#actually got some twilight interactions here lol

[thepinklink]

Have some more Rescue Ranch AU Time and Malon :D

Malon doesn’t sleep that night. Link does, head tucked against her chest and arms wrapped around her. It isn’t necessarily the most comfortable position to fall asleep in, but that isn’t what keeps Malon awake.

She lies there, listening to the soft snoring of her husband, and she relives that moment in the kitchen, over and over again. Blood on her hands, lips still tingling from his kiss, but the rest of her body was weightless and cold as the sheer terror made its way through her veins. Her brain keeps trying to tell her that she was merely overreacting, but every time it tries she remembers that exhausted, haunted look in Link’s eyes and knows she’s right to be afraid.

She can still feel the jolt of her right foot taking a step backwards in order to support his weight as he leaned on her. She can still feel the way he was just barely keeping himself on his feet. She breathed, and she stood there, and she waited. She waited, forcing herself to stay calm. It felt like an eternity before Link finally spoke.

“I’m tired.”

His voice was soft and hoarse. Malon swallowed.

“I know, my love.” She whispered. “But there is still more to be done. Just a little bit longer, and then we’ll go to bed, okay?”

“Okay.”

He didn’t move right away, and Malon didn’t pressure him to. When he did move, it was to embrace Twilight. Their son had been standing, frozen, at the side, unsure what to do. When his father turned to him, he unfroze and wrapped his arms tightly around him. Malon smiled at the sight, and then went about cleaning the kitchen. Swiftly and quietly, the many bowls of dirty water were emptied and put in the dishwasher. The counters were washed off and disinfected, and the towels delivered to the laundry room. Around halfway through, Link attempted to help but she shooed him away, insisting he shower and change. He seemed hesitant at first, but he gave in, and Malon was even quicker with finishing her chore.

When she did, she was met with another problem: the half-dead young man still lying on her island counter. In the end, she had Twilight carry him to one of their spare rooms. They laid him in the bed there and tucked him under some extra blankets. Twilight promised to watch after him, and with that, Malon hurried back to her room.

The door to her and Link’s bedroom closed behind her with a soft click, and Malon stood there for a few seconds just to listen. She couldn’t hear anything over the shower running. She moved to sit ok the bed, waiting for her husband to get out of the shower, running through every possible scenario in her head, thinking and overthinking things she might say, feel, and hear.

Half an hour passed, and Malon got nervous. There was not a single other sound from the bathroom, and her husband was not known to take long showers. She stood up, padding silently across the room to the adjoining bathroom door. Her hand paused mere centimeters away from the surface of the door as she contemplated knocking. She ultimately decided against it—it wasn’t worth the fuss of him not hearing her over the water, or vice versa.

She opened the door and slipped inside the bathroom, looking around for her husband. Her stomach dropped into her shoes when she saw him, sitting on the floor against the wall, head in his hands.

She thought he might be asleep, and approached him warily.

“…Link?”

He flinched, and when he looked up there was the flash of a wild expression—alarmed, ready to defend himself—before it settled back into the same exhaustion from earlier. He smiled at her, but it was heavy.

“Sorry, I just…got lost in my head,” he said.

“It’s alright.” She told him. “I just worried.”

“I’ll finish showering, now,” Link scrambled to his feet, and Malon nodded.

“I’ll be in bed,” she said, stepping back towards the door, intending to give him some privacy, but he reached out and grabbed her wrist.

“No.” He squeezed her wrist, and his hand was rough and calloused, but not in the way she remembered. “Please…stay.”

She met his eyes again, and the desperation there is something she’d never seen before.

“Okay.” She promised. She took a seat on the counter while Link stripped himself of his threadbare uniform, and Malon’s heart broke all over again when she saw his body. Littered with scars, some pale and thin, healed long ago, and others newer, pinker. A few were even still scabbed.

She waited, patiently, watching him and smiling every time he looked over at her, making sure she was still there. She started singing, at some point, and she saw him visibly relax as she did, and so she kept it up until he turned off the water and silenced her with another unexpected kiss.

She smiled at him again when he broke away, as big as she could, as if that would fix that emptiness in his eyes. It didn’t, not fully, but she saw the light in them return, if only for a moment. She took the brief moment while Link was brushing his teeth and getting dressed to rinse off—she was, acter all, still covered in the blood of the injured boy, and then the couple were finally able to retire to the bed.

Link immediately wrapped her in a hug, pulling her close and breathing her in. He pressed a feather-light kiss to the nape of her neck, and then rested his head on her chest. He was so quiet and still that Malon thought he had fallen asleep after a minute, but then he spoke.

“Am I dreaming?” His voice was heavy with sleep.

“No,” Malon said, carding a hand through his hair. The word brought her to reality, too—she wasn’t dreaming. This was real, she was really holding her husband in her arms again after four grueling years. She ran her hand through his hair again simply because she good, and felt the giddiness of it rising up in her. “No, my love, you are not dreaming. Not this time.”

“Good.” Link hums. “You are like a dream, though. One I hope to never wake up from.”

Tears pricked at Malon’s eyes. Goddesses, she’d missed him.

“I love you.” She whispered.

His response was merely a vague hum in the pitches of “I love you too,” and it made Malon smile.

And she lies there, and even if she is not able to sleep right away, even if she was not in the most comfortable position, she could have—and would have, if he needed her to—laid there forever.

#linked universe #linkeduniverse #lu time #lu malon #lu twilight #actually got some twilight interactions here lol #rescue ranch au #plink writes

[arguablysomaya]

This is a bit niche but Babs and Tim interacting with each other fic recs if you have any? Or if not just young justice being insane lol

i actually don't think i've seen too much of babs & tim... i do have some insane yj tho

by @charleswaterloo

There is an enormous container ship called the Ever Given stuck in the Suez Canal. Young Justice is on the case. During their short adventure, they also: make a massive sand sculpture, enjoy some fanfiction, and unblock the Suez Canal. Not in that order. * ‘I am thinking,’ Tim said, with extreme calm, ‘that you have made something that looks like a very large penis when viewed from above.’

‘It’s a dick and balls, yeah,’ Bart said without embarrassment. ‘It’s poetic! I’m ending the journey like it started.’ * ‘Did you-’ Dick began, laughing so hard he couldn’t breathe, ‘did you really tell him to: "at least make the shaft bigger”? Bart told Wally, and he told me but I have to know if it’s true, Tim. My life depends on it.’

i've probably recc'd this before but this crackfic should be given a plaque

by UntoldDepths

Tim's got a board zoom meeting in 15 minutes at Way Too Early and nothing ready to wear. His friends are absolutely no help and probably half the reason.

young justice are thirstyyyy

by @withthekeyisking-writer

When an alien invasion falls upon the Earth, Dick loses everything he holds dear.

Until he wakes up again.

Actually a crime this fic doesn't have more recognition

by Jonaira, Kimi_f

Conner was sure of only three things. One, Tim was a vampire. Two, he maybe really liked the guy. And three, Tim unconditionally and irrevocably hated him.

Conner has never really fit in. Pulled between a life of luxury, high expectations, and neglect with Lex or anonymity, living paycheck to paycheck, and awkward distance with Clark, Conner chooses the latter. He abandons his life in sunny Hawaii, leaving him miserable and biding his time until he can move out. That is, until he meets the dazzling Wayne family, and decides to unravel their supernatural mystery. Whether the Waynes like it or not.

Twilight AU. Kind of.

I have no excuse.

by Killthespare

The League has fallen. The team is dead. All that’s left is for Dick Grayson to pick up the pieces and move forward.

Easier said than done.

AU where dick grayson has to rebuild superhero society after failsafe kills a bunch of people. CRIMINALLY UNDERRATED!!!!!!! I'M NOT JOKING, PEOPLE SHOULD BE PROSECUTED

by wearealltalesintheend

Instead of dropping out of college to join Bludhaven Police Department, Dick Grayson takes a job at Gotham's Parks and Recreation Department.

In different ways, everyone follows.

Or, Parks and Rec AU

how much drama could one park even have?

by JadedJewels

Kyle lives in New York. Well, when he’s not living on Oa. He’s also kinda sorta dating Jason Todd and the batkids want to see what he’s all about. Kyle just thinks he’s lucky Batman himself hasn’t climbed through his window.

technically not about young justice but idc I wanted to rec it so here it is

by @leaping--lizards

Teen Titans Rebirth: Damian doesn't have any friends Me: okay but how about no

or, Damian Wayne's thirteenth birthday, done right.

An entire fic of damian being like that one tt audio "you asked me to make friends, I made friends. it was a task. i complete tasks."

#i love doing theseeeee #fic rec #batfam #batfam fic rec #batfam fanfiction #dc comics #batman #batman fanfiction #batfamily #dc #dcu #shut up somaya #dc universe #yj #young justice

[corvicarum]

@paramythas asked: gimme the ship bias for La Creatura (wuya), kayn and che'nya-

technically already answered here. but. some others id like to explore:

ortho ( besties,, lil pranking pals )

jade ( platonic )

malleus ( platonic )

rook ( buggs bunny & elmer fudd fr )

jamil ( one sided crush lets go )

not a ton. im rlly... rlly picky with kayn actually.

gwen/kayn: oh... oh mythe you already know. you've got me rlly in deep on these two okay. i love the aesthetic, i love the dynamic. especially what we have going right now for hearsteel. i definitely wanna dive into main canon at some point too, because i do think kayn would enjoy her personality a lot? idk, people tend to overlook gwen a lot or misunderstand her as a goody feelsy doll. girl legit runs around with a pair of giant scissors and jokes about cutting people into bits. like?

yone/kayn: this isn't even related to heartsteel tbh. i havent dove a TON into yone's lore but i do like the feeling of the pairing. i think kayn just pairs best with characters who are as ruthless as he is. i like them in their heartsteel au too though...

zoe/kayn: if i see anyone shipping these two romantically im going to strangle someone seriously. but these two as friends? oh my GOD fuck me UP! zoe is just a goofy, cosmic little kid- she's deeply terrifying sure, but! i think she could take the edge off for kayn a bit. plus her being the new aspect of twilight? hello?? theres way more chemistry with them as besties- and even found family. you know, instead of shipping kayn romantically with a fucking child. LOL.

chenya is kinda hard to ship with ngl. he's too carefree, too loosy goosy, and really is just out here doin whatever he wants.

idia/chenya: listen. come on. this is... this is a no brainer. seriously though i do love the potential here, and not just because he's a cat. chenya, at least how i write him anyway- is so whimsical and quirky. he isn't necessarily extroverted, but he isn't a big introvert either. like, he is genuinely a cat through and through. not a beast man, not a fae-- something else. i love the idea of idia having sb who doesn't push him to go way outside his comfort zone-- but wont let him just shut himself off from the rest of the world for too long. dunno. at least with my take on him, this one is a fave.

riddle/chenya: so i could really see these two going p much any direction. i love the two of them just... interacting, regardless of the relationship. chenya has known riddle since they were kids. and a bit like trey, i like to think he knows how to push riddle without him blowing up. there is also the added factor that chenya definitely knows at least in some way, what riddle's home life is like. it's the sort of thing that would make their potential bond that much better. i could rlly go in depth on it but then i'd be here making an entire meta on it lmao.

jade/chenya: funny enough. i think jade and chenya might click really well in long term, more than you'd expect. and yeah, i could see this developing from friends, to more given the appropriate amount of time. chenya would be sooo fascinated by how weird and how deeply fucked up jade actually is. and jade likewise would be really intrigued by chenya's strange and uncanny nature... good stuff.

others i've considered but not given a ton of thought to yet:

chenya/floyd

chenya/vil

chenya/trey

#𝐌𝐈𝐒𝐂. / out of character #𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓. / kayn #𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓. / wuya #𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓. / chenya

[edwardsvirtue]

This has been picking my squishy little thought organ.

