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willowser · 8 months

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one thousand lonely stars, hiding in the cold—

android!shouto x reader

wc: 2k+

tags: angst, cyberpunk dystopian setting, financial vulnerability, explicit language, minor mention of sex work + sex workers, reader has strong/conflicting feelings about their situation, and — as always — the question of true humanity.

notes: what a great opportunity this was for me to continue exploring this idea !! tysm to @shoto-brainrot for not only giving me the chance, but also for being such a support and helping me to figure out all this commission jazz !! i so appreciate you, and i hope you enjoy it ! 🩷

original post

You’ve yet to find out what caused the damage to Shouto’s faceplate.

By the time you discovered him outside the credit exchange, he had been busted open and left for—whatever the equivalent of dead is for an android. A gaping hole in the left side of his disturbingly human face exposed his inner circuitry to the rain and you think that should have finished him off, truly, but—he's still kicking.

Technology in the lower district is distinct. The most careful hands could have crafted him down in the best underground salvage yard and he still wouldn't have lasted half an hour with his face submerged in a shallow mud puddle like that. Wiring would have been shot, fuses blown.

Even if the Todoroki Corporation symbol on his wrist wasn't glowing, a blinking light in time with his would-be heart, you'd know what he is. You'd know he didn't belong down here, beneath the smog, in the industrial bones of your dying city.

And yet—

The left side of Shouto's face took the brunt of whatever blow he'd been dealt, and the scarring—if it's even called that?—has extended down over his cheekbone and backward, so violently that his ear had only barely been hanging on. Without the bandage you've wrapped him up in, he's quite a sight: half a tangled mess of wires and pins, a dull cyan light glowing in his orbital socket. With the wrapping, however, he’s almost exactly as he was meant to be: seamless.

The fate of his detached ear had been unknown. Until this morning.

It still works, much to your surprise, learning so only after wondering aloud the whereabouts of your data docket and hearing Shouto answer from across the apartment. Whoever put him together, you realize, took great care to make him durable, adamantine; the carbon nanotubes and polymer arrays that make up his cochlea were hardly affected by the assault.

Someone—or something—meant to harm him, and you know that for certain, now. Such wreckage couldn’t have happened naturally, not to a Skin-Puppet like him.

(When you look at him, you can’t help but consider his creator. How far he is from them and why. If the hands that made him and the hands that ruined him are the same, if he meant to leave or if he was cast out. You haven’t asked, but it’s odd that a machine could keep such information to himself—itself.)

(Given the brutality behind his mutilation, perhaps it’s best you don’t know the answers.)

Working tech from the richer district—KōkyōLuxuria, above the smog, built high into the clouds—could not only earn you enough to eat this week, but also to pay off all your debts to the League. Maybe even finance a decent apartment a few stories up.

And that’s why you’re here: racing through the slums in the rain, doing your damndest to make this sale before time runs out and you’re forced to find another buyer. Coming across a Hack with 1,640,254 credits in their docket is rare; who knows when you’ll find someone from the Trade in Musutafu sector again? You’re likely to sooner perish—either from your empty stomach or that broker that demanded payment two days ago.

Shouto, however, doesn’t see the urgency.

“Hello, handsome! Awful cold out tonight…care to warm me up?”

“Oh, hello.”

At the even, all-too-friendly lilt in his voice, you halt your sprint again, and spin around with a hiss. “Shouto!” You snap—but it comes too late; the Entertainers have struck like lightning, already scrambling his code.

Out of habit, you’d pulled the hood of his sweatshirt up over his head before leaving the apartment, and now the material separates his image from view—though you can easily imagine the pleasant expression showing on his face, illuminated in pink under the NanotechNymph advertisement.

At his easily captured interest, two women strut from the open doors of the low-lit den, all allure and swaying hips, mirage flickering beneath the heavy rain. They only meet him halfway—too far from the emanator deep within the club—and you dash forward to stop him from wordlessly accepting their offer. You can’t afford to owe anyone any more than you already do.

“Shouto,” you say again, mouth twisting when he looks at you simply. Despite the hood, his bandage grows dark from the rain and—despite his framework, worry fluxes in your stomach at the thought of him getting too wet. “We have to go.”

“Aww,” an Entertainer says to you, girlish pout pulling down her full lips. “You don’t want to come inside and play with us?”

