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domeyashiro · 2 years

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Not to stir the pot or anything but I’ve been seeing so many posts on tumblr of some group that is posting “another translation” of Saezuru. These people keep talking about demanding that the publishers re-release a “perfect” translation. As a former JA>EN translator I have my own thoughts on this one but I was curious to know what you thought. (Also, I’d love to know more about what kind of translation work you do!)

Sigh. I don't even have to look up that blog to know who you're talking about. And I think "another translation" is a very fitting term for what they do. ;) From what I saw, they're a prime example of the Dunning-Kruger-Effect. If translation were as simple as exchanging words from the source language into their dictionary translation of the target language like a robot, there wouldn't be tons of books on translation theory out there. I feel a rant coming up, so please bear with me, because what I’m about to say will be nothing new to you.

First of all, there is no "perfect translation". Give the same source text to ten translators and you'll get ten different results. All of which can be perfectly valid. Ideally they all convey the same meaning, so it's not like you wouldn't notice that they were translated from the same source text. But the wording will differ. One person will find a better translation here, another person will find a better way to phrase things there. It's not like one translator gets everything right and better than everyone else, unless you have people with vastly different skill levels. Often it will be simply a matter of personal preference which translation you like best.

The person who runs the blog you mention has a very literal approach to translation. They think sticking as closely as possible to the phrasing the author chose will achieve the "perfect result". But that's a typical beginner’s mistake. They're getting the facts right, I'll give them that. Being a native speaker does have advantages. But getting the facts right is the bare minimum we try to do as translators. (I say "try", because we're human and everyone makes mistakes here and there.) What's more important for a good translation is strong writing skills in your target language, which is why most professional translators translate into their native language, not from their mother tongue into their second or third language. Because it's incredibly hard to develop the same feel for what sounds good and natural in a language you didn't grow up with. It's not impossible, but very few people achieve this level of skill.

I'm also an ESL speaker, so I won't judge other people's English, but let me explain why I think that translating too literally is a beginner's mistake. First of all "literal translation" is a total myth, because where you draw the line between what is “literal” and what is not is always a deliberate decision made by the translator. Strictly speaking, if someone claims to be using only Sensei's own words, they would also have to drop subjects and pronouns where they're missing in the Japanese original, as they do all the time. I doubt anyone would go this far, but let's roll with this example to emphasize my point:

"iku?" (Go?) is a perfectly natural thing to say in Japanese. The info who is going and where they want to go is usually clear from the context and doesn’t need to be explicitly stated. So the Japanese reader gets a normal sentence, whereas the English reader gets an ungrammatical one. The sentence needs a subject at least: "We go?" Understandable English, but still not a grammtical sentence. "Should we go?" Now we get the same information the Japanese speaker got from just "iku?" in the context I pretend it was said in. I added two words that aren't there in the original, yet my sentence is a) easier to understand b) correct English and c) conveys the same meaning as the original, while the "literal translation" is lacking in all three aspects. Now please imagine a whole text written like: “Go?” “Yes, go!” Would you honestly think that the translator did a good job by giving you a text in broken English that's barely understandable when things get more complex than this? The Japanese audience gets a perfectly well-written story, while you’re barely even able to understand what’s going on. So your reading experience doesn't match at all, despite sticking religiously to the source text.

I’m exaggerating of course. No translator would go this far. But this example shows that even the most “literal translation” doesn’t get away with wording things exactly as in the source text.

And then we get into more complex territory: If I translate a joke, is it more important that I give you the exact words the author used, although you're missing the cultural context to find the joke funny, or is it more important that I make you laugh like the author intended? If there's a dialect, how do I go about it? Is it important enough to risk alienating my audience (because we're not really used to seeing written dialect)? If yes, which English dialect could work? There is never a perfect equivalent, because dialects are so tied to the region where they're spoken. So do I substitue a Japanese southern dialect with an English southern dialect? Or do I go by the image the dialect evokes in the Japanese reader’s head? Urban or rural? Or maybe I should create a fictional dialect? But then it doesn't evoke any image at all and might simply sound stupid. Or how do I "literally" translate all the different ways to say "I" and "you" in Japanese? There is simply no one and perfect way to translate something. Some ways are objectively better than others, but most of the time it's a case by case decision. What works well in one situation, might be the wrong approach in another one.

So if you try to approach everything with "literal is best", your result won't even be good. You’ll end up with awkward English: flat dialogues that don’t flow, clumsy idioms, unnatural word choices, characters who don't sound like native speakers, jokes that don't land, shifted nuances, weird sentence structure and so on. All this makes the text harder to read, harder to understand and almost impossible to enjoy. If you can’t create a text that reads as effortlessly and beautifully in English as it does in Japanese, all you’re doing is make the author look unskilled (and yourself too ofc).

Proper translation aims to recreate the unique features of each source text and the individual style of the author with the natural means of the target language. You’re allowed to be creative and find original ways to do so, but you're not supposed to cripple the target language by pressing it into the structure of the source language. Because the readers don’t see “the beauty of the Japanese language” in your supposedly faithful translation. They see clumsy or even wrong English.

Coming back to the "another translation" blog. If we're talking about the same person, they like to label everything as "serious mistranslation". Yes, there are many actual mistakes in the scanlation, and probably in the official translation too (I haven’t read it tbh), but 90 % of the things I saw them point out aren't even minor mistakes. They're just "correcting" perfectly natural English into English that says exactly the same, just worse or longer. Speech balloons have limited space and sometimes a sentence simply doesn’t fit in if you don’t shorten it a little. That’s not a mistake! And if I have a Japanese sentence like "I'm doing this for the first time", it's not a mistranslation to turn it into "I've never done this before", because the meaning is exactly the same. I just chose a phrasing that might sound more natural in English in the given context. This is a made-up example, but this is the level of nitpickery we're talking about. Not to mention that it's incredibly rude to drag someone else's translation publicly like that, especially when your criticism is solely based on your own lack of knowlege.

(Regarding your last question: I translate manga professionally but that’s all I can really say on this blog.)

#saezuru tori wa habatakanai #translation #saezuru fandom #questions

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eatyourchancletas · 3 years

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SUMMARY | y/n l/n; the trauma surgeon who was in the wrong place at the wrong time and is taken hostage by the terrifying mafia known as ateez. despite their situations, love arises between the doctor and san; but when an enemy comes in between the group, breaking trust and belief between the members, what will san choose to save; his newfound love or his brothers?

PAIRING | choi san x male reader

INFO/CATEGORY | mafia au, fluff, light angst

WARNINGS | violence, weapon usage/mention, foul language, lower case writing

[chapter index] [playlist] [previous chapter]

AUTHOR’S NOTE | we’re back! sorry for the long break, hopefully we can get into the flow of things! monnie’s already started chapter 5 off amazingly too :p written by both of us this time (mainly edited by monnie)! please leave feedback, like, reblog, whatever you can to let us know whether you enjoyed it or not! (re-edited because dongwoo and changsik were switched up)

WORD COUNT | 2.4k

TAG LIST :; @jonghoshoe if you’d like to be added to the list please say so in our inbox/ask box!

y/n was usually called outstanding, hard-working, smart. but in reality, he was an idiot when he was outside the workforce.

being a workaholic meant showing your skills, growing them, improving them, and practicing them constantly. sometimes it seemed to be all he knew— it’s what all the people around him saw.

yet again, outside of it he’s quite a gullible man; which brings him to his current situation…

“looking for something?”

he looked away from the bandages he was previously examining to come face to face with a man that looked around his age. “not really, just restocking my clinic. or—trying to find things to restock it with.” the man nods, glancing around suspiciously, although y/n didn’t didn’t seem to take notice of this particular action.

“this pharmacy is pretty small, but it has lots of good supplies… lots of hidden gems. want me to show you where i get my tools?”

“oh,” y/n blinked in surprise, “you’re in the medical field?”

the man made eye contact with him, managing a convincing smile. “yeah, there’s a clinic down the road from here, about fifteen minutes by foot, this is the nearest pharmacy, so we stock up from here most of the time. i work there as an assistant.”

y/n nodded, amusement sparkling in his eyes. “wow, then please! show me what you suggest.”

at the approval, the man nodded, “name’s changsik, by the way. what do you work as? i’m assuming you’re also in the medical field.”

they walked along the aisle of the cough syrups, ointments, and the few other medicines to turn and make their way to the exit door. y/n furrowed his brows, about to ask why they were exiting until changsik made another turn, walking towards the staff room.

“your assumption is correct, i’m a surgeon…” he replied belatedly, trailing off as he stepped foot inside the room. his eyes trailed on the shelves full of unopened boxes, more prescription pills, and—bingo! the supplies he’d written down on his list.

for a split second, the memory of san handing it to him flashes across his mind, blinking it away as he turned to changsik. “wait, how are you able to access this?”

“i’m a regular.” he glanced across at him, looking past the window. “and also the perks of having a pharmaceutical license,” a hefty laugh left his mouth, “took some convincing though.”

“huh,” y/n squatted down, inspecting a box that was on the floor, “i guess that makes sense.”

“just put what you need in a box and take it out. i’ll just say you’re helping me take it back.” changsik smiled, watching y/n nod and do so.

after a few minutes, y/n finished and announced he was ready to check out. changsik’s eyes met one of the cctv cameras before settling on y/n.

“alright, let’s go check out.”

as they walked toward the front, they reached the hallway that led to the exit. just as y/n was going to walk past, toward the checkout counter, a hand forcefully grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him back. he looked behind him, in a startled manner, thinking changsik had just forgotten something. however, a deeper fear struck when changsik’s hand moved to clench at the back of his collar.

“don’t make a sound.”

the second the cold blade touched the skin of y/n’s neck, the surgeon knew to stay quiet. there was a burning in his throat as he struggled to swallow, scared to trigger any abrupt movement. his frantic mind jumbled about, words of scolding placed toward himself and the situation while trying to get a grip. he thought of using the in-ear to alert jongho, but it would risk exposure of the communication device: in any case… he’d be dead by then.

“what is taking him so long?” jongho grunted, tapping his foot in impatience. it’d already been about 10 minutes since y/n entered the store—it shouldn’t take that long for a surgieron to find equipment that’s of medicinal standard!

tapping his in-ear and calling out the doctor’s name, he got no response. placing his face mask on, he rushed into the store, beckoning the cashier. “have you seen a man, about 6’3” with h/c hair?”

the cashier stared at him with a shocked look, “yes, but he went back toward the restrooms. is he dangerous?”

jongho shook his head before running toward the back of the store. he shoved against the restroom door, shouting out the older’s name as he threw open each stall door. finally admitting the fact that the older had disappeared, he tapped his in-ear once more, calling out for anyone.

“jongho, what’s going on?” hongjoong had intercepted the connection, hearing jongho’s worried voice.

the bodyguard had no time to register the primal fear that would settle itself in his bones once faced with the leader, “it’s y/n, hyung. he ran away.”

jongho returned to the headquarters after scoping out the area once more and had just entered through the front door when he was met with the sight of the whole group.

hongjoong was staring at him with his jaw clenched and an almost empty whiskey glass settled in his lax hand. jongho had never seen a look so severe in hongjoong’s eyes—he’d never messed up this bad. and apparently, the leader wasn’t the only one emotionally affected by his mistake, because before hongjoong could even physically express his own anger, san had snatched the glass from his hand and launched it at jongho, missing his head by less than an inch.

everyone was shocked at his silent outburst, san even going as far to ignore the immense pain in his abdomen and on his shoulder, but hongjoong simply sent the younger a look, causing him to cower back in the slightest. jongho, however, was enraged at what had just happened. what gave san, who had no superiority over him, the right to do that?

“what the fuck was that?” he had stormed over to the boy, grabbing his shirt with both fists. san didn’t back down, sticking his jaw out toward the youngest.

“how could you lose y/n?”

“i was told no matter what to avoid cameras, so i stayed outside! i didn’t exactly think the fucker would have the balls to run away!”

everyone watched the two, eyeing when to step in and pull them apart. but hongjoong let them run their mouths. the longer someone talks, the more something is revealed. what he was looking to be revealed, he didn’t know; but something would come up.

san pushed back against jongho, “y/n hyung wouldn’t run away. he’d never do that!”

‘oh,’ hongjoong perked in interest.

the younger scoffed, “what makes you so sure?”

san’s next words came as a bit of a shock, leaving the others with silent questions, “he promised he’d come back.”

bingo!

an awkward silence filled the room as they all stared, speechless at how hopelessly fond their brother had become for their hostage. as much as some of them hated to admit it, y/n was only a hostage to them at the end of the day. and for san to fall into a reversal stockholm syndrome of sorts was nothing short of a disappointment. however, that couldn’t be the main focus, y/n was missing and they didn’t know how strong his resolve would be in the event of torturing.

“run us back on what happened, will you?” hongjoong told jongho, trying to get a clear picture on what went down because the first thing they needed to know was why y/n was taken, much less, who took him. was it by the same person who’d been running their mouths in the streets?

and right in the middle of his explanation, an alarm went off on yeosang’s phone; it was a message. the others kept talking, figuring yeosang could handle whatever message he’d received.

it was when he promptly stood up that all attention had been placed on him.

“it’s him! it’s dongwoo!”

a soft whimper sounded as y/n was thrown to the ground, hands bound and eyes blinded by some piece of cloth.

“boss,” y/n’s kidnapper spoke in a submissive wave, causing y/n to assume the guy had straightened his spine and was saluting him in some way.

a moment later, a gruff voice broke through the eerie silence in the room, “and who is this?” his voice wasn’t angered or bewildered at all, and that’s what scared y/n. he sounded intrigued; like even he wasn’t expecting to be a part of this situation.

“someone with connections to ateez— saw that bodyguard walking around with him.”

the other man hummed, “the bodyguard didn’t follow you, did he?”

