, who are these people”

so Hawks is all “I got released from the hospital after one day for some reason so I made Jeanist drive me around places while we talked about life” but uh, heyyyyy, what’s Rei doing

okay, uh

SO FUCKING FORMAL OMFG. “SORRY MY KID TRIED TO BURN YOU TO DEATH, APPARENTLY HE DOES THAT” REI NO IT’S NOT YOUR FAULT

HAWKS IS ALL “I’M JUST GONNA LAUGH SINCE THAT’S MY DEFAULT RESPONSE TO BEING PROFOUNDLY UNCOMFORTABLE”

let me tell you a secret Hawks, it’s my default response too. ahahahahahahaha oh thank god Jeanist is helping her up -- AND MAKING A JEANS PUN, OF COURSE. IT’S BEEN ALMOST THIRTY SECONDS. MY MAN WAS DYING

“WTF IS ILLEGAL DENIM” he’s talking ‘bout them counterfeit jeans, Rei. Antoine Bugleboy knows

THANK YOU JEANIST!! OUT HERE ASKING THE RELEVANT QUESTIONS

damn straight. we’re not gonna sit around waiting another 300 chapters for this information on this man’s watch

now Hawks is telling Endeavor he used to watch videos of him all the time, and calling him his “childhood obsession” I can’t

OH MY SWEET STARS AND MOONS

1000% CANON. “SO CLOSE...” ARE YOU SERIOUS. YOU REALLY PUT THAT THOUGHT BUBBLE THERE AND EVERYTHING. “GOOD MORNING EVERYONE, SO JUST IN CASE YOU WEREN’T ALREADY AWARE, TODOROKI SHOUTO IS NOT ACTUALLY STRAIGHT.” HORIKOSHI KOUHEI I AM LITERALLY DUMBFOUNDED. THIS IS AMAZING

and meanwhile that look on Hawks’s face while he casually-but-not-really-casually-at-all asks this question. that phone app better be using his actual voice. I’m not sure I could take this scene in the anime at this point if it was like Alexa talking or something

that look in his eyes is basically saying that so far, based on the information he has absorbed up until this point, Hawks is prepared to view his former childhood obsession as a flawed but changed man. however I get the distinct feeling that depending on Endeavor’s answer now, he would be willing to drastically shift some of his opinions on him

(ETA: this is maybe my favorite panel in the entire chapter. the fact that his question isn’t addressed to anyone in particular, but his eyes are zeroing on on Endeavor. and the way his leaning-on-Shouto pose manages to be simultaneously nonchalant and yet ever-so-slightly protective. there’s so much going on in this one question and gesture and I’m mildly obsessed with it.)

however, Rei is all “that was me” and ONCE AGAIN WITH THE FACES IN THIS CHAPTER holy shit

Hawks definitely did not see that one coming sob. it’s so fun watching him frantically recalculate his ideas about this family every two seconds

DAMN IT HORIKOSHI I UNDERSTOOD THE PARALLELS ALREADY, YOU REALLY DIDN’T HAVE TO DO THIS

yes, Hawks, you get it. it’s not exactly the same, but it’s close enough. though unlike your shitty parents, Rei and Enji are at least trying

OKAY I SERIOUSLY CANNOT WITH ALL OF THIS

fljkdlaskfjlwkjl okay we’re doing the bullet-points breakdown here

first of all, the fact that poor little Shouto’s heart is still thumping away at this proximity and all he can think is “CLOSE” all intelligently as he stares at him with that face omg

and meanwhile Horikoshi has these STRATEGIC BANDAGES WRAPPED AROUND HIS CHEEKS TO HIDE ALL OF HIS SHOUJO BLUSHING omfg. SENPAI NOTICED YOU SWEETIE!!!

HAWKS YOU HAVE ABSOLUTELY ZERO OBLIGATION TO WASTE ANOTHER SECOND OF YOUR LIFE WORRYING ABOUT THESE TWO ASSHOLES WHO NEVER SPARED YOU THE SLIGHTEST BIT OF REGARD OR CONCERN IN THEIR ENTIRE LIVES. THE NICEST THING YOUR MOM EVER DID FOR YOU WAS BUY YOU A $2 ENDEAVOR PLUSH FROM THE DISCOUNT BIN TO KEEP YOU QUIET, AND YOU WERE SO AWED BY THAT ONE ACT OF SORTA KINDA APPROXIMATE KINDNESS THAT YOU SHAPED YOUR ENTIRE WORLDVIEW AROUND IT. PLEASE LET ME PICK YOU UP IN A BIG HUG FOR JUST A SEC, YOU DESERVE THE WORLD AND YOU WERE ONE THOUSAND PERCENT JUSTIFIED IN LEAVING THEM IN THE DUST THE SECOND THAT YOU COULD

but all that said, he immediately recognizes that Shouto would also have had cause to do the same in his situation, and yet hasn’t. and so he has that much more admiration for him all of a sudden, which is just super sweet, and fully appropriate. Shouto does deserve props. I’m choosing to take this as an “it takes a lot of strength to be able to forgive, and people who choose to do that even though they’re not obligated to are really amazing" type of thing, as opposed to “people who don’t forgive other people who severely wronged them are bad.” and if I’m wrong and Hawks’s line here is meant to be seen as actual failing on his part, well then fuck that, but we’ll move on

SO NOW, DOWN TO BUSINESS!

I am so, so curious as to what kind of strategy Hawks has for this (if he even has any), so I’ll just be quiet now and read

so Hawks is summing up basically what we already knew -- that Tomura and his inner circle (curious that there’s no mention of AFO, because if Hawks doesn’t know about him, that implies almost no one does) are still on the lam with a few PLF stragglers and some High Ends; that a bunch of prisons have been “liberated” (I assume this means all of the inmates escaped, so if that’s the case then where’s Kurogiri??); that the HPSC is fucked; and that heroes are resigning all over the place, and so civilians are taking matters into their own hands

OH DAMN!?

does this mean we’ll actually see some international heroes?? I will LOSE MY DAMN SHIT omg

(ETA: apparently people who paid more attention to the first BnHA movie than I did recognized the silhouettes as belonging to some background characters from Two Heroes. so maybe they were just cameos and they’re not actually new characters who are soon to join us lol. oh well.)

anyway so Hawks agrees with the other Todorokis that Endeavor has no choice but to fight

awww

DON’T WORRY ENJI THEY’VE GOT YOUR BACK. WITH YOUR FLAMES, AND JEANIST’S PUNS, AND HAWKS’S BOYISHLY GOOD LOOKS, THE THREE OF YOU CAN DO ANYTHING YOU SET YOUR MINDS TO

so Enji is very pertinently asking why they’re standing by him in spite of the... [gestures vaguely to everything]

oh my lordy lord

Shouto you had better do something to combat this soon, or this man will sneak past you on my favorite character ranking after all. his face. his cheeky lil finger gun. the fact that he sums it up so fucking simply. “if someone is trying to do the right thing, I want to support them.” exactly. exactly

(ETA: and one last thing I love but forgot to mention, which is the fact that Hawks calls it a team-up despite the fact that he is clearly in charge.)

meanwhile Jeanist is all “as for me, at this point I just straight up don’t give a fuck”

I can’t handle how fucking cool this chapter is you guys

so Hawks is all “you good?” at Enji. and Enji...

if anyone needs me, I will be building myself a discourse-proof fort made entirely out of problematic characters. I don’t even care. I will go on living my life very happily in here

lol at Natsu being all “BUT DON’T THINK THIS MAKES US FRIENDS”

I’m living for this weird and no-doubt entirely unintended implication that Natsu and them all are gonna join in the fight with the rest of them. I mean, they do presumably all have very powerful ice quirks. and Natsu has medical training on top of that, and Fuyu is skilled at getting eight-year-olds to behave which could be a useful talent for dealing with Tomura hahaha I kid, but I’M JUST SAYING. who needs hero licenses anyway

OH SHIT FINALLY SOME DISCUSSION OF AN ACTUAL STRATEGY. even if it’s just a PR strategy

WHAKLHL

and now for some reason we’re flashing back to Natsu and Fuyu’s attempts to navigate through the media crowd outside the hospital

well I guess this is why I’m not the mangaka. if I were writing this I would have done something trite and predictable like using that “One for All” line as an excuse to cut to Deku!! as opposed to this entirely unrelated scene!!

seriously though why do we need to see this lol

no one in this crowd has ever heard of Alexander Dumas huh. or even the popular 2007 Disney Channel original movie, High School Musical 2

so now there’s an entire page of Hawks saying they need to know what One for All is, and Endeavor having one of those patented Todoroki WHOOSH realizations lmao look at this

just wait until this man figures out that one of the scrappy new interns he took on three months ago was actually the main character all along

SKDFIOHWIERLKSJGLWLK!!

NOW IS PROBABLY A GOOD TIME TO ASK MYSELF WHY I CHOSE THIS CHARACTER WHO KEEPS DISAPPEARING FOR SIX OR TWELVE OR FORTY CHAPTERS AT A TIME TO BE MY FUCKING FAVORITE. WELCOME BACK SON PLEASE DON’T SCREAM YOURSELF TO DEATH YOU STILL HAVE A HOLE IN YOUR TORSO

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

(ETA: can we just take a moment to appreciate how Bakugou even got so close to Deku’s room in the first place though. in this giant hospital with no idea of where to even go. does he have Deku Radar or something.)

YOU SIX ARE OFFICIALLY ON MY HIT LIST!! SPARE ME YOUR GOOD INTENTIONS!! MY BAKUDEKU REUNION KEEPS GETTING POSTPONED WEEK AFTER WEEK!! YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO BE HEROES WHERE IS YOUR CONCEPT OF MERCY

(ETA: btw just to be clear, I’m not actually angry lol; it makes total sense that they don’t want this rampaging feral toddler who was still in his own coma all of fifteen minutes ago to come and start screaming at the other coma child until he tears all his stitches out. if there’s anything we Bakugou fans should be familiar with by now, it’s being patient.)

also, Tsuyu wrapping her tongue around Bakugou’s still-healing torso wound absolutely can’t be hygienic at all. also wait is that Inko??

(ETA: pretty sure it is her. she got all of one line smdh.)

Iida is all “thank god Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight pulled through, I thought for sure he was a goner back there”

for the record this is actually really sweet to see how relieved he is. he’s one of the few people who saw the original injury close up, back when he was still at the battlefield and unconscious, so I imagine it really did freak him out quite a bit

JIROUUUUUU

“sometimes I just like to stand here and tug on my imaginary suspenders, what of it”

how come you guys get to loiter around Deku’s room but Kacchan doesn’t. god fucking dammit. AND WHAT DOES THIS EVEN MEAN

I BET KACCHAN COULD WAKE HIM UP FROM HIS COMA WITH THE POWER OF RIVAL INTENSITY!! BUT NOOOOOOOO, [is dragged away back to my fort]

OH MY GOD!?!

"this seems to be an entirely normal and above-board situation that we have just stumbled onto”

I see Jeanist comes from the Iida Tenya school of respectfully using people’s full names

Jeanist becoming one of the main characters is the best thing to ever happen to this series

EXCUSE YOU, IIDA

BUT I’M SURE HE’D MAKE AN EXCEPTION FOR KACCHAN THOUGH!! [elbowing my way back out of the fort] HAWKS, PLEASE --

DON’T GO ALL OMINIOUSLY PUTTING THE PIECES TOGETHER ALL ON YOUR OWN GODDAMMIT

“there’s absolutely no way this angry wriggling shoulder burrito kid here could answer literally all of my questions, so I’ll just ignore him”

OH MY GOD WE’RE FINALLY CUTTING BACK TO HIM BUT THE CHAPTER IS ENDING

[jumps up, throws a folding chair at Iida and the rest of the gang, and then runs]

oh my god. actually this chapter was awesome. but I’m so fucking mad at this cliffhanger though lol

at least we got a couple of answers! and some hints and teases! poor Deku looks so worn out even though he’s asleep dlwkjl my little green baby. and is it just me or is his quirk activated?? All Might’s all “I can feel it” as if it isn’t obvious just looking at him, why are you trying to be all mysterious dude

anyway! so at least we finally have confirmation and a date for those vestige antics at long last. looking forward to meeting Mister The Fourth next week so we can finally ask him “hey dude, what the fuck”

#bnha 303 #takami keigo #hawks #todoroki shouto #todoroki enji #endeavor #best jeanist #todofam #bakugou katsuki #class 1-a #bnha #boku no hero academia #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #bnha manga spoilers #makeste reads bnha

[agendratum]

the night of random dramas: a review

tonight i spent almost the entire shift at work watching random dramas, because i needed something to distract myself from my thoughts. but, i also didn’t want to get fully distracted from work and usually i just have something as background noise while working, so i didn’t turn on english subtitles (additional practice, hey). and so i watched a bunch of random stuff and now would like to chat about that cause why not?

so, to summarize

dramas: random

language of choice: chinese

attention: half-asses

别惹白鸽 Don't Mess With Bai Ge

i watched 2 episodes. because it only had 2 episodes. idk if it’s an ongoing or just a short story, but the 2nd episode did feel like a finale.

originally the thumbnail caught my attention, thus why i picked it for the first drama of the night. and then it started like this

[cue creepy music]

a lady confesses she wants to kill someone while some creepy tunes play? i’m in. honestly, this was the most words i understood through the whole night. but i got the gist without understanding other words: three ladies are fucked over by their respective shitty guys. they meet, they decide to help each other. (i thought they were gonna help each other kill them, but, spoiler, no one gets killed). some dudes do get slapped tho, by the main character, bai ge, the one you don’t mess with. not without a reason apparently.

honestly, was pretty enjoyable to watch. the cimeamtography was there. i actually wanted to find more dramas like this for the rest of that shift, but alas

this drama gets points for having a cool start, nice aesthetic, lady friends and for being concise

a couple of points are deducted because no one died

a warning for elements of self-harm, i think, and also some elements of harassment

update: it’s not a short story, it has 12 episodes in total it seems. so i guess the official youtube channel only has 2 episodes for the time being. inch resting

站住，花小姐 Stop! Miss Hua 

i watched 1 minute of the opening. it felt like it was going to be too damn cheesy romantic even for background noise. also it was too big of a mood shift right after the previous drama.

but maybe it’s good, idk, i only saw some couples being too damn sweet in the opening, but maybe someone actually gets killed in this one? who knows!

