#Damien and I are sorta similar honestly | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

damienthepious · 2 years

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From ‘Is this-" to ‘Damien can allow his eyes to explore the swamp and its Lord, as he wished to do in the first place.’ (Can’t believe KoTS is back! Would be my favourite if it wasn’t for your pseudo canon chronology)

[Pick a short passage from any fanfic I’ve written and send it to me, and I’ll give you the equivalent of a DVD commentary on that snippet!]

ohhhhhh hell yeaaaaaaaaaaah!!!! thank you so much!!! 💘💘💘 that is.... a lengthy section, so i might have to do it in a few reblogs, tho! exciting......

["Is this-" Damien pauses to suck in a breath as he jumps over a wet patch he suspects of being a sinkhole,]

Damien was going to ask, "Is this pace strictly necessary?" or maybe, "Is this a test?" However, Damien... somewhat deliberately does not actually ask a question, in this chapter, until The Question. He is being very careful, today, here with this monster. And honestly? It is... irritating the monster to an absurd degree.

[and then he grits his teeth as he watches the monster's shoulders hunch, as if he may have forgotten Damien in his wake entirely. "I thought, my Lord, that you intended to show me your swamp-"]

Arum did not forget him. Arum is just being a fucking brat.

["I am," the monster snaps, not looking back. "This is my swamp, you are within it, pay attention."]

He is being pissy and belligerent and unreasonable, VERY intentionally. It is also... maybe... just a little bit of a test. Partly to see if Damien can keep up, and also to see if this knight actually meant his oaths, or if he's going to snap out of this little play-act with some provocation. Because Arum, as always, is a dipshit of a fatalist.

["Forgive me, my lord-"

"You do not need to do that."]

It always stuck with me that Arum never once insisted that Rilla call him Lord. I don't think he actually cares all that much about formality, especially not when he's in his own home, his own territory. And i think, with the monster insistence on doing what one wants, the idea of Damien pretending more deference than he feels... it smacks of mockery. Also he's just straight up not used to having someone just. AROUND and calling him formal shit.

["But-" Damien blinks, vaulting over a fallen tree to try to keep pace. "But my- my dedication to-"]

ah, poor Damien. he's thinking... please let me cling to these scraps of familiarity in this woefully unfamiliar situation? please? I need SOME scaffolding-

However, he is still keeping pace very well, all things considered.

["To my swamp, little knight. I do not want to hear you twist your tongue to humor my title despite my monstrousness when you so clearly begrudge it. I know how knights of the Citadel - formerly of the Citadel," he diverts sardonically, "oh forgive me - I know how they think.]

Arum has some similar bigoted assumptions about humanity as Damien has about monsters! surprise surprise. He is also, again, progressively ramping up his abrasiveness to try to poke at Damien. He makes sure to point out that Damien isn't of the Citadel anymore! He knows that Damien is still hurting about that, and he does it anyway. Because. Brat.

[Anything with a speck of magic within it will seem like some sort of affront to you.]

Theoretically, this... isn't exactly wrong. Damien is just- already adjusting, thanks to the Keep. It's strange, but he's absolutely trying

[I am not so foolish as to think you might be capable of setting that distaste aside quite literally overnight."]

this is both... aggressive arum posturing, and also... very honest. He doesn't want Damien to say things that he doesn't mean, and he's acknowledging that this is likely really hard for him! And that Arum doesn't expect him to be comfortable, just yet.

Arum is being sorta... really awkward about this, and his reactions keep vacillating between very forceful and very accommodating, in large part because he doesn't have the first fucking CLUE what he's doing, here. He's barely ever had GUESTS, let alone a KNIGHT. he's struggling, a bit.

["But my past should not exclude me from proper formality of address-"]

Classic Damien not listening to what other people are saying in favor of focusing on assumptions and how he SHOULD act. Look at my boy go! also, calling it his past is a step for him, honestly. It's not something he can go back to. He's getting used to that thought.

aaaaaaaaaand i'm so tired i'm falling asleep at my DESK so i am giving up for the night and going to BED, i will continue this tomorrow!!! thank you for reading!!!!!!!!!

#<3<3<3<3 #elle's fanfic meta #knight of the swamp #asks #amphibiayan

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bottomvalerius · 2 years

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5 from the nsfw list for all your Guys™️?

thank you for asking!! 😘 Donna's I'll answer here, the rest are undercut!

5.) Easiest way to seduce them?

Donna:

Donna is more of a fan of just direct, frank communication. "I want you"; "Do you want to come home with me?"; "I really like you..." While they love to flirt and play games, they do that with almost everyone who is comfortable with that. the thing that will seal the deal is directly accepting and reciprocating (and if you're up to it, throwing their own flirtations back at them lol) their flirtations.

also, all you really need to do is pull on their collar a little or show off how big your hands are and you're golden pony boy LMFAO

Sam:

Very similar to Donna, Sam loves a partner that is direct with him. HOWEVER, he can also be down to play games of push and pull; hot and cold, there and then gone, etc. etc. He loves a consensual chase, and he's also been known as a tease within his own circles. All about the build-up before the inevitable explosion 😌

THAT BEING SAID the INSTANT way to get into his pants is honestly just. decking the peepaw. attempt to rough him up. bite him. chomp kick maul--if you start a fight with him, expect things to..... escalate LMFAO

Damien:

Damien is normally the one seducing; he is a little prickly and picky when it comes to suitors approaching him. If you're down with breaking past that layer (or you just like that sorta treatment LOL), he will see that as a positive; continual interest reads as a genuine interest to him.

From there, Damien is a material boy LMFAO gifts, signs of physical affection, praise, love letters, compliments; make him feel good, and he may just consider making you feel good 🤭

#asks #OC lore #fan apprentice donna #the duke #problem child damien #they're all..... messes LMFAO #just body slam sam into the ground and he'll nut instantly #lemon

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mrs-nate-humphrey · 3 years

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This is totally cool, lol! That's why I tagged you, I like different perspectives 🥰 and I adore lesbian Jenny

I've been thinking a lot about Jenny's character and sexuality lately since I'm in the middle of rewatching the show. I totally agree that she's attracted to women and most times she pursues guys it's mainly to increase social status and not because of genuine interest. Nate always felt different to me, though. Like, the two times she really pursues him is in season 2, when she's being homeschooled and trying to make it as a designer, and the end of season 3, which is after the whole Damien drama and she's just looking for someone who cares about her and respects her (I know you said once that it doesn't even feel romantic here, which I also agree with, poor girl just needs a connection). I do really see how it can be interrupted as comphet, though. Like she feels like she's supposed to be attracted to Nate because who wouldn't be?

