#students or to the panel. not that it really makes a difference either way as i think i’ll be doing the same shit regardless

[yggdraseed]

Women in Jujutsu Kaisen

Let’s get this out of the way first: if you’re reading this because you enjoy reading posts by people who hate Jujutsu Kaisen, you’re going to be disappointed. I actually like Jujutsu Kaisen a lot, I have a lot of positive things to say about it, and I’m going to be explaining my reasoning here. You should probably move on if you want trash talk. But if you have a negative view point that you’re nevertheless willing to reevaluate or recontextualize by looking at things from a new perspective, please read on.

A lot has been said about how women are written in Jujutsu Kaisen. A lot of good, and a lot of bad. I think a lot of the bad comes from how Jujutsu Kaisen was praised so early on for how it’s women were written, only for people to either not see it or have their expectations not be met due to events in Shibuya and the Culling Games. However, while I try to respect diversity of opinion, I feel like a lot of people aren’t really grasping why the way GeGe Akutami writes women was lauded. I think a people have lots of different ideas of what makes for a well-written female character, and don’t find what they’re looking for in Jujutsu Kaisen, thus they get angry and they post online about how GeGe Akutamisogyny isn’t going to beat “the allegations.”

I’ve never liked the justifications put forth for that argument. There’s a lot of subtext to how the female cast of Jujutsu Kaisen are written that can’t fit neatly into the simple world of page and panel counts or win-loss ratios. And, fortunately, there are tools for feminist literary analysis that I am going to employ in what will hopefully be a short trilogy of posts, starting here.

When I see people criticizing how women are written in Jujutsu Kaisen, I usually only see them using one point of interest: the outcome of a fight. If a female character doesn’t win a fight, then some people in the audience take that to mean that GeGe Akutami hates that character, hates women, and doesn’t want them to succeed — or some variation of that, perhaps less extreme.

This is a product of Jujutsu Kaisen being a Shonen, and thus being on the radar of Shonen fans who — let’s be honest — are not known widely for consuming anime or manga outside of the Shonen demographic. Shonen is heavily focused on conflict and competition as storytelling, it’s why the term “battle shonen” is used so prevalently. And Jujutsu Kaisen doesn’t try to deny its own Shonen heritage: it uses fights for storytelling all the time, sometimes even more than other Shonen seem to do.

I think this might also be a cultural thing. Anime and manga are written very differently from Western movies or comic books, with very different cultural background and different artistic sensibilities. However, that’s a topic that I’ll unpack another time, maybe not even in Part 2 or 3 of this post.

Point is, we need to step back and get some perspective. People who use the losses or deaths among the female cast as evidence that GeGe hates women, or sees women as inferior, or has some sort of passive, culturally-inherited sexism in their worldview are suffering from tunnel vision. You need to look at the story as a whole sometimes, not just the one subject in question.

Go back to the Goodwill Event, and the fight between Nobara and Momo. Their whole conversation is a huge part of why Jujutsu Kaisen was praised early on for how Akutami writes women, and I think the subtext of it really went over some people’s heads. It did mine, the first time around: to me, it just felt like a competent, if tired “girl power” moment for Nobara. But as I invested more time and thought into reading the series, and as I learned more since first viewing that scene, I started to realize what I wasn’t seeing in that scene.

Momo shares something in common with all of the Kyoto Students, Todo and Miwa being the exception. In addition to seemingly coming from a more-or-less established sorcerer pedigree, Momo shares the general pessimism that hangs over the Kyoto Students like a dark cloud. There’s this very morosely Japanese sense of “woe is me, but there’s nothing to be done” about Momo, Mai, Noritoshi, and Mechamaru, in one sense or another. These four are people who will complain about a problem, then just sit while it washes over them and batters them like a wave. They just accept the unfair hand they’re dealt in life, and while they don’t like it, they treat it as something no one can overcome. Furthermore, on some level, I think these four don’t necessarily want to overcome the misfortunes and injustices they face.

See, Momo pours her heart out at length about how hard it is being a woman and being a sorcerer. And the way she talks about it is a very different critique of society than you’d see in a lot of Shonen. She talks about how women are expected to be perfect: beautiful, graceful, exquisite, the model of femininity, while also keeping up with the macho “might makes right” sensibilities that dominate sorcery. In her words, “men have to be strong, women have to be perfect.”

This isn’t something that’s just being plucked out of thin air, this is a criticism of the girlboss culture that arose through the 2000s and 2010s up to now. Women are expected to battle sexism alone, in their own lives, by being exceptional: rather than reforming cultural structures that put women at a disadvantage to men, girlboss culture says women just need to always wear perfect makeup, always be fashionable, always work 2.5 times harder than men, and find time to raise children and have a side-hustle at the same time. Instead of fixing the problem, it’s telling women, “Just work harder. Just be better.” As if women haven’t been having to work harder for nothing in return for the past 50 years, holding down jobs that they have to go above and beyond to prove themselves in as compared to male coworkers for whom the job might as well be a guarantee by comparison, having a ceiling put on their promotion while men who didn’t put in as much work get to move up the company ladder, and frequently having to juggle having a child and taking care of housework in addition to the expectations of jobs that often don’t afford maternity leave. And then, on top of all of that, the expectation is then foisted on to have the time and energy to perfectly craft your hair, makeup, and outfit for the day, and if you miss a single step of the whole stupid dance, you’re seen as an underachiever. That’s girlboss culture, and that’s what Momo is indirectly criticizing when she laments the contradictory and unfair expectations women in the sorcery world have to uphold. They need to fight just as hard as the men, while wearing skirts and not getting a single scar on that pretty face.

(Just as an aside, I love the way this conversation comes about. Momo and Mai are pretty close to each other, to the point that it sometimes feels like nobody else in the Kyoto school likes or respects Mai like Momo does. And Momo targets Nobara with this whole speech because of the friction between Mai and Nobara, and because she wants to stand up for Mai. I like that element of both solidarity and conflict between women, about being a woman, and I’ve always gotten sapphic vibes from Momo and Mai, so I’m glad that she’s the one giving this whole speech and why she’s doing it. But I digress.)

And the thing is, she’s not wrong. Neither Nobara nor the story as an overall entity refutes anything she says. However, Nobara points out something else about Momo that she shares in common with the other Kyoto Students who were raised to be sorcerers: the way she treats her whole life like a job. Momo has internalized the culture she despises, and instead of trying to rebel, she just accepts all of it as “the way the world works.” She soldiers on, just as Noritoshi soldiers on with his family’s expectations, Mai soldiers on with her pain and feeling of being abanoned, and Mechamaru soldiers on with the isolation, unfairness, and general misery that comes with his Heavenly Pact. Soldiering on, as if soldiering on has inherent value when it leads nowhere and accomplishes nothing. Never addressing the problem, or trying to find a way around it; simply rolling that boulder up the hill, grumbling all the way. She and the other Kyoto Students have this sense of treating their own misfortune as a badge of honor. To them, they’re justified and validated because they have experienced more than their fair share of suffering. They’re always eager to flaunt the crosses they have to bear.

Momo treats being a woman as a curse. Funny how that ties into the rest of the narrative, huh?

For Nobara, being a woman is not some great burden she has to live with. Being a woman in general and being Nobara Kugisaki in particular is something she revels in, and it’s just the fault of everyone else if they think otherwise.

Let’s talk about Nobara, and let’s not reduce her to her death scene. When we meet Nobara, she’s immersing herself in the Tokyo way of life after moving from the countryside to the big city. She encounters a sleazy talent agency recruiter who’s pestering women on the street with his hand-rubbing, obviously nefarious ways… only for Nobara to stop him, turn him around, and say, “What about me?” He gets intimidated, tries to run, and she drags him back. From her perspective, he should be happy to have her, and the fact he isn’t means he’s ignorant of her beauty and wit and needs to be corrected. If he won’t convert to Kugisakism, then her charms are wasted on him, and he’s doomed to the dim world that is Nobaralessness. When she meets Yuji and Megumi, she introduces herself with a line that’s translated into English as, “I’m the only woman in your group.” But from what I’ve been able to gather, her line in Japanese is, “I’m the red mark.” The phrase “red mark” can mean “the one who’s different from the others” — like the one girl in a group of boys — or it can mean “the one who stands out.” So you can also read it as her saying, “I’m the stand-out of the group.” Nobara Kugisaki, everybody.

If you want to talk about how literary circles analyze how women are writing, let’s leave the topics of fight outcomes and feats to one side. One thing you immediately look for is motivation. What’s motivating a character? This is important for how female characters are written, and especially in Shonen, which revolves so much around characters with some goal or belief that the story pursues through fights and other forms of adversity.

Now poorly-written women will tend to be motivated by men. They’ll be attracted to a man, or trying to support or protect a man, or trying to find a man. This by itself isn’t a death sentence for a woman’s characterization, but it is a red flag. It’s also not as if women have to never interact with or think about men to be well-written. It’s not an on-off switch, a bad writing-good writing switch. It’s a meter, like Mahoraga steadily adapting to a technique. Just a little bit is fine, and can be even turned into good writing in capable hands. But if it becomes too prevalent and is never examined, then you get a situation where a story’s women are not permitted lives outside of being in a male character’s orbit.

How do we gauge this? Well, there are lots of ways, but one of the more well-known and simple techniques is the Bechdel test. The name is derived from Alison Bechdel, feminist author who penned such classics as Dykes to Watch Out For. Bechdel proposed a simple litmus test for how to tell an author’s seriousness about writing women, and it goes like this: 1.) Look for scenes where women talk to each other. 2.) In those scenes, check for how often they’re talking about things besides male characters.

This isn’t the only way to tell if women are written well or not, and some will say it isn’t even the best way, but it’s a good foot in the door to get us thinking about what divides well-written female characters from poorly-written female characters. I’m not going to go back and scan through the whole manga just yet, but let’s look at some examples.

— The aforementioned conversation between Nobara and Momo, where the two pit their different view of what it means to be a woman and a sorcerer against one another. — Maki and Nobara talking to each other after the encounter with Mai and Todo. Curious by meeting Maki’s sister, Nobara talks to Maki a bit about their upbringing. Having gained more insights into Maki’s past and personality, Nobara leans on her and tells her how much she respects her. — Miwa and Mai discussing the upcoming Goodwill Event in a flashback. Mai tells Miwa that Maki is weak, which leaves Miwa unprepared for their fight. — Maki and Mai arguing and coming to terms with what drove them apart. Mai just wanted a peaceful life with Maki, but Maki couldn’t be happy and authentic with herself if she just left things the way they were. She was forced to choose between herself and Mai, and Maki chose herself, knowing that Mai would suffer and that she’d shoulder some of the guilt for that.

This indicates that GeGe found it important to divorce the identities of the female characters from male characters. And this holds true in what drives and motivates the female cast.

Nobara is motivated by her own goals. She hates the countryside, and she loves the city; becoming a sorcerer is a way she can make a lot of money, live in the city, and pursue the kind of lifestyle she values. She wants to be a true blue Tokyoite, wearing trendy clothes and eating crepes and taking selfies by the statue of Hachiko outside Shibuya Station. She’s not doing this to avenge her dead brother, she’s not doing this to find her father, she’s not searching for a strong man to sire strong children — yuck. Nobara has aesthetic values and strongly held beliefs, and becoming a sorcerer lets her pursue those values and beliefs.

And if you really want to analyze the action side of Jujutsu Kaisen as an indicator for how GeGe feels about female characters, consider how Nobara takes to sorcery like a fish to water. Both Megumi and Yuji have their own internal dilemmas with being a sorcerer, but not Nobara. In a series where mindset is so important, Nobara has the mindset. Uro describes the model sorcerer as having “no concern for others and an overwhelming sense of self.” There is no one with a more overwhelming sense of self than Nobara. She’s loud, opinionated, loves to argue, flaunts herself, and demands other people give her more than what they think she’s due. She’s narcissistic, but that faith in herself makes her mentally strong.

She lacks experience, but even then, she learns and grows rapidly through the series. Due to running out of nails to fend off cursed spirits during the first stretch of Fearsome Womb chapters, she invents Hairpin as a way to reuse nails she’s already launched and embedded in a surface. She manages to land a Black Flash during the tag team fight with Yuji, and it’s her oppressive use of Resonance on Eso and Kechizu that turns the tides — a tactic which required her to hammer nails into her own arm. She takes it on the chin and gets her brain rattled around in her skull during the fight with Haruta, but even while borderline unconscious and suffering from a concussion, she forces herself to keep him talking in hopes Nitta can escape and manages to get to her feet and keep fighting despite the total disorientation and inability to summon her strength. While she didn’t win the fight, she showed more fighting spirit than half of the male cast tends to, and I find it kind of gross that people will ignore all of that and mock someone who kept fighting against the odds. That’s like laughing at Mumen Rider when he’s hopelessly trying to fight Sea King even as his body is breaking. I don’t exactly see what about either case is so funny or worthy of ridicule.

Even in the showdown with Mahito, people always fixate on how she dies, but never consider what led to it. She crosses paths with Mahito, and even knowing from Yuji what he’s capable of, she goes in — partially because he hurt Yuji, her friend, and she wants to make him suffer for it. And her technique turns out to be a worst case scenario for Mahito. She’s hammering his clone with Resonance and sending the blowback to the original while he’s fighting Yuji, dividing his attention and weakening him. Her only mistake was chasing him down, and even then, this isn’t the story punishing her. It’s the story being consistent with who Nobara is. She’s got a dangerous enemy on the ropes, her pride is bruised after the fight with Haruta, and she has a chance to get vengeance on someone who’s hurt her friend while helping said friend in the process. If she hadn’t followed Mahito into the subway, then she wouldn’t be Nobara Kugisaki.

And in her final moments, Nobara achieves something that’s considered to be out of reach of most sorcerers. She dies content, with a smile on her face. Nobara may not have realized her potential to be a great sorcerer, but she got what she, personally, wanted. Sorcery was a means to an end, and she got to live the Tokyo life and meet interesting people that she considers her friends. She got to fill out that finite number of seats in her life, and even meet a few people who pulled up a chair when she didn’t expect it. In her words, “It wasn’t so bad.” Nobody else but Toji and Gojo have gotten to die this satisfied — Toji because Megumi had grown up free of the Zen’in curse, Gojo because he was authentic to himself right to the end and left it all on the field. Nobara was authentic to herself right to the end, and that’s worthy of high praise. If she is definitely dead and not coming back, then she managed to accomplish what it was she wanted before dying. Not many get that luxury in Jujutsu Kaisen. It hurts because I liked her and admired her and appreciate the way she was written, and her dying doesn’t make the value of her character disappear from the story entirely. It’s the character’s death, it’s everything that led to that death and what that death means to them and to those who are left behind. And if it’s manga that explore death, nobody does it better than GeGe Akutami.

Lots of people will point to an interview where GeGe said that Nobara was not originally considered part of the cast, and they’ll use that as evidence that secretly, GeGe’s a big stupid misogynist who hates women and likes killing them in stories and blah blah blah blah blah. You know, first of all, I doubt that the editor held a gun to GeGe’s head and said “Put in a female main character or die.” Secondly, if GeGe really didn’t care, Nobara would just be a two-dimensional copy of Sakura who dies in the first arc or two. GeGe would not have put in the effort to set her apart from other female leads, or given her so many stand-out moments, or given her such an interesting motivation and world view. In short, if GeGe didn’t want to write a female character, they’d do what Kishimoto did: write Sakura. But that comparison is a can of worms I’ll need to pry open another time.

To sum up for the time being, no, GeGe Akutami does not hate women. Losing a fight does not make a female character worthless, and does not indicate a disdain for them on the part of the author. I don’t know about you, but I don’t read Shonen just to see who punches harder. I want to see characters be challenged, sometimes fail, learn, grow, and overcome adversity — and it wouldn’t be adversity if all the characters I like win and survive easily. I love Kashimo and will continue to love Kashimo, and Kashimo being super ultra dead doesn’t change that.