恋爱指南我指北 The Romance of Summer 

i watched 11 minutes apparently. got excited in the beginning because a) this drama is about game developers? i think? and b) it has an actress from begin again

this drama gets points for having a familiar face and a fun topic

points deducted for cliches being thrown at the viewer starting with the first 2 minuted of the drama and also for being too distracting for a person that’s trying to do her job, aka, me.

谎言使用法则 Better A Lie Than A Truth 

i watched the whole 1st episode heeey!

so, points for being somehow literally perfect background noise. also for having fake zombies in the beginning

idk if i should deduct points for this, cause i was consciously watching without english subs, but also i watched a whole episode and hadn’t got a single idea WHAT the drama was about. things just kept happening. girls kept crying, getting drunk and being sassy. guys kept acting cool and all that. idk. idk what that was about. no clue. but it was nice. so, they can keep their points in this fake ranking system i’m making up here

青春创世纪 Something Just Like This

finally i thought to myself, hey, i can’t go on like this, but... i can go on LIKE THIS

jk. finishing the first episode of the previous drama i thought, i might not understand anything in whatever drama i’m watching, but i at least should be allowed to have an actually familiar face or a plot that could be at least slightly interesting to me. so i looked at my b-list of what i maybe wanted to watch, and found this drama, with xuan lu!

yes, if i wanted to look at xuan lu, i could had gone for wen tian lu, especially since i could actually go for watching wtl without english subs, but i doubt it would be a good background noise. they shout. a lot. they run around and yell. constant conflict.

anyway, something just like this, what a weird translation of this title. apparently it’s about e-commerce live-streamers. and yes, for this one i googled the summary, but first i understood what they were doing on my own, okay?

so yeah, again, points for a pretty interesting topic, stylish people going around talking business all day, having “don’t touch my car” as their theme song, one piece and pokemon figurines, insta influencers aesthetics, and of course points for having xuan lu in your drama

points deducted for not having enough xuan lu in your drama

oh yeah, and also points for featuring ads with zzh. i mean, the drama is from 2020, but still

i ended up watching 4 episodes and starting the 5th one.

this concludes tonight’s review of random dramas. tomorrow? who knows. might continue this insta influencer drama, might try out some other dramas from my b-list. or maybe i’ll try some other gong jun dramas or finish my weird friend. so many options, so much work to do.

#mt #don't mess with bai ge was def a highlight of the night tho and i'm still a little bit sad i couldn't just randomly stumble upon something #else just like this #which is hilarious considering that i finished the night watching a drama called SOMETHING JUST LIKE THIS #sorry aslkdjsad #watching things and stuff

[pridewhatpride]

"rival"

There you are. You. Asking for a GX Rivalshipping drabble with 'Rival' as a keyword. Here you go. I hope you're happy ;; The length is around 2k words.

Special thanks to @deadkura for proofreading, but I note that any and all mistakes are on me. They were just... my poor lab rat. Apologies, my friend.

That aside, there are no warnings that need to be given, this is light-hearted in tone. Nobody dies and nobody gets hurt, aside from Shou who happens to be there at some point and just succumbs to the need to get on with some semblance of a plot.

... It's on Ao3 because why not. Here.

The story is below the cut! Enjoy (or don't)!

____ ____ ____

Manjoume could vaguely remember the first time he’d watched the Battle City recordings. He couldn’t remember when it had been exactly, but he did know he’d been at a classmate’s house with a bunch of other kids. He had a faint memory of being pressed up against other children, all of them shouting and cheering along as the duel between Seto Kaiba and Yugi Mutou came to a roaring end.

… It had been noisy. And he’d found himself mildly annoyed. Not that the duel didn’t have him on the edge of his seat- quite the opposite. He was completely mesmerised by the unforgiving tornado of grace that was Seto Kaiba, most of all. Perhaps that was why he’d found the others to be so bothersome in that specific instance. It seemed very rude to him that they would take him out of the experience with their screams. Was that fun? Was it supposed to be fun? Was he simply out of the loop? Should he have been screaming, too?

The thing he could recollect with a surprising amount of clarity was some kid who’d grabbed his arm to get him off the couch. To this day, he still had no clue what his name was.

“Jun! Come on, I want to play Yugi! You can be Kaiba!”

He remembered muttering something about the suggestion being extremely stupid. The kid wasn’t Yugi Mutou and neither of them possessed any Duel Monsters cards. What was the point of just replicating what they had just watched on screen? They could just… rewatch the scene. But the kid had seemed to be very set on the idea and when Manjoume looked around to see expectant looks on the others’ faces, he ended up giving in. He remembered thinking something along the lines of: ‘Why me?’ And even in retrospect, it made very little sense. He’d never played with this specific kid before. He was a friend of a friend- or a friend of someone he thought was a friend at the time.

“Why do I have to do this?” He had ended up asking, not hiding any sign of his annoyance. “Because you’re like Kaiba!” “I am?” “Yeah! You always say mean things like him! And Taro says you’re like… super rich.”

The rest was a bit of a blur, but he remembered being the ‘Kaiba’ of the group, for as long as it lasted. Which wasn’t a very long time, admittedly. But it had been the one and only ‘friend group’ he’d found himself being a part of, up until he’d entered the dueling circuits, when people started sucking up to him either because of his early successes or just to see what could be squeezed out of the youngest of the Manjoume brothers.

Reminiscing about things like that was… weird, to say the least. He wondered why he’d been that stuck up, even as a kid. He just couldn’t figure out what exactly had made him believe that acting like he was above everyone else could get him anywhere at all. Of course he was aware of the futility of the act, now that he’d grown up and a few years had passed, but it turned out that knowing something on a rational level does not, in fact, equal being able to put it into practise.

… He knew why he was doing what he was doing, anyways. It had stopped being meanness for the sake of being mean when he knew he could get away with it and had stepped into habit territory. And he hadn’t been allowed to go to Duel Academy so that he could make friends who shared the same hobby. He had imagined that 3 years could go by in the blink of an eye if he got involved as little as possible. All that mattered was winning duels, right? And the last thing he needed in order to do that was to start caring about his opponent’s feelings, really.

The thing he hadn’t really considered was that, maybe, his winning streak wouldn’t last forever. He should have known that the outcome of a duel did not depend entirely on how driven one was. It was still fucking annoying to have to see everyone’s surprised- no, incredulous faces upon seeing him finally defeated. Finally, yes. Clearly people had been waiting for nothing more than to see him brought to his knees. It turned out they had firmly believed he had no actual merits outside of his family connections. They had their long-awaited confirmation. He’d lost a single fucking duel. Obviously he was nothing but a blowhard.

Well, good. Whatever. He couldn’t have cared less.

What did infuriate him, however, were the words that the idiot who’d defeated him had exclaimed, entirely unaware of the fact that he’d just completely crushed everything Manjoume had tried to build for himself.

“That was a fun duel! We have to do this again some time!”

He hadn’t cared to stay behind to listen to anything else the other had to say. The guy clearly hardly had a clue where he was or what he was studying to become. Who had allowed that moron to smile like that while trampling his pride? How the fuck had Manjoume let himself be defeated by someone like that?

May the fucker go to hell. Him and his dumb red uniform. Everyone in the Academy. They could fucking die for all he cared. And Manjoume would have probably laughed at the sight.

He really thought he would have. And yet.

As he was going over his deck, sitting with his back against a tree, doing his best to avoid anyone and everyone, he heard footsteps approaching, accompanied by two voices he felt he knew.

“Aniki, I still can’t believe you beat that guy- he’s an Obelisk Blue- and the top ranking first year at that!” … Is this- “He is? Well, that checks out, he was pretty tough.” That’s- Yuki Judai. No doubt about it. “But you beat him.” … Because that needed to be pointed out, how insightful. “Doesn’t everyone lose at least once?” No. “Not against Osiris Red students!” Exactly. “… Why does that even matter in the first place?” It just fucking does, asshole. “Because! A top student isn’t supposed to lose against just anyone, Aniki! I don’t think he took that well.” … Who the fuck would. “Why, though. He didn’t duel poorly or anything. We were pretty evenly matched, there shouldn’t be shame in that.” “Doesn’t that just make it worse?” “… Does it?”

He’d known they were about to pass him, but didn’t bother getting up or making it look like he hadn’t heard anything. He’d clearly been right about this Yuki guy. A complete idiot who clearly understood nothing of what it meant to be a duelist. He glared at the two as they walked by.

… Ah, so the other was Marufuji. A failure younger brother, much like him. How ironic. The boy looked absolutely devastated to see him, too. What, wasn’t expecting the woods to have ears, eyes and a blue uniform?

He furrowed his eyebrows as Yuki abandoned his carefree walking posture, disentangling his fingers from behind his nape and letting his arms drop to his sides. And then proceeded to point straight at him, as if he’d just seen a mythological creature prancing about. Tch.

“It’s Manju!”

… Was that supposed to be a joke? Why was his first thought that that would make for an awful pet name?

After a second of silence, he decided there would be no harm in responding as he usually would to his name being tossed around improperly. “It’s Man-jou-me,” he corrected, making it a point to hold a hand up to count the three syllables as he spelled them out. “In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m not actually food.”

Marufuji’s hands shot up to cover his face, at least he had the decency to be embarrassed for his friend. … But Yuki just laughed. “What! My name isn’t so forgettable that you’d just mistake it for dessert, asshole!” And laughed harder. “I-“ he paused to catch his breath. Manjoume looked on, entirely unimpressed. Hopefully. “Look- look, I’m not the best with names, I didn’t-“ a loud exhale. “I didn’t mean to make fun of you, I swear.” “… Sure you didn’t.” He tried to keep his voice as hostile as he could. But he… couldn’t fully bring himself to shut the guy down. He supposed his laughter was just contagious.

“Glad that’s settled!” He turned around to face a barely still present Marufuji. “See, Shou? The guy isn’t so bad!” Ah. Right. It had almost slipped his mind. “Aniki- please, I get it, there is no need-!”

“I’ll be winning the next one, anyways,” he said as he got up. And that, apparently, was enough to get both boys to gape uselessly. For half a second. Because before anything else could be said, Yuki shot him a thumbs up and a wide smile. “I’m counting on it, Manjoume!” He couldn’t stop himself from smirking back.

It didn’t take long for rumours to spread about a supposed rivalry between himself and Yuki Judai. It turned out that most off the students of the Academy had very little to do aside from gossiping about such things, which was honestly just a disappointment. Perhaps that was why Judai ended up growing on him, despite everything. While he wasn’t necessarily serious or studious by any means, he was… passionate. He meant it when he said that he was looking to have fun and, to an extent, it was admirable. Enjoy the game no matter the outcome. Easier said than done. But in a sense it was… pleasant to get along with and play against someone who was so different from him.

On one specific evening, they had ended up staying out, discussing strategies and dispensing sarcastic advice- or at least that was what Manjoume was doing. Judai actually seemed quite intent on asking how he’d built his deck and why he’d chosen certain card combos rather than others. They had had a match a few hours prior and Manjoume had surprised him with some new faces. Manjoume Jun was a lot of things and predictable wasn’t one of them. And if the way Judai’s face lit up whenever he pulled a surprise play was anything to go by… it was clearly a trait he appreciated immensely, which it was something that made him swell up with pride. To the point where, when switching out cards, he would often find himself thinking about what Judai’s reaction would look like upon the big reveal of his new strategy.

“It’s always my pleasure to be your lab rat, Manjoume.” The response came in the form of a light shove. “Oh shut up, I like testing out things and, clearly, so do you.” Judai’s laugh rang out, light and unintrusive. “You’re right about that, at least.”

They spent some minutes silently studying eachother’s decks. Manjoume had been about to comment on the card ratio, before Judai blurted out something that made him forget all about it. “We’re kind of like Yugi and Kaiba.” And then a necessary addition, judging by the urgency in his voice. “If they had been actual friends, that is.” … Huh. One of his eyebrows shot up. “Don’t tell me it’s because you win most of the times and I’m a stuck up asshole who also happens to be rich.” Judai laughed, as he always did. And it was only fair that after being shoved earlier he’d playfully punch Manjoume’s shoulder. “That could be one way to look at it, I guess.”

