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angorith-arts · 1 year

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The Hidden World Was Aesthetically Disconnected from the Other HTTYD Films: an essay no one asked for

Ok ok I know this is an art blog and I’m going off the rails a bit with this but I think it must be said: HTTYD The Hidden World was not animated in the same style as the other two films, and it has bothered me for a long time. We have all talked at length about the slow but significant dog-ification of Toothless that accompanied his dying character and personality (rip wild catlike Toothless), but I want to discuss the aesthetics of the films as a whole, discounting most changes to character designs themselves (except for one at the end because the light fury is to blame for all of this actually).

But angorith, you may very well ask, how can you say the animation is worse than the previous films when we got such breathtaking scenery as the hidden world and New Berk? To that I reply, the animation isn’t worse, its just not fitting in with the rest of the films.

Let’s take, for example, the first film. The animation style was thoroughly textured and gritty (partially due to technical limitations of CGI in the early 2000s but the animators leaned into it and I think it worked in their benefit due to the fact that they were animating gritty things like dragons and Vikings), creating a stylized but believable world of outdoorsy people and wild dragons. The dragons, specifically, were beautifully and realistically textured, with rough, detailed scales that made them feel believable despite being stylized in the manner of the film. The fur textures on the characters’ clothes were rough, resembling the fur that remains on tanned hides. The wood grain is old and worn, the weapons have nicks and scratches; you can tell the animators worked hard to make everything seem realistic despite technical drawbacks. And that’s not even to mention the beauty and depth in the outdoor scenery.

The second movie continues this trend. You can tell that the textures are more lifelike and that the animation has improved- especially when looking at the hair textures and fluid character movements- but it’s still textured and not over-polished. They aren’t afraid to show wear on objects or characters, they don’t shy away from giving Stoik, Gobber, and Valka age lines, they showcase the effects of riding on the leather equipment, the scars on the human and dragon characters are clearly visible without being too in-your-face, its a stunning and beautifully made piece of animation. But, in my opinion, most importantly, the characters are distinct from their backgrounds. This is seen in both of the first two films, where the distance between characters in the foreground and the scenery in the background is distinct. When silhouetted against the sky, the characters stand out from it instead of fading in to look flat and airbrushed against the scenery. This is largely due to the lighting and shadows being strictly defined throughout the movie. It allows for distinct shapes and clear definitions of character features. I’m no expert and may be speaking a bit from nostalgia, but I think the second film has the best animation of all three.

The Hidden World breaks this mold in a way that I found detrimental to the overall style of the film. Characters like Valka, who were once so convincingly animated to look their age, look fifteen years younger and airbrushed into smooth lines. Hiccup’s freckles are less prominent despite his outdoor lifestyle, and overall, despite the beauty of the scenery and the artful composition of many of the shots, the characters don’t have as much weight to them. The beautiful backgrounds in this movie seem like they’re swallowing the characters whole instead of remaining in the background, and I attribute this to what I call ‘the airbrushing effect.’ The shadows on the characters themselves and the boundaries between characters and backgrounds in this film are blurred, which takes away that depth that was so present in the first two movies. It looks like the characters are smushed into the background at times, leaving blurred expressions and less-defined features and boundaries. This isn’t the case in every scene, but it is in many of them, and it has bothered me since I first saw the film in theaters. Some of the textures look amazing, like the armor and dragon scales, but then you look at a character’s face and they look all fuzzy and indistinct, like they’re wearing makeup and dissolving around the edges. THW follows the growing trend of overly-blended animation, which isn’t necessarily bad in and of itself, but when an aesthetic precedent is set for your movies and then the third installment breaks the established rules, it can make that film fit in poorly with the rest of the franchise in a visual manner (not to mention the story incongruities but that’s a talk for another day).

Here are some examples:

In the second film, the boundary between Astrid and the background is distinct, despite her being farther away. Her face shape is more well defined, less round and fuzzy looking. Look at the boundaries around her face and head in the third film. There’s stil a foreground and background, but she looks like she’s blended a little too much into the background. Stormfly’s horns on the left are more jagged-looking, mimicking the texture of a realistic antler or horn, while on the right they’re smoother despite being in closer view.

Similar shots from 2 and THW here, see how much more defined the lines are between hiccup and the background on the left? Even just the features of his face are less clear; the bridge of his nose looks flattened.

Similar lighting from HTTYD 1and THW. The definition here is a bit better, but look at the skin textures. Hiccup looks like he’s wearing foundation in THW. For comparison, look at him from HTTYD 1! He’s got freckles! Don’t take away his freckles!!

Moving back to Berk means Valka must have gotten ahold of some de-aging cream, right?

I can’t add any more photos but hopefully y’all get the idea.

Now the reasons behind this stylistic change surprised me, and then really pissed me off. Its’s this thing’s fault:

I read an article a while back that said that in order for the crew to be able to animate the light fury, they had to devise new animation software for the third film (if anyone can find the article that would be a huge help, I can’t remember where I found it). She simply didn’t work in the established program, so they had to create a different software to accommodate the lighting effects of her sparkles and whatnot. Since the lighting seems to be one of the things that bother me most in this movie, this causes me some (slightly irrational) frustration, and brings me back to the question of why?

Why would you integrate a character whose design is so off-base from the other characters that you had to make new software just to make it work, to the detriment of the entire look of the movie? Wouldn’t that be one of the most clear signs that the character itself does. Not. Fit. The aesthetic of the film? this pisses me off so much. I know I’m irrationally angry about a movie that came out years ago, but from a visual, storytelling, and personal standpoint, I hate the way this turned out.

I’m not saying I hate the the third movie, or that if you like it you’re wrong. There’s so much about the film that I liked, but all the positives are outweighed by my disappointment.

TL;DR: the way that the crew made the light fury not only ruined the storytelling and conclusion to the franchise, but messed with the animation style too, which to me is an unforgivable sin.

Thank you for coming to my bitchy TedTalk

#httyd #httyd 2 #httyd the hidden world #thw salt #thw criticism #light fury #httyd thw #toothless #hiccup httyd

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miutonium · 8 months

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Saw @mango-mya 's si/oc inspo post (lmk if you want to be untagged its ok!!) and decided to make a seperate post instead since I'm going to ramble about Chloe and I dont want to clog the main post with my infos (anyway the post is here if anyone wants to reblog with their char's oc inspo :3)

Here's some inspo for my s/i oc Chloe! I don't really have a lot of inspo as oppose to others but I do have a bit detail about it and ahshskaja I think it's fun for me to pick on so the rambles undercut! (Like, im not kidding all my points are everywhere hsksksk)

When I was making an early concept for Chloe, I used Ima (Sedusa) as my early reference for her design. There's a lot of unique body figure of woman in PPG but I am mostly attracted to Sedusa's frame and I cannot stress enough that I love love LOVE her design! Her design is the exact opposite of Utonium (curvy and circle as opposing to Utonium's rectangular and sharp edges) so like I wanted her design to be the opposite of him. I love the idea of opposite attracts and I refered to this idea a lot when I build her character. More on that in just a bit.

When I created her, I was working as a service crew/waitress and I wished it theres something that could swoop me from my boring job so I thinkered with the idea that she found love at the dinky diner she worked at. So one day, I discovered Suzanne Vega's Tom's Diner and I loved this song! What's so interesting to me about this song is that it's an acapella so like I'm able to focus on the lyrics and it basically captured the essence of what I want Utonium and Chloe to be except Chloe would be the one greeting him every morning and give him hello kissies and hhh thats basically the catalyst for their story.

For most of her inspo, mainly personality and clothes, I refer a lot to The Nanny's Fran Fine. I grew up watching The Nanny and I always love how her character is someone that's street smart, extroverted, cares about others and charismatic at times so I based Chloe's personality off this. I also refer to Fran's outfits a lot whenever I draw Chloe in other clothing so if you take a hard look at any of my previous art you may recognize some of her clothes that I used as reference.

For Chloe's hair, I want a distinctive short hair for her and P3's Yukari Takeba was my first choice for a cute short hair cut. I love how her bangs just swoops to her sides and the end of her hair just curls outwards its just so cute to me. I added the heart curl design on her bangs because I really want her hair to be the main focus for her design so that when she wears any other clothes, her hair will remain the same and recognizeable. The heart curls that sticks out of her hair was added veryvmuch later during design process and it almost didn't make it. I'm so glad I keep it, I think people mostly recognize her heart cowlick the most.

While I did say Fran Fine is my main inspo, I did have Bojack's Pickles as another of my personality inspo. She's bubbly, energetic and sometimes ditzy and I never mentioned this but Chloe's a bit ditzy and has a valley girl accent. I have not think of a voice claim yet but the voice that I think that would fit Chloe rn is ATSV's Lyla. There's a significant age gap between Utonium and Chloe and I really want to show how both of them came from different generation (Utonium's a boomer while Chloe's more of Gen X so I want to play around their understanding of trends and how they act with their age accodingly hhh)

Overall, what I want to achieve for Chloe's personality and appearance is someone that would compliment Utonium's personality and appearance in the opposite way because like I said, I love the idea of opposite attracts. Where she lacks education, she makes them up for her communication skills. Where Utonium is big on being a book smart person, she is street smart, she knows how to handle things by her way.

I have no intention to make Chloe have a cool career like Utonium because I still want her to be normal. I always make elaborated backgrounds and jobs for my other s/i ocs so for Chloe, I want to relax, I want her to be normal, have a normal job, nothing interesting. I don't want to rely heavily on those points but instead focus more on building her personality.

When I think about it now, I think its good thag I make Chloe normal. She is really the normality that Prof and the girls needed in their family. She doesn't have any special skills, any benefits directly to them nor any interesting history that makes her unique, she's just some woman that just walks into their life yet unintentionally becomes someone significant to the family's life.

#anyway lmk if you want to be untagged its ok!!!#oh almost forgot one more point hhh her name came from Joji's first album Chloe Burbank #i picked it because it sounded like a cute classic name #i swear my reasoning isnt complex at all I just want to make a cute extroverted gf for Utonium ;w;#asuka speaks #asukart #selfship #selfshipping #selfship talk #selfship art #self insert art #self insert oc #self insert #selfship headcanons

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thatsrightice · 3 months

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Hello! My name is Olie (She/Her) and I am the aviation-obsessed person running this blog.

I encourage you to send me asks about anything aviation related (especially regarding my current fixation Masters of the Air).

main: @waitingforsols

BACKGROUND: I have a mechanical engineering degree with an aerospace minor and I work in the commercial aviation industry.

WHAT DO I LIKE?

Top Gun (esp Tom “Iceman” Kazansky)

Masters of the Air (esp Harry Crosby)

✨ F-14 Tomcat ✨

EAA AirVenture

Research & History

Fighter Pilot Podcast

WHAT DO I POST ABOUT?

Top Gun headcanons, prompts, writing ideas, fanfictions, rants, etc.

Masters of the Air headcanons, prompts, writing ideas, fanfictions, rants, etc.

F-14 Tomcat highly technical deep dives

Tons of interesting facts about the F-14

MY FANFICTION

penguins are flightless birds and so am i

iceman one-shot

main themes: iceman angst, surprise homecoming, hurt/comfort, big fluff, flyboys being flyboys, found family, emotional and physical pain, some military lingo, military accurate (hopefully) underlying future icemav, background HollyWolf, iceman returns home from deployment early but not on his own terms

flying is hard but falling (for you) is easy

multi-chapter icemav fic (WIP)

main themes: iceman AND slider angst, icemav, major platonic slice, hurt/comfort, the boys ™️, flyboys being flyboys <- to the max, flyboy shenanigans, things will get worse before it gets better, everyone needs a hug (especially iceman), takes place a couple months after top gun on the USS Enterprise, soft Iceman and protective everyone else, emotional pain, iceman knows he’s in love but refuses to do anything about it and maverick doesn’t know he’s in love but is doing everything about it <- that’s it, that’s the fic

and maybe if i hold you now

masters of the air, Croz x Bubbles one-shot

main themes: Crosby x Bubbles, post-reunion in episode 5, misunderstandings, mutual pining, fluff and angst and smut (in that order), Harry Crosby is insecure AF, explicit sexual content (see Ao3 for specific tags), sharing a bed, Harry Crosby definitely experimented in college, Harry Crosby is the dumbest smart person, these boys deserve to be happy

FOR YOUR REFERENCE :)

F-14 Tomcat Accidents & Issues

The following is a compilation of issues with the F-14 Tomcat that have been encountered by pilots throughout its lifespan due to both mechanical and other reasons. Some are based on individual accidents and some cover epidemics in which many aircraft were lost to the issue *cough* compressor stalls *cough* basically it’s a bunch of ways you can hurt your fav characters in your fics.

F-14 Tomcat Variants

A beginner’s guide to identifying and differentiating the different F-14 Tomcat variants using three distinctive, easy-to-spot features: Glove Vanes, Engine Exhaust Nozzle (aka “Turkey Feathers”), and Sensor Pods.

Flight of the Tomcat

Flight basics of the F-14 Tomcat with diagrams

What Did F-14 Tomcat Pilots Wear?

A little guide including links to videos from a former F-14 Pilot showing and putting on what he wore when he was flying the Tomcat.

FREQUENT TAGS

# just a little thing I wrote

where you’ll find my Top Gun h/c’s, writings, musings, rants, prompts, analysis, etc.

# mota musings

same as #justalittlethingiwrote but for Masters of the Air and Harry Crosby

#FFFOTD or #F-14 Fun Fact of the Day

want to learn something new about the F-14 tomcat?

#research or #information

basically what it says

#top gun or #masters of the air

makes sense

#f-14 tomcat

kind of a given, but will likely include primarily technical posts

#reference

some guides and information stuff you could use to help better understand aviation or the f-14 tomcat

#f14 tomcat has ✨issues✨

if you’re looking for ways to hurt your favorite top gun characters without it being pilot error, check out this tag

MY AVIATION ORIGIN STORY

Basically, and I’m not exaggerating, I randomly decided to make a sad-excuse for a helicopter as a part of our wood shop unit in middle school. I genuinely do not know why I chose a helicopter, there is no reason for me to have chosen a helicopter lol. My wood shop teacher is like “I’m actually very intrigued on why you picked a helicopter like what made you pick it? I’m impressed!” And I literally had not answer for him.

My interest was solidified when I went to EAA AirVenture. Watching the F-22 Raptor fly was and always will be breathtaking to me. That demo gave me the love for military aviation and especially fighters that I have today.

#master post #pin #i like planes #planes r cool

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ideahat-universe · 3 months

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About that Roadmap...

So I think now is a good time to talk about what the future of Palworld should be. Yes, I'm aware of all the negatives that people have said about Palworld but I REALLY like the monster catcher genre, so I just want Palworld to be a better game rather than a game that has to be cancelled because it supposedly used AI or is an genuine example of plagiarism (which from the definition of the word is a semantic argument outside of literal theft).

I can't chastise people who are being short with Palworld too much because I was literally that kid that said Digimon was a knockoff of Pokemon.

I refused to watch it and argued with anyone about it. Once I actually watched the show I realized that it had nothing in common with Pokemon (no monster collection, real stakes, character development, and villains that are a real threat) and when years later Pokemon just so happen to discover the idea of Mega Evolution I was like "This is what we've come to huh? Will Pikachu be wearing jeans next?" but I really like Mega Evolution in Pokemon and play Romhacks specifically because they have Mega Evolutions in them so it's like, I don't really care who had the idea first, I care about how the idea is implemented.

