#i will actually post more ab my interpretations of A & B !!

[valfeathers]

i be like *thinks about L’s childhood* *thinks about L’s childhood* *thinks about L’s childhood* *thinks abo—

#l lawliet #so so many thoughts #so so many ideas #there were like 2 other pieces that i wanted to do today but i held back bcs i dont want to go actually insane #a little hint to my personal a lore too! #i will actually post more ab my interpretations of A & B !! #soon #but for now have the main boy #cheery right? #death note #death note fanart #l death note #this is what happens when u let me read l file no.15 #girl help v is wammyposting again #v wammyposting #v’s gallery

[glamaphonic]

Hey :) Had to say something because I appreciated your posts about the trajectory of Rick and Michonne’s feelings for each other so much. Especially Rick’s, because I think we are pretty much all in agreement that Michonne did not recognize it until the couch. The timing on Rick’s part has always been more the question mark. And ever since the I was in love with my son’s best friend line, I’ve seen so many people say that Rick knew since the prison (/even since the moment they met). And like… no. Lol. Was there an instantaneous connection and *something* going on there? Yes, obviously. Was he falling in love with her all this time and was already head over heels by the time the couch happened? Again, yes. Did he *know* that though? No! We can argue about when exactly, some people will place it here, some place will place it there, but come on, it was definitely not before Alexandria. Like, that he knew-knew. And unless I’m completely misrembering right now, really, from the time they arrive in Alexandria to 5x16, we’re talking, maybe 2 weeks? And of course 6A is only 2-3 days. So we’d be arguing over a few days, really. I *think* for me, I’d say, by the end of season 5, Rick has reached a state of clearly there IS something going between us, or more acurately, from me towards her, but not quite being able to fully recognize; like, until then he knew that he cared (a lot!) for her and that she was indeed special to him but by then it’s almost him being no, but what IS this thing between us, if you will. And it’s not until a few days later, so after 6x09 and during the timejump that he can fully recognize it. Like, yeah, I’m in love with her, it’s so obvious it’s crazy that I’m only now reaching that conclusion.

And about your post about Michonne, you mention 3-4 people basically telling her she is already with Rick and I wondered if you could say who you meant? It’s been way too long since I’ve watched those old TWD seasons to remember. Sasha, obviously. You probably meant Deanna as well? But other than that, I’m coming up empty 😅

Sorry sorry for the message ending up being so long 🙈 Didn’t intend to. Lowkey ready to drop a dissertation on Richonne at all times, apparently 😂

I more or less agree with your timeline, but I also don't really mind whatever timelines people want to come up with. I mean, I think the only things we can really argue are firmly canonical are that a) Rick knew he was in love with her sometime before 6x10, and b) them on the couch was not something springing into being but rather the consummation of what had already long since existed between them but was only then actually being acknowledged. Everything else is up to interpretation imo because the show is so allergic to relationship conversations prior to people actually being in a relationship.

re: people telling Michonne she's already got something going on with Rick

Sasha and Deanna, yes. Spencer also tells Michonne she has a life in Alexandria. When she’s hiding outside at that stupid dinner party (bcs the writers were desperately hiding her from Rick lol) Abe also pushes her to stop holding back from life. And special shoutout to ole boy from Alexandria who got bit and was telling her about his post-apoc marriage. He didn’t realize he was telling Michonne about herself and her relationship with Rick, but that is literally the only reason that scene existed lol.

#ask! #Anonymous #richonne #twd

[nofomogirl]

Metatron's manipulation step by step

Part 8: The offer (alternative versions)

Part 1 - where I discuss the significance of the coffee.

Part 2 - where I take a look back at season 1

Part 3 - from Metatron's arrival on Earth to sending the Archangels away

Part 4 - inside the bookshop after sending the Archangels away

Part 5 - at the table in the street

Part 6 - Inside the bookshop after the ineffable breakup (mostly)

Part 7 - the very last scenes

The breakdown of Metatron's manipulation I've written so far is based on the assumption that what we see is all that happened. I restrained myself completely from looking for any other reasons for Aziraphale's actions than what we were shown on screen. I hope I managed to prove that those reasons were more than enough.

As a side note/summary, I recommend this post. It covers pretty well how I feel about the ending and various interpretations of the ending.

But of course just because it all makes sense on its own doesn't mean I am 100% convinced there couldn't be anything else. Quite the opposite, I think it's very likely there was. That we haven't seen all the important bits.

So today I want to focus on all the oddities. All the little things that stand out to me as strange writing choices in that final sequence, and in some instances entire season.

The first thing that got me thinking, in that initial frenzy of rewatching bits and pieces right after the original watch, was the shot when Aziraphale walks away from Metatron and goes to the bookshop to talk with Crowley.

I'll just quote my own post from several weeks ago:

The news he got is supposed to be "incredibly good". And sure thing, when he talks to Crowley about the possibility of him being an angel again, he gets very emotional. But before that, does he look to you like someone who believes he has incredibly good news? We know excited and happy Aziraphale. It's really rather impossible to miss it when Aziraphale is excited and happy. You'd notice it even if you were in a different room. Aziraphale who gets up from Metatron's table and crosses the street is most decidedly not an excited and happy Aziraphale. Then he doesn't just blurt his incredibly good news out right on a doorstep, as one might expect. No, he starts babbling, and beating about a bush. It might be interpreted as him simply being overwhelmed. But from what we've seen so far, especially in Season 1, it looks more like anxiety to me.

Something was definitely bothering Aziraphale.

Of course, it's entirely possible he was simply conflicted about leaving Earth.

If Aziraphale had to choose between (A) Crowley becoming an angel and (B) Crowley remaining a demon, he would - obviously, because he did - pick A. (No, we will not dive into all of hispossible reasons now!). If Aziraphale had to choose between (A) staying on Earth and (B) going to Heaven, he would - and again, we know because we saw him face that choice - pick A.

It's possible that this complicated thing that Michael Sheen's face does when Aziraphale crosses the street is simply Aziraphale weighing his options. He knows he can't have AA, so he's trying to quickly decide between AB and BA.

(And of course, In a twist of dramatic irony, he ends up with BB in the end.)

But it's also very likely there was another factor besides angel/demon and Earth/Heaven, another choice to be made.

Technically, it could have been another offer, or it could have been a threat, but I think it's not surprising that the common consensus in the fandom is that IF there was something there, it was a threat. I, personally, cannot think of what offer could there be that wasn't actually a threat phrased differently. That of course doesn't mean that Neil Gaiman couldn't think of one, but for now, let's drop it as a dead end.

The first big question is what exactly might have been threatened.

What immediately comes to mind is Earth but I don't think that's very likely. If that was the case Aziraphale would surely bring it up in his argument with Crowley. Especially since Crowley explicitly talks about Heaven possibly destroying life on Earth. No, I don't think Aziraphale is conscious of any imminent danger to Earth and humanity until the very end when Metatron mentions the Second Coming.

That leaves either Aziraphale or Crowley. I can't think of anything else.

The second question is what could either of them be threatened with.

Theory #1: The Book of Life

It's probably the most popular theory, for the very simple and logical reason that the Book of Life is a danger that was explicitly mentioned this season and seems to be left hanging over our heroes' heads.

I'm not going to go into too many details since I've already written a whole separate post on the Book of Life. I'd also like to recommend another that's in a similar spirit by @the-meta-tron.

The gist of it is that The Book of Life very likely doesn't work the way we were led to believe so far and that it almost certainly cannot be used against demons. But the characters don't necessarily know it.

There's one thing I feel I need to share on the topic - for the life of me, I don't know what to make of the scene where Michael threatens Aziraphale to use the Book. This is Aziraphale's face in the short shot we get of him, and... well.

As far as we are aware, this is the first time Aziraphale has heard about the Book of Life this season. (When Archangels came to investigate the miracle in episode 2, they didn't use the threat on him. Michael only informed Beelzebub, who informed Crowley, who we haven't seen inform Aziraphale and it's probably safe to assume that he didn't.)

What is happening in his head at this moment?

Is it blank because of the shock of having something like this thrown at him? I mean, he's a pro at receiving extremely bad news from Heaven, but they were never about him and so openly hostile. Or are there gears turning at lightspeed behind that painfully neutral expression? Could be either and anything in between.

And then there's Crowley.

He's just... lounging. When Aziraphale is threatened with the thing that made Crowley rush to the bookshop in episode 1 to get himself involved in the whole mess he didn't otherwise care about. In fact, he's just there in the background and barely involved pretty much the entire scene.

At first, I overlooked it because there was so much going on otherwise. Then I dismissed it because okay, Crowley isn't really needed in that scene but it would be jarring for him to leave, so letting him wait for his cue outside of frames is a solution of sorts. But that's not really taking the writing team seriously, is it?

This is a conscious choice and there was a reason behind it.

Just like it's the case for Aziraphale, I find it impossible to tell at this point what is going on there. It's either a pose while in reality, Crowley's on high alert, or perhaps he has his reason to believe that there is no real danger right then.

Enters the theory that Crowley had already figured out something at this point, possibly where the Book of Life is and how to get to it, or perhaps he might have even stolen it already.

It's a theory I'm not particularly married to but I find it interesting and not at all unlikely. It would certainly be an interesting twist for Aziraphale to cave under the threat of the Book of Life, while the Book was no longer in Heaven.

Theory #2: Memory wipe

Another disturbing thing we learned about Heaven this season is that it can play with people's memories.

Of course, even before season 2 was confirmed, memory erasure was part of many popular headcanons. But now we know for sure it's possible and a done thing within the canonic universe. What's more, while we can't be sure of the exact range, we know it can be performed remotely.

Of course, now that the Pandora's box is open, the theories just keep multiplying. After all, the options are pretty much endless. What do Aziraphale and Crowley remember, and what have they been made to forget? Are Aziraphale's memories still edited somehow? Did Muriel use to be someone important? How many angels in Heaven have had their entire identities taken from them? Are there things that no angel was allowed to remember perhaps?

Book of Life remains a mystery to be solved, but I feel it would be hard to just drop it into conversation without being too obvious. I don't think Metatron would put all the effort into his manipulation if, in the end, he was going to just blackmail Aziraphale. Memory wipe would be far easier to use as a threat without breaking the carefully crafted illusion that Metatron is a good guy.

It also would make for an interesting parallel between Aziraphale and Gabriel. Both were terrified of forgetting their loved ones but ran from it in opposite directions - one away from Heaven, the other right into it.

Theory #3: Execution 2.0

Another thing that might make a good threat is some form of repetition of Aziraphale and Crowley's execution in season 1.

It didn't work the first time because they swapped bodies, leading Heaven and Hell to believe they'd somehow become immune to elements that should be their doom. They're kind of left alone by their former sides, but Crowley is not wrong in calling their existence fragile. Beelzebub makes it clear they could go after him any moment. Michael, Uriel, and Saraquel obviously feel that Aziraphale is still obligated to report to them, while at the same time, Shax points out he's an outcast with no protection.

If on top of all that it would somehow get out how they really survived their attempted executions, things could get pretty nasty.

If Metatron somehow hinted, no matter how subtly, that he's aware of what actually happened, that he knows there's no mysterious immunity, but of course secrets of Supreme Archangel would be safe... Well, that surely would be convincing.

And I'm not saying that Crowley's idiotic outburst in front of Gabriel might have been what tipped Metatron off but it definitely could have been.

Theory #4: Unspecified

Let me repeat - if Metatron threatened Aziraphale at all, I don't believe it was open. He put a lot of thought and effort into presenting himself as relatable and trustworthy. Yes, he probably needed an extra incentive for Aziraphale to take his offer but he had to avoid making it look like he himself is a threat.

That's why I think the most likely scenario was that Metatron just hinted at some general danger without being too specific about what it was exactly and let Aziraphale draw his own conclusions.

That brings us to another very big question - was the threat intentional at all? Did Metatron indeed subtly threaten Aziraphale into obedience or did he let something slip accidentally and Aziraphale picked it up?

I've seen quite a few meta suggesting Aziraphale knows exactly what's going on and has some elaborate plan for when he gets to Heaven. Some see Crowley bailing out as an obstacle, and some go as far as to suggest that was also part of the plan.

These theories are super fun to read, make some great points, and even greater fanfic material. But I won't lie, I'm mostly skeptical of them ever being canonized. I just really think it was mostly manipulation and Aziraphale got played.

But that doesn't mean he didn't pick up on anything.

Just like the fact he's simply confused and manipulated in the Final Fifteen doesn't mean he won't make a plan once he's in Heaven and calmed down. I think something already started hatching in the elevator.

