#absolutely same though

[yardsards]

laios when his party needed more members:

#eliot posts #dunme #delicious in dungeon #dungeon meshi #laios touden #toshiro nakamoto #though i suppose this samurai was less hired and more just dragged along lmao #toshiro (and his team's) existence within this setting absolutely tickles me #bc the setting is so like. Standard Ambiguously Old Timey European Fantasy Setting #and then there just. is a samurai there. #it makes absolute logical sense if you think about it #like yeah of course a world that includes many continents will have more than just Fantasy Europe #but nonetheless seeing a samurai and a knight side by side in the same story is such a genre twist #(i hope no one has made this joke before lol it feels too obvious)

[aeymii]

Sometimes, you just gotta sit back and draw this a-hole✨

#oh no I GAVE HIM SIX FINGERS?!?! #AUGHHHH PLEASE IGNORE THAT :')) #I both hate him but absolutely love him at the same time lol #Like no #YOU DON'T JUST TRICK GONTA AND GET AWAY WITH IT #I MEAN GONTA!! BEST BOI LIL CINNAMON ROLL #WHO DIDN'T DO ANYTHING WRONG WHATSOEVER #but like hes still funny and antagonistic so I guess he's my favourite hehe #currently finished chapter 5 by da way #AGHHH I LOVE THIS SERIES SO FRICKING MUCH- #kokichi ouma #drv3 kokichi #danganronpa killing harmony #ndrv3 #killing harmony #danganronpa #art #rendering is actually pretty fun though #i don't know what possessed me to make this #also I SPENT AN EMBARRASSINGLY LONG TIME ON HIS HAIR AGHH #But I somehow managed to figure it out yass

[bloodiegawz]

the ordeal of waking up

#twst #twisted wonderland #twst silver #gawzdrawz #how tired do you think this guy is #literally the strongest man ever #it has to be like. terrifying #right ? #he gets so much sleep against his will #doing so much training and exertion #even though his brain and body must be absolutely miserable #not to mention it doesnt even seem like he notices when he falls asleep #forced to trust someone will wake him up #and that when he does he'll be in the same place

[immortalbutterflycos]

Girldad Rosekiller vs. Girldad Wolfstar: Selling Girl Scout Cookies

(Yes I'm aware the Girl Scouts are an American thing. Indulge me.)

Rosekiller:

They aren't so much "selling" the cookies, as they are threatening people to buy them in support of their daughter "Or else".

Some Dude: "Nah, sorry man, but I gotta sell my own kid's cookies." Barty, pulling a knife out of fucking nowhere: "You'll buy the damn cookies or the only thing you'll be selling is your own severed hands."

Short, Sweet, and highly effective.

Wolfstar:

They have a whole plan. They used to just go to James first because this man will just buy every single one of those fucking cookies with no buyer's remorse, but Regulus has a firm ban on allowing any more than 3 boxes in the house at any given moment because they just had palets of the damned things sitting in their cupboard and now he gets physically ill at the very thought of anything other than thin mints.

So instead, Remus has a sale plan that he and Sirius created. It lays out the best locations, and with their encouragement, their daughter is very easily one of the best salespeople in the business.

Sounds normal right?

Wrong.

Because even a well-thought-out plan can be somewhat derailed based on Sirius's influence alone.

Let me set the scene:

[[On a sale day, Sirius and their daughter are sitting at the breakfast table before Remus wakes up. Sirius drinks some bougie iced espresso drink he made, and she has a plate of smiley-face pancakes out in front of her.]] Sirius: "So what do you say when someone starts to walk close to the table?" Their daughter, smiling up at him: "Hello, would you like to buy some cookies?" Sirius, nodding: "Good. Now, what do you say when they say no?" Their daughter: "Please sir, my mum just died of cancer." Sirius, grinning proudly: "That's my girl." Remus, having just walked into the kitchen, his hair a mess, and his jumper hiked up due to the hand scratching an itch on his stomach: "Please tell me that you did not teach our daughter to use Cancer as a sales tactic..." Sirius: "Of course I did! It's brilliant!" *She raises her hand from her seat* Remus, with a soft sigh: "Yes, Angel?" Her: "But I have two dads. I never knew my mom." Sirius: "Ah, but that's the trick, Darling." *He pokes her nose.* "Sales is all about the blatant exploitation of other people's emotions in order to make a profit." *looking to Remus* "Tell me I'm wrong." *Remus breathes out a resigned laugh and shakes his head incredulously* Remus: "It's the fact that I genuinely can't that upsets me the most..."