“no, no. i found them by the pharmacy; i know the area pretty well because i do the runs for sowon— i knew the camera blindspots!” his abductor seemed to be a bit on the simpler side when it came to this “boss” of his, y/n concluded. this was a completely different personality than when he was being abducted at the scene…

“good job. and you know what, changsik-ah,” his voice seemed to be getting more intrigued, y/n’s heart beating even faster in response, “since you bought in such a valuable hostage, i’ll let you have the honors of obtaining information from him.”

y/n felt the air beside him shift, changsik bowing a full 90 degrees at his boss’s blessing, “thank you!”

a sickeningly hearty laugh resonated and the creaking of a chair sounded before the boss’s next words seemed to be the final straw for y/n’s pounding heart.

“i want him alive.”

“he better be alive,” san growled at jongho.

“we might get to him alive if you two would quit bickering. we’re wasting time because of you two, so shut it and sit down!” hongjoong had had enough of the two. he knew it was a sensitive time for san and jongho, different reasons for both, of course, but they would only get nowhere if they weren’t level-headed.

the two boys bowed their heads at their leader, san still sending a side-eyed glare at the younger before sitting down in his chair.

it’d been two days since y/n was kidnapped and they still hadn’t been able to come up with a plan to get y/n back.

wooyoung tried to trace where the text message came from within the first minute it was received, but surprise, surprise! it was a burner phone— so back to square one; checking all of the cctv footage in the area and trying to spot a suspect that wasn’t even visible from the first frame.

the cameras in the pharmacy showed only y/n, the pharmacist, clerk, and four other customers. of those four, only one person never entered through the front door. and within those 48 hours, he’d managed to single out a vehicle that had arrived in the frame of one of the street cams showing the alleyway behind the pharmacy, and left the same way not even 5 minutes later. it was a suspicious vehicle too; white van, no windows in the back, and paper license plates. the paper plates hinted that they were most likely changed recently or are changed frequently.

and so after hours of having to witness his best friend be so uncharacteristically frantic and down, wooyoung, unfortunately, decided to do what he thought was smartest—save y/n himself to make his best friend happy again.

his intentions may have been well, but in stories like these, doesn’t something always go wrong?

“help me set the table guys,” seonghwa cleared his throat, hand on his hip as he stirred the soup on the stove. the steam from the boiling liquid sent another cloud to his tired face, a sheen of sweat and condensation forming.

“i really don’t understand why we are acting like we have the time to set a table and eat home cooked meals when we don’t!” san exasperated, pacing around the dining room.

mingi gave a sympathetic smile, patting him on the back before going to help seonghwa.

while mingi was more on the understanding side of san’s worries, jongho disagreed, “how exactly do you expect us to find him if we don’t take care of ourselves?”

“all i’m saying is food and sleep shouldn’t be this consistently on your minds when we’re all in this situation!”

jongho scoffed, finding the utmost absurdities in san’s words, “why are you acting like he’s so important? he doesn’t know anything about us or our weaknesses— for fuck’s sake, it’s not like we can’t just get another doc—”

a fist had flown toward jongho’s cheek, cutting off his words, before san’s thrashing body was being pulled back by mingi and yeosang.

“go to hell choi jongho!” san screamed, trying to force his way through the barrier the two had made with their bodies. the boy could feel his stitches tearing as he fought, but he didn’t care. jongho had been a bitch since the very first moment y/n was around, and for what reason?

“cut it out, san!” yeosang hollered, voice brute as he pushed against the boy.

“no, let me at him. he wants to keep being a little shit, i’ll show him shitty!”

“stop it! you haven’t even noticed, have you?”

san didn’t stop trying to break the barrier, focusing on getting to jongho and the other’s words, “notice what?”

“wooyoung’s missing,” yeosang began, san whipping his head toward him and trying to disagree, but yeosang was having none of it, “and you haven’t done anything but antagonize everyone here for not doing their jobs at your pace!”

“oh, excuse me for trying to be as quick as possible in finding him!”

“yeah, and who ever said quick was the efficient route to go? we’re dealing with people we know nothing about, but they seem to know a little too much about us, no? so stop getting on everyone’s asses and—”

“shut the hell up! please!” seonghwa had slammed his hands down on the table, screaming at the top of his lungs. every person in the room had immediately gone silent, words left on the tips of their tongues in a desperate attempt to fly about.

“you’re all going to shut it, sit down, and eat this meal like the civilized people we are and come up with a plan to get y/n back as safely as possible,” he gave a quick glare at everyone, blowing a puff of air at the lock of hair that had settled over his eyelids.

“am i clear?”

"yes, sir."

#t.k chapter #tinted kisses #kpop x male reader #x male reader #choi san x male reader #san x male reader #choi san #san ateez #ateez fic #ateez series #series #top male reader #ateez #ateez x male reader #kpop imagines #kpop series #kpop fics #ateez fics

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savoies · 3 years

Text

Things Changed - Pierre Luc Dubois.

Summary: Neighbors to lovers.

Word count: hopefully 1.6k

Warnings: hints of angst, a few bad words, mentions of sex, mentions of alcohol

A/N: Since I have a cute new neighbor I thought why not use the neighbors to lovers trope to live out all my fantasies. I had a lot of fun writing this with the help of a few close people so enjoy! (not proofread)

taglist: @hartsyhart @nhlpetey @mitch-slap @frostythegoalman @ryanssuzuki @aria253264 @josty @kaitieskidmore1 @kiedhara @laurenairay @teenagekook @alxvlasic @hockeyallthetime @barzy-baby @officialgritty @bowenbyram @mems06 @joshsandersons @connormcdavo @maattamatthews @pierreslucdubois @selenophileangel @boqvistsbabe @ana-maa @stars-canucks

tagging some friends: @npatrickz @beauvibaby @heybarzy @tkachuk-yeah @cozycozzy @2manytabsopen

(*credit to gif owner*)

Y/N had recently moved to Canada seven months ago and honestly it was going just fine. Nothing major had happened other than wanting a change of pace and well she had gotten it. Well at least the most change her dog and her could get.

Today was a nice day so she decided why not head to the dog park that was connected to the apartment complex and just spend all day there. What she did not suspect was running into a cute stranger who happened to be her neighbor from a few doors down.

Pierre had come to the dog park well to see the dogs. After the trade from Ohio to Winnipeg he decided that it was best to leave his dogs with his mom until he got settled in. He probably thought that most people would find a broading 6′ 3″ man sitting on a bench creepy but honestly he couldn't care less because the smile the dogs provided him as they ran by was worth the stares.

"Brody! Brody come back here." Y/N yelled as her dog ran across the yard in and around anything he could get through. As her dog ran up to a cute stranger sitting on a bench she couldn't mutter enough curse words to process why this was happening now and today.

"I am so sorry about him, it's just we don't get out much." She replied and mentally shook her head, not understanding why she had to explain herself to a complete stranger.

"Oh it's totally okay, I love dogs. I actually have two but they are back at home. This might seem kind of straight forward but if you ever need a dog sitter I can offer my services." Pierre smiled at the dog and stranger in front of him.

Y/N knew that she shouldnt take up the offer but with work and life and a cute stranger who seemed actually genuine she threw away mostly all her morals and said why the fuck not.

"Really, that would be really helpful. I'm not sure if I should tell you my apartment number now or after I find out you're a murderer." She looked up at him. After assuring her that he was indeed not a murderer and just a normal guy who loved dogs they traded numbers and apartment info. I guess after all the dog park was worth it.

The First Time.

The first time Pierre earned his title of dog sitter was when you went away for a work conference. It had been three days. Honestly you were quite nervous since you had never really left your dog with anyone other than your family but after hanging out with him so often you felt like it was okay.

"Brody say bye to your mom, we are gonna have so much fun without her huh." He said as he led Brody into the living room and waited for you to give any special instructions.

"Pierre thank you so much for doing this. I want him the same way as when I left him." You hugged him as you said your goodbyes and gathered your things to head off to the airport for your departure.

"Have some faith in me Y/N." He said as he closed the door and watched netflix with the dog cuddling into his side.

The Second Time.

A family emergency had presented itself and as much as you wanted to take Brody with you you just knew it wasn't the best choice. Pierre had come over a few times to "spend time with Brody." Even though most of the time was spent joking around and talking about each other's week.

You had got the call when Pierre was over. Both of you sprawled out on the cold tiled floor. "Hello?" You answered as someone quickly informed you on what was going on. "Wait what, uhm yeah I'll go back home right now." You said as you hung up and quickly sprang up to your feet to pack.

"Pierre I know you're busy and you can say no but can you watch Brody, a family emergency has come up." You spoke hastily.

"Yeah of course, everything ok?" He asked worried.

"No but hopefully soon." You gave him a soft smile as you said your goodbyes and rushed out your apartment door.

The Third Time.

The third time was different. Not necessarily an emergency but mostly a way to make sure that your dog was okay for a few hours. Or at least not alone and spending it with one of his favorite people aside from you. You had gone out to a club with some coworkers and had dropped off Brody at Pierres earlier in the day. Of course you asked if he was busy and he said he had to catch up on some work so that's the only reason you really asked him to. You knew he had a life aside from your dog sitting escapades.

Later on in the night as you arrived home with a guest you had asked him to wait by the door as you went to go pick up Brody from a few doors down. It was late and maybe you should have just done it in the morning. But your mind being hazy with the few drinks from earlier didn't think about Pld being asleep and you knocked before you could stop yourself.

Pierre was slowly drifting off to sleep with thoughts of you in his head. How he had to adapt to this new city which he barely knew anything about but since you had come into his life everything seemed somewhat easier.

There was a soft knock on his door and as he rubbed the tiredness from his eyes he walked up to the door with Brody close by to his feet and he saw you. "Y/N hey what are you doing here?" He asked confused on why you were here at one in the morning.

"Just here to pick up Brody." You smiled at him as he looked towards your apartment and his smile dropped as he saw the random dude standing in front of your door awkwardly.

He knew he shouldn't be making a big deal out of it. You guys weren't anything in the first place. But Pierre couldn't help what he felt towards you.

"You okay?" He asked before letting you head back.

"Yeah, I'll see you soon." You said as you walked away.

After that things weren't the same. You could sense it. After getting the stranger out your bed you cleaned up and headed over to Pierres for your weekly brunch hang out but he didn't answer. That wasn't what made you realize that it wasn't the same. I mean you knew he had a busy life. Maybe it was the way that every time there was a knock on your door you were hoping it was Pierre hoping to "hang out with Brody" but it never was.

Or maybe it was that he was ignoring you. It had been a week since you had last seen him and as you walked to the elevator you tried to rack your mind with what you could've done to upset him.

As you reached the elevator there stood the boy that you so much wanted to see. Pierre rolled his eyes as you arrived, having deliberately been avoiding you for a full week and bumping into you in the only place he couldn't escape.

Y/N looked up at him hoping that he would talk. Hoping that somehow he would reveal why he was mad or at least why he was ignoring her.

"So it seems like you were just using me as a dog sitter huh.” Pierre broke the silence. He was feeling so many emotions seeing the person that made him feel good about himself.

"What, Dubois what are you talking about?" Y/N looked up at him confused on why he would even think that. Cause honestly it did start like that but after that it grew into a friendship that she was so thankful for.

Pierre just scoffed thinking of what he would say next. "The dude you brought back to your apartment."

"What about him?" Y/N asked.

"Look when i offered to be your dog sitter i didn't think it was for bringing guys around."

"Look Pierre i don't mean this to sound rude at all but when you offered you said it was for whenever i needed a dog sitter and i brought Brody over because I thought you liked spending time with him. And honestly the guy is a one time thing.” Y/N spoke up suddenly feeling a bit vulnerable recalling the events from last night to her not so stranger anymore cute neighbor.

"I do love dogs, honestly spending time with him was nice but why do you think I always came over to hang out with Brody?" He asked putting air quotes around hanging out. Then it clicked in Y/Ns mind. Him coming over more than two times a week, him ignoring her after her unfortunate night with a stranger, them now spilling their guts to each other in an elevator. He liked her. At least she hoped that she was right and was not about to make a dumb mistake.

"Oh." escaped from her mouth. As the door opened and Pierre smiled at Y/N waiting for somewhat of a reaction other than oh.

"Pierre I've always been bad at reading signs so I'm really hoping that I'm reading the correct sign right now. Uhm would you like to maybe come over later, you know to hang out with Brody?" You asked as you put air quotes around hanging out with Brody like he had down earlier.

"I thought you'd never ask." He replied before placing a kiss on your cheek leaving you with a small smile on your face.

#ari writes #hockey #hockey boys #winnipeg jets #nhl fic #nhl fics #nhl imagine #nhl imagines #nhl blurbs #nhl blurb #hockey imagine #hockey imagines #hockey fic #hockey fics #hockey blurbs #hockey blurb #pierre luc dubois #pierre luc dubois x reader #wasnt suspecting to post it do early but tumblr is wack so here you go...

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4ragon · 3 years

Note

oh can we please hear the magatama essay??

Oh boy oh boy, let’s go

Ahem

How to Lie to the Magatama

An essay by JJsADragon

Unlocking Psyche-Locks with the Magatama is a really fun mechanic throughout the Ace Attorney series. It’s introduced in Justice for All when Pearl charges the Magatama Maya gifts to Phoenix with spiritual energy. She describes it thusly: “This is the power of the Magatama. Only you can see these "Psyche-Locks", Mr. Nick… The more someone wants to hide their secret, the more locks you will see. If it's only one, I think you can easily unlock it.”

Basically: If someone has a secret they don’t want to share, you have to present in-game evidence and break the locks. Things get a little more complicated with the introduction of Black Psyche-Locks, but the general gist of it stays the same. Someone has a secret they don’t want to tell you, and you can unlock that secret with evidence.

This, I believe, is fundamentally wrong.

