#Let me clarify so there are no more misunderstandings ok?
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Your One True Nemesis
Chapter 37: also on AO3
Masterlist Here
Arkham!Riddler x Female!Reader, word count: 2k
hello i will never stop writing misunderstandings where it could be solved if either of these idiots were capable of just saying how they feel💚
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minors DNI!! 🔞 cw: minor angst here!!
“I have a surprise for you.”
You knew each of those words, but they still confused you, considering they were coming out of Eddie’s mouth. Eddie, who liked to plan and prepare, who had no notion of the unexpected because he was always ten steps ahead of everyone else on the planet. Eddie, who was the furthest thing from romantic or playful, as far as you knew (and you felt you knew him quite well by now). Eddie, who up until now had been perfect as he was, most of the time, but was now adding a new layer to himself that intrigued you.
“A surprise?”
“Yes. I did just say that, didn’t I? Is there an echo in here? Have you gone deaf?”
Rolling your eyes at his cruel sarcasm, you clarified.
“Usually, when people say that, they’re asking for you to offer them some more information, or they’re shocked by the suggestion that there’s a surprise for them.”
“Well, my dear, which is it? And why wouldn’t you just say that.”
You could hardly argue with his logic, so you indulged.
“Ok then. What is the surprise?”
“It wouldn’t be a surprise if I told you, would it?”
This felt more like Eddie. Back to the familiarity of the affectionate frustration. He filled the silence by providing you with a little bit more information, sensing that he had to offer something given that his attitude had slipped. Providing you with a smile and at least some sort of indication about what was happening that night seemed like enough of an apology.
“Let’s call it a date. One of my signature weird ones. Will you make sure to be ready to leave at midnight?”
You smiled at him, an eyebrow raised in a silent and unspoken question, nodding your head in agreement with his plans as he turned and left, in more of a hurry than he usually was to get away from you.
A date.
A date could mean anything, especially with Edward. You were excited by the prospect, the thought that he might have put into planning something in secrecy. Sinking into the sofa, you considered why it needed to be a surprise at all. Immediately, your mind rushed to the most unlikely of scenarios.
Maybe he was going to express his emotions, properly, and fully.
A date.
Somewhere different, somewhere, potentially, romantic. Where he might tell you how much he cared for you. How much he even…
It felt so unlikely, you thought, because you couldn’t even let yourself imagine him saying it to you. It was ridiculous, the notion that he might be planning on telling you he loved you. A big gesture, a confession that would make your heart skip a beat. Despite that, you could feel your hopes getting set up for what you knew would be a disappointment. Yet, you managed to avoid pestering him about it all day. You were sure, however, that he could feel your eyes boring into the back of his head as you stared at him, trying to coax even just a hint out of him psychically. In fact, you had been so focused on figuring it out that he had caught you in a moment of concentration that night, shocking you out of your trance.
“Ready?”
“Ready? For?”
“I asked you to be ready. For your surprise.”
The time seemed to have flown by, regardless of how slow it seemed to have been to you earlier in the day.
“Oh! Yes, yes I’m ready. I’ve been ready all day.”
“Are you sure?”
He looked you up and down taking in the outfit you were wearing. It wasn’t exactly smart, it was just the clothes you usually wore to do work. You hadn’t really thought he might be taking you somewhere nice. You’d imagined this as more of an abandoned trainyard sort of surprise.
“Is… this not appropriate? You didn’t say where we were going, so I didn’t think-”
“No, it’s fine. Please, let’s just go.”
Entirely silent during the car journey, Eddie remained quiet when you questioned him upon arrival at your destination.
“The Orphanage? Abandoned orphanage? This is the surprise?”
You were pissed at his judgement of your outfit. What difference did it make if he was bringing you here, to an abandoned, creepy building. He only looked back briefly, offering a strange smile before turning and heading inside the building, unlocking it with a large, rusted key. Something in his knowing grin, sleek and sinister, like he was about to wow you, made your heart giddy. As you rushed to catch up with him, your imagination ran wild. What was waiting for you inside? Candles? Hundreds of them? Or neon lights? A space decorated in true Eddie fashion, as romantic as he could muster. But what for? A special announcement? Maybe…
Absolutely not.
You couldn’t.
He wouldn’t.
Whatever question you had briefly, for the smallest of nano seconds, allowed the idea of to slip over your apparently smooth brain was not going to be asked. Eddie wasn’t that kind of… You weren’t even sure that you were the kind who would…
“Hurry up then!”
Eddie turned to you as you hovered near the front entrance, staring at you down the short hallway to another set of double doors he was holding open just a crack. His quick, snapping voice was enough to convince you that this wasn’t going to be the romantic surprise you had hoped for, but you hurried to catch up with him regardless. It was still Eddie. He was still trying to surprise you. So you were still excited. But it all fell apart when you reached the door and he opened it wide.