A small pause followed. And the increase in intensity of the sound of shuffling cards suggested that Judai was… nervous. “What I meant to say is that we’re rivals. Like them.” Majoume scoffed, without any actual bite, his eyes set on a Polymerisation copy. “That isn’t specific to them. Isn’t it just… normal? To have someone you want to defeat, I mean?” “Hah, so you admit I’m the role model you’re striving to overcome!” “I didn’t say anything of the sort, dumbass.” “… Well, for me… playing with you keeps the game fun.”

Manjoume actually looked away from the Elemental Heroes he’s been adamantly staring at. He turned to face Judai, who seemed to have been looking his way for some time.

He would do that a lot. Make a joke, get a snarky reply and immediately say something serious afterwards. What an idiot.

Fun he said, huh? “Not that it isn’t fun in and of itself, but it’s different, I guess. I find that I actually do want to win, when I’m up against you.” Judai’s hand moved to play with his bangs. “I didn’t think I’d ever think twice about a lost duel, but I… kind of do, now.”

“Oh yeah, sorry- Welcome to the magical world of normal people who don’t necessarily win every single time.” “You speak like I’m not the only one who’s beaten you.” “So do you, asshat.” Judai’s expression morphed back into a smile. “It’s refreshing to have a genuine challenge. If you were to quit I would probably lose my interest in playing, too.”

Ah. That part of the Yugi-Kaiba rivalry. He felt like he started to understand.

“Keep dreaming, Judai. I’m not quitting anytime soon. I vowed to never let you off the hook.”

He thought of what he could or should say next. A part of him suggested: ‘You make it fun for me, too.’ That wasn’t in his style, however.

“But I have to agree. I’d get really bored if winning were to become too easy. You’ll die before I allow you to quit, Judai.”

#ygo #yugioh #ygo gx #yugioh gx #gx rivalshipping #manjoume jun #jun manjoume #chazz princeton #yuki judai #judai yuki #jaden yuki #ulri's abysmal fics #@ deadkura if you'd rather i untag you i will

[utterlyinevitable]

I’m bored and you’re headcanons are honestly so quality omfg but anyways write a headcanon of ethan and MC having a high school, slow burn love/not love (angsty ✨✨✨ kinda like us with our muses 💀 I’m not sure if Ethan ends up coming out as gay at the end tho-honestly if he did I’m living for it) love you lots! 💖 your tumblr niece

AHAHAHAHHAAHHAHAH no no nope Ethan will not come out as gay 🤣 But I am going to take full on creative liberty with this and you’re just gonna have to deal 😘

Ethan and Becca Meet in High School 

Ethan Ramsey was 26 years old and a TA for the school’s science department. He took the part time role on a year’s contract to help pay off some of his student loans before he started residency. 

At 17 years old, Becca was a senior at a small-town high school. 

Becca was an interesting student - very quiet but intelligent. She surrounded herself with the strangest group boys. Those boys were her lab bench mates, and were incredibly subpar. 

More than once Ethan caught the three boys playing games on their laptops and scrolling their feeds instead of paying attention. 

He watched her carry them all on her back through the course. And ask for nothing in return. 

It made his blood boil - they were clearly taking advantage of their friend. 

The next week Ethan persuaded Ms. Cook changed up the seating arrangements. 

Ethan took great pleasure in marking the boys Cs instead of the B+ they were used to getting with Becca’s help. 

Second Semester, AP Bio was kicking Becca’s ass. She needed help preparing to get the 5 she needed on the exam in order to rank Top 15 in her class before graduation.

So she attended Ms. Cook’s after school sessions. 

It seemed half the class needed extra help, so they were split up into groups. Half with Cook and half with Ramsey. Becca was assigned to Ramsey. 

As the days and weeks progressed, the after school group dwindled. 

After a choose-your-partner lab that day, Becca ended up with the same group of useless individuals. 

At study group that afternoon, Ethan confronted her about it: “I don’t know why you let them take credit for your work. Be proud of your accomplishments.” “Being proud gets you enemies.” “You’d rather have friends and compromise your integrity, than showing everyone what you’re capable of?”

That made her think. 

“I’d rather come out of high school unscathed.” “You can’t make everyone love you. The sooner you learn that, the sooner you’ll come into your own.”  “And who are you, Dr. Ramsey?”  “Someone who took every opportunity I could. I advise you do the same.” 

Over the next few weeks they got to know one another better. Ethan becoming her somewhat mentor and encouraging her to speak up more and assert herself. 

She took all his words to heart. 

He was proud and a little taken aback when she found a fallacy in one of their labs and called Ms. Cook out on it. It resulted in it being postponed to fix the errors.  

Being a high school senior meant having to choose what college to go to. 

She was getting acceptance letters left and right but she had absolutely no clue what she wanted to to with her life. 

“Did you always want to be a doctor?” she asked one afternoon.  “No. But it’s what I’m good at.”  “How did you know it’s what you wanted to pursue?”  “As much as I regret saying this, it felt like a calling.”  “Hmph. Okay.”  “You don’t agree with the notion?”  “I don’t know what I want to do. I’ve applied to so many schools and different programs. How do I know which one’s right?” 

They talked about what she’s passionate about and what makes her happiest and what careers she thinks she could pursue.  

That got her to think. Think long and hard and over a few days. 

She had a new outlook on life - she was on a new quest to find her eternal happiness. 

May came around and she took her AP exam. She got a perfect score.  _

Becca has eyes. She notices how attractive Dr. Ramsey is. Tbh everyone notices - he’s the thirst of the school district. Her girl friends even ask her about him multiple times a week. All she does is roll her eyes and say he’s too old for them.    

Becca had been all but dating Bryce Lahela for the last year and a half. 

They were friends. 

Friends who kissed and touched and spent almost every Friday and Saturday night together with the gang. 

It wasn’t a secret that Bryce was completely enamored by her. 

He wanted her. Officially. And he was tried of waiting. 

One day after school, Bryce was waiting outside Ms. Cook’s classroom for her. 

He nodded at and dodged every student that passed him as he waited. She was the last one to leave. 

“Hey,” he gave his megawatt smile.  “Hey, what’re you doing here? Don’t you have practice?”  “Ended early.” 

They exchanged small talk and Bryce finally began to lay everything out in a young, round about way. He kissed her to butter her up. 

“Be my girlfriend?”  “What’s wrong with what we already have?”  “C’mon, Becks,” he pulled her in closer by her beltloop.  “No.”  “No?”  “What’s the point? We’re just going to break up before college.”  “You don’t know that.” 

She rattled off all her reasons why: they aren’t going to the same school, they’re young, she doesn’t want to resent him, she doesn’t want to fall in love with him just for it to end badly. 

Bryce went to fight for her but was interrupted by the slam of a door. The two looked up and saw Dr. Ramsey and Ms. Cook locking up for the evening.

She pulled away from him and turned on her heels. 

At the bus stop, Becca sat with her head in her hands. 

Ethan came up next to her.   “For what it’s worth, I think you made the right decision. You’re going to change immensely over the next few years.”  “I know,” she grumbled into her palms. “It just hurts.”   _

Becca went to Stony Brook and double majored in Chemistry and Biology. 

She then attended Med School at UCLA. 

Her second year, a familiar name stared back at her from her required internal medicine textbook: Dr. Ethan Ramsey. 

Becca couldn’t help the smile as she remembered him. She’d almost forgot about the TA that impacted her life more than she could ever know.

Out of curiosity she consumed all his research. And when she finished everything, she found his direct email at Edenbrook. 

She spent an entire weekend wondering if she should email him - Ask if he remembered her and that she followed his advice. She found her calling and it was helping people, just like him. She thought about throwing a joke in there but figured it had been too many years and it probably wouldn’t translate. 

When residency came, she only had applied to Edenbrook. 

And that’s when she emailed him. 

She hadn’t gotten a response for months. 

Actually, she didn’t hear anything until her decision letter came. 

That same evening she found an email from him at the top of her inbox:  Glad to see you’ve found your voice. We look forward to welcoming you to the team. 

Ethan vaguely remembered Becca. 

Honestly, he blocked the whole TA part of his life out. 

Though, once he received her email, he personally vetted her application. And he was blown away. She wasn’t some naïve teenager. 

Becca started working at Edenbrook and wanted nothing more than to learn from Ethan himself. 

But he was different - jaded and cynical and not as approachable as she remembered. 

He pushed her to reach her potential and she pushed his buttons. 

They grew closer, especially with Naveen’s case. Basically the slow burn in canon happens. 

These two get together, officially, once their jobs at the new Bloombrook Diagnostics Hospital were instated and they were definitely both staying in Boston for the foreseeable future.  _

Becca didn’t particularly want to go to her 10-year high school reunion. She went because she was being recognized for her accomplishments with a few other alum. 

She brought her boyfriend Ethan with her.  “If I have to sit through this, so do you.”  “I can honestly say I’ve never been to a reunion.”  “Well, you’re my excuse to leave early. Gotta put the old man to bed,” she winked. 

She was grateful for him playing along instead of taking another shift at work, and it would be nice to just be a couple for once. Without expectations hanging over them as the heads of their respective departments at work. 

They had been in the ballroom for less than 15 minutes before they heard the loud whispers circulating. 

Seems like Becca wasn’t the only one who remember the sexiest TA in all of high school history and of teenage dreams. 

There were a bunch of intrusive questions being thrown at them and people coming up to them for the low down. 

They tried not to be rude in their admonishments but the whole situation was awkward as fuck. Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to bring him with her.... 

But there was no going back now. 

And then Bryce sauntered over. 

They hadn’t spoken to one another since senior prom when he took her best friend as a date and then hooked up with someone else at the after party. 

“Rebecca, you look amazing,” he came in for a hug.  “Thank you, Bryce.” 

They had awkward catch ups at one side of the table as Ethan sat at the other end fending off questions from other girls and a select group of boys that remembered him. 

Bryce and Becca talked about what they’ve been up to, how he’s now a surgeon and what brought him back home. 

They lamented about how it’s strange they’re both in medicine and never spoke of that as a career path way back when. 

In their long, flowing and unawkward conversation, they settled that it was best they went their separate ways. 

They settled on the agreement that they didn’t think they’d end up at the schools they went to if they did date. They assumed love would reign and they’d choose to stay close by, and New York and California were not close by. 

With all the long awaited closure finally out of the way, Bryce motioned towards Ethan; “So, you and that guy? How’d that happen?” 

She knew what he was thinking and was quick to squash any rumors from starting.

“We work together. Didn’t mean for it to happen, it just kind of fell together.”  “You look happy.”  “I am.” 

Bryce was bold in his next assumption. Knowing Becca as the girl who always spoke about never getting married and being a free bird as her main reasons for never committing to a boy, he wanted to catch her of guard:   “Is it love?” 

He wasn’t prepared for her answer.

“Yes.” 

People change and are allowed to evolve. But it’s hard to imagine someone you once loved as anything other than who they were. And it’s even harder to see them in love with someone else. 

#love you the mostest #open heart #open heart headcanons #hc #ethan x mc #ethan ramsey #bryce lahela #asked #you weren't expecting this and i wasn't expecting to write this #what did i just write???? #Anonymous #bryce x mc

[spacedoutbunny]

Chapter 1

She was perched on the rooftop like a bird would perch if birds perched on this particular rooftop. Except they didn`t. Birds avoided this particular rooftop because they knew she perched there. It was almost out of respect for her two leggedness of perching.

She stared into the street before a crowd of people had begun to form. Soon there would be too many. And so, she betook herself off from perching to sliding down the roof and then to the gutter and then to falling off. She had to fall just right and so she waited.

Two nights previously the Abegaineo Family had sat down to have a conference. It was to discuss who, if anyone wanted the job would become head of the family.

 It was an annual discussion, that generally ended up with a vacant chair. 

Mostly it was an opportunity to come together to discuss what had happend during the past year and have a rather nice party. Introductions for marriage were also discussed where necessary for family continuity was paramount. Each branch carefully chosen. But bloodlines always from outside the family. No one who was not family could attend. And this meant no one who was not family usually had no clue they were under discussion.

If rejected then the rejected one would never see or hear from his or her potential mate every again. There were rules in place for a reason. 

Everyone took the name Abegaineo once chosen. No one ever left the family. Death was the only exit, but at this point even Death knew better than to take any within their ranks. 

They all just took up positions “Elsewhere” it was just how it worked. 

Those who had known when the chair had been filled had long since gone “elsewhere”. No one was here who remembered at this particular gathering. 

There was light music coming from the ballroom. It had a slightly eerie edge as though something was a little off kilter. Listen too long and it could set your teeth on edge. Listen longer and the need to start a fight grew. After that it was too late and usually involved rubber rooms. 

Chapter 2 

Two days later and outside, the percher was close to falling. And so she did. The person who caught her however, was not who she was expecting to catch her.

One step back and two streets over the intended catcher walked on oblivious. She had been redirected by a series of events that did not seem contrived, but in fact were. 

The recipient of the falling girl was surprised and not delighted. He had been carrying a painting at arms length so as not to bend or break it. So his arms had been extended in the correct position for falling into.  The girl did not yet know it was the wrong person. 

The painting fell out of his hands at the exact moment she hit. And a bunch of expletives followed after. The girls pride was a little hurt. The mans anger and concern for the painting over the person, put her back up. She stood up quickly enough and was about to lay into him when she really noticed his eyes, and then his hands which once again were holding the painting. 