If Jalice had a kid, what are some hypothetical gifts it could have?

I could see it having the gift of giving hallucinations.

(that previous ANON got me thinking, clearly)

Because of his emotional ability--> making them believable. [Fool the emotions all else will follow.] Her visions are quite sporadic at times. ---> crafting the mental space devoted to that.

Environmental Factors---> Bella & her daughter can project, and I think environmental factors will give the gift a push to be able to be casted. INSTEAD of actually just ending up with hyperaphantasia.

Alice & Bella are besties, so they'll spend a considerable amount of time together interacting. So, I think the block Renesme has on the visions will be a giant factor too.

Despite Bella and Alice just not being close it will happen anyway. Cause there's nowhere realistically for her to go.

She's stuck and Alice probably isn't going to get a vision going oh, now is the right time to leave.

Even if you could argue oh, they'll never fight. Most likely right unless we wanna go even more Au... {Which I am 100% ok with}

But I think Alice's slight harboring of resentment for Renesme for blocking her visions will be the key in the lock for this to all work out right.

She isn't going to stop blocking them. Alice already has had time to get over her gift dependency so much but like she won't do that.

Jasper's gift can't be blocked by a shield, but I imagine he's a little immune to Renesme's gift. (Realistically not...? But it's a silly little Tumblr post I don't want to think about the power scale too hard and implode.)

I was hoping you could pick up where I left off about how things realistically work in Twilight.

Besides the whole vampires have a kid despite one being infertile.

But I think this would be a hell-on-wheels problem. Cause while Jasper I'd argue! Has a more moral conscious (at least in the ways we see it.) than Alice. But they're both pretty grey.

Which means they're both pretty ruthless. Like Bella and Edward are for their child.

All i know is this offspring would have to be so lucky to not be snatched by the Volturi.

I think this kid would fare better than Renesme in the short and long term. Even if they were both hybrids. This kid would have parents that would in my opinion actually teach it more.

I think Bella and Edward don't teach Renesme. much.

I think Jasper would make sure his kid had the skills should they be needed to be used. And Alice would support this or just let it happen. I think he's a more active parent than her but that's 100% different bullshit Au type of discussion and I just needed to drop this meta off to blogs for their thoughts.

I am driving myself crazy. I would like to sleep.

lol anon there's a lot to unpack here, and I don't generally have many jalice thoughts, but I dig your energy, so here's what I'm thinking:

imo alice and jasper would make HORRENDOUS parents, and I say that lovingly. they just embody the roles of aunt & uncle too perfectly. alice is the aunt who doesn't know how to relate to children, so she over-compensates by spending an inappropriate amount of money on clothes and toys. and jasper is the uncle who you're low-key scared to talk to because you're always hearing the other grown ups vaguely whispering about his "troubled past" and you're not sure if you really want to know what that's all about.

that being said, I'm sure their potential spawn would be loved and cared for and protected (and yeah, probably very gifted in some way). but their whole family dynamic would be absolutely unhinged.

#ask #to be clear edward&bella are also NOT good parents #vampires shouldn't reproduce tbh

[nonokoko13]

SXF Chapter 67.1

This chapter wasn't that big but you know how much I ramble so let's get into it.

Obviously, spoilers from the manga below

It starts with Anya at school, trying to get the oh so wanted cake she craves. She doesn't get a second thought when she sees the chance to go to Damian's house and fight the last boss; which lead to really sad moment where once again we see how much his parents care about him.

Despite its funny ending it still hurts how he's not that far of the truth. He doesn't know why, but he's right that she only goes to him to get something, and as much that I love Anya that's a pet peeve I dislike about their relationship, which is only one-sided when it comes to actually wanting to get along.

I won't say anything about her lack of understanding others feelings because she's still a kid (and may be younger than her peers) but I hope she improves with time. Tbh as for now I wouldn't like that Anya gets closer to him or his family nor I think she deserves to go to his house like other comments pray, because she's far to actually care for Damian or try to genuinely befriend him and I would feel bad for him if it goes that way.

Next we move to Twilight and Nightfall in their front job dealing with some jealous guy. Seems to be played for the laughs until the twist at the end, which pretty much indicate what is going to happen in the next chapter. I hope we finally see Yuri interacting with Fiona; shipping aside, I want to know if they could get along because of their mutual goal to destroy the Forgers marriage or they'll end up disliking each other once they know how poorly the other think of Loid/Yor.

The director motivation to get rid of Loud because he gets no damsels is stupid and petty, yes. But let's not forget that during periods of the history where people got executed by less neighbors will accuse each other of being a traitor for spite. It's not unrealistic or unusual that someone will call the police without proof just because they are jealous of someone. And despite I think this guy is a jerk I have to give him the point that being good-looking do change the way other treat you

Personally I have never been given favoritism by my looks, but I know it's foolish to think that doesn't affect the view others have of ourselves when interacting with us. Also, despite being the best spy Twilight fails in not drawing attention to himself. This is a comedy and it doesn't need to be realistic, I know, but according to stories and interviews done to former spies those who are far too atractive and stand out are less likely to be the best within the spy world, may not even get into it.

A fun fact about that it's that most spies are people, according to experts on it, average in looks and forgettable in pretty much every aspect. Even if you're not one it makes much sense than a James Bond like guy: irl being a spy is essentially about gathering information without being noticed and avoid fights because it attracts attention. Take Daybreak, or Dominik: they may not be spies (or be good at it in Daybreak's case), but they definitely fit for the job by not being a extreme or another in terms of appearance. Although Twilight would fail mostly because he tries to do things in an average, discreet way and ends up excelling in likely everything he does or everywhere he goes with his act of trying to be trusted over the top.

Btw you can see an interview about this topic here.

Seriousness aside, can we talk about how Nightfall is in a thin line of being a psycho with the yandere vibes that give here?

Damn girl, chill.

Plus, best face of this chapter goes to Dr Forger for the classic "what" face so Anya's and his that I think they should get the copyright of it lol.

Now we'll have to wait till next chapter to see Yuri and how Loid handles this not-so-false accusation of his boss.

I mean, he's not wrong, but still. Poor Fiona only has got attention from a scruffy simp and a petty idiot lol.

#spy x family #sxf #anya forger #loid forger #damian desmond #agent twilight #agent nightfall #fiona frost #manga review #spoilers #chapter 67.1

[lightlycareless]

Chapter 33 - thoughts.

Hello everyone!! I'm here... again... after disappearing for like 2 weeks lol.

Allot of things happened, between my birthday, surprise visits, me getting sick, me getting sick again, and con's... yeah, I was quite busy (and good thing I postponed the next update lol am I jinxing myself tho?) but I didn't forget writing them notes!!!

I'm sorry it took a while for me to post them, but they're finally here! They're quite short since there isn't much for me to expand on this chapter :> (which you can find over here.... hehe) but I still hope you find them interesting!

Per usual, this post has spoilers so I recommend reading the chapter first, unless you want to get spoilers with no context lol. Also, this is briefly, (mainly not) proofread so I apologize for any mistakes 😭

Now, without any further ado, here are the notes!

As some chapters in the past, I had some issues figuring out what I wanted for an introduction.

I already knew what points I wanted to cover, but there are moments where I have issues connecting those points, so after a while thinking about it, I finally decided to go with the one thing I had talked about in the past, but never really show, that being: Y/N’s letters to Hinata!

Now, it goes without saying that these letters had to be treated carefully since Y/N is meant to be locked away from the world and all that stuff. So, there wasn’t much to be written in that sense, Y/N wouldn’t go ahead to literally write down all of the things she had gone through while on the estate.

Of course, that soon changed when she began to feel some kind of cathartic release while writing them, as well as a feigned sensation that she was actually speaking to Hinata.

 Going back to those letters after I was done writing them was bittersweet. After knowing all that happened all I could think of is “NO, THAT’S NOT TRUE AT ALL!!” 😭😭😭 (on the fabricated ones right) and the way that Y/N was trying so hard to act as if she was living a normal life, like she was contacting her sister as she always did because they couldn’t meet due to her job… ☹ It’s nothing but a lie, a longing for a happy life, in a happy marriage, maybe where Naoya wasn’t her husband but instead anyone else lol.

Ugh, he’s a terrible, poor excuse for a human being. I’m excited for next chapter 😊

Anyways, I added a few details I thought would fit Y/N’s personality, how she would normally “text”, for example, kaomoji’s. It might be a bit… redundant I guess, but it’s the small things that help remind me she’s just 18, super young and already having gone through all this. (Also the first letter made me think that maybe I’m being too serious/dramatic with certain conversations, you know? Like chill, that’s your sister you’re talking/writing to lol)

My favorite letter would have to be the “I hate Naoya” one, inspired by a segment found in the Twilight saga, specifically on New Moon, right after Edward leaves Bella and there’s just chapters that only October, November, that kind of stuff. At one point I was tempted to upload a chapter that only said “I hate Naoya” over and over again and call it a day 😂 (I would’ve posted the rest of the chapter immediately after, but damn … I just might do that later on)

When doing the final editing on the ao3 page, just to check how the chapter was going to look published, I was very surprised to see that segment wasn’t very long… I ended up extending a few “I hate Naoya’s” just because, but I still wasn’t satisfied, considering it was one whole page on my google doc, but I think it still got the point across lol.

From there, the other thing that I wanted to show (and the one that seems to have yall divided 🤭) is Naoaki! And how their dynamic has changed. The staff and Ranta have stated that the two (mostly Naoaki tho) had become a bit bolder with their interactions, and I wanted to show just what they were doing for them to come to that conclusion—cause we’ve seen how they be acting inside closed doors AMIRITE? AAHHAHA

This part was particularly… well, I don’t know if hard is the right word, but I was heavily debating whether to write it in or not because, (I think I stated this before) I don’t want to cross certain lines with the two just yet. This is a Naoya/Reader fic at the end of the day, and reader being with someone else that’s not of the main pairing is…. Well, idk how to say it, a trope that if not handled carefully might sour the story for me lol.

Ahhh, I still want the harem experience though 😂 I can’t seem to understand myself. We’ll see.

My initial notes portrayed Naoaki to be a bit more insistent on the… you know, implications given throughout the whole the grape feeding thing. I supposed it made sense he’d want something more since the two had been going at it for a while, however, I do not think he would’ve been that adamant after her initial rejection.

Sure, he’s been a bit more comfortable with her as days went by and there’s many things that already happened between the two to build a stronger trust, but this specific desire might be a bit too much in this context, so he respected her decision and stopped insisting.

Also, let’s be real, Y/N has too much in her mind to go through with it. She might think of it, cause she’s human at the end of the day and who doesn’t like being doted by a nice, kind and handsome person???, but all that Naoya has done to her is still taking a toll on her.

I haven’t explored much about this topic, but most sexual acts disgust her at this point—it brings her back to the moments she was absolutely miserable with him. So yeah, at least for now, we can rest knowing Naoaki and Y/N are occupied thinking of other things (for now, for now mwahahah)

From there, Mariya’s secret makes its return. It’s here that I realized this is probably the most Mariya has spoken of her relationship with anyone outside her parents (More on that later) thus… it’s only natural that someone would overhear of it eventually.