The large hall was scattered with debris, plant life growing on the walls which were covered in Eddie’s signature spray paint graffiti and notes, and gadgets, tools, and shards of metal lined the square floor.
“Tah-dah!”
Eddie spread his arm out wide, displaying the room to you with an excited and smug grin. You weren’t quite sure how to respond, and your silence was enough to deflate him to the point of irritation.
“Well! Aren’t you going to say anything? Congratulate me? Faint in surprise and wonder?”
“I would… if I knew what I was looking at.”
Bringing his fingers to his face, he tensed them on the bridge of his nose, taking in a deep breath to control his imminent rage before he spoke to you.
“This is it. My masterpiece. The finale! My greatest work!”
You took another long slow glance around the room, wondering what it was going to amount to, if anything, when he had finished working on it. And not willing to waste any more time waiting on you to congratulate him or to see the point, Eddie continued, offering a slow and patronising explanation which droned on and on. By the time he had finished, you had barely registered and had to quickly offer him something as he stood staring at you expectantly.
“It’s definitely… definitely… uh…”
“This is where I will defeat Batman. This is where I will entrap his feline frienemy, as you may put it, to lure that sentimentally burdened oaf into my web of danger. And you have nothing to say!?”
While you knew how important his ultimately futile attempts were, you couldn’t help but wonder if he had thought about anything beyond them. And though it really didn’t feel like the right time to ask, your words were passing over your lips before you could stop them.
“Eddie… do you ever think about the future?”
“Yes, obviously. I’m consistently at least four and a half steps ahead of everyone else, and it would be more if we weren;t tied down by chance and random opportunity.”
“What do you… plan for?”
“I plan to capture Batman. I plan to watch him die. I plan to be the most revered man in the world.”
“Yeah, but… other than that, what do you see?”
Eddie paused for a moment, clearly stumped by your line of questioning, but refusing to admit as much. He always had the answer, or at least he always pretended to, even if it was just buying himself some time.
“I see my legacy. I see-”
“Eddie, look where we are.”
Another brief second of consideration as his eyes passed over the surroundings. Children’s toys, rusted and broken, childish scribbles next to his own.
“I… children? As in, my own… chil-”
“Oh, god no! I just meant that this is a lot of effort you’ve put into one aspect of your entire being, one part of your masterplan. What do you do after this? And…”
You considered the vulnerability that your next question came with, the devastation it could cause, but you committed to it.
“... who are you doing it with?”
For the first time in his life, Edward felt truly stumped. His entire relationship with you, while it had always been a source of confusion, had always been fraught with his terrified self-awareness, the fact that he knew he cared about you deeply, even if he couldn’t face that answer immediately. But this? This was a question without an answer. One he hadn’t considered yet, because it might be the only thing he had never quite been secure about. So, disappointingly, his answer had to be truthful.
“I don’t know.”
Of course, Eddie had only been answering in response to the first part of your query. He felt it was a certainty that whatever he was intending to do next would include you, if you would join him, of course. But he neglected to express that much. So, as you watched him face up to the foggy, uncertainty of his future, you could only assume that he wasn’t sure how long he might let you stick around.
“Well, this hasn’t quite been the great reveal I hoped it would be.”
Disheartened, obviously so, Eddie reached a hand out and placed it on your shoulder as he let his statement linger in the stale air.
“Perhaps an abandoned orphanage isn’t the romantic date location I thought it might be.”
You laughed, trying to force a smile onto your face. However long you might have left with Eddie, you were determined to let it be positive.
“You stick to a theme, Eddie. I have to give you credit for that.”
Eddie was grateful for your smile, for the way you were willing to let some of his misdeeds go ignored, or at least placed to the side for the moment. Both of you were compromising, letting yourselves be happy instead of tense and on edge. He might be unsure about everything else in life, but he was steadfast in his determination to keep you by his side, and if that meant letting you be disappointed in him, or allow you to get away with not giving his grand ideas the recognition and praise they deserved, then so be it. You were worth the vain on his forehead protruding slightly as he held what he would secretly admit to be pointless anger inside. And in a show of “no hurt feelings”, he moved his hand to your other shoulder, pulling you closer to him, into his side, as he spoke.
“Would a detour to the drive thru of Bat Burger on the way home make it any better?”
“And I get to decide on the movie we watch?”
He sighed, furrowing his brows. He’d do anything for you, but you really tested his limits sometimes.
“Provided you write me an essay on the impressiveness of my work here, due on my desk in the morning, then yes.”
Reaching out your hand to him, you waited for him to grab it.
“Deal.”