“She apologised. She actually apologised” 

Across the street hidden in shadow Hecate stood talking to her companion, a sparrow. The bird perched on Hecate`s shoulder. “But it was the wrong one” he shrilled. “Where has Nona got to?Nona was supposed to catch her! This took bloody weeks to set up  and it`s all but banjaxed, I`m going to check up on Nona” and the sparrow flew off. 

Nona had wandered into a Cafe she sat looking out at the people walking past as she sipped her coffee. they all had the same bored expression. “Ruddy Robots”. She sighed and got up after finishing and continued down the street. 

A sparrow flew past her head and hit a window, it fell to the ground. 

Nona had not seen it. She was walking without really paying attention the projects in her head were outweighing the noises surround her, the people were a blur. 

A sparrow flew right past her and it a window, it fell to the ground.

She did not see it. 

The third time it happened and Nona ignored it the sparrow flew off muttering.

“Did you just say `for fucks sake?`” 

The sparrow came back round and hit a window right in front of her face, and landed on the ground at her feet. She nearly trod on it but instead bent down to pick it up. “Bloody suicidal birds.” she placed it gently on a table. It fluttered its wings pathetically. “Good God you want me to take you home?” Flutter “Ah what the heck. People think I`m nuts anyway” and she picked the sparrow up. “Better find you a box or something.” 

She rooted around in an recycling bin and found an empty box and put the sparrow inside. She continued to root around inside the bin. She found a bit of wood, some bubble wrap and an orange that was close to going mouldy and there was a painting just thrown to one side. The picture intrigued her and the rest she could find a use for.  She carried it all along till she found a spare poly bag floating down the street, then placed most of the items into the bag. 

The box with the sparrow in contained it and the bubble wrap, but no air holes. The sparrow was comfy but pissed off at the lack of air. 

Nona finally made it back to her flat/studio. she opened the box. The sparrow fluttered weakly. “I bet you need water” she said. The sparrow was thinking it could do with a gin sling right about now.

Nona found a pipette. The sparrow was really hopeful when it saw the clear liquid and nearly choked when water went past its beak. 

Chapter 3

Meanwhile Hecate was watching her main charge walk along with the man with the painting still held at arms length. 

Arabat-Lile,better known as Lily, kept pace with the man and his painting. Still apologising, it fell on deaf ears. This man was a nightmare. He tripped over stuff and nearly fell, he bumped into people and got banged a lot. It was only because Lily steered him, that he made it to his destination. A museum. He almost tripped up the stairs but made it inside and down to the store room where he gingerly placed the painting on the floor against a wall. 

He looked around and finally noticed Lily, and almost jumped out of his skin, falling backward. He might at that point, have crushed the painting, but Lily grabbed his arm and pulled him forward, so he fell into her. Once again their eyes met. She saw a flash of light, literally a flash, then it vanished. He saw her face and realised it was symmetrical. Both said “Wow” 

Hecate still hiding in the shadows just said “shit” it was very deep. 

Hecate needed information and quickly. Everything that could have gone wrong “had” gone wrong and she knew nothing about `Calamity` as she had begun to call him. Not his name, nor his purpose, not a damn thing except he couldn't function well at all. As human males went he was ... well ... clumsy.

Lily had managed to get them out of the storeroom and into a cafe on site at the museum. 

“You mean you had no idea you were coming here?” Lily asked

“No, none at all. One minute I was rooting around in an antique shop and the next I found that painting and I knew I had to take it here directly. 

Lily stared at him “It`s a Blue you know.” Calamity raised an eyebrow.

 “Blue as in Ambrose Blue?. There were no known Ambrose Blue paintings left to be discovered unless perhaps it was in a private collection.” Lily said echoing what the curator had said.

The curator who had been passed the painting had been sceptical about its origin. “There are NO Ambrose Blue paintings left around” he snorted at the idea.  And then on closer inspection he had nearly choked and having left a photograph and a paper of ownership with Calamity had whisked it off to be authenticated. 

“if it is a Blue” Lily continued “then it would appear you may be quite well off”

Calamity sipped his coffee carefully “You think?” he asked. “You knew it could be a Blue but to be honest I know very little about art as a rule, I`m more a collector of old Games and consoles. I was rummaging around for an old Nintendo when I found the painting.”

“Games?” Lily asked. The blank look on her face spoke volumes

“You know PS4, Xbox, Nintendo, Game Cube.” He searched her face for signs of her taking the mickey. 

“I`ve played Poker before does that count? Only I wasn`t very good at it and lost to be honest” 

“Where have you been hiding all these years?” Calamity was thunderstruck. “The Moon?”

[fingerboardrhapsodist]

Okay. As much as I can remember, stuck in one spot. Gonna do the one thing to keep length short. Unsure if that works for every variation of connection, but...y'know.

OKAY. So Hojo goes off to his meeting. Me and Aerith sit and chat for a bit. EVENTUALLY Hojo runs by to his shitty perch to watch whatever chaos is going on elsewhere in his lab, which turns out to be Cloud and the others coming to bail Aerith out. They all seem pretty surprised to see me there too, apparently they thought I'd died in the plate falling. Which was terrible and I am not going to think on it ever again after this if I can help it.

So anyways, Hojo dumps some shit on everybody outside the tank while we're stuck watching from the inside, talking shit about how Aerith definitely chose to come here blah blah or are you saying you own her, Cloud and Zack had some colorful shit to say to him that I shall not repeat here for politeness' sake, they straight up wipe the floor with whatever Hojo tosses their way. Looking good while they do it. Hojo starts some monologue shit at Cloud after Cloud threatens to gut him and Hojo gets blasted by something or another in the middle of it and gets basically yote out the door. So Barret breaks the tank's door open which shorts out something but we didn't exactly realize until a few minutes later. Cloud looked like he was having a bit of head trouble after Hojo started his shit, but he recovered fast enough, so nobody really commented on it.

Some dingdongs in armor show up and get their asses beat quite soundly by literally every other person in the room. I get greeted pretty warmly by Zack and Tifa, which is nice. Cloud kinda looks me over a little like he's doing a damage assessment, but otherwise doesn't do much but nod. Aerith and Zack are excited to see each other. Aerith and Cloud and Tifa are excited to see each other. Barret is glad to get to thank Aerith for getting Marlene to safety and pointedly ignores anything going on in my direction. It's nice to see everybody all together and reasonably happy to have survived all of this bullshit of the last...has it only been three days? REALLY three days??

We get started moving. And then there's this pattering of paws and clacking of claws, that I'm the first to notice because I have amazing hearing apparently. And we meet Red! For like fifteen seconds before he tears ass off to try and find Hojo to wreak more havoc on his nads probably. Pops through some of that fucking bulletproof glass like it's NOTHING. Everyone's kinda startled and reminded that we're in the middle of the weasel bastard's lab, Aerith takes off after Red while Barret's just kinda wondering what the fuck is going on.

Follow after Aerith with zero hesitation, get that weird tingly feeling of materia magic healing and I STILL have no fucking clue who cast it because nobody will own up to doing it. It was somebody behind me. Apparently my leg that I broke that Aerith healed up as much as she could was causing a bit of a limp and that was Noted. Anyways, we get up to where Red's trying to give Hojo some nice facial decorations with his claws, Red doesn't get to Hojo in time for it and then turns to look at us because we got him backed into a fucking corner now like some fucking geniuses we are.

Basically everyone else worries we're gonna have to fight the poor bastard, but Aerith just walks up and pats him on the head like she's telling him he's a good boy and Red just goes from 'fuck Hojo and fuck you too if you're in a 30 foot radius around me or him right now' to zen as fuck. Hackles go down, ears relax, shakes stress and anger out of his bones and fur like he's shaking water off him, kinda finds a comfortable way to hold himself for a bit...and Barret goes 'what the hell is that,' like, to everyone else. And Red just goes 'FASCINATING QUESTION' which just. Fucking floors Barret I swear. Little discussion is had, we get his Hojo designation, he dodges questions about another name...

Cloud has some trouble for a bit there. Kind of looked like flash migraines or something? Basically kinda just...passes out. Like one second he's shuffling and everyone's kinda hesitating like 'should we go offer help orrr' and then he's tipping over and everybody scrambles after him like 'SHIT SHIT FUCK' trying to keep him from clonking his head on something. I'm the first one there, because fuck you I'm Sheikah, Zack is second because fuck you he's SOLDIER, Aerith directs us someplace relatively safe for a bit for Cloud to recover. Set him down and get him comfortable there.

Until he was up again, nobody really said anything, just sorta sat there contemplating life choices and wondering if you can die from migraines. A bit of chatter happens when he wakes up, about if Cloud was okay or if he should keep resting, but then we get on the topic of Aerith because Cloud changes subjects with the stealth and smoothness of a handful of gravel to the face. Uh yeah no I'm good no really I'm fine hey Aerith uhhhhh you gotta talk to us some here what aren't you telling us.

Some questions about what she...is, gets asked, and answered to the best of her ability. Entire conversation gets derailed by Barret deciding he's going to start some shit, which everybody has been trying to prevent the entire way up the building. Also apparently we're near the top floor of the massive stupid fucking building. Wondered if I could gravity walk my entire way down the side of the fucker or if I would run out of magic halfway and fucking die by falling the rest.

Basically everybody talks Barret down from the shit and then whatever yote Hojo earlier showed up again apparently. Everyone was talking about them, and they were apparently bothering Aerith, but I could not see shit besides the fact that it looked like there was a breeze from shit circling around her like a tornado and it was whipping her hair and clothes around a little bit.

Barret asked questions and was accidentally rude. Red showed he has an amazing sense of humor while explaining what the fuck was happening in a way that made zero sense to me and I may have to ask for clarification later. The things on the wall flipped on like a slate, and Wedge was in the thing like a video talking to us. Could apparently see and hear and respond to us like in person, though. Was really cool and something I am going to have to weasel out of Purah if I can when I get back home. If I get back.

Anyhow, Wedge apparently had everyone else worried, which made me kind of think maybe he got caught in the plate falling and survived like I did. Which is great odds, by the way, I like Wedge. Guy's a sweetheart. Dude ranks high on the 'people I would kill and/or die for' list. Anyhow, apparently he's in the building, and got there just in time to almost warn us about the building suddenly shaking which very nearly made me shit my pants in fear by the way.

So like...we're talking to him, there's a guy with an absolutely excellent beard and mustache talking, and I am at that unique intersection of exhausted, hungry, amped up on adrenaline, and shocked by the shit I've seen in the last 24 hours that all I hear is the noise of my ears ringing. I could not tell you what he sounded like or give a hint on what he said. I was a thousand paces away in another world staring at the grass or some shit.

Everyone seems ready to head out, so I go ahead and just follow suit because honestly, I have no idea what's been planned or what's going on. I am just...I'm so out of it. We go down and around and everywhere in between to get out, apparently, I don't even fucking know, and while everybody is trying to move something, I hear this weird soft pattering that's just uneven and out of place enough that my brain registers it. So I move my head around about the same time as Zack and Cloud do, because fuck you I am Sheikah and they are SOLDIER, and there's these monster things that are kind of people shaped but wow shit they are fucked up that just crawl out of the woodwork like a nest of mice unearthed because you picked up the board their burrow is placed under.

Beat the shit out of them, went in the tank elevator behind Hojo's close monitoring station. Around this thing. Pretty uneventful. Then good view of the thing in the middle, and just...I know that the thing is important, but absolutely none of what is said registers beyond a few fragments. Cloud starts having problems again, there is just. I get that there was someone there. I know that the others responded somehow, and Cloud was responding in a worrying way. But a lot of that is just...it's like a watercolor painting that hasn't been cured and you just upended a cup of water over it. Everything is blurry, hard for me to parse or find clear detail, but also unevenly so. I can remember some bits of colors, and that they're important. Sounds were...mostly distorted? I have no fucking clue what happened, but the last clear thing I remember for a while is movement, a lot of loud at once, and then just...falling. And then things go dark REAL fast.

No idea how long it took me to wake up, but realized I was laying on the floor and got up all confused for a bit and then realized the place we were earlier is like, several floors up from where I am. I think, anyways, a little hard to figure when there are no actual floors at reasonable height just a bunch of shit on the walls. Can hear combat all over the fucking place, it sounds like everybody got scattered all over the joint and everyone is beating the shit out of SOMETHING.

First person I run into is Tifa. Second is Aerith. Find the others all dealing with a bunch of asshole experiment things and while the girls rain junk down on them, I nail a few with arrows. Almost meet up with em, but there's some fuckshit in the way. Some talking shit happens with another of those two way video things. Hojo starts some shit and we end up having to jump through hoops and murder shit and work some other shit and most of it is boring repeating of 'flipped a switch bigger than we are, fought a thing, got stuck, had to have somebody else go do the thing so find another of those two way video stations and explain we're stuck so it's on you now, wait, repeat.'

I got to help out some with getting across wide gaps, which was cool. Red got dropped onto our level at one point, so we had to go help him. Ran around a lot, killed monsters and monsters and monsters and monsters a lot, flipped switches a lot. More running, more monsters, more switches. The Drum is a lot less interesting than mine is. Thunder Drum could kick that thing's ass anyday.

