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koolades-world · 1 year

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Demons and Humans not understanding each other

Inspired by several other posts I read about this same thing <3 honestly even if the brothers insisted it was safe, I would consult Satan, Lucifer or Barbatos

this is mostly mammon freaking out

Humans think the deadliest things are like, adorable, like Cerberus. Mammon especially does not understand why Mc wants to run towards the very dangerous, very mad three headed dog. A few times he has had to throw Mc over his shoulder to keep them from staying behind

“MC CERBERUS BEING THE BEST BOY DOES NOT JUSTIFY HIS ACTIONS HE WANTS TO KILL US”

“But he’s so cute! He just needs a snuggle buddy”

Humans can also be very stubborn if they’re too hot or cold but refuse to admit it. It’s fine with Lucifer does it because he’s one of the most powerful and therefore resilient demons in Hell, but not so much when Mc does it. Beel and Mammon love playing in the Devildom snow, but given that it’s the Devildom, it’s definitely a lot colder than it is in the human realm. Even after ten layers, Mc is still freezing but refuses to admit it.

“Mc, are ya shivering? I thought ya would be too warm under all that”

“I’m sweating with this one jacket”

“I’ll live! Let’s go back to the snowman”

“no I don’t think you will”

On the same note, sometimes demons forget humans can’t withstand crazy temperatures. Asmo will invite Mc to a popular bathhouse, sauna or hot springs, forgetting that the temperature would literally boil Mc alive

“Hey Asmo this is the place you wanted to go, right?”

“Yes! Isn’t is cute?”

“Everything except the part where I boil alive”

“what!”

Some foods can kill humans just by being near them so imagine how the brother would feel when they learned this, it’s giving that lunatic pudding incident with Diavolo from that one card

“Mc! You’ll love this. Open wide!”

“Asmo I feel funny”

“DO NOT FEED MC THE TAKEOUT LUCIFER SAID ITS DEADLY FOR HUMANS IN LARGE AMOUNTS”

“FUCK NOT AGAIN”

In retrospect, humans probably sleep a lot compared to demons. Some demons probably don’t sleep at all, except Sloth demons. Setting aside about eight to nine hours of the day just to sit idly might not make sense to them until they learn they will shut down without it

“How are you feeling about the exam we just took? Exam week is finally over.”

“Mc? Mc, Satan is talking to you. Why are you on the floor”

“MY HUMAN IS DEAD”

“No, I think they’re just asleep idiot”

“oh. wait, THEYRE ASLEEP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE HALL lucifer is gonna kill me”

I’d say both demons and humans are social creatures, but humans will go insane without social interaction. Yeah a demon would probably be upset if they didn’t talk to someone for thousands of years but I don’t think a human could last more than ten without losing grip on reality. Humans tend to copy each other, which is probably bizarre to demons. Humans don’t even understand yawning so demons definitely won’t

Going back to the food thing, demons can probably go ages without eating, besides Gluttony demons. Humans need to eat so frequently compared to them

“So you’re tellin’ me that if Mc doesn’t eat for a whole week, their insides start to eat themselves?!”

“Yes. But, Mc ate a few hours ago.”

(Mammon was already gone when Satan turned back around)

Demons probably also play game that would definitely kill humans. My brother and I used to play crazy games when we were little (our favorite game didn’t have a name but we would put Barbies in the toy train tracks and see what would happen when different Thomas and friends character would hit her. The train tracks would glow in the dark! I did not let him put my favorite doll in the train track and he had to listen since I was the older one, she was not a barbie and had bendy feet? that’s not for now) but we never seriously got at each other throats. I cannot imagine what games demons and demon children must play. Satan was born fully grown but imagine if he was born little and the brothers had to play his favorite games with him. I feel like they would find the Barbie game I played a little weird too. Like, they would probably tell me that I should’ve done it in real life since that would be better experience or something batshit like that

“Aww, Satan, do you remember all the times we played “Five minute eye stab” with Lucifer? You were so cute. Sometimes I think Luci let you win.”

“Do not talk to me Asmodeus.”

“I’m sorry, you played what?”

“One time we gave him an actual knife by accident and since he was good, he ended up stabbing Lucifer’s eye.”

“You’ll be next if you don’t shut up and let me read”

“HE WHAT”

“Oh he’s fine now, clearly. Only took him a few hundred years to regain normal eye functions”

“Can we not talk about this anymore?”

Babe it is a miracle Mc is still alive

#obey me #obey me!#obey me belphie #obey me satan #obey me asmo #obey me beel #obey me levi #obey me mammon #obey me luficer #obey me x reader #obey me x you #obey me x mc #obey me mc

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topazias · 2 months

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a thousand faces in a thousand places

synopsis: the housewardens with a Sparkle (from honkai: star rail) reader. (headcanons)

gn!reader + reader is not yuu

RIDDLE ROSEHEARTS

uhm! 😨 (scared)

there is not a single universe where this man, pre-overblot, did not hate you.

so, how did you two meet? considering your mysterious, yet still childish personality- you probably got sorted into heartslabyul!

you’re basically like alice but.. so. much. worse.

pre-overblot he’d, most likely, be very cross with you.

do you know how many times you’ve been off-with-your-head-ed? because it’s happened a LOT. and i mean, a lot a lot.

you were in and out of everywhere, were rather cryptic, and had a strong mischievous streak.

how could he NOT be annoyed? smh.

though, post-overblot, i think he’d be more relaxed.

of course, he’d still be exasperated, but not to the level of annoyance he had before. progress, woop woop !!!

LEONA KINGSCHOLAR

i am still scared. not for you, but for leona.

he’d be annoyed, i suppose. you’re like a creepy, more out there, more literally insane version of ruggie.

so, how did you two meet? it’s similar to how yuu and the lion met, actually. except.. there’s kind of a difference.

whereas yuu stepped on his tail (by accident!), causing leona to go “ooh i’m gonna eat you” like a shark on steroids, YOU were the one who.. tried to eat him.

picture this, leona sleeping on the botanical garden, you seeing his tail and immediately going

how romantic a meeting! be still, my heart! meetcute who?

you immediately started laughing hysterically when his startled awake gaze met your terribly amused eyes, so the impression you left to him.. eh.

you probably started a “Call Leona ‘Unca Weona’” trend on MagiTok (that cater undoubtedly joined in on), so he’s probably pretty annoyed at you.

— you’ve also probably used his money to fund some performances.

AZUL ASHENGROTTO

“you have bewitched me body and soul. 🤩” “HOW DID YOU GET INTO MY HOUSE”

he’s probably mildly terrified of you and your absolutely horrendous schemes.

so, how did this lovely pair meet? WELL.

azul, doing paperwork in his office or whatever he does, looking like he sniffs lint, jolts when jade enters abruptly.

it’s unlike the eel’s usual respectful manner, so he’s pretty confused, immediately going “what is it?”

a sheepish jade smiles awkwardly and goes to say something like, “blah blah vanished into thin air before they could pay.”

azul is BEWILDERED. vanished??

so, obviously, righteously wanting his money, he tells jade and floyd to go look for you.

they did not find you.

fun.

KALIM AL-ASIM

he has a new bestie now!

you two are great friends, your chaotic (one more so than the other) tendencies and fun-loving personalities make you a great pair.

jamil would say otherwise.

you two go on happy little excursions around the campus, terrorizing a few people here and there, and honestly just having the time of your lives.

he was so glad you weren’t his friend just for his wealth, but because you liked his personality as he liked yours.

though, you, as someone who can only have their interest piqued by amusement, didn’t understand why he’d think you were using him.

you wear the most stupid matching shirts (that kalim bought and jamil tacitly approved) and walk around, happily playing and leaving only destruction in your wake.

VIL SCHOENHEIT

you’re fashionable, he likes you.

with your skill in acting, you’re probably in the film studies club, which is most likely how you two met.

he admires your.. cough, dedication. and he also thinks your personality is a bit (is it?👀).

“your dedication to being you is admirable.” “hehe thanks but wtf🥰”

as literally everyone is, kalim not included, he’s pretty exasperated by your chaos-causing tendencies and unhinged personality.

illusion magic is your jam, so just imagine how shocked he was when looking into his mirror and seeing your evilly-grinning visage instead of his own face.

(rook approves.)

talking about rook, a curious vil had asked the hunter to.. stalk you for a while, because he was confused if you were really the person you portrayed yourself as.

a laughing rook gave the report that you had found him out and asked if he was close to his housewarden because he stripped himself naked and apologized for his crime of liking neige.

vil is flabbergasted.

IDIA SHROUD

on one hand, he’s terrified, and on the other- he thinks you’re funny.

you come up with the most unhinged insults, and you always get the last word- he thinks you’re admirable.

your level of extrovertness is shocking to him.

first kalim, now you? he is Shaking His Head™.

how you first met doesn’t matter, what matters is what he accidentally said when first meeting you and having a good short chat.

“mesugaki..” he mumbled in the middle of your sentence.

your ears were good. his ears were working well enough to hear his own damn self.

he wants to cry. he wants to dig a hole in the ground and bury himself in it.

“hikikomori.” you immediately responded.

critical hit! idia will have to stay inside his room for three weeks, tell ortho he loves him..

you’d say you two get along well, idia would say otherwise.

MALLEUS DRACONIA

he enjoys your rambunctious personality. he’s normally chilling quietly in the corner, so having you drag him around probably does wonders for how people see him.

he approves (sebek does NOT).

he’s sometimes concerned. he knows humans don’t live long, will you Doing What You Do somehow make your lifespan even shorter?

you’re just being you and he’s standing menacingly right beside you. imagine how that looks to other people.

your local terrorist gremlin and THE malleus draconia. standing next to eachother. chilling.

you probably call him “that guy with the horns”, or something more animal aligned.

like “ram horns boy”.

lilia probably laughed at it, silver didn’t know if he should’ve felt offended for malleus or if it was a friendly joke, and sebek is going to use it as a horror story for the future generations of his family.

you’re just causing chaos and he’s there like 🧍😄

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you-can-be-what-you-want-to-be · 1 month

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Sooyoung and her relationship with Joonghyuk for Dokja makes me go fucking insane.

We don’t get along and resent each other, and I’ve killed you thousands of times to save our mutual friend, but that isn’t your issue with me. You used to hate that, but when you learned I did that, you couldn’t be upset, because it’s worth it since it let you meet him.

You’re stupid and kind of annoying, and you’ve made me explicitly to suffer. You’re one of the only people who can possibly understand me. I used to hate you for making me a spectacle, that people had read my life, and now I’m going to help you invade my privacy further so that I can find a satisfactory ending to my life from the one we care about and we saved together through my misery.

Like. How can I be normal about them. Literally how. I can’t. TFW the author and character don’t like each other but both exist and work and build each other up for their reader.

#orv #orv spoilers #yoo joonghyuk #han sooyoung

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gi4hao · 18 days

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the idiots you date — x. minghao

roommate!minghao x gn!reader

word count: 1k

genre: fluff but slightly angsty (mention of a past toxic relationship)

“you shouldn’t work for a company that doesn’t respect you”

“yeah, and you shouldn’t date guys who don’t deserve you, yet here we are.”

minghao’s face bears signs of exhaustion that you’ve learned to recognize months ago. signs which started to appear exactly when he took on this new “big corporate job” as you often call it, simply because you’re not quite sure to understand what it is.

you’ve finished your dinner an hour ago. you used to wait for him to come home, but that was when he wasn’t working overtime most days of the week.