Why do I think that? Well, I always really like picking apart these mechanics, both as in-game mechanics and how they would work in the real world. In particular, I think the most interesting way to see how something works is to figure out its shortcomings. What does and doesn’t set off Apollo’s bracelet? Why doesn’t Athena notice The Phantom’s whole deal? And, more to the point, when does the Magatama straight up get things wrong?

There are several moments I want to focus on. We have seen the Magatama fail several times throughout the series. Or, to clarify, we have seen at least one time when locks should have appeared where they did not, and several times where the chains did appear and the answers uncovered were either incomplete or just straight-up incorrect.

So, let’s find out how and why the Magatama fails us. First up:

The False Negative: Farewell, My Turnabout

Fortunately, I think this one is the easiest one to understand. The Magatama has one very clear false negative in Justice for All: Farewell, My Turnabout. Phoenix asks Matt Engarde if he murdered Juan Corrida, and he replies, “Just so we're clear, dude, I didn't kill anyone, and that includes Juan Corrida, OK?” And he’s correct. He didn’t kill anyone. He did not actively commit any murders. And on that technicality, the Magatama does not go off. He did not kill anyone, and he knows it. He believes it. He feels no residual guilt over it. His hands are clean. Hell, he seems kind of gleeful about the fact that he was ‘technically right’ when the truth comes out later.

So, why didn’t a Psyche-Lock appear? As I said, it was a technicality. He wasn’t trying to hide it from Phoenix, he just truly felt no responsibility for what happened. He felt no guilt about it. The Psyche-Locks don’t appear until Matt’s secrets come up.

This, of course, lines up neatly with our understanding of the Magatama. This instance very clearly falls within what we know about Psyche-Locks. If you’re not trying to hide it, if you truly believe what you’re saying, it’s not a secret the Magatama will alert you to. So, what about these other instances? Do these line up as neatly in the rules of the Psyche-Locks?

The Half Truth: The Cosmic Turnabout

This one is a little strange so I’m just going to touch on this.

In day one of your investigations for The Cosmic Turnabout, you run into a conflicted Bobby Fulbright. When pressed, two Psyche-Locks appear, and unlocking them leads you to three conversations: 1) The bomb threat before the launch, 2) Why Simon Blackquill was given permission to prosecute, and 3) The mysterious Phantom.

So why do I call this a false positive? After all, he is technically hiding all these things. And yet, a lot of how this Psyche-Unlocking goes down doesn’t really make as much sense when you consider that Bobby Fulbright is The Phantom. It really doesn’t make much sense how much information he’s feeding them about the situation, unlocked Psyche-Locks or not. Especially the way he goes about the whole thing.

We know in hindsight that The Phantom doesn’t actually care about Simon Blackquill or solving the crime that he committed. Every display of emotion is an act. So why does he make a big show of feeling conflicted? Why does the bomb threat that he made lead him to divulging all of these worries about Simon going after the Phantom? Was him revealing this information part of his game? Since we know he was trying to cover his tracks, was he feeding us half truths for a reason? Did he want to feed us this information?

If that’s the case, that leads us to a new problem. Since the question asked was “Why Are You Being Cooperative”, why wouldn’t the fact that he was the Phantom ping the Magatama? He was being cooperative so that he could feed you information, not because he cared about any of the things he was ‘troubled’ by. So why does the Magatama only pick up on half the truth? After all, the Phantom wasn’t knowingly tricking the Magatama.

(Also if you haven’t read this comic I thought it was a super interesting theory. Not sure I ascribe to it 100% but it was a really interesting take.)

I think it’s important to note in this example that, no matter how you interpret The Phantom’s actions, all signs point to him wanting to divulge this information for one reason or another. There was an intent about it. He may not have known a thing about the Psyche-Locks, but he very clearly was baiting the protagonists with an intent. And technically, without knowing it, he was also baiting the Magatama.

This means that, in the end, the information he actually revealed to the protagonists was not a closely guarded secret of the heart. Yes, you still needed to present evidence and draw it out of him, but I think The Phantom wanted the characters to draw it out of him. It’s not a secret that a bumbling detective was having trouble hiding, it was information that a spy wanted planted. There was intent here, no matter how you look at it. And that leads us to our third example.

The False Positive: The Stolen Turnabout

Unlike the previous two cases, this is the first time that someone has straight up lied to the Magatama. Trials and Tribulations: The Stolen Turnabout. I always get so mixed up by this case. It took me three playthroughs to finally get the hang of who was doing what where and when. And do you know why that was? It was because of one lie that Luke Atmey told us early in the investigation.

Phoenix: Detective Atmey... You were knocked unconscious by the thief, weren't you!?

Atmey: Ha ha ha! Surely you must be joking... You think that I, Luke Atmey, could be knocked unconscious so easily!?

Phoenix: This sword proves it!

Atmey: ...! Th-That's...

Phoenix: Before the theft, this sword was in the hand of the statue of Ami Fey. Furthermore... at that time, it was not bent.

Atmey: Aaah... Err...

Phoenix: ...There's only one explanation. You were struck on the head and knocked unconscious by this sword! Well, Detective!? What about it!?

Atmey: ...I'm impressed. You truly are an "Ace Attorney"...

Unlock Successful

Unlike every other instance, this is just a straight-up lie. This is not a technicality, like with Matt Engarde. This is not pieces of the truth, like The Phantom. This is just factually incorrect. Luke Atmey was not knocked unconscious by Mask☆Demasque. In fact, this not only is a lie, it’s a calculated lie. Without knowing about the Magatama or its capabilities, Luke Atmey used it to convince us that he was knocked unconscious by Mask☆Demasque at the scene of the crime to disguise the fact that he was Mask☆Demasque, which is even wilder when you realize later that even that was a lie! He was covering up a lie with another lie with another lie. It was not just a ploy to fool you into thinking he was attacked my Mask☆Demasque, it was also a part of him convincing you that he was Mask☆Demasque when he wasn’t.

So why the FUCK does the Magatama go off?!

There’s of course a meta answer. The writers weren’t thinking that hard about it. They just wanted to use the Psyche-Locks to make the story more interesting. But that’s boring. I want to go deeper.

Luke Atmey, like The Phantom later on, wanted information planted. But he couldn’t simply tell everyone he was attacked by Mask☆Demasque. After all, he knew admitting to it would put his credentials under scrutiny. So he needed someone to organically draw it out of him. Again, he wanted this information out there. Otherwise, him agreeing to Phoenix’s conclusions, hell, him setting up this scenario with the Shichishito wouldn’t make any sense. Plus, it was only behind one Psyche-Lock and led to him revealing a photo of the crime, one that he was very meticulous about taking to create an alibi.

So. What does this all mean? How are people confusing the Magatama? How are people lying? I think that the element that Pearl got wrong in her initial explanation is that the Magatama reacts to secrets that, deep down, a person wants to divulge. After all, with enough evidence, you can eventually draw all sorts of information out of a person. Some are certainly more closely guarded secrets than others, but in the end, I think the Magatama reacts to secrets that a character wants to share but is not willing to do so without that prompting. It doesn’t have to be real, it just has to be something the person is keeping secret with the intent of finding a way to plant the information.

This can even apply to Black Psyche-Locks. Unconscious secrets that are hidden even from the person hiding them? Those are deep hurts that I think drive a lot about these characters’ personalities and motivations, and I think things like that are the kinds of stuff that a character wants to confront but is unable to do so out of fear, so they push it from their minds.

Let’s look at a few more examples. In Bridge to the Turnabout, Miles demands info from Larry, and he’s able to completely circumvent the Psyche-Locks by divulging something completely irrelevant about his crush on Iris. When Miles realizes his mistake, he discovers a completely new set of Psyche-Locks. Or when Phoenix confronts “Iris” about the presence of another Iris at the crime, “Iris” (cough Dahlia cough) uses that to start planting these ideas about Iris as the original betrayer, as the one who had wronged Dahlia in the first place. I feel these are both things that the characters did want to share, despite not wanting to do it unprompted.

Anyway, uh, that’s most of what I got. Perhaps there’s a stronger answer out there for why the Magatama may react in places it shouldn’t. Maybe there’s some other hidden rule they haven’t mentioned. Or maybe it is just as simple as “The writers didn’t think that hard about it.” But hey, I think I like this interpretation better.

#ace attorney #spoilers #ace attorney spoilers #meta #j

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howdywrites · 3 years

Text

Chapter Zero

→ an In The Woods Somewhere excerpt

This is from my zero draft of ITWS that won't be in the new draft I'm starting for Camp NaNo. I still thought it would be fun to share since it gives a little insight into Jackie (park ranger main) and a side character named Benny who works under her. NOTE: there is a lot of info in this that's changed as I've outlined so some of the locations will be inaccurate.

Warnings: brief mention of recreational drug use (mushrooms)

Length: 2.3k words

[ WIP Intro ]

Breath burned aching lungs. Boots stomped in slick, dark mud. The icy mist clung to every hair on bare skin and the drumming of heartbeat became the rhythm in which Jackie fell in time with. She jerked, ducking beneath a low hanging branch. Her hair whipped as she cast a worried glance over her shoulder. It wasn’t following her anymore.

A disgruntled skunk and her litter of kits watched her sprint from the home they made in a thicket of bushes. If she had stuck around for just a second longer, Jackie would have paid dearly for her grave mistake. Up on [the mountain], there wasn’t a proper shower to be had at the lookout. In fact, there was almost no running water to be had at all. That’s exactly how she preferred it - being one with nature in every sense of the word.

“Fuck-” A patch of thick mud sent her sliding into the wooden Trail 46 sign that pointed southeast. Jackie held on to it, leaning over with her chest heaving while she caught her breath. A spring of curled hair fell over her forehead from under the brim of her uniform hat. Taking one last deep breath, she swept it back under and ran her hands along her two thick braids to make sure her rubber bands were still attached to the ends.

Static crackled from the radio on her hip. A voice snickered at her from the other end.

“I didn’t know you could run that fast,” the voice teased her, his laughter turning into crackles. Jackie lifted her head and dragged her eyes along the ridge behind her. Ancient trees and wild brush lined the rocky ledge. She squinted, trying to make sense of the map of greens and browns. Despite her year of working in Wyoming, she struggled making out shapes in the woods that weren’t blocky signs. “Surprised you didn’t lose your hat.”

Jackie unhooked her radio and held it up to her mouth. It trilled and went quiet. “Where are you? I swear to god, Benny, if you scare me again you owe me a cone at Marie Bettie’s on Monday.”

She stood there, a hand on her hip and her radio up by her ear. A crease formed between her brows. Birds flit from tree to tree down Trail 42, drawing her eye. Frowning, she didn’t see Benny there. Nor did he respond on the radio. She hesitantly clicked it again. “Benny I’m not playing. Where the hell are you?” She couldn’t hear herself on the other end. Wherever he was hiding, he had turned off his radio so she couldn’t gauge where he was.

Stepping out into the middle of the trail, Jackie circled around like an uneasy horse, feet pressed firmly into the packed dirt. A small creature of amber red and white darted out from a nearby thicket of prickly bushes and skittered across the trail. She gasped, nearly jumping out of her skin. While distracted, a pair of hands touched down on her shoulders, fingers curling over her uniform.

Jackie screeched, launching herself forwards out of the grip of the intruder. The ranger hat on her head tipped off, rolling and bouncing off the gravel. Her arms barely caught her in time to save her face from getting superficial scratches. Squirming, she rolled onto her back and scrambled into a squat. Benny stood there, cackling loud enough to send a few birds flying from their nests in the trees. His smile took up most of his face. Smile lines deepend and the prominent gap between his teeth was on full display.

“I got you good, didn’t I?” He leaned in, holding a hand out for her. Despite the adrenaline soaring through her veins and the annoyance that tumbled within her, Jackie sighed and grasped at it for help off the ground. Freckles splattered his sun-kissed skin, his cheekbones turning to apples with his grin.

“Yeah, yeah. You owe me two cones, now, Wonderbird. Double scoops.”

“Hey, that’s not fair! You know volunteers don’t make squat here-” Benny stooped down to pick up her hat, dusting it off for her. It was true. When he first joined the park just six months ago, Jackie had been assigned as his mentor. The junior program was offered to any college students pursuing their line of work. To get a taste of life as a ranger. They didn’t make a salary, but their summers spent in action were funded by park leadership in the form of bunks and food. A far better deal than what was offered to her in Tennessee. She took up her hat and repositioned it proudly on top of her head. “But I guess it’s the least I could do for doing that.” He pointed down at her green trousers.

A small tear cut across her knee, thankfully protecting her skin from being lacerated by her fall. Sighing, Jackie lifted her leg and inspected the hole. “Luckily I brought my sewing kit with me to the tower. C’mon, let’s finish our rounds. Think the captain has extra radios for tonight? Last thing I want is to not be able to contact anyone - especially this weekend.”

The end of summer break brought in the most guests outside of the spring season. Mostly college students looking to get out of town, but not willing to commit to the cost of going to the Bahamas or Miami all the way down south. Jackie couldn’t remember most of the breaks from her college days. She crunched to get through with her degree as fast as possible. Any break she got was filled with studying or working wherever she could. She would have liked to go somewhere tropical and warm for her breaks, but she preferred the serenity that usually came with visiting state parks instead.

“How many people usually camp here during breaks?” Benny kicked a pale gray pebble into the grass alongside the pack dirt walking trail.

“Could be hundreds. Maybe even close to a thousand or more. Really depends.” Earlier that day, they had already received an influx of campers eager to stake their claim on the best spots in the park before the hoards arrived. Easily several dozen of them, all scattered between RV hookups, the rentable cabins and clearings for tents. “Just be glad you’re not working at any of the offices this weekend. I’d take firewatch over disgruntled campers any day.”

“I can’t thank you enough, you know.” An elbow bumped Jackie’s arm and she glanced at the grinning young man. “If it weren’t for you, Richards probably would’ve never let me take over tower 24. He told me you put in a good word for me.”

