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hollowtones · 9 months

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first yiik impressions?

Hi. Thanks for your message. I've been thinking about this for days. I wrote paragraphs. Here you go!

Everyone talks up how the game is bad, but I've never looked into it much myself, so I went in with an expectation along the lines of "people whose opinions I often agree with think it was an awful mess, I'll likely think something similar". Expectations were low. Even then I wasn't really ready.

"YIIK" is a game of tedium. I don't think it's a game about tedium, that's something different (though it could be, if it was a different video game altogether; "what if the world was made of pudding" etc). To some degree I think the tedium is by design but I'm not really sure what it's in service of.

I don't think tedium in a video game is a bad thing. "Morrowind" and "Breath of the Wild" are two video games I like very much, and some of my favourite memories of those games are of slowly wandering through empty expanses, or having to suddenly deal with equipment degrading or supplies dwindling because I forgot to prepare. Moments like that feel thoughtful! They're interesting moments of reprieve or of tension that feel thoughtfully and intentionally designed! "YIIK" feels like trudging through chest-deep molasses so it can shout "hey did you know you're stuck in my molasses right now? that's weird, why are you stuck in my molasses right now? did you notice?" directly into your ear.

You'll notice this is a pattern.

Combat is turn-based and involves completing little minigames, timing button prompts or hitting targets or some such. It's a cute idea that wears out its welcome when you start realizing how long every single one takes to resolve, especially when you have multiple party members, and sometimes multiple enemies (I'm told this part specifically gets more egregious as the game goes on). I don't think it's awful or unsalvageable but I'm not super into it as of the point we're at.

This is a pattern.

Leveling up is a manual process that you have to unlock, and it involves going to a save point (any save point? we didn't check), to enter the Mind Dungeon, to enter the actual Mind Dungeon, to walk down a set of stairs and enter individual doors one-by-one, so that you can choose how you want to allocate stat increases, so that you can walk down a different set of stairs to commit your choices and spend your banked experience to level up. I think "you can only power up at specific points / times / locations" and the granularity of stat growth are interesting ideas, and the environment they made for it are a charming idea, and I don't think it needed to be a "Hotel Mario" level that you had to slowly walk through. It could have been a menu. They could have used the resources for a nice background or backdrop for a menu that accomplishes the same thing.

This is a pattern.

I haven't really mentioned anything about the story or writing yet. The protagonist's name is Alex and he's a very self-important nerdy misanthropic dickhead white man (a very specific kind of guy that I've definitely met at least once or twice) who is obsessed with a paranormal message board populated by people like him and desperate to find out more about the disappearance of a woman he witnessed. (The woman & her disappearance are based on the real life death of Elisa Lam & aren't handled with a whole lot of tact, IMO, but other people have put this into better words than I can right now. It sucks. It keeps coming up and it makes me bristle every time.) Alex is a bad person. I know he is. You know he is. The game knows he is. I've seen some reviews say a negative point of the game is "the main characters aren't likeable", which I don't really get, because that's the point of the characters, as far as I can tell. The issue, then, is how much time the game takes to exposit at you how bad the characters are. It's exhausting. Every time Alex has a monologue, it feels like it sums up to 10 minutes of "I am a bad person. I am a bad person. Alex is a bad person. This character is a bad person. Do you get it? He's a bad person. Alex is a bad person. Do you understand yet, player? Alex is a bad person. You should know that he's a bad person. Do you get it?"

This is a pattern.

(I don't know how interested I am in bringing up the game's lead writer right now, if at all, but there's a well-known anecdote where he talks about wanting to write a story about a bad person who is forced to grapple with himself and do better, and how the reason why his game wasn't well-received was because people who play video games didn't get it & weren't ready for a story like that. I dunno. I can understand being upset about negative reception to something you poured time and sweat into, and saying something hasty because of it. "Final Fantasy 4" is a beloved RPG classic, though, and "Disco Elysium" came out the same year to overwhelming praise. I haven't played either of these yet, though, so I'll admit maybe I'm off the mark here.)

The characters we've met so far (i.e. the ones that aren't unnamed NPCs) are… well. There's a smarmy younger kid who idolizes(?) Alex & also made the aforementioned paranormal website. So far it seems like he mostly exists to go "hey fuck you Alex, you dickhead" and immediately say something even more insensitive. There's the insensitive based-on-a-real=ass-dead-woman elevator woman, who immediately disappeared from the narrative while still being an essential part of the narrative. There was a dead(?) robot in a bedroom, who had a choir of ominous hooded people monologue about how weird and sad and strange and uncanny the scene is. What the!? There's a woman who works at the arcade and has Powers. Her design's cute. (I feel like, generally, the game's visuals are Fine. The audio, too. That all ranges from Just Fine to Surprisingly Neat. I don't really have much issue with those aspects of the game, but I don't have much to say about them either.) Alex and Kid Whose Name I Didn't Care To Remember are constantly very uncomfortable to her, because she's a woman and because she isn't white, in the 15 or so minutes we've seen her on-screen, and she gets to tell them off, but then immediately kind of goes "well whatever I can smile and put up with this and hang out with you". It feels misogynistic. I know to some degree Alex is misogynistic on purpose, because the game is bludgeoning your skull in and yelling "ALEX IS SHITTY TO WOMEN! AND PEOPLE OF COLOUR! DO YOU GET IT? HE'S SELF ABSORBED IN A SHITTY WAY! DO YOU GET IT, PLAYER? YOU UNDERSTAND THAT ALEX SUCKS ASS YET? MAYBE 10 MORE MINUTES OF THIS WILL MAKE IT CLICK?" But for a woman of colour (the only one we've seen so far who isn't Probably Just Dead) to finally tell him off for being a shithead, only to turn around and go "well it's ok, you're cool now, let's hang out now because it's narratively convenient and you're the protagonist" is pretty damn egregious!

This is a pattern.

Writing in general feels stilted and long-winded. Most of the main characters feel like they don't talk like people do. Alex gets to feel like a person but that's mostly because he gets to talk to himself so damn much. Most of his monologues feel like overly flowery prose, like someone padded it out with identical adjectives to meet a school essay word count. There's an interesting idea or premise or setpiece every now and then. There's a spark. A glint of something compelling. Every single time this has happened so far I find it immediately snuffed out by an over-blown "oh my god!!!!!!! how weird!!!!!!', or a very long plot dump, or a Joss Whedon-ass quip. There can be no small moment of joy. No story element or visual element can stand on its own legs. There can be no room for ideas to breathe. No space for the player to wonder, to dream, to play in the space. The narrative is compelled to suffocate iself on itself, to take up all space, to swallow itself whole in its making. One very minor (so far?) side character has some interesting dialogue in this one dream world, and I think "oh that's neat", and then I learn they're lines taken wholesale from a book (and I think that's fine, reference is fine, but I have a bit of a chuckle over the fact that this character is the reason why the game has a giant REFERENCES option in the main menu). The literal first minute of the game is a bird telling you "oh my god, the title of this game, right? why'd they spell it like that? so fucking dumb, am I right!" It feels insecure. It reads like the writing has no confidence in itself. It has to make a comment about how silly and video-gamey it is, roll its eyes at itself, mock itself for the thing it's doing while continuing to do it without addressing it or discussing it or doing anything with it.

