#bit of a

[definedvines]

anyways. lately after having some conversations with other ryujiheads i've been kinda stuck on a new talking point about him that's kind of like a buzz to me. which is.

he is a product of an abusive household, abusive authority, and a sexist society rife with misogyny. he's very prone to perpetuating this society by his actions. he also carries a lot of the traits in him that lead many people down abusive paths (probably, as a result of a heartbreaking cycle)-- he has anger issues, insecurity and self esteem problems, seeks attention and approval, and openly craves some kind of sexual gratification. he's also like, literally 16-17 and a little dumb so of course he wouldn't understand or analyze this himself like at all.

but. that's what makes him so fucking good man because he is so sweet and desperate to do the right thing anyway. and like, he doesn't totally process this until the later parts of the game-- he wouldn't have that kind of self reflection, but then he starts to. when he starts to realize that he genuinely wants to improve the actions he takes that tend to hurt others. even though we know that's what he's been like this whole time.

i don't think ryuji being this kind and loving and endearing and selfless person at his core (and very often outwardly as well, duh) would hit as hard if it wasn't for the fact it clashes with these flaws. most of which are very realistic for a character that has gone through what he has. so both things are incredibly important to him. and seeing him as this sunshine boy who could never do any wrong and had a "character butcher" after the first arc is also wrong, not just seeing him as a misogynistic abusive asshole (though you could definitely call that worse because no part of that is true, lol).

i guess TLDR he almost instinctively tries very hard to break the cycle of abuse that he would otherwise very easily fall into if it wasn't for his unwavering empathy and care despite all he's suffered through. (and seeing as joker/the phantom thieves are the inciting incident and vessel for him to express this; maybe he wouldn't be able to without them.)

and people say he's not a complex character just because he's the kinda dumb and very nice comedy relief be for real

side point, i think the main thing i see that makes me upset is when people say he's sexist when he very clearly sees women/girls as people and equal to him in no different fashion than he would other guys?? he values all his friends the same, half of which are girls. and i've already written essays about how this issue is complex and all in other posts, but in short yeah he's an insecure teenager who's attracted to women, of course he's going to act a little disrespectful at times. but he's never harassed or hurt anyone.?? it just really sucks that atlus constantly frames this stuff as funny pervert guy humor and never subverts or addresses it. :|

[eclipseart143]

all is well kengnamping nation 😭🫶🏾

[writing-for-life]

Dream—Aleta Vidal

[soupiestzilla]

zilla what do you do if your lowkey lowkey failing school

hello bro

Well pal

Cracks knuckles

Im just gonna preface this by saying one thing, this absolutely does not apply to everyone, but ive been a teaching assist for years atp, and im a student myself too so

Theres always some underlying reason you're failing, and its usually got nothing to do with school

Im spitballing here, i could be completely wrong, every single person is different and no one can ever give a clean cut answer for one issue faced by everyone on the planet but, there may be some things going on ,whether they be negative or positive, that have you disinterested in school

Or you know, you just dont like the subjects youre studying

I personally hated math, and the only reason i didnt flunk it is cause i got scared into locking in 😭 but the part of my life before i got to med was terrible and i can get if you're being made to study something you dislike, thats usually the case

Mental health issues, burn out, other issues going on around you, theres alot, and one thing i hope you know is that-

Its rarely ever a sign of a lack of intelligence.

Failing doesn't mean you're dumb, which is the first step to improving.

Understanding that the reason you're failing isnt directly correlated to iq, but rather some other part of your life, something you'll honestly just have to figure out on your own, is step 1. And step 2. Is to not let that problem define your academic career

"Theres no easy fix to such problems, and theres nothing i can tell you that'll change you overn-" wrong

Don't listen to people

Ever

😭 ok ok let me rephrase

Human beings are different

Wildly different bropal

No one on this entire round blob can ever tell you what will and what wont work for you, because theyre not you. There is never an objective answer to ANYTHING, theres no universe wide law stating that you can't turn this fail around. You just need to approach it realistically

You know yourself, i bet. You know what you're capable of probably. Whatever you're failing at in school, you just need better ways of approaching those subjects-

