Might be a bit longer of a post but I think a lot about Mysticat's backstory. It's very simple on the surface (it's quite literally a Chosen One backstory), but there's so many things that I feel could or should be elaborated on that it catches my attention.

Such as the fact he himself is stated to have "guarded the Enchanted Desert for centuries" and yet only recently got curious about what was in there. You'd think they'd at least tell their guards what exactly they were protecting, especially since the Elders knew about the desert's ability to tell the future but not the ones guarding it. It's the implications here that are screwing with me.

Do any of the other sphinxes even know? Was he just brainwashed into fulfilling this one duty without question for over a hundred years until he finally looked back and realized he didn't know what he was working for?

Cause if the implications are correct, it could mean the Elder sphinxes simply never told him what about the desert made it worth guarding. Just to do his job and not ask questions. And he did, for hundreds of years, until the questions became too much and he went searching for them himself, because he already knew they wouldn't give him any answers.

Renegade Nell (2024) - 1x06

SCOURGE SUNDAY 010/???

classic

The Pizza Box Pact / Act One: An old promise and a new pledge

Written for @steddiebang

Art by @goingsteddi3 and @cousin-itt

Rated T / part one of three / 7.1k (total ~24k)

SUMMARY:

Eddie and Steve have been living together, working together, and raising their cat together for a few years, now, but they’re not together together. They’re friends—the best of—nothing more, and they’re happy.

At least, Eddie is, and he thought Steve was too. But then he finds a pact they made, one drunken night ten years ago, where they pledged to ‘marry’ each other if they were still single by the time they’re thirty, and everything changes.

Steve isn’t amused by the reappearance of the pledge, in fact he seems almost upset by it, and Eddie figures it’s because he’s going to be thirty soon and doesn’t have a girlfriend. So, he does what any best friend would do: promises to find Steve his perfect woman, setting him up on a series of unsuccessful blind dates.

But somewhere along the way, Eddie rediscovers feelings that he thought he’d put aside years ago. He just hopes he hasn’t discovered them too late.

Read part one at AO3

yusuke’s got an eye for musculature and anatomy

From May 2022

Blupjeans as birdies.

new headdress I'm working on for my shop. Lambkin, the pet name varré gives us in elden ring, is such a cute word. The pink yarn is very light against the cream, it's hard to capture but it "blushes" in light, almost disappearing under certain angles and light! Accented with antique lace, and it'll have a gorgeous matching ribbon and bows.

I haven't posted any personal work in a while so here's something I'm taking time on for myself ^-^

YELLOWJACKETS APPRECIATION WEEK 2023 day six: poem association ⋙ straw house, straw dog - richard siken

This is gonna turn into some Crocodad Propaganda eventually but putting the man aside for a little bit

Let's be real for a moment. Regardless of who Luffy's other biological parent is, regardless of if they're relevant to the story or not, no matter what has become of that person, if they're dead or somewhere out there alive, etc-- I believe Oda "knows the truth".

Although it took One Piece until post-Enies Lobby to reveal some of Luffy's blood relatives to us, Oda had technically introduced both Garp and Dragon to us all the way back in the East Blue saga. And Ace was introduced not too long after in the Baroque Works saga, along with his tattoo which held that secret tribute to Sabo all along. (Also he was introduced as "Portgaz D. Ace" meaning Oda must've intended to make the two non-blood brothers from the get-go.) All this means that Luffy's family, both adopted and blood relatives, have been in Oda's mind from the very begining of the story. And so if Oda had figured out Luffy's grandfather, father and at least one brother (if not both) from the begining, then why would he not have decided what became of the person who gave birth to the idiot as well? Like considdering how detail-oriented and meticulous Oda can be, would it not be unusual for him to essentially forget about a character that important (in the sense that Luffy literally would not exist without them) and just handwave them away without much thought? Would that not be out of character for Oda? As such, I don't think it is not unreasonable for us to believe that Oda would know what happened to Luffy's other bio-parent. Mind you, it really could be just something like "Luffy's mother died of The Disease when Luffy was a baby", or "the mom fell down the stairs" or "was eaten by a bear in the woods" or something, anything, whatever. Even if it truly does not matter to the story one bit, I'm sure Oda knows the truth of what happened and why that character wasn't a part of Luffy's life.