Look out for Part 2, in which I’m going to unpack some really contentious stuff when it comes to challenges and female characters in Jujutsu Kaisen. We’re gonna talk about the concept of screen time, we’re gonna talk about subtext, we’re gonna talk about great expectations and the great unexpected in Jujutsu Kaisen, and we’re gonna talk more in-depth about the narrative outside the narrative of Jujutsu Kaisen in a vacuum. If your sense for danger is giving you a bad feeling about this, then it should be: we’re talking about that. Switch on your Anti-Gravity System, it’s going to get messy.

#jujutsu kaisen #literary analysis #analysis #jjk analysis #feminism #feminist literature #feminist literary analysis #nobara kugisaki #maki zenin #akutami gege

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

I don’t really understand?are the twst boys Humans or not?

Hi, I think you might have been confused by the lore being explained in this post?

The Ramshackle Ghosts make mention of race, which means that human is only one of many races in Twisted Wonderland. Only 1 in 10 humans are capable of using magic; this statistic is different for other races (so magic may be more or less common for others).

A majority of the cast is human, but some of the characters are clearly not human or are referred to as being a different race. For example:

Leona, Jack, and Ruggie are beastmen. (Presumably, so are Chenya and Cheka.)

Azul, Floyd, and Jade are merfolk. Azul is an octopus merman, whereas the twins are moray eel mermen.

Malleus and Lilia are fairies. Malleus is, more specifically, some kind of (western) dragon fairy. In Fairy Gala If, Lilia is referred to as a “dark fairy”.

Sebek is half human (on his father’s side) and half nocturnal fae (on his mother’s side). Note that a lot of fan art likes to portray Sebek as part crocodile, but he is not said to be a “crocodile fairy” in canon.

Something else I’d like to add is that though the game version of TWST tends to portray beastmen as being entirely in Savanaclaw, the manga adaptation and various voice lines seem to indicate that the dorms are actually mixed. For example, in multiple panels of the Episode of Heartslabyul, we see many beastmen among the humans.

It may be more difficult to pinpoint which students are mermen (as they look no different from humans after transforming to gain legs) or fae, but based on the lore, it’s likely that these two races are less likely to mingle with humans and thus the population of merfolk/fairies at school is relatively low compared to the number of humans. Floyd says in his Beans Camo vignettes that it’s rare for merfolk to want to come up to the surface, though he doesn’t state any statistics. This made it easy for him, Azul, and Jade to sign up for a boot camp that prepares merpeople for life on land.

As for fairies, it’s been implied multiple times that they can be very isolated from others and don’t like it when their territory is encroached on. Recall that many smaller fairies attacked the boys during their camping trips, and the fairies of Fairy Gala were about to accost the students as well. The Briar Valley is a prime example of fairy isolationism and aversion to change (Sebek’s mother received social scorn for her decision to marry a human). This seems to imply that not many fairies go out of their way to interact with humans, which leads me to believe that there aren’t many fairy students attending NRC either. Plus, unlike merfolk, fairies would be easier to spot since they seem to have a shared physical trait of pointy ears (regardless of fairy subspecies). The only NPCs I can think of that are fairies are the Seven Dwarves at RSA, which are implied one of Yuu’s dialogue choices to be a short species of fairy.

#Malleus Draconia #Azul Ashengrotto #Leona Kingscholar #Floyd Leech #Tweels #Octavinelle #Sebek Zigvolt #Lilia Vanrouge #Savanaclaw #spoilers #notes from the writing raven #question #Ruggie Bucchi #Jack Howl #Chenya #Che’nya #Cheka Kingscholar #NRC mob students #Riddle Rosehearts #twst theory #twst theories #twisted wonderland theories #twisted wonderland theory #Seven Dwarves #Yuu

[neonscandal]

What are your bakudeku fav moments? And what are your fav personal headcanons about them?

Okie, so I may have done a few head canons like this (and forgot to link the last five in the SatoSugu ask just like this... also the alternating colors was admittedly gratuitous but I'm not changing it now. Just know that I have regrets.). Maybe even drafted some moments like this but let's light this BBQ anyway. 💥

Horikoshi truly doesn't get enough credit for how perfect this panel and subsequent animation was. It's actually hysterical? Earnest Deku and Little Shit Kacchan. It's so them, I can't even.

HEAD CANONS

The Bakugo's are the Have's and the Midoriya's are the Have Not's but Mitsuki and Inko are so close that the boys never really knew the difference. Mitsuki helps Inko out where she can which is why Deku is a staple in their house growing up (free childcare for Inko and necessary socialization for her brat, Katsuki). You should see their childhood photo albums, they are both equally as embedded in one anothers' family histories.

When the boys first came to understand their economic differences, it was because of the disparity between their All Might merch collections and Bakugo realized it long before Midoriya. Subsequently, he staved off this epiphany by making it a point to always ask for "one for Izuku" until they fell out which Mitsuki obliged generously and proudly, knowing their relationship was precious but also a good influence on her gremlin.

I say they fell out but.. they didn't. Not in the ways that mattered. Bakugo is as big a nerd as Midoriya, he just has the sense to be more lowkey about it. Even when Bakugo was being a bully, he'd begrudgingly ask Midoriya (if Midoriya didn't ask first) to any midnight releases of All Might/hero movies and merch drops. They absolutely are the kind of dorks to camp out for limited release stuff. It's a lifelong tradition. Even if things went back to normal at school the next day, they still had that in common and both knew not to bring it up otherwise to maintain the balance of their twisted relationship otherwise. It's why, even after all this time, they're still so in sync. Also, by that point, the "one for Izuku" custom is so deeply ingrained that Mitsuki does it anyway. The turnover between Bakugo to Midoriya is so begrudging and awkward. All unspoken but a deeply rooted fact of their relationship.

Bakugo absolutely got them lost in the forest once. I think he took that fear and pivoted it into a refusal to ever be scared in nature again which is why he persistently enjoys the outdoors so much. It feels like revenge every time he comes back from a hike.

They made a blood oath to never tell anyone about how Mitsuki used them as drop in models for the Bakugo child clothing line because there was at least one season where they both modeled girls' clothes (Midoriya doesn't really care but Bakugo does). It's not that Bakugo cares or takes issue with a persons' gender, orientation or expression. He knows clothes don't define a person, he's confident and masculine either way and he knows he'd be the best looking person in a dress. He does, however, take issue with the fact that the hag likes to coo and lord the pictures over him because he was incredibly and disarmingly cute (which he acknowledges as "damn right" but despises the principle of the matter wherein his mom has anything over him).

Class 1A all notice the weird tension between the fire kid and the brittle boned dude who looks like he's never slept but just... awkwardly avoid it because they're just as emotionally underdeveloped as these two idiots. I also kinda think the confrontation between the two isn't always as bad as Midoriya's narration suggests because, I would hope in a class of hero students, someone would have intervened? But everyone picked up, day one, that they're just little weirdos and let them do their own thing.

In fact, no one finds Bakugo as intimidating as Midoriya does. Literally, no one. He's loud but compliant with a self-imposed bed time. His words are violent but his hands are skilled and intentional, never reflecting the carnage he threatens. Plus, he's a big ole dork! They know he's all bark and that's why people don't react to his rampaging (based in canon if you look at the provisional license exam, culture festival, Christmas, and Deku's secret training with Tsu, Ochaco and Sero). He used to be really bothered by Class 1A's lack of reaction to his yelling. They just kinda manhandle him to put him in his place and keep it pushing (again, see also Christmas episode and culture festival arcs). But now he accepts it as they accept him and he doesn't feel the need to be so abrasive and put up as many walls.

Midoriya, of course, notices this transition. Hyper fixated on it in fact. While he's super happy that Kacchan is settling in and finding his peace, he resents (but only a teeeeny tiny little bit) Kirishima in particular thinking this change is because of their friendship which he covets. He doesn't comprehend his own impact on or inspiration for this change, however. He never gives himself enough credit.

When Midoriya went all Dark Deku, Bakugo spent exactly one day a la Bella in Twilight sitting forlorn and waiting in the dark for the idiot to return. After the first 24, he pulled his Hermione pants on and got to work on the plan of recapturing the nerd by any means necessary.

Without spoilers, Bakugo's prized possession is the All Might card they both have because AM remains to be the pinnacle for everything Bakugo hopes to accomplish. But Midoriya's prized possession and the thing he hid before everyone did room tours at Heights Alliance is a picture of him and Bakugo. No fanfare, no merch, just a picture of the two of them with a smile that goes cheek to cheek. It's what gives him strength and resolve to keep moving forward. Aoyama's totally seen it.

Midoriya knows why Bakugo goes to bed at 8:30PM. Yes, he's a sleepy little guy. But also yes, this is his private time to read his shojo romance mangas in peace. ✨ Midoriya stays abreast of his favorite stories waiting for an inevitable "!!!" text when something big happens because Bakugo can't download his... excitement? confusion? joy? with anyone else. (Technically, Kirishima is also aware of this habit, quite by accident, but Bakugo would never tell Midoriya that).

Doesn't seem like it but Bakugo totally spoils Midoriya. It's masked in the harsh way he tends to package everything but he makes it a point to always cook for him, he's really weirdly thoughtful about gifts (no special occasion required but he'll shove it in the nerd's chest), he nags to make sure Midoriya is taking care of himself, etc. When Midoriya falls asleep in random places, Bakugo is the one who covers him with a blanket, quiets the surrounding extras down and leaves him with an excruciatingly gentle thumb across his freckles.

Bakugo pays rapt attention to Midoriya's muttering. Generally, he's interested in the subject matter because he's also an overly analytical fanboy. But also, his attention will sometimes drift from appreciating Midoriya's face and fall to his lips. This is when he gets flustered and "loses his temper". Really, he's worried he got caught lacking and is pissed at himself. It'll happen again and again.

MOMENTS

Much longer series thats focused basically on their relationship so these aren't really moment moments but rather... pieces of the story.

Better in the manga, but Midoriya running into the slime villain fray was just... so momentous. Even before knowing it's impact, it was it was just so chest fluttering. Through and through, that kid has always been a hero. Quirk or not.

In retrospect, everything about the sports festival makes me want to swallow a throw pillow. From Bakugo starting to warm up to people, Bakugo being an eavesdropping little shit, Midoriya (and Aizawa) explaining Kacchan to onlookers, Bakugo unwilling to accept victory. So much of their individual personalities are laid bare but still, that unavoidable link to one another.

I hated the exam against All Might, too much tension/confrontation. But I loved when Bakugo took a hit meant for Midoriya and Midoriya subsequently powered up to sideline All Might AND recapture Bakugo's unconscious body. So on brand for them.

Midoriya still having a psychic connection with Bakugo's enigmatic ass in Kamino by sending Kirishima in for the rescue. I know that burned him up but he's so used to sacrifice.

Generally, every time Kacchan inspired the unlock of another OFA quirk because let's be so for real. Midoriya is Captain Save a Hoe when it comes to Bakugo and even simply Bakugo's honor. Like Bakugo can't defend himself.

Super Secret All Might Meeting in the gif above. It's just so comical, how different they are, but deep down they're so similar.

Dinner at the Todoroki's because that, too, was just so comical. You mean to tell me Bakugo can be considerate? He has manners? He's not always feral!?

First Shiggy Showdown, Bakugo's hero origin story revolving around his body moving to defend Midoriya just like Midoriya's revolved around him.

Bakugo risking further injury and limb to see Midoriya because that's the first thing on his mind as soon as he opened his eyes.

Super Secret All Might Training (with Tsu, Ochaco and Sero). The fact that Bakugo comes to terms with how shitty he's been but also that he cares so much about Midoriya that he can come to terms with the fact that his idol may be withholding stuff that could negatively impact his childhood friend. That reckoning when Midoriya still struggles to not put All Might on a pedestal is peak overprotective Bakugo.

Bakugo putting on his tie properly to appeal to Nezu and Endeavor about bringing Deku back in and how, just as Midoriya can speak to Bakugo's inner workings, Bakugo can speak to Midoriya's. Which is hilarious considering how they're both still pretty dense.

THE APOLOGY. No notes. Just kidding, one amendment. The apology followed by the forced bath of city rat smelling Deku, group project edition.

⚠️ Spoiler Warning through MHA Chapter 411.

The moment Bakugo takes the field against Shigaraki. He tells Best Jeanist to watch over everyone, as he knows he'll be abdicating that role, and he thinks about Midoriya. Which we now know he's been doing this whole time!?

Volume 29 manga cover.

Just as Midoriya has been a driving force for Bakugo, we see once again that Bakugo was a driving force for Midoriya with the way he absolutely loses his shit when he sees Bakugo's discarded body.

Volume 37 manga cover!

THE TELEPATHIC WAY THEY LAUNCHED BAKUGO TO ALL MIGHT'S AID. Featuring heavily: Bakugo and his Midoriya pickled mind. That success was so cathartic. But also Bakugo verbalizing what he felt he's always been hell bent on doing, looking out for Midoriya. Which again, kinda twisted but I'm interested to see how their story ends because I think we'll get some exposure to more of their background lore.

#neon asks #anon asks #deku and kacchan #bakudeku #bkdk #dekubaku #dkbk #katsudeku #ktdk #anime #manga #bnha #mha #boku no hero academia #my hero academia #izuku midoriya #midoriya izuku #katsuki bakugo #bakugo katsuki #deku #kacchan #dynamight #bkdk brainrot #bkdk headcanons #mha headcanons #bnha headcanons #head canon

[littleguyconnor]

I’ve started over on this painting like 4 times already and I want to take a a break. I am going to do a character study of Medic because he’s the one I feel people get the most wrong. (I’ll try and be as factual as possible but my own interpretation of him will be in there too, it’s inevitable, yadda yadda)

Let’s start with his hunting his old team with the classic mercs, since that’s when we’re first reunited with him.

It was not done out of betrayal.

I want to reference a piece of dialogue that I think showcases his entire mindset about it very well. When Classic Heavy asks if hunting down his old team will be a problem, Medic replies by saying “A chance to test my latest triumphs against my earliest experiments? No, that won’t be a problem at all.”

Look at the phrasing of that. There isn’t a single hint of malice or ill intent in it. His earliest experiments. His teammates that he’s spent years building up, improving, trying everything he knows and doesn’t to make them the best mercenaries he can. Against his latest triumphs. He wants to see how far he can take his practice, if all his work can hold up against something he knows is strong. It’s like how engineering students stand on their bridges to make sure it holds. Sure, it might break, but now they, Medic in this case, know what to improve on. Is it a very literal and playing-with-life kind of method? Yes. But that’s all it is. There isn’t any underlying reasoning, he thinks very literally and does things the same way. We also know this is true because he says it himself when Sniper confronts him about it, explaining that he was genuinely happy to see them and that his facial expression just came across differently to Sniper. Now, another thing I want to talk about on this topic is why he joined the Classic team in the first place. In the same panel I referred to last time there’s a very specific phrasing CHeavy uses that I want to highlight.

“I swear to god, if you put a single uterus in my men…”

Medic was never considered part of the team, and he knows this. He actually uses this to advantage. He’s an impermanent addition, and thus inconsequential. He��s using them as guinea pigs and that is what’s done out of malice. He’s being mistreated and obviously not considered anything of worth, so he’s going to retaliate in a very Medic fashion. This man is not a pushover, and of everything, I want to get that across the most.

Medic is extremely strong, both physically and mentally. He’s able to hold out for a considerable amount of time against CHeavy throwing him around. The thing that ends up killing him is a cheap shot from a gun. He’s also witty enough to outsmart Satan himself. (I don’t think there’s really anything else to say on that one.) This man is so intelligent and knows when people are using him from the second they start, and he plays along with it. He doesn’t even necessarily act dumb either. It’s just that he’s so eccentric and personable that people mistake him as someone easily to manipulate and end up getting ripped apart from the inside.