This is a pattern.

There's a specific part of "YIIK", at this early point in the game (we're only around the start[?] of chapter 2), that feels emblematic of the thing as a whole up to this point. Alex is getting phone calls from a stranger. They're confusing and weird and sound a little like something you might hear in a dream. They make references to some shared past, some childhood, some understanding of Alex, or maybe of you, the player. They've come up a few times. Every single time, I'm left thinking about what it could mean, how it fits in with everything we've seen so far & what the game seems to be talking about, with regards to connecting to other people and to yourself. It's a neat little thing. It's a neat idea. I'm charmed by it. As much as my thoughts on this game are largely negative, I still try to look at it fairly, to understand it, to talk about it, to let myself be surprised by it. As soon as I find myself thinking about this, my thoughts are immediately drowned out by Alex telling me how weird the phone call is, how random and uncanny and dumb this is, and how he's rolling his proverbial eyes about it, in spite of all the other paranormal happenings around him, for another period of Just Too Long. And I am sapped of all strength and I crumble to dust.

I'm genuinely transfixed. I'm transfixed! Maybe the fact that I wrote Paragraphs about the 4-or-5 hours I've seen of the game can tell you as much, even if you skip everything I wrote in them.

I can't wait to see more.

This, too, is a pattern.

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shaunamilfman · 13 days

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Can you do a jealous Shauna fic

feel like I've written enough full out jealous shauna fics recently lmaoo but here are some HC's i typed up before I got distracted by the other one

shauna warning you not to flirt with someone not because she's threatening you, but because she'll fucking kill them and do you really want to have that on your hands?

she’s also threatening you, but that comes later.

will not take her fucking eyes off you. you can’t breathe without her noticing atp. the very second you look the slightest bit uncomfortable (giving her a reason to interject in your very normal conversation about the weather without running the risk of making you upset) she’s sprinting from across the party to pull you away

accidentally pulls too hard while she's dragging you off and leaves a bruise. she's frantically apologizing about it when she catches sight of it but isn't nearly as apologetic as she seems. sure, she didn't mean to hurt you but damn if she doesn't enjoy the sight of you bruised up from her. tentatively presses her fingers into the bruise the next time you're making out to gauge your reaction. fully ready to pretend she forgot it was there if you react badly

if the person’s actively flirting with you though all bets are off. she’s storming over from across the party and you’d better meet her halfway unless you want some bloodshed. she’ll let you lead her away most of the time but best believe she will fucking remember. she’s got a little list and will check names off of it the second you aren’t looking

actively planning murders while watching you speak to literally anyone else. she has the length of the blade, how sharp it’ll be, where she’s going to stab them, and where and how she’ll hide the body planned out by the time your five minute conversation has finished.

explosive anger as she’s actively feeling jealous, and then quiet brooding for the rest of the night. she’s very in her own head about things and needs to work through it on her own. unfortunately that can exacerbate the issue to ridiculous proportions when she’s feeling particularly misanthropic

i feel like Shauna's particularly vulnerable to getting jealous/insecure when men are involved. even if she knows you're not interested in them she just gets so immediately upset seeing you interact with one, especially like 1996 Shauna. just the feeling that there's something that a man could give you that she couldn't drives her insane

aggressively gets people's names wrong. jessica talks to you and shauna runs over from across the party and is like “hey JENNIFER”

gets fed up and pulls a sharpie out of her bag and writes ‘SHAUNA’ in block print across your arm. she tried to go to your forehead but you had to put your foot down somewhere. somehow it’s still not enough. you’re starting to think nothing ever could be

#shauna thoughts 💙#yellowjackets x reader #yellowjackets x you #shauna shipman x reader

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kartoffelstern · 7 months

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dofuwani snippet

a little snippet of some random thoughts on Croc, Doffy and their differences in character - just wanted to jot down a few ramblings while I'm trying to finish up a proper fic

--- 🦩🐊 ---

Crocodile doesn’t like surprises. Never has. He has back-up plans for his back-up plans. Meticulous planning has gotten him up the social ladder where he now comfortably resides among the elites of the world with more money in his pockets than he could ever spend in a lifetime. The climb was long and grueling, but he fought tooth and nail for a space on the golden throne of the rich and famous.

Doflamingo on the other hand has never had to struggle much for acceptance among the nobles. Maybe that’s why he seems so confident at every garish business party with his feet propped onto dessert laden marble tables like a savage and yet he doesn’t receive a single complaint from the snobbish old folks around him. No, they wouldn’t ever think of chastising him, not because he could and would rip them in two if he so pleases, but much rather because the people buzzing around him are too busy worshiping the very ground beneath his feet. No matter how rude Doflamingo acts and how lewd he dresses, there’s a certain kind of grace to his comportment, a je-ne-sais-quois in each of his actions that has the capacity to render most of those around him captivated, obsessed even.

He has natural charisma in heaps. The very same kind of charisma that Crocodile has struggled so hard to secure for himself over years. It hadn’t come to him easily, that power to gather people around you, make them wanna die for you, and he blames his misanthropic nature for that.

Crocodile avoids the spotlight as much as he can. He much rather prefers dwelling in the shadows, submerged in proverbial deep waters not unlike his namesake and rest in waiting until careless prey edges close enough for him to slam his merciless fangs into.

Doflamingo’s lust for attention fills him with disdain instead. That man is too colorful, too loud, too flamboyant, too much. How someone can bask in the watchful eyes of people instead of feeling caged, parade around like a paradise bird with his attention-whorish feathers on display for the entire world to drool and gloat as if the world is his stage and his stage only, will always be a mystery to Crocodile. It’s trashy. Doflamingo’s trashy. And yet…

For some reason, the bird seeks him out at every occasion. Maybe he simply can’t wrap his mind around the fact that there are people on this planet who don’t fall head first into his charm’s gravitation field. People like Crocodile. Now he’s trying anything to pull Crocodile into this pink void of brainless adoration for a fallen god like him and the constant rejections are only acting as fuel for Doflamingo to be even more persistent, more obnoxious, more obsessed.

“Hey, why don’t we team up? We’d make such a splendid pair, let’s raise a little hell together!”

Never would Crocodile let that pink avian pest put a collar and leash on him. No matter how sickly honeyed he makes his offers of power over vast lands and lavish kingdoms, no matter how tempting the prospect of having someone extroverted by his side to deal with that grating job of handling people is.

No, Crocodile’s pride is a bonafide safety lock for the door to his shriveled heart and no bird could ever hope to pick it no matter how strong that beak may be.

Doflamingo may try to open it. Over and over. The lock may get scratches and notches over time, but Crocodile is certain that it won’t budge, no, not if he can help it. So for now he will begrudgingly play a part in this game of tug and war, will stomp down every playful invitation of Doflamingo’s into the sand and hope that one day, the bird will fy away from his den and leave the gator in peace.

Let’s see how far it will take him.

