While it was.. not great to have to leave home before 6 this morning in order to get one of the few trains that are going despite the strike (plus the usual bauarbeiten), the upside is that I have some time to work on my end of year fic list while sitting at a nice cafe with a coffee and a pistachio croissant 😌

But honestly. Why would Nomura choose to start the paopu sharing scene with Sora focused on Riku. Why would Nomura choose to have Sora frowning and reluctant to share paopu with Kairi until Kairi clarifies it doesn’t mean they’re a couple. Why would Nomura not tell the voice actors this scene is romantic if it’s meant to be romantic. Why would Nomura consider not having Sora and Kairi share paopu at all. Why would Nomura choose to have Sora start questioning what romantic love and true love are in KH3. Why would Nomura have Sora notice the parallels between himself & Riku and Anna & Elsa just to begin wondering what he and Riku are (according to the novel, Sora doesn’t feel like ‘siblings’ is the right answer). Why would Nomura directly parallel Riku’s feelings for Sora with Hercules’ romantic feelings for Megara. Why would Nomura choose to not show Sora acting ‘romantic’ (in the eyes of the general audience) with Kairi until after Sora forgets Riku’s true love sacrifice (and arguably other things about Riku) and associates Kairi with his savior — a situation that parallels another romantic Disney tale, The Little Mermaid, and is not unlike Sora associating Namine (and then Kairi) with the person most precious to him in CoM when it’s actually Riku that Namine has replaced in Sora’s most precious memory, the meteor shower promise… another memory that Sora may have forgotten. Why would Nomura choose to show Riku’s true love sacrifice multiple times, emphasizing how important it is, if that moment/memory is not going to be vital later. Why would Nomura choose to visually parallel Riku’s true love sacrifice with the meteor shower promise. Why would Nomura specifically shut down the possibility of Riku/Namine when he’s usually pretty indifferent to shipping. Why would Nomura choose to not have Kairi’s memories hold an important connection to Sora beyond the knowledge that unreality exists, and then in the same breath, give Riku an important, personal connection to Sora through his dreams. Why would Nomura choose to make Riku the only one who can go after Sora, who has the power to save him? Why would Nomura choose to parallel Riku with Cinderella and Aurora whose “dreams lead her to her true love”? Why would Nomura do any of this if Sora/Riku’s not happening.

hm. i do not like chilshi 🤔

Dabi danced then changed clothes and burned himself to near death again and everyone just left the fandom hdjsjshdhjs like his chapters used to give us early leaks just saying 💅 (but srs the pacing of this last arc has been horrible, for understandable reasons but still, and even tho the volumes have been selling well in japan bnha is not important or relevant to SJ currently so i wonder if hori doesnt hurry with the ending it wont eventually get canceled)

I don't think a title like bnha is under risk of being cancelled, ever, what with it being in the top ten sellers of the year. The rushing is just pacing issues and possibly editorial interference imho. The former is something Hori admittedly always suffered from. Overhaul's needlessly long arc comes to mind as the first example, but then also the overarching Todofam plot went at a snail pace, so much so that fans predicted where it would eventually go years before it became the focus. Hori's not the best at figuring out how much space to give to big plot points, and with the story reaching its climax and many character arcs converging, he sort of... Let down a lot of expectations? He tried to give everyone space but sorta ended up with a big messy soup imo.

But tbh it wasn't even the pacing issues for me. My passion for the series dwindled when a lot of character arcs took weird directions or straight up stopped moving. Which is as much Hori's fault as it is mine I suppose. I expected bnha to act more on its premises than Hori really wanted to, and as a result felt pretty "meh" when entire plotlines were swept under the rug or forgotten about in favor of character stagnancy and protecting the status quo

It's just... Eh. I'll own up to the fact that I probably shouldn't have expected the story to go my way, but I also think Hori wasn't entirely honest, either. The quality of the writing took a nosedive when Hori got scared by his own premises and backtracked. Personally, I find it a dishonest way to tackle the plot. Either commit or don't hype it up as though you intend to

i just need to know like. why and what is the reason and wherefore are we just deciding to kill off perfectly fine and capable and young middle aged characters with their entire fucking half a life ahead of them when they FINALLY step back from the life that should have killed them but didn’t like WHY CAN’T THEY JUST RETIRE AND TAKE THEIR KIDS FISHING AND HAVE BIRTHDAY PARTIES AND A WIFEHUSBAND TO KISS IN THE MORNING AND MAYBE SOME PIE FOR SUPPER ONCE IN AWHILE ITS NOT THAT DEEP

I SAID DONT PUT YOUR FUCKING SHIP ON THIS POST ISTG

About Laurie’s body language around Erik

Laurie usually projects assertiveness and composure.

Have you ever noticed how different his body language is whenever he’s alone with Erik?

From the moment he starts pushing Erik away...

...and every time he actually needs comfort or reassurance...

...Laurie is always physically turning away from Erik, avoiding to look him in the eye.

Just generally avoidant, in fact.

I mean, he’s nervously twiddling the carpet in this scene. He usually hides very well that he’s a walking bundle of nerves and he’s never been that obvious.

He can’t seem to stand looking at the guy but he takes it very badly when Erik’s not looking at him. Talk about moody...

Arms crossed, looking away. His whole attitude screams defensiveness.

The only times he meets Erik’s gaze straight on, he gives him a defiant look. As if he knew he’s losing control on his emotions and needed to reassert himself.

But whenever Erik takes him by surprise, he’s the only recipient of Laurie’s rare moments of raw vulnerability.

Be it moved...

...heartbroken...

...frustrated...

...or hurt.

He may entirely miss the truth behind those meaningful gazes because Laurie’s little dance with him is so frigging confusing.

Laurie, you slippery creature... just how long are you going to fake it, huh?