But at the same time, if the identity and the fate of Luffy's birthing parent truly did not matter to the story at all, then why wouldn't Oda just tell us who that was and what happened to them? In an SBS or an interview? It's not like people haven't been asking about it, because fans and staff alike have been asking about it for years. If the information really would not change anything, be it the direction the story will take or how we view the characters, if it really is just worthless trivia, then why keep it away from us?

Now of course, I'm sure you'd want to point out that one time Oda told Mayumi Tanaka that "A young boy's adventure begins after he leaves his mother's arms. I want to tell this young boy's adventure story, so his mom is not part of it." And Oda isn't known for lying, we do kind of want to take what he told Mayumi Tanaka at face value. At the same time though. If Luffy's other parent did become a plot relevant character in like the final 200 chapters of the story, after a 1100 chapters, they and their potential connection to Luffy would not have mattered to the story for 90% of its run. For an overwhealming majority of Luffy's adventure, that person would not have been a part of it. So if that character did become relevant, and Oda was lying, then it'd be a white lie at worst. But also, if Oda did intend to reveal that other parent eventually, when the time was right, then surely he wouldn't want to get people hyped up about it way ahead of time. If it did turn out to be a big plot twist or an otherwise important plot point, Oda would want to keep it under the wraps and a secret until the right time, you don't want to spoil something like that. Not to mention it could end up working like a distraction and make people not focus on the more important things happening in the story currently. So really, I think we'd all forgive him for a white lie there. Not to mention, technically speaking, if Luffy doesn't even have a mom but two dads, then Oda wouldn't really be lying either.

But that does bring up an important thing to considder.

If Crocodile does turn out to be Luffy's other dad, when did Oda get that idea, and when would he have committed to it?

Because, keep in mind, One Piece began back in 1997. Twenty seven whole years ago. Which means there's two things to considder; the evolution of queer rights over the past near three decades, as well as the fact that One Piece has more than surpassed Oda's original plans for the series. We must not forget how for a manga to remain serialized in Weekly Shounen JUMP, you need to perform well in the popularity polls consistently; if your manga starts dropping in popularity, JUMP can cancel it and force you end it prematurely. Of course, Oda arguably does not have to worry about those polls anymore after all these decades, there's no way in hell JUMP would ever cancel fucking One Piece in this day and age. But that might not have been the case 15 years ago, that was not the case 20 years ago, and that was absolutely not the fucking case 25 years ago. Like we all famously know that Oda originally planned One Piece to maybe run for like a year, then five years, then ten etc etc. That really is because at the begining of his career he had no quarantee he'd be able to tell the full story he was slow cooking at the back of his mind. Back in the early days, One Piece could've been canceled and ended prematurely, so Oda smartly chose to write it focusing very specifically on what mattered to the story at that moment, in the short term. Yes, he did start laying out the groundwork for things to come, but he did it so subtly that had OP been forced to end early, the series wouldn't have been left with too many massive, gaping plotholes or unresolved sidestories. Another thing to keep in mind is how comic artists for JUMP do have editors etc who can have a say in what goes into the manga (famously, Sasuke only existed because Matashi Kishimoto's editor suggested it). So again, while Oda might be able to do whatever the hell he pleases in One Piece at this point, that wouldn't have been the case 20+ years ago. He would have been more or less at the whims of his editors back in the day.

So would Oda have thought about giving Luffy, the main character of the series, a transgender father back in the year 2000? Could that really have been the secret plan from the start? And would Oda's editor(s) at JUMP have allowed that? Or, did Oda maybe come up with the idea later?

Now just so we're clear, I am NOT suggesting Crocodad was Oda's original intent and that his editors didn't let him do it or anything like that, my tinfoil hat isn't on that fucking tight. What I do want to suggest, is that it is plausible Crocodile being Luffy's other dad was an idea Oda was playing around with at the back of his mind from the begining, but wasn't sure he'd ever get to, mainly due to the uncertainty of series' future and partially because he could've been unsure if his editors would even allow him to write that story. And IF this was the case, Oda may not have even started committing to to the idea until around the CP9 saga. Or, it's possible Oda only got the idea sometime after the completion of the Alabasta arc/during Skypiea saga, and started laying down the groundwork for during Summit War so that, if he ever got around to it, he'd be able to commit and tell that story.