So on that note, if the Palworld devs want to improve the game (after patching things up of course) the best course of action is to be more like Rimworld. Specifically Raids.

Raids are a really powerful narrative device in Rimworld. Sure Vanilla rimworld is dominated by the killbox strat but even with that, enemy raids can still erupt from the ground and drop from the sky and that's what Palworld needs.

Pathing is always going to be a bug bear and I imagine pathing patches and pathing mods will have to work together to make it really work but a good work around for raids that take place at hard to traverse areas would be drop ships.

Imagine the Syndicate driving their legally distinct LAAT, and in order to end the raid you have to destroy the ship but while the ship is there it's spawning enemy pals and humans with guns basically every 15 seconds and initially drops like a dozen of them on top of you.

What if a subterranean vehicle just bursts from the ground, destroying everything in its way and it has a big door and just a bunch of humans and pals (that can fit in the ship so small ones) just piled out and start attacking?

Raid Bosses are supposed to be a thing and I don't know how they will manifest that gameplay mechanic but it's important that raids can fuck your shit up. Might even be spicier if your pals could be killed or kidnapped in a raid that goes really bad.

Now the Palworld devs said they want to make PVP work and not have it fall apart like Rust and previous imitators have. I looked into Rust PVP, I reflected on the many years I've spent playing PVP games.

And I just have no idea. The only thing I can think of is "Make it like EVE online." Because EVE online has this limitless skill ceiling and is basically untouchable for new players but by the same token there are tools to enable newcomers to start playing the game without much issues and the community molded itself into safe and unsafe zones and raids are these really extensive affairs that involve dozens of people fighting for weeks on end. Form alliances, breaking them up, etc.

I don't know how to put that into Palworld other than make every place outside of the safe zone territory an area where you can build a base, but you can only personally build 4 bases. Other players have to build bases and you have to take those over but when you raid a lower level person's base your level is made equal to them.

And maybe, I dunno, once you start taking bases from other players the risk of your own base being raided by AI multiplies (in terms of frequency and power), and if any player claims your base afterwards in your absence (or as a result of your defeat) then they get the pals that were stationed for that base. So new players can get high level Pals by just waiting for AI raids to attack unattended or poorly defended bases.

And there's no fast travel so once you get really far away from your base you better learn some tech to help you get to a base fast if you want to actively defend it (There's like maybe a period of 30 seconds where the base is being converted where if you show up the conversion is paused in a battlefront sort of way).

The idea is that much with the main game, you are going to slip up. The AI is going to get lucky and someone is going to steal your progress and you can either sign a truce with them or you can get revenge. And that sort of repeats over and over again until everyone gets bored or one player somehow rules the entire map.

That's my idea. That's what I do here. If anyone makes use of this idea for anything, I don't need credit, I don't need money, Just send me a slice of Pepperoni Pizza and we'll be good.

#video games #fandom #palworld #pocketpair #rpgs

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gamerdog1 · 9 months

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Skull-Face Bookseller Honda-San Review

There are two types of people in this world: those who love taking a trip to their local bookstore, and those who hate fun. I happen to be part of the former group, and try to visit my local Indigo at least once or twice a month just to check out what’s there. Sometimes, its just nice to wander through the aisles, and casually explore what’s there, without really looking for anything in particular. Its a place so laid back, it begs the question: ‘Working there can’t be that hard, can it?’

As it turns out, working at a bookstore is pretty complicated, something that I learned after watching this month’s assigned anime: Skull-Face Bookseller Honda-San. Based on the manga of the same name, this series follows a skeleton named Honda who works at a non-descript bookstore in Japan, stocking shelves and helping customers. Each day brings new challenges which Honda and his odd-headed co-workers must face, in wacky (sometimes barely animated) hijinks.

Skull-Face Bookseller (abbreviated to SFBH from now on for brevity) is a series whose main focus is being a ‘relatable’ workplace comedy. Folks like me who’ve never worked at a bookstore might find themselves getting confused at all the workplace lingo thrown around, though the series does a good job at explaining the concepts to the audience. The series, though, has this overall sense of expectancy over it, as if the creators are waiting in the bushes for you to laugh at their ‘relatable’ jokes. Every time a character complains about working too long, about how customers are rude, or how their job sucks, the anime expects you to relate that to your own working experience and therefore laugh along.

And yet, it always stops before it gets too pessimistic. Most shows that I’m familiar with about people with jobs go down this doom spiral, where characters obsessively complain about work. Their job sucks, something happens that they weren’t expecting, they react negatively, rinse and repeat. Here, though, the writer steps back right before the spiral begins, acknowledging the problem but refusing to let it control their life. SFBH is a refreshing take on the time-worn workplace comedy, because it doesn’t make the entire joke of the series ‘Working sucks’.

Instead, the main joke of the series is the appearance of the bookstore employees. Just like in the original manga, Honda and her co-workers are depicted as wearing unusual helmets or masks, giving them a sense of cartoonish silliness that separates them from the customers at first glance. I’m not exactly sure why they look like that (my guess is to protect the identities of the real people involved), but the weird faces has an added benefit beyond simple aesthetics. In a series that revolves around a large cast of recurring characters, confusion is inevitable, especially since some manga artists suffer from ‘Same Face Syndrome’ with their female characters. Since the main cast of SFBH are all wearing weird head-coverings, its easier to remember who is who, and every character looks distinct.

SFBH’s characters also fall into this weird grey area when it comes to gender recognition. Since most characters have their faces fully covered, our only traditional means of distinguishing are from dialogue. Nobody ever mentions the word ‘man’ or ‘woman’ (and knowing Japan, I’d be shocked if the concept of non-binary was even hinted at), but the occasional ‘him’ or ‘she’ is thrown around when referring to someone. The Japanese voice actors sound like what one might expect from a ‘she’ or a ‘he’, but when it comes to Honda, things get complicated.

Honda is, of course, a skeleton, who lacks any stereotypically feminine or masculine traits. His face is plain, his bony frame is mostly hidden under a white shirt and blue work apron (and what would we even expect to be under there, besides bones?). By all accounts, Honda is pretty androgynous, something that isn’t too common in a series where that isn’t the main punchline.

What makes things interesting is how Honda herself identifies. In the anime, Honda is voiced by Soma Saito, who you might recognize as that green-haired wimp Tadashi from Haikyu. Because of this, Honda sounds very masculine, and the subtitles agree, referring to him as ‘he’ or ‘him’. At the same time, the character is intended to be representing the author, who identifies as female. There are a few times in the manga where Honda is read as female, including being referred to as an “older sister” type, or when a customer declines her offer to help carry a heavy bag because it would be ‘too heavy for a woman’.

Honda flip flops between being read as male or female, while showing no obvious signs of being either. The very beginning of the series has him lament about the typical image of a bookseller being a sweet, glasses-wearing young woman, and how he doesn’t fit that image. Yet, later in the series, when Honda talks with her manga editor about a live-action adaptation, they joke about which male actor they would cast as her. I’d like to believe that Honda is genderfluid, which would be groundbreaking for a Japanese manga, so it gets representation points in my books.

Beyond complicated gender identities, anyone who is even mildly versed in manga will get a kick out of this series for how often it references popular series. Characters will burst into a scene, asking if there’s more copies of a famous manga in stock, all the while the name is barely censored because of copyright. Well-known manga references are thrown all over the place, giving the fictional bookstore a greater sense of legitimacy. Instead of making obviously fake titles, they just said ‘screw it’ and used real ones, making it feel more real. While watching this anime, I found myself trying to identify all the manga mentioned by characters in dialogue, almost like a little game. Its pretty fun, if you know your stuff.

I’d also like to think that whoever recommended this series to me knows me really well, because the amount of references to yaoi or BL in this anime is shockingly high. The entire first episode is practically devoted to it, culminating in a scene where Honda has to deal with an English-speaking customer who is looking for an explicit doujinshi that his daughter wanted. I really don’t know what’s worse: the fact that a character mentioned a BL series vaguely in an off-hand comment and I immediately knew what it was (despite never having read it), or that I knew exactly which doujinshi the English-speaking dad was looking for. Let’s just say that I haven’t watched Gintama yet, but I have some experience with the main character...

SFBH is a good anime: not great, not fantastic, but not bad either. It wasn’t trying to be some over the top, zany comedy, or some deep meditation about workplace culture. Its a short, snappy, and visually distinct series with it’s own sense of humor, one that relies more on weird people and situations than pessimism and ‘relatability’. I enjoyed how much it had to say about how bookstores work, and I felt like I learned while watching it. One thing’s for sure: I have a new sense of respect for bookstore workers, after seeing all the hard work that goes into keeping everything in order. Now, I can rest assured that when I bring my big stacks of plastic-wrapped BL to the counter, the employee ringing me up is just as embarrassed as I am. What a relief.

#anime and manga #anime review #gaikotsu shotenin honda san #review #anime critique #skeleton

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ben-talks-art · 1 year

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Thoughts on Ben 10

I've seen that some people started doing reactions series of the original Ben 10 show on Youtube, and seeing their reactions got me kinda nostalgic and in the mood to talk about it a little since I honestly really, really like this show.

So I figured, why not just make a post about my feelings towards the franchise, characters, aliens, storylines, and overall just sharing what I liked about it?

Guess I should start with the obligatory "For those who never watched the show or know nothing about Ben 10..."

Basically, this series is about this one kid who has a watch that allows him to turn into a bunch of different aliens for a short period of time, and uses it to help people and fight bad guys while going on travels around the country with his grandpa and cousin.

At first he starts with only ten aliens (thus giving the show its name) but as time goes on he keeps adding more and more to his list trough different ways (thus completely invalidating the show's name). Sometimes he will unlock a new alien at random, sometimes he will meet someone that will use a code on the watch that will unlock it for him, and other times he will collect the DNA of other aliens he fights.

The aliens the kid turns into are the highlight of the show.

Each one has its own unique design, ability, voice, body behavior, way of moving and other little things that make all of them feel distinct and unique. (You can check out one of the official artist's DeviantArt page to see some of his comments on many of the designs and how hard they were to animate.)

What was cool about the show is that you never knew what alien Ben was going to use to save the day so it made the experience feel fresh and exciting as you kept wondering what was going to happen, kinda like when you play a gacha game and you don't know what you're gonna pull out.

It's like having an entire Justice League or Avengers team inside one person. You had all these great characters that you knew little to nothing about and you would just watch and wait to see what was cool about each of them, and the show always did the best it could to make each alien feel as cool as possible... Except for Ripjaws, it was clear that after a while they had no idea what to do with him.

Everyone had their favorite aliens who they hoped would get used in the episode, but it was also nice to see other aliens you might not think you would like also getting the spotlight and making you realize everyone can be useful if given the chance and used in the right way.

It promoted the idea of experimenting with new things and exploring untapped potential.

Aside from the alien roster, the show also had fun playing around with its premise. Usually Ben would do something that affected his normal human form and that would have some effect on his alien forms as well.

For example, one episode Ben got showered by the fountain of youth and turned into a kid, so all his aliens de-aged as well, other time he went inside a videogame so his aliens started to wear gaming clothes like Sora in Kingdom Hearts 2. Another episode had Ben get a cold so his fire alien turned into an ice alien, another had him be stuck for one alien form for the entire episode, another one had him break the watch and anytime he transformed it would randomly combine two aliens.

It felt like the writers were trying to do anything they could with the idea of a watch that turns you into different creatures, like they were trying to have fun with its own premise.

Like, you would see the episode where the aliens get younger or older and you would go "well, now I want to see what all of them younger or older look like!" and that would just make your imagination go crazy.

Same thing for the episode where they mix two aliens together, imagine the massive amount of fanart that this episode inspired!

There were also episodes where Ben would turn into Halloween creatures like a werewolf, a mummy, or a ghost, but each of them still had the "that's an alien not a monster" theme around them, so again you would go "What would a vampire alien look like? What would a demon alien look like? What would a dragon alien look like?"

It just kept building and building on top of different possibilities.

Ben 10 was so good because it made you feel rewarded for being a kid, rewarded for being curious, for having creativity, for enjoying weird and out-of-the-box ideas.

It rewarded you for wanting to have fun and wanting to play around with different ideas.

Even the villain. You could teel that the creators were trying to have fun with what they could come up for Ben to fight with.

They had a guy that was some sort of abomination that combined all of Ben's aliens, a dude with the head of a squid that could turn off Ben's powers with the touch of his finger, a mad scientist that always kept trying to steal the DNA from Ben's aliens and fusing it with animals, and even one of Ben's own aliens who managed to come to life and escape from the watch.

Watching this show was basically a game of "Okay, what idea are the writers gonna explore this time? What crazy thing will they do now?" Like, they later make it so his cousin can use magic spells, and they also later reveal his grandpa was a secret agent who happens to have a lot of high-tech, and they would mix all this stuff while fighting crime and saving the day.

It was just fun. This was just a really fun show.

But... It wasn't perfect...

The biggest problem of the series was that the sense of character development was non-existent.

This series had three main characters, Ben, his cousin, and his grandpa, and the relationship and chemistry between then is pretty much the same throughout the whole thing.

Ben is always immature and jumping into things without thinking, his cousin is always nagging and butting heads with him, and his grandpa always has a pretty good lesson to teach that everyone is just going to forget in the next episode.

There are so many times that I'm watching this and going "Ben should know better than this" because he keeps making the same mistakes over and over again and it gets really tiresome after a while.

Same thing with his cousin, they keep writing scenes where her and Ben just keep bickering and arguing for no reason and it just makes them feel so annoying to watch.

I never got why animated shows think watching people bickering is fun, to me it's just obnoxious. My least favorite part of any Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle show is when Raph and Leo just start fighting because the plot says so. I guess you could say it's realistic that teens would argue but... Just because it's realistic doesn't make it enjoyable.

There is also the fact that I never felt the show truly dived into why we should root for Ben or why he wants to be a hero.

For instance, there is a scene where Ben sees a city getting attacked and he just starts smiling as if he's glad he gets a chance to be the hero and fight bad guys.

I never felt Ben wanted to help people because he cared about people, honestly it felt like he just wanted to feel the joy of being a superhero. Which, again, he's a kid, so probably it's realistic, but realistic doesn't instantly means good.

For a show about a kid that could turn into ten heroes, they never really sold why Ben had what it takes to be a hero.

That's not to say they didn't had episodes about Ben being humble, noble, or heroic, they actually had a lot of them. They had episodes about him facing his fears to save his cousin, learning the value of teamwork, learning to put others' needs before his, learning to let go of personal desires for the greater good... But these things just never stacked on.

I never got a sense that Ben was growing from his experiences, it felt like he was just learning some random lesson to get through the episode, which is a shame because a lot of those were some really good lessons, and good lessons for kids no less, but they would just be forgotten by the time the next episode started because... I don't know, I guess they just liked Ben being very flawed and immature.

But honestly, even with this tiny problem, it's still a really good show. It has a lot of creative action, some really inventive designs, and like I said, It just does a great job promoting the idea of having fun.

I particularly love the scene where they show Ben inventing "diamond surfing", like, how can anyone look at that and not think this is gonna be a fun show?

So yeah, small lack of character development aside, I still recommend this series.

I also want to talk about the other pieces of media that also take place in this series' timeline.

"Protector of Earth" is a licensed game that came out around the Ps2/Ps3 era and I remember being honestly a lot of fun. It was a beat-em-up where you could play as five aliens while having access to some honestly really creative attack combos. It was also how I, a non-English speaker, finally found out why the alien "XLR8" was named like that.