Smiling down at the ground, Jackie shrugged and reached out to give him a gentle pat on the shoulder. “It wasn’t all me. You’ve got the passion for this. The drive. Can’t say the same for some of the other volunteers-”

A trill of squealing laughter caught her attention. The two of them paused right at the fork. One path remained wide open with wooden signs encouraging guests to stay on the correct path. The other had overgrowth and a dirt path so narrow, one could hardly call it a trail at all. The usual rope gate meant to block it off had been cut. Both ends laid useless on the ground with frayed edges. Another bark of laughter came from the end it shouldn’t have.

“Damn…” Jackie muttered bitterly under her breath. Just when she thought they could wrap up for the afternoon. Benny puffed out his chest and stood up taller.

“C’mon, ranger,” he chirped, marching towards the rocky side path. “No dilly dallying!”

“You just want to write up a citation.” She snorted and followed alongside him. “You’re starting to sound like the captain.”

Snaking down the path, the trees overhead grew thicker and wider. Branches from lowly pines scraped against their arms. Creatures that remained unseen skittered into their hiding places. The closer they got to the three or four voices chattering away up ahead, the more signs they saw. Brand new, the signs were nailed into the untouched bark of the trees along the path or plastered on wooden signs hammered into the thick dirt.

WARNING: do not proceed! This area has been sanctioned for investigation by the State of Wyoming and local police. Any violations will result in a $500 fine.

“Have these signs always been here?” Benny’s voice lowered to a faint whisper. Jackie stepped carefully around a pile of stones gathered around the base of a thick oak. Her boots slid against their jagged surfaces. “I don’t remember them putting these up.

“I don’t either. I remember some feds were here on Wednesday, but they weren’t up for much small talk.” They stood proudly in their dark suits and shade, holding boxes of flyers and paperwork and speaking in hushed tones to her higher ups. The single chance she had to greet one of them was met with silence. Very rude. “I don’t think this was a missing person’s case, otherwise we would have been informed about it.”

Like something out of a sci-fi movie, bright yellow caution signs littered a shady grove at the end of the short path. The sound of water trickling from a nearby stream joined the quiet voices. The blocky lettering on the big yellow signs yelled at them.

DO NOT DRINK THE WATER! Do not disturb local flora as issued by the governor of Wyoming.

“Dude! You’re going to get us in trouble!” A nervous voice murmured beyond the trees. There, by the creek, four college aged kids stood around a mossy puddle. Two girls and two boys, all wearing their UW school colors. Most likely freshmen given their wide eyes and round faces. One of them stood with his jeans rolled up to his knees in the shallow water, a fist full of curling brown mushrooms that looked like kelp. They went silent at the sight of the two rangers.

“This path is restricted.” Benny took the initiative, his voice wavering just a bit at the end of his statement. Jackie let him take the reins. If he really wanted to do this for a living, he would have to get used to this. As he went over what rules they broke being there, she made her way over to a damp patch of tall grass between two moss covered trees.

Squatting, she spied even more kelp-like mushrooms. They stuck out of the grass like limp, decaying fingers out of a grave. Jackie narrowed her eyes and used a pen from her breast pocket to jab at it with as gentle of a touch as she could manage. It released a pussy substance and a musky scent that reminded her of the single frat party she attended her last year in school. Similar to weed, but different. From looks alone, she couldn’t nail down from which family this fungus derived from. In fact, she couldn’t recall anything remotely similar in all her years of study.

“You can’t do that.” The kid in the water whined, trudging out of the water. He tossed the picked mushrooms. “C’mon, man, we’re just trying to have a little fun! I gotta pay for books next week!”

Jackie looked over her shoulder in time to see Benny’s head fall like a disappointed teacher’s. He sighed and shifted his weight from foot to foot, unable to reply. Tucking her pen back into its spot, she dusted her hands off and stood.

“Here’s what we’re going to do-” She put her hands on her hips and took over for him. She spoke with authority and a rigid stance. “I’ll let you off with a warning, as long as you four keep to the official trails and stay out of trouble. If me or any of my associates catch you out of bounds again, it’ll be a $700 ticket. Got it?”

“Yes, ma’am.” The kid slipped his wet feet into his Nike sandals and hung his head. Blonde hair stuck to his pink face and despite his towering height over her, he still looked like a boy. It only made her feel older than she was. The other three murmured in agreement, following behind him. She watched them shuffle up the path until they disappeared behind a thicket of pines.

“I thought I could do it,” Benny sighed, his head swiveling side to side, checking for litter or anything else the rowdy guests may have left behind. Jackie moved to stand beside him and ruffled his mess of red hair. The way his nose scrunched and his shoulders relaxed from the playful exchange reminded her so much of Andre back at home.

“You did better than I did the first time I tried writing a citation - I cried.” Her sidekick blinked, surprised, and chuckled.

“But you’re so good at it. You’ve got a mom voice - in a good way, I mean.”

“Geez, I’m not that old, Wonderbird. First them, and now you? I’m aging by the second. You’ll have to explain to Richards why my knees are bad and my hair is graying when summer’s over, you dingus.”

Benny all but collapsed forward with laughter, holding his stomach and slapping his knee like a cheery grandfather. Jackie smiled so wide her cheeks ached. She had to avert her gaze to not let the homesickness creep in. She would miss him when he had to go back to school. Just like she missed Andre.

The mushrooms among the grass piqued her curiosity again. She stooped down beside them and inspected them without touching. Who knew what they did and who knew why the government and college kids were so interested in them.

“What are they? They were grabbing a lot of them.” Benny squatted next to her, reaching out to touch one. Jackie gently smacked the back of his hand and shook her head.

“I don’t know, but I wouldn’t touch them. Let’s get to the office, the captain’s waiting for us by now.”

ITWS Taglist (let me know if you'd like to be added!): @lordkingsmith @celestialbunnistories @aeslin-writes @writinginslowmotion @chayscribbles @theramwrites @tiredlittleoldme @sapphcon-ic @hazard-writes @lookingmuchimproved @themidnxghtwriter @draculinawrites @aetherwrites @svpphicwrites @maxgraybooks @writeherewaiting @sjjsalamanders @thelittlestspider @ashen-crest @writtendevastation @ravesthewriter @adie-dee @christine-thinks @cream-and-tea @reeseweston

#itwsdrab #murdereddarlings #writeblr #itws #horror

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chibinekochan · 3 years

Text

How to become a Demon Ruler 108

Part: 01 I 02 I 03 I 04 I 05 I 06 I 07 I

GN. Reader insert

taglist: @ayesha95 ; @nomnomcupcakesworld ; @fex-phoenix ; @depressed-bixch ; @kitsune-oji

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The rest of this lesson goes smoothly, but I'm glad it's over.

I glance nervously at Barbatos, who is correcting my work. It looks like he makes countless corrections.

I feel sweat building up along my spine.

"You did very well for your first lesson. Just go over the corrections until lunch, and you will be fine." Barbatos hands me the stack of papers back.

"I thought you would say some more since you corrected so much." I feel relieved but also a bit unsure of how to take this.

"Most of my corrections were minor mistakes in the language, but I can not hold these against you since you have just arrived here. I was prepared for more grave mistakes, to be honest. You once again surpassed my expectations." Barbatos smiles at me, slightly proudly.

I start to wonder if his expectations for me are just remarkably low but take the compliment regardless.

I review the corrections, and then it's finally time to eat.

Lunch is delicious as always.

"I have some good news for you. I have talked with Lucifer, and he agreed to let you meet one of his brothers. I think it would be best for you to speak with one of them before the party. The brother you will meet is Mammon. He is the 2nd most powerful brother. Mammon is the Avatar of greed." Diavolo sounds excited about the news.

"That sounds interesting. When will I meet him?" I generally wonder how other demons are. Maybe this will be helpful for me.

"In the evening. I know it's short notice, but I hope you are okay with that." Diavolo looks a bit guilty.

"That's fine for me. It's not like I had other plans." I simply shrug.

"I'm glad to see that you are so lively." Barbatos smiles as always.

"Will I need to dress something nice for him?" I don't want to make a bad expression.

"You are perfect as you are." Diavolo smiles brightly. I slightly wonder what he will say when I'm dressed nicely.

"I agree with that sentiment. Besides, Mammon is a rather casual demon himself." Barbatos nods and casually continues to clean the table.

"Alright, I will just stay as I am then. What is my next lesson?" I just want to start it, so it can be over.

"You are very motivated today. Lord Diavolo should take you as an example." Barbatos smiles and makes a snide comment.

"I will return to my work." Diavolo looks a bit beaten.

Barbatos nods in agreement.

"Now regarding your lesson. We will practice your table manners, and then I will squeeze a bit more politics in before you meet Mammon." Barbatos seems very used to juggle my schedule around.

This doesn't sound too bad. "So are we going to stay here?"

"Indeed. We will practice the proper tea ceremony and how to act at a party." Barbatos then proceeds to prepare the table once again.

He is very effective that is certain.

"Have fun with your lesson." Diavolo sounds a bit dejected.

"I hope your work will be easy." I smile at Diavolo. After seeing his workload, I feel much compassion towards him.

Diavolo lights up at my words. "With this wish, it can only be easy."

With that Diavolo leaves.

"I will show you how to hold the cup." Barbatos lifts the tea with a few elegant movements and then proceeds to drink it.

It's very impressive. I feel propelled to applaud him but stop myself.

I try to emulate his movements, but it's way harder than it looks.

Barbatos sees me struggling and then takes my hand, which still holds the cup.

He then slightly corrects my fingers. "Like this master," Barbatos whispers into my ear, which sends shivers down my spine.

My heart starts to hammer in my ears, he is way too close.

Then Barbatos backs up. I let out a small breath. This was a close call.

This repeats a few times during my practice. It's very bad for my heart.

The lesson is technically easy, but I'm very glad when we are back to boring politics and history.

After the end of the lesson, I feel slightly unsure. "What kind of person is Mammon?"

"You should just meet him with an open mind and don't give him money." Barbatos doesn't seem to want to influence me.

Even when the last part strikes me as odd. I just take it as solid advice and Diavolo said he is the avatar of greed.

With mixed feelings, I go and meet Mammon.

Barbatos leaves me alone with the guest. I assume he just wants to give me space.

Mammon has already made himself comfortable.

"Hello, I assume you have been told about me by your big brother?" I greet him slightly awkwardly.

"Umm yeah. It honestly is a huge surprise to everyone. Like a human being adopted by the demon king? Talk about weird. We kinda assumed you were like a toddler or something. So I'm kinda relieved to see that's not the case." Mammon seems indeed very casual.

This makes me feel great relief. "Yeah, it was a big surprise to me as well. I'm still getting used to everything but Diavolo and Barbatos doing their best to make me feel at home."

"How did that adoption even happen? It just came out of nowhere to everyone." Mammon is pretty blunt with his questions, but I prefer that to be sneaky.

"I have no idea why the demon King chose me. He just kinda used his powers to summon me into his castle and told me that he is now my father." I'm unsure if it's smart to tell the story like this, but somehow I feel like I can tell Mammon.

Mammon is seemingly surprised by this information. "Wait, he kidnapped you didn't he?"

"I suppose you can say that. I can't really complain though since living here is pretty great. I mean the training is hard, but the food is great." I just shrug and take a sip of tea.

"You are tougher than you look. I'd be going bonkers if it be me. I mean being trained to be the future demon ruler? Doesn't sound like it's fun." Mammon closes his eyes and nods.

"Well, it's not all bad. I get treated to good food and Diavolo and Barbatos are both so nice. I kinda feel like at home already." I give him a small smile.

"I got a hard time imagining Barbatos being all nice. He is pretty scary, to be honest." Mammon makes a strange face. It looks like he is remembering something unpleasant.

"Hmm, I guess how he smiles all the time can be a bit unsettling." I somehow have a hard time picturing Barbatos being scary. Especially to another powerful demon.

"Yeah, but I have seen him angry and that is very scary. Still, I wonder why they choose you. No offense but you look pretty normal to me. Are you some kind of magic prodigy?" Mammon shudders and changes the topic.

"That is a good question. I have never felt magical if that makes any sense. The other day my magic was measured and the device broke but no idea what that might mean." I ponder over the question for a moment.

Suddenly Mammon gets very pale. "Umm well, actually that might be my fault. You see that thing looked kinda valuable. I just kinda umm took a closer look at it and accidentally dropped it. It looked fine but well…" Mammon sighs deeply. Then he suddenly panics. "Oh, wait, please don't say this to anyone. They will kill me!" He looks at me with pleading puppy eyes.

This is honestly of no big concern to me, but at least it explains the black smoke. Then I have an idea. "I won't tell anyone but in exchange, I want some information about your brothers."

This is the perfect opportunity for me to gain some valuable Intel. I have to increase my odds of survival.

Mammon seems to be very troubled. "Look I want to survive, but I can't sell my brothers out you know."

"That's not what I mean. You see the demon king wants me to show him that I am worthy of the throne. I have to make a good impression at the party or else he might kill me. I just need some info, so I can gain some points from your brothers." I give him my straight and honest reasons.

"Ah, I see. So some basics about what they like will be enough, right?" Mammon gets my point right away.

"Yes, that would be great Mammon." I smile at him.

Mammon nods. "Okay. So Lucifer likes classical music and expensive stuff. He has the tastes of an old man to be honest. Don't tell him you got that from me, though."

I nod and take mental notes. "That sounds easy enough. I'm sure Diavolo would know what Lucifer wants anyway. It kinda sounded like they are close."

"Close is an understatement. They are like a married couple or something." Mammon shrugs.

Somehow these words sting. "Wait, don't tell me that they are a couple?"

"Not as far as I know. They are just kinda all hush and act high and mighty." Mammon shakes his head.

I need to ask Barbatos about this later.