#one piece #sir crocodile #donquixote doflamingo #dofuwani #geschreibsel

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reineyday · 4 months

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i’m back to say that magnificent was so so so good!! i love the uta mihawk interactions and how mihawk wants to protect her. i think my favorite part though was when mihawk was talking to shanks all nervous about whether he could call uta his daughter, but shanks answers with an “of course.”

this fic made me wonder why mihawk would do if he was present during the one piece film red… would he come along with the red crew, or would he already be there like the others (luffy, law, etc)?

awh 💖💖 thank u for your continued support! it means a lot :') and im happy you enjoyed the fic haha 🥰

UH, long answer short: i kind of have headcanons that position him before, during, and after the movie hahaha. sorry this reply turned out longer than i expected but my brain's got a mihawk & uta agenda goin' on rn. 😂 thanks again for the ask! ➡️

i actually have a bit of a draft going of mihawk seeing the "shanks destroys elegia" headline, seeing what's up, and finding uta, which i started before i wrote up magnificent lol. that's kinda where i picture him--doing something before everything happens, bc his curiosity makes him wonder why shanks would do smthg so uncharacteristic.

i recognize that's kind of a cop-out answer tho LOL so in regards to the movie itself in the canon(ish) timeline, i imagine he'd probably be there beforehand like luffy etc. he'd be there bc buggy and his crew got tickets and he was somehow dragged there against his will (similar to how law says he's chaperoning bepo but a lot more antagonistic about it aha), probably bc croc decides it might be beneficial to go, for whatever reason. probably scoping the crowd. (pls imagine the cross guild at uta's concert garnering Looks and standing out very obviously, but no one wants to say anything about it LOL even if the crowd is very anti-pirate. like, the strawhats and soen charlottes were there so. why not some ex-warlords?)

when there, he'd be like, "hey wait isn't that shanks's kid? didn't he say she left to sing? huh." and then maybe possibly even dial shanks on his baby den den about it bc if he's the type to bring luffy's poster all the way to an island, he'd probably try to ring up shanks. then he wouldn't be able to connect and clock that something is Up bc he knows shanks is just kinda hanging on his ship rn, on his way out from wano. i dont think he'd be with shanks along with his crew, and i dont think he'd bother going after the fact to help if he wasn't there to start with, which is why i think he'd already be there for separate reasons. ;P

anyways, i also have the start of an idea where the movie happens but uta survives, and shanks, stressed, is like, "hey, y'know what, everything's ramping up and everyone's trying to kill uta and she's still recovering from this wakeshroom shit so she'd probably be safer on land but the marines will be looking for all my known close associates... i'm gonna drop her off with mihawk. he trained those two other kids and the misanthropic fucker (affectionate) has probably found a new island by now anyways, since he isn't a warlord anymore. it should be fine. he'll say yes."

he sets out with his crew to follow mihawk's vivre card. benn and yasopp get the news coo and start laughing about something but they don't tell him, and whatever, he's going to see mihawk soon. he's definitely being led to land, which makes him feel vindicated, until it becomes more and more clear that the structure standing out on the shore is a huge big top tent, and there's an unfortunately very familiar flag flying, and shanks is like, "oh god, don't tell me," and then promptly has to dodge a flying fist and yelling about how he isn't welcome here and what the fuck is mihawk doing with buggy???? and benn and yasopp, having seen the cross guild poster in the news and hidden it from shanks, are laughing so hard at him while he deals with this momentary crisis where two completely different parts of his life have seem to connected without his knowing about it.

(buggy is happy to see uta bc for all that they fight shanks and buggy did make some sort of effort with their brotherhood every now and then so he knows uta and she calls him "uncle bugs"!; mihawk ofc says "yes" to taking care of her bc he feels qualified to handle young adults now lol (he says this with an air of gravitas that is hilarious when considering how he interacts with zoro and perona, which is stoically and poorly); uta makes fun of her dad relentlessly for not having made any moves on the guy he's been in a situationship with since she was a literal child; and croc comes home from a meeting to find international pop sensation uta (that the news said tried to take over the world during her concert or something???) reclined on their couch drinking tea. wild day for everyone.)

#rei replies #dracule mihawk #one piece #uta #one piece uta #mishanks #akataka #one piece red #one piece film red #i also have half an idea of mihawk finding uta and gordon and being like 'they could move in with me i guess'#and the next time shanks visits he's like 'uh. that's my daughter? and her teacher?' and mihawk is like 'no she's my daughter now. duel?'

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quietbluejay · 2 days

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The Buried Dagger 1

OKAY mortarion time ….i forgot this was the book with purple prose and i had to go back in terror to make sure I didn't accidentally buy a McNeill novel again i did not, this is thankfully (?) someone else

I'm trying to figure out what about this pushes it into "Wow Edgy" rather than being genuinely compelling well actually this isn't too bad, to be honest, it's really the next bit which is that the population of ynyx (and WHAT a name) doesn't have mouths "the cold ember of his familiar, obdurate resentment" I feel like I'm being unfair to the book by feeling bathos instead of pathos but i think it's that everything is so over the top

wait what year was this written Mortarion is literally breathing in the chemicals 2019 I'm now going to suffer from the belief that the writer of this was listening to Radioactive (due to this plus some other things) and now I've got it stuck in my head

i want to take this seriously but i just can't, I'm sorry no one understands meeeeeeeee owo uncomfortable memory surfaces

i will say this, the prose is quite evocative

ok so mort has a giant chip on his shoulder and is an enormous misanthrope but just about every single person who has ever been in a position of authority over him DOES just use him as a tool

boy did he choose the wrong side of the war

tumblr has poisoned my mind regarding "the horrors" so it feels like "every day mortarion gets emails" mortarion: hm maybe i should get rid of the daemon and also all the stuff i used to summon him and go back to normal warfare

holy shit holy shit he really is his father's son also hey uhhh mortarion do you remember that whole slippery slope speech you gave at Nikaea about literally this exact topic

the irony is killing me you're killing me, Reaper of Men, and I'm not even a man the manreaper of….justice (????) is unisex oh yeah i forgot to bring it up but Mort calling Magnus an "arrogant braggant" fills my salty soul with glee

morty continues to try out for that fantasy villain role i think i'm warming up to the prose though

im breathing in the chemicals- im breathing in the chemicals- im breathing in the chemicals-

i think swallow's cd kept skipping while he wrote this

this is the third time he's breathed in the chemicals

it's totally not a ritual, honest! okay, this is a cool fight scene mortarion can be cool in a fight, as a treat

lmao

yes. this is funny to me. Mortarion is just so done with this whole thing Mort: why did i get sent on this sidequest rip typhon killstealing

mortarion would really like to be starring in a different genre oh no cursed idea my thought was "what genre would be funniest to put him in" which was followed by "this is our get-along harem protagonist" but it's mort and rob idk at the end of godblight they got yeeted my next thought was magical girl anime he's the dark magical girl's mascot creature he is having friendship! just hdu call him and the magical girl friends

typhon plotting out how to ambush mortarion with a hug

uhhhhhh

typhon: yeahhhh better not bring up the Fallen honestly typhon feels like one of the most intelligent characters in the series! ….huh why weren't the dark angels at Terra

dude and then typhon internally cackles evilly like a kids show villain everything is going according to keikaku does your brain on nurgle turn you into snidely whiplash?