Branching off from this point: Medic is a genuinely kind person. He’s just weird. And I mean that in the most professional way possible. His intentions are good and done out of a passion for medicine, curiosity, and respect for his team. There’s a reason he spends so much time improving them. Part of it is just the morbid curiosity and the satisfaction that comes from fulfilling that, but it’s also because he wants his team to win. He wants them to be the best versions of themselves, literally. His odd and eccentric demeanor just makes his actions come out a little morbid and frightening. But he loves people. And he cares. Above all, remember, he’s a doctor. And it’s a doctor’s job to help people.

Now onto his relationship with Heavy. What I’m going to be talking about with this leans a little more on the head canon side, but I don’t think it’s too far off from what could actually be canon.

Whether they’re friends, lovers or something else isn’t relevant. Regardless of what they are, they have an incredibly strong bond built on solid foundations. Respect is the main one.

Medic’s teammates seem to have a strange disregard for him. It’s the same treatment they give Pyro, although there’s less infantilization and more flippant-ness. I don’t think it’s done out of meanness, more just so that he’s outwardly really freakish and open about experimenting on them with dubious ethics. They care about him, he’s a vital part of the team, it’s just.. less enthusiastic. But with Heavy, that dynamic changes completely. Heavy respects him so much, and likes him genuinely enough to see past the thing everyone else gets hung up on. And it’s because Medic is the only one he’s met that is capable of outsmarting bullets. Heavy respects Medics genuine intelligence and skill, and because Heavy is extremely smart too, they get along really well. And Medic cares so much for Heavy. I think that as a child, he grew up very estranged and “othered” for his interests and awkward social skills. There haven’t been many people in his life who are willing to get close to him, or really, let him get close to them. And there’s a kind of refuge he takes in Heavy for that. A mutual understanding and care for each other.

And yes, Medic is an awkward person! Just not in the sense that people typically are, and I think that is such an important part of his character. He isn’t good at expressing empathy in a socially acceptable way as I’ve discussed previously, is overly literal, blunt, and genuinely a little oblivious sometimes to the tone of the conversation or of his own words. And instead of trying to resolve that, he’s just stopped caring about it all together because he knows he can be himself. It’s why his job with the Classic Mercs failed. They wanted him to be something he’s not, and Medic wasn’t going to tolerate that kind of treatment!

#team fortress two #team fortress #tf2 #medic tf2 #tf2 medic #character analysis #long post #i talk a lot. I’m so serious when I put that tag

[quirkwizard]

Final Grade: Ranking 1-A

For as long as Class 1-A has existed, the fan base has ranked the various students against each other in many different forms. Everything from their Quirks, to their appearances, to even their story relevance. I've wanted to do one myself, but didn't want to rank them on their own. So instead of merely ranking them, I thought I would do things a little bit differently. Specifically, by grading them on how good they would be as heroes. I will be comparing the students against each other to see how well they do. Kind of like a year-end review of the student’s growth and potential. I will be grading them on the merits that I think that heroes should strive for and excel in.

Quirk: This stat is for their Quirks. How useful their Quirks are, their potential development, how good they are at applying them, and any weaknesses the Quirk may have that would keep them from being a useful hero.

Hero Work: This stat is how well the character would do with hero work and various roles they'd have to fill, from fighting to rescue work. If a hero fills a particular niche well or has a unique ability, they will get a higher ranking.

Mental Skills: This covers all of the mental abilities of the user, everything from their know how to their tactical abilities. This also includes mental stability and resilience, grading them on how calm they are under pressure.

Physical Skills: This will cover everything from physical abilities. This can be like how strong they are, how quick they can be, or how well they can take an attack and keep on fighting. This will cover martial skill or other physical skills as well.

Social Skills: This extends to all the potential social aspects of hero work. Not only is it about being popular, the kind of brand they have as a hero, and the number of people they can attract, but also how well they can work with others.

Before I begin with the list, I just want to preface this with a few things. One is that some of the characters did end up with similar rankings. If this happened, I made an executive decision on who I thought would be the better hero of the two and put them above the other. And two, I know that some of the characters are stronger than others or can beat others in a fight. That is not what I am ranking here. There are a lot of facets to these characters and their abilities that could affect how well they do as heroes. Know that I am trying to take into account as many factors as possible when ranking these characters and not just their combat abilities. Without further ado:

20. Sato Quirk: 1/5 Hero Work: 1/5 Mental Skills: 1/5 Physical Skills: 3/5 Social Skills: 1/5 7/25

While he may just be a victim of low panel time, that doesn’t change the fact that Sato really doesn’t have a lot of selling points as a hero. His Quirk is pretty limited, especially compared to the other students. A quarter of the class can do what he does, but better or with more varied abilities. It’s not even that unique of an effect, with Quirks that enhance people’s strength in some way being a dime a dozen, making it hard for him to stand out from the other heroes. What’s worse is that the stunted intelligence would really hurt his ability to properly utilize it in the field, limiting the few options his Quirk has.

He doesn’t have any mental abilities, constantly losing out on intelligence in the middle of the fight thanks to his Quirk and being one of the lowest scoring kids in the class, and no real social abilities of note either. The only skill he has going for him is his cooking abilities, which are really good, but unless he starts doing bake sales for charity, it's not going to get him far in the hero world. Otherwise, he can be rather skilled physically. Sato really seems to know how to apply his strength with strikes and grapples whenever he’s fighting someone, but that’s it. Again, it could just be how little we see of him, but I don't see potential in him.

19. Aoyama Quirk: 2/5 Hero Work: 2/5 Mental Skills: 2/5 Physical Skills: 1/5 Social Skills: 2/5 9/25

He has a lot of power, capable of shattering concrete from a long range and plenty of ways to use it thanks to his armor. But his over reliance on his gear and easy to trigger drawback really holds the Quirk back. This is another Quirk that is only good in combat, but I think that the kind of power he can output and the various modes of fire he has access to give it some more value given its uniqueness within the setting. Though this does nothing to save him from his poor physical abilities, he has had no really good showings outside of being knocked out cold in a single punch by Mina. He isn’t that great mentally either.

Aoyama is openly cowardly, especially in high-stress situations like a villain attack, and is not that intelligent, having no notable tactical smarts or book smarts. He was able to infiltrate UA as a spy, but I think All For One was doing the heavy lifting with that. Though I am willing to give him a point for having the nerve when it counts. Anyone who stands against All For One in his situation certainly deserves it. He’s not great at working with others and is socially inept. I guess he can be hard to read, which is sometimes helpful. Otherwise, I could see his over the top appearance and mannerisms sticking to people, which certainly helps in popularity. Certainly not the worst student, but no shining star.

18. Mineta Quirk: 2/5 Hero Work: 3/5 Mental Skills: 2/5 Physical Skills: 1/5 Social Skills: 1/5 10/25

It's no surprise that Mineta is this low, but I'm sure that some of you are surprised that he isn't at the very bottom. To give him credit where it's do, his Quirk is actually really good for hero work. It's pretty limited in terms of applications and can be difficult to apply, but it can be helpful in capturing villains without harming them, one of the main goals of a hero when fighting someone is subduing them, and dealing with problematic areas in rescue situations. He's also fairly intelligent and tactical, but I had to dock points because he doesn't properly apply himself, basically coasting off of his natural intelligence.

Otherwise, he has next to nothing else going on for him. He is extremely cowardly, liable to panic and freak out at the slight provocation, hurting his mental scoring. It’s made even worse by how lazy he seems to be, again more content to coast by without putting in more effort then what is needed. He has one of the worst physical abilities in the whole class with his small body and no physical skills to speak of. If I gave out zero rankings for this, he would have definitely gotten one. And do I even need to explain why he'd be so unpopular? Just everything about him would hurt his popularity and ability to work with others. Overall, better then you’d expect, but that doesn’t mean much here.

17. Hagakure Quirk: 1/5 Hero Work: 3/5 Mental Skills: 2/5 Physical Skills: 1/5 Social Skills: 3/5 10/25

Again, another character most would put lower. "Invisibility" is not that great of a power. Between its lack of uses and how easy it is for the user to be spotted, it’s easily one of the worst in the class. What’s worse is that there really hasn’t been any major development with her Quirk. The flashing is a good trick, but there isn’t much else to what she’s done with it. It’s not even like she has any physical training either to make it better, having no notably physical feats or skills outside of flailing at people. Her mental abilities aren’t that great either, being one of the lowest ranked in the class. The only reason for her two is that she has some good perception, which can be useful.

All that aside through, I will say that she has a very good niche to fill as a stealth hero, gathering information and taking people out from behind. Given how rare powers like that seem to be in this setting, I think that holds some merit given that niche. She’s good at cooperating with people as well and has a natural pep to her that seems to really endear people. I could see her drawing attention because of her personality and how unique she is as someone who is constantly invisible. But without enough skill with her Quirk to make herself stick out, I could easily see her falling into the background just she did so many times before.

16. Ojiro Quirk: 2/5 Hero Work: 1/5 Mental Skills: 3/5 Physical Skills: 5/5 Social Skills: 1/5 12/25

I bet a lot of you are surprised he made it this far. While "Tail" is one of the quintessential bad Quirks, and for good reasons, I bumped it up a point because of how well Ojiro is able to use it. That being said, that did save his Hero Work score. His Quirk is only really useful as a combat tool, and even then it's limited to smaller scale battles, narrowing the potential roles he could have as a hero. This isn't helped by how bland Ojiro is as a person. The guy is ironically famous for being a nothing character with nothing interesting going on with him. He doesn’t even have any sort of teamwork skills to fall back on.

He does have some merits outside of his Quirk though. Out of all the kids in the class, I believe that Ojiro is one of the most physically impressive, not accounting for any Quirks. He has a strong body, showing pretty incredible feats of athleticism and physical resilience in spite of his Quirk having nothing to do with it. He also has some mental strength as well, ranking pretty high in the exams, having good tactical abilities like in the Joint Training Fight, and having some good discipline with how much training he’s done. However, none of this is anywhere near enough to really help him get past his various short-comings. Maybe he could be a teacher in the future instead.

15. Denki Quirk: 3/5 Hero Work: 3/5 Mental Skills: 1/5 Physical Skills: 2/5 Social Skills: 3/5 12/25

I feel like too many people only look at Denki’s Quirk and assume he’d be one of the better in the class because of it. On the surface, it’s a pretty solid power. Electricity is a pretty varied ability, even if you are only generating it, and it has plenty of power and utility that even he could use. However, Denki mainly uses it in combat, which actually limits his potential with it. He relies pretty heavily on his equipment, and outside of that, it can be extremely dangerous to try to use it. It can be effective when it works, but that’s only when it works. And when he pushes it too far, it leaves him a massive liability, hurting his potential and the Quirk itself.

Outside of that, he is seriously lacking. He has no physical feats to speak of, aside from getting smacked by giant concrete blocks and living. And while he isn’t as bad as some of his peers, he can be rather cowardly. It's not even like he has any natural intelligence either, being the dumbest kid in the whole course and being extremely poor when it comes to planning. I guess he could do pretty well socially. He’s good at working with almost anyone and is pretty approachable with everyone. I feel like his goofball charm, cool power, and general personality could get him a sizable following. Maybe he’d do well in a team, but he’d only get so far on his own.

14. Koda Quirk: 3/5 Hero Work: 5/5 Mental Skills: 1/5 Physical Skills: 2/5 Social Skills: 2/5 13/25

On surface, Koda really doesn’t have much to offer. His mental abilities are nothing to write home about, being constantly scared and nervous around everything and everyone. Not exactly the traits of a good hero. Apparently, he has some form of naturally enhanced strength according to Hori, but we barely see it used outside of causing some issues for Jutora, so I guess I have to give him a two for that. Where he really disappoints is in social skills. He’s so shy that he talked through gestures for a good chunk of the school year. The one point I gave it was because he does work okay with others and I think that he could get some appeal with animals.

However, where Koda really shines is in his Quirk. "Anvoice" can be quite a reliable power, with the biggest drawback being that there needs to be animals around, but that isn’t that difficult of a requirement. In exchange, Koda gets one of the best Quirks for scouting and information gathering. Koda has this potentially massive network of informants that can get into almost anywhere without anyone realizing it. That’s so helpful in rescue work and reconnaissance. It is niche, but he fills that niche so well and that niche is so helpful in hero work that I had to give him that high score. If only he could actually apply any of the potential.

13. Sero Quirk: 3/5 Hero Work: 3/5 Mental Skills: 2/5 Physical Skills: 2/5 Social Skills: 3/5 14/25

I feel like Sero tends to be overlooked when talking about the students. I do think "Tape" gets an underserved bad rap from the fan base. It’s not amazing, but it doesn’t have a lot of problems with it either, earning it an average score. It covers a lot of the same ground as "Pop Off" in terms of applications in hero work, but is more useful since it has a much better range and is easier to apply. And potentially more useful in support since others can interact with the tape without it being stuck to them. Which is good since he can work well enough and can seemingly get along with almost anyone. I don’t see him getting super popular given his abilities, but being loved by the few fans he has.

He is not without his shortcomings. Where he fails is in his physical and mental skills. While physical training would help him immensely in using his Quirk, we haven’t seen any kind of notable physical feats from him. There is his natural agility and maneuverability. I guess he can pull people with his tape, but I always assumed that was because of his Quirk reeling them in. He doesn’t have many mental skills either. Outside of maybe one scene with Setsuna, there doesn’t seem to be much going on with him. He doesn’t let huge gaps in skill or power discourage him, like in his fight with Shoto, which could imply some mental strength, but whether that is out of gumption or stupidity is difficult to tell. In the end, it’s not that surprising that the living embodiment of a B grade ends up around this point.

12. Jiro Quirk: 3/5 Hero Work: 4/5 Mental Skills: 3/5 Physical Skills: 1/5 Social Skills: 5/5 16/25

Another student that I think is overlooked. Her Quirk is alright by the standards of the class, not having a lot of power, but not having any major weaknesses either, except for maybe having a reliance on equipment with her speakers. However, she does have an extremely useful niche as an information-gathering hero, being especially useful in rescue situations and running recon in an area thanks to her tremor sense. She also has some pretty good mental abilities as well, having some of the better grades in the class, having some tactical skills, and keeping a good head even in stressful situations. Like I said, anyone willing to stand against All For One directly gets some points as far as I am concerned.

And this may sound surprising, but I think she’d be really popular. She has a very clear look and brand, going for a rocker aesthetic that is sure to turn heads, but she has her music as well. Given that seems to be a big part of her heroic identity, I could see her putting on shows and releasing music, getting more people to like her and helping her brand in the process. So, even as someone who has a non-flashy Quirk and a non-combative niche, I could see her gaining a lot of popularity. Though she doesn’t have any notable physical feats to speak of. It doesn’t matter as much as for someone that fights from a range, but it is still a detriment to her as a hero. She was still standing after getting part of her ear blown off, so she has some endurance, though no other notable showings of it. So not the best, but better then people think.

11. Ochako Quirk: 3/5 Hero Work: 5/5 Mental Skills: 3/5 Physical Skills: 2/5 Social Skills: 3/5 16/25

I feel like a lot of people underestimate just how useful Uraraka can be as a hero. Obviously, removing gravity from people and objects is a pretty great power. The weight limit and sickness can be annoying, but the real problems come from needing contact for it to work and being so reliant on the environment, docking it some points in spite of the power. However, I think the power itself is highly applicable in hero work. Not only is her Quirk great for restraining people without harming them, but it can be invaluable in rescue work with how you can easily move debris and people while do as little harm as possible. Both of those are extremely valuable skills to have as a hero. As far as social abilities go, she can work well enough with others in a team.