“they needed me to finish some urgent reports, i didn’t really have a choice,” he tells you before you can even ask anything. his tone is like a permanent sigh, but you know it’s not directed towards you.

sat at the kitchen table, you remain silent, fiddling with the rings he took off before washing his hands. the lights are dimmed, making the dark circles under his eyes slightly more prominent.

“how was your date?” he asks as he takes his plate out of the microwave, probably wanting to change the subject. but you doubt he’s still interested in your date anecdotes, especially since this one was your third of the week.

although he comes to sit right next to you, you carefully avoid his eyes when you reply:

“okay, i guess? the guy was nice but had terrible takes on most topics we talked about. well, ‘we’ is kind of a stretch because i was doing most of the talking. i think he was just here to eat good food and make me pay for most of it.”

“so… not okay, then”, minghao corrects you, and the silence that follows speaks louder than any word would have.

you’ve been single for almost a year now, and your last relationship was not exactly a model of good and healthy communication.

living alone after the breakup was a depressing prospect, and minghao was in need of a roommate to avoid letting his job drive him insane: a perfect match for two long-time friends like you two.

there was always a certain closeness between you, but living together has made it more intimate, and consequently harder to ignore... which is why you decided to ask for the help of various dating apps in hope to get minghao out of your head.

“yeah, not okay…” you sigh, mindlessly sliding one of his rings on your finger.

your gaze lands on the painting hung next to the fridge. one of minghao’s, which you insisted should be put up in your apartment; swirls of paint meeting in rosebuds and milky tulips. you can still see where the paint was spread across the canvas by his fingers.

with a tinge of sadness, you realize minghao hasn’t drawn anything in months. his paint-covered clothes were all replaced by dull suits that make him look like the people he used to feel sorry for.

“what time do you start tomorrow?” you ask, pouring him another glass of water.

his lips press into a thin line; you’re not sure whether he’s holding back a sigh of annoyance or just mentally preparing for an answer you’re not going to like.

“7. there’s a meeting i need to prepare for.”

“and when you get to the office at 7, are other employees there? or just you?”

“don’t start,” he rolls his eyes, grabbing his plate to go put it in the dishwasher. “we’ve already discussed this, it’s a dead-end.”

he’s right, this conversation has never ended well. but your eyes keep coming back to that painting, to everything he’s slowly turning his back to. the sadness ebbs away, giving way to a rising anger:

“no, i will start actually,” you state, walking up to him. “you’re unhappy, hao. you shouldn’t work for a company that doesn’t respect you.”

“yeah, and you shouldn’t date guys who don’t deserve you, yet here we are,” he replies, slamming the dishwasher shut. but his voice sounded more cutting than intended: “i’m sorry, i shouldn’t have said that.”

there are a thousand words on your lips right now, but few of them would be reasonable to say out loud. meanwhile, minghao is looking at you like you’re a ticking time bomb.

“but you said it. so now i expect you to either hit me with a miracle solution or kiss me.”

you said it without really thinking, basically shrugging as you know he will never take you seriously. the best outcome would be for him to never speak about your love life ever again.

but his reply makes you instantly freeze: “what if i did both?”

a rush of warmth spreads from the pit of your stomach, radiating through your entire body as his hand comes to meet your cheek, silently asking for confirmation that this is something you want.

your lips crash against his before he can even start to lean in, and the feeling of his skin so close to yours feels so unreal you expect him to push you away any second.

but instead, he matches your eagerness to the point where you’re scared you might lose your balance.

“i hope you like that solution,” he breathes out, leaving one last kiss on your nose.

in that fleeting moment, you reunite with the old minghao, the lively one who makes his own decisions and owns up to his actions. the one you fell in love with years ago.

“absolutely”, you chuckle, your hands meeting behind his neck. “…so i guess i can tell that guy we won’t go on a second date.”

“you better,” he earnestly tells you as he starts to take his black blazer off. “working from 7 to 9 will never be as painful as watching another idiot take you on a date. from now on, i’ll take care of it.”

-> rbs and feedback are always appreciated!

masterlist here!

#i think this is the longest fic i’ve ever poste #d #(so far *wink wink*)#minghao x reader #minghao fluff #minghao imagines #seventeen x reader #seventeen fluff #seventeen imagines

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courtofterrasen · 1 month

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Alright, clearly some of you guys are just not getting it. So no more emotion from me; I am simply going to write in factual terms.

It takes a VAST amount of work to go into creating a series like Bad Batch. You have to go through writing, scene painting, 3D modeling, rigging, lighting, SFX, voice lines, editing, final production, etc; just to name a few. It takes hours upon hours upon hours of work for those animators to create all of the nuances in a scene, let alone in Bad Batch where there is an extremely high level of attention to detail. It’s not like anime where a character and background are mostly stationary while they talk. There’s constantly stuff happening in the background and they intentionally make choices that provide extremely little to the overall story and, in all honesty, take up a significant amount of their time and can be argued that they’re wasting their time and money and effort (I don’t think so, but I’m sure people could argue it if they thought that effort should be allocated elsewhere). But they do it because it provides a deeper sense of realism to the story as a whole and make it feel like a living, breathing world. For example, when a character trips a little bit or they animated them doing something slightly harder than it would have been otherwise or eyes darting around and studying someone. These are all very little things that take them hundreds of hours to get perfect. And those are the kinds of things that go unnoticed by the vast majority of people watching the show. Either because they don’t noticed the little detail that was put in at all, or they don’t understand the level of work that goes into creating little minute decisions like that. And all of those decisions that they make, both big and tiny, are given to them in specific instructions by the directors. When you think about the insane amount of work that goes into creating a show like Bad Batch, you realize that every single little detail that they choose to add in is intentional and was given to them via specific instruction. It’s not like in live-action shows where the actor can choose to make a subtle decision on the fly. There are hundreds of thousands of hours of work that go into this and every choice that they make is intentional. The lighting dept. has even confirmed this for us, saying that all of the lighting that they did was done very carefully and intentionally and to pay attention to what’s happening in the scene. Because there’s an extremely high level of detail that’s put into the show, based off of very detailed instructions that were presented to them.

Now. Taken all of these points into account, it’s critical to look at all of the little choices that were made when it comes to her character and the way that both she interacts with the world and the people around her, as well as how they, in turn, respond to her. Because, like the lighting dept. has already made very clear to us, every design choice they has been made in the creation of the show is 100% intentional. Even if that’s not something that they had said or wasn’t something you were aware of, when you focus on the aspect of animation, it’s sometimes hard to get a clear grasp on just how long it takes them to do these things. And that every little choice that they made was carried out under specific instruction. And that’s not even getting into the nuances of voice acting and understanding the subtle distinctions in the way someone talks and being able to discern the meaning behind their words based on dialect and the instructions they were given. And for someone who just casually watches the show, absolutely none of these are important. They’re watching it to watch it and no further thought is put into it. And there’s nothing wrong with that. People are allowed to watch things at a surface level and get enjoyment out of it.

For every character, they can be broken up into various parts:

•Their visual appearance

•Their behavior

•Their interactions with others and the world

•How others respond to their character

•Their small, subtle behaviors (such as a particular twitch or repetitive body movement that can be used to convey a deeper meaning)

•And their internal motives

In that order from the least to most complex. And these topics can also be used to understand the complexity of a character. For someone like Cid, all of these topics are touched on in a variety of ways.

•She’s different from them

•She’s gruff and money hungry

•She speaks to the Batch like they’re a bunch of kids and she knows better than them

•They never fully bring themselves to trust her and, at times, they see her has a burden

•Towards the end of their time together, she gets snappier, and whenever she’s around them her movements slow ever so slightly and she furrows her brows slightly a lot more than in the past

•And in the end, she betrays them

And that’s putting her character into a single sentence for every bullet point, which, for well written characters like Cid or Hemlock or Rampart or Nala Se, cuts a lot of things out.

When it comes to the way that Phee is written and what she contributes as a whole to the show, she is not a very complex character. I’m not going to go into every single scene with her, but I am going to touch on a few. And if I need to continue the discussion further to cover more scenes, then I will. On multiple instances, she puts the Batch into very dangerous situations, and overall appears to care very little for them as people unless it gets her something that she wants. This is made very evident when, for example, she gets Omega, a child, excited about a big grand adventure and Omega then convinced the Batch to go along with it. Even though they were very adamant about not doing it. This is said with both their words and their tense body language. They don’t want Omega to get hurt and they know it’s a bad idea; but in the end she’s able to convince them. Then, when they get to the site, she shows clear lack for them or their safety and proceeds to put them in a very dangerous situation where someone could have gotten seriously hurt or killed. And she shows no remorse for it. Her language, both verbal and bodily, are very loose and nonchalant, assuring them that she had everything under control and that they were able to handle it, despite their very clear frustration. This type of behavior is shown again and again and again as they continue to interact with her. Her actions relay to the viewer that she does not respect their boundaries, or arguably, them as people. Her words are designed to be rocks with a pretty bow on them. And again, this is not personal opinion or speculation. Every single word and action was carefully designed by the team. All the tensed muscles were created by a team of people working very hard to convey that to the audience. Every thinly veiled word was guided by a director when the VA came in to record the sessions. Every single choice was intentional for a very specific reason.

Tech likes things in a very specific way. He likes his ship to be in a particular order and takes very good care of its maintenance and upkeep. He prides himself on being able to maintain a good ship. He spends a lot of time on his data pad. It’s how he was designed on Kamino. That’s his link to his role in the group. He can do everything he needs to from there and, in certain scenarios throughout the show, you can see it provides him with a sense of comfort and stability. You can see this, not only in his subtle body language, but also in his fairly obvious body language with how he hunches over it. It’s reminiscent of a child hunching over a toy to bring it closer to them and protect it. It comforts him. You can also see, when he interacts with the rest of the Batch, his aversion to touch. It’s not significantly often that you see it, given that the rest of the Batch knows him better than anyone, but there are still times when physical contact or even just very close proximity happens and he either has a reaction by tensing up slightly or leaning away from it, or sometimes he doesn’t react to it at all and almost seems to not register it; such as when he’s focused on his work. Every little reaction that he has with his brothers was scripted and orchestrated for a very specific purpose. It conveys the nuances of who he is as a unique and individual person.