Mortarion what the heck

normal behaviour to go along with the poison drinking or breathing in the chemicals and breathing in the chemicals- and breathing in the okay i'll stop

literally everyone on the ship is choking but typhon that was fast owo flashback time

okay so his evil dad (the first one) sent him out with golems to fight other golem things from other evil overlords as a test of some kind this is just his entire life, huh

oh lovely like wow the only reason mortarion's alive is that he's a primarch the abuse is kind of getting to ridiculous angst-fic levels and yet the way it's written is genuinely compelling? probably because he's not actually a normal human so it is survivable and not ridiculous but it is kind of walking on that line thrown to starving dogs when he was a toddler like

this really is his entire life huh

annnnd also Necare experimented on him with poison what next did necare give him a dog and then kill the dog in front of him we're starting to get into bathos here

the last bit of this scene is, yeahh

a bit. on the overwrought side.

The book is tap dancing on the line which is to be honest, making me sad i really want this to be good :/

if it's going to go all the way into goofy, i want it to go all the way so i can mock it if it's going to be half hard hitting and half goofy it feels like im pulling back to punch a small child this book also unfortunately has some kind of subplot on earth with a bunch of rando characters and also, unfortunately, Garro

oh this is i guess foreshadowing for what's going to happen to the death guard? so garro's friend got hit by an evil knife and unlike guilliman he did not have plot armour

so garro is working with a bunch of other dudes who defected from the traitor legions secretly working for malcador oh, and a psyker ultramarine

oh wait psyker ultramarine met garro on calth??? what??? how did he get to calth and back what is a timeline (i should be fair and stop banging on about this since i have not actually read the relevant books. at least I assume this has to be covered in a book I didn't read)

oh yeah sure let's undress the catatonic chained up woman oh she's a sister of silence my beloved

okay so context she had her name and serial number tattooed under her collarbone so. i guess that was more important??? apparently??? they did not take off the chains they just snapped them off of the wall and basically pushed her to start walking you couldn't just. pick her up??? wouldn't that be faster?? okay this was funny malcador sends an illusion of himself across the planet

I'm rolling my eyes

this is the guy running the imperium

does he have nothing better to do also why give them the job in the first place if he's not going to trust them not to "creatively reinterpret" his commands

oh we're back with Teen Mort and he keeps a diary ohhh a bunch of humans are rebelling and attacking

oh it's Teen Typhon meeting Teen Mort

psychic powers time

this is not the time to get angsty also he is kind of a grimdark rapunzel huh

back in the present and apparently mort broods a lot in his room and if you interrupt him he yells at you because of course he does you're interrupting his linkin park listening bluejay note: i love linkin park so i am allowed to make this joke annnd typhon is setting up the navigators on the ship to take the blame oh he just killed them all that was fast and now they're all trapped blind in the warp and typhon is being obviously evil and according to keikaku which is visible to everyone but Mort well tbf to Mort, he's very angry at Typhon for killing the navigators so he's probably missing stuff

typhon: this lifeboat is full of leeches just trust me typhon: throws it overboard

back in the past, Mort successfully rescues the spunky teens but his dad is coming so he tells them to get out while they can and then has his disney princess song realization that it's time to stand up for himself and he'd do it all again! and face his dad! and dieeeee okay the last bit isn't disney princess …ah

ah mort: wait, that's an option??? rip his hair is getting in his eyes i hate when that happens

okay this is a cheesy line but it's working here

okay i made the joke before about mortarion being the kind of guy who likes to stand on cliffs/balcony edges and look down but i DIDNT KNOW IT WAS LITERALY DONT STARE INTO THE WARP YOU IDIOT

i. oh boy we get to see an emperor-mort interaction

i think the emperor is….actually trying here? but what the emperor is trying to say here is not what mort took from it

#warhammer 40k #bluejay reads warhammer

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fullonfandomindulgence · 1 year

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hey so mezato attributes it to a lack of empathy or smth which i wont discount but do u think maybe… tsubomi is just having a rough time of it……

[id: a gif of s3e9 of mob psycho 100. the camera tracks tsubomi and her friends in profile as they walk. theyre smiling and talking as they look at one another, but when her friends face forward tsubomi slows down and the smile falls from her face. her eyelids lower and her head tilts forward a fraction. end id]

idk this clip just makes me sad. she looks so unhappy. in his modest success mob has found a lot of happiness and community while in her excellence tsubomi seems alone.

the way one makes characters interesting is he gives them a contradiction. tsubomis contradiction is that sometimes shes the most independent strong-headed person ever and sometimes shes terrified of being seen covered in snot & feels like she has to perform happiness/interest, like right here. that reads to me like someone who does have a lot of strong feelings but who is also under a lot of pressure. so shes the valedictorian but gets her licks in where she can, filming terror attacks, punching a guy tryna push weird candy, "Do I really have to say the reason?"

mannn. look at her. ive been that person. you dont have to be a misanthrope to feel alienated from the people around you. i bet she liked getting a call from an old friend. uggggghh fam i cannot be relating this much to this minor of a character based on this thin an analysis but here we are. sad tsubomi hour

#mob psycho 100 #mp100 #mp100 meta #tsubomi takane #i know she didnt punch that guy #but maybe she wanted to #aaaand post

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kumeko · 4 months

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A/N: For @gcsfanzine ! I love the antics these three get into, with Selina forced into the responsible role because she’s the only one of the three with some conscience.

…

Ivy was sick. Selina took a moment to contemplate the thought, to fully savour the situation she found herself in. Poison Ivy, Pamela Isley, one-woman army and stone-cold bitch, was sick. Sick enough to need help, to ask for help.

And the well-known misanthrope needed Selina’s help.

It was hard enough to think about, let alone believe. Yet, Selina couldn’t doubt the evidence in front of her. Sprawled across Harley’s plush, king-sized mattress, an extremely grumpy Ivy glared at the ceiling. Her fingers tapped the blankets ceaselessly, her jaw clenched so hard Selina could have broken walnuts against it. She looked like a cantankerous alley cat. She also looked entirely out of place buried amongst Harley’s infinite plushies.

How Harley had managed to force Ivy into her bedroom, Selina had no idea. The whole place looked like the residence of a punk princess, a strange hybrid of cute frills and black leather. Neither of the two vibes fit Ivy and put together they just looked even more garish.

“Ahh.” Ivy breathed out harshly before forcing herself up into a seated position. Her red hair clung to her sticky skin, giving her an oddly deflated appearance. There was a reddish tint to her green skin. All in all, she looked like a sick person. A very cranky sick person. “I’m leaving.”

Selina snorted inelegantly. There was the Ivy she knew and tolerated. From across the room, she gestured at the foot of the bed and raised a brow. “How? You broke your leg. And you have a fever.”

Ivy fisted her hand and hit the mattress. A shark plushie fell off the bed. “The fucking hyenas broke it.” Her hair had a life of its own and rose, giving her a lion-like mane. Maybe it sensed its mistress’s rage. “I’ll kill them.”

“You’d be doing me a favour.” Selina wrinkled her nose as she thought of those mangy mutts. The number of times she’d almost lost a cat to them—she should have kicked them out months ago.

“Hey!” Harley growled as she entered the room holding a tray laden with food. She was dressed as a sexy nurse, though that didn’t make her glare any less intimidating as she stomped her foot. “Stop being mean to my babies!”

Selina rubbed her forehead. By now, she should be used to Harley’s level of chaos and nonsense, but somehow the woman continued to surprise her. At least the soup looked decent. “Did you really need the outfit?”