In terms of popularity, she has a very easy brand as a space-themed heroine and can be good at connecting with people, like what we saw when she talked to the crowd about letting Izuku in. She isn’t the greatest powerhouse in the class, Uraraka even admits that she’s not the best in a straight up fight, but she does have some marital skills thanks to Gunhead and has shown quite a high level of physical resilience in her fights with Bakugou and Toga. She does have good tactical sense and some strong heroic resolve, again like in her fight with Bakugou. However, she can let herself get distracted pretty easily and make notable mistakes, like in her fights with Thirteen and Toga. Overall, I could see a promising and lucrative future with Uraraka as a heroine.

10. Kirishima Quirk: 2/5 Hero Work: 3/5 Mental Skills: 3/5 Physical Skills: 4/5 Social Skills: 5/5 17/25

If I had to give a sticker for most improved, Kirishima would certainly get it. "Hardening" is useful in close quarters, but as Kirishima said himself, it doesn’t have much else to offer outside of that specific role in combat. The only things keeping it from being a one are its potential and ease of training. However, it can work fairly well for hero work. The cover can let Kirishima act as a human shield to protect people and let him get into danger zones without risking himself or the person he’s saving. He clearly isn’t the brightest student in the class and still deals with some confidence issues, but I gave him a higher mental score due to his overall discipline and mental strength to move in spite of being afraid.

Unsurprisingly, Kirishima is one of the more physically gifted members of the class. While some of that could be attributed to his Quirk, he does retain some of those qualities outside of it, like when Bakugou said he was able to withstand point blank blasts even without the Quirk. Where I think he’d really excel is in the social side of hero work. He’s very approachable, works especially well with teammates, and I feel like he has a lot of potential for popularity in him. I could easily see people following and wanting to be like him because of his attitude and overall image, similar to how he was with Red Riot. So in spite of his humble beginnings in middle school, I see the makings of a solid hero in Kirishima.

9. Shoji Quirk: 4/5 Hero Work: 4/5 Mental Skills: 3/5 Physical Skills: 5/5 Social Skills: 2/5 18/25

Ah, Shoji. You really do have a lot going for you where it really counts. His Quirk is so powerful and versatile with how he can make whatever body part he wants and have it be much better than its normal counter part. The ability to multiple and heal them make it even better at little cost for him. Naturally, this gives him plenty of options on how to apply it to hero work. Shoji can not only excel in combat, but can really help in scouting. This makes him physical able as well, able to easily carry people and crush skulls in his hands. On top of all that, he’s got a fair amount of books smarts with his grades, solid tactical abilities, and is really good about keeping his cool in high tension situations.

The biggest infraction against Mezo is his social abilities. Don't get me wrong, he can work fairly well with others. However, he really lacks the social aspects of hero work. He doesn't have a lot of the flair and style needed to be popular in the world of heroes. And need I mention his appearance? Which, as shallow as it sounds, would hamper him in the public consciousness. I could see him carving out his own niche in the world, but only so much. At best, he'd be an effective hero with a more negative reputation like Gang Orca. Maybe he could poach some of Edgeshot's fans. So I do think that he could be an effective hero, just not a popular one unless he learns how to market himself.

8. Tokoyami Quirk: 5/5 Hero Work: 4/5 Mental Skills: 3/5 Physical Skills: 1/5 Social Skills: 5/5 18/25

Like Denki, Tokoyami relies pretty heavily on his Quirk. Unlike Denki, Tokoyami’s Quirk has a lot more going on with his ability that he can actually utilize. "Dark Shadow" is one of the most versatile powers in the series. With its innate flexibility and range, it gives whomever has it a lot of options to apply it. Tokoyami has been pretty effective with it. And while the light problem can be annoying, it’s not exactly common enough to be an issue. We’ve seen how well he can apply both in combat and rescue work. However, it would be next to impossible for him to do hero work in any sort of dark or shadowy conditions because of his Quirk, docking him some points with potential for Hero Work.

Social Skills may seem high, but I have my reasons. While he may seem standoffish, Tokoyami can work pretty cooperate in a team environment and can be social when he wants to be. And given his general aesthetic, I could easily see him pulling in plenty of fans, especially edge teenagers trying to be cool. Tokoyami's biggest issue is his physical abilities, or lack thereof. Because of how much "Dark Shadow" carries Tokoyami, both metaphorically and literally, he doesn't really have any showings in that department. He's not that great mentally either. He can keep calm under pressure, but doesn't have any real tactical showings and can be rather emotional at the worst times, like against Moonfish and flying off to save Hawks. Still, a good canidate, but needs some work.

7. Mina Quirk: 4/5 Hero Work: 5/5 Mental Skills: 2/5 Physical Skills: 3/5 Social Skills: 5/5 19/25

What is there to say about Mina? "Acid" is a pretty good ability, capable of doing a lot of damage that’s hard to counter and having a lot of control over it. However, there is still that high risk of harming people and the amount of effort that needs to be pulled off, docking it a point. Though she does still have extensive control over her acid, which I think gives her a lot of potential to use it in hero work. Everything from rescue work, to capturing, to straight up combat, she could adjust her acid as she needed to. She doesn’t have any notable physical feats to speak of , but she is extremely acrobatic and has good reaction time, so that’s worth at least a few points. 

Where she really shines is in social skills. She has this amazing ability to connect to people and understand what they want, to the point where she can make friends with three random bullies in a matter of minutes. Mina really sticks out, but in a good way. Add on her infectious enthusiasm and I could see people wanting to follow her as a heroine. Mina’s a lot like Hagakure in that regard, but actually visible. Where she falters in her mental skills, being the second worst student in the class, but I am willing to give her some mental credit for her willingness to put herself in danger, like against Gigantomachia in her middle school years. So yeah, she has the makings of an effective and popular heroine.

6. Katsuki Quirk: 4/5 Hero Work: 4/5 Mental Skills: 5/5 Physical Skills: 5/5 Social Skills: 2/5 20/25

I feel like this might be one of my controversial picks, but let me explain. Bakugou is one of the most skilled Quirk users in the whole class, bringing what is B-Tier power to one of the best in the class. This is complemented by his immense physical abilities in overall athletic skill, amazing stamina, and having an extreme physical resilience to even major physical trauma. He also has amazing instincts when it comes to tactics and planning, comes up with good plans on the fly, and has this undeniable tenacity that makes him impossible to shake. He’s one of the more intelligent kids in the class, being fairly analytic and notably book smart. So he’d do really well with half of the hero job, that being responding to and fighting villains.

However, his biggest downfall is his social skills. Look, I get that Bakugou has been getting better with people and has that bizarre charisma that makes people like him, but he still has issues with being around peers. He tends to be aggressive and put up a constant wall of anger, especially around strangers. It's part of what keeps him from being closer to the top. Like Endeavor, he's really good at fighting people, but has issues with any of the non-fighting parts of hero work, which are still pretty important to the job. I could see him getting popular because of his power, but most people would be put off by him and his attitude. The issues with his Quirk don't help either, being a constant risk to himself and having issues in colder climates. Still, a really good hero candidate.

5. Tsuyu Quirk: 4/5 Hero Work: 5/5 Mental Skills: 4/5 Physical Skills: 3/5 Social Skills: 5/5 21/25

Out of all the students, I think Tsuyu surprised me the most with how well she did with her placement. Her Quirk is a solid mix of powers, giving her plenty of choices. From the general abilities of a frog to more unique skills like camouflaging in her surroundings and making slime with effects like paralysis and hiding scent. What lowers it is the overall power and the drawbacks, which normally wouldn’t come up that often, but can be downright crippling when they show up. However, in application, she could be an effective hero. With her jack of all trades abilities, she could potentially apply her skills to any situation and be useful, if not excel in them. And if I was grading her by the water rescue niche, she’d still be getting a five in hero work.

She obviously has some books smarts, ranking six in the exams. Tsuyu can apply it pretty well and does have some practical caution when it comes to her plans and can keep people focused on what matters. Obviously, I think that she does well socially. She works well in a team and can even take the role as leader if needed. She can connect with people well and see through them, pretty much second to only Mina in that regard. She has a likable persona and identifiable brand that people can latch onto. She’s a bit low on the physicals side, mostly because it’s the Quirk doing all the work and she doesn’t have other physical skills to speak of. She’s just a generally likable and reliable heroine. And sometimes, that’s just what you need to make it as a hero.

4. Momo Quirk: 5/5 Hero Work: 5/5 Mental Skills: 5/5 Physical Skills: 2/5 Social Skills: 5/5 22/25

Like any other recommended student, Momo has a lot going on with her. "Creation" is an amazing power, letting the user make any non-living object as long as they have the proper set up. As such, it has near limitless applications for hero work. Normally, the drawbacks of the Quirk would be pretty serious. The fat requirement isn’t too much of an issue in most cases, but needing to memorize everything inside and out about an object in order to make it can be a real issue. However, that is barely even a problem with Momo’s immense intelligence. Not only does have immense book smarts, being the top in her class and having the mental capacity to memorize enough about objects to make them, but she is great with tactics and planning as well, even with large scale engagements.

On that note, she does an amazing job when it comes to leading people. She can effectively organize dozens of people at a time, all using their powers to maximize their chances of winning, even against someone as dangerous as Gigatomachia. Otherwise, she can be good when talking and teaching people, earning her some social points. That mixed with her power and role as vice president is bound to get a lot of attention. But like so many of her other classmates though, Momo falls through with her physical abilities, not really having any worthwhile showings. She was strong enough to get hit by Kendo and still stay standing, but that’s about it. Even then, it really doesn’t hamper her that much given her role as a more supportive leader. With all of that, she more than earned her spot on the list.

3. Tenya Quirk: 3/5 Hero Work: 5/5 Mental Skills: 5/5 Physical Skills: 5/5 Social Skills: 5/5 23/25

Who would have guessed the guy from a long line of heroes would be this high? He has amazing physical abilities, good martial skills with his kicks, and some fairly impressive physical endurance with all the damage he’s taken over the story. He’s super smart as well, both in books and tactics. What’s better is that he has plenty of know-how when it comes to rules and conduct but can be flexible enough to know when to bend them. Then there is his mental stability, with how well he can handle pressure and try to keep everyone else calm as well. It’s because of all of this that made his hero work score as high as it is. I just see him being really adaptable and helpful in whatever situation you put him in.

He’s pretty good socially as well. On top of his natural leadership abilities, I could see him getting a lot of popularity points. Not only was he the president of the Hero Course of his year, but he’s the next member in a long line of heroes and carries on the legacy of his popular brother. It could help garner a solid platform for him to continue his hero work and catch the public eye. The only thing really holding him back is his Quirk. While Iida has done an amazing job of training it and bringing it pretty far, it’s just too limited for me to consider it any higher than what it is. It’s good for running around and hitting people, but that’s about it. Regardless, I’m sure that the Iida line would be proud to have such a worthy successor.

2. Shoto Quirk: 5/5 Hero Work: 5/5 Mental Skills: 5/5 Physical Skills: 5/5 Social Skills: 4/5 24/25

If we were looking at this at the start of the year, Shoto would be number one without question. His Quirk alone was enough to put him in the upper echelons of his class. "Half Hot Half Cold" is one of the most powerful Quirks we’ve ever seen in the series and has applications in almost every field of hero work. From combat to rescue to support, he can always find a use for his power. And with how either side counters the other's weaknesses, he doesn’t really have to worry about drawbacks. He wasn’t so great with fire at first, but has more than made up for it as the story goes on. He’s pretty impressive on the physical side as well. In spite of his long range fighting style keeping him out of the thick of things, he’s actually shown some impressive feats with his amazing stamina and durability with all of the hits he’s taken.

And while it’s not shown as much in the story, Shoto does have a lot of intelligence to him, being one of the top five students in the class and have good skills with deduction and strategy. Then there are all his potential social benefits. While his ability to work with others is just fine, though he tends to be more of a solo act, he gets this ranking more for his popularity. He considered extremely attractive and was a recommended student at the most prestigious hero school in the country, and he has the prestige of being the son of one of Japan’s most notable heroes. Mix that with his flashy power and he’s bound to get some attention once he goes pro. The only thing that I think would hold him back is his overall poor social skills. We’ve seen that he has issues talking to people and doing interviews, so that may hurt his chances. But honestly, that’s pretty small potatoes for someone with this much promise.

1. Izuku Quirk: 5/5 Hero Work: 5/5 Mental Skills: 5/5 Physical Skills: 5/5 Popularity: 5/5 25/25

I mean, are any of you really surprised that Izuku is number one? He’s got an even stronger version of "One For All", the Quirk of the previous top hero and one of the most powerful Quirks in the series. And now he even has more Quirks to work with, extending the already massive uses. Naturally, this gives him plenty of options to apply in every single field of hero work. Even if you discount his physical enhancements, he clearly has some strength of his own and martial skill given his moves. And do I need to mention his stamina and endurance? The guy has taken more punishment then any other character in the series and was still standing with several broken bones and extensive internal damage, still up and willing to fight in absolutely hopeless odds.

He’s one of the smartest students in the class and has amazing tactical abilities, both in studying his opponents' abilities and coming up with plans on the fly. And if that’s not enough, he has the collective knowledge and experience of the previous users to call on if he needs it. He can be emotional, but I think that he still has a lot of mental strength to do everything he’s done in the series. Then there are his social skills. He’s an amazing leader, able to work with and utilize almost anyone to the best of their abilities, and has an amazing ability to connect with others and bring out the best in them. The only way I could really knock him down is his social issues because he can be really shy and stuttering with new people, but I think he’s over come that part of himself enough that it isn’t really a problem. So yeah, it’s no surprise that he made it to the top spot, but he certainly deserves it given everything he has going for him.

#My Hero Academia #Not Quirks #Midoriya Izuku #Deku #Katsuki Bakugou #Shoto Todoroki #Ochako Uraraka #Uraravity #Iida Tenya #Momo Yaoyorozu #Fumikage Tokoyami #Tsuyu Asui #Froppy #Eijiro Kirishima #Red Riot #Mina Ashido #Pinky #Denki Kaminari #Jiro Kyoka #Sero Hanta #Hagakure Tooru #Ojiro Mashirao #Mezo Shoji #Sato Rikido #Koji Koda #Aoyama Yuuga

[huapaiqingyuan]

there seems to be this perception floating around-- now that the manga has ended for a good while now--that chihaya was in love with both boys, just at different times. arata, in the early parts of the manga and taichi as the story develops. i used to think so, but upon re-read i now firmly put myself in the camp that chihaya’s feelings towards arata were never exactly platonic but they were also not romantic in nature either. 

i’m not going delve into why people think chihaya liked arata, chihaya thoughts were predominantly occupied by arata and in other stories about romance, we would believe that these were signs of (developing) romantic feelings. but perhaps i can present to you this angle: chihaya was under the impression that she was in love with arata, but she isn’t. not really.

an ongoing in chihayafuru is that chihaya herself admits that she doesn’t quite understand her feelings, especially in the first half of the story. fans like to bring up this panel in chapter 92 as an indication of her romantic feelings. 

i would like to point out that the word choice here was actually intentional left vague and that these feelings were romantic. the page prior to this has her literally say she does not understand her feelings.

we were never meant to take this line as gospel.

that being said however, i do think it is very important that this another incident where she conflates karuta and romance. 