I think the reason why I lean the other way is probably just projection. Jenny's been my favourite GG character since I first watched the show when I was 12, partly because I relate a lot to her, and since I'm bisexual... Add that plus the fact that I totally have had a crush on Nate and of course I'm gonna ship them. I've been relating to Jenny even more this time around cause I dropped out of school this year, so her season 2 arc really hit close to me. So this made my jenate feelings come back tenfold and also made me that much madder at Rufus, lol. I just wanted to go through the screen and shake his shoulders like "There are other paths than the one you want your daughter to have, not everyone has to go through life like society expects you to let your daughter carve out her own unconventional path you fucking idiot!" Luckily my parents have been way more supportive.

Mainly I just see Jenny as bi with a strong lean towards women, but I like to think about lesbian Jenny, too. It wouldn't exactly be the first time I had contradicting headcanons.

I don't know I just think it's really cool that different people can have such different interpretations of the same character. I think that's what's so interesting about fiction, to see how we view things differently depending on how we view and relate to things based on our own experiences. Tumblr can be so focused on hating people who disagree with you, but I like following people with different opinions, it helps me understand people better.

Yeah, I'm glad you tagged me!! back in November, some anons were mean to me about shipping Jenate (me??? who literally does not even - anyway) and ever since then I've been trying extra to ensure that Jenate shippers feel welcome on my blog - you may already know this, because I've brought it up before, but I'm saying it here to let you know that every time you tag me in your Jenate edits I get so happy that you're sharing something you're so passionate about with me!! I'm also a big believer of like........ making the content you want to see (a big part of why I even learnt to gif is because nobody was giffing Dan & Nate, and I was like...... that's the content I need, so if it's not already existing, I'm gonna make it happen!) so regardless of my feelings it's always so cool to see the way you conceptualise JN + their feelings re: each other, and your choice of scenes + lyrics (??? I'm not actually familiar with where you got the words for your edits, they're likely songs I haven't heard, haha) is just so interesting & good!

OH my full Jenny & Nate feelings are a lot more complicated than just comphet on Jenny's part. I feel like..... neither of them was romantically/sexually into each other? and that is kind of the appeal to me? I've always interpreted Nate's interest in Jenny during the s2 arc as sort of like - everything in his life is so unstable and undetermined, and here is Jenny who is so clear on who she is and what she wants, and he admires and respects that, and he wants to be there for her and support her, so when she kisses him he just sort of lets her take their dynamic wherever she wants to? that is very much the vibe I got. You already know how I feel about lesbian Jenny, I mean, you quoted my meta right back at me :'))

but I DO agree with you that Nate is different from the other guys to Jenny. JN have this really specific kind of honesty to them - well, when Jenny wasn't spiralling and trying to get power and acting out, and when the writers actually cared? I still think that NJ had the potential to be a SOLID dynamic but the writers made it sorta unhealthy on the show :(( - but I've spoken abt moments like in seventeen candles and the empire strikes jack before, where they're both able to be emotionally vulnerable around each other in ways we don't see them be with anyone else. I've even compared that to what I like about Derena, whom everyone knows I ship in every possible way, haha. But there's something about characters who trust each other and allow themselves to be honest with each other in ways that they wouldn't otherwise EVER be - especially with characters like Jenny & Nate who have spent so long trying to seem fine and okay even when they're really not.

I honestly really like the idea of queerplatonic Jenate - they're life partners, they're each other's rock, they're each other's person - but it's not romantic OR sexual - and for Nate & Jenny, whose adolescence has involved navigating other people sexualising them so much + not having the best track record with romantic relationships - for them, I feel being qpps gets REALLY interesting, because you get all the perks of a relationship without the romantic/sexual obligations? (obligations isn't the best word, but i don't know what else to use here? LOL) and that's something i love to explore.

I feel like book Jenny was bi! The way she gushed about Nate, whom she canonically had a crush on, and the way she gushed about Serena were EXACTLY the same. Also YES I love multiple headcanons always, it's a lot of fun seeing people explore that!!! I know people who have aroace readings of Jenny, or aro lesbian / ace lesbian readings of her, and I find that really cool, too!

I also definitely get you about relating to Jenny a lot, and feeling that kind of connection. It's similar to how I feel about Dan, and .... explains a lot of my contradicting dair views, actually. A few years ago I had a seriously intense crush on a girl who was... a lot like Blair, in many ways. I spent a ridiculous amount of time writing poetry about her, etc etc, but I never actually acted on it. If she'd fabricated schemes that involved us kissing, though..... I don't know. I don't think I would've denied it if I'd felt like I actually had a chance. I think we just had a case of bad timing, & I like to think in another universe, maybe we were actually together for a bit. I'm glad that your parents are supportive of you and better than Rufus! <3

I think that's what's so interesting about fiction, to see how we view things differently depending on how we view and relate to things based on our own experiences <- THIS exactly! this is a big part of why that "proship" is in my bio. like this is exactly what it means to me and how I conceptualise & understand it!!! Like you, I also like engaging with people who have different understandings and opinions of the characters -> it definitely helps you make new friends you would otherwise not meet by staying in your bubble, & from a fandom point of view, it also helps you develop a more nuanced understanding of a character. Some of the best written Jenny Humphrey I've read was in Jenate fics - and I've had people who don't even ship Blenny tell me they liked the way I wrote Jenny in my post canon blennyfic, so... idk. it's loving Jenny hours - each and every single iteration of Jenny!!!