Holding the tray in one hand, Harley arched her back and jutted her hip as she mimicked a pin up poster. “Of course! It’s part of the care package!” She blew a kiss to Ivy. “Don’t you just love it?”

Not caring a wit about the fanservice, Ivy’s expression grew colder than the tundra. “Pick one of them to die or they all will.”

“Neither!” Harley carefully set the soup down on her side table before turning to Ivy. She bent forward and poked her sick friend on the cheek. “I’ll take good care of you in exchange.”

“You’d have to do that anyways!” Ivy swatted her hand away, her scowl only increasing in intensity. “This happened because of you.”

“She has a point, you know.” Selina crossed her arms and leaned against the wall, more than content to just watch the show instead of participating. “We had a deal. Your hyenas are supposed to stay in the basement.”

“They do!” Harley pouted, puffing her cheeks as she glanced up at Selina. “I was only taking them out for a walkie.”

If Harley intended for that to be reassuring, it was the exact opposite. Selina groaned and closed her eyes. There were enough eyes on their shared residence without the hyenas as is. “Oh, so I should expect more missing pet flyers? These things are a nuisance.”

“They’re not things, they’re family.” Between the pig-tails and the pout, Harley was akin to a sulking toddler. Sometimes Selina couldn’t believe that she had a degree and keen intuition. “They just get hungry sometimes but they know better than to mess with you. Or your cats.”

“Oh, and is that why they tackled me?” Ivy asked, her smile as sharp as a razor blade at the slight. “Food? They think I’m weak?”

“They just bumped into you! It’s not their fault you were holding poison. And it didn’t just splash on you, it hit them!” Harley huffed, crossing her arms. She turned up her nose. “Maybe you should be more careful.”

Ivy’s voice dropped dangerously low. “Are you blaming me?”

Selina could practically feel the vines crawling through the pipes and concrete. She groaned. “Don’t break the place, I just finished paying for it.”

“My plants are hungry.” Ivy pushed her hair out of her face, steeling herself as she tried to get up. “Maybe I should give them a snack.”

Harley grabbed her shoulders and firmly pushed her down. “You’re still sick and stop saying that!”

At this rate, Selina was going to get a headache. Or become homeless. It was time to step in. Slowly, she approached the struggling pair. “Harley.” She rested her hand on her shoulder, squeezing it tightly. Just enough that the threat was there. “Next time, the hyenas are gone.”

Harley glanced at her, then looked away. “Fineeee.”

“Great.” Selina turned to Ivy and tried not to smirk. Maybe she should take a picture later, for blackmail. “It’s too late to go back to your room, just live with it.”

Ivy’s frown deepened, as though she heard Selina’s thoughts. “I—” she protested.

Harley cut her off. “If you want to leave, I have to feed you.”

“Huh?” Flabbergasted, Ivy stared at her.

Harley picked up a spoon. She smiled deviously. “Should I pretend this is a train? Or maybe a bee coming to pollinate?”

“…fuck you.” Ivy snatched the spoon.

“Great, we have a deal! I’ll go get a cooling pack.” Harley sprang to her feet. Blowing another kiss, she spun on her heel and skipped out of the room. “Just you wait, I have great patient care.”

“Fifty bucks says she kills you,” Selina said the second Harley disappeared.

“It’s not a bet if we’re both on the same side.” Ivy tucked her hair behind her ear and took a careful sip of the soup. “Huh, not bad.”

“So she really can cook.” Selina shook her head. Was it something Harley had picked up after she’d changed, or was it something a lonely psychiatrist had learned after pulling long shifts? “It’s not poisoned?”

“Probably not.” Ivy took another spoonful. She closed her eyes as she swallowed, as though absorbing information on it. Maybe she could; Selina never fully understood her meta abilities with plants and their poisons. “It’s fine.”

“Maybe I should bet she’ll actually heal you.” Selina reached forward, pressing a hand to Ivy’s neck. “Your fever doesn’t seem that high and if you can talk and eat like that, I guess that other poison didn’t actually hurt you that much.”

Ivy stiffened under her touch and Selina recoiled. They stared at each other for a long moment before Selina looked away. “Force of habit,” she muttered in lieu of an apology.

“Habit?” Ivy lightly touched her neck.

“That…it’s an old memory.” Selina clenched her hand. A very old memory. It had been years since she’d let herself think of her childhood on the streets, even longer since she let herself think of Maggie and Holly and how they used to be.

Ivy studied her before changing the topic. It was oddly tactful of her. “The poison was just a paralysis.”

“But you can move?”

“Barely.” Ivy flopped back on the bed, her hair spreading around her. “I doubt I could actually make it back to my room.”

“And here you were trying to act so strong.” Selina snickered. Maybe she should have let Ivy try, if only to see her flop off the bed and stumble down the hall. “I’ll get you a Tylenol.”

Ivy scowled. “I don’t need any medicine. It’s not like they work on me anyways.”

“That’s why you don’t turn your blood into a pharmacy cocktail,” Selina muttered, rolling her eyes. “Then I’ll just grab one for myself. If I have to keep dealing with your weird foreplay, I’ll need it.”

As she left, she dodged the plush piranha Ivy hurled. “You really are doing better,” Selina teased before disappearing down the hall.

In the distance, she could hear several small thuds as Harley got her care supplies. Clearly, she was going after more than just a cooling pack, and Selina was both scared and curious to find out what it was. Either way, she’d have to especially make sure she didn’t get sick after this. With Ivy’s vindictive personality, Selina would suffer two-fold in Harley’s hands.

A soft nudge shook her out of her stupor. Selina peeked down to find Alexander, a calico tom, brushing against her as she walked. She chuckled, reaching down to give him a good head rub before entering her bedroom.

Perhaps it was because she had worn a costume for years now, whether it was for good or evil, but Selina had a well-stocked medicine cabinet that could rival a drug store. Amidst ordinary painkillers and bandages, there were black market drugs to cover any niche injury. Selina’s finger brushed against each bottle as she checked for more over-the-counter solution.

The first one on the second row froze her.

With shaky fingers, she pulled it out and stared at it. A baby’s cough medicine. Grape flavoured. Only a third of it used. The bottle was brown.

Selina should have tossed it long ago. She should toss it now.

She wasn’t quite ready to let go of that dream, of her daughter returning home.

Pressing her forehead against the cabinet, Selina sighed. Ivy wasn’t the only one vulnerable tonight, it seemed. This wasn’t the time or place for these thoughts. They certainly weren’t the right people to have these thoughts around. Even now, Harley and Ivy still tried to pry into her relationship with Gotham’s protectors, hoping to extract the valuable secret identities she carefully guarded.

Who knew what they’d do if they found out about her daughter or her sister or any of the people Selina had stepped on to get to where she was now?

“This is stupid,” Selina muttered to herself as she returned to Harley’s room. She’d just make sure Ivy was alive, that Harley wasn’t up to no good, and then she’d retire for the day. It had been a trying couple of hours. She’d earned a rest.

“Are you seriously staying all night?” Ivy snarled.

A rest she was definitely not going to get. Selina braced herself as she entered Harley’s room. As expected, Ivy was still lying on the bed, though now with a neon blue ice-pack on her forehead. Her hands kept reaching it, trying to tear it off, but Harley kept swatting them back down.