1) it is played off as a gag to the audience, and disbelievingly by the other characters but chihaya has only asserted that she has a crush on harada sensei........ because of his strength in karuta. it seems then, almost in her mind, she naturally must have a crush on whoever is the strongest and at this point the meijin is a position she hasn’t met suo yet  if we think strength in karuta is a prerequisite to being a potential partner in chihaya’s mind, then arata naturally becomes a candidate as not only the person to introduce her to karuta, he is a prodigy, someone she has never beat (at this point) but most importantly. he is a peer and why we took this more seriously than her proclamations of love towards her married mentor

2) when discussing love with all the other students at the fujisaki training camp in chapter 93

like she puts being strong in karuta as a prerequisite for her partner, she puts the same expectations for herself. strength in karuta and romance is intertwined, one and the same in her head. and this is reinforced throughout the early parts of the manga.

and perhaps, it’s because this line makes it seems like she requires to achieve a certain standard before pursuing romance, that we think her monologue in chapter 173 is an extension of this. but this discusses right, 173 discusses wants. and chihaya wanted a lot of things but not a relationship with him. 

so what happens when she does sit across arata (and taichi) in a professional match? charles has already discussed it at length here and i think it does great in pointing out the deliberate parallels sensei used.  

but what really cemented this theory that chihaya never actually liked arata romantically, and it was just fanaticism-- at least personally-- is that besides parallels drawn between taichi and arata, there were also more obvious parallels drawn between arata and shinobu: chihaya conflates the two in her head.

i’m talking about these overlapping images, of how a mention of one, follows a thought of the other. this happens for the first time in chapter 26 btw and is pretty consistent up till the end.

chihaya sees shinobu, and she thinks of arata. this is also the case vice versa. as soon after her match with shinobu, she sees arata again in chapter 37. 

shinobu, like arata, is strong in karuta and chihaya’s peer. the key difference being that karuta is ultimately a game segregated by sex with queen and meijin titles. shinobu is an adversary that chihaya has to beat, in ways arata isn’t. 

shinobu is the goal chihaya works towards.

when we look at how sensei writes how chihaya perceives shinobu, it is a reflection of how chihaya sees arata, without all the shipping lenses because this is a heterosexual manga and i don’t trust sensei to write anything vaguely queer the greatest case for chiharata was always that chihaya thinks about arata a lot, or that she makes such a huge effort for such a connection. yet ultimately, does she not do this for shinobu as well? are chihaya’s thoughts and actions driven by romantic feelings or perhaps, it is out of her desire to reach the top, to reach the strong players as hiro noted to chihaya?

(there’s this moment in the anime, during the scene where chihaya says she doesn’t have the right to sit across someone she loves: one of the questions that was brought up to get the ball going was along the lines of someone that you like is a person that you want to call when you feel lonely, and her immediate thought is shinobu. she ends up calling arata, but he is her second choice and only a choice that she made because in her mind, arata and shinobu are intertwined.

this scene doesn’t exist in the manga, and it’s the studio’s discretion to create an even more obvious parallel between shinobu and arata. but it is also a hint to say “hey, maybe all the ~romance-coded~ scenes between the two isn’t exactly romantic in nature!” previously, i pointed out how the anime differs slightly in chihayafuru’s introduction, and i think it’s interesting to see these subtle differences and its effects on the romance portion of the narrative. i think it’s especially prudent to note that this extra scene  these little alterations do not fundamentally change the story and play off what already exists in the manga, yet it makes it all that much clearer that taichihaya was meant to be endgame.)

i misremembered. this scene actually exists in the manga and in chapter 63! 

so this isn’t madhouse playing around, but actually a point of direct comparison sensei made. despite the context being about romance, neither arata nor taichi was necessarily her first thought. shinobu was. but this was quickly dismissed as her going off track, and not romance-coded.

she calls arata, but that’s because in her mind, one naturally leads to another; shinobu and arata are intertwined. also funnily enough. shinobu does come up as a subject in their conversation. 

(i still stand by my statement that madhouse does make subtle changes to amplify what already exists in the manga. they don’t fundamentally change parts of the story the way certain animes with fillers do, so perhaps it’d be a nice project to match chapters to episodes and take note of their differences.)

the final nail in the coffin, in my personal opinion, is how chihaya describes arata as a god. 

during the climax of the class A finals between shinobu and arata. i think it’s especially crucial to see how watching arata affects chihaya: initially, it was absolutely suffocating and chihaya feels like she’s underwater (chapter 90)

yet by the start of chapter 91, the background changes from that to those more typical of shoujo manga: the patented glitter and sparkles, almost filter-esque.

this abrupt change came about with the admission of her linking to arata to karuta godhood. in the anime, it’s even more blatant, as the colours for the background literally go from a dreary blue to very bright yellow. it is almost in your face that romance, idolisation and fanaticism is obfuscated and overlapping. it was here where i began questioning: does chihaya actually like arata? or is this just a form of fangirlism. and once you come to view it as the latter, everything really clicks into place.

#chihayafuru #this was supposed to be a longer post which talks about how chihaya uses karuta as a crutch to navigate her relationships #but perhaps i’ll do a part 2 using taichi instead because their relationship best illustrates this #sorry if its messy i typed this on my phone #i’ll add the necessary panels later #ayase chihaya #wataya arata

[blorbologist]

if you're still doing them: how about some antipathy/sympathy for kynan and cassandra?

36. Antipathy/Sympathy

"This spell attracts or repels creatures of your choice. You target something within range, either a Huge or smaller object or creature or an area that is no larger than a 200-foot cube. Then specify a kind of intelligent creature, such as red dragons, goblins, or vampires. You invest the target with an aura that either attracts or repels the specified creatures for the duration. Choose antipathy or sympathy as the aura's effect."

[This is a really fuckin hard spell to work with yet, so apologies that my muse took me in a bit of a different direction!]

[Set in my Cat’s Cradle AU - and a few months in the future of where the story currently is. So has a couple spoilers for what I have planned there!]

His last stop looks rich as all hells. It’s a relief, a big one, because Kynan can hide from the rain under the eaves without soaking his back and ring the doorbell. And wait. The downpour smothers any sound of approaching footsteps, but he does see the shadow of movement through the fancy frosted glass. 

“Hey - er, hi! Special delivery,” says Kynan as soon as the door opens. He forgot to get the pen handy, so he fumbles around for one to offer along with the clipboard. “Sign here.”

Holy shit, she’s cute. And looks exhausted as hell, which makes sense immediately because it’s the end of the term. But also not, because what student would order this much stupidly specific metal. Or maybe she’s an engineer? Engineering majors are always weird. 

His arms are getting tired - again, big box full of panels and parts - as she squints at the pen, at him, at the clipboard, at him, at the box. 

“I have got to get Percival to double check his address when he orders his gadgets online,” she sighs. “I’m sorry - this was my brother’s work. Could I still -”

“Oh yeah, definitely.” 

Probably not, but it’s all pros from where Kynan’s standing. A few more seconds out of the rain, for one. Not needing to carry this box back to the truck. And maybe, just maybe, he can get his head together to say something smart. 

“I, uh-”

Kynan jumps, almost drops probably ten pounds of robot guts on his foot, and yelps when something black and - jingling? - definitely jingling zips by, each bound down the steps punctuated by a cheery little bell.

“Rapier!”

Kynan’s halfway down the stairs already. “Rapper? You - sorry, you named your cat Rapper?!”

“Rapier,” she corrects. “Like a fencing sword.”

Okay, sure, that works. His eyes widen as the girl brushes past him and onto the stone pathway leading to her house. “What are you doing?! It’s pouring rain - get a coat on, the kitty can’t get far in this weather.”

She narrows her eyes - only barely, because they’re blown wide with distress.  “Only if you saw where she went.”

“Under my - the work truck.”

Kynan steels himself and, while she’s ducking back inside, kneels on the wet driveway concrete to peer between the wheels. And get on his hands, too, because she’s all the way back there, huh? 

“Here kitty kitty,” he chitters. Wide yellow eyes stare back at him, quite startled by the situation. Well, yeah, you got us into this mess. “Come on - uh - Rapier? Rapier, come on!”

She does not come on. Though she does chirp, which he thinks is a reassuring sign. Stretching his arm out to try and scratch her chin or scruff her ends up being a bad idea, though - she skitters farther back. Fuck. He can feel the rainwater bleeding through his pants. It’s freezing.

He makes his second embarrassing trill of the day when a heavy weight drops on his back. Turns his head to see the young woman, now securely wrapped in a raincoat. And something thrown over him, too.

“You’re soaked. It’s one of my brother’s that he’s forgotten here one too many times - at least it will keep you dry.”

“Oh.” Kynan realizes he’s still on his hands and knees, with a very fancy if worn coat hanging awkwardly off his back, in front of a very cute girl. In the middle of a storm. “Thank you?”

There’s a painfully awkward pause. “Cassandra. Cass. Pleasure to meet you.” She looks about to hold out her hand for a shake before she grins a bit sheepishly and stuffs it in her pocket. 

“I - thank you,” she says. “For helping.” 

“Well - I’m Kynan. Leore. Kynan Leore,” he stammers. “And - it’s nothing”

--

It’s not, actually, nothing.

The fugitive isn’t under the work truck long. She actually leads them on quite the chase until she actually runs into something that gets her to turn around.

Kynan has just a second to cow in triumph, cat bundled in his soaked coat (he stripped it to put on the dry one when Rapier got under the hedge) before he immediately regrets opening his big stupid mouth. 

“Fuck! You - fucking gross! Sorry,” he adds a bit sheepishly, even though Cassandra just looks amused by the sudden outburst. “She reeks - I think from the garbage bins? Fuck.”

Cassandra is cruel enough to laugh. He immediately wants more of it, and if the cat wasn’t so busy struggling to escape he’s pretty sure he’d get a look from the feline. 

“Let’s get you both inside,” she says, disturbing an array of mirrors as she skips through puddles. Gone is the exhaustion, just pure relief to have her cat safe, and - wow. With blue that pale, her pupils are obvious, honing in on the teeny fuzzy head. 

Rapier makes a really pathetic yowl, though, so. There was no look for him, there. Chill, Leore.

Cassandra opens the door for them both. “Never thought I’d be making this sort of delivery today,” Kynan says as he releases Rapier in the entrance. She takes the time to daintily shake her paws, about as miserably as Kynan feels. “I hope you’ve got towels for her - and you, too. You’ll catch a cold ”

“That’s an old wive’s tale.” Cassandra rolls her eyes. Rapier, sensing trouble, makes a jingling retreat further into the house, leaving a trail of damp pawprints in her wake. “It’s moreso the close proximity from staying inside to avoid the weather. It makes sharing colds easier.”

“Oh. That’s cool.” Kynan makes a face as he shucks that wonderfully warm coat. He’ll remember it fondly. And this whole evening, really, even if he’s sure he’s getting a cold out of it, no matter what Cassandra says. “Well. I’m glad I could help! And, uh, I hope your brother gets the package safe, and that -”

Something in Cassandra’s look stops him.

“How long of a drive do you have? Until you’ll be home and have a change of clothes?”

Kynan frowns. “I mean? Between getting back to work, clocking out, and the traffic this time of day? … Probably an hour.” 

She hums, glancing away. Her hair is only faintly damp, on account of the hood she’d had up. Dark brown, with streaks of - blond? Or white? It’s really pretty. 

“... Percy hasn’t been by in months,” she says, almost to herself. “I told him I’d get rid of his things if he didn’t -” There’s a very decided nod that makes Kynan stand a little straighter. “Right. You - Kynan? Mind staying there? I’ll get you a change of clothes. I think you’re roughly of height. And then I’m treating you to tea. For catching my little lady.”

He blanches. The coat alone, even a bit tattered, is probably a few day’s pay. Just loaning it to hunt for a cat in the rain felt decadent. “I - no, really, it’s fine -”

“It’s really not.”

“How about - what - dry up the kitty first?” he tries. “And I’ll throw my coat over a heater and leave when it’s dry. Fair?”

Cassandra sniffs through her nose. From anyone else - from someone else in particular - he’d call it disdainful, but it’s… actually really cute? And it feels affectionate. 

“Fair,” she agrees, swiping a towel from a nearby bathroom. He helpfully points out where Rapier’s pawprints lead as he works to unlace his running shoes (fuck he feels super poor, extra poor, wearing old no-name sneakers on this fancy tile). 

And then his phone rings.

“Oh - sorry. My boss. Gotta -” Kynan clears his throat. Cassandra actually smiles - really smiles! - and waves a go-ahead, padding off in pursuit of her cat.

“Hi! Sorry, sorry - something came up. A cat got out, and given it’s the end of my shift I figured -” he shuts up. Listens. Nods, dutifully, even if she can’t see it. Hears the scuffling of towel. “Yes. I understand, it’s very - very unprofessional. I know, but - yes, Ripley ma’am. It won’t happen again. Promptly - yeah. Goodbye.”

“Sorry,” he’s been repeating that a lot, lately, but it feels a lot better saying it to Cassandra. “She’s a real - er - hardass? About efficiency, and all -”

“Get out.”

Until it doesn’t. 

“Sorry?” squeaks Kynan.

She’s looking at him like - not like he’s beneath her, the way rich folk do. It’s worse, it’s the look his old man has when he’s fucked up, and pissed him off, and offended him. Even worse - it can always get worse - he sees the face in the mirror, bruised and scared that this’ll be it. 

“Get off my property,” Cassandra snarls, clutching the cat to her chest. It looks just as confused as he feels. “Leave, now, before I call the cops.”

… That last bit shook too much to be a real threat, but he’d not want to turn it into one. Kynan bites his tongue and gets out of there as soon as he can, hears the lock and deadbolt behind him. The rain hasn’t let up. He can’t stop and think, either, because she’s scared and angry and he doubts Ripley would back him up if he loitered. So it’s on autopilot that he gets the keys into the ignition and drives away, Google Maps reminding him cheerfully of the most efficient route back to work.

What did he do?

#the antipathy is 'get off my property ffs' and the cat avoiding them? I guess? idk this idea just HIT ME out of the blue while struggling - #w this prompt. so!! letsgo! #Whenever I write Cass assume I'm writing her ace and maybe on the aro spectrum. #critical role #campaign 1 #cr fanfic #critical role fanfiction #kyssandra #cassandra de rolo #kynan leore #did Percy order parts from a company Ripley operates? Did she send him stuff as a threat? do EITHER of them know about this? who knows! #this was supposed be a short thing and its the LONGEST of these yet AND is somehow expanding my Cat's Cradle AU to have More drama! FUCK #critical role au #my writing #cat's cradle au #spell ask game

[ask-obt]

What steps do you usually have for creating each page, and how long does each one usually take you? Do you do stuff like thumbnail entire chapters in advance, etc?

I don't know how big your page buffer is, but you seem to get pages done at a really impressive rate, especially considering every page is clean and colored, so I'd love to know how you manage it :)

// this is a long ask, so buckle up!

all of my pages start with an outline, which is then fleshed out into a script- over time I've found that having an entire chapter done before starting any other step cuts out unnecessary fat that comes with editing. if there's one thing I learned from preboot OBT, trying to figure out what exactly happens on a page as you're drawing it can lead to a lot of heartbreak if you decide to change it (a lot of preboot OBT's chapter 4 was subject to this- I have a million drafts of rune and fienne in the market because I didn't know what I wanted them to do there). my scripting program is actually the beta version of a program one of my classmates in college made, and if it ever goes public I'd be happy to pop a link since I believe they want to make it open source eventually. on average my scripts are about 5000-6000 words long, and are written (casually) like film scripts since that's the format I was trained on as a film student.

my outlines are a bit sloppy because it's just like a stream of consciousness flowing out while I try getting ideas slapped down as quickly as possible. I try not to worry too much about details unless I have a clear vision in mind because I think writing the plot out in one go flows the most smoothly.

and then from there, I expand that outline into a script.

after the script is completed, and assuming I have enough buffer, I thumbnail the entire next chapter- or at least as much as I can stand in one go. I'll usually either be working on rendering the previous chapter during this step, or I'll have the previous chapter completed so I can devote my attention to it. either way, I try and give myself room to do a variety of tasks depending on my mood. thumbnails are easy to work on while on-the-go for example, but they require a lot of thought to put together. coloring can be tedious, but it's great to do while multitasking of on lunch at one of my jobs.

part of the thumbnailing process for me includes putting down text bubbles. surprisingly, this is a very tedious task, so I try to get it all done in one go so I don't have to agonize over it. and this is where my process gets a bit convoluted, so bear with me.

to do this, I take a look at my script and break all the dialogue into different text bubbles. I've gotten to the point where I think I do pretty well naturally finding breaks in pages, and I just go in chronological order putting text down. for this step I have page templates prepped, which show the safety margins that I need to follow to prevent text from getting stuck in the binding when printing into books. I make sure all the text is safe, and then move onto the next step.

after that, I copy the page with text bubbles, and then shrink it really small into thumbnail size. on a layer above this screenshot I trace the text bubbles, and then treat those bubbles as "dead zones" to draw around while working on the thumbnails. this might be an unnecessary step if you have a good grasp on how much text takes up a panel, but I am historically awful at judging that so knowing the exact text bubble size when thumbnailing helps prevent my bubbles from getting in the way after the art is already rendered. then, rinse and repeat for the rest of the chapter!

some chapters I'm quicker at thumbing than others- on the low end we've got chapter 5, which I wrapped up in 2 months (I did roughly 1 thumb per day)

and then chapter 6 which I dragged my feet on a little bit, at around 6 months

(and chapter 7, which is twice the length of a normal chapter for me, took 4 months!)

after that is sketching, the part I dread most when working on a chapter. it's the part that requires the most thinking on my part, and I did away with sketching completely for most of chapter 3- but I've been trying to make my lines thinner lately, and until I build up the confidence to work without sketches, I'm afraid I'm stuck with them. I try to do 1-2 sketches per day, but some days I just don't do them if I'm not feeling up to it.