Regardless, let's be real.

It is interesting and kind of suspicious how Crocodile does just happen to be introduced around the same time the rest of Luffy's family was first shown to us, even if we didn't know Garp and Dragon were Luffy's family yet (this was also the same time the first canon queer character was introduced; Oda was playing around with queer characters during Crocodile's introduction, possibly testing the waters to see what he could get away with?) During the CP9 Saga we got the Miss Goldenweek cover story, where we see what's become of Crocodile after the fall of Baroque Works. This is of course adding to the world building of the CP9 Saga (where we're told the criminals who go through Enies Lobby are either sent to Impel Down or to Marineford; so us finding out Crocodile's gone to ID is playing off of what we knew would become of Robin and Franky and the Strawhats not come to rescue them. AND it's foreshadowing for the Summit War Saga), but also, soon after we were reminded of Crocodile and told where he's been sent off to, we were finally formally introduced to Garp and Dragon (Garp having already been mentioned by Aokiji at the begining of the Saga). And we close off the Saga watching Ace and Blackbeard have their fateful match. So again, Crocodile was on Oda's mind around the same time the rest of Luffy's family was. And indeed, after Thriller Bark we then move onto Summit War proper, where Oda does all The Things we would considder The Groundwork for Crocodad, most important being the introduction of Ivankov and their Devil Fruit. But again, just like before, Crocodile just happens to be there at the same time as this saga, which really heavily focuses on Luffy's family, plays out. While we learn about Dragon's secretive nature and connection to Iva-chan, Garp's feelings for the boys, Ace's struggle with his heritage and Luffy's love for him, Sabo and Garp... Yeah, Crocodile's just... Also there.

Whenever Oda starts dwelling into Luffy's family, Crocodile is always there. It's a bizarre coincidence if nothing else.

(And oh won't you look at that, Crocodile has once again become a plot relevant character, just in time for The Final Saga where Dragon has also started becoming actually plot relevant as well)

All of this to say, again.

The fact that Oda has refused to tell us anything about Luffy's other parent is sus, and to me indicates that either although unusual for him Oda genuinely just doesn't give a damn about Luffy's other parent, or he's been trying to play it safe for years so that if he ever got the opportunity, he could give Luffy two dads. (Or maybe there's some other twist that has nothing to do with Crocodile, that is possible too, I just feel like if that was the case then why hide it for 27 years?)

Whatever the case, I'm sure Oda knows the truth.

And I'm sure we will find out the truth eventually, be it on the pages of the comic or in the SBS.

i guess i have to say it a million times since people insist on being dense: gale is just as much of a victim as the other companions. this isn't the trauma olympics. everyone has been through shit and deserves healing and redemption.

gale is not the self entitled, manipulative abuser people are painting him as. he's a lot of things, but nothing so heinous. he was groomed by a goddess who has a history of preying on wizards that threaten her power, and as a result, gale's ambition and faith was what drove him to discover the netherese orb. what he did was for mystra - in his mind, it was to prove his love by restoring her missing power - and by extension for the betterment of mortals. his actions were never malicious or selfish, in fact he puts himself so low on the priority list it's pretty much non existent. he was never going to use that power to usurp her, but mystra definitely saw it like that, which is why she didn't hesitate to present suicide as his only solution. he never crossed her personal boundaries in the way people are twisting it, he only wanted to cross the boundaries she put on wizards and their power.

people who insist he's all of these things and more clearly only spoke to him once or lack the reading comprehension to see past how much of an unreliable narrator he is. i can understand first impressions might put some people off, but you can say the same about the other companion introductions. i don't like comparing but since people insist on doing it; gale is one of the easiest companions to get along with just by being a good person, yet his honesty and selflessness makes people think he's secretly evil? while the companions with the capacity to be evil don't even try to hide it? how are people being so backwards about this? it's genuinely baffling and tiring to see people continuously spit out incorrect takes all too confidently.

no one is forcing anyone to like him, but it's unfair to completely mischaracterize him because you refuse to learn critical thinking. i promise using your brain is not as scary as it seems, or you can just. not talk about things you don't understand.

thingy

Second part of this post

Children of Hermes laugh impresivible. You never know what or who they are laughing about or at, but what you know is that you want to join them.