All things considered, perhaps Hitomi being the one to hear about this wasn’t as bad as literally anyone else, but it’s the emotional value of their connection that worries her!! Hitomi is very… strict when it comes to following the rules, looking up to Mariya as a role model because of such thing—she wishes to have her work ethic, her determination… And Mariya knows that. It’s why she feared telling anyone from her close coworkers to begin with.

Haruko would be somewhat ok with her having a relationship with a fellow employee, after overcoming her surprise of course, since she never, ever, imagined Mariya would break the rules lol. At the end, I imagine both sisters would be very supportive of her, just… not right away.

I find it funny how Hitomi was quick to become suspicious of Mariya as soon as Tatsuro was mentioned. It’s not the first time she’s heard her talk of a man, but rather… her use a tone that would be comparable to excitement. Now THAT’S suspicious.

But she’s unable to confront her since there really isn’t evidence of anything, it’s all in her mind right now. Also, Mariya isn’t known for being a so… yeah, still, very funny indeed. What do you think? Think she’s going to find out who Tatsuro is to Mariya? Or will that remain a secret 👀? (I don’t want Hitomi to know… I fear the reaction she’ll have :’) I actually wanted to develop more that whole scenario in this chapter, but it was getting a bit too long so I decided to postpone it ahaha)

Moving to something happier, Hitomi preparing Y/N a gift because she’s super thankful of her sweets?! Ajkajkgajkjga Her and her sister really couldn’t get any sweeter…. I want them to be happy, just go with Hinata and leave all this shit behind. 😭

Aw man, now I want to write something with all of them together, explore what kind of dynamics they would have and all that. (Well, I do have some pending one-shots… so who knows?)

Honestly these scenes are just excuses for me to live my slice-of-life, fluff fantasy in this nightmare I have written lol.

Now lastly, but not least… the mystery that plagued the last chapter… what the hell was Naoya doing the moment he briefly left Y/N on the record store? We only see him shove something in his pocket, but what is it?

Well, now it’s finally revealed… the thing he was hiding in his pocket was… a receipt! For the things that eventually got delivered to her :> Guess Naoya did pay attention to what Y/N was saying after all, although there’s another motive behind those gifts that will be revealed in the future. Oof, excited for what’s to come.

Y/N’s reaction regarding the discs was something I was the one thing I knew had to be in the chapter, if anything, all was written around that particular detail, there’s no doubt about that.

The way her reaction happened was the only way I envisioned it going down honestly 😂 blatant anger seemed to be… a bit too on the nose I guess, but if you think about it horror sometimes starts from there— So yeah, I couldn’t see her reacting any other way: Naoya has been nothing but piece of trash since they got married, and suddenly he cares for her and what she has to say? Naaahhhh.

It felt like a mockery to her, a way for him to taint whatever good memories she had of her family, so yeah. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sad that she’s unable to react any other way 😣 wishing she wouldn’t have to get emotionally exhausted all the time, but in a place where she’s constantly attacked by everyone around her, and without the appropriate guidance to deal with her emotions, a completely different environment to the one she grew in… yeah, Y/N’s doing the best she can I guess.

Y/N’s decision (or more like approval via Mariya) regarding the relocation of the discs is one we’ll see further developed immediately in the next chapter, how it will affect her relationship with Naoya, as well as what he was doing during these days they didn’t speak to one another!

I’m really excited to post the next chapter, it’s one that I’ve been literally dreaming about!! I just hope I’ll be able to deliver. Agajkgvjkagja!!!!

Anyways, these are the notes I have for this chapter! They’re quite short, since it was straightforward and settled down some points that will affect the future of the story and I don’t think there is much for me to say outside what inspired me, but if there’s something I missed out on please let me know! I’ll do the best of my ability to respond ❤️

As always, thank you so much for coming back for another update! I’m eternally grateful for all of your support 😭❤️ I hope you have a wonderful week, take care, and hope to see you soon!!!

#thought series: first it hurts—

[sevlawless]

Ok then top 5 versions of Arabella!!!

PLSKSKSBDBDNDM thank u for actually sending this ur so real <3

under the cut because this is literally insane who reuses an oc this much .. but u could also ask WHY she fits SO well in everything i stick her in

ask me my top 5 anything!

1. infamous!arabella - LIKE ?????? i've said it before on here but i genuinely do feel like arabella was meant to be in this if she fits SO WELL it's baffling and in my mind arabella has ALWAYS wanted to be a musician so ofc i would put in here yk ? she fits perfectly and i am so brainrotted about infamous and this version of arabella i feel like in some if's i have to like . tone her down see twc but for this one she can fully be what i always imagined her being and it is SO FUN to explore that 🥺

2. twc!arabella - mostly because as much as i hate it arabella wouldn't exist without twc . AND I HAD HER ROMANCING ADAM AT FIRST CAN U BELIEVE ?? it still boggles my mind as if her n morgan aren't soulmates but anyways <3 and because the bobby n arabella lore in my brain is TOO MUCH i have a whole playlist for them i have wips abt them collecting dust ! anyways she is like ... a pg 13 version of herself in twc i feel LMFAO i can't have her be as mean n funny as she is but that is her origin story sadly i owe m*shka something ig (also arabella would never in her life stay in wayhaven she would have bolted as soon as ub came into her office let's be real and she would have NEVER been promoted to detective)

3. bodycount!arabella - this was before i stuck her in litg (love island the game) and just didn't feel like making a new oc but she adapted ! if there is one thing abt arabella she will have a dead end job she does not care abt and will desperately try to get out of lol and you know she would be the BEST reality show contestant bc of how messy n funny n flirty she is! people would love to hate her and vice versa! is she coping with all the murder? hell no but we will persevere LMFAO

4. when twilight strikes!arabella - this is partly because her n rylan are a match made in heaven and i love their interactions <3 also the supernatural aspect this girl can NEVER stay away from vamps! yk she has a motorcycle also LMFAO this version of arabella is what i desperately wanted for twc but u know that shit always falls short.

5. chop shop!arabella - THIS IS ONLY IN THE LAST SLOT BC THERE R ONLY LIKE 2 CHAPTERS OUT LMFAO BUT JUST KNOW I LOVE CHOP SHOP and again .. arabella with a dead end job that she can't escape >>>>> yes she punched maz in the face. yes she tried escaping through the window. yes she got so drunk she threw up on four's shoes. she is a MESS but that is fine! this version of her is also interesting bc she actually has a good relationship with her mom and you know she can't be arabella without mommy issues but it works! and it's actually refreshing LMFAO

honorable mention to litg!arabella because that was when i REALLY started having prophetic visions abt her being a singer and working that into her lore and it's not an if so </3

#ask #anon #arabellaverse #<- YEAH . #anyways i adore her and i wish she were real </3 #jk bc she would without a doubt hate my guts and i would NAWT be able to cope LMFAO #again thank u for sending and indulging me SKKSJDBDBDKDK

[palidoozy-art]

@interstellardragon​

okay I’ll get some updates for the campaign! thank you guys for taking interest in my dumb weird post curse of strahd adventures lol. Now that I have free time there’s a lot more sketches I want to make because the party has been through a lot so far.

anyway looooong post below cut. there are some pictures though, at least.

The party’s enjoying it! One member had to take a break due to IRL concerns, but so far everyone’s been enjoying it, and they’ve definitely enjoyed being able to play their characters from a relatively young age to maturing, starting families, having kids, etc. :D It’s been fun to play through because not many campaigns go that long, you know? Currently they’re on another adventure, so they haven’t had as much domestic time!

The adventure: after the five year skip, the party got asked by an old friend (Orezana -- one of the first NPCs of the outside world to interact with them) if they could... kill the queen to end the war. The party refused, instead deciding that they were going to investigate Twilight Woods: the homeland of the dusk elves, now abandoned. The queen supposedly changed personalities when she came from there. So stands to reason something happened in there, right?

Well, they ventured inwards -- Ellerian, Kelogul, Miharu, Arialoth, and Rahadin. Ireena couldn’t join them, as she’s actually pregnant currently, and the party didn’t think they’d be gone... that long. They got ambushed by a group of dullahan that nearly killed them and sent them further into the woods. All contact with the outside is lost. They don’t know how to get out (DM Note: it’s being treated like a domain of delight/domain of dread in terms of those rules, so basically Barovia. They can’t use sending. They can’t teleport. They’re trapped).

They came across Rahadin’s birthplace, a place called Hllona, where its inhabitants were mysteriously turned to stone. There, they found a clue on how to escape from an old nursery book Rahadin’s mom used to read to him:

In the Forest, overgrown Sit the Kings upon their throne Answer them their riddles three And you may pass between the trees

From there, they traveled south, finding a set of mass graves from when Barov’s men marched through. They encountered a haunted tree that attacked them, decorated with breaking wheels (note: during the fight, the tree dragged Rahadin up into its branches and began re-enacting the same brutality enacted on him many years ago. It was fun!). Here was the tree’s token:

After the battle they decided to head back to Hllona and take a rest (note: we actually use gritty realism rules, so this was their ‘long rest’ -- i.e. 7 day vacation). Afterwards, they discovered an abandoned tower with the skeletons of two kids surrounded by cherished toys. They met a vulture-like man inside, who called himself Myslik -- and asked the group if they would take him to the city of Temir, home to the finest magical academy of the dusk elves that now sits abandoned. He mentioned how it was guarded by a sphinx, who sits in the abandoned city and refuses entry to anyone.

Note: the vulture-like man is a nagpa. Nagpa are a race of 13 cursed wizards that were fucked up by the Raven Queen. certainly this will have no ties at all into the area the party is in. :)

Anyway, they traveled to Temir. Rahadin told them some of the history of the city, and how it was the first major city to surrender to Barov as his men marched through. They found the home of the old town master, and they cracked opened his safe, only to find what was essentially a time capsule and a letter begging whoever found it to find the joy that his family would never get. They then confronted the Sphinx of Temir.

The sphinx fucked with time, sending two people forward to the future briefly, and even at one point turned Ellerian into a baby. But they killed it. Ellerian wants to take the hourglass around its neck and see if they can’t rebuild it (it was played off more like a construct than a living creature aesthetically) and possibly free it somehow. It was a sphinx enslaved to guard a dead university in an abandoned town, which he sympathized with a lot.

In any case, NEXT SESSION the party is going to enter the university. It’s an enormous dungeon lol, with over 25+ rooms that they’re going to get to explore. I’m really excited to finish it and run it for them. also the sphinx turned 3/5 party members into teens again, and nobody has access to greater restoration to fix it.

As bonus, here’s some of the maps. The first map is actually... so the way I have this set up is that the party is basically in a hex crawl. I told the party that I wouldn’t provide or draw the map for them -- they’d have to do so themselves. So far they’ve been doing a great job, lol. The drawings oontop of it are what they’ve done; everything faded beneath is the actual locations.

Here’s the map for Hllona:

And here’s the map for Temir.