(I'm actually avoiding sketching while I work on this ask)

while most of OBT is done in CSP, the one thing I don't do there is lines- for that I use Autodesk Sketchbook. sketchbook has a pretty incredible predictive stroke tool that adjusts your strokes after you make them. it takes a bit of time to get used to, but with it I can draw much faster than any other program or with any other stabilization tool. I gave CSP an honest shot with lining by trying to use it for 6 months, but sketchbook was just too powerful so I live the multiprogram life. I try my best to keep all my lines closed during this process because it'll make coloring WAY easier. like I think coloring used to take me an hour, now it takes me 20 minutes tops.

then I flip off the visibility on all layers except the lineart layer, save as a PNG (saving a working file as well if I'm feeling spicy), and then import to CSP! where the most fun part begins.

to start, to do that colored lineart thing where the lines on my characters are darker on the outside than the inside, I start by coloring characters their inside color first (using the "lock transparent pixels" layer option). for comics this is reduced to a simple "warm palette" color and "cool palette" color, which are brown and blue respectively. it's subtle, but you can see it in action with rune and eilwyn here.

then I use the magic wand tool, my best friend. I select the negative space around the characters, invert it, and then with the dark color selected in my palette (for me it's a dark brown approaching black) and the transparent pixels still locked, I use the "outline selection" option to outline the characters. I usually outline them by 6 px, but it'll depend on what looks best.

then for coloring, with the characters still selected, I use the "shrink selection" option to shrink it by 1 pixel. this helps prevent aliasing when I use the fill bucket to fill characters in with a base color! after that I pick them out by character and manually add their main color by hand, so they look something like this.

and here's the part where I impart upon ye, dear reader, with the forbidden knowledge I learned while doing the Monster House Marathon this month. see, I really like doing these daily events because they push me to my limit. a page a day is the most comfortable fast pace I can work on the comic, but it can still be a bit of a strain to get a page done before my bedtime, so I'm much more willing to learn shortcuts in order to get a nice juicy 6 hours of sleep instead of 4.

if you do a closed lineart method like me for most of your character's markings, the "Set Reference Layer" tool is going to become your new best friend. using this, I set the lineart layer as the reference layer (and only the lineart layer), move over to my coloring layer, grab my fill bucket tool, and then I can just start literally filling in characters within seconds. some characters have unclosed markings that I'll have to do by hand, but this is extremely quick and I love it so much.

finally I add a multiply layer where I do some light shading. this step used to be full cel shading, though over time I've found that my art reads a little more clearly without it. and shading also used to be miserable because it was another 30 minutes to an hour of rendering that kept me from completing a page, so it sometimes got a little miserable.

and finally, I add backgrounds and lighting effects. I have a pretty decent library of pre-rendered backgrounds I've made that I can just plop in a scene, but sometimes for new or one-time locations I'll make a new one by hand.

and that's a completed page! it's a bit hard to calculate how long a singular page takes start to finish since I try doing everything before the lineart in batch style, but I'd say it all roughly evens out to 2-4 hours. breaking it down, it looks something like:

Thumbnail - 10-20 minutes Sketch - 30 minutes - 1 hour Lineart - 30 minutes - 1 hour Coloring - 10-20 minutes Rendering - 10-20 minutes Background - 20 minutes - 1 hour

so pages are pretty quick for me to make! this helps me build a pretty sizeable buffer, I think my previous record was somewhere around 40 pages? maybe 70 if I included dielle's wish. though I will admit during this Monster House Marathon, I actually ran out of buffer on day 7, and I'd been laying the tracks in front of the train until, uh, checks watch, the 27th! as of writing this I finished the buffer through the MHM, so I can rest easy. this ask probably won't queue until after the MHM has ended so this probably sounds a little comedic. the main reason I was able to manage these daily updates without a buffer was because of an art high I was experiencing this month, which is also why I did a marathon in the first place.

though usually, I really am an advocate for buffers. having a buffer of at least 3 months means I can hop around with different processes as my interest in them flips around. my brain usually likes to focus on one task at a time, and a lot of it, so having that freedom is great for me. and sometimes, I just wanna take a month off to play a new game or hyperfixate on stardew valley once again! it all comes down to practice and developing a workflow and schedule that works for you.

#on borrowed time comic #ask-obt #ooc #wip #behind the scenes #page process

[pikahlua]

"The goal is to separate AFO and Tomura. They don’t mention killing Tomura in planning" <-- But then why did they called The Flying Fortress Shigaraki's "coffin"? Doesn't sound very "we're trying to help you" to me. Pretty sure All Might meant separating Shigaraki and real AFO, which is exactly what they did. They split everyone up. Other pro-heroes being in on "saving the villains" plan wouldn't really make sense either, considering that the trio (Izuku-Ochako-Shouto) are supposed to be different from the rest of pro-heroes, to be better than the old heroes.

Okay, anon. You raised enough good points that I'm willing to overlook some of the...awkward assumptions you're making in order to address the more pertinent questions. And by overlook I mean I guess I'll try to constructively challenge those biases at the end of this.

A coffin in the sky

But then why did they called The Flying Fortress Shigaraki's "coffin"?

This is by far your best point and a good question to have. I’ll even allow your point despite the fact that the only people who called it a coffin were Best Jeanist (who does not necessarily represent everyone) and TomurAFO as a quotation of Best Jeanist.

Here’s the thing though: it’s a reference.

To Hayao Miyazaki’s Castle in the Sky.

The effect of calling it a “coffin” certainly achieves what Best Jeanist was probably going for, which was to intimidate and posture (hm maybe that’s why he took on Katsuki as a student lol). But most readers, particularly in Japan, will immediately recognize the reference, which isn’t just there for show. CitS is a story about balance--about nature vs technology, about optimism vs cynicism, about children vs adults, about how disruptions in the balance between these things result in chaos and destruction.

Most literally, this line in Japanese should read as: “They/we are those who reject your destruction!!”

The heroes are fighting a philosophical battle. Their lines are all carefully phrased to stand in opposition to TomurAFO’s ideals rather than just...how they might want to kill him or something.

I don’t know how familiar you are with Japanese religion and cultural norms and other anime but like...often anime will make a distinction between identities or egos in a single person as if they are different people. Take how the Todoroki family treat the problem of “Dabi” for example. They speak as though Dabi and Touya are two separate people, and that they must quell Dabi first and then save Touya after.

Thematically, it makes complete sense for the heroes to want to “kill” Tomura Shigaraki but “save” Tenko Shimura. Killing in this case would not require Tomura’s body to actually die. His ego must be changed and/or destroyed.

I know this doesn’t quite fall in line with western conceptions of the self, and I know that plenty of people want to see Tomura and Tenko as the same person. They are but aren’t. I mean, clearly, right? Given how AFO himself is treating the situation at least. Given how Star(s) & Stripe(s) noted the strangeness of Shigaraki’s new identity when her pilot team did not. It’s convoluted and messy...and the heroes have the task of trying to pick that mess apart.

But at the very least, the above panel implies heavily that the heroes are indeed trying to “stop Tenko from wanting to destroy everything,” as I said before.

“Help you” vs “save you”

Doesn't sound very "we're trying to help you" to me.

And this is the crux of the matter. I never said anything about what “saving Tenko” would look like. Are they gonna destroy AFO’s ego and separate Tomura entirely? Is Tomura gonna be happy and see how he was wrong all along and join the heroes just like that? No. God no, I seriously doubt it. In the same way that Tomura must come to the heroes’ side in some regards, the heroes must also acknowledge the correctness in Tomura’s position that led him down this path in the first place. This isn’t a one-sided issue. Mutual understanding is the key.

A connection must be forged with Tomura, and his “Tenko” ego is likely the remnant that will allow the heroes to do so.

What happens after that? There are a lot of options, and I wouldn’t dare guess which one Horikoshi is aiming for yet.

The separation of AFO and Shigaraki

Pretty sure All Might meant separating Shigaraki and real AFO, which is exactly what they did. They split everyone up.

Agreed. I never said All Might meant anything else. You’re the one who assumed otherwise (and notice how you did that, how there are implications in the story that led you to that conclusion without my even having to say it). But now you have to ask yourself: why did the heroes do that?

On the one hand, yes, they didn’t want to fight both TomurAFO and AFO himself at the same time. That’d present combat problems for sure. Acknowledged.

But isn’t it also convenient that the heroes agree this would keep TomurAFO and AFO from communicating, from “mind-melding,” and that that’s an important goal of theirs?

They clearly prefer a version of events where they are fighting a Tomura and an AFO rather than two AFOs. I’ll let you speculate about why.

Additionally, you’re entirely ignoring the “All Might was part of the planning process” portion of my argument. We have no reason to believe All Might would want to kill Tomura or that he would decide killing is the only option. I mean, we know All Might can receive the feelings of his vestige within OFA. We know All Might’s reaction to Izuku’s desire to save Tenko.

Would All Might really have constructed a plan that doesn’t save Tenko after that? Would Izuku really have agreed to this plan in the first place if he was told they explicitly wanted to kill Tomura?

Your bias is showing, anon

Other pro-heroes being in on "saving the villains" plan wouldn't really make sense either, considering that the trio (Izuku-Ochako-Shouto) are supposed to be different from the rest of pro-heroes, to be better than the old heroes.

Very meta reasoning, anon. But you haven’t met the burden of proof for the in-universe reasoning yet. “Saving the villains doesn’t make sense because these three characters have to look better than everyone” actually doesn’t accomplish your goal, because god it makes Izuku and Ochako and Shouto look like AMAZING assholes if they went along with a plan to kill everyone when really they wanted to save the villains. At best your response to this can be “they went along so they would get a shot at saving them,” which is just wild to me because...that’s some astounding insubordination that implies these kids have zero trust in All Might and their mentors and all of their allies. Not to mention that means these kids did not vocally fight for their values and ideals and morals when faced with a clearly inferior position.

I don’t think any of those three have ever demonstrated a willingness to engage in that level of deception. Maybe Ochako has fewer examples of this, but Izuku and Shouto have definitely protested against authority when faced with what they would perceive as unjust or unheroic positions. They’re far too sincere of characters to have just let this kinda crap fly.

Additionally, that’s a really weird set of characters to focus on for the sake of your point here. Do you really think the story is trying to raise Izuku, Ochako, and Shouto above all the rest? That the story is focusing on just a trio of characters and idolizing them as perfect? Where’s Iida in your calculations? Katsuki? Jirou? Tokoyami? The rest of Class 1-A? Is Aizawa included in your group of pro heroes that are inferior and meant to be usurped by this trio? Is All Might?

I think you’ve missed the theme, anon. It was never about those three. MHA is about how society can grow and change. It’s not something so trite and arrogant as “throw away the old generation and let the next Big Three take over and make things right.”

It’s more like...

“Take what the previous generation gave you. Take what they achieved. Take what they messed up. Take it all. And as a group, a generation, a society...carry that torch on and into the future. Keep it burning, make it grow. Inherit the strengths. Improve on the weaknesses. You cannot do this alone, but in coming together, we can keep hope alive and progress towards the ideal. Even if we don’t achieve it now, even if we don’t achieve it in our generation, it’s still worth striving for.”

Perhaps you do understand this theme, anon, but in that case I would caution you with your language. To focus on that trio in that way...it’s just...it doesn’t read like you do, anon. It doesn’t read like you do.

#ask pika #anon ask #my hero academia manga spoilers #meta #izuku midoriya #tenko shimura #tomura shigaraki #all might #toshinori yagi

[southwarkcofe]

When is a job interview not a job interview?

Rev’d Raymond Baudon, Assistant DDO and Deputy Director of Vocations, writes...

Last week I met with a group of RE students who were visiting the Cathedral and, as part of their visit, I was invited to be in the ‘hot seat’. This means that this group of 14 to 15 year olds could ask me anything. And they did!

One of the really interesting questions they asked was about my ‘career’ as a priest. They were wondering how I get promoted and whether I get a pay rise! It blew their minds when I explained that this is not how we think about ministry; that a vocation to ministry is the opposite of having a career. We certainly don’t go into ordained ministry for the reasons that some people might choose a secular career such as opportunities for promotion, pay rises, and so on. Instead, for me at least and I know for many others, it is something that is has a personal cost but is also an enormous privilege and source of great blessing and comfort.

As Assistant Diocesan Director of Ordinands my job partly involves being alongside people as they explore their sense of calling. This got me thinking about how having a vocation and not a career influences how we select people for training.

The Church of England’s selection process for those who believe they have a vocation to ordained ministry has changed and we are about halfway through the first year of the new ‘Shared Discernment Process’ as it’s called. This now consists of two sets of interview panels.

But what do we do in the Diocese to prepare candidates for these panels? Southwark has a reputation for having a rigorous selection process. We believe that it is important that candidates who are going forward to the national selection panels are as well prepared as possible. Particularly that candidates have a rich and full understanding of what it means to be ordained and what pressures and expectations this might place not just on the individual but on their family as well.

The ultimate test is whether a vocation to ordained ministry is ‘realistic, obedient and informed’. An informed vocation is one where the individual is aware of the blessings as well as the pressures and even the personal cost of pursuing their vocation. While an obedient vocation is one where the individual has heard God’s call in some way and responded to it. A realistic vocation is, perhaps, more difficult to define but an unrealistic vocation can be where either the individual themselves or those of us in the Vocations team discern that it would not be appropriate for that individual to proceed in the process. This is a very difficult decision to make but it is one that we take very seriously based on evidence and it is not a decision that is made by just one person alone.

The formal process at Diocesan level starts with the individual attending a Vocations Forum which is a day of workshops, reflection and worship around responding to God’s call. If you would like to attend a Vocations Forum ask your vicar to contact Sue Stewart who will provide them with more details. You would then spend three to five months meeting with a Vocations Adviser about once a month. If the VA thought it was right for you to proceed, you would then meet with an Area Director of Ordinands. This would mean meeting every six weeks or so over the course of around 12 to 18 months. The ADO goes into much more depth about what qualities we are looking for in someone whose vocation is realistic, obedient and informed. As well as meeting with an ADO, you would gain wider experience of the Church of England by spending time on placement in a church different from your own. Your ADO would also ask you to do some writing and reflection on your developing sense of vocation.