Apparently Red NEARLY got Hojo's head off his shoulders during all of that. I wish so, so badly that it had. I got new scars after all the shit in the place. Nice long slice down my back, few scratch scars on my right hip, multiple bite marks basically everywhere except vital spots, basically. SOMEHOW managed to keep teeth away from super important areas. I have nO idea how.

There is a lot more to unpack but I don't want to unpack right now so I will file that way for the next breakdown I have because I am a useless piece of shit that is dead weight except when I am awesome or whatever the fuck my brain likes to dunk me into when my emotions take a nosedive. Point I will make is, shit was fucked, and though I may eventually go 'lol fun' at a part or two, I think it will take a long, long time before I can do so. Honestly, anyways. Dishonestly I will do the moment I finish this thing and hit post. Don't you judge me.

Big monster! Beat it up. SO MANY FUCKING MONSTERS. I know I keep saying it and it is probably annoying but holy SHIT. WHY do you NEED SO MANY FUCKING MONSTERS, SIR? The supply was NEVER ENDING. Just when I thought we were going to have enough monster corpses to fill up the whole fucking joint with them, we ran across one BIG fucker at the end. Who I think was actually mostly mechanical instead of some horrible flesh sculpture. Then everybody got reunited after Aerith nearly crushed Cloud, Zack and Barret with a big round door. Lots of cheerfulness after that, I said, sarcastically, to indicate the opposite in fact: things were kinda awkward for two seconds and then there was two seconds of okay lol cool and then back to business we went to get the fuck out of Hojo's Happy Nightmare Land.

We finally. FINALLY got to the top. Back to where The Thing In The Tank I Should Know Words About But Don't was. And the tank was popped and the thinger is gone. Lots of mess spattered about. Everyone is weirded the FUCK out and cautious. Get out the door. And shit is just...dead fucking silent for a while. Only thing we hear besides our own heartbeats and panicked breathing is our fucking footsteps, okay?

Go through some doors and kind of up some stairs, and I start hearing something. Faint as fuck to start. Then as everyone else starts to register it, I realize what it is. Somebody yelling for help. Brain kicked into helper mode at that point, but, uh...well. I kind of couldn't really brain well enough to figure out how to help this guy I didn't know up from hanging over what amounts to a two minute free fall. Every option that popped into my head was dismissed because I could see outcomes where I slipped, he slipped, something bad happen very bad do not. Barret just reaches down and grabs this dude to yank his ass up and starts on the most fucking amazing, badass words I have ever heard from somebody who was not my brother. My brother has had lifetimes to come up with this shit and hold on to it for a rainy day. But the line Barret said just slapped me and called me a bitch. It bought me fucking dinner before how fucked my brain got by it, I was SO fucking tickled, okay.

So we get this guy who is apparently the one guy I initially said I would gut for wrecking shit, and we get him AWAY from death. We follow him on his jittery dash into the building again. And the dude just sort of flips a switch somewhere to go from terrified old man who is generally harmless to 'I am going to make your life suck more in the next two seconds than it has the rest of the time you have been or will be alive, mostly because you will not be alive in the next few seconds' type of fuckery looking asshole. Points some shit at Barret, talks some shit, basically calls him a fucking idiot for not just chucking his ass off the top of the building. Which I'm starting to agree with at this point because old man what the fuck is wrong with you.

And then just....I don't remember. So much here. I remember that the old man bitch was just....suddenly dead, and Barret got dropped, and then I just sort of woke up on the floor later. Everyone was more tired, Barret looked pretty bad but was still around, we made our way out the door again and one of those metal things was gonna land and it just fucking...it almost hit me, I swear to fuck. It exploded.

Then on comes this other fucking metal flying thing. Out steps somebody whose name was probably said but my memory is still kinda fuzzy and I did not have a lot of time to parse anything. All I got was after a bit, it's time for everyone to run, we get a distance away and I register kind of off in the distance somehow that Cloud and Zack aren't there. And then Tifa just fucking vanishes after my brain makes that connection. So it's like...where the fuck are half of us. I promised I would keep some folks among the living, I am going to catch hands if I let some shit happen to them now.

And of course, before I can do much on that track, the ground under me starts moving because wait shit we were in an elevator, we are suddenly getting shot at, and I have to somehow focus enough to murder some shit and not die and maybe keep these others from dying too. And then falling. And then more oh shit oh fuck the shooting is back.

And then the funniest exchange I have ever had a part in. I don't know why I can remember this so well but it fucking tickles me, okay. This fucking bitch standing there like he's important starts with his superior 'lol who are these losers' shit. Barret, all serious, says he's from AVALANCHE, then around the time Aerith pipes up literally a quarter second later my brain goes 'time to be a bastard man' and it's already working on what mine will be, but Aerith goes 'local florist!' and I can tell Red is powering the FUCK up to just floor me so I get my 'mute asshole with magic' shit in while I still can, RIGHT before he opens his mouth to go 'LAB RAT DOG' and I CAN NOT even take this shit seriously with like thirty weapons pointed at us I just fucking start wheezing so hard it sounds like a pelican choking on a coconut.

I don't have time to recompose myself before Tifa pops in with the truck, Cloud and Zack absolutely blow me away with their motorcycles, and I get shoved into the back of the truck next to Barret and Red before they take off because I am so out of it anymore I just can't do some of this shit on my own anymore.

I get a little break at the start when we take off out of the place and finally get on the high road and can clear my head enough to actually start processing shit like a normal people again. Can finally see what the fuck is circling the building, whatever they are called, and just...I don't know what they are, the words for them, any of that. I just know those are the things that abducted Hojo and did the weird 'something invisible hit me and I fell down' shit before.

So like...there's a lot of other motorcycles with dillweeds on them so Barret and I snipe a few when we can safely do so. It's pretty rare because Cloud and Zack are all over the place on their motorcycles, but we do get a few great shots in, including mine where my arrow hit right in front of this guy on the seat and would have hit him if it was like half an inch further and he fucking pissed himself and crashed.

And then that big.....robot fucker. Who I couldn't reliably hit without endangering Cloud or Zack or the rest of us because of the chance of rebounding scrap or arrow fragments, much less a miss. Got to thunder it once we got to the end of the line, though. Lightning spell to the eyes always seems to work with tech.

I...remember there being something after this and before the next part. But it's just...a lot of it is a blur, or missing like someone tore pages out of a book I haven't read before but left a few little scraps here and there, fragments with a name and a snippet of information that I can't quite piece into a whole picture. I remember that afterwards it started to feel like the inside of my skull was scraped and raw, the backs of my eyes aching and so, so bad. And then we were just...back by the truck and motorcycles. It was like I had a big sheet of heavy cloth hung over me that muffled everything and blocked it out, and then suddenly it got yanked back and everything was too bright, too intense, and then it slowly just backed down to tolerable. To where I could see again, hear again. Things made sense again.

And then...it was time to go down. Start moving forward. Cloud and Tifa refused to break the truck or motorcycle by driving it off the high road, but Zack just went 'haha watch this' and jumped it down and I swear everyone else had a mini heart attack but it made it down okay. I have no fucking clue how. I can't replicate it. I don't want to try.

And then...we walked. Until it got to a point it was safe to stop, they felt. And then I got the pot down and food started, and I just...I thought I was going to close my eyes for a second, and then I woke up to Tifa saying she wasn't sure how to do what was needed for the food because it's not her setup and whatnot, so I showed her, and then dozed off again, and woke up again and just...food. And then more sleep. And now I'm here, writing all of this out for you to read, while I struggle to keep everything in generally the correct order and figure out how the fuck to handle the things that I can't explain or name happening.

And I am exhausted. We have a few hours before it's time to get moving again, and I am not on watch, so I am going to crash for a bit longer. I will respond later if anybody has questions or whatever.

#long post #ask to tag

[the-dumb-smart-friend]

I spent way too long on this so please give it attention

So my one friend and I have been working on the same rp for ~2 1/2 years, and right now we’ve been on a big break because of the whole quarantine thing, and inconsistent scheduling.

LET ME TELL YOU,

So many characters have changed so much in my mind over the break that I’m going to need to look through my logs of the characters before the break. I have plans for the story that can have it continue for multiple years into the future.

I have so much planned character development and minor conflict planned, not to mention the scandalous temptation of corruption arcs. My friend’s main character has literally murdered/hurt/threatened one of my characters on many occasions, and now they’re going to have to work together in order to save both their friends, family, lovers, and the entire concept of a continuous timeline before the winter solstice.

Meanwhile, the main villain has gone from pretty much an unstoppable god mary sue character to a touch starved twink with bad intentions and an attack dog evil scientist.

Every single character believes that what they’re doing is good, even if they know deep down that what they’re doing will have awful consequences.

And I’m not even done. I finally made a concrete reason to the timelines constantly looping, and the whole revival problem, as before I just had a loose idea. The two main gods that have been hinted at to be evil and really powerful and awful and stuff (despite one helping out the protagonists and the other being neutral/evil leaning) actually worked together thousands of years ago to do this really powerful spell thing so that every time this select group of really powerful people died (along with everyone that knew them, it was often one big catastrophic event), they would all be revived in the most recent year, over and over again until they found out how to break the “curse”.

The timelines will loop over and over again until the characters all find out how to stop it, which is to somehow keep magic (one of the key building blocks that’s holding life and the world as we know it together) from completely disappearing and dying out.

So the god of magic power was like “Dudes I’m gonna die if we don’t do something to keep magic from dying out.” and all the other high ranking gods were like “Bro no, last time we intervened with something on the mortal plane, we killed all the dinosaurs.” so then the magic god was all like “Fine, but you guys are all pricks.”.

So the he asked his sister (the goddess of time, memory, and significant events/holidays) to help out, and so they created the time loop idea. They cast a really old, really forbidden, semi-DIY’d spell with all their power, but because of the great crime they committed, the more powerful gods cast them out, and took all of their memories, condemning them to the surface for the rest of time.

oooh, looks like you’re interested, nice.

Also I’m on new meds, so sorry if this is confusing.

(TW for death, mentions of gore w/o graphic descriptions, mentions of kidnapping, hints at abuse, dissociation, cursing/verbal aggression, grief)

So the two ex-gods gave themselves new names, and decided to wander around, trying to find out who they were. The two had some moral conflicts and decided to part ways. Time Goddess, who now gave herself the name Raestress (pronounced Rye-stress) eventually stumbled upon one of the mortals that she and her brother cursed for the rest of time, and decided to stick with said mortal for a while, and by that, I mean kinda stalking said mortal.

Because Raestress wasn’t the one to come up with the time loop idea, and was the one that told the other gods, she was allowed to keep some of her powers, however she had absolutely no clue how to use them.

This next pert gets a little fuzzy, and I still need to iron out the details of it, but it ends with Raestress sacrificing both her life and all her power to the mortal, but because of her punishment from the other gods, was cursed to stay as a sort of ghost or spirit that follows the mortal (Remi) she just helped, only able to talk though/to her.

The sacrifice of Raestress’ powers to Remi led to Remi being able to remember all the past timelines she’s lived through, and all the other people that were chosen to live and die over and over again, and decides that she needs to be the one to bring them all together.

Back to modern day, Remi has amnesia for unknown reasons, and makes a bunch of new friends in this little north island town she lives in. One day, a random new math teacher shows up at her highschool, then one of her friends goes missing, then her friend’s sister goes missing and is later found dead, completely torn to pieces. Then she and some friends are about to take a little walk through the forest, when one of her friends is shot with a crossbow, and dies. Sure, they’ve gotten plenty of threats before, but they all just thought it was just some kids trying to pull a prank, but now Alice is dead.

The group try to compose themselves as they wait for the police to arrive, looking up through the trees as to where the crossbow could’ve been fired from, but everything is completely obscured by a swishing sea of branches and leaves. Remi looks up through the leaves, watching them spin and swirl, growing darker as her body seems to float back and fourth in an invisible ocean.

Her vision goes completely black for a moment, but she then sees herself, standing still and looking down at her friends, who have gone from hysterics to almost silent. The world seemed to have washed itself in a shade of periwinkle, swaying like the ocean, any sounds coming out as muffled and distant. Remi watched as her body began to shudder, shoulders bouncing up and down. She watched as her body laughed completely out of her control, quickly pushed against a tree and drowned out by muffled yelling and screaming from one of her friends, Aqua.

The others tried to hold Aqua back, but despite her small frame, she could fight like a 6′ brickhouse. Remi couldn’t do anything. She couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe, couldn’t explain, or shout “That isn’t me! I’m right here!”. All she could do is watch as her body’s eyes shifted from bottle green to a sharp, brassy yellow, somehow untouched by the blueish haze that blanketed the rest of the world.

Still, her body laughed, going on and on about something that Remi couldn’t hear, no matter how much she strained to.

The rest of the day seemed to continue in a blur. the police arrived, taking all the standard procedures, but it was hard to pay attention to anything but Alice’s body being carried away in a bag. Nobody really knew what happened.

Remi was still trapped outside of her body by the time they got home that night. Whatever or whoever was controlling her was managing to get under everyone’s skin without completely shattering the illusion of Remi still being in complete control. Guess those are the consequences of being known as the one who laughs at horror movies.

As soon as they both stepped inside, Aqua had thrown Remi against a wall, holding her by the collar of her shirt.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?!” she screamed, voice breaking before she could finish her sentence.

