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rosarioleche · 4 months

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unreleased personal interview (10/25/23)

COPY - I'm sitting here with Ian Del Rosario, a student here at West Orange High School and today we're going to be asking him a few questions on various topics; including controversial topics so please be aware!!! starting with:

what are your thoughts on the Israel-Hamas War?

honestly, if u want my brutal opinion.. i don't really know anything about it nor have i really been interested in war. i don't think wars really do anything but make things worse and i'd assume any political figure with a brain would know any better than war. but like i said, i don't really know anything about it so i can't really say anything cuz i'm 100% out of the loop with it.

what are your thoughts on Same-Sex Marriages?

it never really bothered me to begin with. i don't get it. i've literally never had a single problem with anybody to the point i blamed their sexuality as the sole reason but growing up in south florida, u really get that a lot and it makes no sense to me. it ain't me tryna sound like "oh yeah, i advocate for gay rights!" and [stuff] but it literally doesn't bother nobody. as long as u stay in ur lane, everyone should b alright

have you ever had any experiences regarding a Same-Sex Relationship?

nah and i don't think i ever will, to be honest. like, at the very most i'd prolly kiss a guy but i don't think i could ever sustain a boner long enough to be super intimate and all of that

could you explain your love life, if you'd like?

to be honest with u, i don't really go out of my way for relationships like that. i'm much better off alone and that ain't me tryna sound mysterious but i don't really like talking to ppl often and i mumble on my words 24/7 and stuff so i'm just chillin i'm by myself most often. however, i've had a lot of "situationships" b4 and with those experiences i give out pretty good love advice. to those reading tryna get some play, hit me up and i promise u i can secure u a good long lasting relationship (not with me ofc)

have you ever had your heart broken, if so, how did you recover?

numerous times. however, diff strokes for diff folks; i'm a very apathetic person but there have been times where i've felt super sad over a relationship but it's really rare to me. anyways, i was really crushing on this girl in my sophomore year but i was too nervous bcuz she looked like she was way out of my league but we kinda had some similarities and she was never really condescending or anything. but then, i found out that one of my friends liked her too (at the time) so i got really mad and almost fought his ass until he told me that SHE had a man already. i was like, "what the [heck]?!" so i ran through her whole instagram and i found him and i swear he was so lucky that i've never seen him in class cause i'd prolly be in jail for attempted murder. BUT, it only took me maybe 2-3 days to get over it cause i realized that there's many more fish in the sea. i don't really understand why people think it's the last straw for them whenever somebody doesn't like them and/or they don't get in a relationship.

how did your last relationship break off?

dude, i lovebombed so hard but i didn't even know that was a thing until recently. i literally lovebombed for like 4 months and then i suddenly decided, "i'm not really feeling her no more" so i broke it off. it felt weird not being able to text her everyday, but like i said; i'm super apathetic so i just shrugged it off and carried on with my day.

is there anybody you're eyeing at here today?

hah, no comment.

what do you look for in a partner?

ummmmm, i don't know. personality plays a big part and i like to be goofy and stuff in my inner circle but i'm also a heavy agitator. i'm not naturally annoying but it gives me a rise everytime i see someone annoyed by what i do. i need my partner to either be a victim or do it with me

no, but seriously, personality plays a very key part. interests too, i like listening to super obscure rare music like i've been listening to so much "World Music" it's insane. i'd probably be into like music research and shit so i hope i find somebody similar that is very open minded about a lot of things; especially music

what do you think of all the other couples here?

i don't know but i get mad [very easily] everytime they stop in the middle of a hallway just as i'm walking and i almost bump into them like... bro? now?!?!? come on now dawg what are we doing?!

this might be too personal now.

you've asked me some interesting stuff, i doubt this will really be anything crazy.

in school, do you have a role model or exactly someone you looked up to?

no hesitation, first thought come to mind: Mr. Smith. not the nhs one, but the tech support one. me and him got along since the day we met but i wish i could apologize to him for being such a bad student in his class (i always failed it no matter what) but he's such a good guy and he's helped me through so much to the point i legit consider him as my School Father. i feel like if i ever needed genuine help, he'd know exactly what to do

how about your guidance counselors or any other staff member?

definitely not my guidance counselor, i don't even talk to her. BUT, one guy that i think helped me a bit was Jimmy. he's an all around nice guy but he once complimented me (he said that i was a "strong guy") in front of the ladies in class and i've never felt more swagger a day in my life

is there any student who inspires you to be your best?

i'd say my friends Nate, Jing-Li, Benjamin and Edward. those exact four don't really inspire me to "be my best" but i always felt confident around them and they've helped me in a lot of situations especially Jing-Li because i've met most of my friends thru her. she's like big sis to me and Nate is definitely big bro but he's a brainiac in college so maybe he alone makes me want to "be my best". i had these seniors in my junior year, Nya, Dee & Spencer; they obvs used me for answers but they also helped me be more confident in myself for sure so i can't really not give them any credit.

what's one thing that you hate about a specific student/student(s), without naming any names?

lol, quit trying to go out with every girl you see. it's weird and those who know me know exactly who i'm talking about too. it's super unfortunate that i even have to say that but it's hard for guys like me to be friends with women because these specific guys are always trying to rizz up somebody

can you name one thing that you like about the school, to the point you'd suggest it to somebody?

how about one thing that you don't like about the school?

ms. gilson's class

what about her? what other teacher do you have a bad experience with?

ms. gilson and i never got along ever since the first day i got switched to her class. ok so, check this out:

first day in class, everybody's working on an assignment; i'm new to the class, she tells me what everyone's doing and the due date and i'm like "alright, cool". so i do this assignment and i turn it in the day that it's due and she looks at my paper and gives me the world's most meanest stink eye and goes: "what is this?" i go, "the assignment that you told me to do" and she just responds with like 8 seconds of silence before going "uhhhh, okay." and then she never graded it.

but, my friend Jaden gets into the class; does the same assignment, turns it in and she grades his work but not mine! like what? and then she gave me a zero despite the fact it's turned in and Jaden got a whole grade on it.. like bro???

nonetheless, there's more stories i can pump out about my time in her class but it's too many but just know i haven't had a single good day in that class and i've prayed to Allah, God and whomever up above that she gets bad luck for the rest of her life.

how about a teacher that you have a good experience with?

i wouldn't say i had a "good experience" with Mr. Lafontaine, he's my guy and all but mostly during my class, he was fed up with EVERYBODY. like literally, everybody. i was one of the only few in his class who actually was a good sport and that's shocking as hell. i didn't talk to anybody or fooled around with anybody for almost the entire year until the last month of school in which i fully met my homie James. i feel like if i hadn't had such a good time in Lafontaine's class, i really wouldn't meet the guy who i can talk about Pharrell & D'Angelo & all these other artists as well as vintage clothing and whatnot (james). shoutsout anemoia(?) baybee

last but not least, since you're about to graduate, will you ever think back on any memories here?

yes, of course. my junior year was probably my best year ever and i'd hate to just forget about it like it's nothing. but, honestly, i'm more so scared that i'm about to graduate; that [stuff] is real spooky brah. but, it's all apart of growing up so i can't do anything about it

thank you so much for taking the time to answer these questions!

ok cool

October 25, 2023

via iMessage

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ahiddenpath · 1 year

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I’m Back from Vacay/Life Update/Writing Update

Gonna getcha up to date on Hiddenland beneath the cut!

Vacation

I returned from the US Virgin Islands, St. Thomas yesterday. We were there for 5 days. I’ve never been, and I’ve also never taken a “do nothing” vacation, so it was an adventure, lol!

We stayed near Red Hook in an air B&B. The internet basically persuaded me not to try a resort, citing crowded resorts, lack of privacy, etc- also, a lot of resorts don’t really provide easy access to a beach. Our unit had its own pool, which was a huge selling point... But unfortunately, it was fed by ice cold spring water. Literally, when we hurt our feet, we put them in the pool to reduce the swelling. So... Well, I was disappointed by that.

But the beaches were stunning, with turquoise water that you could walk into- it was fairly warm, I mean, not “ooof ughh coldcoldcold!”. I guess the trouble was getting out, since there were constant breezes on the beach, enough for kite surfing in some places.

So if you know me, you might know that I have anxiety and that I’m... Busy brained? I was so antsy the first day of the trip, thinking- Is this really fun? Wouldn’t doing something be better? But after about three hours of sitting on the beach, my brain flipped off like a switch. I never felt like... “Ahhhh, so relaxed.” Actually, I don’t know if I’ve ever felt that. But my brain did go quiet, and I read three books in five days, lol.

We also went on a turtle snorkel and sunset sailing tour. We did see one green sea turtle, and thank goodness, because snorkeling in St. Thomas was nothing like snorkeling in Hawaii, at least not where we went. In Hawaii, there’s always something to look at, all kinds of colorful fish. In St. Thomas, I saw one turtle and a handful of sea stars. The sailing was nice, though- I’ve never sailed before.

I also got horrendously sunburned the first day. You know how it is- that first day, I’m all cute in my swimsuit, feeling great. The second day, I’m wearing a swim shirt, swim trunks for ladies (truly the best thing ever), swim socks, a hat, sunglasses, and visible regret. Seriously, I really hurt myself, I was in agony. I applied and reapplied the heck out of my 50 SPF sunscreen, too, so I’m pissed.

If you want more details, let me know, because I learned a lot on the trip about vacationing in St. Thomas. Overall, I’d say it was a nice lowkey experience, but damn the sunburns and the ice pool were upsetting.

Also, my shy cat recognized me right away when I came home, which was a relief! On my last trip, she treated me like I was a stranger wearing a Hidden suit for a few days x_x

Life Update

I feel like I’ve just been... Adjusting? To a new life? The last few months. I can say that my new job really is a mental health improvement over the last one. I also get paid more- like appreciably more, and it turns out that this also reduces stress (who knew, right? /sarcasm). But it is still a huge adjustment, and I’ve already found some of the new problems in the new place (mainly that they are hiring more people than they have space for, and they just... keep... hiring and telling us to deal with it however we want).

I’ve also been focusing on health, particularly exercising and reducing my resting heart rate. I already reduced it by 2 bpm in about 6 weeks! Taking better care of my physical self truly is possible, like in quantifiable ways (which makes my scientist brain happy). It just helps to have small, manageable goals, and to focus on health rather than weight.

Writing News

So for most of camp digimonth, we had daily 45 min sprints for our writers and artists on the discord. It was really fun to create together, and I’m so proud of everyone!