Harley sniffed. “I have to, you’re too stubborn to heal up otherwise.”

The surprise was Harley. As usual. Perched on the bed right next to Ivy, she wrapped an arm around Ivy’s shoulders to hold her in place. The bowl of soup next to her was half-finished, so Selina didn’t have to worry if Ivy would starve tonight. On Ivy’s knees, a laptop perched precariously.

Noticing her return, Harley waved. “You’re back!”

“I thought I should keep the house in one piece,” Selina drawled, glancing at Ivy. “Ivy too, I guess.”

“Like you’d last ten minutes with just her,” Ivy scoffed, not buying the bluff.

“We’re watching a movie,” Harley interrupted, grinning. “Wanna join?”

“I…” Selina pursed her lips, her excuse on the tip of her tongue.

“Please?” Harley begged, batting her eyes. “With a cherry on top.”

“If you leave me alone with her, I’ll kill you.” Ivy crossed her arms as she leaned back, accepting her fate. “Sit on the bed but don’t get too comfortable. The second it’s done, you’re both out.”

“Comfortable?” Selina laughed, slipping into the empty space. “Like a cactus like you would let me.”

She didn’t need the reminder. She already knew better. The moment Selina got comfortable with them, the moment she spilled her secrets, these quiet moments would come to an end.

And she wasn’t sure if she was ready for that.

#gotham city sirens #selina kyle #poison ivy #harley quinn #harlivy #harleen quinzel #pamela isley #catwoman #dc comics #fanfic

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tokoyamisstuff · 10 months

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Sugar Shock Ch. 3

Hotaru Haganezuka x GN! Reader

Based on this comic by @yuki2sksksk.

Summary: No one - including Haganezuka himself - believed that he would ever get married, let alone be interested in it at all...

...that was until he met you, at least.

[Last Chapter] - [Next Chapter]

Warnings: Mentions of Hotaru's past, but nothing severe.

Words: 1538

"Hey, have you fallen in love with me yet?"

That was the question Haganezuka had asked you for three months now, ever since you had explained to him that you needed to like him first before thinking about something like marriage.

"Um...no." Wow. He really has no shame in asking you this so bluntly, huh?

"Well then hurry up."

You rose a scolding eyebrow at the man sitting an appropriate distance away from you, deciding to not further comment on his stubborn demand.

After all, what may seem like immature or selfish behavior on first glance was most of the time just the result of a simple mind.

With the many times that you have spent around him in order to get to know him better, you figured that Haganezuka was a rather impatient man in general - but willing to wait for you.

To be perfectly honest, since you have started 'dating', if one could call it that way, you came to adore many things about him. Of course he may be a blockhead, emotionally stunted and rather difficult to deal with at times - but that also made him the most honest person you had ever encountered.

Actually, if one would look behind this facade, they would quickly find out that there's much more behind the misanthropic swordsmith Haganezuka than most would think.

The two of you were currently sitting on a bench in front of his workshop, catching the last rays of sunlight after closing your shop early to enjoy the weather today.

Haganezuka however wasn't even remotely done for the day, so you needed to lure him out of his workshop with his favourite candy. Often he would work until way past sunset, if not even through the whole night if he was particulary concentrated.

His workshop was also his home at the same time, if one could call it that way. Well, it had a bed and all, but only the most basic necessities. So you had decided to bring some decoration from time to time, a candle here, some flowers there, maybe a picture at your next visit.

And, fitting for someone like him, the hut was also located way outside of the main city in the middle of the forrest. At least that would spare you annoying questions of prying townsfolk. Gossip was the only thing keeping a small, secluded community like that alive, after all.

But as far as you knew, only Kanamori - the one person you would consider actually liking instead of just enduring Haganezuka - had a clue about what was going on between the two of you. Luckily he knew better than to provoke his friend, so he kept quiet until now and narrowed his teasing down to giving you a thumbs up here and there.

You just knew that he couldn't wait to force you into a double date with him and his wife...

Not that anyone else would believe Haganezuka to actually be that involved with anyone, let alone romantically. Even through all the months he had been pining on you, people assumed he was just staring because you were the one supplying him with his beloved sweets.

Come to think of it...

"Hey, how come that you always only eat mitarashi dango? It's my favourite too, but-"

"It reminds me of my parents."

Sometimes it was hard to decipher his true emotions, not only because of the mask but also due to his voice. There was always a subtle anger boiling in it's tone, together with a sadness you couldn't quite decipher.

"But they're alive, aren't they?" You knew better than to say that out aloud, but as if he could hear your thoughts he explained himself. "They abandoned me because of my bad temper, but sometimes they'd visit me at the old man's house."

Oh.

You were only in town for a few years, but you knew that Haganezuka was mainly raised by chief Tecchikawahara ever since he was two years old.

What you didn't know however was the cruel reason behind it...

"Every time they came, they'd gift me some dango to ease their guilt I guess. I'd ask them when I can come home to live with them again, promised to be good from now on...but they always went without me as quickly as they came."

Haganezuka sat crouched and facing the ground, as if buried in deep thought - or rather as if the weight of his past was still pushing him down. "My tantrums got worse with each of their visits, until they stopped coming completely. I know they're actually close by, I could reach out to them, but...we're still on no speaking terms."

You remained silent until he looked up to search your face, nodding softly in response to signal him you were there, and you were listening.

Haganezuka eyed your reaction closely, not being fond of letting someone so close to his core.

"Well, I know I ain't easy to deal with, but I was their child." His hands were folded in his lap, trembling slightly as he spoke.

But then he remembered what happened to your family - they're not here anymore. You probably held them very dearly, and there he was talking only about himself.

"Ah, who cares. I'm sorry, I shouldn't be talking about something like that in front of you, it's disrespectful-"

"No, it's alright" you reassured him, shuffling closer until you were in range to put a hand on his back. "That might sound wrong, but I hope you understand that I'm glad you told me all of this, Haganezuka."

A shiver went down his spine at the sensation of your touch. He was close to push you away, say he doesn't need any sympathy.

But deep down he knew: It was honest affection.

Overwhelmed by this unfamiliar tenderness, he tried his best not to flinch, yet couldn't make himself look at you either. All he managed to wring out at that moment was "...at least call me by my name."

And like that, all the former tension had disappeared into thin air.

His name? Hotaru? Like the firefly, how cute...

"Hah, he probably gets all sulky if I say it sounds cute" you thought, almost unable to contain your excitement.

You put a hand in front of your mouth, only barely able to hide the happy smirk on your face - yet the way your eyes brightened gave it away. "H-Hotaru..."

"..." Only rarely Haganezuka thought about social norms, but right now he was once again damn grateful for having to wear this mask in public, so you wouldn't see how much this bewildered him.

Indeed, he hated his name - but hearing it in your voice made it sound pretty somehow.

"I changed my mind, don't call me that...yet." He could get used to hearing it more often, though, as soon as he manages to not lose his cool through such little things.

You harrumphed at his statement. This guy...well, nevermind. You had heared that he doesn't like how cute it sounds, so you shouldn't take it personally.

"Ah, I'm too full already..." Rubbing your aching belly, you thought that maybe you should cut back on snacking your own sweets so often. "Hey, Haganezuka, do you want the rest? You can also finish mine as well if you like."

