parabola

Yukio flips a page in his textbook, listening to the soft scratches of Shiemi’s pencil across paper. 

The mid-afternoon sun flows over the interior of the shop like a layer of swaying silk, warming the wood of the table. It’s quiet, with only the flourishing houseplants in their company. The room smells fragrant, filled with the scent of a jasmine plant blooming on the counter. 

He’s fortunate enough to have two hours of spare time today, working through a worksheet of derivatives to the side as he answers occasional questions from Shiemi. Perhaps it’s a welcome distraction. 

Small tremors run through the table as Shiemi erases a row of equations. 

Yukio lifts his eyes cautiously. 

The delicate red tassel on Shiemi’s hair clip sways when she tilts her head. Her lips have pressed together in concentration, pulling into a puzzled frown as her pencil traces along the curve of the parabola Yukio penned in her notes. When she flips back to another page, a pleased smile lifts her cheeks. A minute later, she moves diligently onto the next problem. 

She’s been working hard and has grown so much in the past few months. All she needs is a bit more confidence in herself.

As Shiemi rests her chin on her hand, a few strands of her hair slip from behind her ear. Several red spots of petechiae peek out from under her collar, like pinpricks, left behind from the grip of Mayuko’s hair. They’ll fade in a few days. Even so, it must have been painful.

Yukio flips another page, running his thumb along the waxy texture of the paper of his textbook without reading any of the print. “Yesterday,” he begins, “I was really impressed by you and Kamiki-san.” 

Shiemi’s eyes meet his, just a shade brighter than the mellow green of the aloe sitting behind her. “Really?” 

To read more on Ao3 :)

It's a shame they changed the Franc letters so much tone-wise because they gave Gortash a lot more nuance in his methods than what's going on in the patched version. Sure, those may be more banite but I always liked how in the original, the tyranny was not in the relationship between both characters but rather their acts committed together.

I enjoy Gortash as a character so much because he subverted the expectation of what a Chosen of Bane would be. His approach is deeply Machiavellian. The idea of him working his way up through the ranks of aristocracy by both cultural impact that is unignorable thanks to his machinery and a force of personality that disarms his targets emotionally and turns them favourable towards him on an interpersonal level instead of forcing them into submission via fear and threats(as one would expect) made it compelling. It made way for tyranny harder to uproot than one built on aggression because it would not just subjugate people, but change them. A person who fears you is closer to betrayal than one who loves instead. It is an alternative way of subjugation and I like to think that's what may have differentiated him from other Banites so much it made him a Chosen.

And those letters showed how that could've played out. They were deeply manipulative. Threats, if there were any, were in the beginning and faded into the background with the overpowering charm that continued on. The newer version falls flat in comparison. They start and end with thinly veiled threats and that's just not as powerful.

It sucks because I considered them a potential window into how the past relationship of Gortash/Durge could've started out too (regardless of how you interpret the nature of it). I don't think they could've gotten so close as to prompt something like the prayer of forgiveness like this simply because I can't see a Dark Urge responding to threats, fearless avatar of murder and all that. But the first version? Shallow flattery to get the foot into the door and appealing to their wants (like some good old torture racks) to ultimately foster an emotional attachment so severe it borders on heresy for at least one of them? That's awful. I like it.

In the patched letters he's just…evil. A more open and diplomatic (and perhaps more in line with bane) version of it, but also one a lot more predictive. Shame.

i am the cattt just chillin outt but in the night she's all i think aboutttt

the best part of adventure time's lore building is that like 70% of the time the crew is making shit up as they go along so that means small insignificant details or jokes in the earlier seasons can come back in devasting and world altering ways

yes this IS about the ice king singing marceline's fries song as a gag and that somehow snowballing into the fionna and cake series

Movie Lydia Re-Draw from Last Year

Here’s an Old Vs. New comparison!

I just randomly remembered this wip I had started back when New Life had just started out that I never got around to finishing so! I decided to finish it today! (About several months too late but ehhh it's fine)