Continued and concluded in: Part 9: Metatron's Goal

#good omens #good omens 2 #good omens meta #good omens spoilers #good omens 2 spoilers #crowley #aziraphale

[legobatjoker]

omg ok very sory 2 complain abt like. ppl badly interpreting tswift songs (not in a realteing 2 taylors personal life way i like. do not give a shit abt tht lol) nd ofc songs nd music r like a lot more personal than like show or amth so ofc ppls personal expreince will relate more 2 how they interprate the song nd how they relate 2 it but like this has been bugging me 4 agess basically the other day i saw someone say that "afterglow has the same theme/meaning as daylight just less obvious" and like. litreally wtf does that mean likee. even as someone w their own personal interpretation or way or relating 2 daylight like beyond tthe personal aspect of my interpretation daylight is v clearly a song abt like. finding someone who genuinly loved u despite past relationships or ways tht either of u have messed up in the past nd afterglow is a song abt apologising after messinf up nd hurting the other person nd not wanting 2 loose them bc of it (stolkhome angst song btw. like not tht much but like kinda like. yea <3) like afterglow nd daylight r very different songs like i feel like if i was gonna compare daylight 2 a dif tswift song it wld prob cowboy like me nd like def not afterglow i do not know what tht person meant by that its so weird... i remember seeing a dif postalso abt atw the other day that also rly annoyed me but i am NOT going 2 get into that now oohh boy (i prob will some other day tho bc it rly annoyed me holyy shit)

oaky i lied im gonna get itno the bad atw post its so fucking annyoing sorry 4 complaining sm abt bad tswift song intepritations but oohh my god way so like. the psot (it wasnt even j an atw t like barely mentioned it but the way it did pised me of smm) basically said smth like "atw isnt "you damaged and fucked up me deeply" its "i dont know you anymore but i hknow all these things about you that i dont need too"" and like. ohh my fucking god it litreally checked i went all the way to check !! when the op possted it bc i thought the person putting this on my dash is j ignoring this inaccurate line bc they agree w the point of the genral post nd the og post is from pre ten mins atw nd theyre j talking abt the shorter version but no the og post was from !!! fucking de cem ber of last year !!!!! like mayb 2 give them the benifit of the doubt they cld have j been talking abt the shorter version but like no one consideres that 2 b the actual atw after the ten min version so seeing as they didnt specify i doubt they were and j !! thats suchh a like. bonkers thing to say like. yes atw is a song abt being deeply damaged and hurt by someone actualy wtf r u talking abt !!! like ig techinically its not entirly bc it does sometimes talk abt the good part in the relationship but thats only bc its talking abt how remembering both how the reationship damaged you and the few good part are painful bc of how much they hurt you likee. omg thats such a stupid thing 2 say like sorry 4 getting so worked up abt this but its j so dumb omg -__-

ok i actually hadnt heard afterglow and daylight befoee this ask so i j lostened to them and first of all ur 100% right ofc.. and second of all rlly into daylight now currently….. ALSO uhhh yeah whattt was that atw post on… like yeah its ab knowing a lot ab someone who damaged u deeply and holding those good and bad memories and j remembering. so much. but its also like?? very much ab that person damaging u and ab being fucked up in a relationship??? yeah mann

#castle.answers #mewtuals

[itonje]

that’s fascinating because I know a lot less than you do and to me it seems

anti-lancelot agenda: the Victorians

anti-kay agenda: like... a lot of the major works

omg hi anon i dont know if you know less than i do but you probably dont i know like nothing im just here LOL youre good and fair warning for my arthurian mutuals or anyone else who reads this really this is going to be my own personal interpretation and not anything you should take as solid fact or analysis LOL also preface im not going to talk ab the prose lancelot here cause i havent read it and i feel weird talking about things i havent read LOL 

anyways i dont think that medieval works where kay gets humiliated or embarassed (which uh. is a lot of them lol) are really trying to say something about how they think kay is a bad person/awful character etc etc i think mostly he’s there for like. some form of comic relief? idk. i think he is certainly a punching bag character most of the time but in an affectionate way, while he does get pummeled a lot its not because the author is trying to condemn him for his actions because they view him as a bad person who needs to be punished its typically to be a. a foil for the mc (typically gawaine) so that their deeds look even greater in comparison (and even that isnt like..a constant imo like in the perilous graveyard kay is a foil to gawaine but its to rag on gawaines inaction and faults i digress) and b. said gag character. also kay has a lot of immunity in the texts lol, no matter what he does and how much he does suffer he does...always get out of it fine no matter what happens to him (see: him getting ragged on by arthur all the time esp in the dutch stuff but he never dies or is that severely harmed or anything even though he most probably should have) even on like..a grander arthurian ‘’canon’’ scale kay is almost always one of the characters to survive the strife of camlann and the fall of camelot so like. yeah. thisll make sense when i talk about lancelot and i will talk about him right now

anyways i think while lancelot is the hero of many romances and literature and who typically gets a more in depth look at his character than kay (but i also think kay one of the few arthurian characters with deeper characterization throughout multiple texts) i think that most of the time he is condemned by the authors even if he isnt said to be explicitly wrong in the text...like lancelot DOES commit many transgressions, far more serious transgressions than kay (while i do think that you are supposed to view knight of the cart as satiricalish/comical in genre awareness you know what i mean adultery is not the same as like cursing people out and then getting the shit beat out of you for doing that) and he DOES get ragged on by the authors for this even if he isnt ragged on in the text itself. like even chretien de troyes, the creator of lancelot (sidenote: do NOT debate me on who came up with lancelot it was de troyes it was him. this does not make lancelot not a valid arthurian character hes just a guy.) did not like him and while knight of the cart textually presents lancelot as a hero the author is condemning lancelot personally and metatextually in a way the author does not condemn kay 

and unlike kay, lancelot DOES suffer for these actions in the text, hes not immune in the same way kay is. in the post vulgate cycle and things based off it which i have actually read like le morte he cannot achieve the holy grail, him and guinevere’s affair (i will put this in big air quotes cause i actually have a lot of opinions on this but i will. keep them out sigh. anyways while i do think the authors of many medieval texts were not personally fond of lancelot i, phineas, am and i find his actions reasonable but this isnt phineasland so i digress) and his actions after the discovery of said affair ie killing all those people is what leads to the fall of camelot and the destruction of arthurs court. and lancelot is doomed to a life of mourning and repentance in the monastery, which i also think is a notable difference between him and kay in medieval texts: lancelot is typically forced to repent. kay is not. 

TLDR: while kay is typically ragged on and humiliated in medieval works more often, my opinion is that lancelot is condemned metatextually by the author and audience in a way kay is not. kay has a sort of immunity for his actions that lancelot (and to be fair, most of the characters in the story) do not. 

anyways to answer your note about the victorians cause imo they’re both two different things to talk about uhhh i really don’t get the vibe that the victorians disliked lancelot (im not really that deep into victorian stuff yet forgive me haha)! in fact, from what ive read and seen so far irt to art it seems to me like they actually were fond of him lol maybe even more than poor old chretien de troyes. (see: richard hovey, ea robinson, william morris all authors that seemed to write about lancelot often and really delved into and explored his character in depth, many times him as a sort of tragique hero)

 i think if the victorians had a conspiracy against any character it would be gawaine, he is very much reduced in importance imo and i think that DOES contribute to the wider western cultural perception of him nowadays ie that he isnt really that important/an archaic/minor character that only shows up in like. one text and we all know which text that is. 

to be fair i think the wider western cultural perception of lancelot is just like. medieval lit gawaine but blonde LOL anyways i dont want this to become a post about gawaine but yeah i think that from the victorian stuff ive read about lancelot they seemed to really get into him as a character and produce a lot of content for him (see, all the artworks he and gwen gets in comparison to other arthurian characters) so unless ive just been misinterpreting everything ive read wrong idk about most of them really disliking him, or even disliking him in the same way the medieval authors did. 

TDLR: i want to stan lancelot the same way that william morris stanned lancelot i want to depose him as the no. 1 lancelot fan 

anyways thank you for sending me this ask!!!! i got to think a little out of my gawaine box cause i usually dont focus on lancelot or kay and im glad i got to flesh out my feelings on their characters more cause of this 

#finny.txt #asks #anon #arthuriana #WHAT THE FUCK THIS IS A LONG ANSWER I JUST NOTICED AKSJLDGKL;DK SORRY

[echoedfates-archive]

↓

↓ ━ have you had any bad experiences with roleplaying?

I love this community but unfortunately, nothing’s perfect. I’ve rarely hard issues with mutuals thankfully, but since the question implies I should divulge, here’s three incidents. I’ll try and keep them as vague as possible, because I don’t want to start drama. Also, a read more because they got long... I don’t think any of the people involved are active anymore, but if I have been too specific or someone’s getting uncomfortable, let me know and I’ll edit this post.

1. Just how Camilla is generally treated at times. I work so hard to develop her into a multi-faceted muse and try to bring her more interesting traits to life, even the ugly ones, and then some of the anons I get... Yeah. It really doesn’t look like they pay attention to how I interpret her, but rather just how some parts of the fandom simplify her.

 I’ve had asks with CorrinxCamilla being referenced, such as Kana being her daughter, even though it is stated in my rules that I’m not doing that. And I have got an absolutely huge headcanon going into how I view their relationship and how important Corrin is to her as a sibling!!! 

There’s also the fact that I’ve found asks focusing on her sex appeal aspect when I’ve been inactive for weeks and like... That was someone’s first instinct on what to send. I’m not about to pretend that she’s a blushing virgin, but I mostly call on that part of her either when she’s actually interacting with a ship partner, or she doing it as a power play... And seeing the fandom reduce her to a walking sex doll makes me uncomfortable, so whilst the ask in question was mild, I did not feel great about it.

2. Never forget the time someone insisted on their muse being Chrom’s sex slave. Clearly the type of man who would have one.

3. I sometimes get paranoid about disclaimers and question if I need them. Quite often my headcanons involving other muses explicitly state “people who write the relevant muse are welcome to ignore this”, or yesterday I considered writing a disclaimer to Dorothea’s blatant Seteth thirst to specify that both she and I were (mostly) joking, as opposed to any intention for Dorothea to get access to those spicy dragon abs. I’d never force student x faculty/church on someone, but didn’t tag in the end bc I decided to trust that people would realise I wasn’t being serious.

It’s not directly because of the following incident, but there has been a problem with intentions being misunderstood on the dash. So I shipped my muse with Persona A. Also shipped said muse with Person B. Those two people actually shipped their muses with each other! We’re all friends! We’re all multiship!

We start messing around and the dash chaos was something along the lines of their muses bickering with each other over mine. Referencing the fact I ship with both of them. It was entirely IC, no drama between the actual muns and remember, we’re all friends with each other and are all in on the joke.

...One of them received anons telling them to stop policing my ships. An anon actually turned up to ‘defend’ me and specify that I’m a multi-shipper. They thought this was actual drama with our muses being used instead of speaking ooc, and clearly had no idea that we were all shitposting. I wasn’t on the receiving end of things, but when my friend got grief (and apologised to me in dms the next morning! When they had done nothing wrong! I was contributing to the dash chaos!) because of a misunderstanding, it kinda makes me think that I’m right to be paranoid and overexplain myself.

#archermights #so on the paranoia front #does this need a vent or drama tag? #nothing is current except maybe the how camilla is viewed thing #archersmight

[kihocrystal]

Spring 2018 - Final Impressions

Sorry this post is so late (again)! I had a *really* busy July, which really didn’t help at all. But anyway, here’s my thoughts on the shows that I finished this past season! All but one are sequels, though (and the one non-sequel was a carryover from last season)... Don’t worry, I’ll watch stuff like Megalobox and Hinamatsuri eventually! :’D

All “reviews” are listed in alphabetical order!

Amanchu! Advance - 8.0 / 10 (B-)

I liked season 2 as a whole! (Except for one episode / thing…)

QUEERBAITING SUCKS

I dunno if this is the fault of the anime or the source material…

…but this is still the most blatant example I’ve ever watched >_>

episode 11 didn’t need to happen!!! Why couldn’t Kokoro just… be a girl

or y’know, just let Pikari and Teko continue to “love” each other as they have! OTL

maybe why it annoyed me so much is that it’s like… a total bait & switch that went on for 2 SEASONS

to be fair, the reveal kinda went over my head? But when r/anime pointed it out, that’s when the salt began :/

yet the finale still has them blushing over reading thank you notes? It’s like this show wants its cake & eat it too

at the end of the day, the Kokoro stuff just… got in the way of Teko & Pikari’s interactions, platonic or not >_>

Also I’m one of the few people who actually liked the Peter arc

and it gave Ai some spotlight time!!!

it’s nice to have a little story arc to change things up (as opposed to an episodic structure)

(though I understand why many didn’t care for it… it leans a lot more towards supernatural than usual)

IMO they at least gave precedent w/ that one lucid dreaming episode w/ Teko, though

AND THERE’S ACTUAL SCUBA DIVING THIS TIME \o/

the underwater moments can be very magical… definitely the visual highlight

And the cast of characters is still enjoyable to watch too~ (def. a good group dynamic there)

Kokoro is considered a polarizing character for sure

I didn’t mind him that much until, y’know… his gender reveal led to the queer-baiting thing >_>

The finale was really nice though! It had pretty diving scenes and had cute Teko & Pikari moments~

In any case, this is still a very relaxing and heartwarming anime~

It has all the things I enjoyed about S1 here; it’s just the things added on top were a mixed-bag

Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card - 8.0 / 10 (B)

EVERYONE IN THIS SHOW IS BEING VAGUE AS SHIT

But at least the mystery is interesting!

It’s just too bad it took like… 20 episodes to start getting any kind of explanation :’)

I actually watched the original series through a r/anime rewatch at the end of last year!

(meaning there wasn’t much time for me going from that series to this sequel)

I enjoyed the callbacks to the original series as well!

(including going from *anime* canon! i.e. the 2nd movie actually being canon)

The visuals look nice! Even though it almost looks a bit… *too* rounded in comparison to the original

I enjoyed watching Sakura capture all the new cards in different ways~

Even though this season was VERY light on plot (mostly), this aspect provided the action~

Also I enjoyed watching the character interactions too ^^

But yeah… the lack of overarching plot development and VAGUENESS kinda holds this season back

that being said, the final episodes set up some potentially interesting developments to come

and the finale itself *definitely* was not a conclusive one, so S2 better be confirmed soon!

Overall, I still enjoyed this continuation for the things it did right! I’ll be looking forward to a S2~

Darling in the FranXX - 8.0 / 10 (B)

Well this is/was a… polarizing show, to say the least.

I enjoyed it overall, but certain things about it hold it back from a higher score for me.

There’s two main elephants in the room with this series, really

#1 is… the heteronormativity

this was basically from the get-go, and in the roots of the story / themes itself

since the themes revolve around male/female partnerships & the importance of that… Yeah

one of the core quotes being “a female and a male aren’t complete w/o the other” …Yeah, again

also the sex-like positions of the “stamen” and “pistil” while piloting also doesn’t help

the workings of this world’s society has hetero relationships as the standard and doesn’t really allow for other options

(i.e. the FranXX piloting, Ikuno’s female attraction not working out in both operating the mech & her feelings for Ichigo, etc.)

at least Ikuno and Ichigo got a scene to talk about their attraction feelings & make up somewhat ^^

plus the Nines are basically gender non-binary but are seen as antagonistic forces for most of the show… Yeah

and just basic hetero things (like sex & pregnancy) were like being attacked in this show (when it’s not in real life???)

there’s an image meme that’s like “no, Prime Minister Abe… this will not get people to have babies” (…agreed :’D)

sure, there are *many* ways you can interpret this show, but the fact that so many people have seen it as such is Not Good

#2 is… the show supposedly “jumping the shark” towards the end

the main culprit of this (for many people) seems to be the “suddenly aliens!” reveal in episode ~20

this didn’t really impact my enjoyment of the show at all, but I definitely understand why people would be disappointed

in a way, it does kinda shift the story away from the themes it was using prior to this…

perhaps the lack of foreshadowing was another reason the shift in plot didn’t go well

plus it tends to directly riff off of certain visual cues from other mecha (like Eva & Gurren Lagaan)

Those two main gripes aside, the directing & visuals in this show were what kept me interested throughout

music choices, visual choices, etc. just really made certain moments better than they probably should’ve been

I enjoyed the characters as a group as well (even if most of them individually weren’t anything to write home about)

Goro’s a good bro, Ichigo went through good development, Kokoro & Mitsuru developed as a good pair…

Futoshi ended up being kind of a fat joke to the end though (& it was interesting that him & Kokoro didn’t end up together)

of course, Zero Two is the one everyone loved (& I liked her & Hiro’s dynamic as well)

sure, some people felt like she had “no personality” after she realized the truth about Hiro, but I didn’t mind the change

Plus I like that this show had a… pretty good ending, actually! (All things considered)

Directing as always was on point, and we got to see everyone’s lives over time (& Hiro + Zero Two eventually re-uniting as kids)

I just wish the main group got to see the two of them again :’)

though I do wish VIRM actually got full-on destroyed instead of a “we might come back” ending :/

and the ending was also kinda like “oh yeah, all the Children sent away didn’t actually die!” ???