It’s definitely been a lot of fun, for both players and I. My players have told me they’re really enjoying the exploration aspect, as well as the kind of survival aspect (they didn’t bring a lot of rations going in, so they’ve had to scavenge for food and manage their resources). And on my end, I’ve enjoyed running it, because... well, if it ain’t obvious: I always thought the dusk elves were extremely interesting and it’s been neat to expand on their lore. Plus the party is actually interested in little shit I put out just to solve the mystery of it. They spent about an hour theorizing over the corpses of two dead kids to think about what happened to them, and the best way to respect their bodies. I’ve had to write a lot of lore about why the place is like what it is, how the dusk elves fit into the world. And it’s been interesting playing Rahadin, a character that has spent 9 years essentially being declawed by the party to have to encounter his past self and what he did.

tl;dr: shit’s fun and im excited.

tl;dr rahadin and ireena update: they got married, they’re gonna have a kid, but Rahadin’s currently trapped in another plane of existence and ireena’s losin’ her fuckin’ mind. but nobody knows that.

#palidoozy rambles #d&d homebrew #from the mists #i gotta start tagging all this stuff with the campaign's name #long post #d&d #more art tomorrow woooooooo

[cafecourage]

hi! would it be okay to request how the boys would react to their crush kissing their cheek? maybe the link in question did something really nice or thoughtful, or the reader just wanted to kiss them. wind's would be platonic! platonic kisses are also womderful.

sorry if i didn't follow a rule or wrote something wrong!

Platonic Cheek Kiss - Part 1

I have the cafe one on a list of prompts I want to do. So I’m just going to do Isekai for now since there are things I want to establish first :). (Also these came out more romantic then I wanted lol)

Time:

The old man was a little shit. Ok maybe not little. But he still loves to be a little gremlin and you were going to absolutely fight him one of these days. It might just be today.

“Old man I swear to god I will climb you like a tree.” The threat went unnoticed as he continued to stand full height with the one item you needed out of your reach.

He was looking down at you fairly amused and not at all threatened. You honestly didn’t know what you did to deserve this. It was like he reverted back to being a snarky child again! Was it because he saw you as a sibling? Or was it because no one would believe that the great Hero of Time was an absolute gremlin of a man. “Would you now?” He was testing your patience.

Now you're not gonna actually climb Time. But you really want that item back. You tried to think of another way. You could always call Warriors. Maybe he would believe you and help. Or���. “Fine, lean down, we can do a trade.” You stepped closer gesturing for him to move to your level.

Time’s curiosity got the better of him and he complied with your wishes. Leaning down so his face was close to your own. Waiting for you to tell him a secret about some stupid thing the boys did when he wasn’t looking or something. Instead you put your hands on his shoulders and boosted yourself up to meet his cheek leaving a small kiss. “There! Give it back please.”

Time could only laugh and drop the item back into your hands. “And here I was waiting for you to confess something.”

“Well jokes on you then.” You smirked, stepping a few steps back. “I’m not gonna tell you anything!” Taking this chance you bolted away, because maybe if you were in a group he wouldn’t act like a terror.

That’s probably wishful thinking.

——————————————————————————————-

Twilight:

Well today wasn’t going as planned. Not that anything in this adventure was actually planned out. You just wanted to walk around without the chain or any of your boys trying to protect you! But now you're regretting it now. You kinda sort of maybe ran into a small group of moblins. Which would be fine!

If…

If you had your sword.

Or any weapons actually.

So running would have to do! Which is fine! Totally fine and under control!

Maybe not as much if you didn’t just trip over an overgrown root of a tree. Today really hasn't been your day. Scrambling up to at least get up, you only had time to turn around to see the moblins jump at you. Yet as soon as it jumped at you a black blur tackled it away. “Twi!” A familiar Wolf flung the moblin he had in its jaws at the other two.

You watch as the familiar blocky magic of the Twili surrounds Wolfie. He lunged forward as a hylian. Taking down the monsters that where tormenting you with ease, luckily for both of you there were no black blooded among them. Yet you couldn’t help admiring how strong the hero in front of you was.

When the dust settles with Twilight on top you can only stare up at him in awe. It was easy to forget that this was the same man you watched over during his adventure. Twilight is more confident, more sure of himself, more… warm. Seeing him interact with everyone in the chain makes you forget about the quiet and reserved man you learned to love. Those moments that his overwhelming sense of loyalty and over all goofy nature has increased tenfold.

“(Y/n)?” He calls your name softly. Kneeling down to reach your eye level. “Are you ok?” There was a bit of blood around his face.

You scrunched up your nose at the sight and took out a handkerchief. “I am fine wolf boy.” Taking up the chance to clean his face a bit. “You however are a hot mess. But like the handsome way you normally are.” You clean off his cheek, giving a small peak on the now clean part. Though his cheek was blushing bright red. “Thanks Link.”

“Ah-“ Somehow the red on his face got worse. Was he sick?

——————————————————————————————-

Warriors:

You loved the children of Ordon! You really did! And playing with them was so much fun! You just needed to do other things instead. Saying no to Twilight’s siblings was the hardest part. Then Wind joined in and things just went downhill from there.

Sorry Legend. You know that you made a promise to him to help. But you are stuck playing with these adorable little gremlins. You notice Warriors stood further away from where you and the kiddos are. You two share a look. Trying to give him the most ‘Please help. I can’t just leave’ face.

Instead he turns around from you. You wanted to gasp at the audacity. But was pulled towards the small little shooting range the kids set up. “Come on (Y/n)! Show us again!”

At this point you're gonna run out of stamina if you don’t get a break. But someone pulled you backwards, almost tripping you over yourself. Straight into the arms of a familiar scarf boy. “Warriors!”

“Excuse us,” he adjusted you into a more comfortable position “but I need to steal them away for the time being.” Before the children could protest, Warriors bolted in the opposite direction. You shove your face into his scarf to at least save face as he basically carries you across the village to Twilight's house. Of all ways for him to save you and for him to just… pick you up and go! You feel him slow down to a stop. “Here you go, safe and sound.”

“Oh,” you slowly put down. “My hero~” you are rolling your eyes. “A reward for your valiant effort.” Up on to your tippy toes and push yourself up. You kiss his cheek quickly “Thanks Link.” You wave at the stunned captain and leave to go inside.

Warriors watched you go with a red face, he smirks to himself and turns around.

Only to be tackled by the same children you were entertaining.

#twilight (not lu) speaks #linked universe #linkeduniverse #london fog tea #Monkey bread

[thickenmyblood]

hey maca :)) I have sth that I’d love to hear your input on! (wall of text incoming so beware- I’m absolutely not mad if you don’t want to answer lmao). Basically it’s about how you portray women in your works and to what extent you see that portrayal mirrored in the canon books. I have noticed that a lot of writers tend to go a traditional route with for example daughters not being heirs like you also mentioned in an answer for a wtsioa ask on here. Considering the cultures Vere and Akielos are based on that’s obviously very logical and a lot of authors (including you) make it work fantastically! Yet personally I never got the vibe of Vere and Akielos being as patriarchal in canon, mostly because the Information we get is kind of confusing. On one hand damen is a walking manosphere (and. all of Akielos in general as well) without any prominent female figures in his life but on the other hand damen only ever speaks appreciatively of for example the female vaskian warriors. Both countries seem to ban women from the army yet Damen also refers to a warrior queen. The regent is a total misogynist but with the wording Laurent uses it almost seems like that is more the exception and not the general rule of veretian court life. Both countries also have ties to Vask, an exclusive matriarchy and Akielos is said to be similar to Patras which Pacat has stated is also partly a strong matriarchy due to vaskian occupations in the past. I could go on for a lot longer but I guess that damens overall positive attitude towards women and especially stereotypically spoken masculine women is what sticks out the most to me. It just seems kind of misplaced in a world that supposedly is as sexist as the original cultures from our world. Which is why I’d say both countries do have gender roles but are overall a lot more egalitarian than their respective real world og cultures. But that’s only my take and I’d love to hear more on what others think about the portrayal of women in canon and how they chose to portray it in fanfiction. Love you and your new work, hope you’re doing well❤️

HELLO!!! Thank you for asking me interesting stuff :, ) you always have the best questions and my sad little inbox is open to you any time, friend. I divided this into parts, so:

My portrayal of women: I need to work on this a lot lmao. I’m not proud of any female character I have ever written for this fandom, and I’m also not proud to say I struggle horribly when it comes to writing female OCs, especially if the story is not about a female character that is a literal projection of me. Or Bella Swan (yes, Twilight literally shaped my sad little brain and the way I write and consume fiction).

Authors writing female characters in a “traditional” way (for fantasy settings): I can’t speak for other authors but I definitely think, in my case, that using the “it’s a patriarchal society, women have no rights, women can’t be heirs, etc.” blueprint is a matter of being lazy. It’s quick, and easy, and it’s been done before so we all know how it works and a) it’s unlikely that you’ll mess it up (in the plot hole kind of way) and b) it’s obvious that most readers know how the usual system works and so you don’t have to spend paragraphs or even chapters explaining it to them. I am very lazy when it comes to world-building for fics. Why? Because when I’m writing fanfiction I don’t give two shits about the world, I just care about the characters doing Things and having Feelings. The moment you start to question these issues (a society where women can join the army, where they can be heirs, where maybe they can have multiple husbands, etc.) a billion issues arise because it’s not the “usual way” and so you’ll have to deal with “unusual problems”. See: plot holes, info-dumping, etc.

Vere and Akielos in canon: I think the books get very, very confusing at times when it comes to gender roles in that specific world. They also get very confusing about how royalty works, in my opinion. So:

Damen never mentions female influences in his life, not even nannies or wetnurses or anything. He mentions past queens and his mother, but even then… It’s always struck me as “what the actual fuck” that we get no information on Egeria. In TSP, he doesn’t even read as curious to me, especially when I think of that line that goes something like “oh, well, he’d never asked how tall she was”.

Then you have Jokaste, who is highborn and also… perhaps trained in politics? It’s unclear to me if she’s ever been directly involved in meetings or been an active member of the Council or even been allowed to study these issues. Clearly, she’s smart and capable and cunning, but like… how? Did she have private tutors? Is she a self-made woman? Like, what’s up with that? Are women allowed to engage in public politics? Are they allowed to be kyroi?

IMO, Damen complimenting the female warriors in Vask has to do with how appreciative he is of war-related stuff. Like, he thinks people with his own qualities are neat. We see this time and time again in the books—having honor, being brave, respecting one’s family, protecting those who need protecting… He compliments these things when he sees them in others, especially in Laurent. Obviously one of the big changes in Damen as a character is that he goes from being daddy’s boy to being like “well, actually… maybe war isn’t always the answer, and maybe war isn’t always honorable”. The Vaskian warriors prove themselves worthy of praise in a “manly” way, if that makes sense. (In the same way, Laurent proves himself in the Okton, not so much to Damen but to other Akielons). So, in essence, War > Any issues he may have about women doing Stuff.

Don’t judge me for this but I can’t remember the Regent talking about women. Do you have any quotes about that? I feel like Book 1 is super rich when it comes to world-building stuff and yet it’s the book I remember the least. I know he obviously has a preference for boys and not girls, but I don’t recall him having interactions with Vannes or ladies at court? I’M SORRY I’M SO STUPID but I don’t own the book so I can’t exactly word search my way out of this one, and so instead of saying stupid stuff, I’m asking anyone reading this (lol, you and my mom probably) to please tell me what canon says on this issue.

Ties to Vask: Er, yeah, I mean… They’re clearly not at war with Vask and have some sort of economic deal (there are Vaskian pets in Arles? Which makes me wonder if they, like, buy them from Vask? Or if the pets are Vaskian and turn into pets in Vere? Slaves are not like pets so I don’t know?), BUT just because they have deals with this kingdom/are on good terms with the ruler does not mean they necessarily approve? Like, maybe they’re like “yeah, it’s weird they give women so much power, but also I need that silk/leather/WHATEVER, so I’ll shut up about that”.