I hate to say it, but I basically wrote or finished two new chapters, and barely touched my nanowrimo draft. I also completed an artwork and am mostly done with another. Er- basically, I did a lot, but also not... What I... Thought I would?

Soooo I am thinking that updates to PdA will start again in late February or early March, to give me more time to make a ready-to-post content buffer.

And on that note, I’m going to go write! Much love, mwah! I hope you’re all doing amazing.

#hidden's life

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smile-files · 1 year

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do you have any tips on drawing a ponysona? Also your ponysona looks so adorable I can't-

ohh thank you!!!!

hm, tips. if this is just about drawing a ponysona, drawing other ponies is very helpful!! as an avid fluttershy fan, i've drawn her a lot since i was young, so at this point in my life i know how to draw ponies pretty well.

but for design? there are a lot of things to consider! for instance, what species do you want them to be? unicorn, pegasus, earth pony, even alicorn? something a bit more out there, like a flutter pony, sea pony, kirin, or breezie? or maybe something that isn't a pony at all, like a zebra, donkey, dragon, or griffin? there are the aesthetics of the species to keep in mind, as well as other things like abilities. for example, over the years my ponysonas have always had wings, because i've always wanted to fly! in the past my ponysona has been a pegasus, but now she is a flutter pony because 1. that adds a butterfly theme to the character and 2. i loved the flutter pony characters in the mlp g3 movies a lot!! try to find something that fits you and what you'd want to be able to do if you lived in equestria.

aside from that, the most important things are the cutie mark (if applicable) and colors! if your ponysona isn't a pony, you don't have to worry about a cutie mark; if they are one, you can use the cutie mark to say a lot about them - heck, you can say a lot with a lack of a cutie mark too! rosy cheeks has a blushing smiley face cutie mark, which not only represents their bashfulness and their desire to make people happy, but also incorporates a major part of my personal iconography (if you've been on my blog for any length of time, you should know i love smiley faces and representing myself with them)! cutie marks can contain a lot of information: the character's talents, goals, personality, aesthetic, colors... experiment! try to find something to represent you - or don't!

if you have a handful of favorite colors that work well together, it's nice to have them on the same sona! it's also a fun idea to try and incorporate some of your colors onto your ponysona: i have golden hair and green eyes, so i gave them to rosy cheeks! this isn't necessary of course, and you should always feel free to make your ponysona look however you want, but i find it nice to incorporate some real aspects of me in the sonas i make. you can also use colors to reflect your ponysona's personality in a similar way to how their cutie mark can: for example, fluttershy has pastel colors to represent her shy demeanor, while pinkie pie is bright and saturated, to reflect her energetic personality. rosy cheeks' colors work in a similar way to fluttershy's, but with the colors inverted, such that she almost looks like stereotypical depictions of cherubs (with pale pink skin and curly golden hair)! this was on purpose, and also ties into inspiration from other characters. rosy cheeks' design was inspired by fluttershy's, as i've just mentioned, but also pipp petals' concept art design, rosy maple moths, and to a very small extent cherubs and cozy glow. i personally have connections to all of these things, so incorporating them all into my ponysona is a nice way to represent that!

i hope this could help!! golly, it's a lot of fun talking about pony designs... :)

#melonposting #ask #anon #wheeeee i love ponies #they're very cute and very sweet <3

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conspiritusnosterchorus · 18 days

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The uncircumcised heathen are "the sons of Belial" (ib. xv. 32). Jewish Encyclopedia I was accused of antisemitism when I quoted this article against some of the claims they made about "sons of Belial" and Belial himself. Not to mention I was accused of anti-islam when I said my ex is a muslim who harbors a hatred toward Christians (fact) so im not sure what was anti-islam about my personal relationship with my ex, it's the only thing i said "my ex is a muslim". The power of western-educated people that purport supremacy over other sources of information. i guess.

They also ignored my experience with other wives and consorts of Belial and claimed I'm level 2-3 possessed (as far as I know, this person wasn't a Catholic priest or anyone really, just a random person in a server) by Belial and told me i need to cut all contact with him. (Which is the leading theme of the spiritual harassment I've experienced, to cut connections and ties with Belial. but by this person to "help against alleged, baseless claim of being demonically possessed" - way to take the side of the harassers - to cut off the threat that can help against these problematic beings! or at worst, fear-mongering a severely ill person who has been unable to get psychiatric help and is so oversensitive to medication that can't be medicated - this is actually a fact, my psychiatric doctor told me there's no available medications for me to try anymore-- but go off i guess). Not to mention the idea they seemed to have, that all Christians and Jews worship the same God, instead of Christians worshipping a dead guy as a god, or like some theorize a Christian Egregore (which in my opinion each sect has their own version (egregore) of this Christian god - it's a stolen book and their own lore is all over the place and cherry picked - dead sea scrolls and all that isn't accepted from these writings into the official book and teachings). It's been told to me by several people how the Abrahamic God is an entirely different entity from the god(s) Christians worship and follow.

and then, I was supposed to comply to these strangers claims after trusting them with my experience. and because I according to them "didn't" they wanted to kick me out based on, quoting Jewish Encyclopedia, telling them my divergent experience of others who work (in very positive ways) with Belial - having dated a muslim and yeah, not taking at face value their 'advice from the expert' who is a total random stranger online refuting other sources and experiences. and ignored my very real situation of having tried to get all sorts of psychiatric help (depression, trauma, religious trauma, severe abandonment and excommunication by my birth cult and family, other trauma symptoms) for 20 years and then lastly being told "We can't do anything for you". sorry mates, if my doc says they can't do anything for me anymore, no amount of your "Have you tried to get medical help?" is gonna make me beat a dead horse more just to appease your egos.

but these people always do others a favor. i wouldn't want to stay in such a place that's so quick to cut people off and blame and accuse them irrationally. they're worst for mental health. I'm rather gone from such a place that feigns friendliness but is very quick to come up with excuses to get rid of people that don't dance to their "happiness woo woo" or whatever the heck it is. plus there was someone else who had a bad experience with them as well. i also feel bad now for having recommended them to someone.

not that the public craft spaces aren't also sanitized currently, sadly. compared to the diverse witchblr of ten years ago where people talked about all sorts of things from astral worlds to energy work experiences to realms and entities and other deep esoteric experiences that had less to do with what some people call "larping" these days and more to do with gnosis. way to shut down people's experiences truly. /rant end thanks for reading <3 best wishes from a girl being possessed by Belial for the past 26 years I guess :D what a lucky girl :3

#personal #spirit work #witchcraft #godspouse

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libitinalucus · 4 years

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Kink Talk: Multiple/Forced Orgasm

I wasn't really sure if I could say this was distinctive enough to clarify but I think I will, anyway. Easily one of my biggest kinks is multiple orgasms/forced orgasms. (and over-stimulation by said orgasms/sexual contact) I pair them up together because they're just similar enough to talk about at the same time but not different enough to each have their own entry.

I guess to start, I like orgasm? I mean one could say 'who doesn't?' But some people don't and some people don't care. I do, though, I care about it a lot and like it a lot and it’s not difficult for me to achieve. I've also been capable of orgasm since I was in the single digits, so I've just always sought it out I guess. On top of this I’m what I’ve seen referred to as 'Sensory seeking autistic' maybe.. I tend to be inclined to seek out sensory stuff as opposed to avoid it (with some exception) it’s difficult for me to be overstimulated but it’s very easy for me to be under-stimulated. So for that reason, I’m much more inclined to over-stimulation and have a generally higher threshold for over-stimulation in general.

First and foremost, this ties directly into my submissive preference, which I’ve written about, to reiterate, orgasm renders a lot of my senses just gone and overwhelmed by orgasm itself. To allow someone else to bring me to orgasm is submission, there’s no way I can experience it that isn’t submissive in some capacity.

Multiple orgasm, specifically, is because I like and enjoy that overwhelming pleasure. It’s nice to be able to just.. Not think for a while, to be in a place safe and considerate enough to not think about what I have to do or how much time has passed and just disappear into sensation. It’s scary at first, because I have a baseline inclination to control myself and my senses (a big reason why I suffer insomnia) and be active and ‘available’ at all times. Orgasm, especially multiple orgasms, makes it completely impossible for me to be of ‘use’ at any time, and it’s nice to be in a spot where it’s okay for me to you know, just be ‘unavailable’.

As a sidenote, when I say forced orgasm I don't always specifically mean unconsented. (but my talk about unconsented stuff has also been covered) It can also mean just the aggressive action or the struggle against it despite consenting to it. When a person has consented but is still afraid of relinquishing physical control of their own self to the other. The mental struggle of one’s loss of control and the eventual take over despite their best efforts to stave it off is something important and allegorical to me. If unconsented, well, see the non-con post.

There’s also this nice effect of, someone is willing to do that? For me? Someone is actually willing to spend their time, effort, and planning to give me pleasure. Even if they may get something out of it themselves, it still feels so selfish and I still sometimes feel like I don’t deserve this because I’m not doing or giving anything, but they still want to do it anyway??? Heck the very fact that someone else might actually like or enjoy doing that for me, specifically, That’s just.. So much..

It’s nice, especially in times where I feel like I’ve never done enough that I haven’t worked hard enough that I haven’t given enough, that I deserve not just a small amount of pleasure, but a lot of pleasure. An overwhelming amount of pleasure. That I’m allowed to turn off and just be lost in a sea of overwhelming experience for however long the instigator wants and in that time I don’t have to be responsible for anyone or anything.

#kink talk

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dragontamer05 · 1 year

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I get game comparison’s happen but I really do firmly believe that even if you wanted to try and take Sword/Shield or Scarlet/Violet and compare it to anything on the Switch BOTW is like probably the worst to choose.

1) As it is Zelda games have years worth of experience of home console 3D graphics to have improved to the level they are today

2) Where as Pokemon (main / core games) by comparison is still somewhat new to 3D- again compared to Zelda games- and newer still to being programmed and made for something like the Switch

3) Stylistically they are very different - While the characters might be much less chibi-esk the general aesthetic is far more cartoony, maybe a little fantastical but simplistic in nature- isn’t trying to aim for some hyper realistic design which I don’t think it should.