#long post #edmundapologist #jenate #i would usually like . put a post of this length under a read more #but i don't know where i would insert that here? so this is how it turns out i guess #meta #also adding the #personal #tag. this feels mildly TMI but it's nothing i haven't said before in tags #this is the first time i'm Formally putting it out here though #tumblr user rainathorpe came THIS close to having an irl dair arc... hashtag so much for that #ALSO ! sometimes i tag stuff like that because like -#my blog kind of serves as a record or journal for ME #sometimes i read thru my own posts like 'so true bestie' fghgklhf #which i think is the best way to run a tumblr. be your own audience!#thank you for this ask btw - it's very sweet!! <3

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mewtwoandme · 3 years

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Is Argon’s old trainer your DP version of Damien from the 1st season of the Anime - Ash’s Charizard’ sold trainer? Cause I get similar vibes to him… and Paul from the Gen 4 anime too now that I think about it.

But yeah it just sorta fits to me that he decided to train another Charizard but can’t be bothered to put in the work even 20 years later.

Honestly he was just some random guy I thought up XD

#answered ask #oraciongale

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siren-queen-imagines · 4 years

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Misunderstandings

This was requested by the lovely @fallinforhappiness! I hope you enjoy! Considering I had already done similar prompts for Damien, I chose to do them with Shayne this time!

Prompts Used: 9. “He loves you, you know? He’s just afraid of admitting it.” 15. “I think I’m in love with you and that scares me half to death.”

Masterlist

(gif by me)

=================================

Shayne watched you from across the room at the Smosh office, smiling to himself as you were laughing with Courtney. Your smile was so beautiful and so infectious to him. If only he could find it in him to actually tell you that.

Your friendship meant the world to him. Shayne realized that he had feelings for you about a couple months after you guys met. The more he got to know you, the more his feelings grew for you. He knew he needed to tell you how he felt soon because he just needed to know if you might feel the same way.

“Yo, Shayne.” Damien called to Shayne, breaking him from his daydream. “Jesus, I’ve been trying to get your attention for 20 minutes.” He exaggerated with a knowing smile.

“Sorry, I was trying to think of how to finish this.” Shayne motioned to the computer in front of him.

“Come on, man, we both know that’s a lie. You were watching Y/N.” Shayne looked over to you to see if you heard Damien. “Don’t worry, she didn’t hear me. When are you gonna tell her?”

Shayne sighed and scrolled through the script page open on his computer.

“I don’t know.”

“Look, as a fellow anxiety sufferer, I get it. It’s feels scary.”

“It’s different with Y/N, and I don’t know why. Normally I could find it in me to at least ask for a date but I just--”

“It’s normal to really like someone and fear rejection. It a basic human fear. But you know you’re gonna have to tell her if you want to see where things go. She won’t be single forever.”

“I know.”

Damien stood up, patting his friend on the shoulder before he left the office to get some coffee from the kitchen.

“Hey Damien.” You greeted with a smile on your face as you went into the fridge.

“How’s it going?” Damien smiled back at you.

“Not too bad. I can’t complain. How are you?”

“Pretty good. Just trying to get that next sketch finished with Shayne.”

“Speaking of Shayne...is he okay? He’s just seemed a little spacey and frustrated earlier.”

“Oh yeah, he’s fine. He’s dealing with some stuff right now.”

Damien took a moment to really think if he should say what he wanted to say next. Maybe if he told you about Shayne you would take the pressure off his best friend and if you felt the same, you could ask Shayne out instead. Or he could make it look like this was all his doing because in reality, he was right now.

“So, hey, I was thinking about setting Shayne up with someone.” Damien continued casually, making his coffee the way he liked it. “Would you hate me for saying that I think you would be good for him?”

“Really?” You replied in surprise. “That’s big coming from his best friend.”

“Yeah, of course you. I think you would be good for him.”

“I don’t know...I don’t think he would see me as more than a friend.”

“Trust me, you don’t have to worry about that.”

Damien paused when he realized what he blurted out. Crap. He already kinda sorta spilled the beans. Well...that didn’t take long at all. Sorry Shayne...so so sorry.

“What do you mean?” You asked.

Wait, wait...was that hope Damien heard in your voice? Oh god, please. Please let it be. Despite possibly blowing this for Shayne, he really did mean it when he said that he thought you would be good for him. He still ended up sighing because he felt bad that he let the secret halfway out of the box...and was about to let it all out.

“Okay, look…” Damien put his coffee down on the counter. “He’s probably gonna kill me but he loves you, you know? He’s just afraid of admitting it.”

Your eyes widened in surprise. Love? Wow, how long has he been holding out on you?

“He loves me?”

Oh goddammit, Damien. Did you have to use the ‘L’ word? That’s it, no more coffee for him because apparently he didn’t start messing up until he drank any.

“How long has he had these feelings for me?” You asked.

Honestly, wow. You did not see that coming. You felt butterflies in your stomach and hope filled your heart. You had the biggest crush on Shayne and sometimes you swore it was obvious but maybe you hid it well enough to go undetected.

“Long enough.” Damien relented, deciding there was no point in hiding it. “I know he thought you were cute when you guys met but the longer you guys got to know each other…”

You nodded, understanding where he was going. You lightly smiled when you thought of the timeline because it matched up to yours.

“Can you let me talk to him? Like, don’t mention this conversation to him?” You smiled at Damien softly.

“Definitely.”

OH thank god. He didn’t mess this up.

“Thank you, Damien. Seriously.”

=================================

You waited to talk to Shayne. You didn’t want it to be obvious you had talked to Damien about it so time was important. You didn’t want to unintentionally rat out Damien.

Currently, you and Shayne were the only ones at the office at the moment. Damien and Courtney were both filming and you two weren’t expected on set for at least another hour.

“No, I think we can add that here.” Shayne told you, pointing to the paragraph on the page and moving his finger up halfway.

“Yeah, the joke would land better there.” You agreed, cutting the paragraph and pasting it back.

You looked over to Shayne. Maybe now would be a good time to talk to him about what Damien told you last week. You both had managed to finish sooner than expected so you had some free time.

“Hey, I wanted to talk to you about something.” You added before looking back to the computer, hitting the save button.

“Sure, what’s up?” Shayne asked, curiosity in his tone.