He took your palm and held it tight, not shaking it, just holding, looking into your eyes as though he were searching for resentment, disappointment, something that told him why you hadn;t received his genius the way he had expected, the way you usually did.
“Deal.”
In confusion, with strange feelings bubbling under the surface of happiness you were both pushing to the top, you left the orphanage together, intent on having a pleasant evening. You hoping to create positive memories before Eddie let you go. Eddie hoping to create positive memories that might convince you that it was worth staying.
#finnie writes#arkham riddler#arkham edward nigma#riddler x reader#arkhamverse riddler#the riddler#arkhamverse#riddler#the riddler imagine#riddler smut#the riddler fanfic#riddler fanfic#riddler x you#edward nigma x reader#edward nigma#arkham!riddler#the riddler fanfiction#arkham!verse#finnie yotn
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GIRL OK I'm going to vent. If u want to read that'd be great cause I want to know if I'm in the wrong here lol. It's long tho so no need <3
Last monday was my birthday, it's a sucky day to have as a bday so what I did was invite my friends over for dinner on sunday, wait till midnight, blow the candles, eat some cake, open presents, and send everyone on their way at about 1 am so all of us could sleep relatively early. These were like, my "important" birthday plans, because they happened on my actual birthday. I invited my closest friends + 2 girls my friends have been dating for about 7/8 months, because a) I like them! and b) I knew they were spending that weekend over at my friends' places anyway so bringing them was easier than not.
Context for later: The 2 friends with the girlfriends are male, those are the only 2 partners that are external to the friend group, there's 9 of us, and we've been friends for about 10 years.
Anyway, so when I set that plan up on the gc, I explicitly asked both my friends to bring their girlfriends. They told me they would, they did, everything went great. After sunday's plan, I proposed we go out to dinner and then for drinks this saturday so I could have like proper bday plans that don't get cut short because everyone has to get up early for work. Everyone said they could come. Great, no issues so far.
Issues start yesterday, in a gc I'm NOT in that my friends made so they could discuss my present for sunday + a surprise cake (that now I know about lol) for saturday. This is not uncommon, we have bday groupchats for everyone in the group. One of my friends (girl) proposes the surprise cake, and apparently one of my male friends says that his gf can make the cake (as a gift) because she works as a baker. My friend (girl) says that it's not a good idea, since it be weird to have her make a cake for a plan she's not invited to. Apparently this caught both my male friends off guard, because they were under the impression that both their gfs were invited and had already told them about the plan. Now, to be clear, I didn't invite them and at no point did I imply they were invited. Not necessarily because I didn't want them there specifically, but rather because I wanted a night out with just my friends. These 2 girls come to a lot of our plans as a group, but when they do it's because we either tell them to, or our friends ask if they can come. NEITHER OF THESE 2 THINGS HAPPENED!! I want to clarify though, I didn't and still don't feel strongly about them not coming, and if it had been up to me, I would have liked both my friends to reach out to me and let me know that they had misunderstood, that they thought the girls were invited and that they had already invited them, and I would have told them to bring them!! like it really wasn't a big deal. Instead they got upset and told their girlfriends that they couldn't come because I DIDN'T WANT THEM THERE, which sounds sooooo much more drastic than what it actually is. So I find myself in a very shitty situation with NO WARNING (because again, this started in a gc I'M NOT IN!!!), when one of my friends sends me this really long message about how sad and hurt he is and asking me if I'm mad a him or his gf or whatever, and how he had hoped that I would think of her as my friend after all this time. To clarify she's not my friend, she's my friend's gf (that I really like!!), and "all this time" is 8 months lmao. Now these 2 girls think that I hate them, and I have to apologize for something I DIDN'T DOOOOOO. Like this wasn't my misunderstanding, I wasn't even on the gc!! and like what options do I have, realistically? Telling them to backtrack and invite them back gives major "you can come, IF YOU WANT" vibes and I hate that, and telling them that, no, they're not invited sounds like I don't like them or want them there. Like both my options suck.
Things have smoothed over now with my friends but I know they're mad about their gfs being hurt and SO AM I but like, it's not my fault!!! They (my friends) assumed they (their gfs) were invited when they weren't!! But again, it wasn't something I felt strongly about! like honest to god idk why they didn't just tell me they had invited them because they thought they were invited before stirring the pot behind my back. Now everything's a mess and things are tense because the rest of the gc sided with me. And I'm not gonna lie I'm kinda mad that they made this my problem on my bday week. Like couldn't you have waited a week to bring it up?? Anyway that's it lmao
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Ok so let me start off by saying that this post is probably gonna be very clunky simply due to the fact that I’m addressing a two day old situation and I’m doing so without it being directly prompted,, please bear with me.