Remi’s body chuckled with squinted eyes, playfully glaring down at Aqua, boring into her skull.

“I should be asking you the same thing, sweetheart.”

Finally at that moment did the rest of the group realize that whoever was piloting Remi’s body definitely wasn’t her, because whatever spoke was using a voice that didn’t match in the slightest.

It’s voice sounded like it could’ve been either a young man or an older woman, familiar and welcoming yet cold and sharp as ice, sharp enough to cut through whatever was muffling the voices from wherever Remi was stuck.

Aqua dropped whoever this person was, taking shaky steps backward, clearly trying to say something, but no sound came out.

This strange person took a step forward, bowing and swishing their arm with a flourish.

“Though I can’t explain everything now, I’m sure that your dear friend Remi will.” They purred, staring through the veil and directly into Remi’s eyes.

“Who are you?” Aqua shuddered, invisible hands trailing cold fingers up her spine.

“A nobody, a somebody. A friend, an enemy. Nobody really knows when or where I’ll come or go, but if you were to call me anything, feel free to call me Crow.”

Something about that name just didn’t sit right, it seemed to send an imaginary bullet through Remi’s head, swimming through her thoughts and flipping every switch in her brain. Something, somewhere, was screaming at her, remember, remember. The already strange world started to get stranger, dark figures appearing all around Remi, reaching out and covering her eyes, ears, mouth, nose, everything until all she could sense was a dark void.

Crow smiled, kneeling down to meet Aqua’s new level on the floor.

“Right now, I’m serving as nothing more than a distraction, and maybe just a little something to get this story going” they said,

Aqua again tried to respond, but her voice had seemed to just disappear at the most crucial moments.

“I do hope we meet again.” Crow ruffled Aqua’s hair just as all the lights flickered out, leaving complete silence and confusion, after all, what was there to say?

Minutes passed, though nobody was keeping count. Nobody moved, and instead just stood wherever they were, trying desperately to process all of today.

When the lights finally flickered back on, Remi was passed out on the floor, but after everything that just happened, it took everyone a while to notice. Nobody said anything.

Will had carried Remi upstairs to her room, hoping that maybe staying by her side could make a nice distraction. Aqua had stayed sitting on the floor, back to back with the couch, head in her hands. Everyone decided to keep to themselves for the rest of the night.

By the next morning, Remi still hadn’t woken up. Sure, not quite unusual, but right now what everyone needed was an explanation, or one of her sarcastic jokes at the very least. It was at noon when everyone had started to worry. 

It had reached 5PM when she finally jolted awake, catching her breath and running her hands through her hair.

“I remember...” She whispered,

“I remember everything.” She said again, quickly standing up and rummaging through her desk, despite Will telling her to take it easy.

“My notebooks, they’re all gone!”

“Remi, please,” Will tried to step forward and calm her down, but she pressed on.

“Don’t call me that.” She demanded, mumbling something afterward, “Just call me Rei.”

Alrighty so I might finish this at some point, idk, but the explanation/TL;DR is pretty much that BBEG had tried to kill Aqua, the main thing holding him back from achieving his goal, but Alice had jumped in the way and sacrificed herself.

Rei was then pushed out of her own body by a mysterious deity known only as Crow, who by the way is not Raestress, I just didn’t know how to quickly explain everything. Both Crow and Raestress had somehow managed to together give Rei back all her memories of the past timelines, but because of Crow’s distraction, the BBEG was able to steal all of Rei’s logs of strange dreams and little songs, all of which can be pieced together into an encrypted spell that has the ability to bring back the dead, a spell that has long since been completely banned and erased from the world.

When Rei was trapped outside of her body, she was actually pushed out into limbo/the spirit world, and all the dark figures were different versions of her from her past, though that was never really specified in the original story either, I just left it up to debate.

There is still very little known about Crow, but we know that they’re a sort of grim reaper character, have a past with Rei, and that they’re working for the BBEG for some unspecified reason.

The reason Rei doesn’t like being called Remi is because the letter M is considered evil and bad luck to her and others that are enemies of/know the atrocities or the BBEG and his family. Also because she prefers to distance herself from her past with Crow as much as possible.

Will, who was mentioned at the end, is actually Rei’s girlfriend.

Aqua is my friend’s main character, who is kinda really hotheaded, and is later tricked into killing one of my characters.

BBEG and his siblings are all children of the god of magic that was mentioned earlier.

If anything is confusing, or if you want more of the story, let me know, and I’ll try to add more.

#rp #writing #original rp #original character #oc roleplay #oc #oc story #original story

[obscureobsidianreblogs]

X-Men Characters Ranking (I) The Worst

These characters aren’t what I would call the worst in the sense that I hate them and I don’t want to see them ever again, because I don’t dislike them as much as I hate how writers have treated them, many of them being basically anything other than plot devices and never having a chance to become better characters. I don’t think there’s no hope for them, only that I haven’t seen them getting chances to prove me there is.

Thunderbird/John Proudstar

This character is a joke in the worst sense of the word, basically being known as “Guy who died and unlike the rest didn’t come back”. It has reached a point Joanthan Hickman needed to create an explanation in-universe to why the hell this is the case!!! The fact all of this happens to the first native american member of the team is unfortunate. Thank God John’s own brother James, Forge and especially Danielle Moonstar came soon after to fix that.

Slipstream/Davis Cameron

I don’t want to sound mean, I really don’t want to, but I really, really, really don’t care about this character. How’s possible for a legend like Chris Claremont, who created so many memorable characters, create one so devoid of any interesting quality? If you want a X-Men male character who’s a surfer, just go with Havok in X-Men Evolution. Her sister Heather is a slightly better case, mostly thanks to the revelation that she’s actually part of Shi’ar royalty and we see her dealing with her body changing while she discovers her inheritance.

Joseph

Initially introduced as a possibly rejuvenated Magneto who decided to undo Magneto’s wrongdoings, what could have been the perfect opportunity to develop the character of Magneto was quickly wasted when writers at the time thought It would be more interesting to make him the third party in a love triangle involving Rogue and Remy. The revelation he was actually just Magneto’s clon and his death proved how much they regretted creating him.

Feral/Maria Callasantos

Maria’s backstory on paper could be a perfect way to create a compelling character: abused since her childhood, and killed her stepfather to protect her sister. Unfortunately Feral was created by Fabian Nicieza and Rob Liefeld, who were more interested in action and fights than in writing compelling characters, and in Maria’s case it really shows. Her perpetual hostility towards her teammates quickly made her unlikeable, and soon after she was written out of the team. But while characters like Shatterstar have become fan favorites thanks to the works of writers like Peter David Feral has remained a character no writer has bothered to do anything with her, except depower her after the House of M event to later made Sabretooth kill her.

Maggott/Japheth

None of the characters that joined the X-Men after the events in Operation Zero Tolerance became universal fan-favorites, but while Marrow and Cecilia Reyes have managed to still pop-up here and there occasionally, Maggott quickly became the fandom’s punching bag, being an usual entry in the “worst mutants/powers” lists and soon after his debut became killed. In a concentration camp, just so his death could be anymore fucked-up. Yikes.

Omega Sentinel/Karima Shapandar

The idea of a biosentinel who still retains her humanity and which she uses to fight against her programming to team-up with mutants and become their friend instead of hunting them down is pretty compelling. Despite that Karima has become a punchline for her tendency to be a character who tends to get possessed or brainwashed too much in a franchise and a genre where character being possessed or brainwashed has become commonplace. It seemed like that cycle was finally going to finish after Brian Wood decided to published an all female team on his X-Men run and decided to make Karima turned back into a human but stay with her mutant friends, but all of that got thrown away when Jonathan Hickman took over, make her a biosentinel again and because he really wants to push the narrative of us vs them he made her team-up with the evil human organization who wants to wipe out mutants, because he says so. Thanks Johnny.

Lifeguard/Heather Cameron

Like I already said above Heather is a slightly more interesting character than her brother Davis, especially after the reveal of her Shi’ar ancestry and her transformation to a much more alien appearance. Although I must admit I initially dislike the character for completely petty reasons. More specifically, the fact she was introduced and paired up with Neal Shaara when Psylocke’s death was still recent, because Neal was sentimentally involved with her at the time. Shipping tends to do those things.

Stacy X/Miranda Leevald

The accusation of female characters being created just to eye-candy is one that I think gets thrown around in excess lately, but in the case of Stacy X it’s pretty much the perfect textbook example. She’s introduced as a prostitute, wears revealing clothing, her powers cause orgasms, flirts with a lot of her male teammates, and let’s not forget that infamous time Chuck Austen thought it would be a good idea to write her saying she was going to watch porn after getting in an argument. Classy. The worst part is that her example was so obvious that she never became really popular among fans, and the writers quickly got rid of her in the most unceremonious way possible, depowering her in the aftermath of House of M, without bothering to even give her the opportunity to be a better character. However, I think there’s still hope for her. In the recent Domino Annual Gail Simone gave her a heartbreaking moment in which Miranda had the opportunity to express how she dealt with her power’s loss and how it affected her.

Sunfire/Shiro Yoshida

I really want to like Shiro, I really do, the issue where he was introduced is still one of my favorites from the Neal Adams and Roy Thomas run. But it’s so obvious writers don’t know what else to do with him except remind people that he doesn’t like teamwork over and over again, feeling like an excuse to include him as little as possible. Also this is a much more shallow reason to dislike him, but I really think he needs an urgent redesign to get rid of that horrible mask.

Thunderbird/Neal Shaara

His backstory, about discovering a new secret biosentinel program that took advantage of India’s most disadvantaged population while looking for his missing brother, is actually one of my favorites on any X-Men character, being emotionally compelling with some social critic sprinkled over it. Unfortunately once he joined the team the most he did was get romantically involved with female teammates, first with Psylocke, a reason I’m sure a lot of fans at the time hated him because she was with Archangel, although tbh it never bothered me that much, and then with Lifeguard. The fact that after Karima Shapandar, the character that got turned into a biosentinel while helping him look for his brother, joined the X-Men no one single writer bothered to make him meet her again despite it was confirmed he retained his powers after House of M shows how little interest writers were in him. Ouch.

Revanche/Kwannon

Although it seems like now with Fallen Angels and Hellions they are trying to make her a much more interesting character, there’s still the fact the character was created an introduced just to have a revealing twist about Psylocke’s body swap, and after the writers realised they didn’t know what to do with her and neither they wanted to fix that, they took the easy way and got rid of her making her contract the Legacy Virus so she could die and they could keep Psylocke being a sexy purple-haired ninja.

Vulcan/Gabriel Summers

I don’t think X-Men: Deadly Genesis is the unholy abomination many fans think it is, but even I admit they make Gabriel a character really hard to like. To begin with he’s supposed to be the third Summers brother, a mystery in the franchise that was introduced back in the 90s but that never got a satisfactory resolution, only a bunch of clues that lead nowhere and red herrings, in the main timeline at least, Claremont wrote in X-Men: The End the twist the third Summers brother was Remy all along. Anyways, so Gabriel is not only supposed to be the answer to a question fans didn’t care anymore at the time, but he was also part of a retcon, one related to a part as iconic to the X-Men cannon as it is the Giant Size X-Men published in 1975 and whose main point in the story was to show a dark secret Xavier hided to the rest of the X-Men (Still handled better than the bs Bendis wrote during the Original Sin event). But Gabriel, instead of first acting as confused as the rest of the X-Men team after they discover his existence, to later discover the truth of what happened, with him too enraged to listen to reasons and start to attack everyone wether what happened to him was their fault or not, Remender wrote Gabriel as a douchebag from the beginning, kidnapping Scott and Rachel and just being plain awful, especially to the one who was actually his niece. And then there’s the whole becoming the new Shi’ar emperor storyline that I couldn’t care less… Let’s see what Hickman does with him, although my hopes are not exactly high.

#x-men #x-men comics #marvel #marvel comics #x-men characters #mutants

[jorgecrespo]

Could you rank the houses/ apartments the Williams live in from "that's the kind of place I'd like to live in one day" to "may look nice but not homey at all"? :D

I don't remember Charles' house at all tbh. Very happy about that

Noah. This is the only house that I'd actually buy (I mean, all the others I'd definitely live in because it's fancy af but you get the idea). It's so cozy and cute 😍😍. Would like to get rid of the dead mom in the living room tho

Daniel. This looked like the houses my rich friends had, but fancier. I used to daydream about living in this kind of house. Let's make this childhood dream a reality

William. Awww William finally isn't near the bottom of a list 🤗🤗. It's kinda sterile but it also has a lot of cool details that I like. It might need a bit of decorating but it's cute

Edoardo. Ok, this house is beautiful but it's just WAY TOO BIG. It has its own zip code. We were in his house so many times and I still have no fucking clue what has happening. We call him rich king incanti for a reason jfc

Alex. It's not super big so that's nice (I hate big spaces if you haven't noticed) but it's so fucking sterile. It looks like a hospital. And that makes me sad. Also it's one of those loft like areas with a strenuous grasp on what walls are. Although I gotta give it props for the baffling decorations that sneak through. Hotel Hardenberg is an experience

Senne. Pretty sterile but my main problem is whatever the fuck was outside his house. It was water (nice) but also a bunch of weird construction looking things and a parking lot. And if you know what this is please don't tell me, I love the mystery. But his kitchen is dope. But my rich baby deserves more

Anyway I'd live in any of them please if any of you are rich call me and let's make a deal 🥰

[woolishlygrim]

Winter Weebwatch #10

We’re very much hitting the final stretch of the winter anime season now, and to be honest, I still don’t know exactly what I’ll be doing for Spring Weebwatch (Spring Spreebspratch?). Kami no Tou, Digimon Adventure 2020, and Yu-Gi-Oh Sevens are shoo-ins, but a lot of the shows that start in Spring are the second seasons of shows from Autumn 2019, and I’d rather not do those.