“No,” you try not to look at them any longer, just in case that racks up a charge, too. Rock solid as he is, Shouto allows himself to be steered away, much to your relief. “Buzz off, holo-ham.”

“I’d like to play.” Shouto pipes up, peeking behind his shoulder when the girls squeal in excitement. “Can we come back once we’ve finished?”

“Not for that kind of play.” You put a hand on the back of his head and swivel it, all while shoving him down the sidewalk. You almost remark on how man-like he’s acting, before chasing the thought away.

“What other types of play are there?”

“Just—hush.”

And he does, finally, when you loop your arm through his: a presumably innocent gesture that draws his attention fully back to you, as physical touch seems to do, with him. Beneath the material of the jacket, he feels natural, all muscle and bone, even leaning into you as if the weather has made him cold. You can feel him tracing your face with his one-eyed gaze—scanning you—and you pretend not to notice.

“Your heart rate has gone up. Have I made you angry?”

“Yes,” you tell him, though he hasn’t, really. “You and your curiosity are gonna make me late, and then we’ll be in some serious shit.”

He looks away then, down to the soaked pavement, a mimicry of disappointment. From the corner of your eye, you can see his manufactured Adam’s apple bob, and the muscle beneath your hand shifts.

“They seemed nice, the holograms.” He says, and you can’t help the soft snort such a comment merits.

“Yeah, they’re nice, alright, until you can’t pay them.”

Shouto looks at you once again, stride threatening to falter until you tug him along. “Do you know them?”

You already know where he’s going with his question, and the corner of his lips quirk up when you cast him a filthy look. “Well, no, but—”

“Then how do you know—”

“I just do, alright?” You frown at him and he accepts it in full, studying once more. Whatever he finds in your expression amuses enough that he’s placated for the moment, though you know it won’t be long before he’s piping up again.

He does it often—studies you: body language, physiological changes, speech patterns, vocal cues. Human behavior he catalogs and streams to someone back at the Corporation headquarters, finding the miniscule details he can use against you, some day. Whatever the reason behind his damage, he is still a product of his evil overlords, made for reasons you can only imagine.

This is what you tell yourself.

As his fingers shift until their smooth pads are brushing the delicate veins in your wrists, as he tightens his arm around yours when another stranger on the streets knocks your shoulder, as he leans into the warmth of your humanness: this is what you tell yourself.

You’re overcome with a sense of loss and you don’t know why, and you clear the strange lump hardening in your throat. “Life lesson number six, Todoroki,” you murmur it closely to him, nearly into the fabric at his shoulder, though he doesn’t react to the name. “Everybody wants something from someone, holo-hams included.”

Shouto seems to process your words, for a moment, and his face is expressionless when you steal a peek up at him. Technicolor rains down on your both, swathing him in a wild array as advertisements dance on the buildings that tower above you, and again you think of his creator. The careful hands that crafted his smooth cheeks, the sharp line of his nose, the leanness of his body. You wonder if he’s ever been deemed precious.

Nearly all of the residents relegated to the lower districts owe the Todoroki Corporation in some way. Be it through credit loans or applied interest rates on subsidized housing or hidden costs and high premiums on mandatory, shit insurance—Enji Todoroki sits in the lap of KōkyōLuxuria, has probably never even stepped down from his pedestal.

There’s no good reason a product of his could have found its way to you: this is what you tell yourself.

“And you want my ear.” Shouto says, looking back down at you as your shoulders tense. There isn’t a byte of hostility in his voice, but he must understand the sharpness to what he’s saying.

“Yes,” you admit with a nod, and some underlying, rogue streak of guilt has you pressing into him, as if your proximity could make up for your selfishness. “The sensors in your ear are gonna pay for our dinner tonight, handsome.”

His stride falters once more, and despite the time clock ticking in the back of your mind—you let him stop you. Maybe you want him to. Nothing ever goes unnoticed by him and you know that and maybe it’s cruel of you to say such a thing, to offer a comfort you can’t admit to, but Shouto looks down at you in all his ruination and—

Before he can say anything, a fat drop of water hits the tip of his perfectly manufactured nose. It makes him flinch, delayed, and the surprise he wears and the scrunch of his brow seem so—human, there before you. Shouto tilts his face to the dark, smoggy sky, and again that worry bites you, about too much water trickling into his core.