"Hmm, I see. So the next brother?"

"That would be me. The great Mammon. I like cars and brand products. So don't try to cheap sell me!" Mammon boasts loudly.

"You will be happy with whatever I get you." I quickly shoot him down.

"Aww come on!" He pouts.

"Sorry, but I have a lot of people to consider and don't forget that you broke a very expensive magical device." I give him a slight smirk.

"Pretty mean of you." Mammon huffs, he is like a small child. I somehow feel a bit bad.

"I will find you something nice okay?"

"You better…" This seems to satisfy him. "Well moving on. Next up we have Levi. He is the avatar of envy. He loves anime and games. Levi is an Otaku as you humans would say."

This also seems very easy. "Alright, I probably have some games I could give him."

"After that comes Satan. He is the avatar of wrath. Satan likes books and cats. He also hates Lucifer. Then we have Asmo. He likes clothes and beauty products. He is the avatar of lust, but he might as well be the avatar of vain. Not only that, but he also likes to party with me. Next is Beel, he is the avatar of gluttony. As you can guess he loves food. He is also into sports. Last we got Belphie. He is Beel’s twin and all he does is sleep. I mean he is the avatar of sloth. Oh, yeah, I think he liked stars. That's pretty much it." Mammon lists everyone up.

This is very helpful. "Wow, they all have very basic interests. Thank you very much for your help." I smile and have already some ideas ready.

"Well, I suppose they do have basic interests, but what did you expect?" Mammon shrugs.

"No clue, something eccentric? Don't get me wrong I'm happy with this. At least I will have something to talk to them about." I'm honestly just glad that I don't need to learn about some strange stuff.

"I think they are pretty eccentric but whatever." Mammon shrugs without care.

"Thank you very much for the help Mammon. I'm sorry that I blackmailed you." I feel a bit guilty at least.

"It's fine, I get it. I would do the same in your situation. I'm just glad that you won't tell anyone." Mammon doesn't seem to see any issues.

"You are very nice for a demon. I mean I have no idea about demons, to be honest." I'm not sure if he gets what I mean.

"Well, I'm the great Mammon so of course, I'm great." He laughs and blushes just a little.

I shake my head. "I mean all of this is still pretty crazy to me, so it's nice to see that you are so relaxed."

"You have it pretty rough hm? Well, I will give you my number, so you can call me when ya need someone to talk to." Mammon wraps his concern into doing me a big favor.

"That is very nice of you. I think you will be my first proper friend in the devildom." I give him an honest and grateful smile.

Mammon looks away, obviously embarrassed. "Don't just say things like that." He mumbles and gives me his number.

This meeting goes way better than I expected. I'm very pleased.

_______________________

Im sure you all are happy to see at least one of the brothers before the party.

#how to become a demon ruler #demon ruler 101 #obey me #omswd #obey me shall we date #obey me diavolo #obey me barbatos

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fleabaqs · 4 years

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TIPS FOR WRITING LATINOS FOR DUMMIES!

because y’all can’t seem to get anything right.

under the cut you will find a lot of useful (maybe) information when writing latino characters. please consider leaving a like/reblog if you find this useful.

FIRST OF:

yes, karen, we will call you gringo. that’s not on the table, that’s not a discussion. all latinos use the word gringo, and if you say it’s a racist slur ONE MORE TIME, i swear you will regret it, filha da puta.

SECOND:

NOT ALL LATINOS SPEAK SPANISH!! i know, crazy, right??? brazilians speaks PORTUGUESE, yes PORTUGUESE!!! bitch

yes, portuguese and spanish are really similar, but don’t write the “even though i speak only spanish/portuguese i can understand spanish/portuguese” depending on the country/state you’re born, you CAN’T. so just avoid that.

if you’re character/fc was born in united states, they probably won’t be considered latino in latin america. PERIOD. that’s not up for discussion either.

if your character/fc was born in latin america, he ISN’T going to be considered a person of colour if they have white skin. take for example the family from one day at a time. in usa they can be talking about racism and everything, but in latin america you only suffer racism if you have clearly black/asian descent. plus: if you’re white and you decided to shit rules into racism in latin america (at least in brazil) you’ll probably get beaten up. not a joke. and as a white latina, i support that.

WHY are you all so lazy? If you wanna write ANY character, from ANY country that is not yours = YOU SEARCH INFO ABOUT THAT COUNTRY!! i swear your hand is not going to fall of! im taking as example my country, if you wanna write a brazilian, search about the states! a cearense and a gaúcho are TOTALLY different!!! a carioca and paulista are totally different even tho rio de janeiro and são paulo are so close. DECIDE the country, the area, the state and city of your character!

moving on from geography: other types of stereotypes!! NOT ALL LATINA MOMS ARE CRAZY AND CONSERVATIVES! some are pretty chill! really… there are moms who won’t go crazy about anything. so don’t be afraid to write a mom that is okay with their child going out at night, being LGBT or being pro choice. okay???

okay, but why aren’t you using the word “latine”? most latino community are against this word. shocking, right? everyone has their reasons why they don’t like it, my case is because my family is really poor/my grandparents didn’t go to school and everything and as much as they would respect and understand non binary people, they would not be able to use it. not even my mom, who is a teacher, is able to use it. she respects their existence, but they gotta respect other people existence too. my family is one of the lucky ones, there are people in worse conditions. when using the word latine, UNDERSTAND the background of the character!

ASIANS LATINOS EXISTS!! my god, this is a hard one. i never see asian latino representation in unitedstaten midia. like, what’s that about? they don’t have to choose between their ethnicities!! now shut up, karen

we DON’T call unitedstatens americans, or united states america! i don’t know what happened in their education system, but they really gotta understand america is a fucking continent with more than 30 countries. you’re not special, desgraçados parasitas do caralho

if i see one more latino drug dealer and latina sex symbol, IM GONNA KILL A GRINGO!! that’s not all we are!

we will get offended if you say we are from a country we are not, after we already said our country. i know it’s hard for you to memorize more than five countries, but i gonna be cheering for you!

most latinos hate, or at least dislike, our colonizers. in brazil, we make jokes about portuguese people all the time and we will ask for the gold they stole from us at any given opportunity. so when writing a latino character, know who colonized their country.

latinos are clean. i know this may sound a little off for non latinos, but our sense of personal hygiene is really important. again, this variates from country to country, but in brazil we are thought that we should brush our teeths after every meal (at least 4 times a day), and that we should shower EVERY day. no, no, don’t come with that unitedstaten shit about showering only when you exercise, or that during summer going to the pool is showering BECAUSE IT’S NOT, THAT’S FUCKING DISGUSTING HIJA DE PUTA. if your character has access to clear water and personal hygiene products, he will do this kind of things.

just... read abou that country you wanna write. here goes some ideias: *country* traditional food, *country* sports, *country* music (in this one, learn how to say the language of the country in the language of the country. example: don’t search “portuguese songs”, search instead for músicas brasilieiras. don’t search for “mexican songs” search for canciones mexicanas.), *country* books/writers, *language of the country* basic phrases! ]

latin america is part of three americas! america is devided in three. north america = mexico, and the other two; central america = cuba, costa rica, etc; south america = brazil, chile, etc. DON’T go to my ask to say “oH mExIcO iS nOt NoRtH aMeRiCa” because i swear i’ll track you down and shove a atlas down your throat!

latin america is not just tropical vibes, dumb bitch!! we have snow too! this is fucking brazil. and this is argENTINA!

just remember these facts when writing brazilians: brazil is the second country with the biggest japanese community, second country out of germany with more germans, and get this!! brazil has more lebaneses than lebanon.

latino accent when is speaking english is not just lydia from odaat. it changes.

english is second or third or fourth (and so it goes) language for latinos. keep in mind that mistakes are made. and most latinos (myself included) love their accent!! we want you to listen to our voice and ask where we’re from, and that gets to:

WE ARE COCKY! yes, we are very cocky about our culture, get over it!

most latinos cried/got really happy when parasite won the oscar. now you ask me, why are you writing this on a guide on how to write fucking latinos??? well, my dudes, latinos are tired of imperialism. just that. don’t write a character that worships usa culture (can we call hamburguers and coke culture, my ladies? I DONT THINK SO), even if they moved to usa. “it’s also important to remember that the american dream is sold to all of us, since forever.”

i guess this is it??? just, talk to a latino and ask “is this correct?” when in doubt. we are indeed very energetic and we talk loud and a lot, but we don’t bite. writing us is difficult, you’ll probably get something wrong. but if we see that you did basic research, we will get really happy about it. bye, gringos!

edit 001: this link and this link are great! use them.

edit 002: any fc can be latino! ANY FC CAN BE LATINO! fun fact: the brazilian passport is one of the most expensive ones, because anyone can pass as brazilian. anyone can be latino! wong yukhei? big brazilian energy! madison beer? can be latina. ester expósito? latina. kim taeyeon? I HEAR THE LATINA DRUMS!! idk, kj apa? can be latino too!

not all latinos are good dancers and not all latin dances are salsa. check “#latinodancecheck” on tiktok, if you have one.

there are differences between spanish speaking surnames and brazilian ones. first of: the number of surnames changes with the country. second: spanish speaking countries surnames end in “ez”, while brazilian surnames end in “es”. examples: rodriguez, rodrigues; lópez, lopes; hernandez, fernandes; martinez, martins. but sometimes, we exchange surnames. you can find a brazilian with the surname “gonzalez” instead of gonçalves, if their family comes from a spanish speaking country.

this ask sent by the lovely anon!

this other ask sent another sweet anon!

this.

#rph #rp guide #writing help #i don't know what to tag #rph br #this was supposed to be a rant #and ended up being a sort of guide ?? idk

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frequentlychangingfandoms · 3 years

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The Eighth Member || Five Hargreeves X OC (Part 1)

"The world knows of the Umbrella Academy. The seven members using their unique gifts to save those in need. And if you don't know them already (which is a surprise since their faces are plastered on every billboard and magazine cover imaginable), let's introduce you;

We have Number One with his incredible strength and admirable leadership (and a dazzling smile that will sweep anyone off their feet).

Then we have Number Two with the ability to change the direction of projectiles, which comes in handy since he is a very talented knife-thrower. Though some hardcore fans say that he might have some form of mild telekinesis.

Then we have Number Three with the ability to manipulate reality by lying, using the phrase "I heard a rumour..." to activate the power.

Then we have the peculiar Number Four, with the ability to speak to the dead, and if you are a real fan you would have heard the theory that Number Four may also have the same telekinetic abilities as his brother, Number Two.

Now we have Number Five with his ability to jump through space (some say even time, but that theory has not yet been proven), this makes him one of the most vital members of the team.

And now we have the darling Number Six with the ability to summon and control eldritch tentacle created from a portal in his stomach, though he has such a violent ability, that hasn't stopped fans from gushing over Number Six saying he's "just adorable" and "so shy it's cute".

And last, but certainly not least, we have Number Seven who has the fascinating ability to manipulate sound waves as she pleases which gives her the power to make destructive waves and make a protective barrier that can withstand the force of bullets. This makes her the most powerful of the academy members, as some fans say.

Now, the world is still uncertain of where these phenomenal children had come from, and when questioned Mr. Hargreeves, the adoptive father of the children replied, "That information is strictly confidential, and I shall not be answering any questions as such,"

This left the world scratching their heads as to where these children came from, and how did Mr. Hargreeves find them?

Well, lovely readers, that's all we have for now, but check in next week for the newest info of the Hargreeves children in the next Academy Monday."

The girl sighed and put the article down, she reached out for her tea, only to find that her cup was empty.

She stood from her chair and left the small room she called hers and walked to the kitchen.

She was alone in the house, her siblings were off on some mission on the other side of the city. She was supposed to have been there observing with her father, but because of a simple cold, she was stuck in the academy.

She shuffled into the kitchen and reached for the kettle when she heard someone clear their throat behind her.

She turned to see her mother standing at the entrance with her hand folded delicately in front of her, she had her usual smile plastered on her face and her head was tilted to the side slightly.

"Oh hey mom, I was just making some more tea," Eight said as she turned back and filled the kettle with water.

"Yes dear, I can see that, but didn't I tell you that if you wanted something you should call me?" her mom asked as she made her way toward Eight.

The girl cringed a bit at the tone but continued to place the kettle down and turn it on.

Grace was now standing next to her and lightly shoved her away and then proceeded to take the teabag out of Eight's hand and place it in her cup.

Eight got the message and sighed, she took a seat at the table and watched her mother make her tea. She zoned out after a while and only came too when a hand had smoothed down her hair.

She looked up and saw Grace smiling at her, holding out her cup, now steaming with hot rooibos tea, her favourite.

She smiled and thanked her mom, before she stood and made her way towards her room.

------------------

Well everybody, what do you think?

This is my first umbrella academy fic so please correct any mistakes I have made!

Thanks for reading and I look forward to seeing you all in the next chapter!

Bye(^o^)

#the umbrella academy #five hargreeves #klaus hargreeves #diego hargreeves #luther hargreeves #allison hargreeves #reginald hargreeves #umbrella academy pogo #grace hargreeves #five x oc

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popculturebuffet · 3 years

Text

Ducktales Della Arc Reviews: The Great Dime Chase!

Welcome back all you happy people, to my look at the series first arc! I covered the pilot last week and this week i’m going full speed ahead with two more review for this arc, one more for the Lena arc all leading up to BOTH finsihing up next week for DUCK WEEK, my huge celebration of the final episode of Ducktales 2017. So with all that in mind when we last left off the kids moved in, webby gained friends, Donald and Scrooge made the first steps to patching up.. and Dewey found out his mom was also invovled with their adventures setting this arc off.