"Secret of the Omnitrix" was a movie that had a premise of the watch accidentally going into self-destruct mode and had Ben travel through space in order to find the inventor of the watch so he could ask him to turn it off. Really good movie overall, just wish they had tried to be a tiny bit more creative with the action scenes. There are way too many "laser shooting" fights and the final battle is basically Ben getting an "I win" button. It was kinda anticlimactic tbh.

"Destroy all Aliens" is another movie but this time done in 3D. I actually liked this one a lot. They had Ben be stuck with some sort of randomizer feature so he keeps shifting from alien to alien every couple of minutes while fighting a guy that can teleport, so we get some really creative action scenes with all the aliens as they keep going from one part of the globe to the other.

There is also a live-action movie called "Race against time" that... Surely is a movie that exists...

Honestly, the most I can say about it is that I'll never understand why they didn't give the title "Race Against Time" to the movie about the watch going into self-destruct mode, kinda feels like a no-brainer to me.

Then we have the sequels, Alien Force and Ultimate Alien...

And I'm going to sincerely apologize to all of its fans right now but I really don't like either of these shows.

I don't want to talk about them too much since my feelings towards them are mostly negative and I don't want to dunk on what could possibly be someone's favorite show... But they just did so little for me.

Now, I'm not saying they're bad, just saying that I myself didn't like either of them very much... But while I don't like these shows, I do like certain things in them.

Alien Force is about Ben, who's now five years older, teaming up with his cousin again, as well as one of his former enemies now turned ally, and getting a new set of ten aliens.

The idea of ten new aliens seemed cool at first. Honestly, when I first heard about the show I thought the new aliens were like fusions of the old aliens, like one looked like a fusion of an ice alien and a ghost alien, one looked like a fusion of a cloning alien and a small alien, and another looked like a plant and fire alien. They looked really cool and they had some really creative designs.

The plant/fire one and the ghost/ice one actually became some personal favorites of mine. They had some really fun and creative powers.

The ice one in particular apparently got really popular with fans due to the idea of being a moth that rested its wings in the shape of a cloak, kinda like they used to do in Gargoyles, and because they gave it an interesting episode where it gives birth to a ton of babies... That, as far as I know, we never see again. 🤔

As for the others aliens... They were there... I'm sure they all have their fans, I'm just not one of them.

Ultimate Alien was basically more Alien Force, except now some of the aliens could "Mega Evolve."

And again, a lot of the evolved forms didn't really do much for me, except for the ultimate form of the clone alien, which legit felt both really cool and really creative. I just loved that design.

Aside from that though, not really much positive I can say about these two shows. It just wasn't for me.

And finally, there was Ben 10 Omniverse, by far the most ambitious Ben 10 show.

They ditched the whole evolution thing but Ben now had access to basically every alien he ever had in the entire franchise, as well as every villain he ever had before, and they were a lot more open about the idea of exploring other planets and seeing different alien worlds. The world-building (universe-building?) took a major focus in here.

They also kept trying to push this odd gimmick of going back to the original 10-year-old Ben.

Sometimes Ben would travel back in time, or flashback to when he was a kid, sometimes he would switch brains with his body from the past, sometimes he would shrink into a kid, and other times he would visit another dimension from when he was still young and see how he would have turned out if he had no grandpa.

Basically, the name of the game changed from "how can we explore the idea of a person with access to ten aliens in a creative way?" to "how can we tie back to the original show?"

It seemed like they were trying to go back to its original focus of exploring the potential of its premise, but this time going a lot more out-of-the-box than ever before.

Getting to see every single past alien again was really cool but many of the new aliens added kinda felt like filler.

There is like one or two that I really liked, like this one alien that's like a living planet with its own gravity, but most of them just looked lame to me.

But, again, every alien from the past is here, so even if had an episode where you don't like one or two of the aliens used, you would still have five or six of the classic ones to enjoy, which was always refreshing.

The writing still didn't have that big of a sense of progression but I liked this Ben a lot more than the old Ben from the first show. I actually think this series had the best character writing out of all of them. Everyone here has great chemistry and is a lot more charming than before.

Sometimes the tone was also hit-and-miss. It would often try too hard to be humorous and end up losing a sense of stakes, making you feel like you were watching a cartoon instead of an animated show, but still had plenty of things to like.

They tried a lot of new things (sometimes way too many), most of them I liked, some of them I didn't, but I still appreciate them taking the risk to try.

Ben 10 is overall a very interesting franchise and I'm always curious to see what they try to do next with it.

#ben 10 #ben 10 ultimate alien #ben 10 alien force #ben 10 omniverse #ben 10 desstroy all aliens #ben 10 protector of earth #ben 10 secret of the omnitrix

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traincat · 2 years

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What is 616!Peter’s dressing sense like? Like he’s not into fashion, of course, but is he hopeless? Or average? Well dressed?

This is an interesting question I think in part because I feel like Marvel artists have, as of late, not considered the most important thing you can consider when thinking of Peter Parker in civvies: Does this outfit cover the spider-suit?

I threw this together ages ago, and it's a small sampling of my favorites, but this is a pretty classic Peter look -- a black turtleneck and jacket and boots. It's a good style choice because it's flattering, and you can mix up things like patterns on the turtleneck or the jacket, it's pretty timeless as styles go, and more importantly it covers the entire spider-suit, from the high neck down to the boots and long pants covering any potential little ankle flashes.

Like, I think it's pretty clear that Peter as a character doesn't -- and shouldn't -- particularly care about clothes. This isn't to say he dresses like a total slob, or that he doesn't know how to dress for a situation, just that fashion on its own doesn't interest him, which is pretty funny considering he dates clotheshorses almost exclusively. (MJ the fashion model, Felicia the high society thief, and Gwen has a Definite Look in the '60s.) So what's going to be important to him are, I think, two things -- the durability of his clothes (because he's not going to be buying new ones every few months) and the function of them (can he wear the suit under them). He also wore a lot of suits and collared shirts in the '60s and '70s, which I think is partly indicative of the time period -- it's hard to talk about fashion in comics without breaking things down by publishing decade -- but also of how the character at that point in time is literally more buttoned up. Later, as time goes on, he kind of relaxes into more athleisure wear -- there's some cute panels of him and MJ in matching workout clothes.

(Web of Spider-Man #67) But I think that's really more of an at-home look for the character, and again clearly not something he can wear the suit under. It always annoys me when there's redraws of older panels and Peter's wearing short sleeves in them! You saw this a little bit in Ottley's art for Spencer's run where there were a couple key '70s scenes redrawn.

(ASM #105/ASM v5 #30) Taking the yellow turtleneck and changing it into a blue short sleeve button down is just SUCH a boring choice. Also there's some big expression problems here, but that's another post -- taking Peter and Flash from genuinely happy and bemused respectively to kind of lukewarm scowling at each other is also just boring from a characterization standpoint.

(ASM #121/ASM v5 #31) At least the sleeves are longer here, but the crew neck and ditching the jacket doesn't really work for me in terms of style updates. (Not to mention all the personality has been completely drained out of Peter's face, totally changing the tone of this confrontation with Norman.) I think for Peter it's fine to kind of keep him, stylewise, in a previous decade, to kind of visually indicate that the character was raised by older people and to kind of set him apart from his contemporaries. He should be a little weird and offbeat, and at the same time he should be timeless -- this is a character who has held public attention for sixty years, and I think attempts to update or modernize him in either personality or appearance make him lose that magic.

So I would personally say he's average, mostly because he doesn't especially care about fashion especially in comparison to function, but that he has a classic look, and he can look good and style forward when his supermodel girlfriend/wife/best friend is dressing him up.

(ASM #311) Granted, style is in the eye of the beholder.

I guess the only other thing I would add is that the man LOVES a bathrobe.

(Web of Spider-Man #93) I'm not kidding when I say over the years he's been drawn in at least 30 distinct different bathrobes. Stop buying so many bathrobes.

#peter parker #marvel comics #*replies #long post/#traincat talks comics

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liketheinferno2 · 3 years

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NieR:Automata asks the question multiple times of whether androids or machine lifeforms are more human or imitating humanity better than the other and this is portrayed with... so much delicate complexity I keep thinking about it.

On one side you have androids who are human in appearance, human in intelligence, able to speak clearly enough and express emotions as mundane and extraordinary as the audience needs to identify them as people..... and then on the other hand there's machines, who even though they are on the large part very fucking dumb and prone to iterating the same behaviors, they have communities, social roles, FAMILIES even though they have no biology that sorts them into familial units in the first place.

Neither of them can age, neither are born through sexual reproduction, and when connected to their respective networks neither can really DIE, and this throws off the whole human thing of being born into families and growing from a child into an adult and potentially becoming the parent to a new child later, of having siblings you come into the world connected to, and of having family roles that are (usually) both innate and distinct -- a sibling might be older than you but that's different to a parent being older that you, right?

So machines have parents and siblings and uncles and aunts and family dynamics, but if they're not biological, then all child machines are adopted, that's simple enough. But they don't age. A child machine does not necessarily grow into an adult. They can stay children, even infants, forever, and their minds don't progress beyond that state even though there are other machines of greater maturity and intelligence and just mental age than the children, so being an adult is clearly possible, but it does not correlate with growing or getting to adulthood through linear change. How does that work? Are they born adults? Are they born parents?

I feel like this is pretty cleanly answered with Adam and Eve who are really like... communicative characters being machines that look and talk like the android characters. Android bodies and machine psyches or something... Anyway, you see them both be born within minutes of each other. Featureless, sexless, ageless, undifferentiated, basically in the world for nearly the exact same amount of time to gain experiences and maturity.

The next time you see them, Adam is the elder, he's more mature, smarter; a caretaker even if he's doing kind of a shit job at it, while Eve is concerningly dependent and childish, doing whatever he's told and just talking about baby things like he wants to play, he hates wearing clothes and eating dinner. Adam implies they've taken on physical sex at some point since they were last seen naked as well.

And they're not just acting like brothers either, there's something extremely off about these guys. It might be hard to identify at first because it's not really overtly stated, but Adam did technically give birth to Eve and is in that sense also his mother. He feeds him and clothes him and teaches him and even gave him a name, and their dynamic is all sorts of weird because they're multitasking mother and brother in the same relationship.

It stands to reason, then, that machines have a thing about taking on human roles, gender roles and familial roles and societal roles like knights and kings, and their minds and bodies shape around that role so that they can best fulfill it, not the other way around. The brothers were not born with genitals or any kind of gender presentation but they developed those as they took on that role of brothers, male siblings. Adam leans very androgynous and I think it's because he's got a female role as well. Eve stays immature because he's the little one, he's always going to be the little one as long as that's his role, even though they're the same size and the same age chronologically.

I'm not exactly sure where I'm going with this I just think it's kind of a brilliant take how this game considers one of the core facets of humanity to be how we find purpose in relation to each other and form identities in the contexts of social groups.

When Eve loses his brothermom, he loses the thing that was connecting him to his social roles and goes, shall we say, off the shits. And the same thing happens to 9S later because the YoRHa combat roles are the same kind of thing, if more externally assigned-at-birth -- his entire purpose was to support someone else.

These two are secondary, they're the rib, the support, they were made to be dependent and when severed from their special person it results in a catastrophic collapse of identity. They get decontextualised and struggle to find that footing again without devolving into destruction or self-destruction, which is not unlike what grief can do to a person anyway.

Another thing is that throughout the game you see machines of all levels of intelligence hurt themselves and kill themselves, and for a long chunk of the game I had assumed this was because they were still robots in the end and had some kind of self-destruct programming that was acting up. The final route flips this on its head and shows self-harm and fear to be horrifically human things, something expressed even in the characters that act the most realistically like people... because they act the most realistically like people.

NieR:Automata shows you the most painful emotions of grief and loss of identity and insists that these are very basic and natural and HUMAN responses to traumatic events, even if they make you feel like the entire world is collapsing -- it's that capacity for love and hurt that we have in common with all other people. Fucking phenomenal game, the more I think about this the more it makes me feel serene and connected to the world.

#nier automata #meta #nier liveblog #let him speak

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linkspooky · 3 years

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Shigaraki and Dabi

Heroes hurt their own families in order to help complete strangers. Words said by Shigaraki, and lived by Dabi. If you haven’t noticed, there’s quite a lot of parallels between the two of them. Especially their childhood selves, dark haired hero hopefuls whose hair turned white due to stress and eventually fell and became villains. They were the children closest to the heroes, the son of Endeavor, the grandson of Nana Shimura, and yet both of them fell through the cracks the hardest. Let’s talk about the foiling of these two, under the cut.

1. Father Says No

Both Shigaraki and Dabi are characters who grew up in a strict, patriarchical household where the father was the head of the household and determined all the rules.

The Shimura household was built by Koutarou, who held all the money, and therefore determined all the rules. The same can be said for the Todoroki household, which only came into being to fuel Enji’s ambitions. This is something Enji literally thinks, his first priority when having children was not to love and raise them, but to raise heirs that would carry on his quirk and make up for the weakness in it.

Enji also literally used his financial wealth and status to pressure her family into arranging a marriage. In the households, the patriarch is the ultimate authority and cannot be questioned. Koutarou sets the rules of the household because he has all the money. Endeavor sets the rules of the household because these children are there to be his heirs. Toya and Tenko both break the rules in their father’s households in some way and become scapegoats.

Ironically, they break the rules in opposite ways. Tenko, because he wants to become a hero.

Toya, because his flawof the flames being too harsh for his flame constitution and burning his own skin makes him unable to become a hero and carry on his father’s legacy.

Quick tangent to explain what I mean with Toya. This is speculation, because we haven’t been shown the exact details, so feel free to point and laugh at me if I’m wrong. Endeavor says (incorrectly) that if Toya had reached his goal for him, that all of his pent up negative emotions would have disappeared just like that. (They wouldn’t.)

Which means, Endeavor once again projected himself on his child. Toya was supposed to fix all Endeavor’s hurt feelings for him. So, when Toya failed at the training. When Toya wasn’t good enough. When Toya was flawed.

Which means it’s likely, Toya went in Endeavor’s mind from being the one who could carry his dreams, to being the one that Endeavor could scapegoat to blame for his negative emotions. Which meant, at some point he tossed Toya aside. At that point he started treating Toya differently. Toya probably pushed himself more and more to try to go back to the way things used to be, which is probably why his hair turning white, he started to crawl to Natsu every day.

There’s also a lot of similiarities and differences between their households.

Enji wanted his children to be born heroes. Koutarou’s rule was no heroes allowed.

Shimura and Toya both had a sibling they would run to and confide in. For Shimura it was Hana, and for Toya it was Natsu.

Shimura Tenko is the youngest sibling in the household. While Touya Todoroki was the oldest.

On the surface, the Shimura household seems more comfortable than the Todoroki household. Shimura receives a lot of comfort from his other relatives, his grandparents, his mother, his sister. However, none of them really confronted the problem in the household and at the end of the day Tenko was still getting beaten.

The Todoroki household also doesn’t seem like it was a place of much comfort for Toya. It really does seem from flashbacks that all he had to confide in when things started going wrong was Natsu (again feel free to taunt me cruelly if I’m wrong).

So, you have Tenko who is quietly and gently denied by his family, and Toya who suffers all alone in his household, either getting beaten himself, pushing himself too hard in training, or hearing his father beat his mother and Shoto.