So, late Tuesday night an anon expressed concerns over the ways that I’ve brushed over the topic of aromanticism in the past, expressing that I only ever seemed to mention partnering aros and that it came off as if I was saying all of that only in service of shipping. These things of course are not things I intended, but are not unfounded claims nonetheless.
My initial response to that ask was definitely not great, I came off as very customer service-y and expressed that I felt as if it was exaggerated (simply due to the way it was phrased as “constantly”). It didn’t help that it was like 11 pm and for some reason my dumb ass didn’t actually go back and look through stuff, purely going off my notoriously bad memory.
Needless to say, this wound up coming off as dismissive and insufficient, and thus I’m making this post now as I have processed everything and want to give the proper actual respose (and in a sense, apology) that this situation is deserving of.
After going back through past posts, while definitely far from constant, I have been able to observe that whenever aromanticism was brought up I definitely had a really bad tendancy of only mentioning partnering aros and it definitely came off as scummy now that I look back at it. This was never something I consiously did, but it was shitty and potentially harmful nonetheless and should have been something I was being more aware about.
I’ve already been trying to boost aromantic voices lately since the Valentine season’s been around, but doing that and centering non-partnering aros especially is going to be top priority from here on out.
Now let me real quick circle back around and address the shipping bit, as that’s like its whole own thing-
Now I definitely stand by the fact that I was never only talking about stuff in service of a ship, at least not consiously, but the topic often came up in reference to or alongside shipping and thus I acknowledge that that extrapolation is not at all a difficult one to make. And the fact that I even acted in a way that resembled that is not good.
And discussions with my friends have brought to my attention that I have not been making a number of things nearly clear enough and that whole mess is entirely on me so let’s get some things straight-
First of all, due to the more fluid attitude I’ve seen a lot of people have towards it, I never realized just how strictly romantic most people view shipping.
Maybe I’m just a little bit dense but for the longest time, the term “ship” being used in a more platonic sense seemed more common than it actually is.
And for the longest time, I’ve viewed shipping simply as “I think these characters have a nice dynamic and that they should be affectionate with one another”. But it has been a violent wakeup call recently that that is far from the most common thought process.
And in this I’ve come to realize that I’ve not been clarifying or establishing the fact that most if not all my ships are queerplatonic in some fashion because romance is a concept I’ve never fully grasped (not gonna go too deep into that here though, my weird perception of relationships is a topic for another day-). And things involving aro characters have especially always been queerplatonic in my mind.
I have not been nearly as clear enough about that as I should be and have failed to mention or establish that as much as I should. So from here on out, im going to be much more clear about that to avoid future misunderstanding or sending the wrong message.
It should also probably be noted that it’s very hard to convey these things given the type of art I do. I don’t properly write nor do longform comics, so it’s much harder to convey the internal complexities of things in the simple individual pieces my art often is.
Characters are also often left unpaired and single in my mind, but once again these types of things are hard to convey visually and the bonds between characters usually inspire art more often.
So most of this has just been a matter of “it’s all been up in my head but my ability to convey it or actually make content of it has been extremely lacking”. And again, in a sense, that’s on me.
Overall I know my handling of this situation has been incredibly scuffed from an outside view, for a lot of this I’ve been just very confused and all over the place so the few things I have said have been poorly summarized and basically just me completely tripping over myself. I’ve been processing things and getting things in order privately though, as you can probably tell. And in that I have come to the conclusion that I must take accountability for my actions as it is truly the only correct course of action here. I’m sorry to those this whole mess has upset, I hope this post is enough to explain everything.
I’m not super certain how to end this off but that’s about it, please let me know of any futher concerns. I’m genuinely sorry for all this mess.
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hehe im the muslim anon here again!! [waves] we have a few similarities with good omens :0 there's the story of job! we call him ayyub and he's a prophet, not just a devout worshipper, but its functionally the same story. islam and christianity share a lot of stories because we have the same important people so to speak and so there's a lot of overlap in the biblical stories we see in good omens :)
what you said about aziraphale potentially being raphael really interests me though! especially since metatron (who in islam is called the guardian of the veil and is the only one who knows about the beyond - sounds godlike but is decidedly Not.) said "we need an angel of your talents [to bring about the second coming]" so the dots.. they are connecting...
though i will say that israfil doesn't bring about the second coming in islam; he blows the trumpet (twice) to bring about armageddon. we also have a version of the second coming, but our jesus/isa lives at least 40 years on earth and dies before the world ends. (i do not think thats the same in christianity uh but. my two cents! not sure what they are worth, but you can have them anyway) - 🌙 (is it ok if i sign off with that? just because i feel like i might want to say more things in future heh)
hello again, lovely!!!✨ welcome back! (and of course, sign off with whatever you like!!! thou shall be my 🌙 anon - im curating a little group of specific anons, it seems!!!💕)
also, i hope it's okay that i might ask a few more questions - i promise i will do my own reading, but i find personally it's easier for me to have some general context, and then go into more detail in my further research, and helps me not fall down the dreaded research rabbit-hole... so hope that's alright with you!!!