Every subject calls for a wildly different set of skills, no one person can be good at everything, and no one person can be good at all subjects, but you need to realise what those subjects require from you and treat them with that requirement. Try changing the way you study, try changing the amount of time you study, the times you study at, take care of your sleep schedule, and i mean it bro

Quantity of sleep isnt enough, you could sleep for 8 hours and still feel tired, its the quality that matters, your body is used to dark = eep and so staying up past midnight will really affect your quality of sleep, without GOOD sleep, you probably wont have the ability to properly grasp the stuff you study and remember it effectively. And burn out is inevitable if youre eepy, we humans are simple creatures and want to explode when we get tired 😭

Try actively participating in the stuff you study, as in, make notes, make your own flashcards, hell go to the interwebs and search up whatever the frigg you're studying, see if theres any resources online, active recall is much better than passive and you're much more likely to remember the stuff you study

I find that, sometimes maybe the resources you have just suck. I used to hate organic chemistry because i had a terrible teacher and my book was like essay long novel paragraphs that made no sense. So i went to the internet archive in rage. As one does. And searched up coursebooks on organic chemistry and found one that i understood so well i ended up loving and excelling at organic chemistry, i am now in a romantic relationship with organic chemistry/j very much a joke im just trying to lighten the mood

You know what bropal

Teaching is the best method to learning

I had nights where i was giving presentations to my pet bunny on anatomy ok

When you try to word out what you're saying in a way that will make sense to others, you're much more likely to catch inconsistencies in what youre saying, and stuff that doesnt make sense to you will be harder to explain, that way you can get what you dont understand and polish up on it

Treat studying like a game atp bropal

Make checklists, YOU KNOW ACTUALLY i have this forest app that times me and each hour i think i study it plants this rlly cute tree in my forest and i get to hear rain sounds while i study its lovely, GO ON YOUTUBE AND LISTEN TO ASIAN MOM WATCHES YOU STUDY FOR FOUR HOURS!!! IDK bro we live in a digital age there is so much stuff you can do to make your studying experience atleast a little more engaging

I know this cant apply to everyone, but going from a fail to even a decent grade is a big improvement, and if you need to get unconventional, go ahead bro

Also just a sidenote, im not sure what your situation is, and idk how your parents feel about it, if they do even, but parental stress is real dawg.

I can get if you're stressed or even scared about your parents reactions to your grades or your overall school career, if that is the case, i need you to understand a bit of a bitter truth.

Your school grades will define YOUR life, not theirs, in the end of it all our parents just want us to grow up happy and successful, and alot of the time they cant understand the situation that may cause their kid to flunk, and it hurts, but you know yourself and what you may need to do to improve after all the weird reflection ive taken you on, and it may be a slow process, but if you can get even a little better thats promise.

Dont let your parents views affect you, easier said than done i know, especially when they have a lot of say over how your life will go at the moment, like maybe changing schools or getting a tutor but, you are the only one whose actions will matter in the long run for your life, so if your parents ARE reactive over it, try to not let it get to you

Ok yappage over

[the-ace-with-spades]

Tw implied mpreg but it started with the idea of having hangster daughter be a matchmaker for her dumb dads and escalated with a whole backstory of how it got to that

        Jake and Bradley meet when they're younger — Bradley just found out Mav pulled his papers and is taking a gap year traveling around and Jake is in his last year in high school when a guy from Cali starts working in his mama's diner. (for the purpose of this idea, the age gap between them is 1, max 2 years). They become close pretty quickly and bond over their goal to enter the USNA/become naval aviators. Soon, they started dating — it was the burn bright and fast romance type but it was genuine.

        Come the time when the USNA acceptance letters come and they both get in. They've been together over nine months and had talked about all the things they wanted to accomplish in USNA and in the Navy and so when Bradley finds out he's pregnant, he can't make himself tell Jake — he was so excited about the academy, already basically had his whole life planned, and there was no place in it for teenage pregnancy. He likes to think that Jake would try to be there for them (and therefore resign from USNA since he wouldn't be able to visit or work in the academy) but he's also scared he wouldn't. So he doesn't tell him.