“We’re going to be late,” you repeat, though it’s much weaker than it was earlier. This is one those moments in which he overrides all your defenses, uploads something warm and hopeful and frightening into your chest cavity; you can’t tell if you want to run because you have to, for the sale—or if it’s a result of watching him now, haloed in neon.

He’s not one to ignore you, but he doesn’t respond, instead retracting his arm from your grip in order to push the hood back off his head. Raindrops soak into his bandage and the excess pools, dripping down over the line of his jaw and the column of his throat. So close to him, you can see the goosebumps that break out across his skin.

(You wonder if he’s ever been deemed precious. You wonder if he meant to leave, or if he was cast out. You wonder if he was created for continued corruption—or if someone out there wanted him to experience life, no matter how rusty.)

(You wonder if he feels as human as he looks. If he can blush, or if the soft skin below his ear can bruise.)

A small sound bubbles out of him, like a light laugh of disbelief.

You found him face down in the rain; you’re not sure why it could cause such a reaction now, but he turns to eye the commercial playing behind him, before watching the path of a man walking by the two of you. Rain collects in his perfect cupid’s bow until he licks it away, and his hair slicks to the side when he pushes it out of his face.

Shouto turns his attention back to you rather plainly, though the edges of his smile pull up a little higher than they usually do, enough that the apples of his cheeks round. He asks you, “What’s going to be for our dinner?” and the question is oddly worded, but each one is intentional.

Maybe it’s not the rain that amuses him—and maybe it is. Maybe it really is that simple, that innocent. Maybe it’s the microtremors in your voice and your increased heart rate, all the little details that could never go unnoticed.

There isn’t a way that this could end well: this is what you tell yourself.

You nod once and turn to face back the way you came, resigned, before looping your arm through his again. You trace the delicate veins on the inside of his wrist, careful not to cover the slow-blinking symbol embedded there, and you decide it doesn’t matter what his creator did or didn’t want. Because he has wants of his own, just like anyone.

“Okay,” you sigh, and when you slosh through the puddles collecting on the sidewalk, Shouto seems happy to follow along, this time. “I can probably sweet talk Toyomitsu into buying us some takoyaki, but you’re gonna have to play it cool.”

“Is this the kind of play you were talking about?”

That lilt has returned to his voice, even and friendly and amused.

“No,” you swat at him to hear his little huff of laughter, “now stop asking about that.”

Of course he doesn’t.

#NOTE that this was written with fem reader in mind but i don't think it reads that way explicitly ?#i........actually had so much fun with this #i love any human x robot pairing like it's a true weakness for me #anything centering on a robot/android wanting to understand the human experience and wanting for emotion is like PEAK #i am so so thankful i got to work on this idea again i really truly enjoyed it #i wrote this while being so emotional about 'ex machina' i hope the emotion isn't too abstract LOL #✿ willow writes #✿ thoughts: shouto #✿ theme: android shouto

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moxyphinx · 12 days

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"Don’t you see what’s happening in this country—across Europe—Everywhere. Money is the only thing that can protect you." LEMPICKA, the musical

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bonefall · 6 months

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while i do agree with the sentiment that bloodclan should be more nuanced as an entity i still believe it is wrong to portray them as the necessary "response" to clan injustice (haven't read the books in years but i am pretty sure that bloodclan started with no connection to the clans) / an opposition to the clan's flaws. some of the thing scourge did was out of selfishness and bloodclan isn't the other colour of the black and white debacle with the clans. the clans are heavily flawed yes, but it isn't realistic to completely say that their structure had no redeeming qualities altogether and that all outsider groups is fundamentally better than the clans.

all clans and groups are flawed in their own way and i believe we shouldnt brush past the things that other groups (the sisters and what they do with their toms *cough cough*) did solely to be able to degrade the clans and their culture.

Buddy, you're setting up a strawman. I promise you that if you look into the reduxes I've made of BloodClan, Guardians, The Sisters, and the Tribe, you will see that I don't make any of them a "flawless" alternative to Clan life.

Nor do I say that the Clans have no redeeming qualities. In fact, you can browse the "Clan Culture" tag to see the various expansions I've made to show how these traditions, values, and technological advances make Clan life so alluring.

The overarching theme of BB is that the nature of culture is change. For better AND for worse.