Anyway, on with this week’s shows.

Pet.

★★★☆☆

Okay, so apparently Pet did air last week, I just didn’t see that it had, which is weird, I was looking out for it.

Also weird is that the character I originally thought was called Tsukasa and then thought was called Tsubasa is actually called Tsukasa. Did … did the subbers make a mistake at some point, or did I make the mistake? I genuinely do not know.

Anyway, last week and this week, Pet saw Hiroki discover Hayashi, still not entirely crushed but rather in a mostly-crushed state similar to the one he found Tsukasa in. Realising from exploring his memories that Tsukasa was the one who crushed Hayashi, Hiroki, feeling betrayed, confronts Tsukasa and eventually runs away. Meanwhile, Tsukasa, faced with the prospect of the Company separating him from Hiroki and then with Hiroki running away, grows more and more unhinged, eventually deciding to manipulate Satoru into going after him.

Things are definitely winding their way towards a conclusion, and I honestly can’t see what that conclusion will even be, or how the writers plan to tie this up in two episodes, but it’s fun to watch, at least.

That said, my god, Tsukasa going off the deep end is … something. The animators are having a whale of a time, drawing him wide-eyed, pale, and practically twitching. One scene has him drooling as he talks and occasionally having to wipe it away with his sleeve. If this was an actor, I’d say they were chewing the scenery, but it’s not, someone intentionally made him like this.

ID: Invaded.

★★★☆☆

This is another episode that just doesn’t quite deliver on the promise it set up. While I felt I was being a little harsh with last week’s score, this time I feel like I’m being a little lenient. It’s really a two and a half star episode.

With the set-up of the last episode going forward, Anaido just turns out to not … really have any kind of diabolical plan at all, whereas Hondomachi in the Well-Within-A-Well just kind of puts a couple of clues together and discovers who John Walker is.

John Walker is, incidentally, the character everyone expected him to be, since we’d seen that Walker has a white beard and moustache and only one other character had that.

As far as twists go, it’s … weak. It’s very weak, and the downplayed way the episode presents it suggests that the creative team were well aware of how weak the twist was. Similarly, the reveal that Kiki is inside the Mizuhanome is pretty much expected.

However, we still have two episodes to go, so there is plenty of time for the show to pull a rabbit out of its hat, so to speak.

Darwin’s Game.

★☆☆☆☆

I’m beginning to lose patience with this show, and if we weren’t in spitting distance of the end (this is episode nine, there are eleven episodes total apparently), I would drop it.

So continuing on from last week, the protagonist (nine episodes in and I still have no idea what his name is) engages in a fight to prove that his clan is worthy of allying themselves with the boxing gym-y clan, after which the top-ranked player in the game kidnaps him to … ugh.

Kidnaps him because she is the head of an ancient clan of psychic assassins and she wants him to be the father of her child, and fuck knows writing that sentence made me seriously reconsider watching the last two episodes.

The whole thing ends with said top-ranked player (who can psychically incapacitate people somehow) joining the protagonist’s clan, because I guess we don’t need stakes? Nah, nah, who needs narrative tension, right?

Congrats on another episode I actually remembered, Darwin’s Game. You might’ve done better if I hadn’t.

In/Spectre.

★★★★☆

Okay, I admit it, In/Spectre has wormed its way into my good graces. I enjoy this show now, I guess.

This is just a really good episode, and it manages to be a really good episode while working with material that I’m not sure most writers would be able to make interesting. As the plan to take down Steel Girder Nanase kicks off, Kotoko begins what is essentially a reddit forum argument in which she attempts to cast doubt on the existence of Steel Girder Nanase by proposing an alternate theory and arguing in its favour. As she does this, however, Rikka is attempting to argue back under several different accounts, trying to sway people into believing in Nanase’s existence.

Do you see what I mean? This is … this is banal. This is people arguing in the comments section while one person uses transparently disguised sockpuppets. This is something I can find by just going to a forum and scrolling down a few inches, and yet this episode is absolutely fascinating to watch.

When the episode ended with Kotoko saying that it’s time for her to present her second theory, I wasn’t even annoyed. I’m genuinely interested to see what the second theory is. I hate that I really like this show now.

Infinite Dendrogram.

★★★★☆

This is another one where I was honestly not sure what score to give it. It was a three-and-a-half star episode, really, and I wavered back and forth for a while over whether to bump it up to four stars or down to three stars, before eventually deciding to be nice. 

Honestly, it could have gone either way.

With Franklin/Penguin-san having kidnapped the princess and enshrouded the arena in a barrier, he begins his invasion of the city, remarking to the princess that he will break the spirit of the Masters of Altar before the war between Altar and Dryfe can resume. While Franklin’s own Superior class ability, which allows him to invent and spawn monsters, is a potent threat in his own right, he is also joined by numerous other Masters, from both Dryfe and Altar, along with Hugo and what appear to be the other three Dryfe Superiors.

So this is an actually really fun episode, even if it’s also kind of a nothing episode. With Shu and Figaro both trapped in the barrier, Ray and Rook learn that any player below level fifty can pass straight through the barrier, and use that to mount a counterattack. A small chunk of the episode is devoted to what amounts to a ‘Ray And Rook (And Later Hugo) Show Off Their Awesome Abilities’ scene, and honestly it was enough fun that I’m willing to forgive it for being mindless fluff. I do like the touch that while Rook can use his abilities to convert female monsters to his side, his Embryo Babyl can use her abilities to convert male players to her side, making them a nice team.

Meanwhile, Marie, who had bonded with the princess earlier, tracks down Franklin and shoots him a bunch, and exactly nobody is surprised because we all basically knew already that she was the monster-bug-shooting gunslinger who killed Ray before. Franklin is still alive, though, and as the show, as all shounen shows must, descends into shounen anime battle match-ups, Marie finds herself facing off against another Dryfe Superior with power over music.

Also, can I just express my irritation that Franklin combines both chess metaphors and poker metaphors. Those games are the antithesis of each other: Chess is a game all about planning multiple moves ahead, figuring out multiple paths and multiple outcomes to those paths and then choosing the best one; whereas Poker is a game all about taking a hand dealt to you by luck and tricking, scheming, and gambling your way to getting the best possible use out of it. Either one will work for a scheming villain, but they work for very different kinds of scheming villain.

#infinite dendrogram #darwins game #id invaded #pet #in/spectre #anime #winter weebwatch

[dorkyungsoowrites]

Fatal Ties Ch. 7

Pairings: Baekhyun x You

Genre: Angst/Smut/Fluff | Mafia AU

Warnings: Mild Violence

Word Count: 2k

Description: The temptation to give away secrets has never been so sweet.

| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | The Ending |

The bandage was falling off his head again. You saw the fresh stitches underneath. Skin forcibly pulled back together with special thread to heal faster. Slightly inflamed from irritation. He could apply things to it to fade the scar after, but there would always be a remnant. Because of you. You and your stupid fucking temper the first day you met. Baekhyun was under your protection now. Nothing could happen to him. He was your asset. Your responsibility. These motherfuckers who decided to shoot at you were attacking him as well whether intentional or not. You'd make sure their scars would be far more permanent.

Jacket in hand, you shoved Baekhyun down. Forcing his torso to bend, and he whimpered as his face stopped millimeters from the seat by your knee. You steadied yourself with a hand between his shoulder blades as Chanyeol swerved a bit. You'd need a clear shot at their tires to stop them for good. It was a much easier target than their heads. Calling out over your shoulder.

"Steady out the car. I need to aim."

"You're crazy!" he argued. "They'll shoot you as soon as you put your head out the window!"

"Then do a 180."

"That's the opposite direction we need to go!"

"They won't expect it. I'll shoot at their tires while we pass them. Do it, Park!"

"Fuck!" Chanyeol pressed his lips together in a firm line, readjusting his grip on the steering wheel with one hand while the other hovered over the gear shift. Closing his fingers into a fist once then taking hold of it. Glancing in the rear view to see the positioning of the car following. You took a steadying breath and rolled your window down that had already been shot once. Bracing on the door. Two more gunshots burst in the air. You couldn't think of the possibility that you'd be killed the moment they had you in sights. This was the best chance you had at hitting a tire and escaping. Your brain barely registered the music Chanyeol had been playing before still running on the stereo. Tuning out all else to focus on surviving. You only had seven rounds in the gun to get it right. You had to get it right.

Then his voice boomed,

"Now!" The car jerked hard to the left. Rubber screeching on asphalt. Your momentum all but dead as it channeled into the front of the vehicle. Pivoting almost directly on the spot. As the rear end swung into the correct direction you heard Chanyeol jerk on the gear shift. Engine humming louder as he stepped on the gas quickly. You followed the position of the other car. The assailants slowing suddenly as they came up on your front. It worked. They were shocked. Them stopping as you gained speed. You pointed your pistol out the window, second hand steadying your first. Forearm rested on the windowsill for the greatest stability. Looking down your sights to the wheels of the other car. Pulling the trigger. Each concussive bang far too familiar to your ears. One, two, three, four, five, six.

It struck. The air pressure exploded out as the lead tore through. It was your turn to be surprised. The chassis falling limp on the rear side. Scraping and shrieking on the road. Scraps of tread trailing after them. Red lights and a bit of smoke signaling their frantic and unexpected stop. Chanyeol shifted into the next gear. Accelerating away. They sat there. Crooked on the side of the road. No one got out. Typically your little pistol wouldn't have enough power to do anything beyond puncture so the tire goes flat after a few minutes. It gives you time to create distance. Maybe they would have been fine if they hadn't stolen a lemon with tires decades old, but they didn't. It was compromised from point one. So you profited.

Heaving a loud sigh, you mashed a finger on the button to roll the window up again. The wind soon closed off to the confines of your car. You shut your eyes and took a moment to breathe. It didn't last past the inhale. Hearing loud panting behind you. Turning to see Baekhyun scramble to pull his pants leg up. The fabric bunched and got tight at the knee. Revealing split skin on his calf. A nice clean line of a grazed bullet. Crimson clotting slowly. Your eyes darted to his door. A dent. Lead smushed inside. You followed the line back to your side door to where you could see the entry point. Sunlight coming in the small hole.

Shit.

You quickly took out the clip on your gun and counted two remaining bullets. Shit. The clip clicked back in to place. You mis-counted one of their gunshots as your own. A stupid mistake. You also hadn't forced Baekhyun's legs up on the seat like you had your own knowing this was a possibility. Another even more idiotic mistake. By all rights you shouldn't have even gotten ambushed.

"I know what you're thinking," you sighed. Baekhyun's breathing remained shallow. Eyes wide in fear.

"I don't know. Were you thinking, 'holy shit holy shit, I just almost got shot'?" At least he seems alright, you think. No. You were thinking about suspects. Motive. Timing. It was all too convenient with the plan of the alliance. Someone who knew your schedule had whispered poison to the wind of deceit and clutching for power. Someone with friends willing to go about the foolhardy mission of taking your place. Someone who knew killing you would keep chaos and senseless precedents on the street. Thinking the wedding was distraction enough to catch you vulnerable. There was a mark on your head, and a spy among your inner circle.

First was to identify the problem. That was done easily enough. Human greed never surprised you anymore. The ambush lighting their intentions brighter than a flare. Second, think up solutions, and lastly, proceed with the most viable one. Working toward a concrete goal is the best coping mechanism in your mind; it solves the problem. Leaving no room for grief or worry. The second step was holding you back. Procedure broken.

"This is all dissolving into one miserable fucking headache," you lamented. Agitated and unnerved. Your lack of knowledge dented the neat little compartments you had your anxieties stored in. Wrapped in a steely will. Without a clear explanation you could formulate no plan. You could not rationalize the steps. You were left confused and wandering listlessly for answers. You were left anticipating another strike at your heart with no counter measure.

Now was not the time to demonstrate how frightful you could be to keep the lower ranks at heel. Too many bodies had been piling up lately. Crushing small prey under your boots in hopes of rooting out dissension wasn't an option. Now was the time for tact. But comprehension breeds control, and as Chanyeol drives a long path to double back to your manor you steadily realize you are lacking in fuel for this trait at the moment. You dare never show it. You coveted composure. It empowers you. Pragmatism your blade in an industry where emotions get you killed, or worse. You don't have a plan.

But they don't know that. Your gaze flitting between the back of Chanyeol's head and the window that was shot first. He was the most likely mole. He knew where you were and where you would be at almost any hour of the day. Setting up the ambush would have been as simple as sending a text when he picked you up at the tailor shop. The thought roiled uncomfortably in your belly. Sweet, dorky Chanyeol. So bright and naive to your world outside this car. It would have been all too easy for someone to slither ideas into his head. Or perhaps he had always despised you under his polite mask. Would you have to kill him outright? No. There was someone bigger pulling the strings. You needed intel. You needed to manipulate and keep keen eyes for clues.