        Bradley pretends he's changed his mind, that he's going to enter NROTC and they're going to meet in the pre-flight pipeline, and goes to college to his second choice (UVA) and completely cuts contact with Jake despite the promise. Clean break so Jake can live the life they both dreamed about. Jake turns the devastation into anger but he never really moves on.

       Bradley is studying at UVA on partial scholarship, working two part-time jobs, and has everything planned — due date in the winter break, two weeks off, and then back to work and school. Ice and Mav realize he didn’t go to USNA mid autumn semester — Mav hoped them not interfering with the re-admission would be like an olive branch and Bradley’d forgive him. One way or another, they find out where he is — the baby is born the day they visit his apartment, a good few weeks early.

        Shit gets complicated, Bradley is off school and off work for a few weeks, gets kicked out of both, basically. Mav interferes, Bradley flies to California with them as soon as he and his daughter are fit, and Bradley starts working part-time again, waiting to return to college in the next year.

        Bradley does eventually become a naval aviator, with major help from Mav and Ice. He gets into college close to home and enters NROTC while Mav and Ice take care of his daughter, Angel, whenever he needs to go and promise to take her in whenever he'd need to be deployed in the future. She stays mostly with Ice when he’s deployed, often sitting in his office and going to meetings with him.

        Fast forward to years later, Jake finds out Bradley is a naval aviator after all when they meet at Top Gun (he’s a couple of years ahead in his career than Bradley). He's hoping that he can get some explanation on the radio silence years before and the whole romance thing between them can be renewed. He finds out Bradley has a kid first, before they can talk, and he assumes he's moved on with someone who isn't Jake and has a kid with them as well. Cue Jake being a bigger ass than usual, basically giving Bradley the cold shoulder and cutting any of Bradley's attempts to talk (and taste the waters) short. Bradley assumes it's better the way it is and that his decision all those years ago was right — Jake has the life he wants.

       When they meet at Top Gun again, not much changes. Jake still has a bit of a grudge but that day at the Hard Deck, Bradley isn't there and when the aviators are chatting, Nat mentions he was deployed and went straight to his daughter when he landed and isn't leaving her the whole day. And Jake makes some sort of remark about how Bradley's kid and partner must be happy about the special detachment and Nat just looks at him weird like, you know Bradley doesn't have a partner, never has, he's been a single parent for years. Jake feels, well, dumb, but he still hasn't figured out that he's the baby daddy and all, he just thinks he could've been a step dad all those years he's thought Bradley had someone.

        In the end, Bradley tells him the night before the mission. They're on the carrier and Bradley visits his cabin and they sit down on Jake's bunk and have a talk. And Bradley tells him that he has a daughter, she'll be twelve in November, her name is Angelica but lately she's been telling everyone to call her Angie, that Bradley didn't tell him because he didn't want to mess up his plans and dreams for life. That if he doesn't come back, he wants him to know her and have a chance to be her dad.

[Now, the part that was the first bit that came into my mind.]

       Things are awkward between them after the mission. Jake meets Angie and it's not okay straight away (she's got questions, why wasn't he there all those years, why did Bradley not tell him, what will he do now). Things are even more awkward when she asks if this means he's Bradley's boyfriend now and he answers yes, while Bradley says no. And logically, yes, they haven't talked about it and it's been twelve years and he assumed. But this is Bradley and they have a daughter together.

        Slowly, they try to acclimate to the situation. First, Bradley goes to all the meet-ups Jake has with Angie, mostly because while he trusts Jake, he knows Angie is a bit wary and he wants her to be comfortable, so they go as a three or spend the time in Bradley’s house. Sure, it’s not all straightforward, Angie is a bit angry with Bradley and it takes some mitigating from Jake (and self-restraint, because Jake is kinda pissed with Bradley as well but he doesn’t want it to affect Angie), but once she forgives him, she starts being carefully enthusiastic about having another dad, and it feels like a family. It’s still summer break so they go to the beach, every tourist spot imaginable, and Angie is currently on a marine biology kick so they go anywhere that has related topics. Jake takes her flying, Bradley stays on the ground, and when Angie says it was fun and she wants to do it again, Jake realizes Bradley let him be the first person to take her up in the air. On the lazier, hotter evenings, they stay inside with multitudes of fans running and Bradley making them gazpacho and sundaes, playing board games and cards.