#wolfstar #rosekiller #the marauders #marauders era #girl dad #girl dad wolfstar #girl dad rosekiller #remus lupin #sirius black #evan rosier #barty crouch jr #regulus black #james potter #jegulus #girl scouts #girl scout dads #thin mints #samoas #they're absolutely a part of the same Troop though #this was inspired by the box of thin mints i am currently DEVOURING

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

Chapter 105.5 Thoughts: Control, Manipulation and Partnership

Or, how Chuuya is actually the most qualified character to land a victory over Dostoevsky.

I just want to preface this with: I think Chuuya has woken from the brainwashing. We can't see his eyes, he's holding his hat again, and look at the progression of his face and expression from the last few chapters with him (these are in order btw from left to right).

I'm not completely sure how he did this, but I chalk a lot of it up to sheer stubborn determination on Chuuya's part, mostly because it's funny and he was clearly fighting back before Dazai's speech. However, I find it likely the speech did contain some kind of code - others have pointed out how "Goodbye!" might be a reference to the original author's last unfinished book and we know skk's codenames for things generally are based off their real counterparts' works so, maybe he'd already broken out of it, maybe there was something in there that gave him the final push - who knows at this point honestly? Either way, it means Chuuya had the capacity to break out of the vampire curse on his own and that's incredibly funny to me for many reasons but mostly:

Fyodor: "Bold of you to assume Chuuya's ability can't overcome flooding."

Dazai: "Bold of you to assume Chuuya's personality can't overcome brainwashing."

But really, this highlights something interesting here, both in what Chuuya's role is ultimately intended to be in this arc, and in the way Fyodor and Dazai manipulate and value others in very different ways.

I've said it before but it bears repeating: we already know that Fyodor is an excellent long-term planner, while Dazai is effectively able to counter him because Dazai shifts into thinking like his opponent. They're foil characters for a reason; they're both highly intelligent, manipulative, and willing to play the long game for the sake of winning against their opponent.

Thing is, I also stand by the idea that personality-wise, they're not similar at all - and that has serious implications for the people they are connected with. The build-up to the prison escape arc really highlights this. Some examples:

Chapter 46: Fyodor believes that all people are sinful and foolish and that his goal is to remove sin. Dazai believes that all people are sinful and foolish but asks what's so wrong with that.

Chapter 64: They decide to have a "super-happy chit-chat" about their problems. Dazai's solution to Fyodor's issue with his lazy subordinates is to get them to think lazing around is a bad thing so they will put in effort of their own. Fyodor's solution to Dazai being unable to woo the waitress is to isolate her from her job, house and family so that she can only rely on Dazai.

Chapter 77: Fyodor believes god is perfection and harmony, and thus that the people capable of change are the superior ones with most control. Dazai believes god is the accidental and illogical and believes it is the ordinary people who fight and live in that uncertainty who create the greatest change.

So, what's happening here? Fyodor's manipulation is shown to be very exacting and direct. He leaves no room for error and regards people on a hierarchy - God above all, himself as a servant of God's will, and the sinful and foolish humans he has little regard for. Dazai's manipulation involves manipulation of the situation, and is often indirect. It involves people coming to the conclusion he intends for them to on their own. And from his later dialogue with Sigma, we see he doesn't regard the world in that same kind of hierarchy.

Now, look at the way Fyodor picks an item and Dazai picks a person when starting the game. Look at the way Fyodor refers to Chuuya respectfully but brainwashes him entirely and mocks Dazai for not being worthy of "using" his ability. Look at the way Dazai is a complete ass to Chuuya but ultimately lets him make his own choices (begging people to take note of that moment in Stormbringer where Dazai cuts himself off to correct his referring to Corruption as Arahabaki's true power to Chuuya's true power).

So, the actual strength Dazai has over Dostoevsky then, is not really his strength at all, it's the strength of others and their choice and willpower to act in the way they believe is best. It's the only means of getting a leg up on Dostoevsky, otherwise they will continue to go around and around in circles forever.

And Chuuya is the best candidate for finally throwing Fyodor off his game.

Firstly, let's just establish something: no matter how mad he is at Dazai, he's not going to side with Fyodor, not willingly. Fyodor threatened the Mafia in the Cannibalism arc by attacking Mori, first of all. I doubt he's forgiven him for that. Secondly, Fyodor embodies everything Chuuya can't stand about Dazai, at the very least, younger Dazai - the manipulation, the lack of consideration and connection with others, the callousness and lack of regard for life.