However for both of them, it’s a gradual accumulation over time. The stress of the household overtakes them. Their hair turns from its original dark coloring to white from the sheer stress of it alone. They, as children, are made to bear the stress of their entire unhealthy household, because they are the scapegoat.

Endeavor genuinely believes that if Toya had somehow lived up to his promise he would never have turned abusive.

Kotaro believes that it was Tenko who was upsetting the peace of the household, because he would just not stop it with the hero talk.

They both soak up all this stress until it explodes outward. However, the incidents that turned them from Tenko -> Shigaraki, and from Toya -> Dabi are entirely different.

Toya committed what was essentially a suicide. He either staged his own death, or failed at his own suicide and survived. Tenko didn’t kill himself, he killed everyone else around him. Shigaraki destroyed the household that was denying him.

To simplify the manner in which they lash out. Touya destroys himself, Tenko destroys other people, especially the ones he believes are oppressing him or his friends.

Well you say, Dabi is trying to take down endeavor. However, Dabi still sees Endeavor and himself as one in the same. His flames are Endeavor’s flames.

One last thing, Dabi and Shigaraki are both marked by their father’s abuse. Dabi was burned by Endeavor’s flames. Dabi literally lives with third degree burns, looking like a living zombie. Then makes his burns even worse by using his flames in the self destructive manner Endeavor taught him.

Not only does Shigaraki still carry the lip and eye scars from being beaten up with a gardening tool, but Kotaro’s hand reaching out to his face is a symbol that Shigaraki keeps on him literally to this day by wearing a hand over his face constantly.

2. Friendship and Ideals

So I think all the subtle differences in their backgrounds is what leads to them expressing themselves differently as adults. There are several similarities between them, but I think hardcore Shigaraki fans can tell you all the reasons they prefer Shigaraki, and hardcore Dabi fans can do the same with Dabi.

I think a lot of it has to do with their relationships to their families. Families define how you connect with other people.

Shigaraki was instructed to always keep his family close to him. He’s always confronting his own feelings about his family, his pain from his family, that’s why when he lashes out he also takes his own personal feelings and pushes them outwards. Shigaraki isn’t concerned with right or wrong, moreso, these are my feelings. I reject the society that rejects me. What Shigaraki is concerned first and foremost, is feelings. His own feelings of being rejected, and also the feelings of people who were rejected just like him.

Shigaraki is the heart of his group. He’s the person they all rally around, because they gave him a place of belonging. And, Shigaraki has also expressed several times murderous monster that he is that he cares about the individual feelings of those closest to him. I won’t let you trample on Twice’s feelings, his first thing to do when waking up is order the league to be close to him.

Unlike Dabi, we’ve also seen Shigaraki directly confront the feelings of his missing family once more. He forgives his sister, he tries to comfort his mom. He destroys his father again. He tells his family that he denies them. He tells his grandfather that he still hates her.

I would say that Shigaraki carries those feelings with him, while Dabi dissociates himself from his feelings.Shigaraki directly confronts those feelings because Shigaraki is the heart, feelings are what matter more to him.

Dabi has feelings, obviously. Dabi has feelings even if he processes them in a way that’s not easy and palatable. Everyone in fact has feelings (though sometimes I wish I didn’t). Everyone expresses things in their own way if not in the typical way.

Dabi is completely closed off in regards to his own feelings. He’s not like Shigaraki who is open enough about them he’ll tell his backstory to the whole league on the spot. In fact that’s another difference, the league generally knows Shigaraki’s issues, when they had no idea about Dabi’s.

When really there was no good reason not to tell them. What are they not going to be up for murdering the number one hero?

Friendship is a priority for Shigaraki. Individualism is a priority for Dabi.

Dabi’s feelings towards the league are a messed up jumble, but his behavior towards them is pretty consistent. He takes every oppurtunity he can to insist that he’s not a part of them, that they’re all crazy and he’s the only sane one, that he doesn’t care about their feelings. This can’t all be Dabi just being tsundere or whatever, it’s physical steps taken for Dabi to distance himself from others.

Dabi’s individual goals are more important than his connections to other people. Shigaraki has no distinct goal besides empty lashing out and therefore connects to people with similiar hurt feelings than his.

Remember, Dabi self destructs. It’s likely, Dabi sees himself as a martyr. An individual willing to burn himself to take down the society with him. He’s trying to die for some cause like stain.

So before I develop on this tangent one more difference in similarity between them. Shigaraki’s family is dead. He can’t really do anything but carry on their feelings with him. Tomarau means, to mourn.

Dabi on the other hand, his family is still alive.He could have before the whole killing spree just shown up on their front doorstep. The reason he hasn’t, is because he can’t forgive Endeavor’s sin.

Whatever pushed him this far, whether it be a strong sense of justice, or a desire for personal revenge. Dabi values that, more than he values his connections with other people, even his own family who is still alive. This is once again the complex way Dabi handles his feelings, it’s likely he pushes his family away, the same way he pushes the league away and doesn’t process them. That’s why he says I thought about it so much I went crazy. He just insists he doesn’t care, and doesn’t think instead. Shigaraki lives constantly confronting his own feelings, Dabi lives by avoiding them.

Dabi is impersonal, aloof, and only ever thinks of himself as an individual. He will cooperate with others if it suits his needs, but the bond of the league hasn’t quite reached him yet. There’s a consequence for this.

So twice dying was Hawks fault. Because Hawks you know, stabbed him.

However you could say, Dabi’s planning centering all around himself, and what he can accomplish as an individual, meant he failed to accomplish that Twice might get hurt as a result of him letting Hawks into the league as a Spy. It’s an unintended consequence, but still a consequence.

Dabi showed up to save Twice but couldn’t. Then afterwards Dabi uses Twice’s death in the most gratuiotious way possible. Dabi insists once again he doesn’t care, that he never cared about Twice except as a tool that would have made fighting the heroes a lot easier.

Shigaraki destroys everything around him. He destroys for the sake of the people around him. Dabi destroys himself, his own feelings, he self destructs. When people get caught up in his flames they’re sacrifices for his cause.

Their priorities and the way they lash out are different. Dabi cares more for ideals than people. Shigaraki cares more for people than ideals.

However, they don’t have to destroy each other. Shigaraki trusts Dabi. Shigaraki of all the members of the league (with Toga as well) is the heart, is the best at sympathizing with the pain of other people because he is constantly in pain himself.

Dabi made a mistake and as a result Twice got killed. He gambled with too high of circumstances. Twice let a secret slip and invited the heroes to the League’s compound. Twice brought Chisaki for a meeting and because of that Magne died. This kind of scenario has happened before. Of course Dabi insists that his motivations were less pure than Twice’s, he didn’t care what happened to the rest of the league as long as he got the dirt he wanted for his big reveal.

I’m not suggesting that Dabi is secretly a sweetheart, or a misunderstood angsting teddy bear. Just that Dabi is currently closed off from all of his feelings, that’s why he denies too the feelings of people around him and their attempts to reach out for him. Dabi has refused the compansionship of the league.

It doesn’t have to be like this. Characters can develop. Shigaraki especially has been shown to reach out to people multiple times. Kurogiri is fond of him. Himiko and Twice in their moment of weakness, are convinced to stay on Shigaraki’s side because he shows their face to them. Spinner basically questioned why he was even staying with the league at his lowest point when he thought they had no reason to be there, and it was Shigaraki who he found his cause in.

Dabi is lacking something. He’s burned off and emotionally stunted his ability to develop connections with other people.

Shigaraki is lacking something. He is, again and again, told that he needs a plan besides destroy everything. Shigaraki is very observant of the world, and understands the truth, but he can’t get people to listen. Unlike Dabi who planned to such an extent, that he literally made a live public broadcast to turn public opinion against Endeavor because that was more important than winning a fight.

It’s true Dabi and Shigaraki could turn against each other, because Dabi doesn’t value people, because Shigaraki considers his lashing out more important than his ideals. They could also be the ones to balance each other out. We’re at an important turning point now, Dabi can either break off from the league now that his individual mission is compelte, or he can finally be reached by the league.

I think Shigaraki might reach him, because even though they’re grown up so differently they started in the exact same place. They were both boys who wanted to be heroes, and just wanted one person to tell them it was okay, that they could be heroes too.

#shigaraki tomura #shimura tenko #dabi #todoroki touya #todoroki toya #league of villains #league of villains meta #mha meta #my hero academia #my hero academia meta #my hero academia theory #bnha 291 #bnha 291 spoilers #lov meta #league of found family #todoroki family

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celepeace · 3 years

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A monster-taming game recommendation list for fans of Pokemon

Whether you're a pokemon fanatic obsessed with all things pokemon past and present, or a veteran fan disillusioned with GameFreak's recent adoption of monetary philosophies and strategies reminiscent of other major game publishers, or looking for a monster-taming fix as you await new Pokemon content...

I'm compiling here a post of little-known games in the genre that Pokemon fans are likely to enjoy!

Under readmore cause long, but some of these games really don’t get the attention they deserve, so if you have the time, please read!

(I am also likely to keep updating and editing this post)

First up is Temtem!

Temtem is a game made by and for Pokemon fans, from the spanish indie developer Crema. Temtem is currently in early access on Steam and PS5, and is likely to remain in early access until sometime late next year. Full launch will include a Nintendo Switch release, too. Despite this, it has plenty of content to explore before full release. The developers are active, release new content on a semi-regular basis, and are responsive to the community as a whole and individuals if you happen to come across a bug you want to report.

Temtem boasts a wide variety of monsters to collect and train. It takes place in the Airborne Archipelago, a system of floating islands that orbit their star, the Pansun. The monsters inhabiting the archipelago are called Temtem, or tem(s), for short.

As far as game mechanics go, it has many similarities to Pokemon, but also many important distinctions. The biggest one, in my opinion, is that the element of chance has been removed from battle entirely. Moves cannot miss, have the same power constantly, and status afflictions have an obviously displayed countdown to when they will wear off (for instance, sleep lasts as long as it says it will last. Not 2-4 turns). PP does not exist, either. Your tems can battle for as long as their HP holds out. In place of PP, a new system called Stamina exists. Stamina is an individual stat, like HP and Attack. Each move costs a certain amount of stamina. If you go over the amount of stamina your tem has, the deficit is detracted from your health instead, and that tem cannot move next turn. Stamina passively regenerates a certain amount each turn, and items and moves exist that can heal stamina. All battles are also double-battles, you and your opponent will typically have two tems on the field at a time. This is just a few of the differences Temtem has from Pokemon, but they're some of the biggest ones.

Temtem is also a massively multiplayer game. You complete the storyline independently (or with a friend through co-op!), but in the overworld you can see other, real players moving around and interacting with the world. There is also public and area-specific chat you can talk to other players through. Despite this, all multiplayer functions are (currently) completely optional. You do not need to interact with others to complete the game.

Overall, Temtem is suitable for the Pokemon fan who is looking for a more challenging experience. Temtem is not a walk in the park you can blaze through with a single super-strong monster. For one, individual tem strength is more well-balanced than it is in Pokemon. There are very few (if any!) completely useless tems. Even some unevolved tems have their niche in the competitive scene! Aside from that, enemy tamers are scaled quite high, and you typically cannot beat them just from the exp you get from other enemy tamers. You have to do some wild-encounter grinding if you want to progress.

Temtem is a very fun game and I've already gotten over 100 hours out of it, despite only 3/5-ish of the planned content being released!

However, I do feel obligated to warn any prospective players of one thing: the current endgame is quite inaccessible. After you complete what is currently implemented of the main storyline, there is still quite a lot left to explore and do, but much of it is locked behind putting a lot of hours into the game. You kind of have to get perfect temtem to do the current PVE (and this is also somewhat true for the PVP too). By perfect I mean you have to breed a good tem and then train it to get the preferable EVs (called TVs in temtem). This takes... well, for a whole team... tens of hours. Of boring grinding. Some people enjoy it! But I don't. Regardless, the game was still worth buying because the non-endgame content is expansive and fun.

So overall, pros & cons:

Pros

Battle system is more friendly towards a competitive scene

Cute monsters

Lots of gay characters, also you can choose pronouns (including they/them) independently from body type and voice

Less difference between the objectively bad tems and good tems than there is in Pokemon

Lots of stuff to do even in early access

Most conversations with dialog choices have the option to be a complete ass for no reason other than it’s fun

Having less type variety in your team is less punishing than in Pokemon due to the synergy system and types overall having less weaknesses and resistances

At least one major character is nonbinary

Cons

Falls prey to the issue of MMOs having in-game economies that are only accessible to diehard no-life players

Related to the above point, cosmetics are prohibitively expensive

Endgame CURRENTLY is inaccessible to most players unless you buy good monsters from other players or spend tens of hours making your own. However I must add that the grind is great if you like that kind of thing and is quite easy and painless to do while watching a show or something.

Here is their Steam page and here is their official website.

Next is Monster Hunter: Stories!

This is a spinoff game of the Monster Hunter franchise released for the 3DS in 2018. If you're anything like me, and you've played the core Monster Hunter games, you've often thought "Man, I wish I could befriend and ride these cool dragon creatures instead of killing or maiming them!"

Well now you can! In Stories, as I will be calling it, you play as a rider rather than a hunter. Riders steal monster eggs from wild nests to raise them among humans as companions and guardians. And yes, egg stealing is a whole mechanic in of itself in this game.

This game works pretty differently from most monster-collecting games. You do battle (usually) against one or two wild monsters using your own, except you fight alongside your monsters too. With swords and stuff. There's armor and weapons you can smelt to make yourself stronger. Type match-ups also kind of don't exist in this game? Except they do? But not in a way you'd expect?

The vast majority of attacking moves you and your monster use fall into categories reminiscent of rock-paper-scissors. Moves can be categorized as power, speed, or technical. Speed beats power, technical beats speed, and power beats technical. The matchup of your move vs your opponent's determines how a turn will go down. If one move beats the other in matchup, then the winner's move will get to go and the loser doesn't get to do anything. If you tie, you both get hit, but for reduced damage. There's also abilities and basic attacks, with abilities basically being the same as pokemon moves, and basic attacks just being "I hit you for normal damage within this category". Also, you don't control what your monster does all the time in battle. You can tell it to use abilities, but what kind basic attacks it carries out is determined by its species' preference. Velicidrome, for instance, prefers speed attacks, but Yian Garuga prefers technical. Stamina also exists in this game in a very similar manner to Temtem.

Overall this game carries over a lot of mechanics Monster Hunter fans will find familiar (how items and statuses work for instance). You don't have to have played a core Monster Hunter game to enjoy Stories though! It's fine and is easy to understand as a stand-alone.

The story has some likable characters and is rather long (it was actually adapted into an anime!), for those of you who enjoy a good story.

I'd really recommend this one especially. If it sounds fun to you and you can drop $30, just do it. I bought it on a whim and I got a few weeks' worth of playing almost nonstop out of it, and I didn't even get to do everything! (I got distracted by Hades, oops)

Stories is also getting a sequel later next year on the nintendo switch! How exciting!

And yes, you do ride the monsters.

Pros & cons:

Pros

Large variety of cool monsters to befriend and raise

Pretty lengthy story

Every tamable monster is also rideable

Deceptively simple combat mechanics, easy to be okay at, hard to master

Incorporates some mechanics from early turn-based party rpgs like Final Fantasy for a nice twist on the monster collecting genre

Cons

Many monsters are objectively outclassed by other ones, making what can be in an actually good team more limited than you’d expect

3DS graphics inherently means the game looks like it was made 7 years before its time

Here is the Monster Hunter Stories official 3DS product page.