re: book of job, etc: that's again really fascinating (and just shows my complete ignorance of religion in general tbh) - to learn that there is indeed that level of crossover, but given they're abrahamic actually it should have been a bit more obvious to me (bit of a duh moment, there!).
metatron: now that is... intriguing. so, if metatron is definitely not at any deific level, does his knowledge of (from what im understanding?) the state beyond death make him omniscient? does Allah also know what lies beyond the veil - and if so, is Allah considered omniscient too? because from your previous ask where Islam (again, please correct me if im entirely misunderstanding this) encourages free will, wouldn't that potentially conflict with omniscience? or is Allah omniscient but resolutely 'hands-off' in letting humanity make choices and ergo mistakes?
so sorry - barrage of questions there! free will is a very interesting philosophical concept for me and one ive ruminated on a lot, so to have an alternative view is really helpful!!!
re: israfil: aaaah i just read back my previous answer; i had meant the day of judgement, not resurrection, my bad! but cool, thank you for clarifying about the second coming anyway!!! so if the second coming does somewhat exist in islam, does it not in fact precipitate the day of judgement? if not, is there any particular trigger (ie an equivalent of the second coming) that triggers israfil to blow the trumpet? or is it simply the order from Allah straight into the main act, so to speak? and actually, just out of curiosity, is there significance attached to two trumpet blows, as opposed to - say - just one?
thank you so much again 🌙 anon, im really enjoying learning from you!!!✨ (and feel free to nope out if you get fed up with the questions, totally understandable!!!)
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[BSTS] Main Story S4CH5 'Follow the Rainbow at the Seafloor' - Chapter 6 + EX Chapters
originally translated these chapters when they first came out but never posted here, so, enjoy nekome being sus af
Chapter 6
-street, night time-
maica: Shinju!
shinju: Oh? Hey Maica.
maica: Good work today, you’re probably heading home right? I have something I’d like to talk to you about though, can we?
shinju: Yeah sure.
ran: Hold up, if you’re gonna talk lemme hear too!
shinju: Huh, Ran? Why?
ran: Lately Macia n’ I have been gettin’ along well~ Anyways, since ya talkin’ let’s go chat in a cafe!
maica: Good idea, we’re just standing around out here.
shinju: W-what? Ah, wait up!
-in cafe-
shinju: So um, what is it you two want from me exactly?
maica: Right now we’re in the middle of investigating Nekome, and so, we have something we’d like to ask you.
shinju: Huh? Nekome…
ran: Yep yep, we’ve teamed up. Though, the main thing I’m interested in is the black cards. So Shinju have ya ever seen Nekome with a card that’s completely black? Like before he disappeared n’ such.
shinju: A completely black card? Sorry, I have no idea.
ran: For real? And here I was thinkin’ for sure Nekome would have one.
maica: Ran, don’t derail the conversation.
shinju: I get that you two are investigating Nekome and whatever that card is but, why do you want to know about Nekome from me?
maica: …Shinju. I can tell that you’re avoiding Nekome. Why you’re avoiding him, what you know about him, that’s what I’d like to know.
shinju: …That’s….
maica: I’m of the belief that Nekome had something to do with the disappearance of Starless’ previous owner and the director couple.
ran: Me too! They all disappeared and yet only he came back all chill like nothin’ happened, it’s definitely suspicious! The reason he’s got his eye on Nee-chan has to be related as well!
shinju: What… Really?
maica: We don’t have any conclusive evidence though, that’s why I’d like to clarify the truth. At first I was just looking for what the cause of your discomfort was, but now I’m not just investigating for your sake anymore. The previous owner and director couple are still gone and I’m starting to worry some people can’t be trusted.
ran: And the key person in all of that is Nekome.
maica: More than anything, I just want to make sure Saki isn’t targeted.
shinju: For Saki-chan’s sake…
maica: That’s why I want information on Nekome, could you tell us what it is you know?
shinju: …… (thinking about it)
shinju: Ok. I don’t know how useful it will be, but I’ll tell you my story. That day, it could’ve just been me misunderstanding it, but—
—end
EX 1
-still in cafe-
shinju: I’ll talk about what I saw. It was around the time Team P was first formed. Rindou had been having trouble on stage…
-flashback, old starless backstage room-
shinju: (That was a close one, I’m so glad I found my house key here in the store. That could’ve been real bad if I’d dropped it on the street somewhere… Hm? Is someone else here?)