Where as LoZ while also not going pure realism - at least not say compared to what TP still seems aim for a more detailed design and I guess in away a believable sort of fantasy

4) Going back to the first point BoTW is hardly a new game either with years to have had graphics tweaked, bugs patched and whatever since it first released on the Wii U (idk how much or how little it changed between the two upon being ported but still)

5) i can only imagine the team set up and handling of their games is different- for one Zelda games seem to be allowed a lot more time to be worked on before a new big game releases out side of any smaller games here n there, like the hand held titles. Where as idk if they just aren’t allowed more time or what but Pokemon for better or worse tend not to have as large of gaps between games

6) Hot take but in someways it kinda looks better then Arceus. Now I like Arceus I really do and I’m not saying it’s a bad game or looks bad perse but Sw/Sh and specially S/V have a lot more popping colour to them.

There’s just a lot of areas in Arceus that feel like nothing but muddy and a bit samey at times

7) Who cares what one damn tree looks like - feels nit picky. Sure it’s basic and maybe the texture appears a bit flat but so what. You can tell it’s a tree and you can still tell that the texture is meant to be bark- doesn’t have to look real.

8) It’s Pokemon good or bad aside why would you expect it to be able to compare to or look like Zelda. Colosseum and Gale of Darkness sure as heck don’t compare to the graphics of Twilight Princess but over all I’d say they’re still good looking games

9) Having played both now, can it feel a bit odd going from looking at BoTW graphics to Violet’s sure but I still think it looks fine for a Pokemon game.

10) General thought but in a sea of games where so many are aiming for more realistic what’s wrong with the cartoonish / less detail focused- or at the very least I’m sure most people wouldn’t expect for a LoZ game to look like a Pokemon game so why would I compare and expect a Pokemon game to look like LoZ

11) Equally bad comparison or examples I think are when people take try to point a mod as ‘see it’s so easy’ when although I won’t knock the work that goes into mods and the like that’s still someone working with an already finished product - as well as working under their own time, without deadlines, having to work within someone else is specifications or anything else that comes with game development.

12) I know shit about coding but what I do know is sometimes even the smallest changes can make things go weird so maybe some of the design choices are just what worked without causing something else to bug.

13) To repeat they are fundamentally different games, whether at their best or worst graphically it’s simply unfair to compare them or at least compare them so closely without taking into account each games style (and the teams behind them)

I’m not saying there aren’t improvements to be made, or that it’s bad to compare games in general but I am however tired of the only game comparison I see people doing with Pokemon is to Zelda / Botw and whether intended or not just ends up sounding (to me) like Pokemon bad because it’s not realistic / detailed enough.

#like yeh for sure it has a lot less detail then botw and I'm willing to agree maybe some areas could use slight improvment #but I also don't think it looks as bad as some make it out to be #I'm sure the games will only improve and get better in time #pokemon #loz #Personally I find neither game 'better' then the other they both look good in their own way and have their own flaws

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merrilark · 1 year

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Top Five Books

Top 5 things!

This is such a cruel, cruel question for a bookworm. I don't actually think I can answer this one because it's usually "the book I just read" haha but! I'll try.

Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie. Full disclosure, I read this in high school as part of one of my English classes and I don't actually remember much about this book beyond I really enjoyed it and it's been on my re-read list ever since. But considering there are very few books that I loved enough to even think about reading again...? I think Haroun deserves a spot purely for that. I'd love to experience it again and see how it holds up now that I'm an adult.

It by Stephen King. What a long, laborious book; there's some kind of poetic metaphor about it being as heavy to lug around as the grief and fear inside it. Well worth it, though. This was the first book by King that I ever read and I fell in love with his style instantly.

Nineteen Seventy-Seven or Nineteen Eighty-Three by David Peace. I still can't in good faith recommend the Red Riding Quartet to most people--they were some of the hardest books for me to read in terms of content, never mind the unusual writing style that made it a little hard to follow--but almost six months later, I'm still entranced with... whatever the heck Peace was doing lol. Seventy-Seven and Eighty-Three were two of the more surreal books in the series, yet despite having no idea what was going on half the time, they were two of the most compelling because of that surrealism.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. What is there to say about this book that hasn't already been said over and over again? I love Fitzgerald's style, and the complex and tragic relationships between characters in The Great Gatsby are some of my favorites of any novel I've read.

The Magician's Nephew or The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. They're just very nostalgic and comforting in general. You have to have your cozy books, you know?

There's actually one other book that I would've put on this list as number 5, but I'm not allowed to talk about it yet as I won it in a GoodReads giveaway and it isn't being sold yet. 🤫 All I can say is that it's a dark psychological thriller that I have strong feelings about (good and bad) that, despite a borderline offensive ending, is somehow still a book I think I would recommend to fellow horror fans. Once it's officially published either at the end of this year or the start of the next, I'll write up a proper review for it here.

(And, perhaps unpopular as I didn't see too many people talking about enjoying it, Disappearing Act by our Mr. Sheehan should also be on my top-something books. I really loved "Skin", "Rose", "Desert Donkey Legs", and "House in the Country"; they all show a lot of promise for Rob as an author. I really hope that he releases another book with more of the same!)

#merri answers #salvadordaley

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nagipops · 3 years

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hii I love your blogs sooo much you're really talented (I just needed to say it sorry) so straight to the point, I already made 2 requests to you and I really enjoyed your writing so I would like to make another again. As I'm clueless about what to request I'll just ask for random hcs for konoha 11, idk if it's too much but if so then you can do with Neji (I love him so much), Kakashi and Naruto. Thank you in advance and sorry anything ^^

RANDOM KONOHA 11 HEADCANONS!

FEATURING: naruto, sakura, shikamaru, ino, choji, neji, rock lee, tenten, kiba, hinata, and shino

WARNINGS: mentions alcohol, drugs, food, bugs, and the tiniest nsfw mention if you get the joke. hehe

A/N: AHHHH ANONN this seriously made my day, im so so glad you enjoy my work!! 💖

NARUTO

you know how we all have “the chair”, where we throw all of our dirty clothes onto?

yeah, imagine that, but from the seat to the fricking ceiling

its just a GINORMOUS MOUND of clothes, you wonder how he even goes through that many clothes so quickly???

definitely shoves it under his bed whenever guests come over (somehow)

holds chopsticks really weirdly. but it works.

asked tenten to put his hair into space buns to mimic his sexy jutsu and went around flirting with the village

jiraiya was so proud of him T-T

comes up with the WORST pickup lines

they’re so bad, its almost charming. almost

has gone AWOL multiple times, disappearing from everywhere, just everywhere

it scared you a little, so you searched the entire village for him

you finally found him sitting on the ledge of a cliff, gazing out at the vast sea

concerned and panicked, you cried out to ask him what was wrong

he turned to you with a crestfallen, devastated look on his face and said,

“i bought shrimp ramen instead of chicken ramen.”

you’ve never searched for him after his disappearance ever again.

SAKURA

100% makes origami shurikens and chucks them at you

they are deathly precise and deathly sharp. seriously, how are these not illegal weapons yet???

writes threatening motivational notes to herself on the mirror

“u got this!” “make sure to smack naruto today!” “ino sucks!”

her backpack would always be way too high up on her back. idk why but. it would

does her hair all nice and pretty before she goes out but once she arrives to her destination SHE KEEP. TAKING. IT OUT. and redoing it over and over and over again

like it’s impossible to make eye contact with her because she’s holding a bobby pin between her teeth while braiding her hair

her guilty pleasure would be hostess treats

ding dongs are her favorite. don’t ask me how i know, i just know.

eats the yellow starbursts just to spite naruto and all her haters

loves small lap dogs, she think’s they’re so cute and cuddly

but she especially loves chihuahuas

they’re so feisty and naruto HATES them, so of course she had to go and get one for herself

dresses the poor dog up in little bonnets and jackets and ties its tiny fuzzy hairs into pigtails

she and the chihuahua are not that much unlike <3

SHIKAMARU

this man is a god at shogi but he absolutely SUCKSSSS at cup pong.

is this an ick? idk. but he is absolute trash at this game.

it gets even worse when he’s got a couple drinks in him

tries to calculate the velocity and acceleration and angle and shit but his shot is always a good two feet off BYE 😭

just mutters an “aw, shit” before awaiting his turn again

hates checkers, loves chess

“checkers is for WUSSIES” - shikamaru nara

i said this in another post, but he is Very Good at whistling

like that’s his hidden talent

can copy any tune with the perfect pitch and rhythm

speaking of, he can do really cool tricks with his tongue

like making a four leaf clover, touching the bridge of his nose with it, flipping it upside down, you name it

he has slanted, scrawled handwriting, to the point where it’s almost illegible

wbk he cheats in school SO OFTEN. but he never gets caught. he’s not stupid, he just couldn’t care less about his classes.

thinks weed and e-cigs are stupid, cigarettes are where it’s at

you just can’t replicate the feeling of taking a drag from a cig after a long, tiring day

plus he looks hella cool while doing it B)

INO

teaches the boyz™️ how to braid their hair

like they all gather in a circle around this feisty fashionista and fail attempt to braid their hair

sakura was just fuming in the sidelines

“OI, INO-PIG, THAT’S A DUTCH BRAID, NOT A FRENCH BRAID!!”

yeah, ino 🙄

the only one that can actually do it is neji because a) this man is talented af and b) he’s got the long hairrr

ino probably envies his thick, sleek hair because hE’S a bOy

also asks everyone for their blood type and zodiac signs and tells them if they’re compatible with her or not

and definitely judges you for your sign 😣

“oh, you’re a gemini? hmm, what a shame...”

makes bouquets for her favorite people and kin assigns everyone a flower

only assigns the pretty nice ones to the people she likes (sorry sakura, you’re out of luck)

one of her favorite hobbies is crafting! she’s really good with details and small things so she loves making those miniature dollhouses and stuff

also really good at watercoloring. especially painting flowers and landscapes

also i feel like she would be really good at playing any instrument because of her skilled hands

can play a badass flute solo. period.

CHOJI

would honestly rather die than get anywhere NEAR an asparagus

he just thinks they’re so gross and bitter and NOT SALTY

he always eats his yakiniku a little bit undercooked because he’s way too impatient to wait for it to cook fully. who do you think he is??

whenever he cloud gazes with shikamaru, when asked what he thinks a cloud looks like, he just says some sort of food

“oi, choji, what does that one look like to you?”