This is also where the airing order reshuffling started as this episode was pushed up by two replacing impossible summit as the third episode... and where said order reshuffling for both this arc and the Lena arc really bit Disney in the ass by giving fans the wrong idea about the series pacing. See the original idea was to have a few episodes as a buffer, since this arc itself is only about 5 episodes long, so the pacing would be more spread out and fans while likely getting impatient for the della mystery to be resolved, would expect it to take about that long after a while. The same was clearly planned for the Lena arc.

The problem is Disney didn’t give one shit about proper airing order, story pacing or any of that at the time despite their most popular show at said time having the same pacing structure and having been aired in the right order. So as a result and as most of you already know, season 1′s structure was a mess: The globetrotting adventure episodes were off ballance with ones set in Duckburg itself, Scrooge sometimes felt like a supporitng character in the first half due to his two focus episodes being crunched to the back for holidays... it was bad. And it was worst here as by having both the Della and Lena arcs progress pretty quickly in the first 6.. it was thus jarring and grating that there was zero progress for either in the rest of the first half, and they had to move the spear of selene up a few episodes when they came back just to make up for it.. which still messed with pacing as that arc wouldn’t be picked up until the final three episodes solving nothing. This made fans blame the creators for sloppy pacing and for taking too long to get to the Della thing when they’d done nothing wrong and HAD staggered it out. It wasn’t till Frank later revealed the order was a bit bungled we got the message and until a few months into the series being on Disney Plus we got a proper order for the series. And again, the arc has pacing issues we’ll get to without this.. but they were made so much work by Disney blatantly disrespecting and ingoring their creative team.

I will give credit where it’s due though: Disney learned from it. While Season 2 had a few episodes shuffled around, this time it was due to trying out that binge airing strategy they were doing to get shows on Disney Plus faster, airing DuckBombs (Woo-Ooo!) frequently, so they wanted the airing to flow properly with that without screwing up the flow fo the season more than they absolutely had to. They were being careful and delberate this time not to make the same mistake and with season 3, they simply havent’ shuffled the airing order at all> The only two episodes aired out of order were holiday episodes purposefully made to air at the right time and detached from the season as a whole. This stretches to other shows too: Amphibia is two seasons in and Owl House got through it’s whole season with at worst minimal changes to the airing lineup and the arcs all being properly spaced and aired as intended. I give Disney a lot of shit, rightfully so, but I will give them all the credit when they learn from their mistakes and they REALLY did here, learning to trust their creators to know when to actually make an episode and simply having them set aside holiday episodes if they want one.

Otherwise not a lot of lead in for this one: It introduces a bunch of the supporting cast, reintroduces the board in full, and in general is a pretty good episode. Find out why under the cut.

We open with the introduction of the shows go to Show Within a Show Ottoman Empire. And what I’d forgotten was Louie wasn’t always into it but there’s a subtle arc to it: he gets into it, slowly obesses over it, by the end of the season he’s got his brothers into it, it’s not a huge thing but it’s a little detail I can’t help but enjoy a hell of a lot. But him not liking it is part of a larger problem Scrooge has picked up on: Louie’s laziness has reached godlike new levels: he’s opened about 7 cans of PEP! and only taken a sip from each, won’t change the channel because the remote, which is right next to him and would only take him hopping slightly to the left to get to it or incnching over a bit is “too far”. Scrooge finally blows up at the sight when Louie tosses his phone away for not being charged and assumes he can get another one because “We’re rich”. Scrooge corrects him “I”m rich!” and then drags him off by the hoodie with him to the office so he’ll learn the value of a hard day’s work. And really.. the scene is a good showcase for Scrooge: Louie is acting like the embodiment of all deadbeats and Scrooge is still VERY patient with the boy until it’s very clear he needs a wakeup call. Given Scrooge has a temper on the best of occasions it really shows he’s trying with the boys, and only really snapped when it was clear Louie NEEDED someone to snap at him and snap him out of his bullshit.

Meanwhile Dewey sneaks into Webby’s room to read her secret file on the McDuck family only to LITERALLY be caught red handed as she put glitter on her outside.. because it looks pretty. And as a security measure. Given she lives with a trained spy who likely has riffled through her stuff at least once, or would at least solely try to check her files just to make sure their secure, and lives in a place that gets broken into or nearly blown up, both by Glomgold, on a regular basis, i’d expect no less. But she also points out the obvious once he explains he’s looking for information on his family: He could’ve just asked. As we saw back in Woo-ooo! like yours truly webby will gladly go on about things she’s obsessed about at the drop of a hat and has likely been dying for someone to share her vast conspiracy board with. As for why he didn’t do the obvious, keep in mind he doesn’t know Webby well this point, so he dosen’t know what questions he asked might set her off and also doesn’t know WHY his uncles don’t talk about her, so he’s being cautious and it’s a nice foreshadowing for his secret keeping throughout the arc.. and how it’s an inherently dumb and selfish idea that only slows down his investigation.

So naturally given the sequel hook at the end of the pilot, he asks about Della. And after drawing the curtains and making sure Scrooge isn’t around to listen Webby asks what HE knows. Naturally given this is a whole story arc he only knows what she looks like from an old photo of her dunking donald’s head in his birthday cake, and Webby.. knows even less. No one talks about Della and the last time anyone did, a mailmain brought some junk mail with her name on it, Scrooge bought out the post office and they never saw that mail man again. Webby naturally thinks Scrooge murdered him... and while I don’t think he went THAT far, I pity that poor shcmoe and whatever ice floe he’s been banished to. And not a small villiage in the arctic mind you like an actual ice floe scrooge left him on with a lifetimes suply of beans.

This also admittedly answers a question i’ve been griping about for some time that turns out had a logical answer: I thought he’d somehow wiped her out from public record and the internet and then magically put her back. I was wrong and simply hadn’t rewatched this episode and connected the dots. He likely didn’t do.. any of that, but the triplets likely never thought to internet search her with Donald because as far as they knew Donald was an average person, and thus their mom would be too and looking her up wouldn’t tell her anything about them. It still leaves the plot hole of how they knew about Scrooge and not the Della search, I have no answer for that one, but hey sometimes these things happen and it’s a good enough show I can ignore it. Point is they had no reason to research her before then and Donald likely went out of his way to hide anything about her when they visited places. Likewise Scrooge was likely so miserable and consumed with his search, and once that was called off his failure, he likely pulled every archive and artifact for his own personal collection to pour over them in sadness and loss and simply put most of it back into the public once the boys helped him heal by the end of the season and the truth was out there. Likewise while the internet info was likely there after this episode too Dewey, as foolish as he can be, likely wasn’t stupid enough to look up his mom’s name on his uncle’s wifi. While Scrooge likely isn’t tech savy, given how paranoid he is and how much of a sore spot this is, it’s not a stretch to have him ask gyro to monitor his wifi for certain key words. So yeah i’ll admit when I was wrong and there was a logical explanation, if still with some holes, all along.

Anyways Webby has one place she hasnt’ been able to get into that might have the answers: Scrooge’s Personal Archives. And as it turns out, both parties are heading to the bin: Scrooge since, much like the comics, that’s where his office is, and Webby and Dewey for the same reason The bin being Scrooge’s buisness center, where his office is where he has meetings where a lot of his emoployees are is very accurate to the comics, as while the layout was never entirely consient apart from “Scrooge’s office is the only way in and out of the bin itself” and said office having a very consistent and iconic look that the series didn’t change. But as we’ll see they added two extra parts to it that in the comics scrooge would Balk at the expense of but this scrooge, whiel still probably not happy about the extra money, knows are vitally necessary.

Speaking of which the plot splits in two pretty cleanly once we actually get to the bin: Scrooge has no real issue with the kids going to the archives and no glimmer of their real intention, so the plots don't’ meet up again outside of when Louie’s literally crashes into Dewey and Webby’s for a second. There’s some thematic connections, cutaways and an intercut montage, but nothing outside of that. So as is tradition for me i’m covering them seperatly and since it’s both the reason why i’m covering this episode and our B-Plot, let’s start with the archives Webby and Dewey in The Mad Archivist of Scrooge McDuck!

Webby and Dewey head to the archive where we meet Quackfaster. In the comics she’s scrooges long suffering secretary, emphasis on suffering. He barely pays her, takes expenses out of her paycheck and she generally seems once minute away from a nervous breakdown at any given time. What i’m saying is the character and the “gag” have not aged well in any way shape or form so instead here she was revamped. Frank and Matt leaned on Scrooge’s love for adventure more than his greed at first, and had his thrill-seeking be his vice more. It does make sense as greed isn’t nearly as good as it was to people in the 40′s and especially the 80′s, but they eventually clearly realized they made it a bit too subtle, as it’s still an iconic part of the character and played it up a bit more in seasons 2 and 3, to the point two of his worst moments in backstory, both revealed in season 3, come from his greed. They found a nice ballance and I do think having his adventuring also be a vice was a nice change of pace. As such, they came up with the idea that he’d hire people who like him are exceptionally talented but also a bit reckless and unhinged. The kind of people most employers would unfairly shut the door on but Scrooge sees their true talent and worth and treats them with the respect they deserve. People who in most other works would be super villains, but here are kept from that by being given honest jobs for their talents and a boss who has no intention of ripping them off or undermining them. IT’s a great concept and I wish we’d saw more than two people hired with that in mind, but the two we got are great.

So with all this Quackfaster was reinvented with this idea in mind to someone entirely different but infinitely more entertaining: She’s now a ham of the highest order, not literally, and slightly unballanced. She also refuses to help Dewey until he completes some challenges for her, sorting out a code in the dewey decimel system

And in sorting the books to get to know the archives. Webby is all for it naturally as this is a dream for her: she’s likely tried to access the place for years and couldn’t as a non-relative, something Scrooge hopefully relaxes in the future, so a giant pile of books about adventuring, Scrooge (including an apparently 7 volumes on his favorite smells one of which Webby gives a happy “I knew it” upon finding out it was fresh baked cookies), and places he’s been, including a sly nod to Plain Awful. This is a hallmark of the show making smaller nods to the past incarnations without going into them or doing those adventures again and while I was at first disappointed those tales already happened in some form, I now get they simply wanted to tell NEW ONES, and were a big as fan of the olds ones as most of you reading this and myself. Though between you and me I was never a big fan of the square eggs story. Good idea just a weird and not all that funny execution.

Dewey however has the patience of a coked up ferret who also took some shrooms and being Dewey tries simply demanding she tell him. Naturally yelling at the weird hammy lady intrusted to guard the private library of someone whose a certified badass.. is not a smart or correct move and Quackfaster decides if they can’t respect the archives they’ll become PART OF THE ARCHIVES and pulls out a crescent shaped sword to apparently murder them.

So a chase ensues with the two trying to simply throw books at her, escape her and only narrowly doing so for a minute when Louie pops up being chased by a giant robot made by a smaller robot using a giant change machine. I love this show.

Eventually their backed into a corner while Dewey defiantly demands info on his mom. And his impatience and anger is understandable: this is the first time in his ten or so year old life he’s had ANY chance of learning anything on her.. and he’s having to do various fetch quests. While he could use some tact, may not get him stabbed so much, his viewpoint is understandable.

Thankfully it turns out Quackfaster was just doing a Mr.Miaygi and secretly testing them, having chased them to the book Dewey wanted, and said code she had them find earlier is the login for the vault. Granted it also has them put away some books (”How much of this is us just doing your job for you?” “About fiffttty perceeennnt”), but she works for scrooge. While he thankfully pays her a living wage here he still can’t be paying her much. Still they find their way to a secret vault and Dewey gets stabbed a bit to verify he is a mcduck.. and let into Scrooge’s secret room, full of treasures Della likely gathered. As I said, he DID put them aside somewhere, and likely just wanted them to cry over and donald didn’t fight it since the last thing he wanted was the boys learning their legacy. D

The telling part here though, despite accusations later.. is that Dewey’s first instinct upon finding this is to tell his brothers. Keep in mind Dewey’s all consuming need for attention and validiation, all of which he could possibly get and only have to share with Webby. He has every selfish reason for not telling them.. but he wants to. He knows they deserve to learn to. The only wrinkle is webby finding a note saying “Scrooge i’m taking the spear of selene, i’m sorry”. He decides to hide it for their sake right then and there. But while part of this as we’ll get into later in the week is him simply being afraid of what he’ll find personally.. it’s fair to NOT want to tell them. To try and protect them from the horrible truth whatever it may be. He has no way of knowing the betryal was nonexistant here and neither did we. It’s not the right course of action, awful truth or no they deserved to know too and both would say as much later, she’s their mom: good person or bad they know.. but like his uncles he’s not hiding this out of malice but because the truth might genuinely hurt them.. and as we’ll learn.. it will.. oh boy will it ever. But more on that next week and more on the arc itself later this week. What about the rest of the episode?

Louie in The Great Dime Chase! and Scrooge in The Boardroom Full of Heartless Assholes!

Winding back a few hours, Scrooge drags Louie up to his office, where the boy is genuinely impressed.. before naturally trying to take a swim in the money while Scrooge tries to tell him about his number one dime. Scrooge stops him before head injury occurs explaining that yes, even the money thing requires proper training: Louie would’ve just cracked his skull open and this would’ve either gotten really dark really fast or turned into a horrifying and hilarious child death version of weekend at bernies. It’s what Louie would’ve wanted. Scrooge can do it because he’s built up the muscle and resistance over time, strong enough and skilled enough to travel through the solid metal and dive into it. It’s a nice nod to life and times: While Scrooge didn’t necesarily train to swim in money, he bathed in it at first and when he needed to during an adventure discovered he could swim through it going from one barrel of his cash to another. So tweaking that slightly to an earned skill, and one Louie will have leanred by the end of the season, was a billiant move..and a way of silencing all those head injury jokes.

But their soon interrupted by the board, who Scrooge dosen’t recall having a meeting with and likely pull this kind of shit all the time when they can get Scrooge. It makes even more sense after the Della reveal, as he likely has to be forced into dealing with the men who, while as far as he knew were trying to help him, still pulled him away from Della.. and in one case, had a shit eating grin about it. Seriously Bradford you smirked evilly about your nemesis not being able to rescue his daughter how do you NOT get that your the bad guy?