Well, perhaps he's not quite as irritating. +1 point for Dostoevsky I guess?

But lastly, it is more advantageous for Chuuya at this point to help fight against Fyodor, especially since most of the Mafia has been vampirized by his organization. Helping the Agency stop the terrorist plot will help the Mafia by extension by undoing that. And we know from Stormbringer that no matter how much Chuuya is personally hurt, he considers taking out the threat to his people a higher priority. Always.

(You could make the argument that he was told whatever Teruko told Atsushi and decided to join, but not only do I find this wildly out of character, but if that was the case then there would've been no reason to brainwash him.)

That said, I don't think this was preemptive "Dazai's master plan #3057", and in fact, I stand by the idea that Dazai had no idea Chuuya was going to be in the prison. It is very, very important to me that for the rest of this arc, no matter what Chuuya does, that his actions are his own. Not Fyodor's, not Dazai's, but his. And not just because I hate that he's being controlled right now and that freedom of choice has always been important for Chuuya.

But because it makes narrative sense.

The vampires are a bit silly, yes, but they represent the way Fyodor and Fukuchi think - humanity will commit atrocities. They cannot be trusted to make their own decisions. They want to make a world that is free by... mind-controlling people so their plans work without a hitch. In short, they choose, on behalf of others, to sacrifice human autonomy for peace. So, if we are going to turn this arc around, we need to have characters breaking out of that control and thinking for themselves, in spite of the uncertainty of the outcome.

We already see this with Atsushi in the last chapter! He finally takes initiative and makes that choice to leave the room when he doesn't exactly know what the right thing to do is. And this is also why I don't think Teruko is wholly convinced by the DoA either - she lets him go. She gives him the freedom to choose what he does with that information.

Another one of the focus characters here is Sigma. Sigma is a guy who has no past, whose humanity is questioned, who keeps being used by organizations for his valuable ability, who has no home but desperately wants one... oh wait. Remind you of anyone's younger self? This could go one of two ways: Chuuya fails to assert his autonomy, leaving Sigma to learn from that failure, or, Chuuya succeeds in asserting his autonomy, leaving Sigma to learn from his success.

I think it, by necessity, has to be the latter. Sigma's at a tipping point right now, and I think seeing someone try to assert their freedom only to fail would damage him greatly. And I think it's a waste of Chuuya's character honestly.

Chuuya needs to assert his autonomy in this arc. Not just for thematic reasons but because I can think of no one else who can effectively break the "super-genius stalemate".

I keep hearing "Dazai knows Chuuya" in response to Fyodor calling their bond shallow, and that is absolutely true! But Chuuya also knows Dazai. Incredibly well. Odasaku knew Dazai's soul, but Chuuya knows Dazai's mind, knows his strategies and ways of thinking without even needing words. What's more, Chuuya has thrown off Dazai before and done what he didn't expect him to.

Which is nifty, because Dazai and Fyodor think a lot alike. Chuuya is in a unique position to thwart Dostoevsky because he may actually be able to predict him to a degree. Chuuya can absolutely land a victory against him, and it's excellent because it would be completely unexpected to Fyodor, who apparently thinks Chuuya's strength lies only in what his ability has to offer and not much else.

But listen. This also can't be skk's plan. I need Chuuya to sideline both of them. Both for the sweet, sweet catharsis of putting those two idiot geniuses in their places and also because I need Dazai to have screwed up. He wasn't wrong about people making their own choices in uncertainty. People need to assert their autonomy to create change. Dazai can't be wrong in this regard.

But with going ahead with the trap to drown Fyodor despite also having to drown Chuuya when he promised not to let him get killed... this needs to have been a mistake, otherwise the value of Dazai's emotional speech to him is diminished.

I want Dazai to try to laugh it off. I want him to say he always knew Chuuya would escape and then for Chuuya to deck him because "no, the fuck you didn't".

I really think Dazai hoped Chuuya would make it. Do remember that Chuuya was one of the first reasons young Dazai decided to try giving life a chance. The fact that he flashbacked to all his key memories with Chuuya says a lot. But his survival was no guarantee and it seemed very unlikely.

So, Chuuya is faced with the fact that Dazai nearly sacrificed him to kill Dostoevsky and save his new Agency friends.

And I hope he finally gets mad. I hope he finally expresses hurt on his own behalf for once. I hope they are forced to break their status quo that they have carefully maintained by not talking about anything ever. I hope they are pushed to uncomfortable places and that it is Chuuya who finally spurs this development.