“a... yakiniku grill... with... pineapple rings on it! ooh, and a wagyu steak right there!”

he thinks pringles are an abomination to society. where’s the crisp? where’s the grease? where’s the saltiness?!!!

asks ino to teach him how to do his hair all fancy and the two of them devote an entire day learning different hairstyles

it’s his new favorite thing to do now :D

he really likes crayons!!!!

like he’ll write with them, draw with them, color with them, do everything with them

he’s even tried to eat them. he said they tasted good.

definitely had the 128 crayon pack WITH THE BUILT-IN SHARPENER, and everyone thought he was the coolest kid in town

he ate it UP, he even scored some bbq dates with the ladies

i also feel like he loves basketball, and he has a MEAN slam dunk

like his vertical isn’t that high, but the man can REACH

he loves when people laugh at him when he challenges them to a 1v1 and then proceeds to absolutely destroy them <3

NEJI

he seems like a cucumber kind of guy.

just cucumber

like i feel like he puts it in everything; soba, salads, sandwiches, his face, yeah

it’s mellow and cool, just like him!

speaking of, i feel like he lives for spa days and facials

it just lets him be alone in his little cucumber scented world for an hour or two and he gets damn clear skin from it as well

seriously he has PERFECT skin. flawless. not a single blemish. his cheeks feel like baby butts they’re so smooth.

i feel like he’d be a god at solving rubik’s cubes, don’t ask me why

like if anyone scrambled theirs on accident they would just take it to neji and he’d solve it in the blink of an eye

CAT PERSON!!! loves the little meow meows

who are we kidding, neji basically is a cat; agile, aloof, does silly things without trying to, very cute

he just feels akin to the little fuzzballs and he thinks petting cats are extremely therapeutic. good for the soul

he is a golf man. he would take his juniors golfing and everyone thinks he’s uncool. cmon neji let them go to the skate park at least T-T

also very good at karaoke, definitely surprised everyone once he got a few drinks in him since he started serenading you

LIGHTWEIGHT!!! do not get more than one shot of alcohol in him. he will go berserk.

i also feel like he’d really love photography; not taking pictures of people, but of nature

he loves taking a quiet stroll through a pretty forest and snapping pictures of all the unique flora and fauna

it’s so serene ︶ ‿ ︶

ROCK LEE

100% milly rocks everywhere

gai got in on it too once he asked what lee was doing

“is that what all the youthful cool kids do these days!”

they also dab together. a lot

DO NOT BE SEEN WITH THESE TWO!!! you are not associated with them.

definitely is the one breakdancing in the middle of the dance circle at a high school party

he’s mad skilled at it too

headspins and windmills galore

challenged naruto to a dance-off and completely OBLITERATED him

lee then asked if naruto wanted a rematch, this time with one hand tied behind lee’s back

naruto obliged, and he STILL lost

RIP naruto and his fangirls, they all scrambled to lee afterwards T-T

i feel like his favorite subject is science

not the boring physics equations and laws and theories but the fun EXPERIMENTS

definitely has singed all of his hair off one time and he went to gai blubbering to help him grow back his precious hair

but he loves experimenting with different combinations and chemicals to get different reactions each time

created a potent love potion and carried it around with him all day one day

and it was actually working

girls were flocking to him left and right, staring at his lips and his face

he was so abashed at the sudden attention

heck, it even worked on sakura

“oi, lee-san!”

“hehe, yes, sakura-san?”

her eyes shifted downwards to his lips and his heart thumped harder

“hey... lee-san?”

“what is it?”

“you have something on your lip. we’ve been trying to tell you all day but you just winked and blew kisses at us.”

legend has it lee has still not recovered to this day.

TENTEN

has THE prettiest handwriting. and she can write SUPER fast

it’s like a superpower

like she transcribed five pages of a report in less than two minutes with perfect handwriting

naruto is so jealous.

she is also super good at origami! those diligent, accurate hands aren’t just for throwing things

taught sakura how to make shurikens but does NOT endorse any violent uses of them

she can replicate all of her weapons with paper and they can actually function, it’s so cool

made paper kunai knives one day and the wholeee village wanted to get their hands on them

i feel like she’d listen to mitski. idk i just get those vibes

LOVES BIG DOGS!! especially fluffy wuffy samoyeds

like man’s best friend?? no, GIRL’S BEST FRIEND!!

hugs and cuddles and squishes all the big dogs

she thinks small dogs are spawns of satan

sakura and her have definitely quarreled over this

but at the end of the day, all dogs are adorable fur babies, so she lets it slide :,)

KIBA

kiba always looks SO GOOD in photos you take of him, candid or not

like you could just whip out a camera and snap a photo of him at any given moment and he would look perfect

you framed a picture of him yelling at akamaru for peeing inside the house

it’s pure artwork

i feel like he tries to swagger around with his hands shoved in his pockets but it fails MISERABLY and the girls are wondering if he broke his leg or something 😭

kiba just walk normally. for the love of god please just walk normally.

he tries to slump back in his chair really low but one time he slouched way too low so he slipped off of his chair and onto the ground LMFAOOOO

he just wallowed there... in shame...

also.. he LOVES when the girls put makeup on him!!

he tries to act like he hates it. but it secretly gives him so much confidence

not to mention the girls hyping him up are a huge ego boost

okay the inside of his jacket hood is the warmest. thing. EVER!!!

seriously, no wonder this dude is so happy-go-lucky all the time, he’s living in literal heaven 24/7

it’s like you’re sleeping on a cloud inside a warm, cozy bed during a cold winter morning

10/10 would recommend letting him give you his sweatshirt when you’re chillin with a hair tie ❤️

HINATA

always smells like lavender soap. always

also has the cutest pencil pouches with little puppy faces and kawaii things

oH and she has those mini yoobi highlighters, she thinks they’re so cute (and functional!)

everyone flocks to her to try them out and marvel at the cute tiny highlighters

and they try to steal them from her but she doesn’t even stop them because she’s too timid to 😭

naruto goes BALLISTIC over them

she lets him have all of them <3

tennis girl!!! tennis girl.

all of her opponents always underestimate her because she’s so timid and shy and quiet

but she has a KILLER serve

and then she takes her opponents to the slaughterhouse with a complete shutout ;)

she’s really athletic believe it or not, she can beat most of the boys in a mile run and she has incredible endurance

i feel like she really loves velvet scrunchies

she just thinks they’re so pretty and they keep her hair soft so they’re cute and functional

also takes the PRETTIEST notes!!

color codes, dividers, headers, you name it, it’s all super readable too its insane

everyone asks her for her notes, not to study but just to appreciate the pure artwork that it is ^w^

SHINO

shino is SO easy to prank

“how do you catch an eyemaster?” *cue naruto and kiba snickering*

“eyemaster bait. that is because—”

even when everyone’s laughing their asses off, he still continues to explain his answer since he does NOT GET THE JOKE

tried his hand at writing haikus

here’s his best one so far:

“Bugs are amazing. That is because they are bugs. Bugs are very nice.” - Shino Aburame

VERY proud of it, since it took him weeks to perfect

praise it, pls

had one of those ant farms and bug-catching kits as a kid

and he would fill the kit TO THE BRIM. LIKE IT WAS HEAVY BECAUSE THERE WERE SO MANY BUGS.

he loves the little chitters of the different bugs

he had jars of different bugs all lined up on a wall shelf in his room

collects silkworms off of trees and sticks them into his pockets (no i definitely did not do this as a kid...)

HELP I FEEL LIKE he would record a timelapse of his ant farm growing and upload it to youtube with a movie maker title screen that says

“my ants”

if you enjoyed this post, likes and reblogs are much appreciated :) feel free to request here, and make sure to read the rules first! have a lovely day everyone <3

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9w1ft · 2 years

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I feel like there's all sorts of lyric parallels in Taylor's music that get ignored by fans that love to make lyric parallels because they don't like the implications of them for whatever reason, which is too bad, those lyric parallels still serve to make Taylor's music even more heartfelt and nuanced and it's truly a shame that some people can't and/or won't recognize it because of an inability to let go of preconceived notions or an inability to seperate themselves and their emotional investment in their personal idea of who Taylor is as a person from her music

yes i think in the case of swifties it requires an enormous amount of… almost kinetic energy…. to consider an interpretation that would have ripple effects on their entire web of understanding of their idol. and for them their primary source is taylor herself in most cases so, while i do find it a shame for the reasons that you said, i try my best not to fault. f homophobia where it exists of course, but i think for many fans it’s more… it’s a struggle of accepting something that would overturn a ton of the pieces that ultimately make up one’s identity.

heck. i know my view of the world and multiple pillars of society changed when i found kaylor. even if i was predisposed to the wlw part ☺️

can i go off on an unformed tangent? i hope you don’t mind.

you know, you made me reflect a little bit on my own experience so i thought i would add. at first, when i got here, —so this is a thing from 3-4 years ago that i’m reflecting on— i really did my best to listen to a wide variety of interpretations on this side of the tracks and keep my mind open etc, because that’s one of the values that meshes with *gestures broadly* all this

but it was always as an act of good faith, operating on the assumption that others were engaging the same as well. i would spend days texting back and forth with people playing devils advocate or hearing out people who believe wildly different timelines. and, there are unicorn people out there who can in fact keep it strictly breezy and objective, but i also came to find that by and large everyone’s got an angle. looking at things with a destination in mind. and i grew to find that, given limited time, i would prefer to focus on discussing things with people who stand on a similar foundation. in time it has become less about the proving and more about enjoying the smell of the freshly baked bread on the kitchen table.

this is just a complicated way of me acknowledging that, from the other side of the tracks, i probably come off just as closed minded as i sometimes perceive some swifties to be. i probably pick up and discard in a way that i find frustrating in others sometimes.

but another element is time. i think that, eras ago, things were more… it was easier to maintain a level of objectivity because.. it felt more like a sea of doors. there were many many ways to get from point a to point b, and point b wasn’t that far fetched anyway. now though, i think its advantageous to be comfortable with drawing a personal conclusion and accepting that this isn’t a perfectly documented science experiment anymore. i enjoy a parallel if it makes me feel something ☺️ but i’m not taking it back to the lab to see if it matches as much anymore.

another way to phrase it is, i used to hold this complicated grid in my mind that i could place a new sphere of interpretation on and instantly be able to weigh what it might mean to any number of harbors of thought but, sometimes it feels like the time for investing in harbors is over for me and i’ve just sort of docked my boat at Everkaylor Harbor and have been drinking my idea of port wine with other people at the nearby pub. hats off to the people who can hold all the data in their heads still.. they are true wizards.

i think that with folklore and evermore, taylor flipped the script by saying hey, now my work is a mix of real and fictional stories and feelings but i’m gonna use the same vocabulary while i do it. cheers. and from my perspective, she’s got an even greater incentive to bend the narratives she puts out there now.. so i’ve just sort of.. tried to relax my muscles a bit because she’s taken everyone up their own creeks and it’s unclear what combinations of us are gonna merge and when, if ever. as for me i’m choosing to call the behavior mischievous and enjoy the boat ride.