As soon as you had spoken those words, the man would leap to your side, shoving his mask to the side before eating the dango right from your hand.

Now it has been his turn to make you flabbergasted, huh?

"Thanks" he said plainly in between content munches, still having a grip around your wrist in whose hand you were holding the dango stick as if it was nothing.

Most likely, like so often, he doesn't even understand the consequences of his actions at all...

Your eyes were still widened as you scanned his face, realizing just how your heart had skipped a beat or two that exact moment.

Was that was attraction feels like?

Overall, Haganezuka is a complicated yet very interesting person. There's a lot to find endearing about his behavior if you just search at the right places, and be willing to accept his oddities.

Sometimes you were torn between wanting to slap him or just go right for a kiss - not that you'd already admit that to him.

At least you had to admit that for you, it seemed he was on his best behavior. He was also reliable, hardworking, and somewhere deep down really gentle and kind.

And you couldn't deny you were surely enjoying being around him.

It just seemed his upbringing had made him become wary of others, as no one ever taught him to actually deal with certain situations. So he was toning down his own intense emotions, deeming them wrong and unloveable, suppressing them until they'd break through as a full blown tantrum.

Ultimatively, it was right then that you decided he was worth to proceed marrying him eventually - you just needed to be absolutely sure to have fallen in love with him, though.

After all, you were also completely new at that topic.

Better make it quick then.

#haganezuka hotaru #haganezuka / reader #haganezuka / you #hotaru haganezuka #self insert #writing #fanfiction #demon slayer #kimetsu no yaiba

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chumpovodir · 3 months

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Man I have so many Thoughts about Hector and Julia

Like. In a vacuum, they'd be cute together, right? Hector is kind and considerate to her. Julia is a little irriverent, but also cares about him and helps him through his journey. They can relate to each other, as outcasts, as people who knew Isaac, as people who have lost a dear one.

But man everything else around them ensures that a hypothetical relationship between them would be fucked up lmao. Hector just went on a rampage to avenge her recently dead lover - he's so dedicated and devoted, can he truly move on so easily? Julia just so happens to look like her - would Hector see her as her, or as a mockery of Rosaly? She's also Isaac's sister, with all that it entails. And then there's what Hector is for Julia...

The thing is, can he be considered Isaac's killer? That's ambiguous. What killed Isaac: being slashed by Hector's sword while his body was inhabited by Dracula's soul, or the ritual itself? I suspect Isaac died the moment Death put Dracula's soul inside him. If that's the case, Hector is not the direct cause of Isaac's death. But... Julia asked Hector to please save Isaac, and only kill him if there was no other choice. Hector didn't care. He did sympathize with her sadness, but then the cursed thoughts took hold of him again, and he kept insisting that Isaac had to die by his hand. He never tried to take a pacifist option, even after he realized that with his power he could nullify the Curse. By the time he put two and two together, Isaac's fate was already sealed.

So imagine from Julia's perspective. Hector reassures her that only he can "dispel the vile curse": this might make her hope that Isaac could be saved. An hour or so later, she sees his corpse abandoned on the floor, and Hector ready to die under the crumbling castle. He managed to save himself and Wallachia, but not her big brother.

I do believe part of her, in her grief, would blame Hector for not doing enough. But she would never express it, because if there's one thing that's certain about Julia, is that she represses a lot.

I think they'd stay friends. They'd be able to joke around and visit each other and maybe even open up to each other. But the ghosts of Rosaly and Isaac would always hang between them. Yes, it's complicated, and messy, and bittersweet.

(and hey, the ending of the game only shows Hector going to live with her. Nothing says they'd have to be together lol. Or that Hector won't be able to find himself a new arrangement later on.)

thoughts so Huge™ tumblr wouldn't dare show me this ask notification 'til i got back on desktop lmao

The thing is, can he be considered Isaac's killer? That's ambiguous

it's funny because even if Hector did spare Isaac, he really had no reason to after making that mistake the first time, in PtR, which arguably kicks off the whole chain of events in the first place

I do believe part of her, in her grief, would blame Hector for not doing enough. But she would never express it, because if there's one thing that's certain about Julia, is that she represses a lot.

oh, absolutely. she'd know it wouldn't be fair to begrudge Hector after putting his life on the line, doing Trevor's job for him, and basically saving the entirety of Wallachia by breaking the curse, all the while suffering from his own loss. what are her own personal desires to see her only living relative spared, compared to acting for the greater good, right? i see her as the kind of person that never complains about her lot in life, which is how she managed to survive living on the fringes of society without growing a misanthropic bone about it like Isaac did.

and yeah, honestly it's just such a disservice to relegate her to the new love interest. rosaly at least got fleshed out as her own person in both the mangas, but we don't get much insight to julia's character or how she feels about everything that went down. to make matters worse, it seems like the fanbase doesn't see much value in her so there's so little, if any, fanworks that feature her POV

#castlevaniaposting

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tobiasdrake · 24 days

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Yuki Spinoff, Episode 2: Joy to the World

Episode 3 is titled "Haruhi Suzumiya!!" so Yuki better enjoy her Christmas Party 'cause her life's about to go dramatically downhill.

Gonna have to make this one two posts 'cause I have a lot to say about this episode.

I noticed this in the first episode but I love the decision to change Yuki from a strict book-reader to also being a gamer. It does demonstrate the change in times, as Melancholy was released in 2006 while Disappearance of Yuki Nagato is from 2015, and gaming has become more proliferated over time.

But, more importantly, it also demonstrates the change in Yuki. Yuki Prime's never gone into detail about why she reads, but it's a fair assumption that she does it for the same reason most of us consume media: A desire to absorb information, experiences, and emotions through characters and situations.

Media exists in conversation with culture. By consuming media, Yuki is participating in culture. You could assume that she's only doing it to gather information, being a robot, but Yuki specifically reads fiction. She's looking for the same things everybody else is.

However, her media of choice is strictly text. She doesn't have a TV or video games or anything. She consumes experiences and emotions through text. Because Yuki herself is text. She can't watch a neutral expression on a screen slowly grow into a smile and immediately relate and understand what that means. She's more comfortable with a narrative structure that explains outright in words what the characters are feeling and going through. That's what Yuki can understand.

But this new Yuki, her ideal escapist form of Yuki with a full three-dimensional range of emotions, isn't limited in the same way. She shares Yuki Prime's love of media, shares her fascination with living vicariously through characters. But she can indulge her interests in ways the original could not, because she knows what it feels like to smile and enjoy things, to get excited by a rare drop, or to grieve a beloved character.

She is Yuki Unchained.

Ryoko has the perfect pre-"I hope you got your affairs in order because CHILD NOBODY IS GOING TO SEE YOU ALIVE AGAIN" Pleasant Mom Smile.

I wonder if Ryoko has parents? Yuki lives alone because Yuki Prime lives alone, because she's a space robot. But Escapist Yuki isn't a space robot, so the fact that she has no parents is simply a consequence of living situation transference she can't comprehend.

By the same logic, Ryoko should be a space robot. But Ryoko did have parents on paper. They weren't real and nobody ever saw them, but they did legally exist. "Her dad" even called the school when she "moved to Canada".

So I wonder what her living situation is here? Does she live alone like Yuki? Did this reality manifest real parents for her? Did it manifest real parents but they're out-of-country? Is she knowingly deceiving people into thinking she has parents?