“I, uh--” Oh no...the nerves were kicking in. Why? Damien said Shayne had feelings for you so what are you nervous? “This may sound like it’s coming out of left field but I like you, like, really like you.”

Shayne’s heart started beating what felt like a million miles a second...you...you had feelings for him too?

“And I feel like I needed to say something because I didn’t want to possibly regret not telling you.”

“Y/N…” Shayne started, his nerves getting the best of him. Wait, what the hell? You basically did the hard work but he still had a rough time with it? “I--I don’t feel the same way--” WAIT WHAT? SHAYNE WHAT WERE YOU DOING?”

You heart sank...was Damien wrong? I mean, why would he lie about something like this? Did even Damien misread things? You took a shaky breath in and nodded.

“It’s okay. I understand.” You began to grab your things...you just needed to get out of there.

“Y/N, wait…” Shayne tried to stop you.

“I’ll see you on set, yeah?” You smiled at him sadly.

“Y/N--”

You were already out the door before he could correct himself.

=================================

“Are you serious?” Damien asked Shayne.

“I don’t know what happened, I panicked and that’s what came out.” Shayne said.

“Oh Shayne--”

“I know, I know.”

“You need to make this right.”

“How? I don’t think she wants to talk to me right now. I just hurt her feelings.”

“You can fix it by straightening up the misunderstanding. You do it or I will.”

“Look, I’ll give it until tomorrow.”

“Why wouldn’t you wanna try now?”

“Because like I said. She wouldn’t want to talk to me right now. She needs some space.”

Damien shook his head and before he could just ignore what Shayne said, they were called to set...unfortunately there wasn’t a chance for them to talk after that.

=================================

Turns out you had a date the next night with a friend of Courtney’s and Shayne didn’t take to that very well. You decided to work from home that day so he couldn’t fix it or he can at least tell you why you couldn’t go out on that date.

Thing was, you decided not to go out on that date. You decided it would be best to stay home and sort out your feelings instead of acting on a bad impulse. It wouldn’t be fair to Courtney’s friend if you chose to go out with him because you were hurting after what happened with Shayne.

You were watching Schitt’s Creek on Netflix when your phone rang. You paused it and grabbed your phone seeing Shayne’s name on the Caller ID. Should you answer? Yeah. Of course. It could be important because normally he’d just text you.

“Hello?” You answered.

“Y/N…” Shayne voice sang on the other line, followed by a laugh. “Oh Y/N...yer so beauful.” He slurred.

“Are you drinking, Shayne?”

“No, no. I finished. Im callin cause Damimen--Damin--Damien? Yeah Damien said to. He hope you can give us a ride home.”

“Why can’t he?”

“He doesn drink much...but he did wif me so he cant drive.”

“Where are you?”

=================================

“I’m sorry, Y/N.” Damien said from the passenger’s seat. He wasn’t as drunk as Shayne but he had enough to keep him from driving.

“It’s okay, Damien. Better this than you guys driving home.” You replied with a small shrug. “So thanks for being responsible and not getting yourselves hurt or killed.”

“Y/N…” Shayne called from the back seat. “I messt up.”

“It’s fine, Shayne.” You couldn’t help but smile. Drunk Shayne was new to you and it was funny.

“Nooo...no s’not. I really like you.” He cleared his throat before continuing. “I think I’m in love with you and that scares me half to death.”

Damien smiled in shock as he looked towards Shayne. Finally. Also, he managed to get that out with a slur. Impressive. He then looked over to you to your shocked face as well.

“Wh--why didn’t you just say that yesterday after I told you how I felt?” You asked as you turned to face him at the red light.

“I panicked. I been waitin to hear that then I said what I said. M’sorry.”

These past 24 hours have been a rollercoaster on your emotions. But in a sense, it was worth it because Shayne fucking felt the same way. It was happening. You quickly wiped at the tears brimming your eyes as you turned to face the stop light, a small smile on your face.

==================================

“Hey.” Shayne greeted you when you answered your front door, nervous smile on his face.

“Hey. Come in.” You said, moving aside so he could come in.

“Thanks for last night. I’m so sorry about you dealing with drunk me.”

“Drunk you was hilarious. But how are you feeling?”

“Well, I woke up feeling like I was hit by a bus but I’m slowly getting better.”

“Good.”

“So about last night. I meant what I said. And I’m sorry I made you believe that I didn’t like you back.”

“It’s okay. Really, Shayne. I got into my own head and didn’t let you finish.”

“It’s not your fault.” Shayne took a step closer to you and took your hands in his. “I’m just glad to know you feel the same way about me. With that being said, can I take you out tonight?”

“Of course you can.”

You couldn’t help but close the gap between the two of you and lean in. Shayne met you halfway, his lips meeting yours in a gentle kiss.

#smosh imagine #shayne topp x reader #shayne topp imagine #shayne topp

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houseofzoey · 4 years

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Characters

Zoey To no one’s surprise, Zoey didn’t do much in this book. And that should be justifiable! She just learned that her mom died, right on the heels of Jack’s death and the complicated separation into a second House of Night. Zoey taking a more passive role in this book should feel natural and be easily sympathized with.

But, like with Awakened, Zoey has always been a very passive character, so this doesn’t feel earned or even different from usual. She complains about and resents her responsibilities just as much as she always has – I’m not even sure I can honestly say she cries more, because she does a lot of that in past books, too. As cold as it sounds, grief comes across as another excuse for Zoey to sulk and moan and refuse to address her problems until they become unavoidable.

And boy did she avoid problems in this book! Or, rather, she avoided easy solutions and obvious paths forward. Nyx sends her a vision of her mother’s spirit entering the Otherworld? Zoey doesn’t contact her Grandma or say much of anything to anyone about it. Zoey sees Stark seemingly possessed via the seer stone, including a moment where it looks like he might attack her? Nope! Not gonna talk about it, try to make sense of it, or make any effort at intervention and preventing future incidents. Zoey knows Aurox is old magic, a servant of Neferet, and generally feels super weird around him? Well, better not look through the seer stone to find out what exactly he is because that sounds stressful and scary!