       And you know, there comes a time when Jake is checking that Angie has everything she needs to go to the aquarium and they are at the porch and Bradley gives Angie a kiss and says he’ll see them later and Jake realizes he’s not going. You know, I thought you guys are ready to go alone, just the two of you. Isn’t this what you told me, Angel? And sure enough, Angie agrees that she is okay to go with Jake but you can see she gets really quiet once they get into the car. And Jake is all like, you know we don’t have to go alone if you don’t want to. And she denies it but Jake prods and prods until she admits she heard her grandpa talk to daddy about how he can use the free time to date again. And obviously, Jake is a bit curious so she talks to him about the people who Bradley dated in the past twelve years on the way to the aquarium, and Jake doesn’t get the full picture (she only talks about 3 people and there’s no way it’s all) and has this irrational fear that Bradley is on a date the whole time they’re out. Obviously there’s no date (Angie didn’t hear the part where Mav was making fun of how the only person Bradley wants to date will be on daddy-daughter date…) and when they come back, Bradley is elbows deep in weeding the garden. They have some slushies together and both he and Angie breathe easier but Jake doesn’t stop being kinda bothered that Bradley no longer goes with him and Angie.

Why are you and daddy not together? Do you not like him like that anymore? And how do you explain it all to a kid? Jake tries to go through with the kid-friendly parents don’t have to be together to love their kid and be friendly and she’s like, I’m twelve not five, I know that. So he just tells her the truth, that he likes her daddy very much but sometimes things get complicated and he doesn’t want Bradley to feel pressured. But he’s really happy when you’re around?

The first time Angie calls him dad without prompting/a minute of hesitation, they’re talking about this again when he’s taking her to the cinema at the mall. She asks again why don’t you just ask him out? Daddy always says people need to use their words if they want something and it’s on point and endearing, but he just tries to brush it off and tell her he and Bradley just met again and it’ll take some time. You need to put the work in, dad is what she tell him, all cheeky. I’ll help you.

(Jake doesn’t know this, but any chance she has, she’s prodding Bradley about this as well. And sure, Bradley has a lot of leftover feeling for Jake, but he thinks it’s better if he doesn’t act on them — he still feels guilty about disappearing and he feels like Jake was just a bit overwhelmed at the beginning and that’s why he wanted to jump in where they left. Now that they cooled off and the whole co-parenting thing is working, he’s surely calmed down on the idea. )

Next time Jake takes Angie out to buy her some new shoes for school, they’re all done when she decides, we’re going to buy stuff for your date with daddy. And sure enough, she’s got a whole plan — he needs to buy nicer clothes (You can’t wear another plaid shirt, dad) and get Bradley a gift and some flowers (he likes sunflowers but they never grow right in our garden) and tells Jake he needs to buy a picnic basket and get some nice food when she tells him to.

It’s all set in motion, by Angie. She texts Jake to come and pick her up (daddy will think we’re going to the beach) and take her to Mav’s, where she will stay the night when Jake will put the work in.

He doesn’t believe he’s got himself talked into this by a twelve year old, but sure enough, an hour after he picked Angie up, he’s back at Bradley’s house, sunflowers and Bradley’s favorite chocolates in hand, full picnic basket in his car. And sure enough, when Bradley opens the door, all doubt just disappears.

They go on a date. They talk. Jake takes Bradley back home and Bradley asks him if he wants to stay the night. Things get rekindled.

He stays the night and just kinda, well, never leaves.

(Meanwhile, Angie and Mav make a whole presentation about how this means she should either get a baby sister or a puppy. You know, because if Jake moves in with them, that means they will have the time and energy and the extra helping hands for either — maybe even both. And Mav would love a second grandkid or a puppy, he’s not picky, especially now that he’s retired.)