it’s cool, he’s into it. for some reason. valid <3

last post complaining about genshin's writing for the month Anyway i think blorbofication happening in canon is the best way i could describe a lot of the problems i have with it ex. kaeya's relationship with diluc (or klee) is almost the only focus we get on him now, other than his brief appearance in the sumeru archon quest which was just saying his backstory basically with very little actual reaction or characterization on his part OR dainsleif's (also a problem i have in the albedo homunculus reveal in shadows amidst snowstorms). i haven't done his hangout because i. don't care enough to sit through an hour for each route with the quality of content hoyoverse puts out but looking at the ending options i feel like. they missed the opportunity to expand on things we already had for kaeya in favor of Oh he babysits klee! Oh albedo is here! Spend money to pull albedo!Venti cameo! What do you mean him and amber have a complicated dynamic. What do you mean he's apparently beloved by the elderly of mondstadt and the one who wraps up all the incidents there. What do you mean bennett trusts him as an omniscient big brother according to his official cn character profile. We made him talk to diluc again isn't that enough kaeya for you? and it sucks because kaeya feels like a rubik's cube with an onion's layers and like one of their best character personalities in content where he's actually kaeya and not just diluc's brother who is sad and also pretty! we never see anything about his relationship with jean, who he is the Most Trusted Aide of, or mondstadt at large! because every day we get closer to fanon kaeya being canon kaeya and it's just. You can have canon kaeya and fanon kaeya will follow but if fanon kaeya is at the forefront you're just immediately losing all that depth and it's going nowhere

The whole royalty meets a peasant romance trope but its Lizzie leaving the ocean, forgetting her memories and washing on the shores of Mezalea and being taken in by a fisherman.

She then meets King Joel in the marketplace and they hit it off, becoming fast friends, but eventually she starts to feel the ocean calling to her, but she doesn’t know why

So she sets off to discover herself and eventually set up her empire

And I just think the transition from royalty and peasant to royalty and goddess is very funny

it feels like this. trying so hard to wait until what im making is actually cohesive and put together properly before i start sharing anything major.

I actually really love crossover fics. I like writing them. I like reading them. Unfortunately, I’m almost never looking for the type of crossover fic that seems to be the most common

At what point in time do you think the original timeline McFly family started being dysfunctional? I’m sure George and Lorraine were fully in love at first, and Lorraine even still in the 80s seems to look back fondly when recalling how they fell in love. But I do wonder when exactly it started to go downhill, when they started having kids? Just with age? Or maybe it was never really great to begin with before Marty got involved

This is a really interesting ask, and it's something that I've thought about a handful of times. The Twin Pines McFlys fascinate me.

As for my own headcanons about when the dysfunction started, I think it was always there. Dysfunction within families is complex, though, so it likely ebbed and flowed and morphed over the years. Some thoughts! (hehehe, analysis and theories incoming)

I 100% believe George and Lorraine were fully in love at first and are even still in love when we meet them in 1985. It's just that life has beaten them both down in various ways, and they've lost touch with each other and fallen into a pattern of being resigned to (and maybe even comfortable with) all the disconnect within their family. But there's no mistaking the fondness with which Lorraine begins her story of how she and George met and the way it shifts to such sadness within just a few seconds. Her question of, "It was the night of that terrible thunderstorm, remember, George?" is such a clear bid for connection with him. A hope that he'll smile and recall that night and join in on her story. That's what Lorraine wants! But George doesn't even acknowledge her (not on purpose, I'm sure; he's just so wrapped up in watching The Honeymooners), and you see Lorraine gradually deflate from there.

It's so sad because you can see the emotions shift so suddenly in her! That first gif still holds such affection as she recalls their first kiss. It's like she's a girl again, feeling that overwhelming sense of love and all the possibilities for their life together. But then it changes. She's brought back to reality and all the unhappiness, the disappointments, the realization that life isn't what she imagined for herself.

By the last gif, she's a woman who clearly feels trapped. Now stuck with this guy for the rest of her life. And what makes it so awful is that you can TELL Lorraine still loves him. She longs for that happiness they once had, but it takes two people putting in effort to make a marriage work. She can try to reach George all she wants, but if he can't be emotionally present, it isn't going to work.

Also, I'm sure that George loves Lorraine as well, but he's got a whole plethora of issues that just. Haven't been addressed. George has no self-worth. He's meek and lets people walk all over him and is so completely anxious about everything in life that he's mostly shut down. He's trapped too, with no way (that he can see) to change things. So he does what he can to survive, which consists of doing Biff's bidding and retreating to an inner world at the expense of shutting his family out.

I don't think things were always to this extreme, though. For a while I'm sure things were okay, maybe even good. They were young and in love, and while George was still George, I don't think life had defeated him yet. They got married, really established their little life together, and I can see them as both having hope. And even if there were moments that seemed shaky or hinted that things might be difficult down the road, it was easy to brush it aside. They were still finding their footing, and they were young and had their whole future together to make things better. In all honesty, Dave probably got to experience the "best" versions of his parents for the first several years of his life.