And here is Monster Sanctuary!

Monster sanctuary is a game that just had its 1.0 launch- meaning it was in early access and no longer is! Although the devs say they still plan to implement a few more things into the game in future updates. It is available on Steam, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and PS4.

Monster sanctuary is a metroidvania twist on the typical monster collecting game, meaning it is also a sidescrolling platformer in which you use abilities you gain throughout the game to explore the world around you. The abilities in this case are the monsters you get! Every monster has an ability that helps you traverse the sanctuary.

Speaking of the sanctuary, the game is set in one. The monster sanctuary is a magically shielded area, cut off from the rest of the world, created by an order of monster keepers, people who befriend and protect the mystical monsters inhabiting the world. Humankind encroached too far on the natural habitat of monsters and were hostile to the native wildlife, so the keepers created an area of varied environments to safely protect and preserve the remaining monsters of the world.

Unlike many other monster collecting games, this game only has 5 types: fire, water, earth, air, and neutral. However, the types themselves do not possess resistances and weaknesses. Instead, each monster has its own assigned weaknesses and resistances. And yes, this can include things like debuffs, physical vs special attacks, and the typical elemental types.

All battles are also 3 vs 3! And unlike in pokemon, where you can only hit the enemies nearest, all monsters have the ability to hit any opponent they want. Turns also work a little differently in that speed doesn't exist, you just use 1 move per monster in your turn and then it goes to your opponent's turn. Your monsters hit in whatever order you want them to.

There is also a quite important combo system in this game, where every hit builds a damage multiplier for the next. Moves often hit multiple times per turn. Healing and buffing actions also build this combo counter. So what monsters you have move in what order really counts!

But the main mechanical difference between this and other games in the genre is how it handles levels and skills. Instead of learning a set move at a certain level, this game incorporates a skill tree, and you get to allocate points into different skills as you grow stronger. And jeez, these skill trees are really extensive. Monster sanctuary is a theorycrafter's dream. Each monster has a unique, specially tailored skill tree, making every monster truly able to have its own niche. You can make use of whatever monster you want if you just put thought into it!

And like Temtem, this game is not made to be beatable by children. I'm sure a child could beat it, but it's not made to be inherently child-friendly like pokemon. It's honestly quite difficult.

On top of that, you are actively encouraged to not just be scraping by each battle. Your performance in battle is rated by an automated system that scores your usage of various mechanics like buffs and debuffs applied, type matchups, and effective usage of combos. The rating system directly influences the rewards you get from each battle, including your likelihood of obtaining an egg from one of the wild monsters you battled (no, you don't catch wild monsters in this game, you get eggs and hatch them). If you're not paying attention to how the game works and making good, effective use of your monsters, you'll have a hard time expanding your team!

The music is also really good, it's made by nature to be able to play over and over and not get old as you explore each area, and the composer(s) really did a good job with this. Some area songs, namely the beach one, I especially enjoy, so much so I've actually played it in the background while I do work.

This is a game I would really recommend. If I made it sound intimidating, it is by no means unbeatable, you're just gonna have to put some thought into how you play. At no point did I actually feel frustrated or like something was impossible. When I hit a wall, I was able to recognize what I did wrong and how I could improve, or I could at least realize something wasn't working and experiment until I found a solution. It's challenging in a genuinely fun, rewarding way.

Pros & cons:

Pros

Extremely in-depth combat system

I genuinely don’t know if there’s an objectively bad monster in this game

Evolution exists but is completely optional, as even un-evolved monsters can be great

Entire soundtrack is full of bangers

Large and diverse variety of monsters to tame

Cons

Story is a little lackluster, but passable

That’s the only con I can think of

Here’s a link to their Steam page and the game’s website.

A kind of unorthodox recommendation is the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series!

Likelihood is that everyone reading this has heard of this series already, but just in case anyone hasn't, I thought I'd include it! I would categorize this as a hybrid between the mystery dungeon genre and the monster collecting genre, because you recruit pokemon as you play and can use those pokemon on your team!

If you're unaware, the mystery dungeon genre is a small subset of dungeon crawler games where you progress through randomly generated levels called mystery dungeons. Throughout the dungeons, there will be enemies to fight and items to collect. The challenge of these games is mostly due to the stamina aspect of them, in that you have to manage your resources as you progress through the level. If you go all out in each fight, you will inevitably lose quite quickly. You have to learn to win against enemies while balancing your use of items and PP, so you have enough for the next fight, and the fight after that.

Pokemon mystery dungeon in particular is famous for its stories, the likes of which isn't seen often in Pokemon games. They are hugely story-driven games and are notable for the emotional depth they possess. It's pretty normal for the average player to cry at least once in the span of the game. There's lots of memes about that specifically.

This entry in my list is also unique for being a series. So, which one should you play first? It actually doesn't matter! Each storyline is entirely self-contained and requires no knowledge of prior entries. The quality of each entry varies and is a point of contention among fans. I say you should play all of them, because they all have their merits (though some more than others.... coughgatestoinfinitycough). They're mostly distinct for the generation of Pokemon they take place in. Rescue team is gen 3, Explorers is gen 4, Gates to Infinity is gen 5, Super Mystery Dungeon is gen 6, and Rescue Team DX is a remake of a gen 3 game but has the mechanics and moves of a gen 8 game.

My only real caution is that you play Explorers of Sky, not Darkness or Time. Sky is basically a combination of the two games with added items and content. It's an objective upgrade over its predecessors, and I honestly wouldn't waste money on the other two.

I’m not going to include a pros and cons list for the PMD series because I’m incredibly biased and it wouldn’t be an honest review.

Next is Monster Crown!

Monster Crown is a monster collecting game that seems to take heavy inspiration from early-gen Pokemon games in particular. It is currently in early access on Steam and is not expensive. I learned about it through the developers of Monster Sanctuary, when they recommended it on their official Discord.

The game has lots of charm and interesting creature designs, and an entirely new take on monster typings as well. Instead of monster types being based off of natural elements like fire, water, electricity, etc. Monster Crown uses typings that seem to be influenced by the personalities of the monsters. For instance, Brutal, Relentless, and Will are all monster types!

It also captures a lot of the charm many of us look fondly upon in early GameBoy-era games. The music is mostly chiptune, with some more modern backing instruments at times, and the visuals are very reminiscent of games like Pokemon Crystal in particular. Monster Crown is definitely the monster collecting game for fans of the 8-bit era!

The thing that stands out the most to me about this game is the breeding system. Instead of one parent monster passing down its species to its offspring, you can create true hybrids in this game.

However, it is very early access. I would consider the current build as an alpha, not even a beta yet! So temper your expectations here. I have not encountered any major bugs, but visual glitches here and there are quite common. The game also could definitely use some polish and streamlining, and is quite limited in content currently. But the dev(s) seem quite active, so I fully expect these kinks to be worked out in time!

The reviews are rather positive, especially for being in early access. I'm all for expanding the monster collecting genre, so if you're looking to expand your horizons in that sense, I would recommend you at least give this one a look! I personally had quite a bit of fun playing Monster Crown and am going to keep an eye out for updates.

Pros & cons:

Pros

Charming artstyle, appealing monster designs

Faithful callback to a bygone era of gaming

Controls are fairly simple and easy to get the hang of (and are completely customizable!)

Cool breeding and hybridization mechanics

There's a starter for each monster type!

You can choose your pronouns, including they/them!

Cons

Inherent nature of being very early access means can be clunky and unpolished at times

Also not much content as of right now, see above

User interface could use some redesign in places

Here’s their Steam page and the official website!

Here’s an oldie but a goodie, Azure Dreams!

This is one I actually haven’t played, mostly because it’s really old and therefore only practically accessible if you play it on an emulator, unless you're one of those old game collectors. Azure Dreams was developed by Konami and released for the PS1 in 1997. My impression of it was that it either didn’t sell well or only took off in Japan, because it’s actually really hard to find any comprehensive information about it on the internet.

Azure Dreams is a monster collecting - dating sim hybrid. You can build relationships with various characters and can pursue some of them romantically, although that isn’t the main draw of the game. There is also a stripped-down version that exists for the GameBoy Color, which forgoes the dating portion of the game entirely.

Azure Dreams is kind of like a mystery dungeon game in that you progress through a randomly generated, ever-changing tower using the help of the familiars you have accrued throughout your adventure. Similarly to Monster Hunter: Stories, you yourself also take part in the fighting alongside your monsters. Each time you enter the tower, your character’s level is lowered to 1, but your familiars keep their experience. Thus, progression is made through strengthening your monsters. To obtain monsters, you collect their eggs, just like in Monster Sanctuary (which, turns out, was at least partially inspired by this game!)

Due to this game being very old and on the PS1, the visuals leave a lot to be desired... but if you can get past that, Azure Dreams has lots of replayability and customization to how you play the game. To this day, it appears it has a somewhat active speedrunning community!

If you don’t mind the effort of using an emulator, and like old games, Azure Dreams just might be that timesink you were looking for in quarantine.

Honorable mentions:

Pokemon Insurgence (or any Pokemon fangame/ROMhack, really!) is a Pokemon fangame that introduces Delta Pokemon, which are really cool type-swapped versions of existing Pokemon. It’s sufficiently challenging and has a lot of variety in what you can catch in the wild, so you can pretty much add whatever you want to your team! The story is quite good, and the main campaign is multiple times longer than a typical Pokemon game’s campaign. Download it here!

ARK: Survival Evolved is NOT a monster collecting game BUT you do get to tame and fight alongside a lot of really cool extinct species, including but not limited to the dinosaurs we all know and love. This game is genuinely fun as hell, especially with friends, but I must warn you: never play on official servers. I highly recommend singleplayer, playing on a casual private server, or making your own server. Here’s the Steam page.

#pokemon #temtem #monster sanctuary #monster hunter stories #monster crown #azure dreams #pokemon mystery dungeon #pokemon alternatives

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violetsoju · 3 years

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airport

kuroo tetsurou · fluff · 2.2k

warning: slight suggestive theme, mild language, characters are aged-up

a/n: did i write this on impulse because i still can’t believe i was actually in this situation? maybe. did i write this as a manifestation of having a kuroo to bitch about and assure me? maybe too. did i get more encouraged to write this after reading a discussion in a server on bra sizes and brand recommendations a few days ago? maybe three.

“Kuroo, I’m serious. Stop laughing.”

A distinct cackling laughter from the speaker of your phone fills the four walls of your bathroom, along with a lazy lopsided grin flashing on the screen that’s perched on the wall mounted shelf next to the sink.

“But you’re making it so hard not to! Plus, you’re supposed to brush your teeth for two minutes, not talk and brush your teeth at the same time for two minutes.” Kuroo reasons, laughter turning into soft chuckles.

“Sorry babe, but I didn’t catch anything you said just now because you sounded like a fish blubbing underwater, except you’re blubbing white foam instead of bubbles.”

He finds it hard not to grin like a fool at your figure from his side of the screen, hands on your hips with a toothbrush stuffed in your puffed-up cheeks, hair pushed back with an elmo headband that he finds ugly yet cute because of the two ridiculously huge eyes dangling on top.

You mumble something yet inaudible while wiping away the drool of toothpaste dripping down the side of your mouth, a small pout dotting your lips.

“Rinse up and tell me from the top again once you’re done, alright?” Kuroo sighs, shaking his head adoringly as he manages to make out a ‘fine’ out of the string of muffled sounds from you.

And do you listen to him completely? Of course not. So he rests his left cheek on his palms, humming to the bits of information you try to squeeze in without accidentally swallowing tap water while cleansing your face.

The white tiles in the background shift to cream walls shakily, along with the shuffling sounds of room slippers against the wooden flooring. “Then as we were walking towards the karaoke place, I somehow fell behind the rest and ended up beside him. And guess what happened?”

“He confessed to you?” He jokes, oblivious to where this is heading, yet.

“God, I’d rather that happen.” You take a seat in front of your study desk filled with skincare products tucked on the side, placing your phone against the wall. “Instead, he called out to me, which I turn to him and find him looking at my boobs, saying ‘oh, its nothing’,”

Kuroo visibly flinches a little, eyebrows furrowed in disgust, eyes widening slightly, like he just tasted a sip of milk that has gone bad. “Excuse me?”

“He was looking at my boobs, Kuroo. My boobs. Shamelessly. Saying ‘oh, its nothing’. What the heck?” You mentally thank yourself for not opening the cover of the toner in your hand, to save the mess you would have made from all the expressive hand gestures.

“And you were wearing your usual tank top, right?” He smacks his lips together, as if trying to get rid of the bad aftertaste.

“Yeah, the usual square neck rib knit tank top that I always wear.” He tilts his head to the side, eyebrows knitted in confusion. Your wardrobe of tops flashing through his head. “The one that you don’t understand why I own a several pieces in different colours. That one.” A long ‘oh’ resonates through the speakers, the particular top emerging from the sea of clothing.

Kuroo processes the image for a few seconds. “That’s not revealing at all.”

“Exactly! It’s like the most basic thing? There’s tons of girls out there who wear the similar thing as me too.” You tap your toner onto your face with your hands. “And I was even wearing a jacket on top of it? It’s not like I was fully exposed or something. But even if I didn’t have my jacket on, I don’t see how it’s taken as a sign to stare brazenly like that. I wear whatever the heck I want to make myself feel and look good, not for someone else to ogle at, unable to keep their raging hormones in check.”

He hums in agreement. “What did you do or say to him then?”

“Honestly, I don’t know what made me so pissed at that moment either.” You sigh, reaching out for your wash-off mugwort mask. “I snapped at him, telling him that when he talks to girls, he should be looking at them in the eye, not at their boobs.”

“That’s my girl.” Kuroo flashes his signature cheshire-grin. “What did he say then?”

Your lips purse together, recalling the situation. “I don’t think he even heard me. Partly because you know how I rush through words like I’m rapping when I’m mad.”

“Told you to apply for that rap competition show on tv.”

“Kuroo.” Your glare earns an apology and light-hearted chuckles. “Another reason why I don’t think he heard me was because he actually had the balls to sit next to me during the karaoke session.” His eyebrows arch at the statement. “To which I dragged Mizuki to sit next to me and he got pushed to the side with the other guys.”

He huffs through his nose with a tinge of frustration, fingers running through his dishevelled hair. “How old is he again?”

“20, I think. But still, that’s no excuse for being so disrespectful towards girls and women. He’s already a full-grown adult for crying out loud.” You set the timer to 15 minutes on your phone, shuffling to your bed. “Out of all the boys I’ve met that are of his age or back when we were his age, I’ve never met such a disrespectful guy. In this area of discussion, I mean.”

“You mean you haven’t met such a horny monkey before.” Kuroo summarises. You snort at his remark, making yourself comfortable under the covers while waiting for the mask to work its magic.

“So you’re mad that he looked at your boobs.”

You place your phone between your folded knees, slouching against the bed frame. “Of course I am. It’s a violation against my body. How the fuck does he think he’s entitled to look at someone blatantly like that? Imagine someone staring at your dick like its nothing.”

The stupid cocky smirk appears on screen again. “Not gonna lie, but I would be proud. Or amused.”

“Freak.” You scoff, scrunching your nose at his reply.