This is bad enough on its own, but this sort of inaction is supported (even mandated) by other characters. Lenobia, for example, fully supports Zoey choosing not to look through the seer stone at Aurox, and dismisses what Zoey saw with Stark as some sort of residual affect of being in the Otherworld. There’s no push for Zoey to investigate or even really worry about these things – that’s inconvenient and uncomfortable for Zoey, and therefore it’s unfair and unreasonable to expect her to actually do anything.

None of this is meant to be a flaw on Zoey’s part, nor does she ever face real consequences for this sort of inaction or apathy. Zoey failing to accomplish anything isn’t a matter of character development; it’s a plotting technique. The author didn’t want the mystery of Aurox to be resolved until the climax, so Zoey refuses to look at him through the seer stone. But it doesn’t matter if these writing decisions were plot-driven or character-driven – the end result reflects on the character, and it reflects poorly. Which is stupid, because all the author had to do was come up with an actual reason for Zoey not to use the seer stone (maybe every time she has used it has backfired or hurt her in some way), or outside interference that prevents her from using it or prevents it from working when directed at Aurox.

Stevie Rae For the last several books, the central conflict of Stevie Rae’s arc has been her and Rephaim’s relationship, because they’re meant to be enemies and had to keep their relationship secret. Now that Rephaim has been gifted with a human body from Nyx and they no longer have to hide their relationship, her personal conflict is… still centered on Rephaim.

This doesn’t even accomplish anything or create an avenue of growth for her, either. Stevie Rae’s conflict is being sad about Rephaim turning into a bird right before she goes to bed, and being frustrated that he wants to have a real relationship with his father. Both these points become overdone very quickly, and are resolved with no real affect on Stevie Rae’s character. She just sorta… decides not to be upset about Rephaim transforming anymore, and all their arguing about Kalona is for naught because – surprise! – Kalona was a good father deep down this whole time. (We’ll get to that.)

One could argue that these two character conflicts center on Stevie Rae’s protectiveness of Rephaim and fear of losing him now that he’s finally hers. Which… okay. There isn’t much build-up or background for this to make sense with, but it’s not an inherently illogical concern for her to struggle with. The problem is that she 1000% contradicts this when it makes the least sense. Aphrodite has a vision foretelling Rephaim’s death, knows the exact setting and situation in which it will happen, and Stevie Rae steadfastly refuses to listen to this warning and insists that Rephaim still has to accompany them to the ritual out of completely baseless paranoia that he’ll get hurt if he’s left alone in the tunnels.

So far, in this girl-power, matriarchal, feminist fantasy series, two of the most important female leads have absolutely no agency on the plot, and one of them has all her conflict centered around the problems of her boyfriend.

The Twins Actual separate arcs! Sort of.

Shaunee apparently has a tumultuous relationship with her parents, especially her father – but we literally have no hint of this in previous books. She talks about her parents uncritically, including reference to them visiting her, and had no qualms about calling people out for being messed up by bad relationships with their parents (especially Aphrodite).

Erin is suffering the early stages of complete and utter character sabotage. She’s shown as cold, shallow, and unfeeling, but has never (intentionally) been written with these traits previously. She was written with the same traits as Shaunee, who is portrayed in an extremely positive light.

Erin, or course, doesn’t understand Shaunee’s sympathy toward Rephaim and his conflict with his father, and had no idea about Shaunee’s similar familial problems. This creates a rift between them, which could have been interest, but the conflict is given way more weight than it warrants, especially because the Twins have barely been present in the last several books. It just becomes too drawn out and melodramatic, which results in it having no actual emotional impact.

Also, it ends up pointless, at least to the overarching plot of this book. Their falling out has no impact on the reveal ritual or any other aspect of the climax.

Damien Damien still doesn’t have any real role in the plot, personal arc, or any sense of agency within the story. For this book, he was sort of a parallel for Zoey’s grief (though obviously Zoey’s grief was much more profound than his, because she’s Zoey and that’s how the world works). I mean, honestly, it felt like that was his whole purpose – to be tragic.

This series has certainly delved into the trope of Gay Tragedy before – Damien has a terrible relationship with his parents, he was bullied, the last book had a Bury Your Gays subplot, etc. – but it feels extra emphasized now. Previously, Damien was at least allowed to be fabulous and sassy and fashion-savvy about half the time he was being stereotyped, but now the majority of the focus on his sexuality is on how tragic it is that Jack died. It functions as an extension of the Bury Your Gays trope, and it just makes the whole situation worse.

That’s not to say that we aren’t still treated to other gay stereotypes, of course. Damien is, as always, called Queen, and Jack is in the gay section of the Otherworld doing arts and crafts and watching Project Runway. But Jack dying created a void in the series’ staple stereotypes. Rather than let that be, the author decided to fill in the gaps – by having Damien suddenly take on Jack’s traits, such as carrying a “manpurse”, even though that was never part of his character previously All this tells me is that P.C. Cast sees her gay characters as monolithic and interchangeable, which is not a good look for anyone.

Stark Remember the previous book, when Stark’s one point of growth was about embracing his affinity and not letting his fear of his Dark side hold him back from his Goddess-given gift? Well, forget all that! There is one single instance where Stark has his bow at the ready, but he doesn’t actually fire it once in this entire book – not even during the climax, when Aurox shows up in bull form and tries to kill Rephaim. In fact, based on descriptions of that scene, Stark doesn’t even have his bow with him! No, instead he’s using a sword, which he is significantly less skilled with and – oh yeah – cannot instakill someone at range with.

But, as with Zoey and her refusal to use the seer stone, this isn’t meant to be a reflection of Stark’s character or personal conflicts or anything of that sort. It’s just the author finding excuses to prevent quick and simple solutions to the problems she has laid out in the book. It doesn’t matter that this completely contradicts Stark’s growth in the previous book because this isn’t supposed to have anything to do with Stark; he’s collateral damage to the needs of the plot.

He does have another subplot, though, which was introduced in the previous book. Kalona is still using the sliver of soul he gave to Stark to enter into his dreams and manipulate him. He mostly uses this connection to spy on Stark’s dreams and vicariously have sex with Zoey. This is built up as something very dangerous, considering the first scene in the book is Zoey seeing a shadow overtake Stark’s form and make him summon his sword. If Kalona can do that to Stark, then that spells huge trouble for our heroes – especially Zoey, who shares a bed with him and is therefore close to him when he is most vulnerable to being controlled.