“Akielos is said to be similar to Patras which Pacat has stated is also partly a strong matriarchy due to Vaskian occupations in the past.” Is this in the books or is this something she said in an interview/post-releasing the trilogy? I know in the books there’s a quote that Akielos and Patras are similar because they both have slaves, but other than that I can’t quite remember anything about Patras? Like, I don’t recall Pacat giving us extensive and thorough world-building on either nation, at all. Once again, I am asking you for more explanations on this because I literally don’t remember.

4. My opinion and a Stupidity Disclaimer: As I’ve said above, there’s a lot of stuff I don’t remember and so I’m not trying to preach to anyone reading this or even saying that I hold the truth about… anything. I’m answering questions as I see fit and asking more questions when I run out of answers.

I believe world-building is not one of Captive Prince’s strong points. I will not elaborate on this because this is already long enough but there is simply, in my opinion, not enough material to reach any solid conclusions when it comes to world-building questions such as the role of women in Vere and Akielos, how compulsory homosexuality affects the development of highborn men and women in Vere, exactly what makes Akielos’ view on women different from Vere’s (if there’s any difference at all), the history of gender roles in this world and how it’s evolved up until canon, how Lamen can solve the heir issue without recurring to, once again, “the usual stuff” (concubines, bastards, marriage to women, etc.). It’s clear from what I’ve read that Pacat has come a long way as a writer and that her new trilogy has a lot more in-depth explanations to world-building questions, but this is not the case with CP, and so I’m afraid my answer to most of this is “I don’t know, and I don’t think anyone can know for sure”.

Lastly, I think I struggle a lot with understanding the role of women in this universe because I simply did not see enough women doing stuff, so I don’t know what’s permitted, what’s unacceptable, what’s illegal, what is straight-up execution worthy, etc. This is not me complaining about the lack of female characters in CP, at all, which I know is contradictory to stuff I’ve said in the past (I answered a couple asks a year ago about how I’d wished we’d gotten Vannes’ POV or Jokaste’s POV in the short stories). I’ve changed my mind, and so I think Pacat is entitled to write whatever she wants, just like I’m entitled to talk shit about KR with any living soul who will listen lmao.

To end this on a spicy note, I think sometimes we consume the wrong media and then complain because it doesn’t have what we wanted. If you’re looking for a trilogy with strong, fleshed-out female characters, Captive Prince is not for you. If you’re looking for a trilogy on female struggles and, I don’t know, defying… the male gaze… Captive Prince is not for you. There are plenty of books out there that focus exclusively on female characters, featuring sapphic relationships, and dealing with gender issues. WHICH IS NOT TO SAY WE SHOULDN’T BE HAVING THESE DISCUSSIONS. This is not about this particular question, but more about a lot of posts I’ve seen floating around… complaining about Pacat’s writing and the themes she didn’t explore.

If anyone has made it this far, thank you for reading, and know this is NOT me telling you what to think. This post is an open question that anyone can engage with, although I hope people will engage with this directly and on this platform, instead of… taking it somewhere else where I sadly can’t engage back! Unlike what happened with our awesome fat Laurent discussion, I will be replying to any questions I get on this (Note: I did not reply to most of those questions because a long time had passed and they were sort of repetitive).

#caramellaurent #captive prince #i'm using the main tag because i think... maybe someone has answers? #also lol melli i see what u did here... u're distracting me from writing for the bang #i see how it is #discourse #is this discourse tho? #it's just me asking stuff #discourse (questioned)

[lon-lon-ranch]

Ever since stumbling upon your blog I wondered; Why/When did you start shipping the adorable and wonderful couple that is Malink? I apologize for bothering you in case you already answered that :'D Best of greetings and stay safe as well as healthy!

This is such a wholesome ask, I haven’t answered it before so thank you for sending it!

Short Answer: I have a crippling weakness for redhead women and farmers

Long Answer: Malink was the first pair I actually remember avidly shipping when I was really young! For some reason playing Ocarina of Time, I got overwhelmed really fast with all the brutal stuff Link encountered as a child, and had this really strange sense of isolation playing as Link. Like, everywhere he went, he was an outsider (Destined to outgrow the Kokiri Forest kids and not even be recognized by them in the future, basically a fish out of water in Castle Town, not a Ruto, Goron, etc.) and although he helped people and was generally welcomed by them, I always got the sense he’d never be 100% one of them, that he’d never have a permanent home anywhere he went.

And then a redhead farmer girl came into the picture.

It’s undeniable that Malon and Link’s interactions as kids are ADORABLE and the amount of detail and world building that went into her home (Malon’s secret drawings behind the pots in her bedroom, learning about her mom, how Epona’s song is what binds you two through time) really made it a comfy place to me. And then Link returning as an adult and helping her liberate the ranch from Ingo and hear her singing again and how EXCITED she was to see him was absolutely supreme.

Lon Lon Ranch was the one place I felt Link was always really at home, and although it was dumb, my childhood self made sure that every time I saved the game, I would always be at the Ranch listening to Malon singing Epona’s song.

Link was such a man out of time as an adult, and after the shenanigans of finding her dad in Castle Town, Malon was the only person who didn’t need or want anything from him besides his company. She even gifted him Epona, which grew on to become Link’s most iconic partner in the series. And the angst of Link returning randomly into her life 7 years in the future and rediscovering feelings? Top tier. So, I always imagined once Link got sent back in time at the end of Ocarina of Time and saved the people of Termina in Majora’s Mask, he deserved to have an ending where he could be a little selfish and have his own home and love, while still being in the center and the heart of Hyrule.

And of course the idea that Malon’s song heard in Twilight Princess in the Hyrule Field Night Theme is Malon singing out to her hero as he mentors their grandson is just… *chef’s kiss*

And everyone on this site who draws Malink is SO talented and kind, so even though I have no artistic ability at all (lol), I’m glad my collection of all the great artwork here has been able to convert people to loving Malink or remembering why they started in the first place!

Sorry I could go ON AND ON about this pair and my thoughts are probably all over the place, but in the end, in conjunction with it being the most likely pair in canon for the timeline, I think my own experience of playing the game as Link finding a home and Malon showing unconditional support and admiration for her fairy boy led me to shipping Malink as much as I do now.

I just love the idea that Link searched the entirety of his world of Hyrule and Termina and returned to his home: Malon at Lon Lon Ranch.

[chalkrevelations]

Huh.

Well, this is not the next episode reaction you were expecting, but a while back, in the middle of the night, while I was ready to cry from working on a pharmacology paper, out of nowhere, Youtube threw up Street Dance of China S3 Ep1 at me. And yeah. I am, admittedly, f’kn weak for a dance show. (There are enough SYTYCD episode reax on my old Livejournal that I feel there’s no point denying this.)

So – no, actually, wait. FIRST of all, I do NOT believe the “towel vote” we ended up being given for the opening routines from the four captains. That was the most blatant bit of bullshit chicanery I’ve seen in my LIFE, and I say this as a person with a ton of SYTYCD episode reax on my old Livejournal, and I also say this not because Wang Yibo ended up last (well, not entirely), but because I saw Wallace Chung’s routine. As someone closer in age to him than to the other three captains, I have to give him props for trying, but come on, man. The critique that Yibo got from random contestants – if the subtitles are to be believed, so I realize this needs a grain of salt - basically boiled down to “it was too good for the stage lighting.” :hands: Also, I saw your face at the reveal, Wallace, and you were as shocked as I was. No way you got more towels/votes than Wang Yibo. Not unless there’s some super wild undercurrent of nostalgia propping you up, which, I guess could happen, because literally all I know about pop culture in China, current or otherwise, is filtered through Tumblr and Youtube, both notoriously suspect, but … anyway. There’s got to be a TON of behind-the-scenes manipulation going on for Yibo to be rock-bottom with last pick of teams but then also to end up with THAT pool of possibles. Are you kidding me with this?

ANYWAY, what I wanted to say is that I actually really like Wang Yibo here, and it’s not just because he’s the only captain I have even a sliver of familiarity with, and it’s not just because Lan Wangji was banging Wei Wuxian. I do realize all of this is influenced by whatever edit they’ve decided to give a particular captain or contestant, but I’m impressed with the way Yibo immediately starts team building by getting his group into a warmup, getting them dancing together, getting them dancing with him before they have to worry about dancing for him. (I mean, come on, Jackson Wang. The way to get people to stop being nervous is not to say “Stop being nervous! It will make you fuck up!”) The way Yibo immediately recognized and responded to his group’s concerns about that one dude copying someone else’s routine probably also bought him a lot of return investment. He��s dressed to work it, in his sweats and his flannel (what IS that fake-leather TAC vest and random leg holster-looking thing, Jackson Wang?). He’s convincing me he really loves to dance, he can’t hold still while he watches the contestants, he’s wandering over into other captains’ turf when it sounds like there’s a dancer performing who he might like to see, he’s being the best Yibo he can be, and I’m grooving along, wind in my hair, totally down for this ride. He’s also adorable at the beginning when all the other captains are like, my goal for this season is to slaughter the competition and dance on their graves! And he’s like, well, I’d like to … make some friends? And learn some new stuff? I don’t know if the perpetual Humble Student schtick is natural or persona, or whether it’s general or specific to dancing, but it’s working for you, my dude. This is also made better (read: ironic), by the fact that it’s immediately before the towel reveal, when he flips over to utter disbelief and gets all sulky for a while over the “fact” that his dance routine got the least votes.

Also, OH WAIT. This is where that clip of Yibo dancing with his crew ALL OVER HIM came from that I saw floating around a few months ago, isn’t it? You’re telling me those guys had never danced together before and had like, three minutes to throw together that routine? I’m even more impressed than before. Meanwhile, the towels symbolize courage and challenge, Mr. Emcee? OK, fine, cheesy reality show blah blah whatever. Can we get to the dancing now?

I’m going to put the rest of this behind a cut, because it got super long, because it turns out, when you watch in 5-minute increments, it takes two and a half weeks to get through a single episode, but you actually can see and have opinions on all 5,328 contestants, plus every single one of the captains’ battles. Meanwhile, I’m trying to convince myself this is not going to be another series of episode reactions, but 1) I do have the benefit of not having a ton of hometown media giving me a next-day play-by-play, so even though this is six months old, everything’s a surprise; 2) I am, admittedly, f’kn weak for a dance show; and 3) it’s easy to watch in 5-minute increments between researching drug interactions in hypothetical hypertensive patients with stable ischemic heart disease, erectile dysfunction, and seasonal allergies. So, I guess we’ll see. It’ll be slow going, though, because I don’t ever have two and half hours to sit down and watch an ep cover-to-cover – if it happens, it will likely keep happening in 5-minute increments. Meanwhile, there is a metric shit-ton of nattering below the cut, so caveat lector. No, seriously, I kept adding to this little by little until it became a monster. Hashtag long post (remorseful).