🙈 my apologies as i’m pretty sure you’re just talking about how it’s a shame taylor’s gay lyrics and parallels that lead to gay conclusions are being ignored by a lot of her fans when it in fact illuminates her catalog (which i agree with) but it did make me think a bit about my own relationship with interpretation and such so thank you for allowing me to go all stream of consciousnesses on you for a second.

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bukojuiice · 3 years

Text

ʚ Going to Universal Studios Japan with them (ft. Izuku, Katsuki, Shoto, Denki, Eijirou, Shinsou and Dabi) ɞ *‧.₊˚*੭

— @bukojuiice’s 720+ followers gift! thank you so so much for supporting my works! ♡ ily all i never would have thought i would reach this milestone 🥺

— uni student! izuku, katsuki, shoto, eijirou, denki, shinsou and evil turned good! dabi x reader headcanons ♡

— To further elaborate, this is a Dabi that turned Good for his bby bro because I know that this is physically impossible in the manga and i found it hard to play around with a cute and fluffy set of hcs within a villain context. so pls let me have a good Dabi just this one time qwq

— if you like to see more from me, i have an ongoing bakugo x fem reader! smau called cuddle buddy! read it here! for my bnha masterlist check it out here! ♡

— please reblog, reply and leave like if you enjoyed! it means a lot! c:

— all universal studios japan photos are taken by me. Most of these headcanons are also based on my experience in Universal Studios Japan! (๑•͈ᴗ•͈)

— content warning: slight innuendo/sexual content, strong language and mention of Endeavor

— summary: You spend a wonderful day in one of the most happiest places on earth with your just as wonderful significant other.

— You and Izuku stroll through Hogsmeade of the newly opened Hogwarts area of the Park. Your hand in his and your arms interlocked.

— Izuku would geek out. As in geek out. He very much loved Harry Potter growing up and being able to go to USJ was a dream come true.

— “It’s LeviOSA not LeviOSAR.” You continue to make Harry Potter jokes and Izuku was loving every minute of it. He could not stop laughing.

— You loved seeing his laugh as it made your heart feel all fluffy inside. God. why must this boy be so cute?

— Izuku is just as big of a Potterhead as you. The two of you took the Hogwarts House test online and Izuku was sorted into Gryffindor whilst you were sorted into Slytherin. Two complete opposites yet you guys were the most adorkable couple ever.

— Even the amusement park goers (the couples in particular) couldn’t help but turn their eyes to the two of you.

— The two of you are wearing matching Hogwarts robes, earning compliments from the staff giggling about how cute the two of you are!

— YOU GUYS WERE MOST PROBABLY THE CUTEST COUPLE IN THE AMUSEMENT PARK!??

— LIKE YES TWO SOFT CUTIES AND IN HOGWARTS ROBES OF ALL MATCHING OUTFITS THEY COULD HAVE WORN?? COUPLE GOALS

— You were originally going to hang out with the entire Dekusquad but ofc your friends just decided to play matchmaker and instead collectively backed out and said they were busy bc of uni (obvs a lie)

— You wonder why they would play matchmaker when the you and Izuku were already together in the first place and they know that very well HSKHSHSKHS

— anyways ochaco, tsuyu, shoto and tenya are very supportive wbk

— Izuku just wanted this day to be very special and to be between the two of you only.

— “Izu-kun! Let’s try out the Butterbeer and see if it tastes just as good as the books and movies make them to be!” You point to a food stall that sells the famous beverage seen in the series, with both alcoholic and non-alcoholic kinds.

— “Of course (Y/N)!-chan Anything for you!” He says sweetly and gingerly hands the money to the food vendor.

— For fun and because why the hecc not, you decided to order the alcoholic variant of the drink whilst Izuku had purchased the non-alcoholic one.

— In turn, you ended up becoming a little bit tipsy as the two of you enter the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride.

— Izuku stares in awe as the waiting line makes you go through the interior of Hogwarts Castle. Both you and Izuku couldn’t help but just stare in amazement.

— You smile at the sight of your cute freckled boyfriend admiring the view and the area before him. It was as if he was transported into the actual world of Harry Potter and you couldn’t help but feel the overwhelming emotions he was feeling right now.

— The two of you hold hands during the entire attraction as both of you are seated in a 3-seater ride. T’was cute uwu

— Albeit the fact that you were a little bit tipsy, the entire 4-D ride was magnificent as it literally took you through every adventure Harry Potter and the rest of the cast had experienced.

— It was probably one of the best rides you’ve been to tbh??

— “The Dementors were so creeeeeeepy.” Izuku shuddered, rubbing his arm. “”They looked so real!” He turns to you, wonder and amazement plastered all over his face.

— “THE WORST THING ABOUT PRISON WAS THE DEMENTORSSSS.” You howled, your voice practically echoing around the exit area.

— “IZUkU!!! I LOAF YOUUUUUUU SOW MUCHHHHHIE.”

— Midoriya knew that you got a bit tipsy due to the butterbeer, as soon as he had noticed the body language you were showing, he supports your weight by holding you tightky and then slowly take you to the cafe near the entrance that served hot coffee.

— Thankfully, you were able to sober up so that the two of you could go around the rest of the park before the Night show took place in Hogwarts Castle.

— “You know, I’m so lucky to have you (Y/N)-chan. Just like how lucky Ron is to have Hermione.” He plants a kiss on your forehead, he firmly holds you as the evening light show of Hogwarts Castle begins.

— “You’re overreacting Izu-kun. I’m not as smart as Hermione.” You shake your head, trying to avoid eye contact as he just made another cheesy Harry Potter Joke. “More like I’m the Ron to your Hermione. I mess up sometimes yet you’re always there for me to help me up when I’m down.”

— “Then I guess we don’t have to compare ourselves to Ron and Hermione then. Because I wouldn’t have a life like this with you any other way. I love you (Y/N)-chan.”

— “I love you too Izu-kun.”

— An array of colorful fireworks pop in the sky and the both of you look deep into each other’s eyes, holding each other tightly til the festivities end.

— The two of you arrived at Universal Studios Japan earlier than most people. Bakugo always wanted to be first in line even though the two of you had fast passes to specific rides. He just rolls like that.

— You forced him to wear matching matching elmo and cookie monster headbands with you. You were wearing the Elmo one and he was wearing the Cookie monster design.

— He’d spoil you soooooooo bad like he’d be grumpy at first and refuse to buy you this cute little souvenir item you’d probably never use, but he’d still spoil the heck out of you. Just as long as it was mildly reasonable.

— He was all for thrill rides. As long as he got to show off how bad-ass and brave he is to you. That was until you discovered one of the Jurassic Park rides in the park and HOO BOY...

— You were internally squealing at the sight of him wearing the cookie monster that your brain just?? kinda stopped?? You secretly take a pic of your explosive boyfie and then change his contact name to Cookie Monster.

— You first enter the Jurassic Park area at the insistence of Kirishima, Kaminari, Mina and Sero whomst you were supposedly going to meet after 2 hours

— As you roam around, there’s awkward silence between the two of you until you begin to obnoxiously sing the theme song of the series to try and annoy Bakugo, “TENENENEN TENENENENEN TENENENEN”

—‘’(Y/N) Geez, could you stop singing that stupid song? It fucking annoys me.’’

—‘’No way we’re riding that shitty fucking water ride. I will not get wet today.”

— “Oh really? What if you get wet in different ways?”

—He smirks at you, taking your hand and rubbing your thumb, “Let’s see when we get home.’’

— “OH WAIT BUT FIRST LET’S SHARE A TURKEY LEG!’’ You point to a nearby food stall, selling turkey legs for 980 yen.

— Katsuki begrudgingly follows you to the stall and buys a turkey leg for the two of you to share.

—You were deep in thought. Fantasizing if you could eat the Turkey Leg with Katsuki “Lady and Tramp” style.

— Much to your dismay, Katsuki had finished the Turkey Leg before you could get another bite. You pout and cross your arms, yet he doesn’t notice you silently shooting daggers at him.

— You then quickly forget about the Turkey Leg as soon as the Flying Dinosaur attraction hovered above you. The amusing screams of the people riding it could be heard as it passed at a speed you could have never imagined.

— ‘’Suki-kun!! Let’s ride that next!’’

— ‘’We just ATE. Are you fucking serious right now?’’

— ‘’Or are you too chicken?’’ You tease him playfully. ‘’Hmm… Looks like eating the entire turkey leg turned you into a chicken now didn’t it?’’

— ‘’Fine. Fuck this.’’ He tilts his head, gesturing you to follow suit. ‘’Let’s get into the fast pass line.’’

— You get on the ride and see up close the details of the dinosaur as it’s positioned upright for you two to get on. You take your seats and are instructed to strap yourselves in the seat.

— You get a wonderful view of the sea as the ride continues to ascend, going up and down, at high speeds. You begin to scream your heart out, the adrenaline rushing through you. Bakugo tries to put up a face, not wanting to scream and show any weakness. You look at him again as the ride arrives at a downwards slope, creating a momentum before it descends again at high speed.

— The ride begins to move, positioning itself like a pterodactyl would. You take Bakugo’s hand and give it a tight squeeze. You look at him for comfort and he nods at you lovingly. You were at ease albeit the fact that the two of you are about to experience one of the most terrifying amusement park rides ever.

The two of you are then positioned to be dangling in mid-air, the safety strap from a while ago being the only thing holding you in place.

— ‘’(Y/N)! I LOVE YOU!’’ He screams his lungs out as the ride passes through the ocean again, giving you a clear view of the sea surrounding the wonderful prefecture of Osaka.

— You smile cheekily and begin to scream from the top of your lungs too. ‘’I LOVE YOU TOO KATSUKI!’’

— ‘’Did you really mean that I love you?’’ You ask him. Your adrenaline is still pumping you up.

— ‘’Of course I did you nerd. I had to get it out of my chest.’’ He says, avoiding eye contact, scratching the back of his neck.