But this subplot is just… dropped. Nothing comes of it. Not even the tension and unease it creates between him and Zoey amounts to anything. They have a couple spats, he feels tired and grumpy for a while, and then it’s over with no real consequence.

Rephaim In talking about Stevie Rae, I already talked about Rephaim’s core conflict: wanting his father’s love. It gets repetitive extremely fast, isn’t handled in a very interesting or thoughtful manner, and ultimately ends with this weird feeling that abuse should be forgiven as long as the parent tells their child they love them.

We also get to see Rephaim navigating life as a human for the first time, which is… entirely squandered. We get no culture shock, not displays of oddities or misunderstandings, no struggle with arbitrary rules of the classroom when he attends school for the first time, etc. No, Rephaim adapts flawlessly. The conflict for this portion of the story instead comes from ~*bullying*~. And by bullying, I mean Dallas being mad at Rephaim for winning Stevie Rae’s heart and the two of them fighting over her, because this plotline has not been done to death in this series and is a great girl power message.

Kalona I already explained the pointlessness of his soul-connection to Stark and how unceremoniously that subplot is dropped without consequence, so I won’t get into that too much here.

What’s more important for this book is Kalona’s relationship with Rephaim. Or, more importantly, how much he misses having Rephaim at his side and wishes for him to return. This is framed as nefarious. But Kalona doesn’t actually do anything bad or cruel to this end. He has Nisroc and Maion politely speak with Rephaim and ask him to be a spy, he mopes constantly, and he borrows a cell phone from Shaunee so he can call his son. He even agrees to a truce with Zoey to help her take down Neferet!

None of this feels villainous, but the book also isn’t doing enough work to make him truly sympathetic. For one thing, the whole point of his “redemptive” moment at the end of Awakened was that he gave Rephaim the freedom to make his own choices and pursue his own path. The importance of this moment and its push toward his ultimate redemption is shown by him shedding a single white feather. But if Kalona immediately goes back on his word the next day and starts trying to pressure Rephaim into returning to his side, then what was the point of that? He’s just completely counteracted the small amount of growth he showed in the previous book.

But wait! There’s more! In my final thoughts for Awakened, I also talked about how that scene didn’t even make sense as a redemptive moment because Kalona’s role as a villain was never about him being a bad father; it was about the atrocities he committed against the Cherokee. Well, this book continues that! His big moments at the end are a) him not hitting Nisroc and thanking him for his support and loyalty, and b) apologizing to Rephaim, asserting that he will always be his son, and crying over his body. But having his role as a father be the locus of his change toward good completely dismisses all that he did to the Cherokee, effectively rendering their deaths and suffering unimportant. You can’t make up for crimes against humanity by telling your son you love him.

He also declares himself the new Sword Master of the school and swears a Warrior’s Oath to Thanatos for… some reason. Becoming Sword Master is one thing – he was a Warrior to Nyx and is skilled enough in combat that it’s not unreasonable to say he could pass those skills on to students – but why swear an Oath? Dragon didn’t do that with Neferet, so why should Kalona do that for Thanatos? He barely even knows her and this is not a casual or reversible bond to form.

Aphrodite As with the previous book, Aphrodite doesn’t offer anything to the story except abrasiveness and bigotry. The casual homophobia is there, as always, but now we have the added bonus of ableist ranting! Better yet, it’s clearly done vicariously for the author, given how closely it parallels a similar rant the author posted on her blog months before this book came out.

I mean, I guess she technically also contributes to the plot through her vision, but… Well, no, she doesn’t. She has a vision, everyone makes a big deal about it, and then it’s promptly ignored. The message of the vision was clear: Rephaim should not go to the reveal ritual at Grandma’s farm. But no one heeds this warning, so Rephaim still goes with them. The vision could have been completely omitted and nothing would have changed. Which just makes Aphrodite worse than useless in this book.

Erik There’s literally no reason for Erik to be in this book, and certainly no reason for him to have an entire chapter from his perspective. He Marks a fledgling and she’s red instead of blue. That’s it. That’s all he offers. As soon as that’s done, he vanishes from the book.

And it’s not like Shaylin ends up being super important to the book, either! She’s built up as significant, what with her affinity for True Sight and Kramisha’s latest poem mentioning True Sight, but that turned out to be a very nonsensical misdirect. All Shaylin actually does is state blatantly obvious things about people by reading their auras. She doesn’t even participate in the reveal ritual, despite the poem implying that she’ll be important!

But Shaylin is still a very special character. She was blind, giving us about 2.5 minutes of disability rep before being magically cured when she’s Marked. And of course she’s grateful and this is the greatest thing ever and she never wants to go back to being blind because everyone knows living with a disability must mean abject misery, even though she’s been blind most of her life and should have found it extremely disorienting and disconcerting to suddenly be able to see again. There’s some lip service paid to the idea that Neferet is cruel for saying Shaylin was Marked red because she was “broken” as a human, but it doesn’t really land because the way this whole subplot is constructed seems to agree with her. Shaylin’s blindness isn’t just something that made her different – it’s a hardship that vampyrism freed her from. The fact that there isn’t a convincing alternative explanation (“Erik said the words wrong” doesn’t make any sense) only makes it more believable that, in the logic of this series, Shaylin was broken due to her blindness and her being Marked red is a consequence of that brokenness.

Neferet I consistently wonder if the author ever had a clear idea of what she wanted for Neferet. Obviously she planned for Neferet to be the villain, but to what end? What are Neferet’s goals? What does her ideal future look like? What motivates her? You can have a simplistic or clichéd villain and still tell a good story, but neither of those terms exactly describe Neferet because I don’t know what she’s trying to accomplish or why.