Let Chuuya break the stalemate between Dazai and Dostoevsky. Let him shatter the status quo that him and Dazai have kept going for year after year.

Autonomous action in the face of uncertainty is necessary for change.

#am i assigning too much narrative importance in the main manga to chuuya? perhaps #will i stop? no #unfortunately this meta doesn't include gogol which is an oversight because he absolutely has to play a role as well #i'm just not quite sure what yet. same as chuuya i suppose #either gogol asserts his autonomy or he... fails. yeah. either he gets dostoevsky killed or... he fails. #i just don't know where he fits in with everyone else is the thing #listen though. it is significant that gogol decided not to play his dying role in the doa's plan though. #gogol is the free spirit of the doa and yet he's closer to sigma and bram in terms of how he is more controlled than controller #anyways sorry this is so long. just my two cents on the matter #bsd #bsd spoilers #bsd chapter 105.5 #bsd chuuya #bsd fyodor #bsd dazai #bsd sigma #bsd meta #i don't even know if this makes sense anymore. here. #storyrambles

[canisalbus]

hey i was listening to take me to church my hozier and youre probably already aware but . that song fits vasco and machete so fucking well i think. im so. hnrjrgjfhkndhfjkf these gayass dogs have invaded my head

.

#oh yes #it's become one of their key theme songs #been one of my personal favorites for ages as well #in fact even though this specific song is clearly from Machete's pov #I've sort of unofficially decided that Vasco would sound somewhat like Hozier #especially his speaking voice which to me has the same depth warmth and calm unassuming friendliness that I can imagine Vasco having #if I had the theoretical chance to pick absolutely anyone I wanted as their voice actors I'd go with him #answered #wolfboyvirus

[saturdaysky]

gale's act 2 romance scene got me. i'm an absolute sucker for last nights alive and the desperate desire to escape to a reality where you have more time than you do.

it's a not like this moment, but like this is all you'll ever have, so you both play pretend that the beautiful thing between you is something you can keep.

loved it. very tasty.

#hits me the same way as characters making plans they know neither of them will live to see #a cocktail of regret + bitterness + missed opportunities you'll never get to take + anguish + defiance + hope + love even though it'll hurt #made for me. saturday tragedy-enjoyer sky #gale dekarios #gale of waterdeep #gale x tav #mayhew #bg3 #sky does bg3 #my art #mayhew absolutely said yes to the astral scene. they both needed to escape and play pretend for a while #there are a thousand different ways to view this scene but this read was particularly poignant to me #galehew

[ladiablesse]

hm :///

#gonna hold off on saying anything further abt this #till we get more confirmations #but regardless of the veracity of the samara account there are several other confirmed to be real accounts that have faced the exact same #harassment for broaching the same subject matter #who are alive but still very much in the midst of a genocide w only a fraction of the visibility #it’s an absolutely fucking insane thing to make up though if that is the case

[wowitsverycool]

dorian gray was so dedicated to intense emotion that he became a remorseless killer and rodion romanovitch raskolnikov was so dedicated to being a remorseless killer that he became intensely emotional

#in other words I think they’d absolutely hate each other #they’d call each other monsters without a hint of self awareness #even though they committed the same crime the experience was so intensely different for both of them #the portrait of dorian gray #the picture of dorian gray #Dorian gray #rodion romanovich raskolnikov #rodya raskolnikov #rodya #raskolnikov #crime and punishment #c&p

[mccromy]

Character: *is canonically violent and abusive but has a sad backstory*

Normal people: he isn't real and it's cool and fun to explore his character in different scenarios

Freaks: he was right actually AND he is a poor little boy, he was MISUNDERSTOOD. actually those children were abusive towards him first but the narrator was unreliable so :/

#i AM talking about Shen Jiu but I got hit by a flashback of another fandom doing this exact same shit you know what I'm talking about #i do like fics with SJ!! i don't hate him bc he's not real :) and I do find him interesting #but some people will just... be absolutely convinced that he's just some tsundere baby and actually lbh did deserve to be you know #whipped and starved #svsss #like not in a jokingly way they'll actually believe he is a good person and like.... reduce his character to a tsundere?? #the fun of him is how complicated he is!! he's got reasons but not justification #he was unjustly accused of shit he didn't do he was justly accused of shit he did do #he didn't want to kill lqg he did want to kill lbh #he loved yqy he stayed in the cang qiong sect for him even though he hated it there #he was incapable of loving anybody else #he was not incapable of caring but he was so traumatized he kept recreating his traumas #but now with him in the position of power #anyways this can be applied to a lot of characters #not only sj like #severus snape remember that shit jesus #and many more

[kartoonito]

Shared 'horns', ears ?