-shinju peeks into the storage room-
nekome: Well, I guess you could say it’s like a simple type of therapy?
rindou: Sorry Nekome, I’ve even made you concerned about me…
nekome: No worries, to make sure Team P’s on the right track, you’re necessary no matter what, Rindou.
nekome: (on computer or something) Ok, the card’s all set up, how about you?
rindou: I’m fine.
shinju: (Nekome and… Rindou? I wonder what they’re doing… he said something about therapy.)
nekome: Here we go, put these headphones on now.
rindou: Ok.
nekome: Okay, concentrate real hard on the sound that’s gonna come from the headphones, I’ll start it now.
shinju: (I wonder what they could be talking about, a new show maybe? I wish I could hear it too but I’m just the understudy…)
-rindou jolts in pain-
rindou: Guh— graaahhhh!
shinju: !?
nekome: …Hm? (he notices shinju)
shinju: (What was that, what, what happened? Nekome noticed me, shit, I need to run!)
rindou: Gua… Aaaagh…!
shinju: (Rindou I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’ll call the police as soon as I can…!)
nekome: ………
-flashback ends-
shinju: After that… nothing happened. The police did come to the store, but they said that no one was there.
ran: Woahhh~ What a frightening story that was.
maica: So was Rindou ok after that?
shinju: He was there at Starless the next day like normal and looked just fine. To the point where I thought I’d just imagined everything. Both of them acted as though nothing had even happened except…
maica: Except?
shinju: Up until then, Rindou had been a bit unstable, but that gradually settled afterwards…
ran: Hmm… So in other words, Nekome’s therapy was a success?
maica: It can’t be that simple.
shinju: I don’t know… ever since then I’ve been afraid of Nekome. Rindou took notice of it and adjusted our shifts to be different as much as he was able to.
maica: I see… Thank you, Shinju. Ran and I are going to discuss this a bit more so you can head home ahead of us. Sorry for dragging you along with us.
shinju: Ah, right. I’ll be going then.
ran: See ya~!
-street, night time-
shinju: Sigh… I’ll head straight home and rest tonight…
nekome: Nice work today, Shinju.
shinju: (very shocked) !? S-same to you, Nekome.
nekome: You heading home? How about we walk to the station together?
shinju: Um I…
nekome: My really, what a coincidence this is, I’m glad that I ran into you. Let’s walk and chat till we reach the station hm?
—end
EX 2
-rehearsal room-
maica: Hey Rindou, can I ask you something?
rindou: Sure, what’s the matter?
maica: I was thinking that we have a lot of unresolved problems that we’ve set aside. So… what are you going to do about them?
rindou: …Fufu.
maica: Why’d that make you laugh?
rindou: Sorry, the question was just unexpectedly abstract. Usually you speak a lot more straightforwardly so it must be something you’re quite worried over.
maica: Ah… well, yeah I guess.
rindou: So, this is about our team’s unresolved problems then?
maica: That’s right.
rindou: …I think the only way to handle them is to put them into order of priority and go from there. Time is limited after all.
maica: Hm, true… But, what if it was something that could be a really big problem but you yourself have forgotten it? Then what?
rindou: Is something wrong Maica? Today you’re really… Did something happen? If possible I can help you out.
maica: Oh, no, it’s not like that. It’s like a hypothetical question I guess? I’d like you to answer thinking of it like that.
rindou: That so? That’s fine then… Hmm… A big problem that I myself have forgotten. If it’s not something that’s related to our team, the stage, or our guests, then right now I would not be prioritising it.
maica: So you’re saying you’d leave it be?
rindou: Yes.
maica: If left neglected you may end up not being able to resolve it. Would that not make you uneasy or anything?
rindou: I guess it would make me uneasy. If it were someone other than me, I’m sure they’d rather work towards solving it, bit by bit. But if it’s me we’re talking about, then I’d be fine with it never being resolved. Since to me right now, the stage is my everything.
maica: …I see.
rindou: Everything ok?
maica: Ah, yeah I’m fine. Sorry for asking you something strange.
rindou: No worries. Since it seems we have some time before the others arrive, how about we rehearse the basics?
maica: Sure thing.
rindou: Let’s go.
—end
EX 3
-outside starless, night time-
saki: (Today was a lot of fun… It’s already gotten dark out, I should carefully make my way home.)
nekome: Nice night out tonight isn’t it, little lady?
saki: (Is that man calling out to me? If he’s trying to hit on me it’s better I don’t address him…)
nekome: Hey wait it’s me it’s me. Nekome. Won’t you look at me?
saki: Oh, so it was just you Nekome-san. I thought I was being hit on or something, sorry for ignoring you.
nekome: Hmm well, you weren’t too far off the mark I guess.
saki: Huh? …You mean you were hitting on me?
nekome: To an extent. You’re headed to the station right? I’ll escort you.
saki: Eh, you can’t do that.
nekome: It’s fine it’s fine, rather if I can walk beside you for even just 10 minutes I might even pay you.
saki: I don’t need money.
nekome: I’m joking don’t worry, so, can we walk together?
saki: Ok, then, thank you.
nekome: No prob, alright, let’s go—!