56 and any Yamo pairing! 🫶

i just wheezed so hard when i saw what the song was i almost snorted coffee out of my nose i am so sorry for this one

#56 - kyoto phoebe bridgers + yamo

the story of how this song ended up on my wrapped is too long so it’s going in the tags but. let me set the scene for you.

2026 NHL GLOBAL SERIES™️ JAPAN - Presented by YPPI

November 13 & 14, 2026: Dallas Stars, Montreal Canadiens, Seattle Kraken, Vancouver Canucks

Saitama Super Arena, Saitama, Japan

It’s a pitiful excuse of a consolation prize for not being able to go to the Olympics, but Kailer’s not going to look a vacation horse in the mouth. The arena’s cool. It’s huge. The people are cool. There’s so many more of them than he thought there’d be with jerseys that have his name on the back, and a lot more that have the familiar orange and blue. He takes a picture of the fifth Oilers Yamamoto jersey he signs—this one’s the good Reverse Retro—and texts it to Connor, says,

no one here has even heard of mcjesus

and gets a moon face emoji in response. Leon’s influence. Kailer’s still never really deciphered what that one means, and he doesn’t think Connor knows either.

They don’t have a lot of time off between games, but Kailer’s trying to be a good tourist. His dad had been so happy when Kailer had told him about the series that Kailer’d had to stop him from trying to book a flight a year in advance, and his mom’s been just as bad, sending him every article she sees about Best New Spot in Tokyo! Cool Restaurant! Have You Seen This Japanese Cat Café? that she scrolls across on Facebook since June. Suzy’s in the same boat, so they’ve been crossing off their compiled travel-guide list together, looping in as many guys as they can. Everyone’s been pretty game. All the teams are crammed into close quarters at the same hotel, which means everyone wants to spend as much time as possible outside of it, and it helps that Kailer’s gotten pretty close with all the other guys that the NHL picked up as Global Series figureheads. Robo’s memes? Absolutely fire. The groupchat loves them.

For every item he crosses off the list, Kailer takes a picture and keeps it tucked in his phone notes. It’s like speed-running a scavenger hunt—they’re only here for four days—but he’s doing a pretty good job. His favorite so far has been all the gardens. They’re stunning, trees shining bright red and yellow, and every vendor has been selling maple candies, maple cakes, and even fried maple, though the official maple festival doesn’t start until next week. The second garden he visits, he does it on his own after practice, buying two cakes from a cart near the gate and walking until he loses the bustle outside. It’s easy to get lost in the winding pathways, heading deeper into the quiet, and there’s dozens of benches underneath the burnished leaves where young couples are tucked away on dates, or old friends are laughing and catching up. In some of the little clearings, there’s small shrines where people leave offerings, a prayer for good luck or good fortune.

Kailer stops at one without any people and sets the second maple cake on top of it, then sits and scrolls through all the texts that he’s missed. His mom gets replied to with a picture of him outside the garden gate, grinning and surrounded by other travelers. He sends his brother a picture of a trashy graphic I Love Japan t-shirt with the threat that he’ll buy one for him, and Kailer’s dad gets a picture of the meticulously arranged and cut bonsai that are across from the bench where he’s sitting. The Seattle groupchat gets a recycled meme from Robo, and he gets two thumbs up and an “LMAO” before he can even exit the thread. Finally, Kailer takes a picture of the half-eaten maple cake in his hand, holding it next to a fallen maple leaf on the bench, and gets halfway through typing another message before he thinks better of it.

(On the plane over, Drieds was reading them a story about how when they first introduced the high-speed railway, people were afraid to use it because they thought it would be too fast for their souls to keep up.

“Bro, if that were true, you just left your soul in the middle of the Pacific,” Ebs had laughed. “Planes are faster than trains.”

“Are they?” Matty asked. “Isn’t the train in Japan the fastest in the world?”

Drieds couldn’t make it through the rest of the story over the sound of everyone ripping Matty to shreds, so Kailer didn’t get to ask whether or not they found out anything about planes. Kailer’s not worried about his soul, but the logic makes a strange kind of sense; after all, he traveled 429 miles in five and a half hours once, and that was a little too fast for his heart to keep up.)

Fuck it. Kailer’s been trying to write a response for the past ten days, and he’s sick of swiping in and out of the message, staring at the keyboard so long he starts to see swirls in his vision.

Kailer drafts the text again and sends it, no context, no caption. A text travels faster than a high-speed train or a jet. Maybe it’ll pick his heart back up on the way.

*dusting off this old blog* Well it's been a while, isn't it?

rotating post-game xarrai and astarion in my mind. if u even care

.

some day i will actually finish all my half finished cover projects instead of getting distracted and starting a new one., some day .

(propose by naisho no pierced, svp made from the midi they provided lol)

Did you grow up normal or did you also watch “Gerard Way’s many Moans and Groans” when you were 13?

It's really weird when you know someone in a context different from how everybody else knows them so you look at them and you still kind of see that person they used to be

It warms my heart so much the way the folks who worked on Glitch keep putting references to it in their work since. Not even just games - there are nods to it all the way through Slack, including various emoji and the error page being a full, interactable view of one of the streets from the game. Sly Fox's Alphabear has an easter egg in the form of the bears whistling the Groddle Forest music sometimes. Mineko's Night Market was made by two of Glitch's artists and the music done by the composer and there are hints all over the place - from the boximals/cubimals blind bags to the dullite/sparkly rocks to the funky decor at the night market that looks suspiciously similar to the home street butlers. It's such small things that are only gonna be recognized by a fairly small number of players but it means so much. The people who made that absolutely preposterous little game really loved it just as much as its player base and it shows.

what if i get really into apple music

non-zero amount of swans and a non-zero amount of lakes.