With respect, I think there's something insidious in the wording of "the things the other groups did." We're talking about fan responses to a work that consistently demonizes and degrades foreigners to make the Clans look like the "best way to live," justifying xenophobia. These are not real groups, they are writing choices.

In the franchise with some pretty extreme examples of misogyny, the authors said "What if bizarro world where women rule and have no men... woag..." and only includes a single Clan-alligned member of this culture, with a BAD opinion of them, who can't even do his diplomatic job because he HATES them so much.

In the same franchise that shows Fireheart getting bullied, facing prejudice, and fighting a murderous tyrant who publically executes a mixed-race character, their endgame villain is an outsider, like him, but this one IS a godless heathen who HATES love and friendship and banned families.

In the VERY same franchise which made its first non-malicious group barely able to get through an arc without needing to be saved by Clan cats, totally unable to defend themselves, framed as "whiny" for not wanting their clearly 'inferior' culture to be forcefully changed.

And I'm re-stating all this because, again, no offense to you in particular Anon, but I've been seeing a few people with a sentiment like yours lately. Complaints into a vacuum that don't make targeted critique of anyone's fanworks, gesturing at this broad "woobification" which is apparently out there somewhere over the rainbow, saying things like "well Scourge is selfish" or "well Moonlight abandoned her 13 year old" as if we haven't BEEN knew.

As if we're not all directly responding to these choices. As if I haven't written ESSAYS on this topic.

Since this was about BloodClan in particular though, and you admit you haven't read the books in years, please go back and actually read Rise of Scourge before trying to make critique of the ways fanon rewrites its origin. It's EXPLICITLY a response to the Clans, in the text, that the Erins wrote, it is canon that fanon is working with.

And you want people to take that out and approach it a different way... why? Because it's so incredulous to you that a nation forms in response to a threatening neighbor? That a common enemy through invasions is a way that people might choose to unite, and encourage their new culture to value brutality? Because you don't like the idea of Clan Culture's XENOPHOBIC BATTLE CULTURE affecting surrounding communities??

Could YOU, maybe, be doing this "woobification" thing I keep hearing about? Can I play this stupid game too? What's our stupid prize? Can it be a lollipop? Do we get stickers

TL;DR, ok.

#bone babble #Warrior cats analysis #Warrior cats fanon #Bloodclan #''Ok yes scourge is practically cold war era xenophobic stereotypes and i understand that is a part of canon you dont like.''#''But have you considered. Hes mean''#Yes. Yes i have considered it.#If I get another take like this in my inbox im gojng to fucjing add a scene where he kisses babies and looks at the screen and says #'Mmm wowow thank u for the babygirl juice fire star :)'#JUST to annoy them #People gonna be funny to me? Im about to be Hilarious.#Also ANON just to be clear im annoyed because like. Ive been seeing this around.#Sadly today you are the Genocide Frisk to my Angry Sans u.u #I am taking ur ask and turning it blue and smashing it against walls #Man it would be cool to have bone themed powers... i am a bone guy...#But anon you're fine. Just like. Think about what I said ok?

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prostocupoftea · 29 days

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I have made a stickrr

Aww, look at him! Ah, it seems like he has something behind him- But, i mean, you wouldn't want to disturb him, right? (:

It came out good for the first time i think, hehe

And of course my object show style integral oc bc she is already everywhere and i show no signs of stopping

Also yes this is my work laptop. Yes it glows in the dark. I have no shame certified

#this is so stupid. i love them.#sorry for not posting my uni-s are fking killing meeeeee im just tryyying to surviveeee~#also i changed my profile like... what is that... top picture?#it is now kinito-themed and a spoiler for something im (still!!!! T_T) working on #btw. you could say my integral oc is... i n t e g r a l everywhere i do #sorry. i will see myself out now-#anyways. real tags #kinitopet #kinito the axolotl #kinitopet fanart #kinito fanart #kinito pet #should i tag this with like object show stuff?#nah. probably later when i will post officially about my setting/ideas #of whish i have a whole damn lot #spoilers - understanding of integrals is not required. but you will learn--#i am such a nerd on my god #this fandom gave my a choice of any object or symbol in existence. and i chose an integral. even i want to bully myself #prosto cup of art