This show will likely have a legacy not unlike Guilty Crown going forward, but I thought it ended better than that show, for the record

But yeah, this show is far from perfect and has questionable themes. But I still enjoyed it over all for the things it did well~’

Nanatsu no Taizai S2 - 8.0 / 10 (B-)

Unfortunately, not as good as S1 (but I still enjoyed this season overall)

S1 felt like its own self-contained story, but this season is clearly a “Part 1” for things to come

I wish Diana had more to do this season… she lost her memory early on and STILL doesn’t have it back

she was out of the main conflict (& separated from the group) for most of it :/

she also had these WEIRD ANGLES & POSES all the time… the fan service w/ her was *Really* distracting

the only consolation is that we got to learn some backstory for her & meet her fellow giants

oh well, at least she’s met up with King again and is enjoying his company by the end :)

The Gowther twist is interesting, but the way they revealed it was kinda… underwhelming

plus that *also* hasn’t been resolved yet (like many other things this season)

Some good moments this season were centered around Ban

such as his relationship w/ Jericho, time w/ a resurrected Elaine, and the small arc w/ his foster dad :’)

Also the final Sin got introduced w/ Escanor! PRAISE THE SUN

he’s a fun character; skittish by night and INVINCIBLE by day

The addition of power levels was kinda weird

it wasn’t necessary in S1, so why add it now???

The training arc gave us a full flashback to Melodias’ past w/ losing Liza, which was nice (and sad ;~; )

plus the vs. 10 Commandments fight actually showed Melodias full-on dying? That doesn’t happen much

it was a brutal death too! Hard to watch ;~;

plus they even changed the OP animation to reflect that he died… now that’s commitment

of course he came back later on, but there’s a catch… (since he loses some emotions every time)

There were some good fights, mostly during the “tournament” arc

(especially Melodias vs. all commandments… a sakuga highlight for sure)

The finale had a good stopping point, but it definitely makes clear that the story’s not over

so yeah, unlike season 1, this season *needs* a season 3 to be worth the watch

So yeah, there were some good moments & fights this season, but as a whole, it’s weaker than S1

Shokugeki no Souma S3 (Part 2) - 8.5 / 10 (B+)

I enjoyed this season! Continuing on the darker tone that the first half of S3 set up

This plot line of Central taking over the school is still my favorite plot point thus far, tbh

in other words, shit is finally going down!

…even if many of Central are just mustache-twirling villains :’D

Erina’s gotten great development from this arc too…! She’s not just a typical stuck-up tsundere anymore

her backstory is definitely a harsh one. It was great seeing her gain the courage to stick up to dad!

We also learned more about Souma’s dad! :O

Especially about how he was seen as feared, and the pressure of success got to him :’(

along with how this backstory tied into Asami’s motivations as well

Most of the season was kinda a gauntlet of opponents for the “resistance” to face off against

seeing Akira turn evil (for a bit) was interesting, but it’s a good thing he turned good again~

we oddly haven’t seen a lot of the Elite Ten in cooking action yet???

The final part of the season started off the big Team Shokugeki! …but it only got through the first round

the stakes are definitely high for this one, and also seems like the big conflict of this arc for sure

it’s just, y’know… the season ending in the middle is not a good look, really

at least the ending wasn’t abrupt; it was open-ended but still had a sense of conclusion

All in all, a good second half of season 3 (with some of my favorite plot content thus far!). Keep it up!

#amanchu #amanchu! #amanchu advance #cardcaptor sakura #cardcaptor sakura clear card #darling in the franxx #nanatsu no taizai #the seven deadly sins #shokugeki no soma #food wars #Final Impressions

[ansatsu-database]

E-28 Horibe Itona - Character Profile

With just a simple new talent, I was amazed at how much better Itona's character became so soon after joining Class E for real. His tech-y skills are ever interesting to watch. It took a lot longer than I would've liked, but here it is, the last Student Profile. I shall post an "afterwords" of sorts later.

Sorry to say this, but I don't think I saved a copy of Itona's profile before the Assassination Classroom board on Baidu got totalled, so no link this time.

Furthermore, this time it's a direct Japanese -> English translation by me, but nonetheless, while I have endeavoured to keep things as accurate as possible, not everything may be successfully conveyed across

E-28 Horibe Itona (堀部 糸成) – discarding his tentacles, a comrade acquired

“I’ll kill you in the end … Korosensei"

Description

A boy who was sent in by a certain organisation for the assassination. He was transplanted with the same tentacle cells as Korosensei, but failed to assassinate him. Under the Class E students’ cooperation, he discarded his tentacles and began to attend class.

When he first transferred schools, he was observed to have an abnormal fixation on things like “power” and “victory”. With the power of the tentacles, he was an even match for Korosensei.

When he was young, he treated his father’s electronic parts factory like a playground, and as a result his electronics skills are masterfully second nature to him.

Code Name: Not for CoroCoro (コロコロ上がり/ korokoro agari), Yoshida’s idea

He mostly does it (machinery stuff) as a hobby, but Itona takes it to a whole new level. One time, he looked at the Mini 4WD he was working on, and the custom slimming is way too good, and its specs are way too high.

(TN: Mini 4WD here mainly refers to plastic model race cars that are 1/32 (1:32) scaled and AA battery powered without remote control. Asian kids of my generation feel nostalgic for this stuff)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mini_4WD

Explanation on Itona's nickname: it is so long that it deserves its own spoiler tags

Show

So, Itona’s code name, “korokoro agari”, is by far the hardest one to figure out, as every source and translation that I tried examining, across 3 languages, all had their own interpretation. But after looking at Yoshida’s Mini 4WD explanation again, I think I’ve finally figured out what Matsui went for.

First, コロコロ (korokoro) should be a reference to CoroCoro Comic, a Japanese monthly manga magazine published by Shogakukan, primarily targeting elementary school aged boys, younger than the readers of shōnen manga. It comes from the expression "korokoro" that can refer to things that are small, round and rolls around lightly, or that are plump and cute.

It has a sister magazine called CoroCoro Aniki (roughly CoroCoro Big Brother), published quarterly that target 30 to 40 years-old that are the readers of CoroCoro Comic magazine (nostalgia I suppose). As such, many series on this magazine were either spin-offs or sequels to the series serialised on CoroCoro Comic. Two Mini 4WD-focused manga were serialised here too.

Next, 上がり (agari) has so many meanings. Among the ones I believe could prove relevant, they include “rise/increase/ascent”; the “end/stop/completion” of something; the “after” state of something; denoting that something is of an “ex-/former” status.

Since it’s supposed to be something mean, my 2 candidates for his code name were the following:

“Ex-CoroCoro”, as in “no longer small and cute”; and

“CoroCoro After (Story)”, as in like “the stuff that comes after/goes beyond CoroCoro”, following the theme of “CoroCoro Aniki”, and in reference to his Mini 4WD going way beyond and his Ero nature.)

But giving it a bit more thought, I decided on the latter, but with a better tweak: “Not for CoroCoro”.

So there you have it. Hope I’ve got it right for real this time.

Birthday: March 31st

Height: 160cm

Weight: 53kg

Blood Type: AB

Favourite Subject: Science

Worst Subject: Social Studies

Interests and special skills: Electronics

Past Club: Electronics Club

Treasured Item(s): the soldering iron used by his father

Favourite Food: Paitan (White Soup) Ramen

Bento or Snacks: Snacks

Election Headline (from the 1st Popularity Poll): Shitamachi Rocket

(TN: Shitamachi Rocket was a novel by Ikeido Jun, now adapted into a drama. It’s about a man who gives up his career as a space scientist to succeed his father's manufacturing factory. Though the company is confronted with troubles, he strives with his workers to overcome them and pursue his dream of developing rockets. Apparently rather underdog-versus-giant themed, this reference rather fits Itona’s situation)

From Korosensei, Announcement of Results from the Periodic Exams (Main 5 subjects) (credits to young-il-long-kiyoshi)

While Korosensei can't judge his academic skills as a whole since he hasn't partaken any exams, he finds that his fundamentals are good. If he attends his Slippy-Sloppy Intensive Study Sessions, he should make good progress.

1st Trimester Mid-Terms: NA

1st Trimester End-of-Terms: NA

2nd Trimester Mid-Terms: NA

Karasuma’s Assassination Aptitude (graded on a scale of 6)

Due to the application of body enhancements, his physical abilities are exceedingly high. But because he had relied on fighting techniques that centered around his tentacles, his assassination skills are lowered. If he made full use of his manufacturing skills, he'll be suited to backend support.

- During the climax of the Bo-taoshi match at the Athletic Festival, his tag-team high jump with Isogai wowed even the Board Chairman. If he can learn to make the most of this astounding physical abilities of his, it should translate into considerable warpower. - With his natural manufacturing skills, he can create all kinds of radio-controlled models. Useful for reconnaissance.

(TN: I find the emphasis on his body enhancements odd, given that in Chapter 104 (which is included in Roll Book Time's canon, so to speak), Korosensei cautioned Itona that his body enhancements from Shiro are dissipating, which will result in his body returning to the levels of an ordinary middle school student)

Strategy/Planning: 2

Commanding/Leadership: 1

Execution (Ability to carry out plans): 5

Technique (Traps, weapons, preparations, etc): 6

Scouting/Intelligence Gathering: 5

Politics/Negotiations: 1

B*tch-sensei’s Fashion Check (credits to young-il-long-kiyoshi)

I wonder, before he made a return to Class E, did he coordinate his own fashion? Somehow his vibe now feels considerably different. Before he had put in a bit more planning, but now it feels like his dress sense has worsened, what with his casual style of his unbuttoned uniform over his high neck shirt.

With Tentacles

When he was under Shiro, he was always wearing a fluffy fur scarf, even during the hot summer. Maybe he actually has advanced tastes?

Without Tentacles

After losing his tentacles, the way he's always equiped with a bandana feels a bit out of place. His dress sense is also more casual than before.

Character Relationships

- Terasaka (addressed as Terasaka) -

Dissing Terasaka has already become something like Itona's way of greeting him when starting conversations. But because of such greetings, harsh words became soft. At any rate, he's his most trusted friend.

- Muramatsu Takuya (addressed as Muramatsu) -

After one slurp of the ramen from Muramatsu's shop Shouraiken, he gave it some brutal and severe criticism, but after that he unexpectedly approves of it. There are plenty of times when one just wants to eat some good old-fashioned Showa-era ramen without being super fussy about the latest craze.

- Yoshida Taisei (addressed as Yoshida) -

Their specialties are different, but since they both like machines, they hit it off right away. The events at Wakaba Park was the first showcase of their collaboration.

- Okajima Taiga (addressed as Okajima) -

He is someone who speaks of the will that's needed to be a man. Under the same banner, these two that are bound by a vow of sworn brotherhood exchange intelligence and clash their respective principles against one another on a daily basis.

(TN: not sure if I managed to encapsulate everything, but from the words alone this part is supposed to sound this dramatic, I kid you not. Even though we all know what they are really talking about with one another)

- Kataoka Megu (addressed as Kataoka) -

Together with Okajima, he persisted in his share of daily Ero activities, yet it is rare for Kataoka to scold him. Perhaps it's a bonus of playing the little brother character. In place of that, she scolds Okajima more than usual.

- Okuda Manami (addressed as Okuda) -

The way that Itona bluntly spews venom as easily as he breathes has Okuda scared from the bottom of her heart. Sudden eye contact alone will send her trembling like a small animal.

- Takebayashi Koutarou (addressed as Takebayashi) -

Whenever he goes to Akihabara to stock up on electronic parts he'll often run into Takebayashi, but because the categories of shops they enter are completely different, they'll just nod and pass by each other.

- Irina Jelavic (addressed as B*tch-sensei) -

While he likes big chests, Irina is outside of his tastes. To be exact, Itona treats the 20 years old Irina like something that's gone past the "best before" date.

Matsui-sensei’s Exclusive Behind the Scenes Data

Itona sleeps in a small storehouse that was among the few of his father's assets that avoided foreclosure. Housing an extensive collection of electronic parts, every day he spends time there earning pocket money through tasks like mobile phone repairs, while also continuing to endeavour with work that goes towards the assassination.

When Itona’s electronics work and the power of Ero unite, the bonds between the Class E boys became stronger.

Likes big chests, to the point that on his first day of transfer, he brought a gravia magazine and was absorbed in reading it. He is openly, silently, unspeakably perverted.

He’s silently lewd, and his potential perverseness rivals Okajima. In the past, he’s good with anything that comes with a big chest, but lately he likes chest that’re a bit more low-key.