What is your parental situation, Ryoko?

Ignoring the Skip Intro button from the shady piracy website providing my screenshots, can we all take a moment to acknowledge how great my character looks in this show that's not about her?

Black monochrome is a fantastic look for Haruhi because it's a color-scheme that matches her personality. Haruhi's always exuded Mean Girl Energy, pretty much from the moment we met her. She's a weird Mean Girl but she's a violent, self-absorbed misanthrope.

In a lot of other shows, she would be the protagonist's bully.

In her own show... that's still fairly accurate, yeah. It gets weirdly romanticized but it's still more or less her and Kyon's dynamic. She's like if Hey, Arnold! actually had its title character fall in love with Helga Pataki.

And just like that, I have dated myself to a billion years old. Okay. But it's true! That's what Haruhi and Kyon remind me of.

Haruhi most commonly sports the same outfit that everyone else is wearing due to Japanese school uniformity. But, courtesy of the decision Disappearance made to put her in a different school in Yuki World, this is the first time she's had her own unique aesthetic among the main cast. Well, apart from Itsuki, but he's a devout follower anyway.

This contrast against the uniformity of the rest of the cast makes Haruhi pop. She's eye-catchingly unique among a sea of brown blazers, as befits the center of the universe (in persona, even if no longer in power or character role). And the near-all-black color scheme gives her a wicked edge to her appearance, perfectly conveying her Mean Girl status.

Basically what I'm getting at is that I don't know how Haruhi's going to be used in this show but I wish she looked like this back in the original because holy hell is that the perfect Haruhi aesthetic.

I could watch Yuki and Kyon have a fun snowball fight for twenty straight minutes. That could be all this episode is and I would be satisfied.

Look at her. Look at how happy she is. This is all she wanted when she reshaped the universe. Haruhi twisted time and space to make time travelers and space aliens and espers and sliders, but Yuki did it to make this.

Meanwhile Ryoko remains MVP of this show. This subversion of the typical "surprised character hit in the face by thing as they walk into the room" gag is beautiful and conveys the composed and professional persona of Class President Ryoko Asakura.

I love how coy the show is playing about... like... how Ryoko she is. She vaporized the cotton snowball in her hand and then releases her battle aura. It's a funny gag. But. Also. There is a deep tension inherent to this incredibly likable character, to the point that it's not clear how literally we're meant to take this.

She did not actually blast Yuki and Kyon out the window with a Kamehameha beam of pure disapproval. But maybe she could? I don't know.

And then straight to the turkey! Like that didn't happen. XD

I'm so glad Yuki got her turkey. She wanted a turkey so bad. This is her first Christmas with full emotional range and all of it was invested in getting this turkey. She put her whole psyche into it every single time she exclaimed the English word "TURKEY!" last episode.

I became very invested in Yuki getting a turkey. Now she has one. I am very satisfied right now.

Oh, Yuki. This is Melancholy tone. A little bit of selfishness is what makes the universe go 'round.

Maybe my mind's bent from too much reality-warping but this conversation feels subtextually linked to Yuki's decision to eat Haruhi, remake the universe, and resurrect Ryoko in the first place.

Like. They're literally talking about the fate of Yuki Yuki Literature Club but the vibe feels much grander. That Yuki begins the conversation speaking in her emotionless Space Robot voice gives it this... between-the-worlds tone.

Like. Remember the last episode of PMMM when Madoka, Sayaka, and Mami were eating cake in a heavenly extradimensional Mami's Apartment Reality while they discuss Madoka's wish? That's what this feels like, to me.

Literally, this scene is an actual conversation that occurred between them in Yuki's World. But symbolically, subtextually, they're talking about the decision to manifest their reality in the first place. Saving the Literature Club here is, for the characters, exactly what it sounds like; But for the audience, it stands in for creating this world.

Look at her.

Only a monster wouldn't want her to have this turkey. This is the greatest moment of her... six days of life.

#the melancholy of haruhi suzumiya #the disappearance of nagato yuki-chan #drake watches haruhi suzumiya

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goshdangronpa · 20 days

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Hey, I finally got to tumblr! :D I think I'm pretty out of touch with DR fandom, so I'm jumping at my chance to talk to a fellow partner in crime. What did you like about Irumatsu in the first place? I'm so deep into my headcanons at this point, I'd like to know how others perceive them. I love how you're writing their dynamic!

Omg heeeey :) thank you so much for your kind words about "Kaede's Rhapsody"! I'm exploring that very question through this story - if not, I would've skipped all these thousands of words and cut to the smut! I hope you enjoy that exploration in upcoming chapters ...

... and I can still answer your question here!

What drew me to them isn't deep at all. I enjoyed Kaede as a protagonist (I really needed to warm up to Shuichi lol). Then Miu Iruma swiftly became my fave char in V3, with her outrageous dialogue, huge personality, and shockingly fragile arrogance.

That's only enough to make me consider a ship. In fact, from introductions alone, I first fancied Kaede with Maki and accepted Miu x Kiibo as a given. But I've discovered that "Normal Protag and Somewhat Antagonistic Weirdo" describes nearly all my favorite ships. Both saiouma and oumota from V3, komahina in SDR2, especially tokomaru and syomaru from UDG. It's the friction that gives it spice: shipping two perfectly nice characters (such as, idk, saimatsu) isn't quite as fun as shipping two characters who bicker and clash between (or during!) wholesome cuddling (such as, idk, irumatsu!).

There's a real opposites attract thing going on, too. Kaede is clearly a prep (not derogatory) who dresses conservatively; Miu struts around in BDSM gear and features other punk elements. Kaede strives to be nice but won't suffer fools; Miu talks a lot of smack but backs down from any pushback. Kaede is selfless to the point of self-sacrifice; Miu dies after putting her own life before everyone else's.

Besides how sharply they contrast, I also like how much they have in common. Kaede and Miu are capable of empathy, but equally capable of taking elaborate measures for what they consider the greater good. They both die as a result of trying to murder someone else. They can be deeply stubborn. And heck, they're 5'8" blondes who press lots of keys.

What really makes the ship for me is how they complement each other. Miu's a bully, but Kaede consistently argues back without hesitation, challenging the self-proclaimed genius. She's no passive victim, which is so important to making this dynamic feel balanced. Even more important is that she’s not a brute about it, either. When Kaede’s done parrying insults, she takes a genuine interest in Miu and tries to react the girl beneath the gorgeous girl genius. Kaede seems to be the only character who takes pains to treat her like a person, rather than just some misanthropic weirdo.

I think during or after the fourth trial, it's said that Kiibo and Gonta are the only ones who considered her a friend. I think about that a lot, and I'm sure Kaede would've shed a tear for her. Moreover, she would've protected her before that point. And I think that one pleasant relationship could've brought out the protective side in Miu as well. These two would drive each other crazy, but they'd be there for reach other. If they don't rip each other apart first, they'd be crazy in love and crazy good together. Not to mention, fun to read about ... and write about!

#this took actual hours to write #cuz I'm intoxicated and was watching Disney's Tarzan lol #irumatsu #miu iruma #kaede akamatsu #thanks for asking! i truly adore this ship. always happy to talk about it and my story with peeps~#Kaede's Rhapsody

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