All of this is before going forward for selection for ordination training. If someone is selected for training they become an ‘ordinand’ (i.e. someone in training for ordained ministry). They might want to consider going away to a theological college as a residential ordinand; while for many people, being a non-residential ordinand is a better option. To get the most out of training and to make the transition from being ‘in the pews’ to being ‘at the front’ ordinands move to a church that is different from their home church. We don’t ask anyone to leave behind their friends and support networks in their home parish, but we do ask them step back from any formal links. For example, being a churchwarden, PCC member or some other volunteer role at their home church. We recognise that this can be painful, but it really is an important part of ordination training as it means fully inhabiting the new role of someone training for ministry and becoming more informed about the magnitude of what ordained ministry entails. It’s more than just a job and it definitely isn’t a career. Rather, it’s a vocation which, when entered into joyfully and with understanding and acceptance may be a source of deep blessing and consolation.

The wonderful thing about vocations is that God calls each and every one of us to live out our discipleship in the service of others and in the worship of God. For some, this does mean ordained ministry and for others this means lay ministry. People from all backgrounds and abilities are called into lay and ordained ministry. So, if you think you might be being called, speak to your vicar and if you want to have an informal chat about your sense of calling, I am always happy to meet with you either online or in person. Just get in touch.

Find out more about Vocations on our website at southwark.anglican.org/exploring-your-call.

[catnipaddictt]

Tin can

roommate!anakin skywalker x gn!reader

synopsis: Your normally grumpy roommate feels bad about drinking your last canned beverage and makes it up to you

wc: 1.8k

tw: none, just fluff

Homework. Your least favourite thing about college. The sheets of paper littered your bed as you poured over your work. The sun was far gone and you had officially run out of caffeinated drinks. You took this as a sign to go collect more refreshments before continuing your studies. 

Pushing your selection of pens and pencils to the side you hop off your bed and make it over to the door of your room. Posters half fall off of the aged wooden panels, matching the walls of the rest of your room. Opening the door you are greeted by the sight of your normally grumpy roommate, Anakin. He was majoring in something like engineering, you couldn't really remember. 

He doesn't even acknowledge your presence, either focusing on what he is typing or straight up ignoring you. You wouldn't be surprised if it was the second option. You had been living together for 6 months and he still hadn't warmed up. You had tried to befriend him but he wasn't interested, opting to shut himself in his room and play his music way too loud. The walls were thin and you heard everything. ‘Maybe he was just bad at talking to new people’ is what you told yourself, but it had been half a year by this point.

You make your way over to the tiny kitchen, bee-lining over to the fridge that couldn't keep cold for too long. Upon opening it, you are greeted with well, nothing. Great. You knew that you had stocked up before your upcoming exam only days ago. You should have had enough to last you at least a week. There was only one answer; Anakin. He must have taken some of them for himself. 

Turning on your heel, you face him with a look of disapproval on your face. He doesn't notice you or doesn't care enough to stop what he is doing. You cough loudly which gets his attention finally. “Yes?” He monotones.

“Did you have the last of my drinks?” You try to keep your composure but the stress of your upcoming exams makes your voice crack. You know it's silly to get emotional over energy drinks but it is all too much. You turn on your heel so he doesn't see and return to your room, slamming the door. Way to make an exit.

You stand in the middle of your room trying to gather yourself but you end up just crawling into bed, under your stationary and half done papers. Maybe sleep will fix it. It was late after all and you haven't gotten more than a few hours of shut-eye in the past few days. Closing your eyes you fall asleep almost instantly. Dreamless slumber takes you into its grasp.

Waking up in the morning never felt so hard until now. Blinking the sleep out of your eyes you turn to the side, making the remaining pens tumble to the ground. You almost shoot out of bed after your eyes find your alarm clock. 11am. Oh no. You are late, really late. And you have a test in 40 minutes. One you were supposed to study for as you didn't understand the content as well. Scrambling out of bed you notice you are still fully dressed, you must have forgotten to take off your clothes when you fell into bed. Grabbing the door and swinging it open at full force you notice a piece of paper on the tiny coffee table. 

The handwriting is scrawny but you can still understand what it reads; ‘said you were sick, don't go to class. Check emails’. You do as it says and sure enough you have received an email about rescheduling your test from today. You silently thank whatever force is behind this. You notice there is more writing at the bottom of the page in smaller print; ‘check fridge - A.S.’ 

You walk over to the fridge, paper still in hand. Opening the door you are met with a sight made in collage student heaven. 12 e energy drinks sit there waiting for you. He had even gone as far to select different flavours, all of which were your favorites. He must be more observant than you realised. 

You spent the rest of the day in the deserted dorm finishing your homework and getting started on a project that wasn't due for a while. You knew classes were out when you heard the tell-tail sound of cars and feet in the hallway. Friday nights signalled parties for many students, giving them a break from the stress of lectures and too much work. Normally your nights were spent protecting your peace and watching reruns of sitcoms on your laptop.

You hear the click of a lock from the front door before the shuffling of feet towards his room. A knock on your bedroom door brings you out of your trace, and you let out a “come in!” Anakin's head peeks around the door, “sorry for having the last of your cans” he breathes out. “Don’t worry, I was just stressed and overreacting. But thank you. I appreciate the gesture as well as you bailing me out of class today.” This was probably the longest you had ever spoken to him and he was surprisingly pleasant. Maybe there was a nice guy under his normally cold personality. And to think all it took was some caffeine. 

“What are you watching?” He questions, now fully opening the door. “Um, just some bad sitcom. It's nothing really.” You are confused at his sudden niceness. “Can I watch with you?” He questions what has happened to the Anakin you knew 24 hours ago. He must have caught onto your questions as he speaks; “look, I realised that I haven't been the best roommate and I kinda shut down all your attempts to be friends. And I was thinking maybe we could start over?” he directs his eyesight away from you. “oh sure, yeah, I would like that” you reply and nod to the space next to you on the bed. He steps into your room for probably the first time and you can see him take in the posters and assorted belongings everywhere. Making his way to your bed, he plonks down beside you and you resume play. 

It had been two months since the energy drink incident and it was safe to say you and Anakin were now friends. It made your life a lot easier now that you and your roommate got along. Every Friday night you would alternate picking a film to watch in either of your rooms and you begin to look forward to these small moments with him. You even caught yourself counting down the minutes until he arrived after his classes, which finished later than yours did. It was silly how you had begun to develop what could only be described as a crush on the mechanical engineering major (you had finally picked up what he was studying). 

Pushing open the door to your room, you make your way to the kitchenette. You are about to grab out a frozen pizza to cook for dinner when the front door unlocks and Anakin comes in holding a bag. He shuts the door with his back, kicking off his shoes in the process. “Nope, not tonight” you look at him questionably. “Tonight we dine Like royalty” setting the bag down he pulls out a selection of ingredients. 

20 minutes later Anakin is telling you to sit down before producing 2 plates of actual, non-frozen food. Who knew the guy could also cook. He passes one of the plates to you before he sits down to your side. “I didn't know you could cool” you state, “I don't really either, I had to follow a recipe” he replies, “but it smells good”. You both dig into the warm food, a change to your unpredictable diet of late. 

After a few long minutes of silent eating Anakin looks up at you “not bad if I do say so myself.” You laugh “this is really good, you should cook more often.” “Maybe” he replies before finishing off his food. You also finish your plate and you both stand up to wash the few dishes created. After a lot of stumbling around the tiny kitchen to put the plates back in their original place, you both collapse onto the old couch. 

“That was nice,” he says, turning his head to face you. “Yeah” you agree. The almost set sun makes the room dim and you really should go finish your studying. You nod towards your room and get up, “well the papers call me again” you joke and he rolls his eyes. You almost make it to your door before he calls your name and throws you a can of your favorite drink, which you almost drop. You save your hand in thanks before heading inside.  Something about the drink in your hand feels off, it's lighter than usual. 

Settling down on your bed you take the can in your hands and open it. There is no drink inside. On closer inspection you notice that the bottom has been cut out of it and put back. As well as this there is a roll of paper in it. Fishing it out with your fingers, you unfold it. ‘kitchen counter’ is all it reads. You get up again and open the door, seeing another can on the counter. Anakin isn't here either, spiking your confusion. You pick it up seeing that it is empty as well, apart from another piece of paper. ‘come to the roof’ it reads. 

Curiosity peaking, you throw on a sweater and your shoes before heading out to the roof. After climbing the multiple flights of stairs you reach the door to the roof. You push it open with your side and step out on concrete. The sun is casting its last light over the tops of the buildings, silhouetting Anakin as he stands. 

You step towards him and he smiles at you before he speaks. “hi” you reply with another “hi.” he reaches up behind his head nervously, a side to Anakin you hadn't seen before. He seems to think for a moment before speaking, “I know this is stupid, but I think I like you and I'm not sure what to do.” You stand there stunned at his confession, before he corrects himself, “I know I like you, more than I should. And I know I shouldn't because I was an asshole to you for 6 months.” 

You don't know what to say. He likes you. The guy you like is standing here saying he likes you. You make up your mind before stepping closer to him. “I like you too, Anakin.” He looks surprised, clearly expecting a completely different reaction. You reach him and take his hand in yours, “like I really like you” you laugh nervously. 

“Can I kiss you?” He asks and you nod in reply. He leans down and places a gentle kiss to your lips before you wrap your hands around his neck. ‘It really is something out of the movies,’ you think to yourself and smile. He places his forehead against yours and you and Anakin both burst out laughing. “Thank God for your caffeine addiction.”

I wrote this at an ungodly hour and i'm not sure it makes sense, no beta reader - we die like real men

#anakin skywalker #anakin skywalker x reader #anakin x reader #revenge of the sith #the clone wars #hayden christensen x reader #hayden christensen #hayden christensen imagine #anakin x you #anakin imagine #roommate!anakin #roommate!anakin x reader #sw tcw

[nakamuso]

Censorman Part II" - Memories of the Collaboration Cafe

I do not think. My colleague said. The second part of "Censorman" has finally begun. The second episode is being delivered this week. Speaking of "Censorman," this article I wrote for Da Vinci Web a long time ago was ranked in the list for quite a long time.

It is serialized in "JUMP! What is it about Denji's "heroic" character in "Chainsaw Man"?

I wondered why so many people read this article, even though it did not delve deeply into the work in particular and only touched on the character of Denji. I guess fans were looking for articles on the Internet anyway.

But reading it now, I was surprised at how short the article was. I should have written longer. I looked up the date it was first distributed and found it was October 2019, three years ago, which is more recent than I thought. The serialization ran from January 2019 to February 2021, so once again, it was over really quickly. But to successfully wrap up that first part in just two years, Mr. Fujimoto is truly a genius.

Now, the long-awaited second part, I don't need to tell you now that it is already stable and interesting. At the time of the preview, I was wondering if the main character was going to be changed.　And a girl, or why is Denji-kun not going to appear in the show?

As of episode 2, Denji-kun has not appeared yet, but I would like to thank him for bringing out Yoshida instead. He used a large panel to make an appearance like in a shoujo manga, but it is interesting that he could have died next week.

I believe that he won't leave at such a high speed, but…I believe it. I also believe that Captain Kishibe will be alive and will make a reappearance.

The heroine? Mitaka-chan, the heroine, is also good, overflowing with a sense of being in the shadows. Not only in Chainsaw Man, but in the manga drawn by Fujimoto-sensei, there are basically only shady characters. He probably doesn't like or dislike wayward characters. Denji-kun was a relatively cheerful character, but he is a child, so his image is different from that of Way. If Mitaka-chan were to board the Thousand Sunny, I can imagine him getting off the ship after a few minutes without fitting in. Come to think of it, there hasn't been a single decent male character, or even a single decent female character, in the show. I dare to say it. They have not appeared. It is good to feel the shape of the author's soul in that area.

A colleague of mine had this to say about the molding of the female characters.

When he was a student, Fujimoto-sensei must have thought… that ordinary high school girls… were having sex with their teachers….

I don't believe that Fujimoto Sensei thinks that way. My colleague told me. I wonder if Kokeppi is no longer available. I wonder if he has died. Poor thing… I am looking forward to the continuation.

Animate's collaboration cafe By the way, Censorman has held several offline events so far.

Like the Censorman Cafe and the original art exhibition. I have been to all of them, but the most memorable one is the collaboration café with Animate, which took place in March 2021. Because of the Corona disaster, it was in doubt what would happen until just before the event, but they managed to hold the event.

However, since the world was in such a state, it was not allowed to stay for a long time in a small restaurant.

So eating and drinking in the restaurant was prohibited. Take-out only. After ordering from the menu at the counter, you take your food or drink and go outside. However, there is no terrace seating available, so you will have to either eat standing around or look around for a place to sit. My friend and I wandered around Ikebukuro at night with drinks in our hands. Looking closely, we could see people wandering around in the same way. Everyone is looking for a place to sit.

Eventually, we found a place a few minutes walk away, a park?　We sat and ate on a step in the bushes in a sort of place. Here is what I ordered at that time.

The name is Power! My name is Power!" Blood devil soda with Meowko (650 yen)

Pochita Man (750 yen)

The taste does not change even if you eat it in the dark. It tasted exactly the same as the total price of 1,400 yen. It is not expensive at all. Eat it with that in mind. If there is another collaboration cafe, I would love to go there.

I am sure I will be able to stay inside the restaurant this time. I believe it.

#writers #manga #JAPAN

[econrenuka]

Notes from Outlook for Economics Job Market 2023-24 NABE

06/10/2023

Jeff Ferris, Senior Manager and Economist, Amazon

Shilpi Mukherjee, Senior Economist, Keystone Strategy

Gustavo Suarez, Assistant Director, Division of Research and Statistics, Federal Reserve Board

Shalyce Tyson, Human Resources Specialist and Recruitment Coordinator, U.S. Census Bureau

Moderator: Emma Zetterdahl, Senior Manager, Economics Research, Spotify Advertising

This was actually a really helpful panel, hosted by mostly economists and people really close to economics research. I liked that they had a mix of people in consulting, tech and the government, and they gave a good picture of industry research in general. Specifically, attendees learned what skills private industry and the government are looking for in an economist.

Consulting and tech seem to be looking for causal, IO and time series at the moment. There is room for micro and macro theorists but they often tend to have some special skill that is related to working with data. They were clear that working with datasets seems to be the daily responsibility of most newly hired economists in industry and government. Machine learning and working with data are great skills to have now, and should be highlighted briefly either on the CV or with a link to a project on github. There was some discussion on making sure we show we are clearly practiced at thinking about economics problems and not just working with data, but I think the key takeaway is to be good at both.

Causal and structural estimation are critical since places in industry tend to have big data, and there is a lot of scope for different analyses. Structural is important to sort of pare down the question. Causal is the most generalizable.

For PhD versus MA, the opportunities are slightly different. Many times the economist role seems to be defined for someone who has a PhD. There are roles for MA students (e.g. survey statistician at the Census, data scientist at Amazon), but the idea for the economist position is to hire someone who has done some rigorous thesis work.

So what does the job look like for a new economist? In consulting, you'll be working with a supervisor on some project and performing some analysis that is assigned to you. This tends to be very technical and usually involves working with data. As you work your way up, you begin identifying the problems and choosing the problems. At the top, you decide broader direction in terms of which types of analyses work and which don't. In tech, you'll be handed a variety of tasks with little ambiguity to simply execute until you work up. Once you have more responsibility, you yourself might start scoping projects that have some more ambiguity. The more leadership you have, the more ambiguous the problems become. As you become a leader you become someone who chooses the direction.

The general consensus seems to be that as a fresh economist you'll be working on problems that have been identified and defined by someone else. Once you become a leader, you become the one to define the problems.