The meeting ends up being boring with Louie asleep and Scrooge almost there, as let’s face it most board meetings probably are, until Gyro barges in! It’s our first apperance of 2017 Gyro and a lot of people were upset by how much more of an ass he was. Me, while I like the kind and gentle original, like the more mad sciency version here and feel Jim Rash did a good job with it, and I only really hate it when he’s around Fenton, and the show eventually addressed how fucked up that was in Season 3 after downplaying it in Season 2 by having them barely interact and have Gyro genuienly show some pride. Otherwise I like my insane prideful version even if I get why some don’t like it as it is nothing like the comics, but as we see with Donald not being a lot like the comics version isn’t a bad thing.

IT’s one hell of a character establishing moment, as he barges in, is rude to everyone and has to read cue cards to properly intro his latest invention Little Bulb, Gyro’s most iconic invention whose made here to help people not do work. The Board is skeptical though as most of Gyro’s inventions have turned evil, a nice nod to the fact that most of Gyro’s robots in the original series, who are in fact on a list of previous inventions.. turned evil and tried to kill people. IT also shows his warmer side as he insists they aren’t evil just misunderstood, or at least half were anyway, and tries to cover for Little Bulb shaking his fist at them and doing a throat slitting gesture... which while Bradford plays dumb about what that means.. he’s worked in organized Villainy for at least 55 years. He knows what that gesture means. It’s Heron’s favorite. And even if he didn’t he’s also worked with Scrooge for around 30. It’s also Scrooge’s favorite. So it’s rejected though Scrooge encourages Gyro who vows they’ll understand one day and they’ll all pay. Really should save that for outside.

Scrooge vouches for the board to Louie who questions such a slam dunk, pointing out he trusts their judgment.. mostly because he dosen’t know they’ve been embezzling from him to fund an evil spy orginzation the whole time but still, he usually trusts them. He would’ve found a way to fire them if he didn’t on the Della thing. But sometimes they overstep and they undermine that statment by suggesting cuts to the Bin’s budget, starting with Magical defenses “Do you know how many curses I have on my head?”. And props to the creators as they apparnetly had the whole Bombie idea in mind this far back, and as Bradford later shows towards the end of next season when he lures Louie into cutting it, he KNOWS where that money goes. He just was trying to feign ignorance to get Scrooge killed if he could. Clever bastard.

So Louie goes to get a drink, and naturally scrooge’s drink machine in his office not only charges but requires an extra ten cents. Louie assumes the dime in his office is an emergency Dime only to walk in on Scrooge giving the full story. As you all likely know, it’s his number one dime, with the origin taken straight from life and times: He was a poor shoe shine, and he worked hard to clean off a ditchdigger’s muddy boots, working himself to the bone.. only to get an American dime which inspired him both to work harder and smarter than anyone and to go to America to seek his fourtune. There’s some extra steps in the original material, and another bit that the show would also adapt later that we’ll get to next week, but point is it’s his symbol of all his hard work.. that Louie just sent into the vending machine. So said great chase insures as Louie follows the dime, as it’s emptied from the vending machine.. by a gull janitor we only see this season. And he’s a really likeable guy I wish we’d learned more. He then faces his and Charles Xavier’s greatest enemy THE STAIRS. There’s a runner about Louie having to constnatly run up and down the massive amount of stairs the bin has as someone else takes the elevator and by the climax it’s been taken out entirely. It’s pretty great. So Louie’s seemingly screwed and instead looks up how to pick a lock on YouTube.. no really. That’s what he does. Frank outright mentioned this in an interview, pointing out they wanted the kids to act like a kid would.. and props to him that’s what a kid would do. Hell that’s what I would do if I were locked out of a place and time was of the essence. Either that or look up a step by step instruction on google. He then runs into Gyro though, and gets the idea to use LIttle Bulb, convinces Gyro he has money and would like to invest and just needs to borrow the little guy and Gyro is happy to agree to it.

Naturally though, Louie’s laziness and a volatile machine who only likes one people just like his daddy, do not mix and Louie leaves sorting the coins to it while he watches Ottoman Empire, actually getting really sucked into it. IN fairness he did start with the Glomgold episode. Little Bulb meanwhile shows just how awesome he is by turning himself into a giant coni sorting mech by rewiring and reconfiguring the coin sorter.. and naturally given who made hi going mad with power. So while he did get the dime out.. he’s not horrifyingly obessed with chasing it and the real great dime chase begins.

Back at the meeting Scrooge continues to debate the Buzzards who now want to cut staff, both of whom Scrooge rightfully defends. While Gyro is a bit unhinged, his inventions have likely made the company millions and saved them billions, and while Quackfaster is the same as we just saw, there’s a method to her madness and her laziness. And given Quackfaster works two additional jobs to afford a nice retirement, it’s clear that while he pays them decently he’s likely still not paying them gobs. With the power of hindsight i’ts very clear Bradford just wants to try if he can to eliminate two sources of chaos and backup for Scrooge and when Scrooge sarcastically suggests just getting rid of the bin, Bradford goes with it with a shit eating grin, but it’s very clear by that and Scrooge’s frustration this is a non starter, and Bradford’s likely doing it just because he frankly knows it’ll piss Scrooge off.

So Louie runs for it working harder than he has in his whole life, with Gyro eventually trying to talk little bulb down, to no avail.. though we do get a nice moment of it registering him as father. Awwww. So the chase naturally eventually leads to the bin and Louie stuck in it, slowly swimming across, until Gyro gets to LIl Bulb, and realizes he’s in the wrong time of wattage and has literally gone mad with power and puts him back in his tiny old body fixing the problem. Gyro also crashed in with the bulb mech earlier, and while it disproves Scrooge’s point he’s stable.. he simply rolls with it and points out his staff is dangerously insane, and would likely swear vengeance on the Board if they were fired. And while he dosen’t say this part of it directly given Scrooge treats BOTH Quackfaster and Gyro exceptionally well, he knows they’ll know EXACTLY whose idea it was.. probably even tell them. So the board agrees to keep things as is to not die horribly as supervillains or not they have limits.

So the day is one, Louie finds the dime, replaces it and passes out with Scrooge none the wiser. it also turns out the Dime isn’t even the real deal, to Louie’s frustration. But Scrooge is proud he clearly worked hard, and gives him the fake dime as his own number one dime, a nice setup for their bond and a nice showing that Louie really has the potential to be as rich as his uncle one day, and it’s clear by this setup there was a lot of potential here for an arc.. which is why we got one. More on that some other time. Louie accidently spends it while Gyro ends realizing if he put himself int he robot it wouldn’t go mad with power.. and thus Project Blatherskite is born. And we all know where this is going.

Final Thoughts: All in all a decent episode. It has great pacing, some excellent world building, and some really good gags. While the series would do better episodes as it went, for an early episode helping set things up including Louie’s charcter arc, Gyro, Gizmoduck and the board as proper characters, it’s still very good and one of the series early standouts.

Next Time on Della: Donald is forced to confront his adventuring past when he runs into his old sorta friend THE INCREDIBLE STORKULES, Scrooge is forced into games of the gods by their resident Douchebag Zeus, and Dewey is forced to confront his own fear of whatever it is his mom did. Confront this review later this week.

Next Time on This Blog: It’s Lena’s Dark Night of the Soul as she and Webby head into “The Other Bin of Scrooge McDuck!”

If you liked this review share it, feel free to commission your own and feel free to join my patreon at patreon.com/popculturebuffet. Even a buck a month helps, and helps me reach my stretch goals, the current one being just 5 dollars away, and netting you reviews of the super Ducktales arc of Ducktales and a Darkwing Duck Review every month. See you at the next rainbow.

#ducktales #the great dime chase #louie duck #gyro gearloose #emily quackfaster #scrooge mcduck #dewey duck #webby vanderquack #bradford buzzard #F.o.w.l.#reviews #animation #disney channel #launchpad mcquack #little bulb

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helloblobbyblobfish · 3 years

Text

Safety in coils

(Anîla refers to the mains humans as “kids”, but they all are in college, between 19 and 25.)

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The 32 of July

New place, new diary! Hello, four diary, I will call you Helbert. I think it’s a common name for Americano males. Any way, I shall present myself to you to: I am a member of the proud race of naga, but I have yet to receive a proper name, having only 34 year old in human year. I am currently trying to live away from my tribe as a sign of maturity, however. I have decided that I would also record to myself what I am doing for my descendants to know what I did. I decided also, than, given the fact that I will pretend to be a human, I need to write in their tango, so that I would be prepared to speak with them.

I shall also name myself Anîla âbhoga, as respect for my elders, and because I lack creativiti. I should try to find myself a cave before looking for a house. In all accounts I read, we need to wear “clothes” when we takes our human forms, so I will steal them later on.

See you soon, Helbert!

---

2 of august

Hey, Helbert! You wouldn’t believe in the number of kids that went into the forest today. I could have eaten any of them without issue, they are so trusting! But that would end up alerting someone, and I don’t want hunters yet. Americannans; They don’t seem to realize the danger that exist, I was told of their ignorance; but it is really worrisome.

Trough, that mean that I have plenty of Americanans that can explain to me everything. I am even more persuasive that most of my clan, the reason as to why I was allowed to travel the sea unsupervised. As you serve as my “recording devices”, I think I am supposed to give you the description of the youth I have met. They all got to see my eyes and should not be worried about my half-snake appearance, but I will keep a human look next to them, as to not push their limits. I could not make them come back to me at a precise time, so I will put them back under. It would also make them less suspicious of my questions.

The first kid I found was running, and scared. I guess he was lost for a while, and got into trouble, because he had what he told me were call b-r-u-i-s-e-s. (I Made him spell it, I am learning English word I was not told existed. The excitation!) It’s brownish marks that indicate you were p-u-n-c-h-e-d. He also had a similar marks on one of his eyes, but it was black. Apparently, it is black or blue around the eyes, and as such, you call those bruises “black eyes”. He has yellow hairs, with dirt and twigs in them when I fond him, but I clean him. He had green eyes, if I saw correctly, before he saw mines. I though he was short, but all the humans I met were close to his height. He has 19 year, and is name is Noah.

A few minutes after I brought Noah at the edges of the forest, I fond another male, who is named Andrew Evans. He is really different in behavior and look. I did not tell you about the clothes! It is kind of important! Humans wear different “styles” of clothes depending of their ages, gender or role in the town hierarchical structure. Noah was wearing gray “S-w-e-a-t pants” and a red “H-o-o-d-y” with a green stripe. It was way too big on him, so I guess he and his family does not have a lot of money. He also screamed and tried to run when he saw me. Andrew Evans has black hairs that he “greased”, brown eyes, I am sure for those, I thought to ask. He is wearing blue “J-e-a-n-s” with holes he said he made himself. I guess there is a meaning, but I was asking basic questions, I will interrogate the kids more later on.

Andrew Evans also has a silver chains dangling on the side of his pants, a white “T-s-h-i-r-t” who he cover with a “Leather j-a-c-k-e-t”. He also had dangling “dog tags” around his neck, who reached lower than his “P-e-c-s”. They are by two, silvery, oval, and contain info. His “dog tags” were about his father, who got them in a war. Andrew Evans is proud of his dad and wear them. Ritualistic importance? He also tried to attack me with a knife when I met him. As punishment, I kept the “dog tags” I do not understand the meaning of some of the info, like the “AB” mark.

It appear Andrew Evans was looking for Noah, so I showed him the way to civilisation. And then, I heard cries of “Andrew”, because I presume someone went after Andrew Evans. Perhaps they do know the forests are places you get lost in, but none of the kids seemed prepared to meeting me. Are americanos forest really without nagas? How?

Any how, the third kid has a darker skin color that the other two, but it is not as dark as the skin color of the humans who live in India. He had brown hair who looked that fluffy spikes, and I had a hard time flattening, blue eyes, and was wearing another “T-shirt”. They cover only part of their arm, fascinating choice, in my opinion. He also had “Jeans”, but his were gray, and without holes. He wondered where I was coming from as he never saw me, and did not believe me when I said I was a newcomer. To worry about. I simply calmed him and told him where to find Andrew Evans. I was not sure what to ask of him. Except his name, it’s Leo

I ended falling on a fourth and final kid by complete accident, nearly an hour later, despite him apparently entering with Leo. This kid was looking at least a head taller than the rest. His name is Chris. He stated he “was” 24, witch I think is a bit old to call a human, a kid, but I have to look more into it. He is as pale as Noah and Andrews Evans. His hairs are the fabled red, and his eyes remind me of hazels. He also wears a “Leather jacket”, who he kept closed, because he wears nothing underneath, and blue “Jeans”, who should be burned given the numbers of oil stains who covered them, and also massive holes, with is knees basically being in the open. I had to tell him to change clothes, or he would be hurt if he fall. He wasn’t taking me seriously, so I put him under my gaze at this moment.

Over all, it was an excellent day to start seeing what kids human act and look like. I will go into town tomorrow to meet adults.

---

3 august

Well, wouldn’t you know, Elbert, I was using phrasing of a sentence and idoms who sound old, for someone in his thirties. One day interacting in the town, and I already got a reputation as an “old-timer”. Who could have guess? Most people are wonderful, in any case. I also bumped into Andrew Evans, Leo and Chris. They were with another kid in their age range, Steve. He is taller than Leo, but smaller than Andrew. Oh, yes. Evans is a family name rather than a composite surname. My bad.