Children of Demeter laugh in colors. Their cheeks get red, and all flowers around them turn a couple shades brighter.

Children of Poseidon laugh with emotions. Their eyes water easily and if you listen closely, you may hear crashing waves in their tone.

Children of Ares laugh roughly. They scream of joy and hit your back (and although it hurts, you can tell this time you got hit out of affection)

Hunters of Artemis laugh discreetly. They try their best to not show they're amused by your jokes, but you can see them struggling to keep neutral expressions.

if it hasn’t been asked yet, prompt 18 has incredible steddie potential. no pressure tho! love your work, hope your brain feels better<3

Aww ty and it is feeling a lil better 💗 And here's some pre-steddie for ya! I might do a part two of this because the vibes leave room for some uh, not sfw material. She has some energy.

~

Steve liked to complain about driving the kids around, but in all honesty? He loved it. He loved how lively they all were, he loved the silly arguments they would have, he liked just being around them, especially Dustin.

But holy shit did he hate picking him up from Hellfire. Because for some fucking reason, Dustin was never just waiting outside. He was always waiting outside with Eddie Munson, his brand new hero.

Steve had no idea what Dustin saw in the guy. He was such a dick, even when they barely talked for five minutes a week Eddie never missed the chance to be a snarky little bitch.

Which is why he wasn't too excited to see Eddie smoking alone outside of their club room, no Dustin in sight. Steve frowned as he got out of his car, looking around like Dustin might magically appear.

It wasn't helping that Eddie was staring right at him, an amused smile on his face, "You looking for something?"

Steve rolled his eyes at the question, "Just tell me where Dustin is."

"Inside," Eddie said as he took a drag, still staring at Steve. It always made Steve feel weird, the way Eddie would look at him. HIs eyes were too big or something, too intense. It always made him squirm, "On the phone, talking to his girlfriend. It's kind of gross actually, how mushy they are. He managed to scare everyone off but me."

That sounded about right. But that also meant that now Steve was stuck with standing next to this guy. And he really wasn't in the mood for awkward small talk.

"I'll wait in the car then," Steve said dismissively, stopping when he heard Eddie snort behind him.

"Too much of a princess to stand around with the undesirables huh?"

Steve spun around, his face hot at the weird insult, "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

Eddie shrugged, dropping his cigarette to the ground, "It means I think you're an uppity bitch. Tell me Steve, is hating me your only personality trait? Or do you get off on acting like a pissy kitten? That pretty face can only take you so far you know. "

This, this right here is what he hated the most about Eddie Munson. He was a dick yes, but he was so specific about it. Always calling Steve stupid shit like princess, kitten, bitch and now pretty. It was weird, emasculating, and...confusing. Very confusing on why the first thing it always did was make him blush. He didn't make Steve mad in the right way. He made him feel off kilter and anxious, his heart almost always going into overdrive whenever he had to talk to the guy.

But that didn't mean he was going to take all of that laying down, "Says you? I'm surprised you don't have a I hate Jocks tattoo on your forehead. For an 'undesirable' you sure are judgmental as fuck."

Eddie laughed at that, like Steve was an old friend who made a hilarious joke, instead of someone who was actively trying to get under his skin, "Do you still count as a jock? Because if you do I might have to re-evaluate that. I never said I hated you, princess."

Oh great. So that was just a nickname now. Steve opened his mouth to snap back at him, to ask why he was such an ass if their wasn't mutual hatred between them.

But then Dustin was popping out of the club room, a big smile on his face as he waved at Steve, "Sorry I'm late! Suzie called and she heard about this new theory she had to tell me about and-"

"And you can tell me in the car," Steve interrupted, avoiding Eddie's eyes as he dragged Dustin away. The asshole smirked at him as they drove away, like he could just tell how much he was driving Steve crazy.

Yeah, Steve would never understand what Dustin saw in that guy.

if i should fall, will it all go away?

every damn time .. love u saint of the grindset <3