His amber eyes gleam under the dim lights through the screen. “You sure you’re not mad at anything else?” He prods, not letting you off the hook.

“I guess I’m so mad because I never expected this to happen to me. I mean, look at me. What’s there to look at when I’m basically as flat as an airport?” You gesture to your breasts, ignoring his ‘you’re exaggerating’ interjection. “I would understand if he was staring at someone voluptuous or well-blossomed. But what’s the point of staring at a wall so flat there’s no cracks or dents in between?”

Kuroo’s sharp yet soft features settle into a knowing look. “So there is something else that you’re mad at.”

You narrow your eyes at him. “That is?”

“You’re upset that your boobs are small.”

Your eyes take a 360-degree turn, huffing exasperatedly. “I’m not. I’m happy with the way they are.”

“No, you’re not.”

“Yes, I am.”

“You’re not.”

“I am.”

His firm discerning expression in the 10-second-long stare off has you heaving a long sigh in defeat. “I mean, there are times which I wish they would be just a little bigger…” You hesitantly admit, biting the inside of your lips. “So I don’t have to rely on push-up bras that much. And they would look nicer in wireless bras… Or in deep v neck cuts… Or plunge dresses…”

“Babe, they’re perfect with the way they are now.” Kuroo’s words doesn’t come out as pity or consolation; it’s filled with raw honesty and sincerity.

You glance down at the soft flesh beneath your oversized t-shirt that once belonged to Kuroo. “I know, but sometimes you can’t help but want more, right?”

“I understand, it’s natural.” He nods in acknowledgment. “But we have to be grateful with what we have, don’t we?”

A soft smile tugs the corner of his lips at the sight of your pout. “You’re right. Why did I get myself so worked up just because of one horny monkey when I have such an amazing and supportive boyfriend?” His lips curl up with a little more pride at you remembering and reusing his little remark.

“At your service, always. And ever ready to chase off any horny monkeys in sight.” He places his hands to his eyebrows as a salute dramatically, earning a hearty laugh from you.

“Question time. On the bright side, don’t you save more on bras because they require lesser fabric than bigger sizes? Less fabric, less production cost?”

“If only it were like that, Kuroo. You know what, we’re going bra shopping for our next date.”

“May I be granted the honour of choosing the fine piece of garment?” He places his hand over his right chest.

You hold onto your imaginary ruffled dress in the air, dropping into a mid-curtsy. “If I have the honourable chance to be blessed by your gracious kindness to pay for it, be my guest.”

“Of course, m’lady.” He bows curtly, giving you a flirtatious wink.

You giggle at his sappiness. “Okay my turn. Aren’t you jealous that you don’t have the chance to hold them like other boyfriends do for their busty girlfriends when their boobs swell and get sore during their periods?”

He shrugs like it’s no big deal, but the glint in his eyes says otherwise. “It’s not like that’s the only time I get to touch them.” He wiggles his eyebrows at you suggestively.

“Pervert.” You gasp, covering your breasts with your arms.

The timer on your phone beeps, signaling it’s time for you to wash off your mask.

“Didn’t take you to be a boob person. Thought you were more of a butt person.” You place your phone back on the wall mounted shelf in the bathroom, turning on the tap water to run.

“I’m neither. Because I’m a you person, your person. A person that loves you as a whole, not by parts.” You swear you can see him giving you that smug grin of his with your face submerged with water, washing off the remaining residue.

“You know, maybe God deliberately blessed you with a lesser amount in this aspect.” His voice echoes through the speakers.

You reach out to your face towel hanging next to the sink and place gentle pats on your face. “And why is that?”

“Because God knew that you’d be unstoppable if you were blessed in all aspects. I mean, look at you. You’re already slaying it despite your fun-sized boobs.”

You nearly choke on your own saliva from the fits of laughter at his comment. “What the hell, Kuroo. No one calls a C cup and below fun-sized.”

“If people call those below the height of 160cm fun-sized, I don’t see why I can’t do the same with breast sizes.” He reasons with a nonchalant face.

“Fine, fun-sized boobs they are.” You give in, switching off the bathroom lights. “Your drop-dead gorgeous kick-ass girlfriend has fun-sized boobs.”

“And I love it. That’s what makes her special too.” He adds, face full-on smitten with love.

“Shut up, cheesy conman.” You chuckle softly, your face a mirror image of his.

“Well, you chose one yourself. No refunds.” The coolness of your moisturizer helps soothe the warmth blossoming across your cheeks, but not the warmth spreading throughout your chest like a cosy fireplace on a cold winter day.

【☾】

Zero and one digits flash on the top right of the screen, signalling it’s way past your bedtime. You’ve been on the phone with Kuroo for close to two hours, no wonder you feel yourself drifting to sleep each second. Kuroo senses it too, from the way your eyes twitch and lose focus.

“Alright, last question before we wrap up for today. When are you hanging out with them again?” He asks, stifling a yawn.

You let out a yawn as well, stretching your arm over your head, popping a few bones. “I don’t know, but I may skip if he’s tagging along.”

“Nope, we’re going together. Me and you.” Kuroo states matter-of-factly with droopy eyes.

You rub your eyes that has been lidded with sleep. “What if you’re busy on that day like today?”

“Then I’ll just clear my schedule for the day. Gotta show the lil boy who owns this airport.” His deep voice croaking through the speakers of your phone.

“Airport?” You question, confused at his statement, wondering if sleep has started to take over your sense of hearing.

“Airport.” He gestures at his tiddies sleepily.

“Kuroo…” Your distressed groan doesn’t stop him from his babble.

“Gotta show to him that it’s a private one too, not some public area that’s available to any common folk like him. Right, babe?”

a/n: in Chinese, there’s a saying of calling flat chested girls or girls with small boobs as 飞机场, which means airport because the airport runway is flat. so it’s like one’s chest is so flat that it can run the plane lmao. all sizes are precious, don’t get me wrong. this is purely for entertainment purposes

shoutout to @moonboohoo for being my irl Mizuki that day ily ❤️

#haikyuu #haikyuu!!#kuroo tetsurou x you #kuroo tetsurou x y/n #kuroo tetsurou x reader #kuroo tetsurou #kuroo x y/n #kuroo x reader #kuroo x you #kuroo fluff #kuroo tetsurou fluff #haikyuu imagines #haikyuu oneshot #hq imagines #dont worry guys im not bothered by the incident anymore #i just thought it would be funny to write about #small tiddy gang unite #and i finally have a piece thats not over 3k words omg #mini achievement unlocked 🔓

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ignitification · 3 years

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Midoriya Izuku - Green for Hope, Red for Burning Passion

I always asked myself why exactly Horikoshi has changed Midoriya's character design so drastically.

Indeed, we go from a character called Yamikumo who looks like a feral child with the bad habit of eating his nails off, and drinks more coffee than humanly possible to an anxious bunny who smiles awkwardly and does not know how to accept compliments.

To me, the difference is absolutely insane. Izuku's hair and eyes are uniform and reflect his character and surname. However, a thing that I find peculiar is how the dark (Black/Green) and the Red theme are a constant throughout particular tellings of his character.

The legendary red shoes are one of Deku's main features. It's part of his character. However, I just got to think why exactly (especially having an idea on why was green used for him) and I think that the answer might be very very banal. However, I do think that this is not the only reason.

First of all, there is the most simple reason which I could think of: Midoriya Izuku is described as plain. In my opinion, plain does not really define Midoriya but the concept of him being bland and capable of melting into background is fundamental to express him in the most little details (however, there are few things which inwardly contradict this description: first and foremost his freckles). But as it might be, and Midoriya is indeed considered not worthy look at for more than once (at least as described in the manga - which is also one of the reason why his design has been changed so much, as Yamikumo had literally zero chance to go unnoticed), it appears clear how this suppression of character, of wanting to relegate Mido to a background role is what instead pushes Izuku forward to make a bold choice of something like wearing red shoes. They are strikingly particular, and noticeable: which means that Midoriya is not happy about being an npc, but instead wants to be noticed and in some way stand out.

The second reason, which I mulled over if was relevant enough is All Might. A recurrent color in all All Might's costumes is Red (and Blue, which kind of reminds of Superman and the American Flag. A fact that I found interesting as well if how AM wears Blue, Yellow and Red while Midoriya wears Green and Red, and of course Blue and Yellow together form Green).

And finally the third and final reason (at least, for now) is that Red, as a colour reminds Deku of Kacchan (even if arguably, we see in the first panel of the manga how Izuku wore already his shoes so this might be false and instead it might refer to the fact that Red is Izuku’s favourite colour only), who we know he associates with victory. As the mental image of Kacchan, who was red eyes, is his substitute for him being able to stand proud, strong and capable to win, Izuku might want to express this strive to be strong.

But what do these two colours mean, stand alone ?

As for Green: this colour, in different cultures, is associated with "Hope" . I think here the main gist and general going is that Midoriya represents Hope for the Heroes, Hope for the Unwanted, the Broken and the Damned (the Villains). I talked about Izuku being a Symbol of the New Society here, but in short, with Izuku Midoriya being fundamentally associated to the colour green, I think Horikoshi wants to express two things: how Izuku never loses hope (to be a hero, to have a quirk, to be a friend to Katsuki who bullied him for years or Shouto who straight up challenged him even before getting to know him, to reach and to save everyone) and how he represents and spreads hope for others (Eri, Kouta, the same Todoroki and Katsuki).

Green indicates life, renewal, harmony and safety. Which, in this sense, points out Izuku's nature as a person and how he is bound to feel restless unless he provides comfort to everyone, and that desire to save desperately anyone who he can reach. Green is a calming and soothing colour. It also stands for prosperity, freshness and progress - which point out not only the conclusion of Deku being N1 Hero, but as well at him 'changing up' the society and becoming the Symbol of Hope and Change (on which I briefly touched upon here).

However, on a negative side it also stands for Greed (wanting to be a hero and follow AM steps even when he had a hard time adapting his body to his new quirk) and Envy (Bakugō first and foremost and the generally heroes and those who has time to wield their power properly). In this negative meaning of the colour, I think Izuku’s selfless nature comes to the surface even more: how he feels bound to feel negative emotions which spur his renewal and development (after all, he did unlock Black Whip after Monoma had insulted Bakugou), but at the same time use this emotion toward a bigger goal (him being mad at Shigaraki, but at the same time wanting to save him - I wrote about this too here).

Green, is, finally, the colour of the Heart chakra: an expression of how Midoriya puts everything before him, because his heart cannot take the selfishness of thinking of himself first, which also come hand in hand with his sacrificing nature and reminds of his name meaning and the association made with the number 9. Indeed, “Opening the Heart chakra allows a person to love more, empathise, and feel compassion” - which in short, stands for an externalisation of Mido’s personality.

On a shorter note, in Japan, the colour green represents youth, eternity, vitality and energy - which, in its own way is both a confirmation and a denial to other references made in Izuku’s character, such as his dangerous nature, him not being concentrated to live on for more than he is allowed to fulfil his duty (him being tied to number 9 and so on), and at the same time it reminds us of OfA, as it gains more power and energy and at his cheery, youthful persona.

As for Red, as the colour of Blood, it also stands to indicate '' Danger, Sacrifice, Courage" (which reconnects to his name's theory and numerology, of which I talked about here, in short).

In addition, red is usually used to professionally gain attention (it's hard to miss something so bright) and convey confidence. We know for a fact that Deku has been wearing red shoes since he was a kid (or at least, since he met Bakugō, which coincides with Izuku being four) and that despite being Quirkless, he always showed courage in standing out to people even when they thought of him as 'inferior' because on his unusual condition.

Among other negative meaning, there is an overflow of temper, anger, agitation, and overbearing, demanding and oppressive behaviours. As clear as day, these characteristics relate more to fiery Katsuki than Deku, but as stated before, Deku puts Katsuki as model and adapts his combat style to resemble Katsuki’s. So, this overflow of energy and action is a double-edged sword which affects both Katsuki and Izuku in different ways (and is mellowed out in Izuku’s character by his other soothing characteristics , but more on that later).

Also, Red, in Asia is a lucky colour which might (or not) hint at how, despite everything Izuku got his 'lucky' chance to inherit AM's power and follow his dream of becoming a hero. Particularly, in Japan this colour is associated and denotes strength, passion, self-sacrifice. A transmission of feeling as complex and empowering as the ones Deku fills while he is living his everyday life as a future hero, summed to his nature and inherited quirk.

Red is also a magical and religious color. It symbolized super-human heroism to the Greeks and is the color of the Christian crucifixion, which might be as meaningless as other things, but in this case it might greatly relate to the type of enormous power Izuku tries to reign in, and to the self sacrificing spirit which he proves again and again.

So far, the meanings of the colours which have been associated with Deku are in line with his name, his personality and even the storyline which has been drawed out.

Among other meanings red represents power, courage, energy, passion, and creates physical effects such as enhanced metabolism, enthusiasm, higher level of energy (which comes back to the initial reasons on why Deku chooses Red as a distinct colour for himself and his shoes).

The color red is linked to the most primitive physical, emotional, and financial needs of survival and self-preservation.

Finally is also the colour of leadership, determination and courage. So in short, the colours red, where it indicates energy, action and strong emotion-filled desires and aspirations, is also weak to overbearing aspects which transform empowerment into negative traits (which is what, in the end, is represented by Bakugou). It is also strong-willed and can give confidence to those who are shy or lacking in will power (the shoes in Deku’s case).

Red is the colour of the First (or Spine) Chakra and usually allows a person to be grounded and connect to universal energies, while Green is the link between spiritual and material.

What do these two colours mean in association with each other?

Onto how these two colours are related to each other, especially considering the premises made, we see that Red (life-giving properties, trust, belonging and violence) and Green (health, eternity, youth and greed) are not only opposites, but they complete and balance each other out. Indeed, to reign over emotions and actions, to red is usually added green which indeed is a pain-relieving patch for red’s intensity (the theory of Bakugou and Deku being two sides of the same coin are thriving).

Midoriya Izuku is an intense person. His personality allows him to balance out his power with a selfless nature, and while he himself is sweet and caring, his fiery eyes (and shoes) express for him his utmost sincere feelings, which deep down are very telling. As mentioned before, Izuku responds to Monoma when he insults Bakugou and makes a jab at how actually Bakugou is the one who ultimately terminated AM, by unlocking a new dangerous and powerful quirk, which is so powerful and fiery, and red in his intensity, that they need Shinsou’s intervention to actually calm him down.

Izuku is a overly protective person: he has forgiveness as a foremost characteristic and even if he does mention how he will not forgive Shigaraki for what he has done, on second though he realises that even a ‘monster’ like Shigaraki deserves to be saved, and therefore his other nature takes over.

Therefore, the coexistence of these factors, and his personality are probably at the origin of why Midoriya has had such a drastic make-over before becoming Midoriya Izuku, and why the colours of Red and Green are fundamental in the description which lets us have a full picture of Midoriya as an individual: something who is full of hope and energy, striving to express whisk power and passion while trying to concern only himself with the danger that comes with his mission to save everyone.

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class1akids · 3 years

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While seeing 2nd holder being Almost!Bakugou is more exciting at least than the last couple of weeks, I just want to remind everyone that the fandom is intrigued by him only because he resembles our!Bakugou - a character we’ve spent a long time being invested in and learnt to root for.

And whatever almost!Bakugou’s deal is (ancestor, or alternate universe Bakugou Ni. Katsuki or Same-Face cosplayer of on the nose parallel), the attention he gets is all earned by our!Bakugou. His story is relevant mostly in relation to our!Bakugou.