Leo was still suspicious of me, and I wasn’t able to talk with them. He said something about “stranger danger”. I wonder if he is more afraid of other humans than what is living outside his town. What are humans doing between themselves? It would appear our knowledge of their society is dated. I need to get alone with him if I want to examine their behaviour properly. Instead I met a few adults and discreetly made their door open to me. I did take a trip to the house seller, but I will need papers and money for one. It’s more difficult than we expected when I left my home forest. There is also that man named John Miller. He seems to think I am weak because he can’t see muscle. Probably an hunter. I need to keep an eye on him too.

Wait, there are footstep sounding close. I come back once I saw who is it, and why they are here. What if they already know?

It was Noah! Unlike the others, he still wears the same clothes than yesterday. Truly poor. And because he already saw my eyes, he is so easy to put under. Actually, he is sitting right next to me, and when I took my hybrid form, he was all too happy to snuggle in. Good human. So, because he is really easy to interact with, and he told me he just often goes into the forest when he is “overwhelmed”, he will be my number one source of information! So, I will ask some questions, and note the answers into you, Ebert!

So, Noah Miller! Turn out he is the son of John Miller, who isn’t a hunter, but a construction worker. Noah seem to be hiding something about him, but I don’t want to push. Noah seems nice, I don’t want to destroy his intelligence or his being. So, I will wait till he wants to tell me for further explanations. He also doesn’t want to tell me where do those “bruises” and cuts come from. I am a bit worried for his safety. Does he try to get into fights to prove himself to his father?

Human kids his age like to play something call “video games”. I need to come to his house to play, however. Well, after I ended up asking question, we will play fetch. I heard pets like that, and I might keep Noah around, I really like him. His outfit is one he picked because he wants to cover “them”; Okay. Apparently, “cool” outfits for him show muscle, leather jackets always work, Jewellery show wealth, seem like the meanings are the same as we naga knew, just a bit differently. Jewelry

Yes, I asked Noah to correct mistakes he saw. It’s useful for my human guise. Also, Andrew is the popular kid who has a bright future. That mean he can get away with selfishness and violence, in this society. I can’t believe it. Well, as a subject and potential pet, I should give Noah a good life, so the research is put on hold the time I get the other kids to respect him.

---

6 August

Hey, Albert. Been a few days, but I had to make Andrew, Chris, Steve and especially Leo way more pliant that they were. But today, they will all come to this forest with additional clothes they think would fit Noah and make him looks “cool”, so that he joins their “friend” group. It looks a bit more like a hierarchy in itself, but I will make sure they treat each other better. Win-Win for everyone! I hope I use those expression correctly. Anyway, Noah too got more contacts with me. He seems to really trust me “more than anyone” he says, but he still won’t tell me where his injuries come from. I am a bit disappointed. Seem like he made some strong barriers about it, if I force the answers from him, it would hurt his brain, a lot.

Leo has arrived. I had to get to his parents first, to be alone with him, but heh. I have a bed in their basement now. Leo was really distrustful. Now, he is a bit over-zealous to obeying me, but I don’t see any other psychological impact. I do keep an eye on him for his safety. He also is the one closer in size to Noah, so I expect his clothes to be most of the ones Noah come home with. Leo also make delicious chicken wings.

Now, Steve has arrived. Coming back to my few notes, I forgot to describe him. He has black hair, brown eyes, and the first time he saw me alone I was shirtless and that made him red, for some reason. But he doesn’t want to talk about it. He is 23. He is the drag-along man of his group, and easily scared. It amuses me to make loud noises behind his back. He jumps every single time! Today, he is wearing a sleeveless black cloth he calls “top”, and blue “shorts”. He really doesn’t know how to visit the forest.

Andrew and Noah arrived together. Andrew is surprisingly the one who brought the more clothes. When I asked, he stated he bought them. He is ironically the one who took the most the rings in my eyes, even more than Noah, who I found easy to put under. And I remind you I am strong in charm by naga standard. Andrew is also missing his dog tags. Apparently, you put “blood type” and height on it. I shall ask for their size and weight once I start the experience again.

Well, Chris is finally here. He at least wears something without “sexual innuendos” for once. I’ll admit I don’t understand them. Also, except Steve, they all have a weird combo with leather jackets and ties, to welcome Noah into the group. Really odd-looking, even fir me, and the fact that I wear “professionals” clothes all the time makes people talk. Noah, of course, is wearing a hoody and “baggy” pants. I’ll tell you how it went.

Really well!!! Now, Noah has a collection of “gym” clothes, rings, chains… the perfect “streetwear”, as Chris said. The boys are all very happy playing with the ball I gave them. And they all are super happy when I tap their head to signify that they are good boys. I’m so happy they stopped using gel, I can play with their hairs. But play time is over. I’m going back to studying them and their interactions, so they aren’t aware I was ever in their lives for now. I want to see them act normally.

Wait, why is Andrew berating them all. I understood he was mean to people outside his group, but he is controlling of the people in it? Chris is obeying him without question and making subtle threat for the others three to follow? Noah is afraid??! Leo is just done with this and complaint but does not act? Steve is not shivering like Noah, but I think he is afraid too. How could I miss that, and how can I let this happen in front of my eyes? I’ll be right back, Albert!

---

So, they have been some changes in the group dynamics of the boys. Now, Leo is the leader one. He also asks for my opinion on things and agree that I am smarter and wiser than him, and as such, my decisions are absolute and override his. Andrew is really happy to be led. He takes more easily to my suggestions than the others, so he is “living the dream”, as the “omega” of his group. I don’t know what that mean, he declared himself one. In his opinion, Leo is an “alpha” and the rest are “beta”. Andrew also wanted to classify Chris as the second-in-command, but I preferred Noah, because I have to admit at being biased, but Noah doesn’t want to lead, and Leo will be a great leader under my guidance, and he wanted to be the “top dog”.

Chris is really the one who got the best changes, though. He was really afraid of what to do without someone who use him as a muscled henchman, so now, he can suck up all type of information. His “G.P.A” will improve, thanks to that. We might have a “smart one”, after a trip to the library. And the, there is Steve. I don’t know what to do with Steve. Steve never showed much personality. When I asked him how he would describe himself, he said “gaie”, which mean cheerful in French, is I remember correctly. Didn’t appear that happy for me… Well, now, he is being nicknamed “the cheerleader” by his friends. They will not question the changes, but I think I will have to drop by their parent’s house later.

Well, I’m glad to see they all are having fun. Leo started a “soccer game”. Look interesting. Steve is cheering for them because they are an odd number. He seems decided to compliment Chris on his muscle, for some reason. Well, he also commented a few times about mine. Maybe he just put a lot of attention in physical health. I’m going to watch.

August 8

At the teaching place the boys are going (I though in English it was called school, but the refer to it as college), Noah is now one of the centres of attention, as a new friend of Andrew and thanks to his new look. Steve convinced him to wear “guyshadow”. Didn’t expect it to work well with the dark lines under Noah’s eyes (named “eye’s bag”, this language relies on such obvious terms, it’s worrying me. Are humans worried about being incomprehensible? It’s probably not the only human one to be this on the nose, but the only one I’m good at.), but now, he has a lot of weird attention from females and a few males, including Steve. I don’t understand why is external looks and money so much more important that what’s inside for humans.

Wait, I hear sobs. Why is Noah in pain?

HIS FATHER WAS VIOLENT TOWARDS HIM!!! THE FIEND! HE DESERVED BEING REDUCED TO A HUSK BY ME! SO GLAD HE IS NOW OUT OF NOAH AND MISS. MILLER’S LIFE!! Now, I heard a mother without a husband faces hardship in this “tolerant” society humans call America, so I will make sure the remaining Millers in town are wall-loved. I think I will move my human place from Leo’s house, he is okay, and go to live with Noah and his mom Susan.

---

August 10

Albert, while I was playing with Noah, he called me Dad. Apparently, it means he sees me as a major role model, and it’s a sign of a deep bond, said Susan. She seemed ready to laugh, and also a bit awkward, when she said that to me. Well, I’m glad he thinks so highly of me! I also think highly of my pet. Now, he is completely open to any change in personality or look I ask of him. I have a little doll I can dress and make talk as I want. He is a cowboy, a pre-re-education Andrew, a hunter, a servant. I asked of my sister she send me some jewelry, and now, he has wonderful gold hoops in his ear, and a silver chain with an emerald that he show to no one, but whose touch remind me of how good he is while looking at me... Truly, I am enjoying this study.

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Author’s note (how do you make italics on Tumblr?): So, this is a story I wrote in Summer 2020 for a contest about supernatural on a hypno-site. I planned to make a one-shot, then I liked the characters too much and started making an universe for them. If you have questions on them, I probably have some answers. It feature no pron, so I though. You know what, I should publish my own stuff on Tumblr. Hope you people enjoy

#male hypnosis #naga #no sex #sfw #hypnosis #tw: abuse #?#personality change #safety in coils #forgot tu put the series tag oh my god

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thatiranianphantom · 4 years

Text

marry me (betty/jughead)

(the one where bughead are married af and everyone knows it and everyone mocks them)

They never realized it, until people around them started pointing it out. It seemed a little ridiculous at first.

To be fair, they realized their situation was far from typical. They were eighteen, not yet in college, living at home with their parents, who were also dating. Not normal. But they were young, still in high school.

So, yes, their friend’s whispers did seem odd.

Theirs was a happy relationship, one they had been in for many years. They struggled to remember what life was like outside their relationship, and it became the target of no small amount of mockery from their friends.

They were in sync, and they always had been. But while the romantic drama of their friends swirled around them, they kept a very even keel. It was normal. Stretching themselves, they would even call it something their friends could aspire to.

Their friends, however, called it something different. They mumbled under their breath, and Betty and Jughead only caught snatches of words like “married” and “boring.”

And by comparison to the things their relationship had been tested through, perhaps their friend’s issues did seem a little boring. So when Reggie would come to them and complain that the girl he’d known for all of ten days hadn’t texted him back in an hour, or when Veronica complained that Archie wasn’t picking up on the “very obvious” clues she had left him when she was sick ( I told him chicken soup would make me feel better. He said it probably would, and then he went to practice!) it did seem a bit…juvenile.

And that perhaps made them feel a bit…dated. Though no more so then when Cheryl was ranting to them about some perceived grievance with Toni when they were not paying the proper amount of attention.

She leaned back with a scoff and cast her eyes between them.

“You guys just don’t get it,” she scoffs. “It’s been too long for you. You’ve never felt the way I do.”

It slips out without Jughead particularly meaning it to. “Now, now,” he says in a tone he hopes is soothing, but not inviting of more complaining. “We were once young and in love as well.”

She scoffs. “Yes, perhaps a million years ago, Grandpa.”

------------------

It doesn’t get better from there. In fact, it gets worse. More things start getting pointed out to them, like when Betty grabs his third piece of toast out of his hand.

Archie is sitting at the island in the Cooper home and observes Jughead’s noise of protest. Betty, however, shakes her head.

“No more gluten, Jug. It bloats you, remember?”

(Even Archie bites down a laugh at that.)

Or when he tries to kiss her goodbye at Pops during exam season, and she pulls away. They had admittedly been a bit more snippy with each other than usual, and he’d heard the same complaint over and over again.

“Shave, or you’re not getting anywhere near me.”

He bites back the same response he has been saying for three days. “I am too tired to shave!”

------------------

There are certain things, even for the relationship veteran he now considers himself to be. Like, before living with his girlfriend, he wasn’t aware that there was a wrong way to fold the towels. Or that one could chew gum arrogantly. Or that not putting the spatula back was mainly an act of war.

Also, how many questions Betty asked him that were secretly rhetorical. More than once, she had asked him what he wanted for dinner. He had perceived it as an innocent, genuine question. He was incorrect.

There was, in fact, a correct answer, and he was expected to know it. He gleans that info from Betty, turning away as soon as he makes his dinner suggestion and informing him he is wrong.

They have their friends over for dinner that night. He eats a garlic roll, and Betty informs him that if he has any interest in kissing her that night, he will not eat it.

Perhaps he feels like she’s bluffing, or maybe he just does it to annoy her. It’s a mistake, and he learns that when he comes to bed and finds a blanket and pillow arranged on the floor for his convenience.

They spend a lot of time together, much more so than most high school couples. But he’s never gotten along with anyone better than he’s gotten along with Betty. That is the case almost all the time.

But then there are those times where they’re on their third day straight of leaning over their murder board, and he is apparently annoying her, but fears hazarding a guess at how.

She demonstrates for him by sucking a breath in and out. “That. You’re doing that, and it’s really annoying.”

He looks at her incredulously. “Breathing? My breathing is annoying you?”

She gives a sharp nod, and he huffs out an amazed breath. “Okay, I’ll stop,” he bites sarcastically.

She gives an approving nod. “Good. Do that.”

------------------

Looking back for both of them, perhaps moments like these were the genesis of the “married” comments, though they’re 18 and unmarried. Sometimes the married comments expand out to their friends, calling them “Grandma and Gramps” and ribbing them about mortgage investments.

It’s good-natured to a point, but when they finally get accused of being, quote, “a level of boring comparable to being 45 years old with four kids and a mortgage”, then they tend to hit back.

Betty straightens her back and glares at Archie, today’s offending comedian.

“Jughead and I have been together for 3 years. We’ve known each other for thirteen years, and we’ve moved past being recruited into mob schemes, or using sex to communicate. Also, we have single-handedly solved cases that even the police seemed to have given up on while maintaining a relationship that all you young whippersnappers are jealous of. We’re Bughead. We’re adorable.”

Jughead hums in agreement. “That’s love, bitch.”

They high five without looking, taking in their friend’s faces. Some are barely holding back laughter, Archie’s mouth has fallen open, and even FP, listening from the background, looks a little surprised.

Turning to Alice, he looks for reassurance. “Alice, I’m a good sheriff, right? You’d tell me if I wasn’t?”

#Bughead #betty cooper #Jughead Jones #riverdale #Riverdale fic #bughead fic #Yeah I posted this on ao3 but i'm posting it here #because i'm a rebel #and we have read mores for exactly this reason

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