#ansatsu database #assassination classroom #ansatsu kyoushitsu #itona horibe #profile #Databook #roll book time

[heroesarelife]

Replying and debate

@luzonmfjel asked:

Hey! About your quirk genetics post, it was a really interesting read on a topic I've been thinking a lot about too. Now all of my genetics qualifications come down to 9th grade biology so this probably doesn't make much sense, but I was wondering if it was possible that quirks were passed on like blood types, with multiple different alleles existing? Not about if you have/don't have a quirk, but more about what that quirk would be. For example, Todoroki. Say his dad’s genotype was Aa, and his mom’s was Bb. With A being fire and B being ice, of course. So put on a punnett square, the possible outcomes would be Ab, Ba, and AB. Ab would mean either a partial or full dominance of fire, Ba of ice. That would result either in someone having a quirk that’s entirely one, or mostly one, like Shouto’s siblings, and AB would be the half and half codominance that we see with him. Those are just the genotypes though, and the way that those genes would present themselves in phenotype could just vary. I'm sorry if that was less than coherent, just thought I'd offer my two cents. ^^ 

Hell yeah, debate debate. I love so much <3

Don’t fret at all, mate. Let’s see if I understood you right. Like as I see it, you said pretty much the same thing I did (?). It’s just that you chose to use different letters instead of only A’s. Using A’s was just a personal choice, not an avoidance of distinction between quirks. When I described Todoroki’s case... well here, let me just reiterate:

One way it could go is that if a child ends up being dominant homozygous (AA), then they should probably inherit “both�� the quirks - and how those genes would express themselves is another point entirely. It could also happen (perhaps more rarely) with the child being heterozygous (Aa), in which one of the parent’s quirk is recessive homozygous (aa). So here are the options:

Mother: Aa

Father: Aa

Possibilities: AA (25%), Aa (50%), aa (25%)

Or:

Mother/father (vice versa): Aa, aa

Possibilities: Aa (50%), aa (50%)

In that description, for Todo’s case, the father “A” would mean Fire, and the mother “A” would mean Ice (or their aa would mean Fire/Ice on the second choice). The possibilities are the punnett square results of that. Besides that I fail to see what the argument here is, as it seems like a pretty good sum up of what I described on that meta. Like, what you said is exactly what I meant in it, so I do apologize if it wasn’t clear and made it sound like I was talking again about quirk vs no-quirk (the intention was to had moved on from the quirkless argument by this point of the meta). I tried not to say which was Todoroki’s genotype, because I wanted to leave it more open, and give more freedom for the whole thing (it had inferences and, in the end, it’s a fiction thing).

However, if you do want to get very realistic I reckon that the correct answer for Todoroki would be that he is an heterozygous (Aa). And the second option is the correct one for the parents. That’s because, as far as I know, Codominance is usually a trait observed on heterozygous. Whereas Partial Dominance is a trait usually observed in homozygous (AA/aa).

About the multiple alleles point (ABO blood type)... That’s not the direction I chose on my Meta, because I thought would make it a bit overcomplicated, and also because I didn’t think it likely that quirks have multiple alleles (which doesn’t mean is not the case). But determining factors for quirk inheritance can involve maybe more than one pair of chromosomes, as well.

I hope this helps, I mean, assuming that’s what you wanted to know. Let me know if you meant something else /o/

@masterlazywriter reblogged your post and added:

Hi! I want to say that I am a biology major and your genetics analyses are on point! I’m very surprise your include epigenetic at the end! :o cause I was thinking about epigenetic for a while while I read it. 

THANK YOU! Epigenetic has logic for this situation, doesn’t it? <3 so interesting.

@roquelg replied toy our post “Quirks and Genetics”:

Oh, I love your analysis. It is very well structured. Only one question, aizawa is able to neutralize the alpha factor (the ability to use a quirk) the bullets are the same or do they work also eliminating the quirk? ... Thanks for sharing your ideas 

Oh thank you, mate! I’m that glad you liked it! <3 took some time and effort, so this feedback makes me quite happy actually :3

I do need to disclaim that the logic I used for the meta regarding the quirk factor is the hugest leap I did, the largest inference, and it may very well be wrong (regarding the relationship between quirk, quirk factor, plus alpha. I mean, the explanation was confusing and it may be that these 3 terms are interchangeably talking about the same thing, for example. There are other hypothesis as well, but I needed to settle for one to move on with the rest of what I wanted to say).

So, Aizawa says that Erasure “doesn’t attack the quirk itself”, then proceeds to say that Plus Alpha is a mechanism added to a normal human body, and that the collection of these are called Quirk Factor. And then he says that Erasure halts the Quirk Factor. I took that to mean that he affected the response between the Plus Alpha and the Quirk. A friend interpreted it as a neurotransmitter inhibitor and I think that’s a pretty accurate metaphor to how Erasure seems to work. If my hypothesis is correct, that is.

The bullets are a whole other problem. So, in the beginning we are led to believe that they cause damage to the Quirk Factor. In Mirio’s case, a permanent one. However, we now know that Eri’s quirk is that of Rewind, not really the same thing as a quirk that erases quirks. It seems that the bullet formula is using Eri’s blood/quirk to attack specifically the Quirk Factor and Rewind only that part of the body. In theory, the same aspect can be rewinded back to before the person took the bullet. So I wouldn’t say that it’s the same as eliminating the quirk per se.

Applying my theory, it would seem that the bullets rewind the Plus Alpha mechanism to either a time in a person’s life before they developed enough to be able to use their quirks (4 years old in canon), OR to a time in evolution where the Plus Alpha did not exist yet (?). This is all highly hypothetical though, so have that in mind. I hope this answered your question XD let me know if it didn’t.

@sarahhaley101  replied to your post “Quirks and Genetics”:

This analysis is super good and thorough!! However I’m not sure that Todoroki’s quirks is the perfect example of typical codominance. It is not just his quirk that has two expressions — his hair color and eye color do as well, and these multiple alleles at different foci are split right down his center. He could be a chimera! So, he has two completely different sets of chromosomes, not just two alleles at one foci. Chimerism has never been recorded in humans to this degree, but this is anime so! 

Thank you so much, mate! <3 This means a lot, I’m very happy with the positive response *was lowkey expecting to receive hate* /o/

Well yeah, but codominance is an expression on different cromossomes and in fact hair colour can have a codominance expression (and todo hair seems to be that). All in all he’s all a codominance isn’t he? I would like to point out that  heterochromia is not a result of codominance though. So have that in mind. All in all it might as well be chimerism, so I can’t say you are wrong. I mean, this is an anime afterall. I just tried to bring real world genetics to the whole thing so talking about that didn’t even cross my mind, to be perfectly honest. It is a thing to consider, of course. Thanks for introducing the idea, mate :3

@bakushima-ima replied to your post “Quirks and Genetics”:

Wait Bakugou was born out of a quirk marriage??? Did I miss this in the manga????? 

Awesome analysis though, I love seeing people analyse the scientific side of bnha because it's so well thought out and planned 👍

Why, thank you <3 I’m really glad you enjoyed it, thank you kindly for letting me know! o/

It’s not stated anywhere in canon that Bakugou was born out of a Quirk Marriage. Like, I use the term quirk marriage just to mean the same as quirk fusion. In canon the term “quirk marriage” means a social behaviour in which people marry just so their offspring would have their quirk combined. The fandom has been using that word to also mean a “fused quirk”, so the quirk itself is married, say. It’s just a collective choice, really. So Bakugou’s quirk is a “marriage” between his parent’s quirks, but his parent’s marriage was not a result of a quirk marriage objective (as far as we know). Two different things, then, yeah?

I hope this was your question XD let me know if that was not the case and I misunderstood :3

#bnha meta #boku no hero academia #my hero academia #i hope this is okay it felt easier to just do a big thing instead of answering individually and clogging my followers dashboard #the positive response was so nice #thank you so much #i love yall #amethyst is nerdying out again #bnha chatter #not a request #meta

[sinesalvatorem]

Problem 6, Continued

OK, so, yesterday I said I was investigating Problem 6 of the 1988 International Math Olympiad. The problem as stated is:

Let a and b be positive integers such that ab + 1 divides a2 + b2. Show that a2 + b2 / ab + 1 is the square of an integer.

I interpreted this to mean:

For any positive integers a and b such that ab + 1 divides a2 + b2, show that  a2 + b2 / ab + 1 must be a perfect square.

In the process of investigating it, I would up proving that for any positive integers b and a such that b = a3, ab + 1 divides a2 + b2and a2 + b2 / ab + 1 is the square of an integer. This is related, but not quite what I’m looking for. My specific reasoning was:

Firstly, if a3 = b, and a and b are both squared in the numerator, then the numerator is effectively a2 + a6. Next, if the denominator is a*(a3) + 1, then it’s a4 + 1. Finally, the result of the equation is a2. Therefore:

a2 + a6 = (a4 + 1) * a2 #divide both sides by a2# 1 + a4 = a4 + 1

However, b = a3 isn’t the only time ab + 1 divides a2 + b2, nor the only time the result is a perfect square. For example, I noticed yesterday that a = 8 and b = 30 does it.

Anyway, that’s what happened yesterday, so now you’re all caught up. Now, the thing that nerdsniped me for the past two hours: What is the pattern of these “irregular” solutions, such as a=8 & b=30?

I fired up my compiler and wrote a script to search for pairs of numbers like this, and I discovered a pattern. The equation is solved when a=8 & b=30, or when a=30 & b=112, or when a=112 & b=418...

That is, there’s a cycle. The b of one solution is the a of the next, with some larger number being b next time. This goes on for as far up as I checked*, which means there’s a long (I expect infinite) sequence of integers where you can plug in any adjacent pair and find a solution.

However, this wasn’t the only sequence like this. In fact, after I stopped thinking of these as “the irregular solutions”, I realised there must be a bunch of sequences like this. Let me explain:

The sequence I just discussed ({8, 30, 112, 418...}) doesn’t start at 8. It starts at 2. Because, as you might recall, a=2 & b=8 is a solution. So we have a sequence {2, 8, 30, 112, 418...}.

(The pairs you can form have interesting properties - the first has a ratio of 4 (ie: 8/2 =4), while every subsequent pair has a slightly smaller ratio [3.75, 3.73333 (recurring), 3.7321 (truncated), 3.7320 (truncated)]. Because the difference between adjacent ratios becomes smaller as well, I assume this converges on some limit. However, at present, I’m not sure how I’d find it.)

However, if you’re like me, when you saw that 2 & 8 was the start of a sequence, you thought “Hold on, does that mean 3 & 27 is also the start of a sequence?” If so, you would be right! There’s a whole ‘nother��“irregular” sequence {3, 27, 240, 2133, 18957...}. This also consists of pair-wise solutions, and the ratios also start at a perfect square (32) and then decline toward some (supposed) lower bound.

Unsurprisingly, there’s a sequence like this for every “regular” pair I checked (ie: pairs where b = a3), and I assume there’s one for all integer values of a. (Unproven, but conjectured strongly enough that I’d be pretty surprised if I were wrong.)

The result of the equation when given inputs from any of the sequences ends up being a square, of course. Specifically, a square of the first number in the sequence. So, for the first sequence I talked about, the equation always outputs 4. For this reason, I consider the first element of the sequence to be the defining element, so I’ve been calling each sequence Sfirst element. So, the first sequence discussed would be S2. (I expect there is a sequence S1, but that it simply contains {1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1...}).

The prime factorisations of the numbers in each sequence haven’t told me much useful stuff yet. So far, I can’t see a pattern that would let me predict** the next number in the sequence using its factorisation. Only two result really jump out at me:

The first thing is that every number in a given sequence has the first number of that sequence as a factor. This was intuitive to me so it wasn’t very interesting. What was interesting is that the third, sixth, ninth and so on elements of every single sequence tested are all divisible by 10. I have no idea why this keeps happening, but it does, and that’s cool enough that it might merit more research.

However, if anyone reading this discovers anything more interesting in the factorisations, please let me know.

Anyway, this has almost certainly all been a massive sidetrack from actually solving the problem. But, hey, I started working on the problem because it was interesting, and this sidetrack was interesting, so I don’t consider this lost in any way.

*I checked for the existence of all the sequences S2...S10, and several members of each set, and the factorisations of some members, and the ratios of some pairs. All those fiddly numbers and my obscure hypotheses are under the cut for anyone who thought this post wasn’t already long enough, or wants to use my results to investigate further.

**Edit: Shit, I only realised after writing this that I should just look these sequences up in the G-d damn OEIS. Sure enough, every sequence I’ve checked is already there, and has an equation for it. Here’s S2. I’m really kicking myself now. It’s a bit late to go diving into them, but I’ll let you guys know what I uncover.

Hi, extremely strange people who want to read even more math. Here is some more stuff from my exploration:

Firstly, here are my guesses about what might be going on here. Each conjecture has varying amounts of confidence, based on how intuitively correct the pattern seems to me and how confident I am that I understand the relevant math.

Conjectures with >95% confidence:

There are no natural numbers a such that b = a3does not yield a solution.

:. The set So is countably infinite.

:. There is a countably infinite number of sets S1...Sn.

All members of the set Sn will have n as a factor.

Conjectures with >70% confidence:

Each set S1...Sn is countably infinite

The set of all the sets S1..n (hence forth Sab) is countably infinite (for the same reason the rationals are countable)

Every third element (the third, the sixth, the ninth, etc) of any sequence S2...Sn will be divisible by 10

The limit for the ratios for a given sequence will be greater than n2-1, for any sequence Sn.

Conjectures with >50% confidence:

There are no solutions to the equation which are not in the super set Sab (bearing in mind that So is a subset of Sab., since the listing the first two elements of each set S1...Sn gives you the first 2n terms of So.)

For each set Sn, every prime is a factor of some element of that set. (Strictly conditional on all sets S1...Sn being infinite.)

If you can prove, disprove, or otherwise contribute to me thinking about any of these conjectures, you will win the prize of me expressing my gratitude by sending emoji to your inbox. That’s basically as valuable as a Field’s Medal, right? 💡💯💡

Next up, my method of investigation thus far:

The first thing I did was iteratively test loooooots of possible {a, b} pairs. Like, so many. Literally a million. Here’s the code that did that:

a = 5000 while((a > 0)):  b = 200  while((b > 0)):    if((a**2 + b**2)%(a*b + 1) == 0):      x = (a**2 + b**2)/(a*b + 1)      print("A =", a)      print("B =", b)      print("Numerator =", (a**2 + b**2))      print("Denominator =", (a*b + 1))      print("The result,",x, "is a square of", x**0.5)      print(" ")    b -=1  a -=1

This worked down from very high numbers to very low ones, testing lots of possibilities. The list generated included the original sequence of “regular” pairs (So, which contains {{1, 1}, {2, 8}, {3, 27}, {4, 64}...}. Unlike the Sn sequences, only the pairs shown as subsets are valid solutions.),   where b = a3, up to {17, 4913}.

Additionally, it generated the first few terms of S2 and S3, as well as the first term of each of S4, and S5. This is the point at which it was 100% clear to me that there was a sequence of sequences S2..n. (I then assumed a sequence S1 which is as described before the cut.)