Because this dude is dead and as a character, his development is for all purposes is done (while our!Bakugou is dealing with a ton of shit somewhere out there and I frankly want to see what he’s up to!!!) And this is why I’m really getting worn out by the 7-quirk OFA plot.

Long rant under the cut.

We are treading water in Vestige-World, with Deku’s new dead friends. They are not characters we are invested in, because in order to do that, we need to spend time with them and watch them struggle and change and learn and grow. But that’s not feasible within the span of the story - so we just get a short-hand explanation of their history - but they have no depth and only very surface personality.

Banjo is the loud Good Guy. Nana is the hot thighs Good Guy who happens to be Shiggy’s granny. En is the quiet Good Guy. First is the original Good Guy who looks like Shiggy. 4th is the Good Guy with the scar. 2nd is the tsundere, almost!Bakugou Good Guy. 3rd is the BFF to second Good Guy. Like the seven fucking dwarves.

In the end, they don’t really have distinct motivations. All these supposedly “randomly” chosen people are good and heroic and they do their best and now that AFO somehow pulled them out of the core of OFA, they sit around on their cushy chairs, breaking themselves to be helpful to their cute little kuhai.

Because it is all so shallow, Deku gets no development from it either. We are visibly trying to speed through this thing so much that smokescreen is unlocked off-screen, Deku learns everything in a week (undermining everyone else’s quirk learning curves)- but there is no process, no learning, no struggle, no change.

Sure, there is a change of design into Badass!Bunny (Mirko still wears it better), but how did the vestiges IMPACT Deku? What did he learn other than new skills? What perspective did he gain?

It feels like Deku is the empty cup, they keep pouring their skills into, and he just stands there as always, with eyes wide, as our one-way mirror into vestige!world, which itself is just a bunch of asspull, make-it-up-as-we-go-along type of lore.

Deku has very little agency in this OFA-business. Things happen because of external factors: because of “singularity”, because AFO tried to take it, because the vestiges decide to “show up”, because First gives a pep talk to 2nd and 3rd. They give him live instructions on how to use the new toys, so he’s not even figuring anything out. Ironically, it feels less and less like Deku’s quirk and more like OFA Hivemind using Deku’s body.

And because obviously the objective is just to give Deku more powers, well the powers themselves are also under-developed and uninteresting.

In BNHA-universe, quirks are established as physical abilities with limits. They require a limited resource, or have a downside or they are on a timer. No power is limitless.

Yet the OFA-extras don’t seem to have any of these things.

Black Whip is the worst offender. We don’t know what resource it uses, it has no timer, it can sprout from any body part, its strength is not connected to the strength of the wielder, yet it is apparently strong enough to keep restraining a Muscular level guy - it doesn’t even disappear after manifestation even though it’s not corpoeral. Like, BW has absolutely no limits.

It’s only known parameter is: whatever Horikoshi wants to draw.

Float is another outrageous quirk. Everyone else’s flight requires a resource, an active effort, or a trade-off between flying and fighting. Float is just a limitless air-movement with no downside or timer that completely leaves Deku’s arms and legs free to fight. And is a mostly passive ability? I guess? We don’t know... But it sure doesn’t look complicated since Deku unlocked and used it instantenously with no problems.

Danger Sense - I had so much hope for Danger Sense because finally a quirk that could have been troublesome, stretching Deku’s mental limits and teaching him something about trying to do everything by himself. While in the raid Deku blacked out from Danger Sense, within one week it developed into a power that can be used basically the same way as Sir’s prediction (which was on limited timer) to evade opponent’s move and also as a long-distance police emergency scanner to locate more danger. No downsides - no mental strain - no confusing input into the fight.

Smoke Screen - ok, we know nothing about this one either, other than it’s like BW - makes something out of nothing.

So here we are now. Deku spending time with his under-developed dead friends and using a bunch of extra quirks that he got as free candy. It’s all fight mechanics. Where are the emotional stakes???

7-quirk OFA undermined the uniqueness of characters like Sero, Froppy (BW), Uraraka (Float), Jirou, Shoji (Danger Sense), like we said it would. It shifted story-time from the characters we are invested in, and the bonds we care about, to have Deku interact with his under-developed and uniformly Good Guy dead friends. It gave him more powers, but none of it feels earned. He’s not challenged either by the power or the history.

There is no sense of accomplishment like there was when Deku figured out Full Cowl, or when Bakugou got his new explosion, or when Todoroki finally pushed his limits to get flashfire.

I’m not saying there was never potential in this plot. The vestiges could have challenged Deku more - some of them could have been a bit more grey (maybe 2nd will be just a bit), the powers could have been more challenging with more downsides, with bigger off-sets. Having so many people in his head could have stretched Deku psychologically.

But Vestige-land feels like a shiny, boring suburb where everyone is just so NICE and HELPFUL that it feels kind of fake.

And what did we gain? Yes, Deku got more powers and a wardrobe change, but no character development.

And what did we lose? Everything. We are losing out on seeing Deku’s friends, the meaningful bonds, their struggles, their resolve.

I’m sorry, but I’m a 1000 times more invested in seeing Bakugou and Todoroki (especially Todoroki! OMG! what an untapped drama potential) and Momo, and Mina and hell Aizawa, Shinsou - they all came away with so much pain and unfinished business. And the League - Dabi, Tomura, Toga ... so much potential.

Instead, we are getting an - what feels like - obligatory MC arc that tries very hard to pretend that Deku is the only hero left in the world (when we know that there is no way the others are not out there doing their best, and if they aren’t, that’s because some stupid plot asspull) who will fix everything by himself.

Because it’s blatantly untrue. We’ve spent years learning that there are other heroes who can and will step up when they need to, all the class, most of the pros, other students... I’m feeling such a whiplash and deep disappointment every time I open a new chapter with this peddling of the “new symbol! Deku stuff”.

And no cutesy fucking lunch-boxes are going to mask the emptiness of this crap.

And I’m baffled by the fandom reaction. There are so many people who say that oh, finally, because Deku deserves his own arc. Sure, but doesn’t it matter what kind of arc? Wouldn’t you want to see something more meaty than “omg our boy looks so badass!!!! squeeeeee!!!!”?

I’m hoping still that it is a build-up to something more interesting and Deku’s current obsession of doing it all alone and frankly grating martyr-complex is not going to be framed as a good thing (even though it looks right now that this is totally being framed as a good thing and a Mighty Boy origin story) and will lead to some kind of failure instead that will teach Deku to learn to rely on his friends and empower them and not just try to fix everything for them, which after 300+ chapters feels pretty fucking insulting on behalf of the “side characters”.

#bnha critical #bnha meta #bnha manga spoilers #ofa critical #bnha 310 #alt!bakugou #7-quirk ofa sucks so much #sorry for the rant #just felt like i needed to get it off my chest #this plot is so half-assed #even if you love deku #wouldn't you want something more compelling for him than this?

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shroomcult · 3 years

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@soulxmakaweek

Day 4: Apologize

I fell way behind with Soma week because I got slammed with work and this monster of a fic took me too long to write.

Summary:

Maka comes to realize that Soul had never felt fully comfortable around Crona, and in ignoring this entirely - she unknowingly hurt her closest friend.

Special thanks to Tori @chichirichick (she betas all of my dumpster fires, bless her) for proofreading this mess of emotions and also to Zi @azroazizah for coming up with the concept for this fic.

**Disclaimer** This story is not about putting blame on Crona, but instead about acknowledging the fact that Soul went through trauma due to their actions and it was never taken into consideration by Maka before inviting them into their friend group. I'm not saying Crona didn't deserve support, but it's also completely valid for Soul - a victim of Crona - to not feel entirely safe around them regardless of their tragic background and circumstances. If Crona is a big comfort character for you and you feel you would likely be upset by this concept, then I recommend not reading it altogether. We all interpret things different and we're all entitled to our own opinions, and I'm not going to get in arguments with people over this.

It’d been a while since the Spartoi team was all together again.

After the fall of Asura, they really had no purpose to join forces as a team. No big baddie to unite them in ass-kickery.

The skies were blue again. There were still Kishin eggs to take down, and a shaky new diplomatic relationship with the witches to maintain as well.

Things were more or less … normal. Boring, even.

The only big difference Blackstar could discern was that nobody seemed to have time to just hang out and be friends anymore.

Kid was over his head with his new responsibilities, and while he was doing an admirable job filling his father’s shoes; there was a steep learning curve and his perfectionist tendencies only made it more challenging to overcome. He upheld a calm and collected demeanor in the public’s eyes, but Liz and Patty spent most of their time holding him together behind the scenes.

Soul and Maka were a different situation entirely.

It was odd enough to adjust to the recent change in the nature of their relationship. They claimed to be the same as they’ve always been - just Soul & Maka. Only, they grew much closer after the hardships they had endured both in the book of Eibon and on the moon.

They had been close to begin with, but this was a different kind of close. Stolen glances, hands reaching for each other when they thought nobody was looking. Blushing for almost no damn reason.

Something was going on between them - he could be sure of that.

More recently, however, Maka had been particularly obsessive about solving the dilemma of Crona’s entrapment on the moon. She was driving herself to a slow-burning insanity, considering every moment that she hadn’t rescued them yet to be a personal failure.

She’d been spending much of her time in the restricted section of the library, consuming every piece of relevant research for hours on end. Soul often stayed up there with her doing the same, or at the very least keeping her silent company when he was too burnt out to read anymore.

He’d also spent much of his extra time with Stein, training to perfect his sound-wave abilities into his own form of wavelength attack.

He’d been giving his all ever since making deathscythe status to hone his strength and better serve Maka. He’d even been able to hold his own for a surprising amount of time in the sparring ring against Blackstar, and that was a feat in and of itself.

All of the focus on Crona’s rescue had appeared to be wearing on him, though.

Soul may have accepted Crona into his friend group for Maka’s sake, even empathized with them - but he had never fully trusted the demon sword meister. Although Soul was outwardly friendly towards them, Blackstar noticed the way his friend had watched them like a hawk before they turned back to Medusa. He was always ready for a scenario like that because he had never felt entirely safe around them to begin with.

Not that Maka had bothered to even take Soul’s feelings into consideration before forgiving Crona on his behalf.

She couldn’t have possibly been that dense. She had to have been actively ignoring the signs of Soul’s discomfort because she couldn’t handle acknowledging them.

And now she was doing the same thing all over again even with Crona as far away as the moon. It was obvious that Soul was doing what he always did - shoving his own feelings aside in favor of Maka’s. The loyal mutt of a boy valued her wellbeing far above his own, that was for certain.

He just seemed so exhausted of it all now. Searching tirelessly with Maka for a solution that may not even exist took up much of his time and energy.

He never had the time to shoot hoops or play video games like he used to, and Blackstar was far above begging for his attention. He stopped even bothering to ask him.

Just for one night though, by some divine luck - everybody was willing to clear their schedule to have a late night dinner at the most beloved and heart-attack inducing burger joint in town.

Every member of Spartoi was crammed into the largest booth in the restaurant and their chatter was loud enough to fill the whole section.

There were multiple conversations happening at a time, but Blackstar was zeroing in on Soul who had his chin resting on his palm and that stupid, dopey look he got on his face when he was proud of Maka. Yuck. Keep it in your pants, loverboy.

Maka was next to Soul, his arm stretched out behind her on the booth, while Ox engaged her in a fiery debate over god knows what across the table from her. Judging by the redness in baldy’s face - Maka was on the winning side. He really couldn’t understand Soul’s hard-on for a bossy know-it-all personality, but whatever floats his boat he supposed.

He decided he’d seen enough of that look on his best friend’s face and crumpled up a straw wrapper, dipping it in his soda and sticking it at the end of his straw.

He blew on the other end, sending the sticky wad of paper flying across the table. The projectile hit its target directly on the cheek.

“Fuck’s sake dude, how old are you?” he grumbled, reaching over the table to grab a handful of napkins to clean his face off with.

Maka snatched some of his napkins for herself, rubbing it vigorously into the flecks of cola that stained her uniform. “You got my shirt all wet, idiot.”

Blackstar simply threw his head back to cackle obnoxiously. “I just thought I should break up your lame little debate team fight before Ox over here pops a blood vessel. You know he can’t handle losing well.”

“I wasn’t losing!” Ox hissed under his breath.

Maka only met her opponent’s glare with a shit-eating grin.

“Hey, Maka! What had you stopped to talk with Professor Stein about earlier today?” Tsubaki cut in, obviously attempting to diffuse another argument between the two competitive brainiacs.

Maka’s expression relaxed into something a little more neutral, seemingly caught off guard by the question. Debate-mode successfully disarmed.

“Oh. Well… I just had some questions about my black blood research for him.”

Blackstar didn’t miss the way Soul tensed up beside her at the mention of black blood. His face was void of any distinct emotion, but something was off in his body language. The way his shoulders squared as if he were instinctively bristling.

Anyone with a shred of social awareness could have deduced that black blood, Medusa, and Crona were not Soul’s favorite topics. It wasn’t unusual for him to shut down and discontinue any contributions to a conversation when any of these things were brought up.

Unfortunately for Soul, all of those subjects were constantly on Maka’s mind since she began her obsessive pursuit for a solution to Crona’s ordeal.

“Oh? And what did he have to say?” Tsubaki pressed, completely oblivious to the tense situation she was potentially triggering.

“As you’re already aware, there’s not really any official research on the black blood that exists. We’ve been digging through countless books - gathering as much information about madness and Kishins as we can, but it can only get us so far. It would be so much more useful if we could get our hands on a physical sample of the substance itself.”

Soul’s eyes widened in concern, but only for a second before he slipped his usual poker face back on. His Adam’s apple bobbed nervously despite the veneer of calm he displayed.

“Anyways,” she continued, turning to look at Soul, “I was going to talk to you about this later, but maybe some of the black blood still remains in your system? I know we believed it was all gone, but surely there’s some residual amount of it lingering behind? Something we could maybe isolate, extract and create a concentrate of? Stein said it was unlikely, but technically possible. We have to try for Crona, right, Soul?”

He was no longer wearing his mask of apathy. Unmistakeable, visible discomfort was etched into his facial features and he was clenching his hands, knuckles whitening from the pressure. Everyone at the table was hushed and the tension was palpable.

“He doesn’t have to try anything,” Kid’s voice cut sharply through the silence, golden eyes flashing sternly at her.

A soft gasp escaped her and her eyebrows shot up, clearly taken-aback by the sudden burst of hostility from her boss and close friend. Her eyes darkened seconds later, determination setting in.

“I think that’s his decision to make, and I’d like to hear what he has to say,” she turned her attention back to Soul, hope still shining in her eyes.

He fidgeted with his necktie, loosening it and clearing his throat. “Yeah, s’fine. Whatever you need, I guess.”

Maka’s face lit up into a bright smile that turned Blackstar’s stomach and she pulled Soul into a brief hug. “I knew we could count on you, Soul! You’re the best partner ever.”

“Whatever, it’s no problem. Just try not to drain me of all my blood, alright?” he chuckled weakly, avoiding her eyes in favor of staring a hole in the middle of the table.

She gave an easygoing laugh in response, and went back to conversing with Tsubaki as if she hadn’t just pressured her partner into volunteering himself as a guinea pig for the sake of someone who had literally sliced him open from shoulder to hip and infected him with black blood to begin with.

Is she fucking serious?