#wriothesley #sigewinne #genshin impact #fontaine goth girl #my art #horns..ears...antennas #sigewinnes ears are not antennas though #my little gjys ..... #i cant wait to be wrong about absolutely everything #not gonna lie when all the wriothesley info dropped i got a little bit. stressed? is that the word. rhere was so much #my brain got bot excited and tired at the same time #i didnt prepare mentally because 1 day before the livestream i absolutely fucking forgot #I FIGURED IT OUT. #wriothesley has ears #fontaine goth girl has antennas #and sigewinne has both #myrianelle

[cran-does-art-things]

sorry i havent posted since april have some dreemurrs

#if you saw this already no you didnt bc the quality messed up #kris dreemurr #frisk dreemurr #chara dreemurr #asriel dreemurr #flowey #oh yeah cant forget the ABSOLUTE GOD OF HYPERDEATH #asriel tried to be so edgy and for what LMAO #undertale #deltarune #these four all living in one household at the same time would be insane #love them though ^_^

[tvckerwash]

I have a hc that post beating the crap out of his CO but prior to being demoted back to corporal, wash spent like a week as an ODST drill sergeant as a 'punishment' until the higher ups finished their investigation, and that's the only real experience training others he has going into chorus.

so basically, wash tortured tucker and the combined armies of chorus with the brutal training used to root out the people who couldn't make the cut as an ODST, which only makes the scene where the kids jump grif even funnier than it already is.

#he was waaaaay nicer to the chorus kids than he was to people who were actually trying to be ODSTs btw #he was still putting them through the absolute ringer though lol #rvb #red vs blue #agent washington #i like to think kimball and doyle casually bring up the intensity of the training in conversation at some point #and sarge overhears and just goes 'hehe I remember when i went through ODST training. this has nothing on those three hellish weeks' #and he has to explain what an ODST is #and they're like 😬 but the kids like wash and they trust him to do a good job based on the words of the bgc #but at the same time they're like 'oh this may have been a bit of a mistake' #but then they realize their only other option is carolina and they're like 'you know what nvm'

[uncanny-tranny]

If you mess with somebody's mobility/life-preserving aid and all you got was yelled at by the disabled person in question, just know you got off easy. Fucking with somebody's aid can easily become a matter of life-or-death, so you have to understand why somebody would "lash out" about that.

#disability #ableism #ableism tw #reminder that fucking with somebody's aid can easily be classified under physical assault (which is what it is) #still fuming about the time my dad talked about how other people would fuck with his CPAP machine since it *has* to be plugged in an outlet #like. do you understand that not having a CPAP machine can easily either severely negatively affect somebody or kill them.. #like why would the thought even cross your mind to risk somebody's life or wellbeing like that #but like. it just kind of reminds me that people can be really thoughtless about what they do and cause and effect #like at this point it's self-defense in my eyes and if you're yelled at i don't have sympathy #i will understand if you thought you were being nice but that's where my understanding ends #this is why i like when people have huge patches/stickers on their aids that are like 'DO NOT TOUCH ME' or 'I WILL BITE IF YOU TOUCH ME' #just as examples. but like. yes you shouldn't need to put that there in the first place but it is iconic #it is in-your-face and direct and it reminds everybody around you that it is up to *them* to treat *you* as an equal to abled people #it is bleak though and i hate that people have the need to put them there in the first place #if i ever needed to use more visible or 'obtrusive' aids then i'd absolutely do the same thing though

[gildedmuse]

Listen.... Trafalgar Law is like Opposite Pick Me Girl.

Evidence:

He stole Doffy's whole look down to the shirtless sluttiness, feather coat and the earrings.

He COPIED DOFFY'S ACTIVATION METHOD. How "notice me, senpai!!" is THAT!?

Like Doflamingo, he acts as though your attempts at torturing him are absolutely precious.

Law straight up based his jolly roger on Doffy's. Like it's not even kinda subtle. (Not that Law does subtle. Which is weird for someone trying SO HARD to be dark, mysterious, and edge-y as Kikoku. )

Trafalgar spent years of his life travelling around the world, gaining notoriety and power, putting into place a series of intricate moving parts that all had to come together in just the right way all so Doflamingo would notice him and remember his face forever.

Law: Please, Young amaster-sama! Oh, please pick me!

Law: To kick your pathetic, subhuman ass.

[Thanks to @revlischarm who gave me this idea.]