In testing the numbers in each sequence, I found that the ratios of the pairs declined as I described before the cut. The ratios for the first couple elements of S2 are:

8/2 = 4 30/8 = 3.75 112/30 = 3.73333 (repeating) 418/112 = 3.732142857 (truncated) 1560/418 = 3.732057416 (truncated) 5822/1560 = 3.732051282 (truncated) 21728/5822 = 3.732050841 (truncated) 81090/21728 = 3.732050810 (truncated) 302632/81090 = 3.732050808 (truncated)

As you can see, it appears to converge. I’m not sure how I’d figure out what the limit is, but I’m pretty confident it’s >3.7. Furthermore, you can see that each ratio is lower than the one before it, which means I could discount the possibility of a pair such that their ratio would be larger than the ratio of the pair before it. This allowed me to greatly restrict the search space when checking for each “family” of numbers (ie: numbers in the same sequence).

My method for searching within each “family” was to take its initial member ‘a’ (eg: In S2 that would be ‘2′) and then test whether a*a2 was a solution. Given that it was, I would enter it into my array, assign b to be that number, and then take the ratio of b/a to be the largest possible ratio of a pair of solutions.

Then I would use the number I’d just discovered as my new ‘a’, multiply it by the ratio I’d found last time, and then check if that number was a solution. If not, I’d decrement it by one over and over again until I found a solution, and then I’d save that and repeat the cycle, with the ratio becoming smaller each time.

This algorithm, converted to Python, was:

stopper = 1 ceiling = 25 family = [5] for a in family:  b = int(a*ceiling)  while(b > a):    if((a**2 + b**2)%(a*b + 1) == 0):      x = (a**2 + b**2)/(a*b + 1)      ceiling = b/a      family.append(b)      stopper +=1      print("The ratio is", ceiling)      break    b -=1  if(stopper > 9):    break print(family)

#This will print the first 10 elements of S5. If you want a different sequence Sn, then replace the ‘5′ in family’s array with n and the 25 for ceiling with n**2

Once the difference between the ratios of pairs became small enough, b ended up being pretty much the same as a*ceiling rounded down to the nearest integer.

OK, if you’re still reading this, now is when I paste all the numbers I found in case you want the values. First, I’ll list the first elements of the the sets I found, with the ratio of the last two elements in each list. I’ll give the first ten for S2 to S4, and the first 5 for the others up to S10. Underneath that, I’ll give you some prime factorisations, in case you’re into those.

S2:  2, 8, 30, 112, 418, 1560, 5822, 21728, 81090, 302632       302632 / 81090  = 3.732050808*

S3:  3, 27, 240, 2133, 18957, 168480, 1497363, 13307787, 118272720, 1051146693       1051146693 / 118272720  =  8.88748219*

S4:  4, 64, 1020, 16256, 259076, 4128960, 65804284, 1048739584, 16714029060, 266375725376       266375725376 / 16714029060  =  15.93725393*

S5:  5, 125, 3120, 77875, 1943755       1943755 / 77875  =  24.95993579*

S6:  6, 216, 7770, 279504, 10054374       10054374 / 279504 =  35.9722007556*

S7:  7, 343, 16800, 822857, 40303193       40303193 / 822857 = 48.9795833298*

S8:  8, 512, 32760, 2096128, 134119432       134119432 / 2096128 = 63.9843711834*

S9:  9, 729, 59040, 4781511, 387243351       387243351 / 4781511 = 80.9876524387*

S10:  10, 1000, 99990, 9998000, 999700010         999700010 / 9998000 = 99.9899989998*

(*All ratios are truncated)

Next, here are the prime factorisations for some of the elements of S2, S3, and S4:

2 = 2 8 = 2*2*2 30 = 2*3*5 112 = 2*2*2*2*7 418 = 2*11*19 1560 = 2*2*2*3*5*13 5822 = 2*41*71 21728 = 2*2*2*2*2*7*97 81090 = 2*3*3*5*17*53 302632 = 2*2*2*11*19*181

3 = 3 27 = 3, 3, 3 240 = 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 5 2133 = 3, 3, 3, 79 18957 = 3, 71, 89 168480 = 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 3, 5, 13 1497363 = 3, 7, 113, 631 13307787 = 3, 3, 3, 17, 79, 367 118272720 = 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 5, 19, 37, 701

4 = 2 2 64 = 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2 1020 = 2, 2, 3, 5, 17 16256 = 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 127 259076 = 2, 2, 239, 271 4128960 = 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 5, 11, 17, 23

Hope that was helpful to anyone who actually checked!

#tragic backstory #math #problem 6 #long post cw

[scifimagpie]

Put a Cross on It: Christianity, Capitalism, and Appropriation

I'm taking a quick break from my series about sugar scams to revisit an old hobby-horse: appropriation and cultural theft. This nightmare of the left won't stop cropping up. People can't keep their hands or their inspirations to themselves, so here we go again. 

Ceci n'est pas un croix.

Why the yin-yang? Keep reading.

For example, it's no secret that Ariana Grande has joined the ranks of pop starlets getting flak for doing something in a weird/inappropriate way. In her "Seven Rings" music video, the actress and Disney Channel alumnus used the visual language of Nicki Minaj or Cardi B to add a little flair and flash to her style. 

Here's the thing - a white girl (Ariana is Italian; despite previous prejudices, Italians have been bundled into the artificial construct that always has been and currently still is "whiteness") talking about buying her hair, having everything, and draping herself in diamonds and consumables has a different meaning than, say, a black woman, Latinx woman, or another person from a similar background making those same statements. And dressing oneself up in the subtle visual language and signifiers of another group for the sake of borrowing their "cool" and prestige is, at best, impolite. 

But this kind of weird impersonation and cultural thievery - not exchange; that would imply some sort of trade and equality, or a voluntary element to the transaction - is common in whiteness. Now, I'm sure it won't escape readers that I, obviously, am white. But I don't intend this and my other musings to represent some kind of internalised self-hatred - instead, I want to ask, why are we like this? And how can we be better? 

Put a yin-yang on it 

(Or rather, please don't.) Anyone who was alive in the 1990s might recall the prevalence of "hippie" imagery spattering the cultural landscape. "Girl power" and other commodified phrases were printed on lunchboxes, jewelry, or bejeweled onto denim clothes. Among the various decorative symbols that attained prominence - the peace sign, smileys, suns, hearts, and a plethora of flowers and daisies - were yin-yang symbols. 

Now, a good friend, Joych Chng (Jolantru on Twitter) posted a frustrated note about white people using the yin-yang willy-nilly. Having studied religions of the world in a cursory way, I knew the yin-yang wasn't merely decorative, but had symbolic meaning in Taoism - but I was surprised at the thought of its decorative use being offensive or bothersome. 

A quick Wikipedia research trip affirmed what I already knew about its symbolic meaning, but also deepened my knowledge. Clearly, the symbol has nuances, and it's not just a pretty shape with interlocking curves. It represents several philosophical constructs, and isn't meant to be tossed about. The issue isn't all interlocking designs - after all, there are tons of Celtic ornamental squiggles that look similar, but don't have the association - but rather, that the yin-yang has an actual meaning. 

Throwing it into designs at a whim because it's symmetrical and attractive is a bit like plastering random quotes from "Thus Spake Zarathustra" or "Man's Search for Meaning" onto lunchboxes because they sound pretty, completely disregarding any context. (I'm not a Nietzsche fan, but I did like Frankl's work. That aside, you get the point.) 

What's god got to do with it? 

But then I asked myself - why am I surprised by this? Why would I assume that a sacred symbol needs to be confined to its proper use, rather than proliferating or being thrown around? 

Obviously, I'm culturally Christian, even though I'm a non-believer. I have grown up in a society with Easter, Christmas, and Biblical iconography in abundance. But part of modern Christianity interlocks with capitalism in an unsettling fashion. In addition to proclaiming and recruiting new followers to the religion and philosophies, Christianity makes use of branding in very strong ways. 

It doesn't take any work whatsoever to find something cross-patterned at a local store. Even completely secular items, like jewelry, clothing, wall decorations, and similar things will often feature either directly or indirectly Christian iconography. Anything angel-related or with a cross on it is technically making use of Christian iconography. A sacred symbol is rendered not merely prosaic, but ubiquitous - and purchasing and displaying goods that feature such iconography is accepted as demonstrative of belief. 

Let's sit with that for a minute. Someone who shows off their faith with accessories is performatively more Christian. Capitalism makes strong use of branding as it is - and the cross is just another brand. It's a way to showcase loyalty and affiliation - and more importantly, to demonstrate correctness and adherence to one's beliefs. But even though it's professed to be sacred, it's also completely acceptable to use in totally decontextualised situations. 

What's sacred?

In non-Christian cultures, the sacred actually has a space of its own, sometimes apart from worldly cares. However, remembering that other people don't just slap symbols of their beliefs onto everything in reach can sometimes feel vaguely offensive to Westerners who crash into this conflict of beliefs. 

As the poet Bryan Thao Worra once put it, not everything is meant to be known or shared. We were talking about Lovecraft at the time (Worra's work on transformative interpretations of weird horror is stellar; check it out) but it feels applicable to many other cultural topics. 

 "Well, some things no one on any corner of the earth is meant to know, other than that it's there to not be known, contradictory as that sounds." 

So if any of my fellow folks are going, "Oh no, what do I do with this beautiful thing that I now understand is Bad?" I would say - try to spend some time understanding it. Approach things from other cultures with reverence and politeness. Maybe you already bought the problematic item, sure - but you don't have to buy more, and you can try to research or learn about something. Recontextualise, don't rob. Find out what the thing means. We live in the era of information, with ubiquitous smartphones and internet access, and it is foolish not to make use of those resources. Even a skim-read of an article or two can enrich your life and make you a better person. 

 In the meantime, if someone says you should keep your hands off, maybe listen to them. It's hard not to be offended by refusal when one's grown up with a sense of entitlement - and even had that entitlement rewarded! - but we must be better than our greedy and acquisitive impulses. If we are not, nothing will change, and frankly, that would just suck. 

***

Michelle Browne is a sci fi/fantasy writer and editor. She lives in Lethbridge, AB with her partner-in-crime and Max the cat. Her days revolve around freelance editing, knitting, jewelry, and learning too much. She is currently working on other people's manuscripts, the next books in her series, and drinking as much tea as humanly possible.

Find her all over the internet: * OG Blog * Mailing list * Magpie Editing * 

* Amazon * Medium * Twitter * Instagram * Facebook * Tumblr * Paypal.me * Ko-fi

#christianity #taoism #daoism #cultural appropration #appreciation #education #woke #conversation #ariana grande #appropriation #here we go again

[whydoyouthinkileft]

I think I wrote some headcanons here that I haven’t told to many people just yet too

PLEASE REPOST, DO NOT REBLOG!  Feel free to add to any of your answers!  The purpose is to tell your partners about the way you write!  For the multiple choice ones, BOLD all that apply and, if you want, italicize if it’s a conditional answer!

– B A S I C S –

NAME : Ele ARE YOU OVER 18?   Yes / No IS YOUR MUSE?   Yes / No

ARE YOU SELECTIVE ABOUT WHO YOU WRITE WITH? No (anyone) / Semi (most) / Yes / Highly / Private (mutuals only)

ARE YOU SELECTIVE ABOUT WHO YOU FOLLOW? No (anyone) / Semi / Yes / Highly / (I only follow people I want to roleplay with. Also sometimes blogs with muse-inspiration things)

IF YOURS IS A CANON MUSE, HOW MUCH DO YOU STICK TO IT? Not at all / A little / Some / Mostly / Strictly / (OC)  (I go au about some facts that I prefer to think didn’t happen, I give my own interpretation of some of her reactions and lines she says that might have no canon confirm, I love AU threads and when I start threads based on the episodes they go off canon eventually because otherwise nothing would happen, plus because I write a blog and not write a tvshow with lots of characters I can focus on all her issues and develop them. So the result is a different Jemma, I guess - though it is fun that some things I wrote during s2 came true in the last two seasons. I cursed her) 

WHAT POST LENGTHS DO YOU WRITE? One Liners / Single-Para / Multi-Para / Novella (often the longest it is, the more it tames for me to be able to reply, other times I can only find inspiration for the one novella thread. I just know I can’t keep things short for long, I don’t like one liners, and sometimes I need short threads but they end up getting longer the more Jemma feels/thinks/says) 

DO YOU USE ICONS AND/OR GIFS? No / Gifs / Icons / Gif icons (whatever the other person uses. Normally I post starters with icons)

DO YOU WRITE ON OTHER PLATFORMS? No / Yes

WHAT LEVEL OF PLOTS DO YOU WRITE? Un-plotted / Open-Ended Plots / Semi-Plotted / Fully Plotted (I can definitely write all of these BUT really, it’s so hard to predict actual reactions characters will have once we are writing and specific sentences are said, that in the end I just prefer having a general idea and then letting the thread develop... even if sometimes it means that the careful plotting part goes to hell because when we write the talk they have they take one word wrong or suddenly decide to say things I hadn't plotted for them to say, and it doesn't feel true if I don't follow what feels right for the character on the spot. So 'we have this fight and then they part ways for a while' can turn into 'oh look she said I love you and they are together now, because he had a sad face'. That's fun too. Though I definitely enjoy going to fangirl in private chats and write about 'hey imagine if this happens' and discussing facts that don't get to be written in long-term threads)

HOW QUICKLY DO YOU USUALLY RESPOND TO THREADS? Very Slow (< a month) / Slow (3–4 Weeks) / Average (1–2 Weeks) / Fast (>One Week) / Very Fast (>Three Days) (THERE IS NO IN BETWEEN. I have threads for MONTHS that I can’t reply to but I don’t want to drop because I know inspiration might strike, and that I don’t expect people to keep up once I reply. Or sometimes I just gotta reply instantly or the reply is gone forever.)

WHAT TYPES OF THEMES DO YOU LIKE? (Feel free to add!) Fluff / Angst / Smut / Action / Tragedy / Domestic / Family / Conversational / Hurt-Comfort / Crack / Adventure / Romance (Hurt comfort turning into romance is my thing. Same as ‘friends who are family’. When it comes to action, I get bored after a while if there is no time for characters to talk, the tvshow has already so much actions anyway, what I'm interested in is making characters talk, develop feelings, clear misunderstandings, be happy. Exactly because the tvshow doesn't do that as much. Also tragedy up to a certain level because otherwise there is just no more growing from there, so it's complicated, I can't write 50 replies with Jemma trying to keep someone from falling apart without getting tired and sad myself, given that I already had too many threads like that and that it's dangerously close to real life, and I can't write too much tragedy for Jemma or for people close to her without them realistically losing any hope and chance to make it, so there has to be a limit. And I need the happy ending. Though it's important to me to have a bit of everything in every thread: humor, fun, hurt-comfort, some angst, lots of talking, some action -sometimes bad stuff happening and them having to deal with it- as long as in the long run it's clear that it's building something nicer and happier with less pain coming. Like okay, now that the danger is over, let's be all cute and fluffy, then let's deal with this emotional issue from your past, then there is comforting, then there is more nice stuff, then facing some other problem together instead of fighting. And so on.)