-street-
nekome: By the way, are you familiar with the ‘five minute hypothesis’?*
-choice: I know / I don’t - (if you say you know it he just skips the explanation and calls u knowledgeable)
saki: What’s that?
nekome: Uhh let’s see, it’s a philosophical theory that was proposed by a philosopher called Mr what’s his name.
saki: (Mr what’s his name…)
nekome: It’s said the earth was created 4.6 billion years ago, when in actuality it could’ve been created a mere 5 minutes ago. There’s no real way to prove whether that’s possible or impossible, that’s how the theory goes.
saki: How come you brought up this theory?
nekome: Well, I just thought it was interesting. For example, let’s say Starless was built today, but everyone was implanted with a fake memory that it had existed for 10 years. It would be quite shocking, no one would realise it and start celebrating the store’s tenth anniversary. And just like that they’d reminisce about the past, unbothered by how strangely new the wallpaper is.
saki: Uh, umm…
nekome: Oh, sorry sorry. What I wanted to say was, what if right now you and I were kidnapped by aliens, they might implant the memory that we’ve been dating for a whole year!
saki: …What?
nekome: If that were to happen, this irritating distance between us would be erased, would it not?
saki: …Sigh. I thought you had been talking about something more serious.
nekome: Huuh? I was talking very seriously though.
-time pass, outside train station-
nekome: Talking so much in between we’ve already reached the station.
saki: Thanks for walking me all the way here, Nekome-san.
nekome: No problem, thank you too for the enjoyable time. I’ll find something even more interesting to talk about next time, so let’s walk like this again some time.
saki: Ok, sounds good. See you next time.
nekome: Bye~
—end
*from wikipedia- The five-minute hypothesis is a skeptical hypothesis put forth by the philosopher Bertrand Russell, that proposes that the universe sprang into existence five minutes ago from nothing, with human memory and all other signs of history included.
also note for those unaware, the shinju nekome chat cliffhanger was resolved by takami also stepping in out of nowhere, they all parted ways without incident (and here I was thinking nekome was about to memory wipe shinju)
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Ok so this has been bothering me for an hour
please, please, PLEASE write an elrik pov from the xanrik-cheating-fic because I need to know what he was actually doing
This was the ask I was waiting for. Don’t worry, Elrik isn’t a cheater or a horrible person, Skylene is just really bad at saying the important stuff and Xanthous has terrible timing.
Link to the other one: https://www.tumblr.com/dark-empress-justice/716899101391880192/ok-i-swear-ill-stop-after-this-one-but-xanrik
Hell and Highwater— Elrik’s POV
Rating: Teen
Ships: Xanthous/Elrik
Fandom: A Tale of Magic
Other: Post Canon, Cheating, but maybe not, Angst!!! ANGST!!! Sad, Crying, Insecurity, Emotional, Sad Ending, No Happy Ending, Sad,Written in about an hour, Misunderstands to a ridiculous level, Companion Piece.
Elrik hummed as he walked to the office. Ash, a demon Palace Assistant was talking away about their plans.
See, his and Xanthous’ 1 year anniversary was coming up, and he wanted it to be absolutely perfect. He wanted everyone, but mostly Xanthous, to know choosing to come to Hell with Xanthous, choosing to date him, they were the biggest and best decisions he ever made.
“Okay, so I’ll come meet you afterward then?” Ash clarified to him.
“Mhm.” Elrik nodded slightly.
He frowned and looked down when Xanthous grabbed his hand. Xanthous wasn’t normally one for PDA, even if they were in their office. If someone was around he was more reserved about acting lovey-dovey with him.
“Is something wrong Firefly?” Elrik asked, rubbing his thumb over the back of Xanthous’ hand and hoping that would calm him down. He really hoped it wasn’t a panic attack, or a memory of his father.
They always took a long time to deal with, and while Elrik was always willing to help Xanthous, it always made Xanthous very tired, and feel bad.
“Mmm…” Xanthous hummed, glaring at Ash aggressively. It reminded him of when Tangerina glared at Lucy. “She’s flirting with you.” He said after a moment.
Elrik couldn’t resist laughing a little bit at that. Ash? Flirting? That was stupid. “No she wasn’t.” He gave Xanthous a kiss and then sighed, remembering Xanthous’ prior obligations. “You’re meeting with the Council later, right?” He asked slowly, continuing to kiss down Xanthous’ beck now that they were alone. He felt Xanthous make an aborted moan and smiled, still kneading his thumbs into the palm of Xanthous’ hand.