— The ride then ends abruptly and you could never feel more grateful. You could practically kiss the floor as your legs shaked once you got off. Katsuki supports you with his arm around yours and the two of you get off the ride.

— ‘’I want to hear you say that again.’’ You poke his cheek but he doesn’t move an inch.

— ‘’Come on. We have to go look for Kirishima in the others.’’

— ‘’One more time Suki-kun! Please?’’ You look at him with your most dramatic puppy eyes and he couldn’t help but give in.

— ‘’Fine.’’ He says grumpily. ‘’I love you.’’

— ‘’I love you too. Let’s never ride that again.’’

— ‘’Agreed.’’

— Shoto made sure that he would make the most of the time with you before the two of you go back to University. Booking the most luxurious hotel available, fine dining every single night you were in Osaka and going on private local tours and taking high-end trips to Nara and Kyoto.

— He’s spoiling you so so so bad and as much as you didn’t want Shoto to spend too much, he kept on insisting.

— This is also why he decided your trip near your birthday so that in a sense, this is his birthday surprise for you too!

— He wanted to go all out just for you.

— You feel like you’re in Cloud 9 every time you’re with Shoto. How much more when you’re going on an extra special trip with him?

— “This Eren Jeager’s voice sounds familiar. It’s as if we have the same voice.” Todoroki looks at the screen perplexed, putting on the 4-D Glasses and making sure you were already comfortable on your seat.

— ‘’I know right. You’re hotter of course.’’ You whisper, giving him a peck on the cheek.

— Attack on Titan is your all time favorite anime ever.

— Shoto wasn’t too well-versed in anime, so him bringing you to USJ is one of the best things he could ever do for you.

— Especially since the park had a limited time Attack on Titan 4-D Attraction!!

— YOU KNEW you had to go there and it was also a perfect opportunity for you to bond with Shoto

— As long as you were happy and he could support you with your interests, he was happy too.

— Being able to go on the Attack on Titan 4D Ride was a dream come true.

— You brought Shoto to the souvenir shop first and bought matching headbands for the two of you.

— You were wearing a headband that had two little chibi Levis on each side whilst Shoto had little chibi Erens on his uwu

— He’d be spoiling you so so much !!! Any souvenir item you’d set your eyes on, he’d immediately buy it for you!!

— Before you can even say no, he’s already bought it using his luxurious black credit card. YOUR BOYFIE WAS RICH OFC I MEAN WHAT WOULD YOU EXPECT!?

— "That was amazing." Todoroki says in awe, still trying to process the thrill he had just experienced. "I wonder what would happen if titans started appearing all of a sudden?"

— "Let's say a smol titan appears right now. I wonder if you could pierce it with your ice?" You tilt your head, beginning to think about unrealistic scenarios. "Anywhooo, shall we go to the next ride on our list? It's called Hollywood Dream!"

— "Let's gooooo~" He hums monotonously, earning giggles from you. He wraps an arm around your shoulder, pulling you close as you walk side by side.

— “Okay... so there are two variants to this ride. There’s one that goes in reverse and the other one goes so high up that we have an overview of the whole park.” You go through a brochure that you picked up at the entrance.

— “Whichever one you’re more comfortable with (Y/N).”

— “Let’s go on the one where we can see our hotel because of how high it is!”

— “OKAY NVM THIS WAS A BAD IDEA.” You say as the rollercoaster begins to reach it’s momentum, the ride going higher and higher. Until you can see your hotel and every recognizable landmark from afar.

— Shoto then clasps your hand, giving it a tight squeeze. “It’s okay (Y/N). I’m right here. Just hold my hand okay?”

— You nod slowly, taking a deep breath. You close your eyes and feel a fell swoop on your stomach as the wind passes through your face.

— Justin Timberlake’s Can’t Stop the Feeling begins to play as the rollercoaster begins to descend from roaring heights. They purposefully attached speakers to the ride so that the park goers would feel hyped up and excited instead of being terrified of how high up they are.

— Shoto’s hands are still intertwined with yours. You weren’t letting go.

— The screams of everyone else in the ride grows louder and louder and you can’t help but sing to the song instead.

— “I GET THIS FEELINGGG INSIDE MY BONES! IT GOES ELECTRIC, WAVEY WHEN I TURN IT ONN.” You began to sing, raising your arms up high as you slowly begin to enjoy the ride.

— Shoto who was sitting on the end yet is still able to keep his calm composure, turns to you, and a small smile flashes on his face when he sees you channel your nervousness through singing.

— He begin to sing along with you too! AAAHHH WHAT A CUTIE

— “All through my city, all through my home, We're flying up, no ceiling, when we in our zone.” He continues. You look at him and ease up a little bit once you see his handsome face and comfortable presence beside you.

— And before you knew it, the ride came to a stop. It was finally over. You take a deep breath and Shoto helps you out of your seat.

— “I got that sunshine in my pocket! Got that good song in my feet. I feel that hot blood in my body when it drops!” You and Shoto begin to duet to the pop and colorful song. You begin to fully enjoy the ride, barely even noticing the ride making sharp and fast turns as it continues to go up and down.

— “I might have hated it at first but that was exhilarating.”

— “I knew you could do it.” He says proudly, planting a kiss on your forehead. “You are the bravest person I know after all.”

— “I wouldn’t have overcome my fears if it weren’t for you though.” You scrunch your nose, and hold on to Shoto’s arm. Your heart still beating so fast. “Thank you for being my safe space Shoto. I’m always at peace whenever I’m with you. Thank you for always being my comfort person.”

— “Of course (Y/N). Why wouldn’t I be?” He tilts his head, clueless. “Are you game enough to ride the reversed one this time?”

— “Of course I am!”

— He chuckles, “That’s my love. If you feel like you can’t do it, Just know that I’m always here to support you.”

— The first attractions on your list were the water rides. More specifically the Jurassic Park Water Ride and the JAWS ride.

— You and Kirishima would try every ride in the park if you could. He loved to try and experience new things especially if he’s able to do them with you!

— Kiri is a very very fun person and would always be game with anything tbh!!

— You’re wearing matching dinosaur hats with Kirishima!!

— ‘’RAWR!’’ You make cutesy dinosaur gestures at your boyfriend, jumping around in your place. ‘’Can you believe we’re finally here in USJ!?’’ He blushes profusely, pecking your cheek.

— ‘’I can’t believe it too.’’ He chuckles then pauses for a moment before...

— ‘’RAWR!’’ He says back, his hands forming into claws, his cute mouth open wide and his sharp shark teeth very much visible. You giggle at his returned gesture, finding it more cuter than you should.

— ‘’(Y/N) you’re adorable! You know that right?’’ He laughs and continues to hold you tightly.

— ‘’Pshh of course I do! I have an equally adorable boyfriend too!’’ You look up at him, beaming.

— The two of you then jump in your place in unison, both mimicking each other’s cute ‘’RAWR!’’ and hand gestures as Kirishima pulls you into a hug.

— ‘’Don’t forget manly!’’ He winks and grabs your hand, taking you to the Jurassic Park Water ride.

— “I actually find it smart that we go on the water rides first so that we can just change clothes immediately after. Good thinkening Kiri!” You remark, patting him on the head.

— THINKENING??? THINKENING??? Eijirou could not think straight right now because of how cute you are

— ANYWAY HE WASNT GOING TO LOOK OR ANYTHING KIRISHIMA IS A GENTLEMAN HE IS NOT A BAD BOI WHO WILL GIVE IN TO TEMPATION!!

— You looked so excited to go on the rides and he couldn’t be happier seeing you like this

— IT ALSO DIDNT HELP THAT YOU WERE WEARING A WHITE SHIRT SO IF YOU DID GET WET THEN 👁👄👁

— The ride begins and the all too familiar theme song of the series begins to play as the gates to the Jurassic Park opens as the water ride begins to move

— Although the ride was very predictable, and you knew the surprise at the end was the T-rex trying to jumpscare you as the ride falls down a high incline, splashing all of the people on the ride.

— Kirishima still looked like he had lots of fun.

— He turns to you, a huge cheeky smile plastered upon his face as he tries to dry his clothes. “That was fun!”

— The ride may seem calm at first, but then the T-Rex begins to secretly appear around the forest-ish area surrounding the water ride.

— “It was!” You smiled back. You look down on your shirt innocently. “I didn’t expect that I’d get this wet so I thought wearing a white shirt would be-”

— “LET’S BUY YOU A JURASSIC PARK SHIRT IN THE SOUVENIR SHOP OKAY!? SO THAT YOU WON’T WASTE YOUR OTHER CLOTHES AND YOU CAN CHANGE IN THEM FOR THE JAWS RIDE INSTEAD.” Eijirou stands up so suddenly from the boat. He takes you by the hand without shooting you another glance as not to show how flustered he was.

— “Okay then...” You reply, as Kirishima whisks you away, leading you to the souvenir shop just outside of the attraction.

— Kirishima breathes a sigh of relief as he sees you exit the comfort room.

— He calls you over, “(Y/N)! While you were changing your clothes, I went back to the souvenir shop and realized that they were actually couple shirts!

— We are so Adora-saurable! was written on both of your shirts along wtih a cute dinosaur couple print on them.

— “Funny how you were able to find a Dinosaur pun on the word adorable! What a coincidence!” You giggle, poking Kirishima’s cheek. “I think we had enough of dinosaurs for now. Shall we check out the other rides?”

— “Right beside ya!” Kiri flashes you his signature smile, taking your hand in his again, swinging it back and forth as the two of you continue to your next destination.

— The way you scolded him was more in a joking way though!!

— You guys arrive a bit late because Kaminari ended up sleeping through his alarm 🙃

— When the two of you met up at the entrance you scolded him so bad because you practically lost two hours and HNGGGGG

— All he could do was hug you tightly from behind and say “gomen!” “gomen!” over and over again

— you were loving every second of it!!!! denki was being super cute and you couldn’t help but just go uwu

— BUT THEN YOU SCOLDING HIM DIDN’T REALLY MATTER BC YOU GUYS HAD FAST PASSES

— YOU DO BE FLEXING YOUR FAST PASSES THO

— THE TWO OF YOU FELT LIKE RICH KIDS FLEXING YOUR GUCCI FLIPFLOPS WHEN IN FACT YOU WERE FLEXING YOUR FAST PASSES

— OK SO you and Kaminari decided to go to the Despicable Me/Minions area first not just for the memes but also because it was the most popular attraction this season.