WHAT GENRES DO YOU LIKE? (Feel free to add!) High Fantasy / Supernatural / Science Fiction / Historical / Horror / Comedy/ Romantic / Drama / Action / Adventure / Espionage / Everything (this seems a lot like the previous one?)

THEMES YOU’RE UNCOMFORTABLE WRITING? (not triggers) No / Yes (I don’t write threads with one of our characters abusing the other - unless through brainwashing and even then only in a physical or emotional way. And I prefer not to write too much about death, about torture while it’s happening unless I’m the one writing it so I can get away from it if necessary. I’m very okay with recovery from it, though. Oh, also, I’m not extra comfortable writing characters who cannot be comforted, or refuse help for too long/until the end because I get anxious about where the thread is going, and also writing about fussy kids, as weird as that can sound.)

DO YOU HAVE ANY TRIGGERS?  HOW SHOULD IT BE TAGGED? No / Yes (Though I appreciate people tagging content non suitable for work so it’s not right in my face, and other triggery things in general)

– S H I P P I N G –

WHAT TYPES OF RELATIONSHIPS ARE YOU OPEN TO? Romantic / Platonic / Familial / Physical / Sexual (I’m a fan of friends or frenemies with benefits turning into romance in the sappiest way tbh)

WHAT TYPES OF PRE-ESTABLISHED SHIPS ARE YOU OPEN TO? Romantic / Platonic / Familial / Physical / Sexual (depending on how much me and the other mun plotted before, or how much we wrote in the past, so I know they won’t assume stuff that is not true for my Jemma)

DO YOU HAVE OTPS? No / Chemistry only / Yes (a bit of both, chemistry made Jemma/Ward and Jemma/Hunter and Jemma/Mace happen in the past and they became OTP too because I get super-excited about my ships)

DO YOU HAVE NOTPS? No / Yes / I don’t know (I’m not writing Jemma/Will unless plotted as a past ship that ended after the planet whether he was saved or not and only in verses where she had no romantic attachment to Fitz nor any other character - like when I write her ending in the planet in au verses where she is dating Ward or Hunter? Nope. Also Jemma with Coulson, May, Daisy, Mack, Bobbi? Nope)

WHAT IS YOUR MUSE’S SEXUAL ORIENTATION? Heterosexual / Heteroflexible / Bisexual / Homoflexible / Homosexual / Pansexual / Demisexual / Sapiosexual / Asexual / Attracted to masculinity / Attracted to femininity / Attracted to androgyny / sex favorable / sex repulsed / (very, very attracted to men - it’s a particular form of attraction. While her eyes find aesthetically pleasing some muscular, symmetrical men, and she’s very open to sex especially no strings attached, she also gets particularly attracted to specific areas - for example, abs. Or arms. And her attraction is given by ‘looks + what she can do to that person or what the person can do to her’, like ‘oh he has such muscular arms he could pick me up so easily’. Which is why once she starts dating one person, other men are aesthetically pleasing but not attractive, because half of what causes her to be attracted - what they could do for her or viceversa - is missing and she has no interest in them. Someone's personality can also attract her, if they banter with her enough, and then she'll find their bodies attractive too, though. Enthusiastically so. But most of her life sex was just one way to either have fun or vent, so she just picked men she could tell would be 'entertaining' for one night, especially if they looked very masculine but gave her the impression that they'd let her lead.)

WHAT IS YOUR MUSE’S ROMANTIC ORIENTATION? Heteroromantic / Heteroflexible / Biromantic / Homoflexible / Homoromantic / Panromantic / Demiromantic / Sapioromantic / Aromantic / Polyamorous /romance favorable / romance repulsed (she didn't really understand love all that well, and when I write her either she has never been in love before Fitz, or if she's not with Fitz at all, she still doesn't get well how it works and will need time to understand how she feels, both because she's detached from her own feelings and because it's just so rare and unclear for her to feel, the 'symptoms' are nearly the same as her friendship ones given how strongly she feels about platonic friends. She’s close to aromantic.)

ARE YOU COMFORTABLE WRITING SMUT? No / Selectively / Yes

HOW EARLY IN A RELATIONSHIP DO YOU SHIP ROMANTICALLY Autoship / During Plotting / After A Couple IC Interactions / Several IC Interactions / Slow Burn / Depends on partner or muse (depends on the ship, and what me and the other mun feel, and a few interactions to check if there is a spark, something about both sass and being nice to each other)

ARE YOU OPEN TO TOXIC SHIPS? No / Selectively / Yes

ARE YOU OPEN TO PROBLEMATIC SHIPS? (canon history, age difference, complicated, etc.) No / Selectively / Yes (depends on the mun and the plotting we do)

ARE YOU OPEN TO POLYSHIPPING? No / Selectively / Yes

ARE YOU AN EXCLUSIVE SHIPPER? No / Sometimes / Yes

DOES CRACK SHIPPING EVER HAPPEN? No / Sometimes / Yes (but only because I don’t write crack, if crack here means interactions that are just written for a laugh, I can’t write Jemma outside of ‘my’ canon)

DOES CROSSOVER SHIPPING EVER HAPPEN? No / Yes / Depends (it sure as hell would if I wrote with characters from other fandoms)

tagged by @lovelornrocketscientist

@tagging @siinfvl @desecratedpatriot @whiskeyandtwoshotglasses @secondchaircellist @marvelcusmuses @melinda-q-may 

#ooc #important

[adrienaline-rushed-art]

Tomato Soup and Lemon Zest: Sorry I Ain’t Sore-y

Rating: Teen

Chapters: 4/?

ao3  fanfic   1 - 2 - 3 - 4- 5

NOTES: Please let me know what you think!

Comment if you want me to tag you in the next update, otherwise check the tag #adrinathdrawingfic

based on this post

@samantha-girlscout @artgirllullaby @miraculouslyme @breeeliss @itsmegan347official @deadstache @tallsuperstar @b0n3-crush3r

Also, @yourfavouritekindoftrash  made a fic based on the same post, check it out under the tag #adrinathdrawingfic

Adrien had to resist grinning when Nathaniel entered the classroom. He was doing his best to appear natural, not only was he trying to stand straight, but he looked like every movement was torture. On the bright side his face seemed a little more energized. He could look a little brighter though, Adrien would have to remember to give him a list of foods he should eat.

“You ok, Nathaniel?” Adrien put on his best sympathetic smile.

Nathaniel stopped and stared at Adrien, almost as though he was afraid to talk to him.

He rubbed his arm. “Yeah, just a little sore…”

“Aw, have you been exercising lately?”

“Yeah,” Nathaniel looked offended by the word exercising.

“Ah, well, I’m sore -y to hear that.”

Nino took off his headphones. “ Dude.”

Marinette slapped the back of Adrien’s head.

Adrien whipped around to look at Marinette then back at Nino. “You guys were just minding your own business and now suddenly you're in this conversation?”

“Puns never go unheard or unpunished,” Marinette poked at where Adrien’s hair was parted.

Nathaniel chuckled, “I think it was a pretty good joke.” He walked away, barely suppressing a yelp as he climbed the steps. He really was sore.

Adrien turned and rested his elbow on the back of his seat, “Oh, and, keep it up, Nathaniel.”

Nathaniel didn't turn around, but he threw a weak, “Thanks…” back at Adrien and sat down.

Adrien spent the rest of the class period using the reflection from his tablet screen to watch Nathaniel- that is until Marinette leaned over into the reflection and smirked at him. Part of him knew she would give him trouble if he told her. At one point Nathaniel was called on to answer a question. It amused Adrien very much to hear Nathaniel mumble, be told to speak up, pause for a moment, speak barely any louder, and stutter frequently.

Once he was done, Adrien looked back at him and gave him a thumbs up and winked.

When Adrien turned back around Nathaniel immediately dropped his face into his hands, these two boys were driving him out of his mind.

Nathaniel whipped out his sketchbook and got to work. Observing Adrien from afar and learning the delicate waves of his hair, the shape of his back… every time he turned around - which turned out to be frequent - he did his best to capture that look in his eye. The sparkle that was so difficult and far too precious to replicate on a piece of paper. When class was over and Adrien faced his way to talk briefly to Marinette, he observed the distance between his eyes, the curve of his lips, the roundness of his cheeks, and the on fleekness of his eyebrows .

There. The page was covered in practice of everything Adrien. With time he'd know his face to a perfection.

Adrien whistled, somehow Nathaniel interpreted it as his name and looked up.

Adrien smirked, “You know class is over, right?”

Nathaniel nodded slowly, staring more than he was listening. Adrien laughed a little then waved goodbye as he stepped out.

It took a while for Nathaniel to get up. Mostly because he dreaded feeling pain in muscles he didn't even know existed, but also because of how confused and frustrated he was about his current life situation.

Here he was, drawing some kid who can just casually put his arm around you, stares at you in class, and is a supermodel . When he got home, he'd be obediently doing exhausting cardio for a sexy stranger in a catsuit he stupidly challenged, and by the end of the week he'd be meeting with him again. How does one go from single and lonely to two-timing trash?

Now, at least he knew he wasn't technically two-timing, since he wasn't dating either of them. But if he knew anything about anything, he knew they were both flirting, and he didn't find himself rejecting either of them.

He sighed. He had no choice but to see where things would go.

* * *

Dammit. Was it Friday already?! Nathaniel just wasn't ready.

Yes, he had done the exercise, yes he had made sure to rotate which muscles to work on which days, yes he had made sure to drink 9 cups of water a day - though his bladder didn't appreciate it - and yes he started going to sleep earlier. And as much as he loved being able to feel the action of lifting a fork all the way in his lower abdomen, amused was not a good way to describe himself as he exited the school building.  

Although, he couldn't entirely complain. He did admit that he'd been more alert in class, better at turning in homework, and most importantly… more inspired and efficient in his artwork. He wasn't necessarily ready to admit it to Chat Noir, however. After all, this was the sort of advice he’d see in a YouTube video for a “happier you” or whatever bullshit, and he knows he'd ignore it and laugh at it… but as soon as this asshole so much as smiles at him-

“Hey, Nath!”

Ah, yes, asshole number two.

Adrien smiled as he strolled over to Nathaniel’s side. “Got any plans for the afternoon?”

Nathaniel stared at his feet. “Yeah, I recently started learning how to fence. That’s what I’m headed to in a couple of hours.”

“Oh, that explains why you’ve been sore lately. Look at you, you’re gonna get strong! I’m actually headed to fencing right now. Maybe when you’re ready I’ll challenge you to a duel.”

Nathaniel’s face burned and his voice shook. “Yeah well, fair warning, my teacher is pretty skilled…”

That was his attempt at pride and wit.

Adrien’s smile widened. “I’m sure they’d be happy to hear that.”

“You know what? I’ll tell him. Anyway… see you.” Nathaniel lifted his hand slightly and started walking down the stairs.

Adrien answered mostly to himself, “Yeah, I will.”

* * *

“How are you feeling?” Chat Noir grinned.

Nathaniel wore a breathless smile at the sight of Chat, then quickly frowned. “Terrible.”

“Awesome. Now, you’ve mostly been working out your back and abs… maybe a little bit of your legs too, it’s time to let those rest. We’ll do arms today.”

Nathaniel groaned, “What?! My arms hurt too!”

“Sorry, Red, they really shouldn’t have based on the exercises you were doing. That goes to show just how weak you really are, and we have to fix that.”

“ Fine .”

Chat Noir put his arm around Nathaniel’s waist, which made him jump a little. “We’re going somewhere else today.”

Chat carried Nathaniel to a building he didn’t recognize. He was guided through the doors, stopped at the information desk, and pulled through an elevator door. Chat stopped him in front of a door, and proceeded to unlock it.

Chat pushed the door open. “Let’s see how good your grip is…”

“ What?! WHERE ARE WE?!” Nathaniel pulled his hand from Chat Noir’s.

“... A private gym, didn’t you read the sign?” Chat blinked at him.

“Oh… no I wasn’t really paying attention.” Nathaniel’s voice quieted.

Chat stood aside and allowed Nathaniel to go in ahead of him. “Geez, Nath, as much as I appreciate that you trust me… you really should pay attention to where someone takes you.”

“You’re right but… dammit you say such stupid shit sometimes.”

“Or your head is in the gutter.”

Nathaniel grumbled and immediately sat on the nearest bench.

“Oh no you don't, we're gonna get started,” Chat walked over to a set of low bars attached to the floor.

Nathaniel sighed and got up slowly, dragging his feet to Chat Noir. “Say, this better not be your idea of the reward you were talking about.”

Chat smirked. “Oh, is that what you want? Well, you did stick to your exercise routine… I suppose I owe you.”

Chat lied down on the floor in between the two bars. “Ready to do some push ups?”

Nathaniel stared blankly. “I don’t understand what’s going on right now…”

“Just put your hands on these bars and stretch out like you’re going to do push ups… then do pushups. It’s really not that confusing.”

“B-but, you’re... there…”

“Exactly.”

“Um?”

“Trust me.”

Nathaniel position himself to do push ups, arms stretched out in front of him and on Chat’s sides. He waited, paralyzed.

Chat’s smile faded. “This is the part where you bend your elbows, causing you to lower, and then push back up. Thus, why it is called a push up .”

Nathaniel grunted as he lowered himself. Once lowered to the bars, he barely brushed against Chat’s lips with his own, he felt his breaths through his bare teeth. “ Shit, shit, shit- ” Nathaniel’s arms trembled as he struggled to keep his body from falling. Normally, the easy way out of this exercise would be to give into gravity, and plop to the ground. But now something was in the way, and he felt a strong motivation to go up.

Nathaniel gasped in relief when he finally thrusted himself back up.

“Good… we’ll have to work on your pacing, but that’s a fair start,” Chat’s voice sang on the word good. He was put his hands behind his head, looking overtly relaxed, and flaunting his chest.

Nathaniel huffed. “I've never… done… a full push up… in my life… I always… cheated while the PE teacher wasn't looking.”

“Those days are over. 9 more to go, c’mon.”

“I don't want to, this isn't a reward.”

Chat licked his lips. “You do, and it is.”