Keeping that in mind, when it comes to the way she interacts with Tech specifically and the Batch, it’s very clear to understand the dynamic behind them when you look close enough. To recall a few instances, there was a time when she was recounting a story about finding a big treasure and Tech says something along the lines of “she changes this story every time she tells it”. He’s conveying to both the people in the show and us as viewers that she is a liar. She is either changing the story to make herself seem cooler, or maybe it didn’t happen at all and she’s making the entire thing up. Which, I will briefly mention again, are traits synonymous with narcissists. In another instance, Tech, Omega, and Wrecker were having a conversation where Tech is reprimanding them for bringing items back from a junkyard that they were in that they thought were cool instead of what he asked them to go find and bring back for him. I’m this conversation, Phee inserts herself and tells Tech that it’s not junk; also, in that same instance, not calling him by his name, which I will get to in a minute. Tech, in that moment, is trying to work, and his conversation with the other two was interrupted and fizzles out as Omega gets excited about the idea of a treasure map. A third is when the group is on Pabu and Phee is trying to get Tech to converse with her. His body language is hunched, tense, and he averts eye contact with her. When she prods him further, he is unsure how to engage in the conversation. And when he doesn’t respond in the way that she’s wanting him to, she talks about him to the rest of the Batch as he stands there around him and says to them how he “doesn’t know how to have fun”. And then they proceed to laugh at him. And again, you can see in his body language that he is confused as to why they’re laughing at him as well as uncomfortable being in that situation. And going off of that for another small fourth instance, there is another moment when they are getting ready to leave Pabu and she approaches Tech, who is working alone and trying to avoid contact with anyone, and says to him “So you’re just going to leave without saying goodbye?” His body language immediately tenses, he hunches further in on himself around his datapad, and his words make it clear he is both unsure and unwanting of the conversation. And when he does not respond in the way that she wants him to, she moves the datapad away from him to make him focus on her. She removes the item that brings him the most security to force him into engaging in a conversation he is uncomfortable with having. And again, these are all very intentional choices. They are not left up for interpretation. They are there to tell us what the character is feeling in that moment. They are trying to convey to us that he is uncomfortable. Not that he’s shy around a girl he thinks is pretty. And given on other scenarios that have happened throughout the show, it’s very clear that interpersonal relationships with anyone outside of Omega and the Batch is not something that he’s interested in. If they wanted to convey that he found her attractive, there are routes they could have taken to ensure that that comes across correctly to the audience, such as a faint little blush or rubbing a hand through his hair. But they didn’t do that, and instead chose for him to shy away and hide from certain situations or tense up and keep his head down in others. They are conveying to us that he does not like being around her. Because every single action they made him carry out took hundreds of hours of work to execute, and they would not go through all that trouble for no reason.

Branching off of that, we reach the topic of Tech’s name. When you watch the series as a whole, you can count on one hand the number of times that Phee refers to Tech by his actual name, while she refers to the others as their actual names. This is different from Cid in the way that Cid made that intentional choice to call them different things as a way to maintain distance from them. It’s clear from both her body language and her words that she did not want to get close to them. And really, wanted nothing to do with them unless they made her money. These are intentional choices. Phee’s character is designed to be flighty and unbothered. And she wants what she wants when she wants it. The choice to call Tech names and refer to everyone else by their names is an intentional choice. Him not understanding why she does that is an intentional choice. She does not respect him, which is why she does this. She can see that he doesn’t know what to do about it, so she keeps doing it. Like when a person presses on a bruise. These are all intentional choices made by the directors.

There was also a comment that said she behaves exactly like Crosshair does. And there are a few things I think did not entirely process when they made that comment. The first being that Crosshair was written to be one of the main antagonists for the first two season. I know they appeared in Clone Wars as well, but I’m talking specifically about Bad Batch. He was designed to be a bad guy that goes through a redemption arc; just like Zuko did in ATLA, for those who enjoy it. They both started out as antagonists, had horrible things happen to them, realized along their journey that maybe they were wrong, and are able to redeem themselves in the end and side with, or in Cross’ case, return to, the protagonists. In the beginning Cross was very sharp and defensive and thought he knew what was best. But he grew over time and learned how to care for people and share his weaknesses instead of putting on a facade all the time. And that’s the difference. We are reaching the end of the series and Phee has never had character growth to the level that Crosshair has and softens and opens up to the rest of the group. She hasn’t had any character growth at all. She is still the same exact person she was when we met her. There have been characters who have appeared for significantly less time that her, and if you pay attention to them, they have had significantly more growth than her as well.

The problem that I have begun to notice with people who are so quick to defend her actions is that they seem to be focusing more on her than on anything else. When you focus on just her, I can see how someone could mistake these interactions for being positive. Because all they’re focusing on is someone who’s having fun, and of course that would translate to something positive for him. But for the people who focus on Tech, it becomes very evident that these interactions are not positive. When you watch Tech, and I mean actually pay attention to him and not just watch him, you see all the subtle signs that you would otherwise miss. Him being annoyed and uncomfortable and confused and tired and generally not enjoying being around her. And this, unfortunately, happens a lot in real life too. People don’t take the time to absorb both sides of what’s happening. And since we as humans are quicker to pick up on people who are happy as opposed to people who are not, it’s so easy to miss the signals and just assume that what you’re watching is a happy interaction and put forth no further effort into making sure that’s actually what’s happening.

There is no other way to say that these things are all intentional. They wrote, designed, and sent out something that they have spent the past few years creating. When you understand the level of work that was put into it all, there are a lot of things that become very clear. And sure, headcanons exist and people can speculate what happens between the episodes. But headcanons can only go so far before it becomes ridiculous. We cannot confirm that Echo didn’t run off to go have a quiet life with Cid, but that doesn’t automatically mean that it’s true. Inferring things that are not within the realm of possibility is not conducive. Assuming that Phee spent a lot of time talking about her adventures that she may or may not have had with the Batch between the episodes? That’s conducive and we have clear evidence that would support that. Assuming that her and Tech had a very close relationship and she always listens to what he had to say between episodes? As much as some people want it to be true, it’s just not. There is no evidence that supports that line of thinking, and, in fact, there is a vast amount of evidence that would actually conform the opposite; such as Phee talking over everyone and commanding the conversation, not respecting things that Tech says, etc.

I’m going to wrap this up by talking a bit more personally now. There are plenty of people assuming that I’m a racist or a misogynist or that my literacy skills are lacking or whatever, but because you’re upset that someone is calling out the awful behavior of someone you like doesn’t make it any less true. And that applies to both this type of situation and in real life. I know who I am and what I stand for, and you trying to tell me that I’m otherwise changes nothing. And defaulting to assumptions like that shows that either you do not watch the show with a more attentive eye, or that’s all that you see Phee for. A black woman. Both of which are issues.

People are allowed to not like black characters, even if they are black.

People are allowed to not like Asian characters, even if they are Asian.

People are allowed to not like female characters, even if they’re women (or AFAB people).

People are allowed to not like LGBTQ characters, even if they are queer.

People are allowed to not like neurodivergent characters, even if they are neurodivergent.

People are allowed to not like characters that display particular traits or thought processes, even if they share those same traits or thought processes.

People are allowed to not like characters if they think that the character is bad.

Also, for the people saying I’m using my autism as a shield clearly don’t understand how autism works? I don’t say that to be an excuse. I say that to provide context and reasoning behind the things that I say. Like many other neurodivergent people do. You all are getting pressed about the wrong things. If you want to debate the time and study I’ve put into the show because I genuinely enjoy it, then be my guest. But don’t throw out petty insults and waste everyone’s time. At least put forth some more critical thinking behind it and try to figure out why someone could be saying the things that they’re saying

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contemplatingoutlander · 11 months

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The former Republican David French does a good job of explaining what keeps MAGA folks continuing to support Trump. It's all about the "culture" of MAGA and the sense of "belonging," combined with years of propaganda that have painted anyone even slightly on the left as being "bad" and "out to get" conservatives and their families.

And if we don't understand that, we won't know how to combat it. Here are some excerpts:

I live in Tennessee outside Nashville, a very deep-red part of America. According to a New York Times tool that calculates the political composition of a community, only 15 percent of my neighbors are Democrats. I’ve been living here in the heart of MAGA country since Donald Trump came down the escalator. This is the world of my friends, my neighbors and many members of my family. That is perhaps why, when I’m asked what things are like now, eight years into the Trump era, I have a ready answer: Everything is normal until, suddenly, it’s not. And unless we can understand what’s normal and what’s not, we can’t truly understand why Trumpism endures. [...] It’s no coincidence that one of the most enduring cultural symbols of Trump’s 2020 campaign was the boat parade. To form battle lines behind Trump, the one man they believe can save America from total destruction, thousands of supporters in several states got in their MasterCrafts and had giant open-air water parties. Or take the Trump rally, the signature event of this political era. If you follow the rallies via Twitter or mainstream newscasts, you see the anger, but you miss the fun. When I was writing for The Dispatch, one of the best pieces we published was a report by Andrew Egger in 2020 about the “Front Row Joes,” the Trump superfans who follow Trump from rally to rally the way some people used to follow the Grateful Dead. Egger described the Trump rally perfectly: “For enthusiasts, Trump rallies aren’t just a way to see a favorite politician up close. They are major life events: festive opportunities to get together with like-minded folks and just go crazy about America and all the winning the Trump administration’s doing.”

[See more below the cut]

[...] Why do none of your arguments against Trump penetrate this mind-set? The Trumpists have an easy answer: You’re horrible, and no one should listen to horrible people. Why were Trumpists so vulnerable to insane stolen-election theories? Because they know that you’re horrible and that horrible people are capable of anything, including stealing an election. At the same time, their own joy and camaraderie insulates them against external critiques that focus on their anger and cruelty. Such charges ring hollow to Trump supporters, who can see firsthand the internal friendliness and good cheer that they experience when they get together with one another. They don’t feel angry — at least not most of the time. They are good, likable people who’ve just been provoked by a distant and alien “left” that many of them have never meaningfully encountered firsthand. Indeed, while countless gallons of ink have been spilled analyzing the MAGA movement’s rage, far too little has been spilled discussing its joy. Once you understand both dynamics, however, so much about the present moment makes clearer sense, including the dynamics of the Republican primary. Ron DeSantis, for example, channels all the rage of Trumpism and none of the joy. With relentless, grim determination he fights the left with every tool of government at his disposal. But can he lead stadiums full of people in an awkward dance to “Y.MC.A.” by the Village People? Will he be the subject of countless over-the-top memes and posters celebrating him as some kind of godlike, muscular superhero? [...] Trump’s fans, by contrast, don’t understand the effects of [the MAGA] fury because they mainly experience the joy. For them, the MAGA community is kind and welcoming. For them, supporting Trump is fun. Moreover, the MAGA movement is heavily clustered in the South, and Southerners see themselves as the nicest people in America. It feels false to them to be called “mean” or “cruel.” Cruel? No chance. In their minds, they’re the same people they’ve always been — it’s just that they finally understand how bad you are. And by “you,” again, they often mean the caricatures of people they’ve never met. In fact, they often don’t even know about the excesses of the Trump movement. Many of them will never know that their progressive neighbors have faced threats and intimidation. And even when they do see the movement at its worst, they can’t quite believe it. So Jan. 6 was a false flag. Or it was a “fedsurrection.” It couldn’t have really been a violent attempt to overthrow the elected government, because they know these people, or people like them, and they’re mostly good folks. It had to be a mistake, or an exaggeration, or a trick or a few bad apples. The real crime was the stolen election. It’s the combination of anger and joy that makes the MAGA enthusiasm so hard to break but also limits its breadth. [...] The battle and the booze cruise both give MAGA devotees a sense of belonging. They see a country that’s changing around them and they are uncertain about their place in it. But they know they have a place at a Trump rally, surrounded by others — overwhelmingly white, many evangelical — who feel the same way they do. [...] During the Trump years, I’ve received countless email messages from distraught readers that echo a similar theme: My father (or mother or uncle or cousin) is lost to MAGA. They can seem normal, but they’re not, at least not any longer. It’s hard for me to know what to say in response, but one thing is clear: You can’t replace something with nothing. And until we fully understand what that “something” is — and that it includes not only passionate anger but also very real joy and a deep sense of belonging — then our efforts to persuade are doomed to fail.