— You also wanted to get on the rides there first since it takes 2 hours before you can even get in

— YOU HAVE MATCHING MINION POPCORN BUCKETS WITH HIMM!!

— The design of yours was a cute little minion holding a teddy bear whilst his was a special Christmas reindeer edition.

— “(Y/N)-chan! Look at the line! Should we line up and take a picture with the Minions!?” He points to a meet and greet line for the yellow mascots

— You weren’t exactly the biggest fan of these abominations but facebook mom memes aside, Denki looked super super excited and you didn’t want to ruin a great start to a perfect day so you just went with it.

— The staff attendants thought Kaminari looked super excited like cute little sparky puppy seeing the minions so they gave you cute minion button pins!!

— The Despical Me Area pretty much played Happy by Pharell Williams non-stop as people stroll around so you and Denki couldn’t help but dance along to it.

— It didn’t matter if people looked at the two of you weirdly either!! Just being with denki and being chaotic with him is one of the best feelings ever and he feels the same way too

— You guys did all kinds of funky dances til the two of you got exhausted and decided to try out the other rides.

— There were also carnival game stands and Kaminari ended up winning you the exact same unicorn stuff toy seen in the Despical Me movies.

— Cotton Candy, Gumballs, Skittes, anything remotely sweet being sold on the stalls, you tried all of them.

— “IT’S SO FLUFFFFFY!!!” You imitate one of the cute characters from the movie, hugging the stuffed toy to your chest. “Thank you Kami-kun! I will cherish this forever!”

— Kaminari grins widely, “I know you aren’t too fond of the Minions but thank you for still going with me to this area first.” You can see the emotion and the appreciation in his eyes.

— “OMG DENKI OFC! WHY WOULD I NOT ENJOY THIS!?” You say incredulously. “I had such an amazing time! Minions and their annoying voices aside. I always have the best time when I’m with you!”

— Crocodile tears start to form on Denki’s eyes as he pulls you into a hug. “AAAAAAAHH (Y/N)-CHAN I LOVE YOUUUUUUUUU. THANK YOU FOR BEARING WITH ME. I’M DOING THIS FOR THE MEMES.”

— You giggle, patting Kaminari on the back. “It’s alright alright. I love you too! But this time you have to compensate by going on a horror ride with me okay?”

— “Ahahahahahaha what?”

— Endeavor had sponsored your trip and all expenses to ~try~ and start to mend his broken relationship with his son, although you refused at first, Toya did not. When he went to visit his mother and Enji was there to visit too, He got the money from him, ignored him, and flipped him off (aka gave him the bad finger) before leaving.

His three other siblings were in on this trip too. However, Toya wanted your trip to Universal Studios Japan between the two of you ONLY. His siblings went on a different day.

— He wasn’t the biggest fan of matching outfits or any accessories with you like any couple would and you didn’t want to pry on that. He really wasn’t the type of person to do that to begin with.

— And although on the inside he does feel a bit sorry about not being able to be cutesy with you it just really wasn’t his thing.

The two of you would most probably make out in a secluded area in the Hogsmeade area that is barely noticed by any other park goers. How daring and how secsy

‘’Seriously? Snoopy and Hello Kitty? THIS is the area you want to go in first?’’

—‘’Come on! It’s not everyday you get to loosen up like this. Why not try out the kiddie rides first? Besides, I want to see how long you can last without taking the cuteness anymore.”

— The staff sees you enter the Snoopy and Woodstock ride and couldn’t help but ask a very imprudent question. “The two of you look like such a cute couple! I bet your child is just as precious!”

—“Excuse me… what?” You ask, your eyes widen. “We’re not-”

—“The kid is on it’s way. We’ll have one soon once we return here.” Toya says casually, sending you a flirtatious wink and you feel flushed and slightly embarrassed.

—“Jeeeeeeeeeez. Did you really have to say that?” You try to avoid contact with him so he wouldn’t see the embarrassment or rather the arousal present all over your face.

—“What? It’s true.” He smirks, taking your hand. “Do you not want anything to happen between us?” He teases again.

—“NO NO NO NO ITS NOT THAT.” You yelp in embarrassment, your eyes still cast down on the ground.

—You notice him kneeling down and before you could even react, instead of facing the ground, you were staring down at your boyfriend’s handsome face instead.

—“Come on… I thought we were going to the Hello Kitty ride next?

— “Oh yeah right! That ahahaha let’s go!” You look up again before he could see your face looking like a tomato.

— You couldn’t help but be flustered by his words time and time again. This time though there was no point in hiding it. He got to you.

— He grabs you by the waist, and whispers into your ear, “Besides, I’m saving matching outfits with you once we bring our child here in the future. We would be the cutest fucking family out there.”

— You’ve already been dating for a year?? and your heart still flutters every time?? anything remotely romantic comes out of his mouth???

— HE WAS SUCH FLIRT OH LORD AND YOU JUST SWOON AND FALL FOR HIM EVEN MORE

— The other couples for some reason never thought of going on the cutesy rides, so as soon as they saw you and Toya going on them, the line for most of the rides got even longer.

— Toya might be lowkey an edgelord but you guys became trendsetters in a span of an hour!!

— OK BUT SPEAKING OF EDGELORD... DABI AS AN E-BOY HURRRRRRRRR YOU MAY OR MAY NOT BE MANIFESTING YOUR BOYFRIEND TO SUDDENLY BE IN E-BOY CLOTHES ON THE SPOT TOTALLY NOT NOPE NOPE NOPE NEVER

— He still looked hot just wearing a plain dark hoodie but you still couldn’t get the thought of Toya wearing those fits out of your head.

— “Earth to (Y/N)? You’re spacing out again.” He waves a hand in front of your face and you snap back to reality. “We’ve rode every attraction here. I think we should go check out the other rides? The Jaws one next please. I can’t stand all this cute sparkly cuteness anymore.”

— “AHAH! YOU FINALLY SNAPPED!” You laugh, acting as if you finally got back at Toya for making you such a blushing and stuttering mess just a few minutes ago. Dabi shrugs it off however.

— “OKIE! Now that I got out of my system, let’s continue to go around shall we?” You huff and pace off to the next ride that you wanted to go on.

— Toya shakes his head and smirks, following you to wherever you were going to take him next. That didn’t stop him from teasing you every few minutes though.

— The two of you did come back to USJ, but only a few days later to accompany Shoto since Fuyumi and Natsuo had to take the train home due to having to attend important matters.

— The same park attendant who complimented you and Dabi was managing the Snoopy ride again. She recognizes the two of you instantly and waves. “Oooh! I didn’t think the two of you would come back again so early! Is this the cute child you were talking about?”

— You and Toya collectively facepalm whilst Shoto looks at the staff with a very puzzled look.

— Hopefully, the next time you come back, you finally have a happy family with Toya and you can finally show off to that sassy ol’ attendant that you have a cute little kid with you to go on rides with.

—This is officially your 7th date with Shinsou.

— Although the two of you are already official, you can’t help but feel and notice how cold and distant he is to you still. As if he hasn’t exactly opened up to you.

— And you didn’t want to end this day without seeing him loosen up and open his shell.

— You wanted a relationship with Shinsou in where the two of you could talk to each other about your own problems and help each other out.

— That was the ideal relationship after all, and you knew for a fact that you could have something special like this with Shinsou.

— He did confess to you through a love poem and if that isn’t the most romantic thing ever, then I don’t know what is.

— You wanted to be his comfort person after all. Just as he is with you although I think he doesn’t know that yet exactly.

— “SOU-KUNNNN you know what else we can do?”

— “...What?”

— “Let’s go on all the boring rides!!” You take his hand and start running to the next attraction.

— “T-that’s not actually a bad idea. Let’s go.” He mutters, albeit shy at the touch of your hands at first, he grows comfortable after a few minutes with your hand intertwined with his.

— SHINSOU IS SO TOUCH-STARVED AND YOU CAN’T WAIT TIL YOU GIVE HIM ALL THE HUGS AND KITHES IMAGINABLE LATER THAT NIGHT

— It was the middle of the afternoon and the park was less busier than usual, which meant all the time for you and Shinsou to try out every exhilarating ride the park had to offer.

— The only ones left were more performance-based attractions where you would be watching a live musical or play. One of those being a Terminator based ride.

— The concept of a Terminator live-action retelling was pretty cool but certainly not you or Shinsou’s cup of tea either. However, it was your goal with him to try out every ride in the park. So, eh why not?

— The two of you sit in the front seat, making Shinsou within range of the stage actors to be affected by his quirk.

— “Don’t try to make them do anything bad okay?” You whisper to him. “This live show does look boring and really needs to liven up a little.

— “I won’t do that of course. Let’s just make this show more entertaining.”

— He then uses his quirk on the stage actors, making them do fun and entertaining dances.

— The audience burst out into laughter as Shinsou had unintentionally made a twist to the musical playing before you.

— “Of course not! You made that Terminator Musical much better! I bet they took notes and try to switch up the acting and the cheesiness for the next show!”

— “Hopefully they will. Because the show was boring as hell.” He deadpans, putting his hands in his pockets.

— Everyone in the theatre left in good spirits.

— He stops in his tracks and looks at you. How lucky he was to have someone like you in his life.

— “Thank you for today too (Y/N). I really enjoy spending time with you like this.” He looks away, yet fails to hide his flustered face.

— “You’re welcome!” You lean in and tiptoe to kiss him on the cheek.

— Despite how cold and straightforward he may be sometimes, you never complained. You accepted him for who he was and who he is.

— The two of you take the train ride home in peace and solace knowing that slowly but surely, Shinsou becomes more and more comfortable with you and you can’t wait for the time he finally opens up and bears his heart to you.

Thank you for reading ♡

-Fin

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ganymedesclock · 2 years

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Hey! I don't know if it's been asked before, but does the elemental system in the RPG tomfoolery have significance, or is it just an RPG trope? (The five elements, not Light/Dark)

On its own, it's basically just an element system, which I'm fond of working in stories. I tend to have them, and I tend to try and keep it to a relatively small number of elements to prevent overlap and keep things each having a fairly strong identity.

But also, because I just like elemental metaphors for characters. I like the natural world and I like fantastical contexts where force of nature go brrrr.

If there's a deliberate quality to my playing-with-assumptions about it, it's that I didn't want to leave anybody at "neutral" or "normal"- whether or not they have an active magical gift, the way they experience the world is affected a lot by things. I tend to want to create magical systems with an angle that no two people are getting the same results the same way; even if you can standardize things, like in mathematics, everyone's relationship with math- how they visualize and manipulate numbers- is unique.