It was true. Part of him did want to. It was a torture resulted from tempting pleasure. Nathaniel would have to lower enough to tease at Chat Noir’s mouth, but stop himself out of fear of actually kissing him, and raise himself up to keep from collapsing against his tightly clothed body.

He felt guilty for going with such a method of exercise, but it was working. He still struggled through the rest of the push ups, but they weren’t as uncomfortable as watching your own pathetic reflection on a scratched gym floor.

Chat continued to flirt and seduce throughout the room. For every pull up he did, Chat - who was seated on the far end of the pull up bar - would lean closer to Nathaniel, playing with the idea of a kiss, but would lean away for every second he was below the bar. In other words, he’d have to stay above the bar for longer than he was below if he ever wanted the kiss. He never achieved this, but he made plenty of attempts, which was progress.

There was a point where Nathaniel really, really, really wondered why he was doing this. He remembered again when Chat hugged him from behind and congratulated him in the end.

Chat handed Nathaniel a bottled water after his breaths had evened out. “That’s enough for today. Great job!” He reached out with his fist and met Nathaniel’s mirrored knuckles, “As you know, you can rest all of Saturday, and… oh, alright I’ll give you Sunday too.”

Nathaniel’s arms quivered from fatigue as he tried to close the bottle. “How long do you think it’ll take for this to not be excruciating?”

“The way you’re doing it now? Probably a little over a month.”

“Sweet Jesus…”

“That sounds like a long time, but once you reach the point when this gets easy it doesn’t mean you’ll be strong yet. You’ll have to make the workouts harder and do the cycle all over again until you’re at least in shape. You don’t have to get ripped obviously, but exercise is a lifetime thing, Red.”

Nathaniel’s eyes looked 300% done. “So what you’re saying is, I’ll have to do this for the rest of my life but it won’t always have to hurt unless I stop doing it for the rest of my life.”

“Right.”

“Uggh, why can’t fitness be a multiple choice question?”

Chat chuckled and pinched his cheek lightly. “It is. Multiple choice doesn’t mean all the answers are all correct. In fact it doesn’t even mean all the answers are possible . It just means the answers that are completely wrong and the answers that are correct are right next to each other. A lot of times, the correct answer is the really long and complicated one.”

Nathaniel glared at Chat. “What kind of Sophocles bullshit?”

Chat snorted, “Nevermind, you get my point. How about I take you home, Nath.”

Nathaniel nodded, but he was spaced out. He was getting awfully close to Chat Noir, maybe the ‘correct answer’ was right in front of him. But, he’d drawn Adrien in his sketchbook. In his sketchbook . That… that was special . What do you do when both options together make a long and complicated answer. Wasn’t this the point where you chose All of the Above ?

#miraculous ladybug #ml fanfic #ml rarepair #adrinath #adrinathdrawingfic #cass writes #i hate tumblr formatting it gets rid of all the italics i had to go back but i dont have time to fix all of it so...

[sarah--writes-blog]

Keith’s Galra Biology

Anon: (1/?)What kind of huge changes do u think keef will hafta get used to after he goes full galra? (I was reading your trio about it and wanted to know more ^_^)Personally, I think the eyes would be a big one...Like he can't see that well in normal lighting but when it's dark he has vision like a hawk! And then the ears too! Like he's more prone to motion sickness and the mice's squeaks make more sense...Then there's the problem of claws accidentally scratching everything and feet he's not used to!

(2/?) then there's the possibility of a tail, and getting used to that thing moving around and doesn't know control, and fur would be hard to live with when ur used ta plain skin!Especially when u hafta wear clothes over it and what if since his blood is different then it hurts his human heart? Argh so many angsty ideas!!! .·´¯`(^▽^)´¯`·. Another thing... you mentioned, allergies... Can you imagine if he was allergic to his own fur? Then that'd be terrible until he wasn't human at all anymore...

(3/3) so many things! Well sorry for nothing you! The post wanted anima so here I came to talk about sick fics ヽ❨｡^▽^｡❩┘

(cracks knuckles)

We have much to discuss.

I’m assuming when you said the trio, you meant Being Galra: Without You, Teeth and Diet. I have nine more pieces planned out for this series, and I wouldn’t hesitate to add more if the muse strikes me. I’m not gonna tell you what each of them is gonna be, but I will tell you that you hit the nail on the head in your first ask, and I will tell you that the next one is titled “Ears”. It just kept getting put on the back burner because I had requests I wanted to fill, and Being Galra was much more for me than anyone else so it could wait.

The thing about me is that I’m a selective perfectionist. Stuff that interests me and that I’m doing has to be perfect because that’s apparently who I am. And it kind of sucks. But in this context, it’s perfect, because I love Keith, I love biology, and I love fantasy/sci-fi creatures. Imma go down your list one by one Anon, we’re gonna have a grand ol’ time. This post is almost 2000 words long, you asked for it.

We’re gonna talk about the shit we know about Galra biology first. And by know, I mean what we can see.

Eyes. Absolutely, if Galra have night vision, his daylight vision would be much worse. And I’d believe Galra to have night vision to be somewhat canon, because of how goddamn dark all their ships are. Alternatively, since all their shit is purple, they could be seeing a different spectrum than we are (towards violet and ultraviolet). If Keith were to have that, he’d potentially lose some of his infrared and red vision if the size of the spectrum is the same. His suit and lion would be gray to him. I also like to consider the advanced biology option, where Galra are just more evolved and are better than humans in most ways. So he could have 20/20 day and night vision and see past the visible spectrum. But since he’s transforming and the human eye is the most complicated thing ever, any sort of change would probably warp his vision somewhat, making it worse than normal human and normal Galra vision. He’d probably end up with some form of astigmatism and have to wear glasses (can someone art that? I would like that to be art’ed).

Ears. Gotta give you props on this one for being more prone to motion sickness, I hadn’t considered that (me, a sickfic blog, go figure). I might wiggle that into the next piece if you don’t mind. I don’t think the mice’s squeaks would make more sense since they squeak in Altean? Mouse Altean? But they’d at least be a lot louder. I’m more worried about him and the ship. BIG-ASS SHIPS MAKE BIG-ASS NOISES. Maybe the other paladins would tune it out or get used to it, but he’d hear every little gear and crank moving in the vicinity. Not to mention, whenever an actually loud noise happens, his ear drum would have the potential of being completely shot. Again, he’d probably hear into the higher and lower spectrum. Something else to consider: ear muscles. We all like it when his ear twitches or moves to express his emotions, those new muscles would get sore fast. I remember learning to wiggle my ears, and they hurt.

Claws. Could we even call them claws? Maybe just nails? They wouldn’t come in with the initial transformation. They’d grow in afterward just with his nails. His nails would get thicker and thicker, and since I really doubt they have nail trimmers on board, he wouldn’t have any decent means to cut them without getting hella hangnails (and I personally headcanon Keith as doing anything he can to avoid hangnails because that shit hurts). So he’d let them grow. If they grow with him, he’d be able to adjust, and probably not scratch up things as much as he would if they were suddenly just there. It’s just like growing your own nails out, you get used to them as you go. This implies something interesting, though - nails are made of the same stuff hair is. This doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll correlate, but Keith’s hair could potentially be much thicker/rougher. Again, this would happen over time because his hair doesn’t just fall out.

Which brings us to Skin/Hair/Fur. This is the last thing we really know about, and we don’t even know all that much. There’s a lot of variation on Galra skin/hair/fur, etc. Ulaz has a lot less hair/fur than Thace or Kolivan, but that could be a personal preference of his. But he also has these white markings. The white markings could also be part of a Marmora thing, since Kolivan has them, and Thace wouldn’t because he’s a spy. But Ulaz also doesn’t have fluffy ears like Kolivan or Thace. There is no cookie-cutter Galra skin and hair/fur template that we could apply to Keith. But we see across the board that they have both. There’s a clear line on every Galra where the hairline begins. So Keith wouldn’t necessarily be sprouting fur everywhere, but he could certainly get a lot more when he already has it (interpret that however you like). Would he be allergic to this hair? Potentially. There are some instances where the body rebels against its own cells, and that would make life a living nightmare for him. Unless Coran has some wild antihistamines, he’s in for a bad time if he’s allergic to the fur. His skin might turn a shade of purple, and I personally like to think that different Galras have different shades of purple like humans have different shades of flesh color. He would probably lean towards a lighter purple because of the paleness of his skin in the first place. He might also adopt some white markings because he’s part of the Blades (which is also a thing I want to be art’ed). But the thing about skin is that your top layer is completely dead. He’d turn purple after a week or so, or he’d get incredibly itchy and exfoliate it all off in the shower at once.

So here’s Part 2. What we don’t know. And that can be more fun and more infuriating at the same time.

Tail. The only Galra we see with a tail is Antok, and we don’t even really see him. For all we know, he’s not Galra, and he’s just like Keith - a different species with a splash of Galra blood in him to awaken his blade. As fun as a tail would be, I don’t think that would happen. It’s not a staple of Galra biology that we’ve seen so far. But honestly? Give him a tail, I love that shit.

Feet. FEET HAVE BEEN BUGGING ME EVER SINCE S2E8. The suits on the Blades have room for what we could assume would be toe-claws, but the suits also have very decorative pieces all around - the eyepieces, the hoods, the boob-plates. Zarkon’s suit doesn’t have them. But Sendak’s suit looks like he might. Could it be a Blades thing to have room for claws for decoration? Sure. But I’d be willing to bet they have freaky Galra feet under there and I wanna see them bad. Maybe some Jurassic Park velociraptor shit, I’d really love that. That might necessitate a tail for balance, and would help explain Ulaz’s speed when we first meet him on the castleship. If Keith were to adopt these hypothetical feet, his bones would have to shatter and reform, or something like that. Do you remember that version of The Little Mermaid where it felt like every step was walking on glass? Talk to me about The Little Galra.

Allergies. The only one that I can think of that we can pull from canon is lactose. If we assume that Keith has some sort of Asian heritage (not really a lot of evidence except his name), and we assume that the Galra are very similar to our earth cats (again, not much evidence except the teeth and the fur), he’d have a really hard time with milk and other lactose products. But this is all assumption, so it goes in the unknown category. I’ve definitely played with the idea, I think it’s great, but there’s not a lot of things to back it up with. But if the Galra race as a whole can’t tolerate a certain material, it’s likely that would carry over as well. Keith may already have some allergies he has to manage. But consider the idea: Galras being allergic to humans somehow.

Other Internal Stuff. You mentioned blood, which is REALLY FASCINATING. Because bad shit happens when blood isn’t compatible. Even within human standards, the wrong type of blood in a transfusion can kill you. And I imagine Galra blood doesn’t abide by A/B/AB/O +/- rules. So I’d say the reverse of your idea might be true. His heart may physically change, but his blood may stay the same because otherwise blood changing types inside of him would kill him. Other internal organs, I’d LOVE to know about, but we haven’t seen any Galra sliced up and examined, and I don’t think we will. But any shift in any organ would be absolutely hellish to experience for our poor Keith. The same goes for bones and muscle. How dense is Galra bone? Do they have the same muscles as we do?

Other things I love to consider because I’m a HUGE NERD

Evolution of Galra. They’re clearly an advanced lifeform, I can only assume they evolved similarly to us from tiny microbes.

On that note, could they not be a carbon-based life form? They could be silicon-based, or any other element-based. In that case, Keith is FUCKED.

The sheer amount of food Keith would have to eat to keep up with this transformation, especially if he’s growing a tail and weird feet.

He really wouldn’t adopt any Galra mannerisms without being around Galra 24/7. In fact, he might stay away from those because he wants to prove he’s still human and part of the team in all that shit.

It’s very rare for species to be able to cross-breed and have a non-deformed child, much less an alien having enough human biology to birth a human child, assuming his mother was Galra and procreated by human means. That can link back to the evolution and the carbon-based life form thoughts. Legitimately tell me about Keith’s birth, I wanna know exactly what went down in that hospital room.

Galra genitalia, anyone? Keith would probably be infertile, no matter what junk he ends up with.

Brain rewiring for ANY of the traits mentioned above. New tail? Rewire. New ears and eyes? Rewire. If he has weird feet, he may have to learn to walk again.

Conclusion

This is why you don’t ask me about Galra Keith. You get about 2000 words at 1 am. I didn’t expect to write this much about one topic in one ask, but I had a hell of a time.

I totally left out some stuff that needs to be put into consideration. I actually purposefully left some thoughts out because I’m putting it in Being Galra. Is Being Galra going to be as comprehensive as this? Absolutely not, I just wanna put Keith in interesting situations.

Thank you for theorizing with me! If anyone else wants to yell with me about any of these topics or a topic I didn’t mention, please do!