#maga america #rage and joy #understanding trump's appeal to his base #donald trump #gop #david french #the new york times

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shaesinflames · 3 months

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Burned Bridges

Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo’s relationship has been incredibly strained since the rainbow infection began to spread, but no pony understands why.

Rainbow Dash tapped lightly on the door with her hoof. No pony answered, but she let herself in anyways. A tray of food balanced on one of her wings, and she had to maneuver awkwardly through the door to keep it from spilling. She squinted through the darkness; all the curtains in the room had been drawn, and only the faint sunlight that managed to slip between the cracks of the fabric illuminated the room. A small orange shape was hunched in one of the shadowed corners, and it shrunk further when open door let more light in.

“Hey, Scoot,” Rainbow called softly. “Can I come in?”

“No,” Scootaloo growled. “Leave me alone.”

Rainbow frowned and took another step inside, shutting the door behind her. She carefully slid the tray off her wing onto the table by the bed, then crossed to the other side of the room and pulled the curtains open. Scootaloo groaned as her fur was washed with sunlight, and she huddled further into herself.

“I brought you some food,” Rainbow said, standing over the little heap of feathers and fur.

“I’m not hungry,” Scootaloo snapped. She flattened her ears with her hooves and screwed her violet eyes tightly shut, rejecting Rainbow Dash’s presence with all of her being.

“Pinkie said you haven’t been taking your share of the rations,” Rainbow continued, ignoring the obvious hostility radiating off of the little pony. “You’re worrying everyone, Scoot. You have to eat.”

Scootaloo didn’t respond. Her tail thumped against the floor as if it were trying to shoo an annoying fly.

A tense silence followed as Rainbow fumbled for the next thing to say, and Scootaloo tried to pretend she wasn’t there.

Rainbow scoffed, her ruffled feathers making her wings twitch in agitation.

“You know, you can’t treat me like this forever,” she said with a glare. “You don’t have the right to try and guilt trip me. I saved you, Scootaloo!”

Finally earning a reaction, Scootaloo’s head whipped around, her eyes wide and glittering with resentment as she scowled at her former hero.

“Are you serious?” she snarled. “Have you gone insane? How selfish can you possibly be?”

“That’s not fair, I-“

“Saved? You call this being saved?” She tore on without letting Rainbow Dash get a word in, the anger bubbling inside of her rousing her to her hooves. “Cloudsdale has been abandoned. Pegasi are dying. I don’t know where my parents or my aunts are, or if they’re even still alive. Equestria is falling apart around us, and it’s all because you were such a coward!”

Rainbow’s wings shot open in indignation. She was taken aback by Scootaloo’s ferocity, but the fillies anger had only sparked Rainbow’s own. She thrust her muzzles into Scootaloo’s face, her teeth bared.

“You can’t pin all of this on me!” She spat. “You can’t fly, Scootaloo, the Rainbow Factory was going to take you one day no matter what. If I hadn’t been there, you would be dead.”

“I wish I was dead!” Scootaloo screamed, her voice catching in her throat as she choked out a dry sob. Tears brimmed in her eyes but she forced them back, her legs trembling as she struggled to hold her ground. “I would die a thousand times over if it would stop the infection from ever happening! I would do anything if it meant saving everyone. The fact that you don’t understand that means you really aren’t the pony I thought you were.”

Rainbow’s anger faltered, and a familiar look of regret and guilt darkened her expression.

“I didn’t know this would happen,” she murmured. “I only wanted to protect you. I never would’ve thought that…”

“If you wanted to protect me, you should’ve done something about the factory when you had a chance,” Scootaloo glared at her unsympathetically. “You could’ve told ponies. You could’ve revealed the truth and made a difference. You could’ve saved so many pegasi, but you only ever cared about yourself. Now look. We’re doomed.”

Rainbow’s head hung with shame. A long, sorrowful sigh escaped her, and she forced herself to straighten back up.

“I can’t change the past,” she resigned. “We just have to hope that Twilight can find a cure to save whoever is left.”

Scootaloo stared at her. She sat down heavily, as if her legs had lost the will to support her, and shook her head dejectedly.

“I can’t do this,” she whispered, speaking more to herself than Rainbow. “I can’t do this…. I can’t do this… get out.”

“Scoot-“

“GET OUT!” Scootaloo shrieked, shaking her head more violently and stomping her front hooves. “GET OUT, GET OUT, GET OUT, GET OUT!”

Rainbow stared at her in dismay, her mouth opening and closing as she grasped for something to say, but Scootaloo bellowed on and on without even pausing to breathe.

Rapid hoof-steps closed in from the other side of the door. With a thundering bang it flew open and slammed into the wall, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom standing in the doorway with terrified expressions.

“What in Celestia is happening?” Apple Bloom demanded.

Rainbow looked over her shoulder at them, her eyes wide with shock, but Scootaloo continued to scream as if she didn’t realize anyone had arrived.

Belle and Bloom raced over to their friend and threw themselves in between her and Rainbow, forcing the older Pegasus to take a few paces back.

“You need to leave, Rainbow Dash,” Sweetie Belle said firmly, meeting Rainbow’s eyes with a venomous glare.

“I-I-I was just-“

“You need to leave, now,” Apple Bloom reiterated, taking a step forward and forcing Rainbow further back.

She swallowed thickly and looked past them at Scootaloo. Her screaming had dwindled into a silent, breathless sob, and her entire body trembled like a leaf as she hid her face with her hooves once again.

“Okay,” Rainbow agreed, her voice tight as she backed out of the room. She paused in the hallway for a second, tears welling in her eyes. “I’m sorry, Scootaloo,” she said as Apple Bloom slammed the door in her face.

#sorry if this is out of character I’ve never written any of these characters before lmao #mlp #my little pony #infection au #rainbow factory #rainbow dash #Scootaloo #sweetie belle #apple bloom #cutiemark crusaders #fanfic

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waitmyturtles · 10 months

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Yesterday was an insane day, huh? I can’t wait to see what Only Friends entails -- despite my best efforts to keep cool in dis HEAT, that NeoForce snippet in the car still has me flying. Anyway, I want to pen some quick notes on Minato’s Laundromat, season 2, and note some Old GMMTV Challenge thingies, now that I’m back from this crazy summer trip!

1) I’m fully caught up on Minato’s Laundromat, season 2 -- I was three episodes behind (thanks, OGMMTVC, ha), and thanks to the eagle eyes of @emotionallychargedtowel, I am LOSING MY MIND AT THE THOUGHT OF TAKEDA KOUHEI, AKA NOZUE FROM OLD FASHION CUPCAKE, MAKING AN APPEARANCE IN ANOTHER BL, OMG OMG OMG

GASPING! GASPING!

Because Old Fashion Cupcake is my LIFE, lol. @emotionallychargedtowel and @bengiyo nail it in ECT’s post with the note on this wonderful continuation of clutch actors reappearing in Japanese BLs, like Izuka Kenta from The Novelist going to Candy Color Paradox, and Inukai Atsuhiro from Zettai BL going to Our Dining Table. I love Japan’s easter eggs in these shows.

But also, regarding episode 5 of Minato: god, I really liked how the tables turned on Minato and Shu. It’s been interesting to have the older characters as the dominant voices of the two central relationships of this show. And of course, this second season is constructed totally around the ongoing nature of both of these relationships. So, we VERY NATURALLY see the “older voice” perspective, because it just so happens that the two older men of these couplings are the ones really setting the tone and pace of the engagements.

And the tables both begin to turn in episode 5, and I think these lines of jealousy between both Minato and Shu, for me, are frankly welcome. We can see Shin getting frustrated, Minato not having the words to respond to that frustration, and Minato just not allowing his door to open on his full feelings for Shin. The theme of this relationship being a dodgy one -- but only in the eyes of Minato! -- deserves to be challenged. And I like how this challenge is being set up in large part in the context of Shin as a student, where he would be learning how to challenge mindsets vis à vis his education anyway.

Anyway -- I utterly love this show so far. As always with the Japanese BLs that I am simping over, I wish I could give them more of my background mind time that’s being otherwise spent on Thailand, but -- soon enough!

2) Speaking of Thailand, HA -- after I published my YYY review for the Old GMMTV Challenge yesterday, I updated my list considerably. On the recommendation of @lurkingshan, @wen-kexing-apologist, and @neuroticbookworm, and because of Jojo Tichakorn’s recent tweets on the topic of what influenced Only Friends, I’ve added Gay OK Bangkok, seasons 1 and 2 to the list and started watching it last night.

I’m already calling it — GOKB is a MUST WATCH before Only Friends.

I can’t wait to get HUGE about this in my OGMMTVC review of this show.

Within the first five minutes, it’s already so much more open and honest about sex and queer sex than the VERY HIGH majority of BLs out there. The show is a collaboration between Jojo and Aof Noppharnach, on the lives of six gay men in Bangkok, released in 2016 and 2017 -- nicely placed between Make It Right, SOTUS, and Make It Right 2.

Obviously, I’m going backwards chronologically again, but I think GOKB will be important for understanding specifically how Asian queer male artists in this space view and portray intimacy, and language (verbal and body language) regarding sex. @lurkingshan, you were mentioning yesterday that queer male viewpoints on sex are ones that cishet women like us just may not automatically understand. INTERESTINGLY, BEFORE we talked about this -- I was actually thinking about this while I was watching the last two episodes of A Tale of Thousand Stars in my OGMMTVC rewatch. Tian and Phupha’s continued back-and-forth of frustration and miscommunication: I was thinking -- there’s GOTTA be something about the way Aof GESTATES and DISPLAYS queer male communication that I’m not getting automatically (besides, of course, the patriarchal structures that hold both Tian and Phupha back). I wonder, I think, and I feel that GOKB is going to give me hints about how Aof and Jojo just DO THIS style of communication in their subsequent shows.

I can only hope that Only Friends will be as LOUD and OPEN and HONEST about the realities of sex and intimacy that GOKB does almost immediately in its first season. Watching GOKB feels WAY more real to life to me than a lot of the romance BLs out there. I feel like I’m talking about sex and love with my queer friends as I’m watching GOKB, and it’s just hewing to real life in an UTTERLY wonderful way. What a fucking show already, and I’m only three episodes in!

3) Finally, also on the topic of the OGMMTVC, I’ve added at least one movie, and am considering a second movie. I’m adding, per the recommendation of @bengiyo, 2007′s The Love of Siam to the list, for the fact that this movie had a clear influence on many of today’s Thai BL creators. I see it has many actors that make support or guest appearances in today’s BLs, and I can’t wait to get to it as an utterly formative piece, both to Thai BLs and to Asian queer cinema.

4) As well -- inspired in part by my notes on Fluke Teerapat in yesterday’s YYY review -- I am THINKING of adding 2014′s My Bromance to the list. I’m not sure, but I’m THINKING about it, and I KNOW I will get poked for it, ha.

A couple of things here. The OGMMTVC has not deep-dived into cinema yet, besides 2019′s Dew the Movie, which aired around the same time as the groundbreaking He’s Coming To Me.

Yet, referring back to my conversation with @bengiyo about The Love of Siam -- queer cinema CERTAINLY speaks to the creation of the BL genre. Before television BL, what Thailand had in majority by way of queer media were movies. On paper at least, My Bromance fits a couple of bills.