#Law is a TERRIBLE pick me girl #it's never a good sign when they ask you to pick them and also your own coffin (assuming there are any recognizable remains) #Doffy-sama notice me! #I want you to look me in the eyes when I killed you #guys were were two weeks away from Law's obsession getting so bad he'd atatt wearing sunglasses at night #Thank goodness Zoro was there yo distract him aftwr Dressrosa #boy was floating in a empty void; no idea what to do with himself #“He was my future; I spent my whole life looking for him... wanting him.” #“bleeding out in my hands begging for mercy while I spit in his face and promised I'd show him the same mercy he showed Cora-san” #*everyone takes a solid three step back from Law* #*well everyone but Zoro and Robin. They're into this.* #one piece #trafalgar d. water law #trafalgar law #donquixote doflamingo #absolutely fabulous #evil never looked so good #though not so much evil as hell bent on revenge is pretty damn sexy too #all of this was for you Cora-san! #I did all this - risked my life and limbs - just to die in battle to honor your sacrifice and get you the revenge you deserve! #Oh #Oh Law baby #that's not what Cora wanted for you AT ALL #you sweet little revenge muffin

[novelconcepts]

Do you ever just lay awake at night, turning over in your head the stark difference in delivery between Hewson's Van saying--steadily, unshakably--"it's just something that's happening to you...happening to us" and Cypress' Taissa saying--imploringly, whiningly--"this was not just my dream, this was our dream"?

Do you ever just turn it over and over, how often Tai tried to scare Van away, and how it only made Van set her feet more firmly? How Taissa's first love was this person who saw a problem fall into Taissa's lap, a problem that was quite literally trapped inside Taissa's body, and decided unflinchingly: No, that's an us problem now? How she refused point-blank to walk away even with blood in her mouth, how she flatly informed Tai "I'm never gonna be scared of you", and promptly turned a moment of pain into a declaration of love? And how this would etch itself into Taissa for the rest of her life? How she'd take these things that worked with Van--with the person Van was, with the bond they shared--and try so hard to run through an identical script with Simone?

Except Simone is her own person. A completely different kind of person. A person who hasn't been offered any of the context, any of the realities going on inside Taissa. So: naturally she doesn't respond the way Van did at eighteen--and will go on to do all over again in her forties. Naturally, she hears our dream as the excuse it is, not as a plea for connection. Naturally, she is scared away when Taissa pushes, and shouts, and begs. Because there isn't blood in her mouth, not yet, but there will be. And they have a son to worry about. And she isn't eighteen and a special kind of immortal, a special kind of romanticized. She's a grown woman with responsibilities, with priorities, with an understanding that you can't fix someone just because you love them. And Tai can't just perform a revival of the play she and Van had memorized twenty-five years later with a whole new performer in the works, and expect it to shake out the same.

Of course it doesn't work. But look at Taissa trying it. Look at Taissa trying to reframe her first love through a new lens. Trying to recast it. Trying to play it through again. Van taught her love was sticking out the blood, shaking off the pain, making a you problem into an us problem. Does it ever just eat at you, how tragic it is, watching Taissa try to shape her marriage around a woman who isn't even wearing a ring?

#yellowjackets #yj meta #taivan #sorry i'm just fucking obsessed with cypress' delivery choice in that scene #it is the most immature we EVER hear tai sound #and it's not teenage taissa. it's adult wife-mother-almost senator tai flat out whining in desperation #it is SUCH a choice #and then after the S2 opener to hear van sound so adult offering a glimpse as to WHY tai would #so pleadingly seek turning a Tai Thing into an Us Thing #yeah. yeah of course she would. because van shared the worst of her #van shared it without allowing tai to dissaude her. van quite literally tethered herself to tai's problems #and tai learned: that is what love is #and tai thought: this is what love is #it's sharing. and giving up on sharing is surrendering the whole thing #and she's lying! is the thing! she's lying to simone and to herself #she's making excuses for doing what she wants to do even though she shouldn't be doing it #but the core of it is Team. the core of it is Us. the core of it is #'if you love me you will be on my side. for better or worse.' #because that's what van did. for better. and for so much worse. #which isn't true. isn't actually how love works. love is sometimes putting your foot down and saying 'nah dude that ain't it.' #love is communication. but that was never taivan's game and it isn't tai's now and so she's just trying old plays #and it is NOT a play that can ever work the same with simone in the leading role. nor should it. #but god everything about them makes me so sad because simone deserves better and taissa needs what she won't admit to #anyway. will be absolutely gnawing at the walls until S3.