Now, this book does declare her evil plot: to create such chaos and disruption that Nyx herself must intervene, thereby defying her golden rule of free will and non-interference, which will lay the ground work for Neferet to oust Nyx and become a goddess in her own right. But this just doesn’t work. For one thing, where was this desire for chaos in previous books? Even as recently as Tempted, Neferet sought the most ordered possible avenue for power – the High Council. She was using official channels to achieve official power, and she was already calling herself Nyx Incarnate in the process. Then she wanted to start a war with humans as means of destroying the High Council, which would create a power vacuum for her to fill so she could start a war with humans. This didn’t make any sense, because the author didn’t think it through or, like, say it out loud in plain terms, but it was an idea that still clearly involved using power structures to her advantage. Now she just… wants to create general confusion and unrest.

And it’s not even like she creates chaos effectively. Like, I could buy the argument that war is a form of chaos and that pursuing chaos in its own right is a natural extension of that idea, but that’s not even remotely close to what Neferet tries to do in this book. Her idea of chaos is bringing human staff into the House of Night to cause confusion and unrest, and inviting the rogue red fledglings back to classes so they can butt heads with Zoey and co. That’s not chaos; that’s being a mild annoyance!

Neferet is supposed to be intelligent and calculating, but this comes across less and less as the series goes on, and the subplot with Aurox is a prime example of that. She was told in plain terms that Aurox would be flawed because she failed to provide the appropriate sacrifice for his creation. So when Aurox starts to show shortcomings (such as feeling emotions or saving Zoey from a falling branch), Neferet should logically conclude that this is a result of the flaw in his design, right? NOPE! She either ignores it entirely or assumes it’s part of a clever scheme the white bull concocted to help her.

Then there’s the fact that she’s just a really ineffective antagonist, which is only made worse by her reliance on Darkness. Succumbing to the temptation of the power of Darkness was supposed to make her stronger, more formidable, but through most of this book Neferet was consistently unable to do what she wanted because Darkness refused to obey without an appropriate sacrifice. And I mean, like, Darkness refused to do very simple acts, often in contradiction with past events in the series. Neferet can’t request that a branch fall from a tree and crush Zoey because Zoey is a High Priestess and requires an equally powerful sacrifice to kill – even though Neferet killed Shekinah, the High Priestess of High Priestesses, with absolutely no issue. It’s hard to feel intimidated or tense about a villain who just can’t do anything because of the restrictive nature of her powers, especially when you contrast it with the seemingly limitless nature of the heroes’ powers.

Nyx

Why continue giving Zoey visions when she consistently dismisses them/assumes they’re just a weird dream? Would it not be more effective to appear before Zoey in a vision or a dream and just directly, plainly tell her what’s going on? I’ve harped on the ineffectiveness of vague visions and messages before, but it’s especially egregious in Zoey’s case because she so consistently ignores them. Plus, Nyx has appeared and spoken directly to Zoey before, so it’s not like there’s no precedent.

Why trap Zoey and her friends in the circle after they had completed the reveal ritual? Why require a death sacrifice for that ritual? How does this make Nyx any different from the white bull, who also requires death sacrifices for rituals but is upfront about it and won’t allow the ritual to be completed or power to be granted before the sacrifice is made?

If Nyx was trying to tell Zoey she should use the seer stone in the poem Kramisha wrote, why did she reference True Sight? A Seer Stone and True Sight are completely separate things.

Nyx speaks directly through Aphrodite at the ritual when Aurox is attacking Rephaim, but she doesn’t actually help. She just warns them not to break the circle. Why does Nyx have to be the one to intervene and say that – everyone else present, especially Zoey and Thanatos, should know that leaving the circle will ruin everything they’ve done thus far and prevent the reveal ritual from being completed. If Nyx was there to help them, why not grant them some insight or ability to stop Aurox, or at least help him revert to his natural form? Or, better yet, why not make it so they can at least call on their affinities from within the circle to fight Aurox and protect Rephaim?

Nyx thinks religious headscarves are so inherently oppressive that she would use them as punishment by having a sexist, abusive man reincarnate into the body of a Muslim woman. But she lets Rephaim have a human body after years of rape and murder because he loves his girlfriend and said he would be a good boy now. This is completely contradictory, not to mention Islamophobia.

Just like Nyx gives feminine affinities to gay men, she has a whole section of the Otherworld dedicated to being Gay Stereotype Heaven, apparently.

Nyx will show up to forgive Rephaim, but she won’t publicly denounce Neferet, nor will she appear to declare that Neferet is lying when she claims that Aurox is a gift from the Goddess.

#final thoughts #destined #house of zoey

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eoleolhan-a · 4 years

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I am STILL on my MonProm bullshit bc I’m grinding through Monster Camp so let’s do some more headcanons! This time it’s gonna be Jin’s opinions on the some of the more prominent characters from the two games, and what I think their relationships (platonic or otherwise) could be like. Obviously these are just my opinions, anyone who has any of these muses is free to disagree, ofc. I won’t include player characters (yet, maybe once Reverse comes out I will update) since the PC personality is kind of fluid to interpretation and change based on the player. There are spoilers for both Monster Prom and Monster Camp regarding main and side characters.

This is in alphabetical order just to make it easy to navigate.

Aaravi

He doesn’t trust her, straight up. She’s a monster slayer with a history of targeting demons and even with her therapy and growth in Monster Camp he’s wary. He’s worried she would turn on him and try to slay him too. He steers clear when possible but could learn to trust her if he could see her progress with monsterkind more directly.

Batniss

He really doesn’t know what she’s talking about most of the time. The main character thing is weird to him, but at least she’s interesting. He respects her combat skills and her archery prowess.

Calculester

He thinks Cal is cute, in the way someone thinks a puppy is cute. He’s just so clueless sometimes it’s endearing, like watching a baby giraffe take its first steps. On the other hand, though, something about this sentient computer robot is a bit uncanny. Since Cal is generally so nice, though, he tries not to let the whole “potential robot uprising/singularity” thing bother him.

Dahlia

He has absolutely no interest in being anywhere near Dahlia because of her reputation as a warmonger. He thinks she’s dangerous and doesn’t want to risk being the one who gives her the idea to try and invade the 2nd Circle. He absolutely doesn’t trust her, and is honestly a bit afraid of her. If he were able to give her a chance (ie probably forced to do school or camp things with her, or if they had mutual friends for some reason) he could grow to appreciate her determination and at times enjoy her exuberant personality. She has the capability to grow on him if given the chance.