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nona-gay-simus · 1 year

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Not me getting emotional over people saying that Harrow doesn't care about Gideon, like. How do y'all even read books 😭😭

Anyway here's a completely factual list of things Harrow does throughout GtN and HtN (no Nona because she's barely in Nona) that show Harrow may be incredibly bad at expressing her emotions but she cares very deeply, indeed:

GtN:

- Harrow is the first to pay Gideon a compliment

- Harrow leaves bread for Gideon even though she herself is overwhelmed by food and doesn't eat breakfast

- Harrow thinks someone is dangerous and immediately decides to take them on herself instead of putting Gideon in danger (she thinks she is giving Gideon the safe/easy task)

- Harrow refuses lyctorhood when she finds out the price , even though it's all she's wanted and it's the only thing that will save her house (and she knows she NEEDS to save her house and continue Anastasia's line)

- Harrow begs Gideon not to die

- Harrow says she "cannot conceive a world without [Gideon]"

- Upon becoming a lyctor the first thing she does is beg the Emperor for Gideon's life

- And when he says no, sorry impossible, she says "how can you ask me to live with it?"

HtN:

- Upon becoming a lyctor, Harrow, genuius extraordinaire, decides that if she lobotomizes herself to forget Gideon and override her name, it MIGHT save her soul (she isn't even sure if it will work! It's the only thing she has to try) even though she knows this risks her own life (not to mention her brain, which is like the one thing she is incredibly proud of)

- She spends the next few weeks puking and being mad generally having a pretty bad time of lyctorhood

- she dies even Gideon's name on her lips even though! She doesn't even know! Who Gideon is!

- her mind reconstructs several AUs of her relationship with Gideon

- she repeats their wedding vows from GtN

- Upon remembering Gideon, she is extremely happy that her scheme worked

- She threatens to hurt anyone who says Gideon killed herself and insists Gideon was murdered

- Upon learning that Gideon's soul is in control of her body she decides to take a nap in the tomb/(pocket dimension?) Instead of reclaiming her body and destroying Gideon once and for all.

And this is just like. Completely factual information, i haven't included any of the meta or allusions or parallels to other relationships that are drown. This is just. A list.

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mrstargkonnen · 19 days

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I think people are focusing way too much on the s*xual side of things with Noa and Mae.

Like…stop 🛑

I’m going to assume no one here needs anything explicit to happen between them to ship them. If that’s the only way you consume ships, then that’s on you.

But by ‘certain’ logic, then shipping Noa, Soona and Anaya means you like to watch animals getting it on irl. Is this true? I doubt it.

Thankfully, I’m capable understanding that shipping the fictional characters we were given is easy because of their human-like qualities and relatable dynamics. The CGI helps to suspend our disbelief a ton too, and of course, the great chemistry the actors delivered IRL. They did a fantastic job!

Because let’s be honest, if these characters behaved or resembled irl apes 100%, NO ONE WOULD GIVE A FLYING FUCK ABOUT THEM and these movies would not be what they are.

They’re shippable because of their dynamic, because of the themes and narrative devices they are using, because of the idea of two opposing worlds coming together through the kindredness of two unlikely heros, because of their relatability in the face of fear, prejudice and the unknown, because of the Shakespearean tragedy of it all-

NOT and I repeat, NOT because they might have s*x 😒

#tbf IF they were to ever go for that level of intimacy then it could work?? I guess??#I personally don’t know how. It would have to be written very well to make sense within the universe being established…#but ultimately that was never THE reason to ship them. That does NOT have to be end goal.#like??? do you think Guillermo del Toro wrote the Shape of Water because he wanted to fuck frogs?#Do you think warewolf folklore was written because people wanted to fuck dogs???#like do people realize the POTA movie are not just about talking monkeys frolicking through a post-apocalyptic world??#sometimes it’s good to dig a little deeper beyond shallow surface level meaning.#and I’m not even an expert. this is my first POTA movie tbh and even I can tell there’s underlying themes about the apes and the humans #being a reflection of each other #ultimately I think many understand this but just like to start drama so I will not be answering any comments since I’m here to have FUN.#once again I am a victim of a hate-crimed ship lmao 😭😂#Noa x Mae #nomae #Mae x Noa #noamae

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keenadraws · 7 months

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someone please give this poor kid a hug