Blackstar was practically vibrating with fury from the interaction he’d just watched, and Tsubaki’s normally soothing hand on his shoulder did little to calm him down. When he glanced at Kid, he instantly knew the death god had shared his frustration with Maka’s obliviousness.

It wasn’t long before Soul abruptly stood from his place at the end of the booth, pulling a twenty out of his wallet and placing it on the table in front of him.

“Soul? What are you doing? The food hasn’t even gotten here yet,” Maka blinked at him in confusion.

“I’m not feelin’ too great - gonna head out, sorry guys. Could you just bring my food back in a to-go box?” he said with an apologetic quirk of his lips. He squeezed her shoulder gently before turning on his heels and making his way out of the diner in long strides.

Why does she look so shocked? Does she really not understand that she’s been hurting him?

After that, the night passed by in a haze for Blackstar. He hardly spoke for the rest of the meal due to the fact that he was using all of his mental capacity to keep his impulse to stand up and loudly call his friend out in front of everybody in check.

The only thing truly stopping him was the knowledge that Soul would likely be embarrassed and more than a little pissed off if he’d made a big scene over something that he wasn’t even willing to talk about.

So he waited - held his tongue until he could lash out in private.

As everyone was saying their goodbyes, Blackstar watched her rise from her seat gathering her to-go boxes carefully and giving him a nod of acknowledgement before she headed out.

His eyes bore into the back of her head as she left, and Tsubaki’s hand clamped gently on him for the second time that night. Her eyes were crinkled with a gentle concern.

“I think you should leave this between them. If Soul wanted all of this out in the open, he would have had that conversation with her himself.”

A heavy sigh settled in his chest, “You know how he is. He’s the suffer in silence type and he always does her bidding. If nobody says anything, then nothing’ll change. I just want to talk to her - not like I’m gonna beat her ass or anything … unless she gives me a reason to.”

“Blackstar,” she chided, fully aware that he would make good on that threat.

“I know, I know. I won’t be long, see ya at home,” he said, throwing up placating hands before stuffing them in his pockets and striding in the direction Maka had gone.

_______________________________________________

Maka set her walk home at a leisurely pace, dragging her feet slightly as she watched the sunset bleed into the sky above.

It wasn’t that she was trying to prolong seeing Soul, or that she wasn’t worried about the way he’d acted back in the diner - like something was eating at him.

She was pretty positive that he wasn’t physically ill, which only left the option of it being an emotional issue.

And getting Soul to talk about emotional issues was like trying to pull teeth from a temperamental bear.

She had to figure out a way to go about this delicately, and she had to figure it out soon because their apartment block was fast approaching.

She stopped in her tracks when she felt the presence of a familiar soul behind her. His steps had been so quiet, she wouldn’t have even been aware he was stalking her from behind if it weren’t for her exceptional soul perception abilities.

“I know you’re following me, Blackstar.”

In moments, he was stepping out in front of her. “Wasn’t trying to hide. I need to talk to you,” his voice was uncharacteristically stern.

She wasn’t stupid. She knew Blackstar had some kind of problem with her since dinner. He was deathly quiet and glowering at her for most of the night; very unusual behavior from someone who never shuts up or hesitates to start a fight.

“Okay, I’m listening,” she said, already preparing to defend herself against whatever absurd argument he wanted to pull her into.

“The whole situation with Crona - have you ever once thought about how Soul feels about it?”

Whatever she had been expecting to come out of his mouth - that wasn’t it.

“What? I mean, I know how Soul feels. He wants Crona to be safe, just like I do. What are you trying to get at?”

“I’m not talking about what he thinks about Crona being stuck in the deathdamned moon, Maka! I mean have you ever thought about how he felt when you forced Crona into his life to begin with? After being sliced open?”

Maka’s eyebrows shot up to her hairline and her mouth opened and closed a few times, baffled by the question.

“Soul understands why I welcomed Crona as a friend. He trusts me,” she answered, hoping her voice conveyed the confidence that she couldn’t find in this moment.

This entire conversation was throwing her off.

“Yeah, okay. He accepted your decision because he trusts you, or loves you or whatever the fuck. We all know that - but that doesn’t mean he was comfortable with it. It doesn’t mean he felt safe. He just stuffed his own feelings down, because he knew it made it easier for you.”

Her throat tightened as her own conflicting emotions overcame her. He had no idea what he was talking about. Soul was fine. He’s always been fine.

“Did he say that to you? That he didn’t feel safe?” she choked out.

“Soul? You think he tells people things? About his feelings?” he snorted. “No, he doesn’t have to tell me shit. It’s clear on his face every time you mention Crona, or Medusa, or that fucking blood.”

“Maybe you’re just making assumptions about how he feels!” she shouted back, gripping handfuls of the front of his shirt.

He leaned in, completely unfazed by the rage burning in her eyes. “You ever noticed how when Crona was around, he was always watching them out of the corner of his eye - twitching every time they made some sudden move. You ever noticed how quiet and withdrawn he’d get around them? Or any time they were brought up? You didn’t - because you didn’t want to.”

“Shut up! Y-you’re making something out of nothing. Are you trying to tell me that I should just give up and forget about Crona? That they don’t deserve to have a friend?”

Some of his aggression was fizzling out as he released a heavy sigh, placing his hands calmly over hers, still clenching in his shirt. “I’m not trying to say that you shouldn’t have helped Crona, or that you shouldn’t keep trying to help them now. I’m only telling you that even if Soul has forgiven and moved on - he’s still a victim of Crona’s actions. He suffered trauma from that, even if he’s too fucking stubborn to admit it. Just acknowledge that maybe he needs a break from thinking about them - all of that shit that happened - every now and then. Get your head out of Crona’s ass long enough to check if he’s okay too.”

She stumbled over wordless sounds as her hands went limp and released their vice-grip on his clothing. She was trying desperately to think of a way to refute the awful things he was saying, but Blackstar wouldn’t give her the chance.

“If you gave him even half the thought you gave to Crona - maybe you would have noticed it like everybody else has. I just want you to think about it for a bit, that’s all,” his voice softened towards the end, shoulders sagging slightly as he turned away, leaving her to deal with the aftermath of his confrontation.

The heat of tears prickled behind her eyelids and she clenched her fists tightly to her sides.

She wanted so badly to swing around and scream at Blackstar’s retreating figure that he was wrong, that he had no idea what he was talking about and of course she thinks about her weapon.

But the longer she allowed his harsh words to sink in; the more she could feel the sting of truth settling into her heart.

Had she really been so blind?

_______________________________________________

Soul had been laying on his back in bed, hands resting on his stomach and eyes pointed at the ceiling, unmoving for some time. He wasn’t entirely sure how many hours, but he knew his playlist had ended long ago - no music played from the earbuds that were still jammed in his ears.

He couldn’t explain the heaviness in his heart. The anxiety that often set in whenever Maka mentioned Crona or the black blood. It was all water under the bridge, wasn’t it? There was no point in allowing himself to wallow in all the negative emotions that punched him in the gut at the mention of their name. It was selfish to feel those things - it was his job to give Maka his full support. His own feelings were irrelevant.

It was just harder on this particular night. Sure, she droned on about those sore subjects often. Their research revolved around it anyways. He’d just hoped that it could have been different just for one night.

He’d secretly been ecstatic when Maka begrudgingly agreed to shelve her research just long enough to get a late dinner with all of their friends. A break had been long overdue.

Things had been different between them, after all. They’d been sharing a bed, and they’d even shared a few kisses in the small, rare moments that they’d spent alone together - focused only on each other. They were chaste kisses, but he’d greedily take whatever he could get.

As she became more frantic about her lack of results in helping Crona, he may as well have not even existed to her.

He’d just needed that one dinner to pretend things were normal, to pretend as though he was on a date with her and she was willing to spend time with him and think about literally anything aside from her latest fixations. Instead, she’d asked him to play part in some unsound experiment - to prod for things that he hadn’t wanted to find again. It had only been made more uncomfortable by the scrutinizing presence of all of their friends.

He’d felt used.

Soul perked up at the familiar sound of the front door creaking open and slamming shut. He was immediately ashamed of the pavlovian response he had to the sound of his meister returning - the little flip in his heart that made him feel like a stupid dog wagging its tail at the sound of its master.

Just keep to yourself. She doesn’t need to interact with you in this useless state of self pity. You don’t deserve her comfort.

Self-loathing curled in his gut and he kept his eyes stubbornly trained on a water stain in the ceiling.

Suddenly, light flooded into his dark room as his door was hesitantly opened. He reflexively brought himself to sit up on his elbows only to meet a teary-eyed Maka.

All self-indulgent angsty thoughts instantly evaporated from his head, and he was ripping his earbuds out and swinging his legs over the side of the bed to get up.

She made purposeful steps across his room, throwing her arms around his neck and forcing him back onto the bed with the motion.

“I’m so sorry, Soul,” she warbled mournfully into his sweater.

“Huh? Sorry ‘bout what? What’s going on, Maka?” he tried to nudge her into looking up at him, but she adamantly refused.

She took a few shallow breaths before rubbing her wet cheek against the quickly-dampening fabric and looking up at him with dewy eyes.

“I haven’t been a good friend to you - have I?

Was that a trick question?

“I-I don’t get what we’re talkin’ about here,” he stuttered uselessly, attempting to compensate for his lack of eloquence by brushing his fingers comfortingly through her soft hair.

“I never asked if you felt okay with Crona being around you. I never asked you if you forgave them at all - I just brought them into your space, your home. I just wanted them to have a chance at a normal life so badly - I ignored your pain, and I’m so sorry,” she rushed her confession out like it had been a breath she was holding in.

He had to fight the urge to bark out a laugh. It wasn’t that he found anything that she said humorous - it was just so strange that she was addressing this out of the blue. She’d seemed completely unaware as usual back at the diner, where had this even come from?

He was so lost in thought, he’d almost forgotten to respond and instantly regretted the prolonged silence he’d left her in. “Maka, it’s fine,” he insisted, “I get why you forgave Crona. I admire you for it.”

“But that doesn’t mean you were okay. I should have at least checked on you, or asked you about how you felt - or literally anything,’ she mumbled numbly from his chest.

“Hey. Look at me,” he said, lifting her cheek from its resting place against his sweater, “Sure, I didn’t feel the most comfortable around Crona. I think it was pretty awkward for both of us to be near each other. That doesn’t mean I dislike them, or didn’t want you to be their friend. You can’t beat yourself up over something I hadn’t bothered to tell you.”

His words hadn’t brought the comfort that he’d hoped they would, and her brows remained stubbornly crinkled. “If it had been me - if I was the one who’d been cut by that sword, would you still say that you don’t dislike them? That you’re okay with us being friends?”

It was a question that he instantly knew the answer to, but he was reluctant to say it out loud. He finally caved, bringing his eyes back to hers, “No. I wouldn’t have been able to forgive them if it was you.”

She closed her eyes tightly, nodding her head in grim acceptance of that truth. She had likely known that would be his answer already, but hearing it must have been difficult.

“But I love that about you. You have so much compassion. I only care for the few people that I’ve decided I love - I don’t have room in my heart for others like you do. I’d like to be more like you,” he whispered reverently, taking her cheeks in both of his hands and briskly wiping away all of the moisture he could reach with his thumbs.

“I should’ve had more compassion for you,” she lamented softly under her breath, eyes downcast.

“You’re not a fuckin’ mind reader, Maks. It was my choice not to bring anything up.”

She nodded slowly, but the way her grip tightened on him only confirmed his suspicion that she wasn’t going to forgive herself for it.

Minutes passed before a word was spoken, but Soul eventually cleared his throat. “You know, I don’t expect you to ever stop being friends with Crona, or to give up on rescuing them. I don’t want that. I don’t mind helping you like you’d asked earlier tonight, too. If that’s what you need from me, then I’m here.”

She brought herself to her elbows on top of him to get a better view of his face.

“I know. I’m not going to give up on them. But It matters to me that you’re happy too, and if that means you need a break from all that, then I want you to know that it’s okay to ask for that.”

“Right, I’ll keep that in mind,” he said in a hushed tone, distracting himself with a piece of her hair twirled between his fingers.

“And I don’t want to use your blood for research. It was wrong of me to even think of asking you that. We’ll find another way,” she assured him, voice tightening with emotion, “I definitely got carried away with all of this. It wasn’t healthy, and I really am sorry I’ve pushed you away in the process. We can’t solve this thing if we don’t have time to properly take care of ourselves. You’ve been working so hard with me, and I think we need more actual quality time together.”

“Yeah, I could get on board with that. I kinda walked out on dinner tonight, so how about we do something - just you and me tomorrow? Movies sound good?”

“Movies sounds great,” she hummed in agreement, hands idly playing with his hair.

As much as he would have preferred for her to continue her ministrations, he stopped her movements to grasp her hand, bringing it to his chest to rest above where she knew his scar was. He pressed down on her hand lightly.

“I’m glad it happened. I’m glad they gutted me, ‘cause I hadn’t understood what you meant to me till that moment,” he muttered, pressing a quick kiss to the top of her head.

She only exhaled shakily, hand tightening against the evidence of his devotion.

“I just hate that it took a lecture from Blackstar of all people for me to realize that I’d been hurting you.”

His eyes widened a little at that new piece of information. Blackstar was the one that brought all of this on her mind? He could’ve sworn it would have been Kid if anyone. He couldn’t help but feel a little touched that Blackstar had been so concerned about him, but he was also somewhat irritated that his friend had distressed Maka as much as he had.

“Blackstar, huh? Remind me to have a conversation with him about mindin’ his own business,” he laughed half-heartedly.

“No, don’t. I’m glad that he said what he did - I needed to hear it,” she urged him.

“Doesn’t matter. He didn’t have to make my girlfriend cry from guilt over bein’ friends with someone,” he muttered, but his face immediately burned a bright red as soon as he’d caught what he’d called her.

She was a similar shade, holding her breath as well as his gaze with a tortuously difficult to decipher expression on her face.

“That is, uh- I mean… fuck.”

Very articulate. Great job, Soul.

He hadn’t needed to agonize over whether or not he’d just fucked everything between them for long because her face soon melted into a warm, genuine smile.

“Girlfriend, huh?” she said with a glimmer of mischief in her eye.

“I’d like that. If that’s w-what you want,” he wanted to kick himself for the voice crack he just experienced. Not cool in the slightest.

At least she got a good giggle out of it. The melodic sound squeezed something in his chest and he swallowed nervously as a response.

She brushed back his bangs, leaning in to place a soft kiss to his forehead. She peppered a trail of kisses down his cheek until she reached his lips.

This kiss was far from chaste. She cradled his cheek and jaw as she slanted her mouth sweetly over his, pressing fervently, constantly moving against him and eliciting a breathy moan from him that he would never admit to making.

When she tried to separate, he followed her, bumping noses for a moment and giving the corner of her mouth a few more enthusiastic pecks before backing up and allowing her room to look at his face.

“Girlfriend sounds nice, actually,” she smiled broadly, letting her fingers brush against the back of his neck.

“Glad that’s settled, then,” he laughed easily, not even bothering to feel any embarrassment over the flush of his skin or the lightness of his breath.

He crushed her to his chest, and they stayed like that for a while, just listening to the other’s loudly beating hearts until they were lulled to sleep.

He’d have to thank Blackstar with a game of basketball later.

#SoMaWeek2021 #SoulxMakaweek #soul eater #soul evans #soul eater evans #maka albarn #soul x maka

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