Hiring process: (1) In tech there are two phases. First, a phone screen, walking through a set of technical problems. Next, some more technical questions, questions on aptitude for leadership and how you approach problem solving. Don't bring up your job market paper as much for tech. They want to see how well you can approach a new problem (2) At the census: Submit resume and get certificate. Interview. (3) In consulting, specifically at keystone. First, there is a technical portion and you often discuss your job market paper. Next, there is an on-site interview. You might look over some technical problems with some company leadership. There is a behavioral portion as well. (4) At the Fed, you often start with AEA interviews. From there you receive flyouts. You present your job market paper, talk to the other economists there. They want to see your technical skills and communication abilities.

Overall, a very informative panel! A thank you to all the panelists who provided the information.

#NABE #economics #panel #consulting #tech

[sellmyhomefastfortworthtx]

Local, state leaders meet in Fort Worth to talk about legislative agenda

On Tuesday, state and local officials gathered in Fort Worth for a meeting to discuss their vision for the federal Congress and state legislature. The North Texas Commission holds an event like this every two years before the Texas legislative session begins. The event, which will take place Thursday, June 8, at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas and then move on to Plano and Frisco later that day, gives 105 communities across North Texas an opportunity to express their concerns. Sell My House Fast Fort Worth TX "It requires collaboration and innovative thought from local leaders to be able to communicate with businesses and state legislators to make sure we're getting a plan that isn't just going to benefit one city or detract from another but really lift the region as a whole," he said. Tony Bennett (President of the Texas Association of Manufacturers), Dale Craymer (President of the Texas Taxpayers and Research Association), Dennis Bonnen (Former Speaker of the House in Texas)and current Senator Drew Springer (R-Weatherford) spoke about economic development. "Dr. Joe May [former Dallas College chancellor] often said, 'Autonomy is our greatest enemy,'" Brophey said. "That is a lesson we like to preach at the commission. You can see that exemplified in the plan that put DFW Airport into action. Two major cities that certainly had the resources to go it alone decided to combine those efforts. The impact from that is far greater than either one of those airports would have been on their own." The speaker adds that events like Tuesday's may assist North Texas cities in assessing future regional initiatives. "When we look 50 years in the future, when we think, 'What's our next DFW Airport?' For a project of that scale and magnitude, I think we'll take the same approach to it," he said. The panel included superintendents of Aledo and Denton ISDs, as well as Representatives Terry Meza and Glenn Rogers. Eric Reeves served as the moderator. High STEPS is a consulting firm that worked with Dallas ISD to create its P-TECH and early college programs. "I'd love the legislature to really steady the challenges they put in place," Reeves said. "There are challenges through bureaucracy, through differing programs from the Workforce Commission, Higher Education Coordinating Board and [Texas Education Agency] that really stand in the way of progress." This year, The Texas Education Agency began allowing school districts to develop their own academic standards. According with Reeves, districts might profit from more flexibility in testing. Instead of every student being required to take the STAAR test, he thinks that kids who show an interest in a trade and kids who express an interest in college should not be forced to undertake the same classes. "Differing skills really need different types of assessments. Holding every student to the same assessment doesn't match up with what the economy's doing," he said. "The economy's dynamic. Assessments should be dynamic in such a way that it shows what a student is learning so we're creating a pathway." Reeves states that present testing may not disclose if a student is set to enter the workforce. "I think what we have is a one-size-fits-all solution at a time when technology is so vibrant, education is so vibrant, the economy is so vibrant, a one size solution really seems like it's short-changing our citizens," he said. Reeve's comments suggest that schools are starting to change in response to these trends. Early college and P-Tech programs for youngsters who show an interest in college or a trade, he says, are examples of this trend. Schools are also collaborating more closely with the business sector to assist students finish school with a skill they may utilize to obtain a living wage. "We have great leaders in education," he said. "We need to give them flexibility. We need to give students more opportunities to access their career paths and go into these different arenas."

#sell my home fast fort worth tx #sell my house fast fort worth tx #sell house fast fort worth tx

[problemswithbooks]

It a different leaker he does most of the jump series and he does random panels so it all over the place and he sometimes remove the dialogue Thursday it when the summary comes out I think I just wait till Sunday cause I get clouded easily by other people judgement

Leaks are out of order so it best for everyone to wait lol the guy doing it is basically just posting what he feels like it

For this chapter it doesn't really matter to me if it's out of order or missing dialog, I already know I'm not going to be that interested in it.

There's just not really anyone in this fight I'm super interested in--at least until Izuku gets there so something can happen with Shigaraki.

The way I feel about this chapter is how a lot of other people felt about the AfO/Endeavor fight. They weren't fans of Enji and know AfO has plot armor until the end of the manga. It wasn't a fight that had any stakes for them because Enji getting character growth/heavily injured didn't matter to them, and the fight couldn't really mix things up to much. It was actually rather surprising that we got the regeneration twist at the end.

These next few chapter will probably focus on Bakugou and give him and the other students some big moments. That's great if you're really invested in Bakugou--I am not. He's fine--I don't hate him or anything, but he'd just not a fav of mine. His character arc seems finished, given what happened during the last War and the Izuku rescue mission. All He can really do here is have a badass fight that doesn't really do anything, because he can't actually hurt/defeat Shigaraki for plot reasons.

Shigaraki is in the same boat. He's being controlled right now, and I doubt he'll be able to break free until Izuku gets there and helps him in the vestige realm. He has both plot armor and super regen, so it's not like I have to worry about him either.

I'm still going to read them because Hori does do some crazy twists sometimes. I might not be interested right now, but who knows Hori could do something really unexpected and make it a more memorable fight. It's just for now, I'm not all that interested.

#ask #thanks for the ask! #two asks one answer #bnha 358 #bnha spoilers #bnha critical

[embarktodenmark22]

June 2nd, 2022

Today started with yet another bike ride (seriously, after walking 20,000 steps on some of these days, I am so, so happy that we’ve shifted back to using the bikes! What a relief on my pain. Now I’m just sore in my legs haha). We biked in some (ugh) light rain under a grey sky to find today’s studio, Yoke. Not going to lie, it was a confusing search. Google Maps lead poor Beia astray more than once, and the area, as we approached, was surrounded by housing/apartments- it definitely didn’t look at all like a place with office space enough for a design studio. But, sure enough, we turned a corner, saw a grocery store, and found Yoke tucked away surrounded by housing. Fed up with the rain, I parked, and sat waiting for everyone to arrive, shivering.

Our presentation from Yoke was so mind-opening. I feel like I’ve been saying that kind of thing a lot, but it’s so true. I had no idea that you could use design the way that Yoke does- as an immersive, interactive experience in which the technological side of things is mostly hidden. They talked about their past projects, and I was hooked. One had viewers blow the seeds off of a virtual dandelion with a hairdryer- others created interactive materials, like liquids and splashes of paint that would respond to viewer’s motions. Watching the videos, it looked as though viewers got so engaged in the experience that they may have even forgotten that tech, code, and design were involved. It seemed like an effortless bridge between the real and the digital. I honestly admired their dedication as a company to keeping the user/viewer in mind first and foremost- their experience matters more than certain aspects of creative nitpickiness, which is something I need to constantly remind myself.

I think, however, what I found coolest from this presentation was how they walked us through the creative development process of their current project for a building going up in Sweden in the next few years (if I’m remembering correctly). I forget exactly what the building is to be- perhaps a library? Either way, they first revealed that their concept was to create a piece that visually discussed the interplay between art and science, based on the idea that art and science really aren’t that different- they are both tools of understanding, exploring, and reflecting upon the world around us- one merely seeks to understand our world quantifiably, the other is more intuitively. They then showed us installations that they were using as inspiration- such as one where a bunch of mirrors would move as though alive, then, the moment a viewer walked on to their stage, they would all snap and face the viewer (like an audience, but all they’d see is their own face). Another inspiration was a room where rain would funnel down on everything except the viewer. They then showed the specific visual-conceptual inspiration that shaped their current planned outcome- neurons. Their planned final project is intended to look like minimalized/simplified versions of how med students/teachers draw neuron structures. Hearing them talk about the reasons for the choices they made were so cool- with the neurons lighting up on many individual LED panels, each ball of light (each electrical signal in the neuron) representing one person in the building- so the neurons would be firing intensely if the sensors at the doors counted many people in the building, and on slow days, only a few signals would be bouncing up and down the neurons. Honestly, I’ve never considered making designed installations of any kind, and had kind of given up on learning how to code for creative purposes, but this has honestly made me reconsider. I think, at least, I will be picking back up learning code once I’m home and have free time, if nothing else. The possibilities for design are seemingly more endless than I had initially perceived!

Anyways, walking away from Yoke feeling inspired and energized, I was ready for a good bite to eat. Trusting Travis and Michelle’s taste in food, I followed them to Kulturhuset, a fancy-looking cafe with a cool view of some water and other nearby buildings. I got myself some macarons (SO good), a chai latte (been drinking a lot of those lately), and a veggie burger. Travis and Beia, who also got the veggie burger, realized as quickly as I that it was so, so messy (but so good). Everyone sat and talked for a while, and I kind of went into my own head for a bit to recharge my social battery, occasionally butting in to others’ conversations when talked to or when it was relevant. I overheard Dane talking about his mission to find some cheap AirPods so that he’d be able to listen to music and navigation while still here- and his frustrations with trying to meet up with some Danish stranger on Facebook Marketplace. I only mention this, because I wound up tagging along with him to a nearby mall in his pursuit of AirPods.

Beia, Alice, Tessa, Dane, and I spent a good few hours in this mall (Forget the name, sadly). It had a huge, cool metallic sculpture, and a lot of very bougie stories. There was a huuuuge design/home store (there seem to be a lot of those here) that seemed really cool, until you realized that the cheapest item was around $20… So sad, found some good potential souvenirs, but not for the price they were. Seriously, I found a cheap piece of plastic hair clip that I could get at the Dollar Tree…. On sale for $22! AS if. It was a cool store to window shop in. Got some inspiration for a couple art projects there. We then wandered into a strange, kind of sketchy store. The first half, as you windingly walked in, was filled with fidget toys and weird, off-brand bootleg Among Us figurines. Then, as you went in, there was a brief office supplies section, and most of the store turned into party supplies? There was also cheap candy and a sketchy boba bar attached that I didn’t try, boba lover as I may be. Some things are too sketchy for me, and I wasn’t about to find out if that boba was any good. We had some more fun wandering in and out of stores. Their was somebody filming something in the mall, taking up a huge chunk of walkway, then, later, we helped Dane pick out some polos (decidedly, green is his color). There were also these cool walkways that they had instead of escalators, that was like the ones you’d find in an airport, but for going up. We decided to chill and try some of the weird Starbucks flavors available here (oddly enough, this was the very first Starbucks I have seen literally the entire time that we’ve been here. The only one.). As we sat, we discussed zodiac signs, why not to trust air sign men (especially aquarius men), and found out that I had known Alice’s ex boyfriend, Vincent, who apparently was an Aquarius man! Makes sense. As we drank, some weird band came walking by through the store- with a bunch of men who had interesting haircuts (ponytails only, basically, bald elsewhere). So that was neat. We eventually finished our drinks, made a few more stops to windowshop, then decided to leave and head separate ways.

Beia, Tessa, and I headed back into the city to walk around and do some shopping. The entire time I’ve been here, I’ve been meaning to research nearby metaphysical stores, which, lucky me, I wound up just randomly stumbling upon one! It was similar to ones I’d been to back home, but a lot more organized- and with some really cool tarot decks. Mind you, I already have 6-7 tarot decks at home. But I have adult money, and cannot help myself, and bought this amazing Art Nouveau inspired deck that the woman at the counter recommended. Got a nice crystal as well. We left, kept walking around in search of a cart that had been on the street the other day selling roasted nuts. No such luck. Tessa wound up taking off, since the dorms were just a block or so away, and Beia and I, hungry now, revisited the delicious bagel shop we went to one of our first days here. I really should have tried another flavor, but I couldn’t help but to get the Serrano again. Mouth-watering. So much pesto… so many crisp, fresh veggies… whatever meat goes in a Serrano…. Literally nothing tastes this good in the states. Nothing. I am spoiled rotten and probably am going to hate all of the food once I get home. I mean, how can’t I when I’ve stayed this long in a country where even McDonalds burgers look like fine dining! Not. Fair.

Beia and I were getting tired, but wanted to make a few more stops. We wanted to check out this amazing poster store- they had a little bit of everything for every one. Some of the posters were huge. I wish I could’ve gotten something, but I didn’t want to risk taking a poster home and bending it. But seriously- they had vintage art, modern graphic art, art of the city, music-based art, cartoons, modern musicians, and a lot of art historical posters. Could’ve spent hours in there if my feet weren’t acting up and were I not bummed out that I couldn’t get anything big. We then went to go check out a building I had biked past that, in Danish, translates to “Woman House” and had a bunch of cool, eye-catching feminist merch in the windowsill but, alas, its interior was shut down for the day. Before either of these stores, I also had tried to go to a nerdy store to get Mason a souvenir, but the guy inside wagged his finger at me and shoo’ed me away. Bummer.

Anyways, we would have been done for the night, as I personally was super tired, however, there is a 5-6 day rave called Distortion going on all throughout the city, and I wanted to say that I had at LEAST been to it once. So Beia, Tessa, and I geared up, got snazzy, and hit the city to head to the meat-packing district for a “Distortion Street Party.” Figuring out the train was soooo confusing. We almost went to the wrong machine, couldn’t figure out how many zones we needed, barely knew how to get our tickets- almost didn’t because the machine was being stubborn… It was a lot. All for them not to check our tickets once anyways. Lame. Anyways, we made it to Vesterbro (again, the meat-packing/red-light district) to, in fact, find a street party of hundreds and hundreds of people. But, the further we walked in, the more we realized it was just people sitting at benches with friends getting wasted beyond all recognition. We, at this point, had a faint hope of partying for at least an hour, and got some cheap fruity vodka in a can drink. There was, maybe, music in one or two corners of the Main Street. Mostly benches, and garbage, and drunk humans falling over, and broken beer bottles, and people going around collecting cans to make money off of returning them to machines. Seriously. Might have been fun if we were drunk, but seeing all of this sober/buzzed at best just had me feeling sad for the people who have to clean up the mess.

We were going to head to the club that I had gone to a few nights before, Jolene, in hopes of recovering the party spirit of the night (and hoping not to have wasted our time and train ticket), and, in our quest, found a few areas of dancing. One spot seemed very promising- Beia was just talking about wanting to go to a Silent Disco, and a silent disco we found! Excited, we crawled into line for headphones and got ready for a new experience. We got closer, and closer….. and the guy said “We’re closed!” Right as we reached him. So that was fun. We, again, headed towards Jolene. Stopped again, found another area of dancing- a tightly packed crowd that, closer to the stereos, had more dancing and excitement. But, really, most of the people were awkwardly standing around and talking. Super hard to get your boogie on if people just aren’t into it. So, tired, and having an early morning the next day, we gave up on our quest and headed back to the station. Did you know that they charge you to pee in Copenhagen’s Central Station? I was going to fall for the scam, but my card reader didn’t work on their machine. What a scaaaam. Anyways, figuring out the train home was a little bit stressful as well but we got ourselves sorted out. We hopped on, made it back to Norreport, and immediately snacked at the 24/7 McDonalds. I got this weirdly foamy banana shake (probably just not artificial, ngl) and some nuggets with this delicious garlic sauce. Again, gourmet McDonalds compared to the phony stuff American McDonalds sells you. Really fresh food to actually savor, not to buy out of desperation (Which we kinda did anyways). We just went home after eating, but maaaann was I sore. I think I’m falling apart at the seams, pain-level wise, but it’s all kind of numbing together. Both excited for tomorrow- revisiting Sweden for a longer time than just for lunch- and scared- for my poor, poor pain levels. What a day!

(P.S.; These were the “bathrooms” they had available for women at the street party…. Quite literally zero privacy)