[zeebreezin]

random generator gave me 40 so, an impulsive kiss with two guys of your choice?? >:3

Okay, so, before I get blown up for this one - I blame Viric. Nothing else to say in my defense though.

#40 - An Impulsive Kiss (Horror Mode!)

Conversation rarely fills the space anymore. Hours would pass aboard the ice-locked ship in near silence, the only sounds being the groaning of the Arctic’s pressure against her wooden hull. The crew spend their days in a mockery of routine, standing at posts half frozen to their boots. There used to be more to this, though that’s hard to remember at this point. Noises. Life. Chatter, in the early days. But the frost had torn such pleasantries away, the frigid air scrapping at throats and social convention for months at this point. Heavy boots on the wooden decks used to disperse some of the quiet. Now, one by one, even those are falling silent. .

Days and nights passed in a blur, the few thin hours of hazy sunlight long since swallowed by perpetual night this late in the season. There was a time where Lt. Grace had tried to keep track of the date. Now, though, there was only one thing that truly marked the passage of time. The ringing of the frost coated ship’s bell cut through his half-conscious pacing like a blade. A summoning of the crew. There was only one reason for those at this point.

That couldn’t be right - it hadn’t been long enough. Had it?

Nevertheless, the crew shuffled onto the deck. A sea of wild hair and blue uniforms, both in varying states of disregard. A few words were passed between them, pleasantries muttered through bleeding lips. Some muttered prayers. Others looked on the brink of tears already, though they kept their gaze low. A few stood near the back, hunger barely concealed in their eyes. Grace surveyed the crowd, doing all he could to maintain the commanding air of an officer even as his stomach churned. There were so few, now. Even if the ice melted tonight, in some grand miracle, there wouldn’t be enough hands to sail a vessel of this size anywhere near a port.

The lieutenant wanted to believe that the cold and the wild had taken most of them. That the many hammocks that now swung empty could be blamed on the wrath of nature, on illness, on winter itself - not hungry, mortal hands. He wanted to believe that, truly. But he couldn’t be sure. Not anymore.

A cold, shivering fist held the straws high. Once, there had been a bit of ceremony to the process. Not anymore. The first draws occurred without incident. Tense men shuffling forwards, breathing the smallest sighs of relief. Collapsing into the arms of the others as they stepped out of line, a thin strip of wood still held in a shaking hand.

Grace was next in line when it happened. An able bodied sailor stood in front of him, his wide eyes nearly swallowed by his ginger curls. Grace barely managed to catch a glimpse of that short, bloodied straw before the sailor screamed. It was a desperate, animalistic sound, dwarfing even the chime of the bell that marked when a man must die.

After hours of frigid stagnation, everything began to move at once.

Grace took a step back as the sailor turned away from the officer holding the straws, eyes wide with terror. A flash of steel under the fading firelight, somewhere far behind him. The sailor lunged for him, that same despairing screech still ringing in his ears as Grace tried to stumble back, losing his footing along the way and sending the two sprawling onto the ship’s deck. A cry of pain - someone stuck a blade deep into the sailor’s back on the way down, hungry eyes baring down as Grace tried to get his bearings. The sailor coughed up a spray of crimson.

Then, with a wild, tearful look in his eyes, the man who drew the short straw pressed a kiss to Grace’s lips. He was muttering something as they pulled him away, a few others of the crew staying behind to check on the lieutenant's condition. The sailor’s last words, a desperate plea to a lover he would never again see. The lieutenant’s clawing hands, a poor substitute for a last embrace. The sounds of butchery covered up anything else he may have screamed to the heavens.

Grace couldn’t hear the name that the sailor had been calling out to, through the footfalls and pain. The taste of iron lingered on his lips for far too long, after the meal that night.

[wild-moss-art]

.

Obvi no one HAS to post about the ongoing genocide… but it’s honestly so sad to see people post more callout posts about how they shouldn’t feel compelled to post about it than posts about the actual issue. I don’t know how to articulate this properly. I get that fandom blogs are for specific purposes, but it feels weird to see people justifying why they don’t have to post about it more than they actually publicly decry genocide. I would rather they not say anything at all. Just seems like such a privilege to be able to turn a blind eye