#the hunger games #thg katniss #katniss everdeen #hunger games fanart #art #fanart #digital art #rereading before the new movie and GOD. I LOVE THESE BOOKS LOL #with really genuinely very good media sometimes I feel weird being so into it. like I gotta make a disclaimer saying #I understand the themes of this work and have enough media literacy to appreciate them. That aside I am still Shipping. Shipping Is Fun #katniss x joanna... influential ship in my formative years... thsi is all we're at liberty to say rn #I dont have time to draw ship art for all my fanciful whims but man. If i did

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mxtxfanatic · 6 months

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Ngl, I’m actually pretty uncomfortable reading my old posts defending the goodness of the common people and their right to defend themselves—as persecuted groups or as individuals—from hierarchical tyranny, given how easily in this current irl moment a not-insignificant amount of people have fallen into supporting an active genocide, because I cannot separate this from how much pushback I got (and still sometimes get) for being consistent in my politics

#I don’t want to say it’s triggering #because that’s not the right word #but what do you call the thing you feel #when you spent the last 1+ year arguing that common people are usually good #and hierarchies of oppression are bad even if certain individuals you like are at the top #that violence is not all inherently bad #and violence against oppression is in fact good #all topics that are major themes affirmed in the literal texts being discussed #only to have people YELLING at me that i am wrong #because THEY believe that the only thing that makes you a good person #is joining the corrupt hierarchy and affirming status quo #only for me to turn on the news and see this same logic of disaggreers #being used to justify an active genocide #maybe it’s cognitive dissonance #because my understanding of fiction is always couched within the reality it was created in #but the fact that the same arguments can be used to justify crimes against humanity #in both fiction AND reality?#it makes the act of fandom discourse less… enjoyable #less innocuous

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nightswatchdisbandmentera · 11 months

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We as a fandom don’t talk enough about how Game of Thrones decided to combine Jon Snow and Young Griff into one character and how that was absolutely ridiculous on like 1000 different levels. Because how do you combine two characters who are FOILS to one another and then play it completely straight?! Then to make matters worse they gave Jon the boy’s stupid name?! Goddamnit I knew they didn’t get Jon as a character pretty early on, but why mesh his arc with the one guy you shouldn’t combine with? 😭

#top 3 greatest got crimes I fear #talk about understanding neither character #like Aegon is there to serve as a foil to Jon and inform on a lot of the tropes grrm is deconstructing with Jon’s arc #you can’t make them the same character because you completely miss the whole point #also remember when they combined jon and stannis?#like people acknowledge that and are like yeah fine what ever but like….#am I the only one who also freaking HATES that?!?#because Jon and Stannis are anti-parallels you CANT DO THAT #without completely ruining Jon’s arc #like idc if it ruins stannis’ plot line but I care about Jon because he’s one of the central/main characters!!!#you can’t combine his story line with more minor characters who are meant to serve as foils to him #but what else can I expect from the themes are for eighth grade book reports brigade #jon snow #aegon vi targaryen #young griff #asoiaf #game of thrones

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astranauticus · 5 months

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one really interesting thing about the Sui siblings is that their sibling age order isn’t so much about biological age but more about when they first managed to separate themselves from Sui and therefore how comfortable they are in their own individual identity (i’m far from the first person to point out that the Sui siblings are basically the opposite of the seaborne/We Many) - Shuo, the oldest brother is so secure in himself that he’s able to create a whole identity entirely separate from Sui, which is how we get Chongyue The Very Human Guy. Ling is able to defeat the Sui Xiang in invitation to wine with ease simply because she sees it as a shadow of herself, as opposed to Nian who sees the siblings as shadows and dreams of Sui. Dusk, the second youngest of the siblings, is so scared of the existential threat that is Sui that she has hid herself in her paintings and refused to sleep for centuries just to hide from it

… which makes me really want to meet the 12th brother (the cook) because if that is where Dusk, the 11th’s head is at i cannot imagine he’s having a good time either

#arknights #suiposting #there’s a point to made *somewhere* in here about the second brother and how hes been keeping himself intact across the. 181 pieces of hims #but im gonna have to reread invitation to wine for that which #like i dont like reading the english event story because its localised weirdly but i also keep putting off reading the chinese version #because some of the writing is. wow that is hard to understand #if you cant tell from my suiposting and iberiaposting tags who am i and where do i belong are themes that ALWAYS get me in fiction #anyway #god i cant wait for cny I WANT TO MEET THE NEXT DRAGON SO BAD