First, Love Sick premieres on television in 2014 -- but well after the cinematic release of My Bromance. So that already makes 2014 an even bigger year for the development of the BL television genre.

Second, My Bromance stars two homies who have been in these BL streets for a MINUTE -- as I said before, Fluke Teerapat is one, but I did NOT have the SLIGHTEST appreciation for how long Fluke Natouch has been around (and I’m in LUV with Fluke Natouch at the moment. I’m still not over the condo scene in UWMA!).

So, we have the two Flukes, at least one of them publicly out, and starring in a movie ROOTED in a stepbrother yaoi trope. The comments of my Dew the Movie OGMMTVC review touched upon how taboos may have begotten taboos in early BLs -- that if a piece of art crossed one boundary in being queer, then other boundaries, like stepbrothers falling in love, may have then been seen as valid or “okay” WITHIN that piece of art. I’m interested in possibly watching something so very CLEARLY rooted in yaoi from the cinematic perspective, to engage with and better understand yaoi in developing and current Thai BL, as I haven’t done a real deep dive, analytically, into yaoi and Thailand yet. (As @lurkingshan and I talked about yesterday, TharnType on the OGMMTVC list fits the yaoi stereotypes the best.) And with both Flukes starring in MB, I wonder if I can attribute any influence this piece may have had on their subsequent work (like Fluke Natouch doing blushing maiden so incredibly well in 2019′s UWMA, and of course, the references to yaoi in Fluke Teerapat’s YYY).

I don’t think @bengiyo has seen My Bromance, but I’m wondering if a few of the other friends from around the way have any thoughts... @absolutebl, @so-much-yet-to-learn, @twig-tea, @solitaryandwandering, @nieves-de-sugui and anyone else -- would love your thoughts if you’ve seen it and think it’s worth of inclusion on the syllabus.

These additions put some air between the next OGMMTVC chronological show in Lovely Writer, but I’ve got a lot of life stuff going on at the moment -- and I do want to give Tee Bundit and Lovely Writer the time he deserves, as I’m about over my anger on Step By Step, ha.

That’s about it -- I have to still catch up with Tokyo In April Is..., but I’ll get to that later this week!

#turtles catches up with old gmmtv #the old gmmtv challenge #ogmmtvc #minato's laundromat #minato's laundromat 2 #minato shouji's coin laundry #minato shouji's coin laundry 2 #takeda kouhei #old fashion cupcake #gay ok bangkok #the love of siam #my bromance #fluke teerapat #fluke natouch

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agentplutonium · 6 months

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i’m having thoughts so have these porter/william scene depicting what I think went down during the whole “hey, can you kill this guy for me? thx” conversation:

Porter knew he never was shunned from the Solaire House officially. However, intentions and impact were two different things.

Because he had no official house he belonged to, others were more willing to interact with him. He was able to find out information he never would have been able to under William, just as they intended. The difference was William didn't ask for information anymore. He was radio silent for years now, only getting what Porter sent over. Never responding. Never any kind of follow-up. Never a thank you. Porter was sick of the man.

But then his phone rang, and William's contact came up. Porter just about didn't answer it.

"William," Porter said curtly.

"Porter, it's nice to hear your voice again," William said, in that airy tone he typically had.

"What is it that you want?" Porter asked, expecting him to want intel or give him a new person to keep an eye on. Anything that retained to his current situation. He was not expecting-

"Is there a time we can meet up, talk face to face? There's something we need to discuss that is best done in person."

Porter couldn't stop himself from agreeing, even if his stomach twisted at the thought of seeing him after so long.

And that was how Porter ended up with King Solaire on the living room couch as if he belonged there. He looked so at ease like they do this every weekend. Porter handed the wine over, sitting on the far end of the couch.

"Thank you, Porter," William said with a genuine smile. "How have you been recently?"

"You'd know if you actually called every once in a while," Porter quipped without thinking.

William's demeanour deflated a little. "I know. I am sorry for not keeping up with you. I should have tried harder. I did miss you these past few years."

Porter wasn't sure how to respond. Did he mean that? Or was he just saying that? Instead, he opted to move on. "Let's not waste time with small talk."

"Can I not catch up with an old friend?" William questioned, his mood back to where it was before.

Porter's heart gave a twinge at the term. "You said you had something to discuss," he reminded William.

William sighed, placing his glass down. "I suppose so," he said, sounding genuinely upset that the small talk was ending. Porter could never even begin to understand William's moods. "It is concerning the House of Bennett and what you told me recently."

Porter was well aware. He threw that information at William in hopes he would actually respond to him for once. It was met with the same silence he had been getting. "What do you need me to do?"

William chuckled, "always so eager to help me," he muttered, "you don't change, Porter Solaire."

Porter ignored how his stomach and heart did a flip at the words.

"What I'm about to ask of you is a lot, even by our standards," William prefaced, tone growing serious. "The House of Bennett, as you know, is funding the group Close Knit. We have found evidence that Close Knit was in on the Inversion, and where the Bennett's were supporting them they, too, are at fault."

Porter knew this, and he didn't understand why William was mentioning it again. "Yeah, and what about it?"

William took a moment before he answered, regarding Porter carefully. "I need your help in... taking out King and Prince Bennett."

Porter floundered for a few moments, the words sinking in. "You want me to kill them?!"

"One of them," William corrected. "If things go according to plan, and I have little doubt in it, the other will be executed for murdering his King."

Porter scoffed, rubbing his hands along his face. "This is insane, even for you, WIll," he said after a moment. "You want us to play God?"

"I want those responsible for the death of thousands of people to be held responsible. If we let this one slide under the rug, it is as if we are excusing the actions of Close Knit," William said, voice resolute. "Don't you trust me, Porter?" he continued, voice softening.

Porter looked at William for a long time, those kind eyes he knew so well looking back. The worst part was he did. He'd trust William with his life. He'd trust him with his very essence. William would tell him to jump and he'd ask how high. If William said he needed Porter's help, then who was he to say no?

However, this was different. William was asking Porter to kill for him.

"I don't know, Will," Porter said quietly. "I'd do anything for you, you know that, but something like this is..."

William moved closer to Porter, hand reaching out to rest against his knee. Again, Porter ignored how it made his heart flip. "It has to be you," William said earnestly, leaning close. "I wouldn't trust anyone else with this. You're the best man for the job."

The more William talked, the more that Porter's, very minimal, resolve was wavering. The way that William looked at him, as if Porter was his whole world. As if he genuinely did need him for this.

"If you're not going to do this for them, then do it for me," William continued, "do it for an old friend."

Porter couldn't take it any longer. "Okay. Okay, I will. For you, I will."

William broke out into a huge grin, sitting upright again but still staying close. He gave Porter's knee a small squeeze as he said, "That's my boy. Thank you. This means a lot to me."

Porter didn't say anything, revelling in how William looked at him. His eyes warm, regarding him in a way that Porter hasn't seen in so long. He learned today that his devotion to William ran deeper than he thought, and yet he found himself unafraid of this revelation.

He loved William. For better, or for worse.

#redacted audio #redacted porter #redacted william #redactedverse #redacted fanfiction #plutomium_oneshot #yes both porter and will are blorbo-fied #do we expect anything else from me #like genuinley #anyway this exists because of PK so blame them /lh #this is also again kinda character study territory #because i haven't written william before and I'm new to writing porter

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fuckmeyer · 2 months

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Ok that was amazing!!! I would love more behind the scenes details on CN now 😭 still on my phone so apologies if this is too long

“Answer the question, Isabella,” said Edward. “When did you last feel you were alive?”

With you, I thought immediately. Which led me to a grimmer answer.

“When I jumped off the cliff.”

What if I really had drowned?

“I heard about that,” he said quietly. “Rose told me. She said you were trying to kill—”

“Well, I wasn’t.”

“Well, you did,” he said. “God, if we weren’t already dead, I imagine I would be furious at you for doing something so stupid.”

“We aren’t already dead.”

“True,” he said. “There is a possibility I am somehow still alive, and my hallucination of you is simply filling in the gaps based on the information I’ve received.”

“You’re alive, I’m alive, and I’m right here.”

I lunged towards him again.

He dodged me, again.

Then he laughed at me. Again.

I wheeled around and snapped, “It’s not funny.”

“Isabella Swan, who lives thousands of miles away in one of the remotest parts of the country, who has never been farther east than Boston, is sitting next to me in a dungeon in Italy as I wait for the Volturi? Yes, in fact, I find it quite hilarious.” Except his laugh hadn’t sounded amused. Actually, he sounded bitter—and thirsty. “I cannot believe that as a figment of my own imagination you should need me to spell out how farfetched a scenario this is.”

“I cannot believe that as a real live person who’s sitting next to you in a dungeon in Italy, I have to convince you I’m really here. Newsflash: stranger things have happened.”

“Such as a vampire falling in love with a human?” he joked dryly. I groaned, rubbing my face in annoyance. “Don’t get me wrong, I understand your existence is predicated on my believing you’re real, thus you’ll do anything in your power to convince me. While I’ll readily admit to fantasizing about you being here, you’re kidding yourself if you think I’m insane enough to believe you’re actually here.”

Oh god. He was insane.

“As far as I’m concerned,” he continued, “we have two possible theories. Either I’m alive and you’re another hallucination—”

“You can hear my heartbeat,” I said, voice crackling. “You can smell my scent. If you wanted to, you could—” taste my blood “—t-touch me, and you’d know—”

“Ah, there it is.”

“What?”

“You want me to touch you,” he accused.

My cheeks had grown so hot, my head pounded. “That’s— I’m just saying, if you wanted to—”

“If I wanted to, what?” he snapped. “If I wanted to, I could taste your blood, is that it? Is that what you want?” I shook. When my lips parted, the bottom one trembled. The chill in his words ran through my veins. “What a convenient situation we find ourselves in. A starving vampire and his singer are trapped in a tiny box where no one can hear her cries for help, and she is throwing herself at me, begging me to touch her so she can—"

“Not throwing. Not begging. No. I-I’m not—I’m not saying you should drink me,” I said, nervousness making my voice uneven. “I’m saying if you wanted to go about this empirically, you would touch me. If I was a hallucination, you wouldn’t be able to.”

“Which provides us a perfect segway into theory number two,” Edward said without acknowledging my comment: “I’m in hell.”

“Hell!”

“All I’m asking is that you definitively prove I don’t exist. Which you can’t. Because I do. I’m trying to make you see that I’m real. That’s it.”

The low growl that punctuated our conversation made me shiver. Every molecule in my body tingled at the same frequency.

“And the second I buy into the idea that we’re finally together,” he said, “you’re going to die in my arms. I see your tricks.”

thank you, anon! :)

COME NIGHTFALL CHAPTER 27: VOLTERRA - DVD COMMENTARY

[i rewrote their meeting scene about a thousand times. i have a billion versions of that Verdict chapter where Edward is anywhere from a slobbering mess to a conniving little gremlin child. anyway, this is the earliest version of this scene, written March 2021:

In the darkness of the cell, I could see nothing except Edward’s marble-black eyes. His growl stole through the air around me. He circled me; the air sifted around me, choking me with dirt and blood and wet rat smell.

I came all the way here to die at the hands of my mate. I survived Victoria and Laurent and Jasper to die at the hands of my mate. I went all that way and went through all that effort to die by the hands of the person I thought I loved. My “mate”. Fuck this guy.