#galra keith #headcanon #voltron: legendary defender #voltron #voltron legendary defender #vld #keith kogane #galra #being galra #alien #i legitimately went into carbon-based life form stuff #fuck

[cavehags]

annie edison after greendale

@swordwlw i was writing this in response to your post but then you deleted the post i guess? anyway here’s my interpretation

it’s july 2015 and annie has just scored her dream internship (since recently) with the FBI. DC is as far as she can get from colorado emotionally and geographically and she thinks it’ll be good for her. she likes the work, but socially she’s always feeling outmatched. the stories the other interns (nearly all of them identical 21-year-old white men) tell about their college experiences are fun to listen to and full of naked girls and fraternity adventures, while annie’s stories always fall flat. she realizes the other kids think she’s full of shit after her second paintball story and she realizes how she’s coming across - like a small fish in a very large pond who’s desperate to be liked. she stops talking about herself after a while and tries to imitate what the guys do, complete with the clubbing and the shots and the throwing up in the backs of ubers, but he efforts to be “one of the guys” never pay off like she wants, and she never feels like they want her there.

but that’s okay. before greendale, no one wanted annie anywhere. being alone sucks but she knows how to get through it. and if her solitude comes with much more bitterness and gritted teeth and angry determination to succeed in spite of everyone else than it ever did in high school, maybe that’s just what happens after you’ve spent so many years in places that don’t fit and you finally shake off the pretense.

it’s september 2015 and annie doesn’t want to go back to school. she knew when she left that this was it, even if she couldn’t say it. but her internship is over and it costs too much to stay in DC without a definite plan so she applies for a ton of jobs, all over the country. she had to sell some of her clothes to make rent after the internship stipend ran out, so she has one top and one blazer that she wears for all of her skype interviews.

she finally gets offered a job with a private investigator in new jersey. the firm is run by two brothers in their late forties and the main one annie talks to over the phone is so arrogant and slimy that she almost would rather spend another month eating microwaved rice and cheese in a bare apartment than work for him, but even a crappy opportunity is better than nothing, so she packs up her limited amount of stuff and gets on a bus to newark.

it’s december 2015 and the new job isn’t so bad after all. the bosses are sexist creeps, but the scope of annie’s job doesn’t involve much interaction with them. she interviews clients, processes the billing, and does some office administration that she actually wasn’t ever asked to do but their chairs are falling apart and someone has to. she actually is really interested in the work - she loves asking clients questions and following hunches that will guide the direction of the investigation. when they solve something successfully, she puts a little pink star next to the client’s name in the ledger and makes a note for herself to follow up with that client later for a job reference as soon as she decides she’s ready to move on to bigger things. at night, she gets to go back to a relatively spacious apartment over a noisy commuter highway, where she does sudokus until the commuter noise dies down enough for her to sleep.

it’s march 2016 and everything is changing for annie. there’s a client at the firm that she can’t stop thinking about. her name is jennifer and she has a tattoo in the style of a maze on her collarbone that annie is always trying to solve whenever they’re talking, mentally drawing a line from point a to point b until she catches herself and stops, red-faced. jennifer has enlisted annie’s bosses’ services because she thinks her own boss is stealing from her company, and she’d rather be a whistleblower with evidence. annie asks her questions in their information-gathering sessions and has to remind herself to be professional, to keep the awe and shock out of her tone, so that jennifer thinks they’re actually capable of getting things done instead of just gawking at her case. but it’s hard to look jennifer in the eyes and not feel emotionally affected.

may 2016 and jennifer’s boss is behind bars. she wants to celebrate and she asks annie to join her, never once thinking to invite the actual investigators (she never met them and personally doesn’t think they do much around there anyway). after five months of being incredibly lonely, annie doesn’t even think about declining, but she does spend an hour trying to decide if she should wear make-up or do her hair any particular way, because it’s been a while. when jennifer picks her up, annie bites her lip and feels her stomach do a somersault when jennifer tells her she looks nice. later she won’t remember the details of their night out, but not because she drinks too much - because she spends almost the entirety of it in her own head, working through the fact that she is definitely in love with this former client.

june 2016 and annie and jennifer kiss for the first time in the theater while ghostbusters is playing. annie initiates it and when she draws back she forgets to keep her voice low and asks at full volume, “was that okay?” jennifer’s eyes are surprised but her smile is undoubtedly content. she wipes popcorn butter off her hands and touches annie’s hair, softly, making annie’s heart do another flip.

august 2016 and annie realizes that it wasn’t just sex with jeff that didn’t appeal to her.

october 2016 and annie and jennifer are in the middle of a passive-aggressive argument about who should take the responsibility for driving the other one to work when annie unexpectedly bursts into tears from frustration. she didn’t realize she was about to cry leading up to this moment, so she waves jennifer away and rejects any attempts to comfort her until she can sort out her own feelings. it’s the election, it’s the shitty job working for exhausting men who never acknowledge her work, it’s the fact that she’s leaning on this one (admittedly pretty terrific) woman for all of her social needs in a city she doesn’t like. she’s happy with her relationship but she’s not happy. it takes her a few weeks to figure all this out and when she does, she cushions it in apologies as she relays it to her girlfriend, saying over and over that she wishes she just knew what to do.

it’s december 2016 and annie and jennifer are over. annie needs her career to come first now, or so she tells herself while she’s trying not to cry on her flight to boston. it is different than last time she moved because she does not have a job lined up yet, but she has a contact there, a client from the investigator’s office who works for massachusetts general hospital. she liked annie, even told annie in certain terms that she wished annie was working for her, and when annie called her and said she was leaving, mrs. galavey invited her to come see the hospital and see what appeals to her. it’s a gamble, following such a preliminary lead, but annie has her sights set on being less lonely and living somewhere that feels more navigable than newark, and boston is as good a place to try things out as any.

it’s february 2016 and the best perk to working in a hospital is the subsidized therapy. talking to someone once a week has helped her cut down on the crying and feeling sorry for herself that made her feel like such a failure in newark. on top of that, working in an office with lots of other people her age and eating in a cafeteria every day makes her feel less like she’s all on her own. she makes friends. the first day she signs a birthday card for a co-worker, she can’t stop smiling for twenty minutes.

march 2016 and annie doesn’t know where she’s going next. she’s content for now, doing work she thinks makes a difference and very tentatively flirting with a nurse she sees in the cafeteria sometimes who has a purple streak in her hair. the nurse’s name is elise and she runs an employee affinity group for LGBT employees, and annie has marked the date and location of their next meeting on her calendar, posted in her cube, written in the one purple gel pen she managed to hang on to from greendale. elise’s purple hair reminds her of another social activist she knew and she thinks she’ll skype britta sometime soon, maybe to tell her about jennifer and moving on from jennifer and to ask britta what she’s up to these days, whether she’d like to come for a visit. she emails with frankie and abed occasionally too, exchanging memes and quick snapshots of their respective lives away from colorado. she knows they were worried about her for a while while she was in DC and then in new jersey and she hopes they feel good about her chances now, her ability to succeed on her own. she feels better about her own chances, anyway.

#asodgihpoasih i hope this is decent #og post

[somecrummyblog]

ChocolateBox is here!

Hello there!

Thank you so much for writing me a story for one of the below fandoms of my heart!

I’m not sure if lots of prompts are a good or a bad thing, so I’ve tried to be helpful without being overwhelming, by including a list below of prompts I like, a lost of my ‘dealbreaking’ do-not-wants, and just a few lines about each fandom. If you’d like something more specific, please do ask the mods to contact me and I’m more than happy to provide more prompts/ideas or to answer any questions!

Some tropes I love

against all odds

altered states (of the mind)

amnesia

bodyswap

celebratory kiss

chosen family

coming out (of the closet)

curtainfic

epistolary

fake relationship

first time / last time

food and cooking

fork in the road

futurefic

genderswap (eg: as in, Outlander’s Jamie was born female, while Claire was born male)

handcuffed / bound together

huddle for warmth / bed sharing

immortality / reincarnation

in Another Man’s Shoes

meet the parents / family

presumed dead

reunion

road trip

role reversal

soulmates

telepathy / mindmeld

time travel

trapped in a dream

twenty-four hours to live

unexpected friendship

unrequited (but actually requited) love / pining

Deal with the Devil

Hurt/comfort

Art initiates life

Perspective flip

Happy ending

fluff

Do Not Wants

BDSM, dom/sub

A/B/O

non-canonical rape and/or dubious consent

canon-inappropriate violence/gore

Infidelity (with RPF, I’m happy for real-life families to be excised completely in order to avoid this - a spouseless AU, I guess)

Relationships with huge power imbalances and/or where one partner is left unsatisifed emotionally and/or sexually (please see my Star Wars Prequel Trilogy request below for an example of the former).

The Fandoms

Outlander (TV) Claire Beauchamp/Jaime Fraser

I just love this show! Time travel has always been one of those tropes I can’t get enough of (see list above), and I love that Claire and Jamie came to this relationship with strengths and weaknesses that compliment each other. Do I love the fact Jamie is a complete, wish-fulfillment fantasy of Incredibly Hot SNAG With Great Abs Who Is Damaged But Strong And Loves You For Who You Are? Damn right I do!

I’d love to see some romance between these two - both angst and/or smut work for me! Especially as a female viewer, I love the fact that Jamie is always so keen to make sure that Claire enjoys their lovemaking. I also like how he’s equally as naked as Claire is onscreen. Feminism for the Win!

Life on Mars (UK TV) Sam Tyler/Gene Hunt

Again, I just love time travel as a trope! Especially when it’s done well. Am I open to an interpretation of the canon wherein Sam doesn’t actually wake from his coma (after somehow having life-saving brain surgery without any of his hair having to be removed), only to throw himself off a building to get back to his fever dream? Damn right!

I’d love to see some Sam/Gene slash, if you’re up for writing it, please. I think Sam is an expert at repressing his emotions, for the most part, but I think Gene is ever better at it, burying everything under that gruff exterior. I’d love to see a moment (or however many you’d like!) wherein Sam is offered a glimpse into the man underneath Gene’s tough exterior.

Terminator/Terminator 2: Judgement Day/Terminator: Genisys (1984/1991/2015) Kyle Reese/Sarah Connor; Sarah Connor/Kyle Reese & John Connor; Sarah Connor & John Connor; Kyle Reese & John Connor; John Connor & The Terminator (T2); Sarah Connor & Kyle Reese & Pops (Genisys).

Yes, more time travel! Boy, I really do love this trope, don’t I?

I love any iteration of Kyle and Sarah, to be honest, and was always sad that their original iterations in Terminator (1984) only had such a short period of time together. Damnit, did Kyle really have to die?!

So, even though Genisys was infuriating in how it didn’t explain who or what sent Pops back in time, I’m glad that Sarah and Kyle have more time together now. I’d love to see some Sarah/Kyle shipfic (set in either the original films or Genisys, or both, or a mix of the two), or some fic wherein their relationships with Pops (in Genisys) or John (in either the original timeline, Genisys when John is either an adult or a child, or a mix of the two timelines) are explored.

I also really love the bond between the reprogrammed T-800 Terminator sent back in time and Edward Furlong!John Connor in T2, so would love to see some genfic featuring them, either during the events of the film (or in some missing scenes), or a “what if?” fic wherein the T-800 survives thew events of the film.

Jessica Jones (TV) Jessica Jones/Trish Walker; Jessica Jones & Trish Walker & Malcolm Ducasse

I love Jess and Trish’s bond! I love them as literal found/chosen family BFFs and I’m also happy with them as full-on romantic life partners.

I just loved the fact that two strong women were the centre of a TV series where men were certainly featured, but neither Jess’s relationship with Luke nor Trish’s relationship with Simpson were the main focus. Whole episodes went by where these relationships weren’t even mentioned.

Jess and Trish’s bond was very much front and centre: Trish is the only person Jess trusts. What was their childhood like together? Does Jess move back in to Trish’s place? How did the girls first become close? It’s obvious Trish helped Jess recover from her trauma with Kilgrave: what went on there? How do the girls help each other after Kilgrave is killed?

I also really love Malcolm’s character, and how he is there to help Jess answer her calling to be the amazing person she is and helping people, even when her own strength is at a low ebb. Just as she was with him. How do these three go forth as a little family and with Jess’s PI business after the end of the first series?

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid RPF/Post-Classical Hollywood RPF Robert Redford/Paul Newman; Robert Redford & Paul Newman

Do I love Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting waaaaay too much? Oh, yes. And the chemistry between Robert Redford and Paul Newman has a hell of a lot to do with my love of these films. If only they’d made more movies together!

I love that these guys were BFFs in real life, too, but do I ship them? Damn right! I’d love to see some romantic slash between these two, but genfic with them as chosen family besties would also be good. What did they get up to on the sets of their films? How did they first become close friends? When did they first fall in love?

I’d be thrilled with anything you come up with! As above, please feel free to consider your story a wifeless/familyless AU if you’re writing slash.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) Butch Cassidy/the Sundance Kid

As above, do I love Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting waaaaay too much? Oh, yes. 

I’d love to see anything at all with these two characters, including a fix-it where they actually survive the end of the film (with or without injury), or something with them from before the film’s events. How did they meet? How did they get together? When did each know they would be stuck to the other man’s side for the long haul?

The Sting (1973) Henry Gondorff/Johnny Hooker

Do I love Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting waaaaay too much? Oh, yes.

As with Butch and Sundance, I’d love to see anything with these two characters, especially to see what they get up to after the film’s events. 

Do they stay together as conmen? Do they get together? How do they get together? Do they play a lot of cards and sit around an drink a lot of alcohol or do they just get rich swindling bad guys and buy their own private island?

Are they in fact reincarnations of Butch and Sundance? Do they realise or not realise this? Does one know and the other doesn’t? Was Henry Sundance the last time around, and Johnny was Butch Cassidy? Is this why Henry has the moustache this time? Do they go and see a movie or read a book about Butch and Sundance?

Star Wars Prequel Trilogy Obi-Wan Kenobi/Qui-Gon Jinn

Oh, these two! I have loved this ship for a very long time indeed. I was about 11 or 12 when this movie first came out (*gigglesnort*), and actually saw it with my grandmother of all people, so I couldn’t quite work out why I was so teary when Qui-Gon died in Obi-Wan’s arms, gently touching Obi-Wan’s face. 

Even at that age, I knew the film was sub-par. I knew that Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor (as well as the rest of the cast and crew) were gracing the script with talent and effort it didn’t deserve. I knew Neeson and McGregor were bringing a depth to that relationship that the script couldn’t by itself. I was also yet to discover slash, so I wasn’t sure if I should feel a bit guilty for assuming these two men were in love. But I sensed the characters loved each other deeply, even if they hadn’t had a chance to act upon those feelings, or even fully realise them, especially as Obi-Wan was so young and Qui-Gon’s life was cut senselessly short.

Neeson’s Qui-Gon also seemed very honourable, and therefore really didn’t seem the type of person to act upon an attraction wherein he held all the power and authority in the relationship in question. But I did wonder if Qui-Gon would accept Obi-Wan’s advances once Obi-Wan was no longer his padawan. And if Qui-Gon gently, lovingly stroking Obi-Wan’s face as he was dying in Obi-Wan’s arms, and entrusting him with what Qui-Gon saw as an essentially important mission (to save and train Anakin to be a Jedi) for the fate of the universe, showed the true depth of Qui-Gon’s feelings for his padawan. 

Qui-Gon evidently believed in Obi-Wan’s strengths and abilities as a Jedi and as a honourable man. He evidently loved him, too: Qui-Gon died battling Darth Maul, fighting at Obi-Wan’s side, watching his back. And those feelings were obviously returned: Obi-Wan was devastated by Qui-Gon’s death, and went after Maul in a fit of rage in revenge. He also took on the training of Anakin, and one has to wonder if Obi-Wan’s grief blinded him to Anakin’s troubles.

So I would love to see a fix-it where Qui-Gon survives (injured or not) the end of Episode I, and he and Obi-Wan have more time together. I would request that they not become lovers until Obi-Wan is no longer Qui-Gon’s padawan, though, please: any abuse of power in relationships (even if padawan!Obi-Wan is head over heels for Qui-Gon) is an major DNW of mine.

Thank you so much! :-)