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creatrixanimi · 4 months

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One time i somehow got on a redit thread on will wood bc i looked him up or something and Im constantly thinking about one person I saw getting really aggressive about his fans liking him for queer reasons and they said something like "he's a cis het 30 year old man he probably doesnt know what 'so gender' means" and like ok yeah being parasocial is not good but saying that he doesnt know what "so gender" means is laughably wrong. The guy has a song about gender identity and also at one point dressed like this:

Like theres discouraging parasocial weirdness like assigning stranger's sexualities and then theres what is essentially gasligthing people into thinking they just made everything they like up about a musical artist they like. For some reason.

#I know he's kinda wishywashy about what makes him uncomfortable and stuff so people are kinda hyper aware of that #and people sometimes take that and go even further & designate themselves as fancops but gaslighting baby queer fans isnt it #also ive seen the ways the ppl he hangs out with dress this guy probably knows about tumblr furry discourse #anyway i am always thinking about that thread it haunts me #i understand he has some weird fans but also people noticing obvious themes in his music arent like. overstepping. thats normal.#also idk anything about him and his sexuality so he could be cishet but also like. u can be cishet and still be gender nonconforming #also also why is everyone over the age of 30 designated as internet lingo illiterate. did they all get amnesia or something.#me

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lewiscarrolatemybrain · 6 months

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One more time

A Positive Change Arc -- often called a Hero's Journey -- is one possible shape a story can take. It is not the only or the best character arc, it's just one option. In a Positive Change Arc, the protagonist begins the story believing the Thematic Lie, and must learn and embrace the Thematic Truth over the course of their journey.

TGCF and MDZS are not Positive-Change Arcs. They are Flat Arcs.

(I have not read SVSSS)

A Flat-Arc is a story where the protagonist begins already knowing the Thematic Truth, while the world around them believes the lie. In a Flat Arc, the protagonist will have their knowledge of the Truth challenged and tested, they will be tempted by the Lie, and they will ultimately use their conviction to inspire the world around them to also embrace the Truth.

Flat Arc characters do not need to learn the Thematic Truth. They already know it. They may be seduced by the lie, they may falter, but they will always rally back to the Truth in the end.

(If they ARE successfully converted to the lie, then that isn't a Flat Arc anymore, it's a Corruption Arc, and it's usually a tragedy.)

"But Xie Lian and Wei Wuxian learned--" Nothing they learned impacted the Thematic Truth. Did they learn things? Yes! That's how Being A Person works. Both of them DID change and grow as people from the start of the series to the end. But neither of them learned anything that impacted the Thematic Truth. Because they already knew it.

Xie Lian was already kind, he already wanted to help people, he already believed that common people should be protected and uplifted. His suffering at the hands of BWX did not teach him any deep or important lessons. He already knew the Truth. BWX tried to tempt him to embrace the lie -- that people are undeserving, that you should never do anything for anyone who won't grovel with gratitude, that caring for other people is a waste -- and failed, because Xie Lian knew the truth and even when he was at his lowest he was searching for confirmation that he was right. Xie Lian only needed one single act of kindness to reassure himself that he was right and BWX was wrong. He did not learn anything new, he reaffirmed what he already knew and understood.

Wei Wuxian is good, and righteous, and morally upright. He is a character who does the right thing regardless of the consequences he might face. The sects collectively wanted to destroy him because he refused to bow to them, not because he ever at any point actually did anything wrong. Even the vengefulness he showed while actively at war is narratively justified, and it's key that the sects did not care about the desecration of bodies while it served them. He did not learn any valuable or important lessons when the Sects raided the Burial Mounds. The fact that Lan Sizhui exists at all is proof for us as the audience that everything Wei Wuxian did was worth it. All of it mattered, and all of it was the right choice, because a-Yuan is alive. He doesn't come back to life having learned anything new, he already understood the Truth.

Obviously neither of them are Omnipotent. They learn that there's dudes in love with them, they solve the mysteries of their respective true Big Bads, they uncover some other stuff. But the Thematic Truth, the core theme of the story, is not a lesson either of them needs to learn. It is a lesson they teach others by refusing to bend to the Lie the rest of the world believes.

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