I swallowed, breathing ragged. “Kill me, coward. Do it.”

The growling ceased.

“Edward.”

In the corner, he snarled and snapped his jaws; I flinched, still blind in the dark.

“You’re not real.”

“You can’t smell me?”

Edward erupted into a grin of gleaming black teeth. I inhaled. “Nice try.” Clothing rustled, and a tiny thwip of paper hitting the ground.

My fingers fumbled around the sharp, folded edges of thick paper. My thumb traced the shape several times over. “A crane.” But that paper… Despite the musty stink of the cell, I smelled charcoal, acrylic, dried b—

Dried blood.

My dried blood.

The drawing I had given him. He had folded it. Into a crane.

“My crane.”

Edward’s slight cackle wheezed through his crackling chest; I flinched at the sound. “Can you believe I haven’t killed you yet?”

“Are you going to?”

“No,” he said without hesitation. Then added, “I am going to die here.”

My heart sunk. “You can’t die here.”

“Sure I can.”

“No you can’t.”

“I’ve lived long enough. I met you. I can die.”

“What?” Panic rose in my chest. “You can’t die, Edward.” I couldn’t die. Not until I saw him again. Since this wasn’t technically seeing him, I figured I could get out of this encounter alive with a loophole. “You—promised you’d come back.”

“I did.” Beat. “You’ll have to forgive me for breaking so many of them.”

“I won’t. Not if you die I won’t.” The deeper I fell into this world, it seemed, the tougher choices I had to make. Every step of the way felt like a failure, even if it wasn’t. “You made tough choices.”

“You certainly don’t sound like my subconscious. Maybe I really am dying.”]

[ok i guess we should actually start this scene]

“Answer the question, Isabella,” said Edward. “When did you last feel you were alive?”

With you, I thought immediately. Which led me to a grimmer answer.

“When I jumped off the cliff.” [girl you should have lied what the fuck]

What if I really had drowned?

“I heard about that,” he said quietly. [i vaguely sketched out Alice's POV from when Bells jumps off a cliff. dated December 2022: "Rosalie calls Edward and tells him Irina is on her way to the Volturi. She feels that Edward needs to take responsibility for Isabella because Irina going to the Volturi means that everyone’s on the chopping block. She advises Edward to stop Irina before she gets to Italy.

How would Rosalie call Edward? You have to assume I suppose that Edward flew from Brazil to Miami only for Rosalie to call the airport and request that a Mr. Edward Masen pick up the phone.

Why doesn't Edward corroborate? Why the fuck would he? This gives him perfect plausible deniability to go off and kill himself with reason so he's never tempted to come home to Isabella again."] “Rose told me. She said you were trying to kill—”

“Well, I wasn’t.”

“Well, you did,” he said. “God, if we weren’t already dead, I imagine I would be furious at you for doing something so stupid.” [this later becomes inspiration for Chapter 5: Alliance of By Starlight.]

“We aren’t already dead.”

“True,” he said. “There is a possibility I am somehow still alive, and my hallucination of you is simply filling in the gaps based on the information I’ve received.”

“You’re alive, I’m alive, and I’m right here.”

I lunged towards him again.

He dodged me, again.

Then he laughed at me. Again.

I wheeled around and snapped, “It’s not funny.”

“Isabella Swan, who lives thousands of miles away in one of the remotest parts of the country, who has never been farther east than Boston [visited, never lived there], is sitting next to me in a dungeon in Italy as I wait for the Volturi? Yes, in fact, I find it quite hilarious.” Except his laugh hadn’t sounded amused. Actually, he sounded bitter—and thirsty. “I cannot believe that as a figment of my own imagination you should need me to spell out how farfetched a scenario this is.”

“I cannot believe that as a real live person who’s sitting next to you in a dungeon in Italy, I have to convince you I’m really here. Newsflash: stranger things have happened.”

Oh god. He was insane.

“As far as I’m concerned,” he continued, “we have two possible theories. Either I’m alive and you’re another hallucination—”

“You can hear my heartbeat,” I said, voice crackling. [bro the amount of times Edward has hallucinated or pretended a human's heartbeat is Isabella's is INCALCULABLE. she has no idea how terrible an argument this is. it's like The Tell-Tale Heart up in this bitch] “You can smell my scent. If you wanted to, you could—” taste my blood [the desperation is palpable. she has wanted him to drink her blood since Chapter 14: Explanations of In The Afterlight when she first dreams about it lmao] “—t-touch me, and you’d know—”

“Ah, there it is.”

“What?”

“You want me to touch you,” he accused. [YES GIRL SAY YES]

My cheeks had grown so hot, my head pounded. “That’s— I’m just saying, if you wanted to—”

“If I wanted to, what?” he snapped. “If I wanted to, I could taste your blood, is that it? Is that what you want?” [YES] I shook. When my lips parted, the bottom one trembled. The chill in his words ran through my veins. “What a convenient situation we find ourselves in. A starving vampire and his singer are trapped in a tiny box where no one can hear her cries for help, and she is throwing herself at me, begging me to touch her so she can—"

“Not throwing. [girl you just threw yourself at him] Not begging. No. I-I’m not—I’m not saying you should drink me,” I said, nervousness making my voice uneven. “I’m saying if you wanted to go about this empirically, you would touch me. If I was a hallucination, you wouldn’t be able to.”

“Which provides us a perfect segway [WAIT this should be segue holy shit i did not mean the scooter!!!!! omg i'm editing this rn] into theory number two,” Edward said without acknowledging my comment: “I’m in hell.”

“Hell!” [i really wanted to make a Dante's Inferno/Biblical reference, but at this point i was rushing to get the last chapters out. i wanted it to be over; i was so disappointed at how CN had turned out. shoutout to my beta Soup for helping me get over the finish line!]

“Of course, you would want me to touch you.” The edge in his tone grew. “You want me to bite you, don’t you? You want me to taste your blood. You want me to drink every last drop from your beautiful veins until nothing is left because you are mine, mine—” [thus far, this is the closest Edward has ever come to admitting the truth to her: he has a very real desire to drink her blood. to ME this scene is so sexually charged...]

“All I’m asking is that you definitively prove I don’t exist. Which you can’t. Because I do. I’m trying to make you see that I’m real. That’s it.”

The low growl that punctuated our conversation made me shiver. Every molecule in my body tingled at the same frequency.

“And the second I buy into the idea that we’re finally together,” he said, “you’re going to die in my arms. I see your tricks.”

send me 500 words of my fanfic & i will give you the equivalent of a DVD commentary on that snippet

#thank you!#asks #come nightfall #come nightfall outtakes #fanfic DVD commentary

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pinkacademic · 9 months

Text

Studying Literature

I'm starting things off with what I actually know about!

Ok, Lit girlies, let’s get it started! How in the name of Jane Austen do you actually study literature? The answer isn’t just “lol read?” but actually find your passion for it, and find connections between you and the person one, two, five hundred years ago who is feeling and struggling and trying their best alongside this same text.

This is going to be a series of three parts- Finding the Connections, Themes and Context, and Actusl Studying- starting today with connecting to literature written 100+ years before you were born because personally, that’s where I think the passion for classics is found.

How it applies to Real Life in Modern Day

If you’re struggling to connect to characters from classic literature, you need to reframe how you think about them. Consider- Clueless is just Emma, right? Therefore Emma Woodhouse (handsome, clever, and rich) is just a pretty rich girl who likes playing matchmaker and is perhaps a little bit spoiled. Similarly, 10 Things I Hate About You is the Taming of the Shrew and even features plenty of references to Shakespeare in the naming of people and places.

Let’s look at a couple of other examples of how we can find connections.

Dracula: Of course, Dracula Daily has been bringing Dracula to the forefront again, and has been bringing about modernisations in the form of calling Jonathan Harker a poor little meow meow. But why? Because he’s just so meow, that’s why Because people are finding aspects of his character relatable and amusing. He’s essentially a recent graduate being given an insane opportunity for travel, and a great degree of responisbility- how exciting! And he’s learning about other cultures and trying new food! And experiencing the horrors! How novel!

Wuthering Heights: Catherine Earnshaw- a hopeless romantic in many senses of the word: she wants the romance of true love, and she wants the romance of the wilderness surrounding the Heights. She feels trapped in the world of what everyone else wants her to be after realising that what she thought she wanted wasn’t what she wanted. Heathcliff- a man wronged in his childhood who lets his emotions become all-consuming. Would you be the same in his circumstances? Can you be sure you wouldn’t be?

The Picture of Dorian Gray: I’ll admit that I didn’t enjoy this one. I loved the premise, but I just struggled. But still, I understand Dorian being swayed and tempted as if by the devil, I understand unrequited love, I understand obsession. And, weirdly enough, I have been part of two forbidden romances… like two nickels isn’t a lot, but it is weird that it happened twice.

Let’s have a look at some Shakespeare, then, while we’re at it

The Merchant of Venice: (Did I choose this because its my fave and I’m biased? Yes!) Forbidden love! Romance! A sympathetic villain! What’s not to love? The courtroom scene is right out of Legally Blonde- featuring girlboss lawyers in disguise to boot! And Shylock’s badass monologue calls morality into question. Here’s my fave line “If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?”

Hamlet: Yes, by god, it is LONG! Listen, 15-minute Hamlet by Tom Stoppard will help you for this one. And so will the Lion King. Make it easier for yourselves, loves! BUT Hamlet is one for the Buzzfeed Unsolved/Watcher’s Ghost Files and Mystery Files girlies! There’s a ghost right from the start! There’s a whole slew of murders, and there’s a man losing grip of reality. Hamlet himself is a student who has lost his father and is questioning the morality of revenge. He’s such an old character that he’s been interpreted and reinterpreted a hundred thousand times, and if you go through the Royal Shakespeare Company among others, you can surely find one you can relate to.

My point here is that, though some of the characters in classics might seem distant, you can find timeless themes in these stories, and if you just push the boundaries of how you think about the characters, there is going to be something you find relatable.

Go forth and have fun with classics, while I work on the installment on Themes… no, we are not shying away from problematic literature here! Also, feel free to pop me an ask, a comment, or a dm, if you have anything you want to see!

#pink academia #pink #academia #pink academic #pink academia masterpost project #studyblr #studying #studying literature #classic literature #shakespeare

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kovajean · 9 months

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As someone whose favorite movie (second only to Whiplash) is Karate Kid III, I’ll never understand people that think it’s a bad movie.

Although my reasons aren’t entirely objective, it’s still worth writing about. It’s crazy how nearly tailor-made this movie is for me.

The over the top villains in Mike and Silver are perfect, because they have hardly any motive. I love simple shit like that.

Why is Silver doing this? Because his best friend was embarrassed. Why is he doing it in this way? Because he’s evil. Why is he evil? Because he is. Let’s also not forget the fact that he’s a corrupt oil barren. That shit’s hilarious. He’s also hot as fuck and I, as a gay man, am allowed that as a reason.

Why is Mike doing this? Money. Why is he doing it this way? Because he likes beating people up. Why does he like beating people up? Because he does. Who cares that there’s no deeper meaning behind it? I certainly don’t. I like when villains are bad because they like to be. I don’t want anything different. And I especially love that Cobra Kai didn’t retcon his insanity, like they’ve retconned other people’s wrongdoings...