OK, I am generally out of my depth here, as this is not at all my area of dance not-really-expertise, but some reactions:

Team Wang Yibo: I can see why he didn’t want to choose between Colin and Dian Men – Colin might have been a touch better technically and a better showman, but Dian Men didn’t seem to have a single wasted move – but, also, my dude. Yibo. You maybe should look a little bit less stunned and overwhelmed by the mere presence of Colin, it’s giving me ideas about your taste in men. Continuing with the powerhouses, I probably shouldn’t even attempt to critique Klash, but I did feel like he was a bit stiff in some of his footwork; that final V kick, though, shit, that’s what having that kind of upper-body strength is for. Bouboo … I mean, excellent flexibility and control, of course, but mainly I’m just terribly amused that Yibo got last pick of teams but somehow ended up with the guy who’s literal world champion, and who’s just as useful for getting into the other captains’ heads – without even trying – as he is for his talent. And then there’s a montage of Yibo giving out towel after towel after towel, and my dude, you cannot keep up this pace. There are still too many dancers to see, and you don’t have that many towels. AAANNNND Towel Battle #1 (See Footnote 1).

Team Jackson Wang: I do like Gai Gai, although that may be influenced by the fact she’s working in the twilight area between hip-hop and contemporary that I have more familiarity with - but also, I suspect she’s pretty good in her genre. I thought Xiao Jie was inconsistent and didn’t stick the landing on his initial attempt, so I have to give you that hesitation, Jackson, even though you’ve somehow ended up the villain in my inner narrative for this show, for no particular reason I can yet discern. Maybe it’s that you’re the direct competition for Yibo’s team in the towel battles. Good enough. Anyway, Xiao Jie definitely stepped up his game for the battle with Bingo, so I can kind of see why both of them got a towel, but we’re not even halfway through this, and most of y’all are giving away towels like you have an endless supply. Yang Kai is a fucking menace with fantastic musicality, and I’m just gonna say it and take the fallout - I think he gave a better performance first time out of the gate than any of Yibo’s powerhouses did. Whatever power Klash has got, whatever skill Bouboo has got, Yang Kai feels more explosive and engaging, at least in these initial showings. He’s going to be one to beat, I’d hug him too, if he was on my team and was going to help me WIN. Yibo’s probably lucky that happened during his little stroll over to check out the competition, so that he can see they’re definitely competitive and be prepared for it. Also, Jackson, I have to admit - that face you made when Chao really kicked in? That was the same face I made, because wt actual f, you have a literal secret weapon – secret because he CAME FROM NOWHERE and NO ONE EVEN KNOWS him, how is that even possible, how did he get that good – fluid, creative, controlled, incredible musicality - without anyone having any idea who he even is? And then there’s a montage of Jackson just giving out towel after towel after towel, and my dude, you need to slow down. You can’t just be like, “THEY LOVE DANCE WITH ALL OF THEIR WHOLE HEARTS!!!!1111!!!!11!” I get it, but everyone there loves dance with all of their whole hearts, and there are not enough towels to send all of them on to the next round. ANNNND, Towel Battle #1 (See Footnote 1).

Team Lay Zhang: lol at how diplomatic you’re being, Lay Zhang – your team’s fierce roar startled you, OK. At this point, I suspect you’re the street most likely to have a knife fight break out before this is all over. I do like Alex, I think he’s got a lot of interesting, super-clean details in his moves, and he’s engaging - I cannot BELIEVE you made him battle that dude whose moves were so mushy, Lay Zhang, it leaves me doubting your ability to judge this thing. At first I thought maybe you were just looking for an excuse because you wanted to see Alex freestyle, but then you actually said something about both dancers being equal, and my estimation of you plummeted, and also sadly, my sound dropped out for the actual battle, including the part where the clearly inferior dancer fell over and then accidentally POPPED ALEX ONE IN THE EYE, and I TOLD YOU SO. I do agree it’s a good idea to make dancers in the same genre do some battling, so you can kind of plan out your towels and put together a team with broad strengths, instead of giving out towels like you’re making it rain for the first 20 contestants, and then you have 1,375 more people to get through, with 3 towels left, as EVERYONE ELSE seems to be doing, so it’s nice that at least one of you guys is thinking – if not actually acting - strategically. That was clearly not even a contest, though, GIVE ALEX HIS TOWEL and send him to the next round. Xiao Bao is hilarious, with his concern that his team captain, who’s into krump, which is “beating,” isn’t going to appreciate his waacking, which is “slapping.” I also don’t know a whole lot about waacking, so thanks for the primer, Xiao Bao, and don’t worry, your performance is just as engaging for those of us who don’t know what we’re watching as you are generally. You deserve that towel for your ability to interact with and engage your audience, alone. Lingo is a good solid performance, although he’s got his team captain strategizing edited over some of it, and here’s the thing: we are 1:56:00 into this, at this point, with another half hour to go, and all of you are starting to disappear into the sea of dancers who are very good at what you do, but at generally the same level? Anyway, Lingo, I approve of your ability to interact with your audience (read: your captain) to ensure engagement, too, so keep that up. Annnd, we actually haven’t seen that much of you guys, but it’s time for Towel Battle #2 (See Footnote 2).

Team Wallace Chung: I’m glad Su Lian Ya insisted on performing, I thought she started off slow but warmed up, and that ending was creepily fantastic and had me spontaneously grinning at the screen in delight. Then we lose sight of this group for a really long time, actually. We go back to find Wallace putting through a couple of urban dancers who we barely see, but who apparently claim to have some choreography experience, and he really likes that. TI shows up, and they’re solid, but honestly, not as good in this performance as they were in some of the stock footage the show threw up to introduce them, but Wallace remains super-excited about the idea of choreography and sends at least choreographer Zhang Jiang Peng through to the next round. And then, we really haven’t seen that much of you guys, either, which maybe doesn’t bode well, but it’s time for Towel Battle #2 (See Footnote 2).

FOOTNOTE 1, aka TOWEL BATTLE ONE, Team Yibo vs. Team Jackson, 3V3 freestyle: First of all, I have to say, I love Yibo - Mr. I Just Wanna Make Some Friends And Have Some Fun - being all, “I have three crappy white towels I’m stuck with for coming in last place that I can’t use to send dancers to the next round and that I DO NOT DESERVE, and I am getting BACK the colorful towels that ARE RIGHTFULLY MINE. I am coming for whoever is in my way.” Team Yibo is Bouboo, Klash, Dian Men, and OK, given what we’ve seen so far, that’s the safe choice, but honestly, I think we’re just taking some things for granted right now, and I’m not sure they actually have given the best performances so far. Yeah, I said it. Team Jackson is Yang Kai, Chao, and Xiao Jie, and … ok, on that last one, I think you probably could have substituted Bingo, but all right. Yang Kai is a definite yes. Chao will be great if he can stay out of his own head and not psych himself out, but given what we’ve seen so far, he’s an obvious pick. First round, Yang Kai vs. Klash, and Yang Kai is still a fucking menace, with super lines. Klash definitely stepped up his game for the battle, and I can’t get over the upper body strength he’s got, to get that kind of airy bounce in his moves, but to be honest, I can’t even be mad the first round went to Yang Kai and Team Jackson. Second round, Yang Kai is still … y’all, the beautiful lines from this guy in his poses, I can’t get over them, but I think he doesn’t have the stamina, his footwork is getting sloppy. Bouboo also steps up his game for an actual battle, his fluidity and control is amazing, and yeah, round to Team Yibo. Round three, Xiao Jie gives it a decent effort, but the polish isn’t there; meanwhile Bouboo is still in champion mode, and I was kind of surprised this was a split vote and went to another round. Xiao Jie absolutely surprised me, coming back stronger on his second try, although I suppose a more familiar genre helped, but Bouboo continues in champion mode. Round four, Chao looks like he’s going to throw up right before he steps out there, and then as soon as the music starts, it’s like, he doesn’t even think. The music just moves him. I feel like his dance vocabulary is more limited than Bouboo’s, though, and Bouboo’s flow is amazing at this point, so I feel like the judges just want to drag this out and see more dancing when we go to one more round. Strong effort all around, but yeah, round four and two towels to Team Yibo. I can’t really complain about that. I do feel like Yibo’s powerhouses have been holding back until now, though, and I’m not sure how I feel about THAT.

FOOTNOTE 2, aka TOWEL BATTLE TWO, Team Zhang vs. Team Wallace, 3V3 w/ captain: lol, Team Zhang really wants someone to pick the Sailor Moon song because they know Xiao Bao and his waacking will tear it up. Anyway, Team Zhang includes Lingo and Xiao Bao, who does not get his Sailor Moon song and continues to be hilarious in his disbelief about being chosen to participate in this battle, when he’s not looking almost as sick as Chao from Team Jackson before HIS performance. Team Wallace includes Su Lian Ya – and honestly, despite how I’m getting ready to bag on him for the entire rest of this battle recap, I like that Wallace put one of his female dancers up there for the battle - and some dude named Ba that they haven’t given us any footage of, up ‘til now, at least that I can remember and who I … don’t even know has been formally given a towel and sent on to the next round, yet? Oh wait, he must have, because there’s talk in the pause for choreography about somehow using the towels during the battle. Wallace relies on Su Lian Ya and Zhang Jiang Peng to choose Ba, and then Ba ends up choreographing a lot of the performance, at least from the edit we see. I continue to feel you may be in over your head, Wallace. This feeling … is not assuaged by your performance in the first round, which is fine, but not really up to the level of almost anyone whose name I’ve bolded so far in this entire recap. Also, using the towels was a cute idea, but it doesn’t translate well, and Team Wallace has a lot of wasted time throwing the towels around instead of actually. You know. Dancing. Lingo gets a credible solo during Team Zhang’s performance, and even though Xiao Bao is clearly lost during a good bit of his backup dancer duties, he manages not to throw up, which – given this team’s general skill level – should be enough to give them the first round, EXCEPT SOMEHOW Team Wallace gets the point from the judges, who then try to justify this inexplicable decision by saying Team Wallace had better interaction, I guess because of the hot mess with throwing the towels around, but adding that Team Zhang was more scattered, which what? More scattered than the hot mess with the towels? I’m not buying this. I can’t tell if they’re propping up Wallace or fucking with Lay Zhang’s head, but I’m having bad acid flashbacks to the many and varied ways dance show judges will try to gaslight you, telling you that things you just saw with your very own eyes did not actually happen when it’s right there! On camera! Visible, despite whatever edit bs you’re pulling! ANYWAY, they’re definitely managing to fuck with not only Lay Zhang’s head, but Xiao Bao’s, and Xiao Bao still doesn’t seem to have his choreography down, but they manage to pull it together enough to take the second round, which to be honest is kind of a muddled mess on everyone’s part. The only one who really stands out to me on this go’round is Su Lian Ya, but OK, Team Zhang might have had it slightly more together as a unit. And then, yeah, OK, I think they were fucking with Lay Zhang’s head, because we then find out that, holy shit, the song the show powers-that-be chose for the tie-breaking third round is that gd Sailor Moon song, and we can all see the writing on the wall. Poor Team Wallace is no match for Xiao Bao, who frankly, carries this entire round on his shoulders without breaking a sweat and barely needs any backup dancers to do it. There’s some ridiculously dramatic reveal of scoring, with the judges dragging out their decisions like this was any actual contest - I’m beginning to suspect that some of them grew up with Wallace Chung posters on their bedroom walls - but finally, round and towel to Team Zhang.

Cut to a little bit of Next Time On, and wow, the first two-and-a-half-hour episode is over, and we aren’t finished with the initial round yet. It’s gonna be Christmas before I make it halfway through this season.

#street dance of china #sdoc episode reax #should i put yibo in the tags for this? #sure #i guess #wang yibo #anyone else?