And even people with the same alignment experience things fundamentally differently! Both Argent and Taylor are water-dark, but in Taylor's case, their relationship with water is a relationship inevitably with blood, and with warmth. The island Taylor comes from is isolated in an arctic sea and frozen over the majority of the year. When Taylor loses everything and becomes undead, what they retain is blood- the only real flesh they have left is bone marrow, which is responsible for producing blood.

On the flipside Argent is a person from a relatively temperate landlocked country where half his ancestry comes from tropical wetlands he's never personally seen. His attention and attitude leads him to focus on extremely small amounts of water, both in the sense that he's kind of a detail-finicky closed off person, and that to a certain degree, his identity is kept very close to his chest.

Taylor and Argent are people who have a lot of conflict because they're people who have some very strong opinions on the same subjects, but also, enough different that they do not see things the same way. That shared element is almost more a point of conflict to them than anything.

Side ramble about the system itself under a cut:

So the element system in RPGverse is earth-air-water-wood-fire, which I based a bit off of wuxing, albeit only superficially. I don't have the complex succession or elemental interconnections, but the five elements and the inclusion of wood as distinct from earth both appealed to me, so I drew from that.

I then swapped out 'metal' for 'air', because when I'm just playing with my own imagination it's a bit of a struggle to differentiate earth from metal when one has already separated wood off into its own thing. (A struggle, but admittedly not impossible- I did it in Lornwood, which has a six-element system)

I guess the significance of this kind of two-tiered element system is that the conflict of light vs. dark has predominated this setting heavily, but if we're talking about 'good and evil' those things cannot exist in a vacuum. They are inevitably dependent on other things. And yeah, we might say, 'well, what the heck is an Evil Rock, or an Evil Fire', but arguably, we really think of it that way!

Wildfires bad, hearth fires good. (even though a hearth fire can scald a child or burn down a house, even though small burns are part of a forest's ecosystem and we're kind of in a situation in many parts of the world for extinguishing any small fire and thus preventing them from exhausting the supply of detritus that could be kindling to a much larger one)

Pretty lake you go boating in good, irrigating rain good, storm on the same pretty lake or flooding rain that gorges the rivers bad.

We often view evil as something that acts parasitically through the natural world around us, that there's an evil state and a holy state of natural materials. And of course, because I'm looking to this specifically for RPGverse which is asking a lot of questions about good and evil, and what things we assume are good or evil- grabbing that as a conceptual springing-off-point and running with it helps me dig the story's themes a bit deeper into its lore.

#rpg tomfoolery #readmore #I think sometimes about the paired chapter titles in Lord Of The Flies #'beast from water' and 'beast from air'#as these kids are struggling more and more they're trying to reconcile where the evil is coming from #the miasma theory of disease- 'miasma' is almost literally 'bad air'#a suspicion of the elements as roads to evil and a sense of need to imbue holiness into them underpins many early spiritualities #and why shouldn't it? before we had the means to see or understand bacteria viruses and many forms of parasites #these things were demons #we still could see that SOMETHING was happening #how we might now describe something clinically in terms of sterility #was once the domain of spirituality to argue.#why did you get cholera? the beast came by water.

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marisol993 · 3 years

Text

For some time now I've seen, over and over again, that the Qunari in the Dragon Age Universe are apparently some kind of racist caricature of black people, muslims and other types of poc's, bipoc's, minorities, ....

From a personal perspective I never saw them as such, but since a personal view of things isn't very objective and can be skewed by ones life-experiances I was completely willing to admit, that I might have been wrong about that and had an opportunity to learn something new here.

The more I thought about it and critically examined this statement though, the less I agreed with any of it. Especially since a lot of arguments in favor of this view seemed to boil down to "this person of [insert relevant minority here] said so". I.e. another "personal viewpoint".

So let's get into a critical analysis of the Qunari and why I think that they are so very far removed from any kind of "minorty" (from a western point of view) coding that you couldn't even see it with the power of the Hubble and James Webb space-telescopes combined:

First of all, who are the Qunari? The Qunari are tall, medium to heavily built, horned (or unhorned, if you only played Origins) humanoids, that come in varying shades of grey skin, with whiteish hair. They are more intensly sexually dimorphic than the Dwarves, Elves and Humans of Thedas, with the males being sometimes nearly twice as wide (especially in the shoulders) and much more muscled than the females. They call themselves the Qunari as they are followers of the Qun (their guide to life and society), though the word is more of an umbrella-term, since anybody of any race is called a Qunari if they "convert" to the teachings of the Qun.

Here's a picture:

At this point some people might already remark, that the Qunari are very obviously "black-coded" since apparently nowadays any deviation from natural, real-life human skintones automatically has to mean, that the fantasy-race in question is meant to reflect black or brown people (even if they are green or bright purple), unless you literally give them a complete and utterly snow-white skintone. If that is the argument you want to go with, I would like to redirect your eyes to the picture above, as it already disproves this. As it is shown there (and in the DA:I Character-Creator), the Qunari can come in a complete spectrum of skintones (from very light grey to nearly ebony), just like all the different races of Thedas (even the dwarves for some reason, which doesn't make much sense for a race that lived underground for most of their history, but what can you do..). This basically means, that yes there are dark-skinned (or "black") Qunari, but there are also those that could be better described as "light-skinned", so the coding-qualifier goes away.

Then there are the people, who might want to say, that because they are tall and "burly", together with the unnatural skintone makes them "black-coded" which is something I never really understood, since the tallest people in the world by ethnicity are the Dutch and if you look at heights in correlation with body-weight the Russians take first place. Both countries not really know for their large populations of darkskinned-humanoids. Another coding-qualifier that goes away.

And then there are the people (who I would seriously suggest should maybe review their own "racial" views, if "black and brown people" is the first thing they think about when it comes to this), who say, that they are a stereotype of the "savages and natives", which is something that is actively contradicted in canon. One of the most prominent traits of the Qunari is that they are efficiant to a T, use every resorce at the disposal to it's maximum (including their people) and that they are more technically and scientifically advanced than many other race in Thedas (except maybe the dwarves) . This is shown through their mastery of gunpowder (which they call gaatlok) and the fact that they can use chemicals and drugs to literally warp the mind of people without needing magic. They are in no way presented as "savage" and if they are named such, it's usually by people who they are actively at war with, who want to insult them. They are also not "natives" of Thedas. Even their so called "homeland" in Thedas, which is called Par Vollen, was colonised by them, when they landed at it's shores in 6:30 Steel-Age and started converting the original population of Tevinter humans and elves, with whom they have been at war with ever since. Let me say that again: The Qunari are active colonisers and at war with the Tevinter-Imperium, who's people are the original population of the land. Not exactly a typical "native or black" stereotype in western media.

So who do I think the Qunari are actually modeled after?

Well let's summarise:

The Qunari came from across the ocean in their ships filled with cannons and guns, to colonise the land and convert the native population towards their beliefs. They are currently fighting a war against the Tevinter-Imperium, an old and powerful empire, that engages in widespread slavery and practices blood-magic by sacrificing said slaves, sometimes also to one of their many gods.

(If you can't guess who I think they are supposed to be modeled after by now, I would recommend to maybe picking up a 7th-grade history textbook again)

Yes, you can make a very strong case for the Qunari actually being these guys:

The Conquistadors (heck, if you cross out a few letters you can even anagram the word "Qunari" out of the word Conquistador). Who also came from across the sea with ships, cannons and guns to colonise the land (south- and middle-america) and convert the native population (to christianity) and fought an ancient and powerful empire with slaves and blood-sacrifices (the Aztec-Kingdoms).

So after pissing of one half of tumblr with that, let's start with the other half by talking about the apparent "muslim-coding" and how I disagree with that too.

Let's start with a rough definition of what a muslim is and how I think that that alone shows how the Qunari are in no way coded to be them:

I would define a muslim as somebody who is an active member of the religion of Islam. Islam is defined by it's holybook (the Qur'An), which was revealed to the prophet Muhammad by an all-knowing and omnipresent abrahamic god.

This in and of itself basically already disqualifies the Qunari from being "muslim-coded" since first and foremost the Qunari are not a religion. They do not have a god and they don't pray to any, the Qun is not a "holy-book" and Ashkaari Koslun (the guy who wrote it) was not a prophet, who wrote down the word of god, but a philosopher who basically crafted a "guide to life and society" with his works.

If you really wanted to find something that is slightly "muslim-coded" in the world of Thedas, you might actually have more luck with the chantry-stuff, since they do have a prophet (Andraste) who could talk to god (the Maker), they have a holy book based of her teachings (the Chant of Light) and they believe that the whole world should follow those teachings, so god will return to them (singing the Chant from all four corners of the world). They even have their own flavour of jihadist religious warfare with the Exhalted Marches (though all in all I do think that the Chantry can be better viewed as a take on christian religions since the split between the Imperial Chantry and the original one is similar to the split of the (western) christian church into catholics and protestants).

So what do I think is a better representation for the Qun in the real world?

Well lets look at it in the simplest way possible that the canon gives us:

The Qun is a guide for the life of the Qunari (the people of the Qun) that ecompasses everything from laws, legislative guides, too how society should be struktured and how everyone has to fit into and function in that society, from the most mundane and simplest tasks and jobs to it's highest administrative bodies. Everyone in this society is evaluated, so that they can be put into a position that is best suited to them and their skill-sets. There they will then each work according to their abilities and each be provided for according to their needs (see what I did there). Yes, the Qun can in my opinion be best described as a take on an authoritarian-socialist guide to life, written by somebody with a similar philosophie as Karl Marx.

So all in all, I don't think that the Qunari are in any way black-, brown-, bipoc- or muslim-coded, but a fantasy take on the Conquistadors, if instead of a bible they had all carried around "A Guide to Life, Luck and Community, written by Karl Marx (during one of his more productive weekends)", visually represented by giant Minotaur-People of many colours.

Also I find this obsession with finding every and any kind of reflexion of our real world in some random fantasy setting, by people who are most of the time actively looking to get offended by at least something and mostly every- and anything, quite contrived most of the time and that the day people on tumblr learned the word "codeing" a significant part of the internets critical-thinking skills and will just shrivelled up and died.

Thank you for coming to my TED-talk.

#dragon age #dragon age origins #dragon age 2 #dragon age inquisition #qunari #the qun #thedas #tevinter imperium

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