The dialogue is both great and fucking awful at the same time. Here are some of my favorite lines from the movie:

“They made you suffer, so I’m gonna make them suffer—and suffer, and suffer, and when I think they’ve suffered enough, then I start with the pain.” (This line fucking SUCKS LOL)

“When I'm finished with that kid, he'll be begging me to be his teacher. And you know what he's gonna learn from me? Pain. In every part of his body. And fear—in every part of his mind. And here's the kicker: He's gonna thank me for it.” (This is probably my favorite line ever from any movie. It’s so good. The first time I showed this movie to my ex-boyfriend he would quote this shit at me every single day.)

“Johnny, by the time that little twerp steps into the ring to defend his title, I’m gonna have him thinking he’s invincible. Then he’s gonna find out what pain and fear really mean. Right in front of a thousand people.” (This line gives me chills. So good. Would be better if he used something less Disney bully than “twerp”, though.)

“It’s okay to lose to an opponent—Must not lose to fear!” (This along with the majority of Miyagi’s lines are great. I don’t need to go through them all. This is just my favorite one.)

The thing about these movies is that each one has varying levels of dialogue quality. KK1’s dialogue is fucking awful. But at least some of the lines are funny enough to laugh at. There are some good lines in there, but that’s just it. Good lines. Not memorable. Same thing with KK2. The dialogue in that movie is just good. That’s all. I can’t recite a single line from that movie. Because the lines aren’t memorable. Except for, of course, “honk”. Do not get me wrong though. I'm not saying this movie is the best Karate Kid movie. No way. It's just my favorite, and it's not as bad as people make it out to be.

The score had me looping it for 3 months straight. I'm not even hyperbolizing here. The whole of it is just wonderful. The reused and remixed songs like Kata Training are great. But when I get to Silver’s theme, that’s a whole different thing. Listen to this shit:

How is this real? I’m a huge classical music fan, and I could not stop playing this song over and over and over again. Listen to this one:

Did you know that this song wasn’t even used in the movie? This is an alternate version of Terry’s Next Move, which plays over the Kreese and Silver phone call as well as the Mike Barnes Magazine Car Ride. The one they went with certainly works better for the scene, but I love, love, love this one. So much more.

I never thought I’d be hooked on a series of songs from a Karate Kid movie composed by the same guy who did Rocky, but here I am. 6 months strong, too. I was in a high school theater production when I watched this movie for the first time, and every free moment I had backstage was spent looping each piece with any bit of Terry’s theme in it (such as Terry Silver, Terry’s Next Move, Terry Sneaks In, and Daniel Submits. I also had Terry Owns Daniel on loop occasionally, but that song doesn’t have any real instances of Terry’s theme in it–it just sounds similar. And yes, these are the official names of the songs in case you weren’t aware.) I also listened to these songs on loop while doing an art class project (which was of, you guessed it, Karate Kid characters).

I love Daniel in this movie. Love him. More so than any of the other movies. He’s exponentially sillier, he becomes best friends with a girl instead of dating her, he demonstrates color theory, and his irritability and sass are on full display. I also like that he's not super skinny anymore, and that he actually looks his age. (My love for him may also be aided by the fact that I relate most to his personality and appearance in accordance with this movie versus the first two).

I LOVE JESSICA! You will never meet a bigger Jessica fan than me. I love her so, so dearly.

She brings out the good in Daniel.

She shows us that Daniel is good with rejection. When she tells him she has a boyfriend, his opinion of her stays the exact same. He doesn’t push her. He lets it go, and they immediately become best friends. All because she told him that she hadn’t made any friends yet.

I like that Daniel is protective of her despite the fact that they’re not dating. He really cares about her, and he doesn’t expect anything in return. He’s not spoiled. But I also like that Jessica gets mad at him, because he went way too far. She doesn’t let him get away with it or treat him like a hero. She gets upset. Because Daniel just assaulted someone who hadn’t done anything deserving of violence (yet). And when she leaves, Daniel recognizes his mistake. He recognizes all of his mistakes. All because of Jessica. I can promise you, had she reacted positively, the movie would have ended differently. She was the step he needed to snap out of his power trip. And I love her for it.

She also trains with Daniel! None of his love interests did that!

I’m saving the color theory section for a separate post where I will go over every Daniel outfit and what they mean for the scene because I have the free time to do so and dammit I’m not hyper fixated on Karate Kid III enough already so I might as well let myself get worse. You feel me?

Despite the fact that Daniel's clearly nervous around Silver, he’s still a piece of shit during their training sessions. I respect that. He’s also incredibly snappy towards Mike and his gang even though he knows he shouldn’t be. His morals are also on full display if you think about it. He’s mean to mean people, even if being nice to them will work out better in the long run. Because he refuses to be nice to people who don’t deserve it. As well as vice versa. Except for when he snaps at Miyagi. Hmm, I wonder why he does this? Perhaps, is it maybe, the fact that he’s being manipulated to use anger as a coping mechanism?

People go on and on about how whiny Daniel is in this movie, but they don’t seem to consider why.

Daniel is assaulted over and over again by Mike and his gang, and his new best friend gets roped into it. He stores this anger because he has nowhere else to put it. Then he meets Silver, someone who gives him an outlet for it. He finally has something to do with this pent-up rage, until he’s given mixed signals by the people around him when he uses this newfound coping skill. Miyagi gets upset, Silver praises him, Jessica leaves him. How is he supposed to know what to do? Of course he has a mental break. He rants to Jessica about it, then to Miyagi, and he thinks he has his problems fixed. Then, to make matters worse, he finds out that Silver was tricking him the whole time. Now he has to relearn Miyagi-Do. That fucking sucks. I’d go crazy too. This, along with the fact that he wanted to compete in the All-Valley so badly that he brought it up to Miyagi on multiple occasions, was shot down every time, finally gave up, and then was forced to care again? AND Miyagi refuses to train him even though it’s hardly his decision anymore? How Daniel kept going in this movie is beyond me. He’s not whiny, he’s livid. He can’t catch a fucking break.

I’d say his anger is accumulated throughout the movies. This one year has been more eventful than the rest of his life was prior. Everyone he meets seems to want his head on a stake and there’s literally nothing he can do about it. He just wants to be a normal guy, and no one will let him.

He’s also certainly not weaker in this movie in comparison to the second. He’s been broken down by everyone trying to fight him and he’s at a point where he’s trying not to care. He’s trying so hard, but when Mike shows up it’s difficult for him to keep pretending. The fact that Daniel loses to him is meant to show you that Mike is strong, not that Daniel is weak. Anyone that can defeat Daniel after Daniel’s torment in KK2 deserves to be feared. And don’t forget that Mike had the ability to kill Daniel in the bonsai scene. The only reason he’s less threatening than Chozen is because his acting is bad.

If you want to argue that he’s weak throughout the entire movie, then you’d be half correct, I guess? He’s a different sort of strong for the last half of the movie. This is because Silver teaches him different moves. Daniel stops using what he used to know (the style of Karate that we’ve seen him use up until this point), and is now using exclusively this new style. And when you consider that this new style only has 3 different moves, of course he’s going to look weaker. The All-Valley scene Daniel also isn’t weaker if that’s your argument, because there is genuinely no other way he could have beaten Mike than with Kata. Mike is immune to Miyagi-Do. That’s why Daniel never beat him in any of the scenes leading up to the All-Valley. Daniel is also overcome with fear thanks to Silver. The ineffectiveness of Miyagi-Do on Mike and the lasting fear of the manipulation he dealt with is not a good combination. He beat Mike with Kata because he caught Mike completely off guard. That’s how you beat him. We know that’s how you beat him because it’s the first time we see him genuinely lose, other than when he lost to Miyagi multiple times, which is another instance of Mike being caught off guard and losing, because why would he expect an old man to be that good at Karate (and also, it’s Miyagi, of course he’s gonna lose to Miyagi. He’s not comparable to Daniel). Can you assume that Silver told Mike to be wary of Miyagi? He’d never seen the guy fight.

Anyways this movie has been on repeat in my brain since March and nothing I can do can stop it so why not indulge in it, huh? Just a look into my dark and twisted mind

#the karate kid #kk3 #daniel larusso #jessica andrews #terry silver #mike barnes #This essay is 6 months in the making and this isn't even everything I have to say #as i stumbled off at night towards the train tracks

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belovedblabber · 2 years

Note

I’m so glad to have found other Jod enjoyers on this site. Top John Gaius “makes you want to chew on the furniture” moments?

Okay I can FINALLY take some time to answer this now, huzzah!

I have some other John related asks I'm VERY excited to answer but I have gotten far too sleepy now so I once again have to wait on those because I have a LOT to say and I am incapable of not treating everything like I'm writing an essay and bringing in citations.

But anyway, if I gave all of my top John moments this post would be a thousand miles long so I'm just going to give some of my faves. And this is in no particular order, I'm just putting them down as they come into my head

"Is that the truth, or the truth you tell yourself?" asked Augustine. "What is the difference?" said God. This exchange makes me go INSANE. I can't even be coherent about it right now, I just love how chilling John's response is, and also Muir using God here. I love her very clever choices in terms of what she calls John and when. Calling him God (or by another one of his fancy titles) can either be used for comedy (aka "Thanks," said God) but it can also be used for an absolute wham line like this one and it's just very good. I love it. It's chilling. He's so scary

When Harrow explodes G1deon and everything is going insane and then John just says "Stop" and just freezes everybody. It's such a cool moment. He just STOPS it all, I LOVE it. Also: The Emperor of the Nine houses—the Resurrection—the First Reborn—sat at the end of the table, his plain face splattered with gore, and his eyes were the death of light. Oh my GOD is that such a good line, I am deeply not coherent here but god I love this entire moment, it's such a good reminder of how powerful John is (and then him being like "I did't really want to eat human again Harrow" sdfghj)

The entire section where he reconfigures himself after Mercy exploded him. And then his killing Mercy so casually. But what I really love about it is how stone-cold he is after it all ("I never liked cleaning house all at once") I love how this scene really shows how right Augustine was earlier in the book when he told Mercy "John is never as sentimental as you think." John is so matter-of-fact and it is SO good when we see him turn on a dime like this and start cleaning house (I also love "You acted afraid—" "Acted is operative. But this is not am FAQ.") I am not explaining myself well here but I just love the way that John, who we have seen as this very affable, mellow, often very funny character throughout, turns on a dime and is suddenly so ruthless, right after killing someone who he was begging to forgive him moments before. The absolute callous tone he has ("I didn't offer it to Mercy because Mercy really pissed me off, I'm sorry to say.") is so jarring and it's GREAT. And I've seen people point to this as proof that like, 'oh John doesn't actually love them like he says he does, John is a liar he was faking his affection.' And that is SUCH a boring read. What's much more interesting, and terrifying, is the idea that John can be fully in earnest with his affection, but then just so brutally flip a switch when he's pushed. Idk, it's just a great moment. I am explaining myself poorly here I know asdfghj

"Harrowhark, nobody has the right to know," he said fiercely. "Nobody has the right to blame you. Nobody can judge. What has happened, has happened, and there's no putting it back in the box. They wouldn't understand. They don't have to. I officially relieve you from living in fear. Nobody has to know." I love this line because it's like, John are you talking about Harrow, or yourself? And with the context of NtN this becomes even more clearly John bringing his own baggage to the table. It's so good. I have a whole post brewing in my head on this subject that I am sure I'll inflict on my poor innocent followers at some point

Uhhh, every single John interlude in NtN. I know that's cheating but literally every single one had me going off my rocker.