[volturialice]

okay so i was just typing up a 'thoughts on' ask about a jalice au that explores alice being james' bloodsinger but then i thought that would work pretty well with the human!alice au you wrote a while ago!! so,, thoughts on that if you ever continue that series?

hmmmmmmmm anon you've got me THINKING here

I actually have a few more cool ideas for that au (which I titled Perihelion which now feels waaaaayyy too close in appearance to Perdition oops), just not enough to justify writing out the whole thing yet.

the goal with that one was to try and hit the major plot beats and certain other elements of twilight (all the way down to "clumsy allusions to classic lit that don't quite make sense") but explore how they would play out differently with different protagonists, and allow me to put my own spin on things. which will inevitably end up being a commentary, me in more overt conversation with the original canon text than I've ever been in any other piece (except Tragedie, but that one had very different goals lol.)

but (and this is CRAZY considering it's me we're talking about here) I actually haven't put that much thought into how the james confrontation would play out in Perihelion yet! there are tons of questions to answer.

a long list of questions

would they still leave the baseball field without a physical fight? (definitely not, this is jasper we're talking about.) what kind of casualties would both sides suffer? (ie, how the hell would james leave the field alive?) would there still be a flight to some other city? would james be able to get to alice through her family? (I'm inclined to go with "yes" but make it more thorny and complicated than bella's selfless sacrifice.) and, tbh, would I even make alice james' blood singer in the first place? as a non-vegetarian, it seems like he'd be forced to try and attack her on the spot were that the case, which leads into its own set of (not necessarily bad) issues.

I'm always just as interested in hearing other people's thoughts on this stuff, incidentally. I should probably read more old "jalice twilight" AUs, but I'm not always in the mood for those.

tbh I'm most interested in the whole james/alice blood singer conflict in the context of canon, mainly because canon raises so many questions without answering them. in this case, my thoughts mostly manifest as a long list of questions, with different answers I play with in a suuuuuuper experimental wip doc that may never see the light of day for all we know.

another long list of questions:

what does the concept of a Singer mean to james in 1920? has he heard of them? had any others? formed preconceived notions of who or what they're supposed to be? how does he come across alice's scent in the first place? why can't/doesn't he kill her immediately, when she's in this incredibly vulnerable and isolated position? do they ever interact? what is his relationship with her creator? do they clash repeatedly, or only once? how does their final confrontation play out? are victoria and/or laurent involved in any of this?

and my personal favorite, why the hell doesn't james kill alice mid-change?

from alice's side: how aware is she of james? does she see horrifying visions of her own death at his hands? does she prevent them from coming true somehow? what does she learn or discover about james, and from what sources? how does she feel about becoming a vampire? why didn't her creator change her sooner? does she have preconceived ideas of what vampires are like, or is her memory so destroyed that she's lost that cultural context? canon!alice has a strong belief in fate and destiny—how does she feel about being someone's blood singer? is it fate? what is that connection like for her, and how does it (obviously) differ from bella's connection to edward or emmett's connection to Random Lady Hanging Laundry?

for some of these questions, I have Cool Answers I really like. for others I have no answer, or it still needs to be workshopped, or there are multiple satisfying ways it could go. for me, the challenge is always choosing the Most Interesting Answer that still manages to feel true to the characters and doesn't directly contradict canon. it's an exercise I love doing.

anyway. sorry I went on a huuuuge tangent there, but I wanted to look at the (very excellent) question from all sides.

#asks #Thought asks #james #alice cullen #perihelion tag #meta #anonymous

[bellaslilpapercut]

i haven’t had a goddamn thought in my life but uhh

thoughts on the denalis? specifically the sisters (irina, tanya, kate) and sasha

Okay tbh I always forget about Carmen and Eleazar anyway so when I hear Denalis I only think of the sisters lolol. Anywho! I do really love the three sisters and as 1/3 of sisters myself, Ive always been a little obsessed with like magical girl trios like the fates and the three gorgons and the weird sisters (from gargoyles and also CAOS lol) and so of course like, three vampire sisters!? I'm there I'm all in!

I really think it would have been so cool if their story about Sasha had actually been foreshadowing about Carlisle's death which I know @panlight has mentioned a few times as well. This also would have worked well if the Cullen's were cut down some too, Emmett and jasper really didn't need to be there ever and Esme was like a footprint on the saga despite the missed potential of the parallel between her tale and Bella's journey through the series. I honestly would have been interested in a twilight where Carlisle, Esme, Rose, and Edward were the only Cullen's and maybe Alice and jasper show up during the story maybe not depending on how it goes, and then I think the Denali 3 could have had more space and prominence in the story. But the sheer size of the Cullen's really takes away from any weight other vampires might have within the narrative and their presence is even further compacted by smeyers reluctance to shine a light on anything that isn't E/B for more than a few paragraphs here and there. It ends up making the excessive Cullen's, the Denalis, and the pack all feel so small which imo doesn't make E/B stand out more, or make twilight feel like a saga with a tight focus, it just makes the whole series feel claustrophobic.

I got a little carried away there but yea I think the Denalis especially are on my list of twilight side groups that deserve more page time along with the pack, the Volturi, and the actual Cullen's given that we don't actually know much about any of them. I think the pack actually ends up getting more "character moments" in new moon which was nice and made them feel real and alive but the Cullen's and the Denalis never feel quite real, it feels like they're all waiting around in a room until bella and Edward show up lol. Also if bella had gotten to interact with the Denali more it might have made their reluctance to help during the new born battle feel like a real Moment to bella, I think the story needed some more betrayal on that level. And then we could have the emotionally complicated moment later when bella learns about their mother Sasha (which fun fact is a Russian diminutive of the male Aleksander) and that could both a) help bella realize how monumental it feels to them to be faced with intervampire confrontation and b) set up a foreshadowing moment of Carlisle dying (which would feel more poignant also if the Cullen's were a smaller coven).

#answered #sethclearwatermybeloved #<3 #thank you for asking! #also you have great thoughts i loved your shadow post so much!!! #also i would just cut carmen and eleazar what are they even doing there lolol

[elizabeatrice]

Episode 12 - The Little Mermaid

Let’s Talk About JSHK Anime #3

Warning: Manga spoilers for The Little Mermaid arc, The Clock Keeper arc, and chapter 64!!! (just a bit, skip point no. 5, 6, and 10 if you don’t want to get spoiled) Also … this ended up way longer than I intended.

Well that was one heck of a feels trip. It’s probably my new favorite episode, just because everyone is here being wholesome lmao.

This is mostly hananene meta I ain’t even gonna lie.

Before we begin, shout out to Black Canyon, our newest anime cutie pie. Just look at him, folks. Just chilling with his sunflower seed.

He has no idea the kind of life his owner leads.

I said before that the best part of episode 12 is how it made Daydream worse, so now I’m gonna ramble about it.

“Maybe different species can’t understand each other after all.”

“Maybe it would be better if I were an apparition too.”

This is my favorite part of the episode. And no, not in the sense that I want Nene to die just so that she and Hanako can be together. But because of how Lerche actually explored deeper what was said only once in the manga.

Well, both in the manga and anime Nene ended up accepting the mermaid’s blood because of her desire to be popular, but the anime decided to revisit what she said earlier in the episode.

Not only did that make her decision kinda less selfish, it’s also just … sad. Thinking that your friend, someone you really cared about, doesn’t trust you enough to tell you things about themselves, to the point where you’re willing to go to such lengths as turning into an apparition just to understand them.

And if you think about it, isn’t this part of her true wish? To have her feelings be reciprocated? Man I just realized that as I wrote this and I am mindblown.

She thought she finally got her wish with Hanako. I mean, he said it himself in the first ep (”You wanted someone, anyone, to return your feelings, right? And as far as you’re concerned, sharing a bond with someone is the same thing, right?”). So it must’ve hit her really hard when she thought he didn’t trust her. Especially with all the wrong ideas the fishes were feeding her mind.

Then we got this little flashback. At first I was like, “Girl, you really be thinking that he doesn’t care about you while recalling the moment he apologized to you and hugged you? Are you insane?”

But after some thinking of my own, it occurred to me. Maybe she was too used to having her feelings not reciprocated, she couldn’t believe it when someone finally did. Not to mention Hanako did kinda trick her with his fake confession a while back (heh, he’s not the only one with trust issues, eh?). And that just made the entire thing even sadder.

So when Nene said, “But I thought, if I were an apparition like you, I could get closer to you. Then, maybe I’d be able to understand you, Hanako-kun. Although I know I probably don’t mean anything to you.”

That was a harsh wake up call for Hanako.

(Btw even more full circle, Hanako brought up Nene’s wish to become human again in the first episode. Nice.)

So. We got one daikon girl who’s afraid of not having her feelings reciprocated, and one ghost boy who’s afraid that daikon girl wouldn’t be his friend anymore if she knew about his past.

While in actuality, said daikon girl already decided she wanted to and would be his friend no matter what, and ghost boy had grown to care about her more than he thought he would.

He heard what she said to Tsuchigomori. He knew all about regret, too.  I mean, honestly, I think if she had said no, he’d let her walk away right then and there, no questions asked. But she didn’t.

Nene’s wish finally came true here. And the best part? It wasn’t the work of magic or curses. Just Hanako finally shoving his fear aside, offering himself as he was, and letting her decide.

And she still chose to be with him.

Heh. Lemme just. Sob for a bit.

Is my hananene trash brain reading too much into this? Idk. Maybe.

So props to the production team for managing to add even more weight to this arc. Which, they had to, since it’s the season finale and all. But I love what they did!

Onto my commentaries!

1. The KouNene

Good shit. She was worried about him but he didn’t want her to worry so he just smiled it off? These two are precious. Thought they were gonna interact. Sadly not. Buuuut! (see point 12)

2. Hanako’s classroom visit

He. Is. So. Adorable. Someone please take his babey license away he’s too dangerous.

Hanako’s classroom visit is like my absolute favorite clingy Hanako moment, so I’m really happy I get to see it this season. Ugh. My kokoro. Hugging her from behind, that semi confession vibe … Smooth mf.

The Mokke brushing Nene’s hair!!! The radish hairdo tho lmao.

On a sidenote, as a history nerd I appreciate that they’re actually putting lessons in the background. And the teacher talked about Apollo 11 again??? While my boy was in the room? That ish both hurt and pleased me.

3. The Clock Keeper rumor drop

Heeeeeehhhhh? What’s thiiiiiissss?

4. This freaking thing

*flips table* Darn production team been knew I’m hananene trash how dare they do this to me.

And lookie here there’s Kodama chilling.

5. Fishies! (!!!manga spoiler for The Little Mermaid arc!!!)

Pufferfish didn’t die. Well, good for him. Also I can’t believe they just call the other fish ‘yeah yeah’ lmao what the freak. Has it always been like that in the manga?

6. AOI AND AKANE (!!!spoilers for chapter 64!!!)

I swear I did not intend this numbering coincidence.

*claps* Boi. Nene asking Aoi about cutting ties with someone she’s interested in? And then Akane just swooped in and say he’d rather cut his head off than cut ties with Aoi? What about getting impaled, huh, boy? Would that do?

The not-so-subtle call out to these two pairs’ parallel? BOI.

7. Nene and Yako

These two just chilling together having girl talk, and Yako let Nene pet her? That’s some adorable shit right there. Admit it Yako you like her.