"Are you...alright?" you hear quietly from the seat over. You've been silent too long it appears. Brooding, even. Baekhyun has already pushed his torn pants back over the minor injury and settled his frantic demeanor. Adrenaline spike sloping downward now that danger was no longer immediate. Returning to his regular gossamer state.

You can't give anything away. Chanyeol would be watching for weakness too. And if not Chanyeol, it could be anyone. You must endure alone. Your chest anguishing with betrayal yet blotting out any outward variation in expression.

You chase knowledge with the intent of preserving the empire around you despite others' thoughts that your methods are cruel. Making the wrong choice will mean more lives lost. It's only natural for you to fear failure. The more you succeed, however, the more it seems people pour their lives into your hands. Dependent on your guardianship. The weight turns heavier. The dread around uncertainty grows.

The more you endure, the more you're affirmed trust is intrinsically illogical. Everyone is an enemy. Every action not calculated leads to chaos. You slipped, distracted by Baekhyun, and danger came all too swiftly. Strength is both safe and exhausting. You envy Baekhyun's freedom to be soft as he is. Agonizing internally, aching to give in but still unable to. Nonetheless, you have to tell Baekhyun something.

"I'm fine. We should tighten security until the wedding is over."

"Do you have any idea who that was? Do you think they work for my dad?"

"Hush," you ordered. "It doesn't concern you."

"It doesn't concern me?" Baekhyun repeated bitterly. Voice raising. "I was nearly shot! I think that entitles me to some kind of explanation!"

"Nearly," you replied monotonously. Refusing to look at him. Instead staring out the front window past the empty passenger seat. "Clear difference from actually being shot."

"I can't believe you're so...like this!"

"Then I guess you're just as light-headed as I suspected." You only need him to shut up. Out of your peripheral you see him face you directly. One hand sinking nails into the front seat to steady himself and channel his aggravation. Knuckles white. His glare does nothing more than itch. No weight behind it. He would never lash out physically. So it did nothing to deter you.

"It's another secret isn't it?" Baekhyun guessed. Tone more pained than anything else. It was unexpected. You glanced. He hadn't been glaring after all. His brows were pinched in worry, eyes swimming with sympathy. "Please, this is my life too. You can trust me. You can depend on me." He would break, you think. All too soon. Shaking your head in disapproval, you turned away.

"I wish that were true." His nails retreated from the leather. The backs of his fingers ghosting from your upper arm to your shoulder, and then your jaw. You shut your eyes briefly and tensed against the shuddering breath your body attempted to betray you with. Baekhyun's fingers glided over the shell of your ear as if brushing away hair.

"If I take over wedding plans," he said in a muted voice. "Will that help you?"

"Yes."

"Then you can rely on me." He continued to pet your cheek and trace under your chin. Then taking it in his grip and turning your face to him. Repeating it like a promise. "You can rely on me." Your eyes flitted back to him. The temptation was there in his sincerity. For a split second, you considered it. Your lips parted and your eyes pleaded for his help. Baekhyun waited, holding his breath. Then,

"No.” The most honeyed voice is often the most dangerous. You hardened your heart and tore his hand from you. Sitting straighter. You couldn't give up any control. "And the events that just happened don't leave this vehicle. Chanyeol, dump the car once you drop us off."

"Yes boss." You needed to set an established course of action in your mind before you returned to the manor. You needed information for yourself, and you couldn't agitate whoever was after you. It would only provoke them to strike harder. Your vulnerabilities needed more than a shadow. There could be no cracks in the facade.

#baekhyun x reader #baekhyun #byun baekhyun #baekhyun x you #exo fanfiction #exo scenarios #exo scenario #baekhyun fanfic #chanyeol #angst #mafia au #mafia!au

[makeste]

BnHA 6th Popularity Poll Reaction Post - Risky Spoiler-Dodging Edition

hey guys, so seeing as the results from the 6th popularity poll were leaked today, I figured I would do a separate reaction + analysis post this year, rather than piling it in as an extra on top of the chapter reaction post tomorrow. I figure this makes more sense anyway, since they’re really two completely different things. also this way I can write as much as I want lol.

also, just fyi, I am still completely unspoiled for chapter 293. and probably the smart thing to do to keep it that way would be to log off tumblr and hold off posting this until tomorrow, but I apparently have no impulse control today so oh well. anyway, so I’m hoping you guys will keep this spoiler-free if you don’t mind! as always, I would prefer to just jump right in completely unaware tomorrow like Troy returning to the study room with the pizza boxes lol.

okay so this first part is just going to be my predictions. fyi I am writing this part on Wednesday night, and then I’ll add on the results part on Thursday or Friday (ETA: Thursday, apparently, since I am impatient.)

okay so first of all, just as a refresher, this poll was open to Japanese voters from Aug 3 to Sep 30. meaning chapters 279 through 285. meanwhile last year’s poll took place around the tail end of the MVA arc. so between then and now we had Heroes Rising, the Endeavor Agency arc, and the War arc up to the part where the 1-A kids took on Gigantomachia in Gunga, and started battling Tomura in Jakku. so technically only a couple of arcs, but a LOT of stuff going down in them. oh and season 4 of the anime as well

so! firstly, I predict that my truculent africanized honeybee son will hold on to his crown at #1, coming off a year in which he did some internship-boosted soul searching, borrowed OFA in movie canon, and finished out the voting period as the my-body-moved-on-its-own character development MVP. like CALL ME CRAZY lol, but I’m pretty sure his title is safe. and then after him will be Deku and Shouto as usual

Aizawa should hopefully also have a strong showing because the dude had a banner fucking year. reunited with his old dead friend, took on Tomura with his hopelessly inept hero pals, and then chopped his fucking leg off. he had better be in the top 10. his fucking leg died for this, idk what else he has to do

Endeavor also stands a decent chance of doing well given the internship arc and the final episode of season 4. which I’m sure will go down just swimmingly if that does happen lmao. especially if he somehow manages to rank higher than...

Dabi, which I don’t think he will btw, but you never know. anyways though, but I’m thinking Dabi’s going to have a stronger showing than in past years (in the last poll he only got 367 votes and was ranked 19th). mostly because of his fight in the Gunga mansion, and his cheekily censored name reveal to...

Hawks, who is also going to rank pretty high here, I think. might be he loses some points for killing off Twice, but his back was basically to the wall there. and he has always been very popular, and I think season 4 will also give him a boost, along with his heavy involvement in the first half of the War arc

Tomura was already in 6th place last year and I think he cracks the top 5 this year. he’s gotten exponentially more popular since the MVA arc, and got a boost in the last poll even though his flashback had only just barely happened, and he hadn’t finished Awakening yet and all that stuff. anyway, so he’s only gotten cooler and more tragic since then so I think he makes a big play here

Kirishima, Momo, Tokoyami, and Mina should also hopefully do well, since the poll opened right in the middle of all that Gigantomachia action, and Toko had just got done being an absolute badass and protecting his birb dad. I don’t think he’ll quite make it to the top ten, but he should

and last but not least, I’m hoping that Mirko will come out and take the polls by storm, although I have no clue how popular she is in Japan lol. she’s clearly Horikoshi’s favorite though. she SHOULD be everyone’s favorite, but I mean, we’ll see how it goes

anyway that’s it as far as predictions! and so now, through the magic of writing stuff at different times, we will fast-forward to the part where we actually find out the results!

OH MY GOD YES, STEAMPUNK KHLKSLLKL. HERE FOR IT. JOLLY GOOD SHOW. 5 STARS

Kacchan looks SO COCKY and SO HAPPY and SO ADORABLE, YES I SAID IT. he is adorable as FUCK. I don’t quite know what it is about this particular Kacchan that just screams “LOOK HOW FUCKING CUTE MY STUPID, LOUD SON IS WITH HIS BIZARRE WINDOWPANE-LOOKING CONVERTIBLE SUNGLASS GOGGLES and his POORLY TIED CRAVAT”, but I think it’s because he looks like if a Digimon character and a FMA character had a baby

anyway, so it looks like most of the people present here are more or less who we expected to see. except that I can’t tell for sure if that’s Dabi or Shindou, and if it’s Shindou I’m going to punch somebody in the face so you will have to excuse me

Iida wearing a TRENCHCOAT and a TOP HAT with ENGINE EXHAUST GOGGLE ACCENTS is my new favorite Iida of all time. take note how there is no possible way he can wear those goggles with them sitting on top of his hat like that. plus he’s already got glasses on. these are just purely for aesthetic and IF THAT AIN’T JUST THE STEAMPUNK WAY

Deku out here speaking softly and carrying a lead pipe. Kacchan you best look out. seems like he’s done watching you take first place year after year while he languishes in the number two spot. your only hope is that he trips while attacking you because his boots are unbuckled

Shouto’s standing over there with the rest of the non-first-and-second-place characters, but what are the odds his results are actually within spitting distance of Deku’s same as always. anyway he doesn’t mind, though. also his outfit is by far the most sensible one here, but if you look closely he’s got some sort of fire extinguisher/jet pack thing strapped to his back that’s got a control switch on his belt. Shouto are you jetpacking or putting out fires

Kirishima out here all “I’m not sure what steampunk is so I’m just going to take off my shirt and pose”

AIZAWA WITH THE EYEPATCH SKLKSDLKFJLSKJLDFKJSLDFFJLDKSJFL:KS. SIR. SIR. also, lowkey furious that Horikoshi refuses to show us the automail leg that he is clearly sporting here but which we just can’t see, SHOUTO MOVE GODDAMMIT

Endeavor has TWO fire extinguisher-slash-jetpacks. THE BETTER TO... WHATEVER. look at you here in the top ten again. you really live for that controversy

HAWKS OUT HERE WITH HIS STEAMPUNK BEATS BY DRE AND HIS WEARING A RING ON EVERY FINGER. nice to see you’ve still got your wings there, kiddo. then again Deku still has both of his arms too so who even knows what is going on

BUT SERIOUSLY THOUGH, IS THIS DABI OR SHINDOU. as if I don’t know the truth deep down in my heart. y’all I am gonna flip lmao. it’s not that I dislike Shindou, strictly speaking. but just... I can’t explain what it is, but if you put him and AFO next to each other and told me “you can only punch one”, I would be having a serious crisis. just, THIS FUCKING GUY, idek. STOP SMILING

Tomura looks like he just wandered onto the set here by mistake and has no idea where he is or what is going on. it’s because you’re wearing a bigass severed hand that’s blocking your entire view, Tomura. just take the hand off your face my sweet murder dumpling

anyway! so I managed to also find a link to the full poll results while somehow managing to avoid spoilers, and then I wanted to compare the results to last year’s poll, and so I made... this

hopefully you can all see this. if you’re on desktop you might be screwed, but on mobile you should be able to click and enlarge it. I mean, assuming you actually give a fuck about boring poll analysis spreadsheets lmao

anyway, so there were actually 13k fewer votes cast this year which is a bit of a surprise. is the series not still growing in popularity? do people apparently have better things to do during their quarantine lol

anyways but despite this, and despite getting 8k fewer votes overall, Kacchan still managed almost twice as many as his closest competitor. well fought, Deku. please put down that pipe

I somehow always underestimate the power of ship popularity to influence these things. but for example, it looks like Present Mic got that Vigilantes Trio bump. ride that wave for all it’s worth my man! hell, you got me on board

Iida fucking Tenya somehow got some sort of POWER BOOST out of NOWHERE which I can’t explain at all lmao, but I’m here for it. NOT BAD FOR AN OLD MAN

Sero managed to get the exact same number of votes in both 2019 and 2020. clearly the most loyal fans in the business

Mirko being all the way down at #20 is, of course, a travesty, and I hereby nominate her to be the one to punch Shindou in the face

ngl though, the lack of a single female character in the top ten hurts just a bit. it’s not overly surprising, but still. the worst part of it is that even if you kicked Shindou to the curb and moved everyone else up one slot, it would still be all dudes since Mic beat out Momo by a margin of a little more than a hundred votes. hard to stay mad at Mic for too long, though. ah well

Tomura actually lost a bunch of votes which is a genuine surprise to me. I know the villain standom isn’t as dominant in Japan as it is in Western fandom, but still. you can go ahead and punch Shindou too I guess

Tokoyami lowkey doubled his vote count over the past year while hiding down there at #18. he is slowly becoming more powerful. biding his time

anyway so I think that’s it! I mean not really, but I’m getting kind of tired lol. so just, you know, insert the usual gripes at Overhaul’s ranking here, although we can be happy about Magne making her way onto the list (r.i.p.), and Mineta and AFO taking a very satisfying slide down (all the way out, in AFO’s case; good riddance you bum). Hadou also got a huge boost which is awesome. Mustard’s persistent ownership of the #36 spot will forever remain a mystery to me, but oh well

anyways, this was fun. and I really do feel like everyone is looking away on purpose so that when Deku brains Kacchan with that pipe in about two seconds from now, there will be no witnesses, oh my fucking god

#bnha 293 #bnha popularity poll #bakugou katsuki #midoriya izuku #todoroki shouto #aizawa shouta #shigaraki tomura #bnha #boku no hero academia #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #bnha manga spoilers #makeste reads bnha