But even more specifically, John 1:20. That entire section may be my favorite part of the book. I actually had to stop reading for a moment after I finished it (and no joke I did whisper "damn, Tamsyn" out loud and I was, in fact, crying a bit. it was also like, 6am and I had been up all night aserfghj). But seriously I wanted to pick a single part or so from this to highlight but I can't. It's all so good. And heartbreaking. John crying at C— and N— 's wedding, and eating for the first time in ages, the building desperation at the state of the world and how helpless they all feel and that bit of humanity and joy with the wedding, immediately followed by...everything else. "John, your problem is that you care less about being a saviour than you do about meting out punishment." John and Cristabel's final conversation. The absolute heart wrenching stuff with John seeing everyone die and his blurry recollection of it because holy shit it was horrendous. Literally everything else. Also THE MOMENT HE LETS GO, the entire sequence of him trying to take the earth into himself, and then the terrifying description he gives of him eating the solar system and pursuing the departing ships. Also I just really love "All those frightened people. All those run-away rats." I think I just have a very clear uh, 'line read' of that bit in my head, and I love the way he calls them frightened and then the absolute rage in the way he calls them rats. Idk, it's really clear in my head I can't really explain myself better here. But anyway yeah, the ENTIRETY of this interlude makes me go absolutely wild to the point that I cannot be coherent about it.

John 5:4, and everything John says about forgiveness, and what he'll do next, and taking his friend's memories. Again I can't really be coherent about this entire section, but I will give my fave bit from it. "There can be no forgiveness for those who walked away," he said. "Just as there can be no forgiveness for me—even though I rip the very fingers from my hands...throw them into the jaws of the monsters who hunt me...as I run from them across the universe, end to end. Something will satisfy them eventually, but nothing satisfies me. Nothing." I put that last bit in italics because it is maybe my fave line from John. There's just something about it. It's just so tragic and chilling and terrifying and I LOVE it and I love how it is sort of this like, succinct and perfect sum of the tragedy of him. Idk it's just, chef's kiss.

Okay finally, not a direct John moment per se, but this: John loved her. She was John's cavalier. She loved John. For she so loved the world that she had given them John. For the world so loved John that she had been given. For John had so loved her that he had made her she. For John had loved the world. I have so many thoughts and feelings on this that I cannot articulate but oh my goddddd. It's so good. First of all the whole playing off of John 3:16 thing. And just...the wording, the way it all flows. I cannot be coherent about this I just go insane. That ending For John had loved the world hit me like a brick the first time I read it, and continues to do so every time I reread it. There's something so simple and final and heartbreaking about it. I think it sums of the tragedy of the character and his story in one simple line. If that makes any sense whatsoever.

ANYWAY, this is an absolute ramble of an answer I know, but the prompt here was 'makes you want to chew on furniture moments' and I feel like with that vibe in mind the level of not hinged I am here is at least thematically appropriate. Also thank youuuuu for sending me this ask, it has made me very happy

#the locked tomb #john gaius #nona the ninth #nona the ninth spoilers #harrow the ninth #ntn #htn #thank you so much for sending me this ask!

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nomoreusername · 4 months

Text

Well Played

Pairing:Aris x female reader

Summary:After the betrayal you turn the tables around to show what that word really means.

This killed me to do. It hurts more than what I had been forced to do to Thomas. Thomas hadn't been in love with me. She was or is. Even worse, she seemed to genuinely understand why we did what we did. She didn't get angry or upset even when I told her about the kiss with Teresa, in hopes that she would break it off herself.

“Aris?”She asked, joining me away from the group. I didn't say anything as I avoided looking at her. I swear that I’m going to be sick. I never wanted to do anything like this, ever.

But I had to. It was part of the plan that I didn't have a choice in.

“I like you, Y/N,”I started, choking on the words.

“I would hope so,”She joked, making the guilt so much worse.

“Listen. You're really cool. You're really great to be around. You're nice and smart and funny, and I really like hanging out with you,”I got out.

“Look at me,”She suddenly demanded. I didn't have it in me to do that as I stared at the ground. “Aris, look at me. If you're going to break up with me look me in the eyes while you do it.

“I really like being around you. I honestly do, and I didn't want to from the start. I really, really didn't want to, but I didn't have a choice. I like you-”

“What I’m asking is simple. Look at me while you break my heart,”She repeated, sounding unusually calm. Taking a breath and blinking away tears, I finally did to see that she was completely stone faced.

“Say it,”She said, gesturing for me to continue.

“You’re great, but I don't like you that way. I never did. WICKED made me, because you had been close to Thomas so it would rub salt in the wound. I wanted to tell you, but I couldn't. I had to kiss you, because that's normally what you do when you're with someone. I had to say that I love you, because you had to believe it,”I confessed. Closing my eyes, I waited for something. For any kind of reaction.

“Okay,”She replied in a dry voice.

“Okay?”I asked, looking at her. Her expression, or expressionless, face didn't change.

“Yeah. Okay,”She shrugged. I tried to wrap my head around her casual response to all of this. I don't know what I expected, but this was more confusing than upsetting.

“What? You want me to cry? Scream? Maybe start hitting you in rage?”

“I don't understand,”I admitted.

“You thought that I would try and hurt you, didn't you?”She asked. I didn't know how to answer that. I had imagined a thousand ways this went down, and none of them were this nonchalant.

“Do you think that I didn't know, Aris?”She asked. Thinking I was hearing wrong, I kept staring at her while trying to figure out what was happening. “It was pretty easy actually. The way you ‘coincidentally’ became more affectionate around him,”She explained, using air quotes.

“I don't understand. If you knew then why wouldn't you say anything?”I asked in disbelief.

“Because I knew it would make you feel worse when you did something to him. Knowing you had used someone else, I knew that would kill you on the inside. Think of it as a little bit of salt on the wound,”She mocked.

“I already feel bad,”I defended.

“And you felt even worse, right?”

“Of course I did."

“Exactly. You got what you wanted, and I got what I wanted.”

“What did you even want?”

“Just to screw with you a little bit. See how long until you told the truth. I didn't know the exact betrayal or even if there was one. The theories ranged from hurting him to being in love with him. I guess you did hurt him though."

“That's not fair. I didn't have a choice,”I argued. Except, she wasn't arguing. She was just cold.

“Aris, that’s not how this works. You try to cut me, I’ll leave you looking like an idiot.”

“This is insane,”I mumbled.

“So am I though. I’m gonna go talk to Minho. I hope that salt isn't burning you,”She smiled. It looked so sweet and innocent that it was terrifying. She's just, I don't even know. That interaction just chilled me to my core.

I mean it didn't hurt her, but damn, that was unexpected. She played me better than I ever could have.

I guess we're even now, but I’m probably going to think about that conversation a lot. She didn't just rub salt in the wound. She had me wrapped around her finger while she did it.

Well played, Y/N. Well played.

#aris jones #tmr aris #aris tmr #the maze runner #one shot #tmr #plot twist #aris x reader

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elmhat · 1 year

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STAGEDDUO MY BELOVEDS

is punz going to be around for a few more chapters?

also, I love the way you write dialogue, but c!dream specifically like, the stuttering, the lame insults (idiotville flashbacks) but he's also pretty fucking intimidating when needed

Thank you so much! I love your asks. Although I have a general plan for this fic, I haven’t decided if Punz is going to reappear yet—but since I haven’t delivered much on the c!stagedduo front, I’m using this as an excuse to write a short c!Dream pov, which I’d wanted to do for a while.

The following takes place between chapters 8 & 9 in my fic "hallow the foul”

// dsmp rp

It had been stupid of Dream to fall asleep. He didn’t even realize he was, at first, until it was too late. The exhaustion had been awful recently; it always had been, to some extent, but now he could barely even hold a thought for a few minutes. Which was terrifying, seeing as he was currently spending twenty-four hours a day with Quackity.

Logically, he knew that Quackity probably had just enough sense left not to try for an attack. That didn’t mean he could be trusted. If he was being honest with himself, Dream was fucking lucky to be alive right now; he was usually punished for breaks in his guard, and those kinds of breaks didn’t get much bigger than falling asleep on the job. But a glance told him that Quackity was still unconscious himself, head awkwardly nestled in a pile of leaves.

The first thing Dream did was check his comm. Nothing from Techno; Dream didn’t even know why he still hoped for it. Though there were no new messages from Punz either, he decided to scroll back briefly through the older ones, of which there were many. WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU came up quite a lot.

The guilt was still there, where Punz was concerned, but Dream had buried it away for the time being. Punz would understand eventually. Life would be easier for both of them if Quackity didn’t see them together, and it would sure as hell be easier if no one else did either.

There was a pit in Dream’s stomach, but he really didn’t want to eat right now. He would wait until Quackity got up, he decided, and there was no point in waking him sooner if he would only need to rest again in the near future. Instead, Dream checked on him from time to time as he watched the sunrise. It was something he had recently learned to appreciate.

Off to the side, leaves crackled—Dream whipped his head around to the noise. And he was hit with a thousand emotions, bad and good and insane fucking relief, as he saw Punz walking towards him.

“Holy fuck,” said Punz. Dream stood, and Punz threw their arms around him, burying their head in his shoulder. Dream awkwardly returned the embrace. “You’re such an idiot,” Punz mumbled into him, but there was no heat behind it.

“How did you find me?” asked Dream.

Punz drew back, relief clear on their face. They seemed to be studying Dream’s expression; Dream wanted to cringe at how exposed he felt like this. Punz didn’t usually see him without the mask.

“Not with your help, that’s for sure,” said Punz. “But if I could track you then Sam probably can too. He’s coming.”

Dream’s heart started racing. “W-Wait, what? How do you know? What happened?”

“After we separated in Las Nevadas, they started gathering a bunch of people to find you. I had to basically sneak past them. I don’t know who was there, or anything, but there was maybe twenty people?”

Fuck. Fuck. This was fine. Dream already knew people were coming for him; there was a reason that this had been the first real break they had taken. This stress wouldn’t help him do what needed to be done.

“Are you okay?” he asked. Punz didn’t look injured, but Dream knew better than most that even the gravest wounds could be concealed.

“Yeah, yeah, you are too?”

“Yeah.”

Punz looked suspicious of him, but they didn’t push. Their tone turned serious. “Dude, you have to stop being stupid.”

Dream frowned. “What?”

“Why didn’t you fucking tell me where you were!”

“I mean, we don’t need to be in the exact same place, right? Like, it’s probably more efficient if we’re not.”

Punz scoffed. “Bro, I’m not just leaving you to deal with your problems alone, like some dumbass! I was worried sick!”

“There weren’t even any problems!”

“There weren’t— Dream the entirety of fucking Las Nevadas is gonna be on your ass right now! What the fuck are you talking about?”

“Which is why I couldn’t sit and wait around for you!” They didn’t need to be having this argument right now. They needed to move. Gods, if Punz would just listen—

“I messaged you every fucking second! Every second of every fucking day! I was right fucking here!”

Movement caught Dream’s attention; his eyes flicked to Quackity. Good, he thought; it was probably about fucking time he was awake. They had another long day ahead of them.

#hallow the foul au #c!dream #c!punz #c!stagedduo #dreblr #drabbles #my writing #elm asks #elm fics

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