Yako also be really hitting home with what she said. It was extra heavy coming from her, considering what happened to her and Misaki. Boiiiiii.

8. Tsuchigomori

Oh my God, his laughter. Just … oh my God.

Tsuchigomori in dad mode is always one of the highlights of the episode/chapter.

By the way, in this scene according to the sub, Nene asked Tsuchigomori who Tsukasa is. But she knew who he is already. Is it possible that the sub misinterpreted it? ‘Cause I think what she actually meant was, “What happened to him and Tsukasa-kun in the past?”

If someone who speaks Japanese could share their wisdom, please do!

9. The 5 pm bell and twilight

Look how pretty they are!!!

Lo and behold, another important hananene interaction while the 5 pm bell plays in the background. Also, twilight? Y’all giving me Kimi no Na wa flashbacks.

“Twilight, when it’s neither day or night. When the world blurs and one might encounter something not human.”

Huh … kinda fits the ‘boundary’ concept but it still hurt.

Anyway they still had Hanako tell her what she already knew. And I did say in my ‘Walking Blind’ post that it’d be redundant. But since the episode kinda emphasized Nene’s desire to understand Hanako, having him actually tell her himself, even though she already knew it, was a big deal. It’s not about what she knows, it’s about him opening up to her. So I’m super cool with it.

10. The Broadcasting Club (!!!spoilers for The Clock Keeper arc!!!)

I love how Natsuhiko and Sakura are actually decent people. When he told Mitsuba that he was free to choose to stay with them or not? That’s solid, man. Though, of course, Tsukasa might not be as kind.

Speaking of, I know it couldn’t be anything else, but I’m still not sure if Tsukasa’s drawing was confirmation for season 2. Don’t wanna get my hopes up. Imma just enjoy what I currently have.

Kinda curious, though. Because Clock Keeper wasn’t Tsukasa’s doing. Maybe he was the one who released Mirai? But tbh I’d prefer if it wasn’t so. Because having more cases of supernaturals going loco without it being one of Tsukasa’s games is interesting, and kinda underlines the need of The Seven Wonders to keep supernaturals in check.

11. Kodama just chilling

12. The Adventures of Minamoto and the Summer Vegetables

You go, Kou! I’m rooting for you oh my God you’re so precious.

And look at that ikemen smile! Him supporting Kou is just top notch sweet y’all I can’t-

Ngl this was the biggest surprise of the episode. Teru finding out that summer vegetables = Nene? Broooooo. Interesting. I don’t think this little addition warrants any changes to their future interaction, so it should be safe. Clever replacement, too, those veggies.

It’s so sweet that Nene delivered those veggies to Kou! Just imagine the Minamoto family having veggies for dinner. Awww.

(Also, Nene wrote her name in hiragana instead of kanji. Is that a reference to how bad Kou is with kanji? Lol, so sweet)

13. The Coda!!!

Look at him. Just look at him. Look how lovesick he is y’all I can’t-

THEY’RE SO ADORABLE.

All in all, I love this episode. Sorry for how long this post is. I’m just dealing with so many feels right now. Gaaahhhhh.

#jibaku shounen hanako kun #toilet bound hanako kun #hanako #minamoto kou #yashiro nene #akane aoi #aoi akane #yako #tsuchigomori #mitsuba sousuke #hyuuga natsuhiko #nanamine sakura #yugi tsukasa #kodama #minamoto teru #let's talk about jshk anime #bea rambles #hananene

[oveliagirlhaditright]

I don’t know if I can properly do a review for Neo the World Ends With You. I can talk about the bullet points about the plot and how it’s the perfect sequel to TWEWY there, but other than that... I feel like it’s just going to me being like, “It’s good. It’s good. It’s so good” and gushing about my favorite parts. But you know what? Here I’m going to try it, anyway:

So, I saw someone complaining about how the artwork for Neo wasn’t original, because if you put it beside TWEWY (the Switch version), if you didn’t know any better, you might think you had two copies of the same game... And that’s because the creators tried to make this “TWEWY 2″ in every way possible, even with the box arts being so similar. And I just- I love that so much! 

I feel like Neo is almost moreso now an act two to TWEWY--the final act--than a sequel, per se.

But, like, a lot of us were theorizing from the beginning that Rindo’s mask thing might be tied to him not speaking up, like Neku’s headphones were tied to how he shut people out. And this was true. And, ahh. What a beautiful thing this was. To have such protagonists for the two games and to see them grow. And while I expected Rindo’s character arc, it was honestly a lot better than I was expecting. I grew to like him a lot more than I thought I would. And I loved him making the decisions to go back and try to save his friends, even though he knew it might make things worse, when before he could rarely make a decision on his own. I really felt his struggle here, and it was executed well and this was pay-off after everything that came before it.

TWEWY gave us Taboo Noise and Neo gave us Plague Noise. At first, this kind of bothered me. Because I thought if one could make Plague Noise, surely someone like Sho or Mr. H would have tried that in the first game, when they were trying to become Composer and save Shibuya, respectively. But now that I get what they were going for with it, I’m all for it. And TheDeliveryGod points out that they might be a reference to Covid with the “Plague” name and with Rindo wearing a “mask”, which I hadn’t thought about. I know they started coming up with some of this before that, but maybe. Edit: This all ties into Neku and Rindo’s character arcs, too. Originally, Neku didn’t want anyone to force their values on him and probably would have been happy if they all thought like him. But in the end, everyone IS thinking alike and it’s not what he wanted at all. In Neo, Rindo has a problem of speaking up and making decisions. And in Neo, this leads to people not being able to think at all.

Anyway, TWEWY had everyone brainwashed by the end and Neo had it so they couldn’t think at all. And oh my gosh, I did not think that Nagi and Fret’s psychs would come in to save the day (and Neku and Tsugumi’s as well), but this is another amazing payoff and I could watch this segment again and again. Eep! It was such a beautiful text bubble scene and cutscene!

And when I was first playing the game, I was starting to worry if they’d delve deep into the characters... and really explain everything, make me care about everyone and everything and add replay value. But they did. They really did. I never thought they’d make me care about the Shinjuku Reapers, but here we are. I feel so bad for that tragic family now. And ahh! Knowing that Shoka is Swallow now has so much replay value! ...And makes her and Rindo even more shippable, of course. I’ve gone back and played a few chapters and I can see it now. Ahh. And of course, the character development is spot-on. Which is what TWEWY is all about. I never should have doubted. I really loved all the flashbacks with our girl Shoka, too, and seeing her and Ayano’s relationship, and what she was like before she found herself with Gatto Nero.

Rindo gets pulled back into the RG similarly to Neku’s ending! And at first, you think that’s his happy ending, too! But all is not right, of course. But because Neku’s struggles (him finally letting people in) got the attention (a change of heart) of another higher being (the Composer, Joshua, and he gave Neku and the gang their happy ending), it does the same thing with the angel Haz. And can I just say... there’s something about this whole segment that is just sublime? I want to watch it over and over and over again. It oddly might be my favorite part of all of TWEWY now, and that is really saying something. But Neku’s story was about letting people in and he did that, so story out. But Rindo’s was about making decisions... and he has one more important decision to make--the biggest one--before he can get his happy ending, and Haz leads him to it, subtly. Sort of like how I think Joshua was subtly trying to get Neku to change his mind about destroying Shibuya in TWEWY.

Oh. And you finish off the big bad by doing a Fusion with your whole party again, and you all sort of land/flash on the ground afterwards like you did in TWEWY, too!

And I’ve rambled enough about the new NeShiki scene in my NeShiki posts since Neo. But that essentially being a continuation of their scene from TWEWY: MMM. My heart! It almost makes not seeing Shiki’s face all these years worth it for that moment. Almost.

And then the title changing to “The World Begins With You” again, but with Neo this time... is just the most beautiful and awe-inspiring thing they could have done and I can’t thank them enough for it.

And the sheer joy I felt when I realized that this game had Another Day, too.

There are other smaller things, too. Like I’m pretty sure shark Noise start appearing on the day they did in the original (the day Rhyme got erased). And how Transformation--a song that plays as boss battle music against Sho--plays when you first meet him in TWEWY.

Neo really is TWEWY2 through and through, even though the developers didn’t want to call it that (so newcomers knew they could play it without knowing the first game), and I can’t thank them enough for that. What a wonderful world this was. ^_^

Oh! And the ending scene with Rindo and Shoka playing FanGo was the cutest thing I’ve ever seen--the perfect ending, really--and felt like it came straight out of a Disney movie.

It makes me wish I could rewatch all of this in one-go... except I can’t. Haha.

Oh, and of course I love that we get a new menu art, ala what FFXV did, where the darkness is gone and we have Neku in the art, too:)

...

And now onto a few tidbits of some of my million favorite scenes: 

I love that Beat calls Nagi Pinny. LOL. I love everything about Beat in this game. Speaking of:

That one quest where that one guys becomes possessed with Noise and is fretting about his sister and you fix him up, and Beat says, “I love a guy who cares about his little sis.” :)

And when you’re exploring the urban legends (that is very Twilight Town KHII, I must say. Side note: Stealth Sneak from KH, I can’t believe you made it here, too), and you’re doing the stair ones, and Nagi falls down them and Beat’s like, “Yo, Pinny. You, ai’ight?!”:D:D:D

I think this was another part of the urban legend day, but when that guy imprinted on that girl to just end her friendship with all her friends, since she was stressing about friends growing further apart, so he decided to just cut her losses. And Beat was like, “How about I imprint you to stick your hand up where the sun don’t shine, yo?”

Or in Another Day, when Beat says to Neku, “We’re not getting much screen time,” and Neku replies, “Let’s let the kids have it. That gives us more time to...” Beat: “That’s right: Tin Pin Slammer!” Nagi: “Those two sure seem to have gotten themselves into something exciting over there.” Shoka (I think it was Shoka): “Oh, they’re playing that game that was super popular three years ago.” Hahaha. I also loved the reference to Reaper Creeper with Rhyme and Coco, and Nagi and Fret being like WTF is that?

All of the character interactions are wonderful, and you know I’ll be making posts upon posts about them. But I love that we passed the Bechdel Test with some sweet Shoka and Nagi moments.

That whole scene where Joshua helps Shoka and Rindo is just the greatest. I keep watching it over and over. I love that he helps her in such an asshole-y way. Everything’s a game to him (though you know what? Maybe it’s also a reference to Rindo and Shoka meeting and bonding through FanGo) Oh, Josh. But maybe that was the only way he could do it. The Neku and Josh scene is also wonderful (he tried to help Neku after Coco shot him. He did... even if it was to lock Neku in Shinjuku for three years, because he didn’t trust him to blab that Josh was the Composer? I’m kind of with Neku on that one, “Oh, brother”. But it all worked out in the end, and the following moment with Neku and Josh is really special).

Though I really am wondering why he didn’t help more, and why no one thought to get the Composer for help... probably because he couldn’t interfere. Got to get those secret reports to explain everything, I’m sure. You know what? I’m sure he was actually pulling some strings behind the scenes.

Adore all the stuff with Rhyme. I’ve gushed about that in other posts. She’s so cute now! Always was. And I’ve so proud of my hacker daughter!

Shutting up now. And expect a million more Neo posts in the future. What a game. What a series! So glad I can say that about TWEWY now.

Edit: And I’m so glad that angels were in here, and that that plot got expanded on from the original!

#neo spoilers #ntwewy spoilers #neo twewy spoilers #spoilers