However, each year and every hardship (big and small) likely chipped away at the McFlys and brought about additional dysfunction. I don't know if Biff and George started working with each other right out of high school or if they came to work those jobs later on, but I'm sure that was a huge factor. It offered no escape from Biff for either George or Lorraine. Just a predictable cycle of George having to do whatever Biff told him, Biff invading their home whenever he pleased, and everyone having to watch George immediately tuck his tail between his legs.

As I said, I think things gradually kind of unraveled in their house. As the state of their family became more solidified, Lorraine likely began drinking more and withdrawing. I do think they still had their good days, though! Moments that brought them together and where they felt that happiness they once shared (I mean, they had three children together, and it's clear Dave, Linda, and Marty ARE loved and were raised well.) But the state of the McFly household is probably all Marty has known for the majority of his life. I can see situations arising where maybe Dave has told him, "They weren't always like this, you know."

Dysfunctional as they are, George and Lorraine really are trying. I think they can absolutely see the cracks and the flaws—perhaps even the potential damage being caused to their children—but they just have too much brokeness inside themselves to do better. So, they do what they can, which for George involves trying to protect his children's feelings by discouraging them from taking risks. He doesn't want them hurt or sad or disappointed, and his solution is to have them form shells around themselves. Better to save yourself from all the headaches life brings.

Lorraine does her best to protect and guide her kids by way of warning them away from the very things that brought her to where she is in life. We see this manifest in the form of criticism mostly when she's talking to Marty.

Lastly even with Lorraine seeming as downtrodden as she is, I can see her clinging to the possibility of change. Hoping and praying that eventually, George would say enough was enough and stand up for himself. He'd put his foot down, step up as a husband and father, and things would become what she always wanted. She was the one always telling herself, "Someday. Someday..." until the point we see her at during the dinner scene, where she knows that "someday" isn't going to ever happen. Things are just the way they are, and she has to deal with it.

This was a lot, but I have a lot of feelings about the McFly family and how they operated in their day to day life. Especially the implications of the McFly sibs (Marty in particular!) being raised in such an emotionally disjointed environment. Ugh, those gifs of Lorraine make me so sad. The whole thing is sad.

Thanks for the ask, though! I want to write another Twin Pines McFly fic now.

i think the fame is getting to me

(richard siken // the great gatsby by f. scott fitzgerald // richard siken // ana teresa borboza // are you satisfied by marina // cancer by my chemical romance // the great gatsby by f. scott fitzgerald // drunk by the living tombstone // edvard munch // liza sivakova // last words of a shooting star by mitski // drunk by the living tombstone // ocean vuong)

i absolutely love comparing sector v to like any average sector that likely hasn't been through nearly as much. y'know, it's almost like they're the main characters and the original concept of the knd as a group was just them. they're brave, they're reckless, they can be a bit controversial— they do what they need to do if they think it's right, even if it may get them in trouble.

take operation maurice for example. when 1 suggests monitoring maurice 24/7, 2 points out that it's against regulations to interfere with a decommissioned teen's life. numbuh 4 says "who gives a crud, maurice was our friend!", and 5 is unsure about the idea. numbuh 1, however, is unfazed by what 2 said. all the other order disobeying/reckless stuff one does aside, this is the leader of the sector agreeing with the sentiment of "who cares about the rules?". if they didn't try and stop maurice from getting recruited (without knowing about the tnd), who would've? what i'm saying is: i doubt this would fly in most sectors— that whoever might suggest something like that would get scolded for even thinking it. two was right. what if you did get your whole sector in serious trouble? do you care more about the knd, or do you care more about your friend?

my point is: imagine any random operative trying this stuff. imagine a sector that doesn't have the sector v dynamics and the tension some of these decisions could bring to a group. it's crazy. i love it

Devius Ex Machina OST - Exdeviant

TUCKER IS -

Teal! He's Teal. Hands down. I have solved it. How you ask? I'm obsessed with a certain Maroon Nerd and on a filter in my art program I hit Difference and was like 'Huh... OH!' Also this:

HA! Which makes Caroline Cyan. And then I did this for Shits and Giggles:

Hehhahaha~ I love how the show joked about first Grifs colors then Tuckers colors. X3 Hehe. And then for some more fun Sarge Red FF0000 vs Caboose Blue 0000FF Maroons hex is 800000 and is seared into my brain now along with FFA500 which is "FUCKING ORANGE" (A very bright orange) Random - I always thought York was Gold.