Damien

Similar to Dahlia, he distrusts Damien. He knows of the LaVeys, and as mentioned in my big ol 2nd Circle/Cubi lore post sees their whole “we made love popular” reputation as a bit unearned (because I’m sorta canon divergent, but see that post for the details of that). He also doesn’t want anyone from the 8th Circle’s royal family to get anywhere near the 2nd Circle lest they try to take that over, too. He would also probably resent having to go to school or camp with a prince from Hell juuuust a bit, especially since Damien is considered one of the coolest/most well known students/campers. He would be envious of Damien’s wealth and status since that’s something he lacks, which colours Jin’s perception of him. He doesn’t know about Damien’s softer side, so he sees him as abrasive, dangerous, and annoying. Like Dahlia, if he were to give him a chance though he’d grow to like him, especially his fondness for hairstyling and makeup since Jin enjoys the latter (and being fashionable in general). He does, however, reluctantly admit that Damien is indeed hot even if he is an annoying LaVey baby.

Dmitri

Jin doesn’t really know Dmitri but he knows of him. He doesn’t really care about whatever the Coven is doing, but hey at least Dmitri is a hot vampire who never seems to wear a shirt. He doesn’t mind seeing him hanging around because he’s easy on the eyes. Jin would probably find his dramatic villain monologuing and cape swishing a bit funny.

Faith

Out of the Coven members he would probably like Faith the most. She seems pretty relaxed and chill, and he would respect her intelligence and skill as a witch. In general he appreciates the Coven’s colour scheme and fashion sense, though.

Hex

He thinks Hex is straight up irritating but if he was high then he’d probably like their company more.

Hope

His feelings towards Hope are similar to Faith. He isn’t all that bothered with their Coven shenanigans but does respect them. He would be confused by all of the Hope reincarnations but he doesn’t have much of a problem with her. She seems nice enough.

Interdimensional Prince

Although he can be kind of weird at times (maybe even a bit creepy) Jin has to admit the idea of being whisked off to another dimension by some handsome anime-alien-looking prince is kind of appealing. He would like the attention and ego-boost it would cause if the Prince ever flirted with him.

Joy

Jin would enjoy her company. They’d probably get along, but he does find her “main character saving the world” thing to be a bit Intense at times. Despite that he think’s she’s smart and cool and likes being around her, especially given how wild some of their classmates/campmates can be.

Kale

They smoke weed together and vibe. That’s all. 10/10.

Leonard

Jin wants to kick him in the face so hard that he flies into the sun. -10/10.

Liam

Usually he likes Liam and likes being around him. He appreciates his creativity and sense of taste, but sometimes Liam can be a bit pretentious and annoying. That’s fairly manageable though, and sometimes he’s quite the breath of fresh air compared to some of the more exuberant characters he encounters. Jin would especially enjoy indulging in fancy, rare artsy gourmet food so Liam could take pictures of it and he could eat it.

Milo

Out of everyone, Jin is fondest of Milo. Their sense of style, taste (wine and cheese platters? yes please), flirtatious streak (and not to mention good looks) would have Jin swooning. He would also find their personality a lot more calm in comparison to some of the other monsters at camp. The only annoyance would be Milo’s constant attachment to their phone and their somewhat self-centred nature. It takes attention away from Jin, after all. Competing egos.

Miranda

Jin likes Miranda most of the time. Sometimes he thinks her royal merfolk ways are a bit confusing, and he is a bit distrustful of foreign royalty in general but less so of Miranda; he doesn’t see any reason why the Merkingdom would attack the Cubi or really have much to do with them at all, but he knows that royal life can be vicious. He does find it interesting to hear about the culture and society of the Merkingdom, though. He also appreciates her manners and poise. Plus, they’re both pink so he’s a bit biased in that regard. Sometimes he does find the more murderous aspects of the Merkingdom a bit unsightly, and it can be a little frustrating at times trying to explain commoner things to her. He doesn’t like that he would sometimes feel a bit condescended or spoken down to by her, but sometimes this has more to do with his perception than anything she would be saying or doing.

Morty

He likes looking at Morty but his personality is a bit too self absorbed and intense even for Jin. Still, he appreciates the confidence and the sex positive energy. Sexual tension always makes rivalries better so Morty is a perfect candidate for Camp Rival Camp in Jin’s opinion and his presence is at least entertaining and engaging. Also he quite likes the heart-hole shorts, a bold fashion statement.

Polly

Polly is fun to be around. She can be boisterous, but at least she knows how to have a good time. Jin also likes that she isn’t bloodthirsty or a war criminal or something, so in theory they could just hang out like normal monsters/people. It doesn’t hurt that she can get good drugs, too.

Scott

Scott is a himbo, Jin likes himbos. Case closed. In all seriousness, he would find Scott endearing because of his good nature and cheerful personality. Sometimes his airheaded antics can be a bit annoying, but he knows Scott means well. Jin thinks Scott would be a good friend because he seems honest, loyal, and kind. Those are also qualities that would make him a good date, plus he’s a big cute wolfman who Jin wants to pet in more ways than one.

Valerie

He respects the hustle and the on campus hook-up for all sorts of oddities. Plus she’s Vera’s sister, and he has mostly positive feelings about her so by relation he thinks Valerie is pretty alright. Also soft because cat.

Vera

Vera is intimidating but he respects her, in a sense. As someone who isn’t affluent he’s more wary of her scams and often disapproves if he thinks it’s taking advantage of vulnerable people, but so long as she’s scamming rich people he’s down for it. He definitely thinks she’s smart and an interest conversationalist.

Wolfpack

Bad, stinky, 0/10. Only tolerable because of their connection to Scott but otherwise obnoxious.

Zoe

Last but not least, Jin would like Zoe. He’d appreciate her creativity and particularly her ship fics. They would have a good time talking about crushes, who should date who, and the latest books in their respective favourite series (or perhaps shared shows or books). She also tells Leonard to shove it and since he wants to punt the kappa into the sun he likes that a lot.

#yes im still on my bullllshiiiiiit #hc #ooc #v; monster mash

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