“Yeah.” Xanthous sighed, as though going to visit his best friends was a chore. Elrik smiled softly. He really was the luckiest guy. “Are you sure you don’t want to come with me?”
Elrik shrugged casually. He’d already sent a letter to the Council to keep it a secret and Xanthous distracted, because he was working on a surprise for their anniversary.
“Nah. One of us needs to stay down here and make sure it doesn’t go to… umm… you know what I mean.” He was never quite sure what to say when an idiom mentioned Hell anymore.
Xanthous nodded, and Elrik saw him mentally rearrange and some of the tension come back to his body. Some of that anxious, nervous energy tension that he hated with a burning passion. Xanthous always felt bad afterward.
He reached over and threaded his hands through Xanthous’ hair, not worried about the fire burning him. It never did.
He pulled Xanthous down, curse his boyfriend’s unfair height advantage, and pressed his lips to the other’s.
Xanthous let out a filthy moan and his mouth fell open.
Elrik slipped his tongue inside of Xanthous’, and smirking when Xanthous fell from his half standing position.
Elrik smiled and stopped after a moment. Xanthous did still have a social engagement.
Xanthous took a couple deep breaths and then looked down at him, eyes blown wide.
“See you later firefly.” Elrik joked as Xanthous looked at him in a slight daze for a moment.
“Mmm.” Xanthous seemed to be trying to remember what the different words in that sentence meant. He wsaw the moment panic and realization hit him. “Oh shit, I have to go.”
“Mhm, yeah.” Elrik laughed a little bit as Xanthous scrambled to leave the room, not wanting to be late. “Have fun”
“I will.” Xanthous said as he left the room and toward the exit, which he could open anywhere.
Once Xanthous had been gone from the room for a few minutes, Elrik called Ash back.
She came into the office, holding their plans. “Are you sure about all this?” She asked flipping through them with a raised eyebrow.
“Yes.“ Elrik nodded and took the documents from her, flipping through them.
“What about His Majesty, the King assuming I was flirting with you?” She asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Eh, I’m sure it’ll be fine. Besides, I’ll just explain the whole story later and we’ll laugh about the idea I would date you.” Elrik paused. “No offense.”
“It’s okay, I know you’d never consider anyone else.” Ash chuckled and Elrik nodded remembering the couple of demons in the early months who had flirted with him. Xanthous may have demoted them, but they learned their lesson through other means that day…
He sighed. “Okay, where do we stand on the visiting the Northern Kingdom thing? Brystal recommend this restaurant there.” He passed the paper Brystal had sent him to Ash.
She looked down at it. “Yeah, we can do this.”
“Great, because I’ve been secretly getting it for him for months since she told me so he likes it when we go, and that was way too much effort to throw away.” Elrik spun in his chair for a moment.
“Planning anniversary dates is way harder then I thought.” Elrik hummed. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to do this. It just required a lot n
“But you love him so it’s worth it?”
“Exactly.” Elrik stood up and stretched. “Do you have the painting ready?”
“Yes, would you like to show me where you want it installed?” Elrik had made a painting of him and Xanthous meeting for the first time, and was going to have it installed in their room while he and Elrik were out on their date.
“Mhm. Come on.” He took Ash to their room, smiling as he did so. This was going to be the best first anniversary ever, he would make sure of it.
Inside the bedroom, he pointed to an empty spit next to his and Xanthous’ royal portrait, which was of him hugging Xanthous with a laugh and kissing him while Xanthous looked surprised, but happy.
“I’ll give it to him in the morning and then you can install it while we’re out.” He explained to her. “It should be installed right here.”
Ash nodded and noted this on her notepad. “That’s a good idea. We’re doing breakfast in bed, correct?”
“Yes.” Elrik hummed as he sat on the bed and squealed a little bit. God, he was so lucky to be dating Xanthous, and he’d be damned before he let the other forget it. Probably literally, since Xanthous was, well, the King of Hell.
“Just remember.” Ash said. “This is a big day and Xanthous would be pissed if you were too tired from stressing over planning to enjoy it.”
“Heh, that’s true.” Elrik sighed and sat up. “Sit down, I need to see the rest of the details.”
Ash say down and passed him the papers filled with his plans. He hummed as he read through them, skimming.
“This looks great.” He said, putting down the papers on the nightstand. “Thanks Ash.”
She nodded, and made a surprised noise when Elrik hugged her.
He heard a noise from behind him, and tensed.
“Elrik, out.” He could hear Xanthous trying not to cry and all if a sudden realized what it would look like to Xanthous.
He turned around, ready to fix this mistake, explain everything. “God, no, Firefly, wait—“ Elrik reached out to touch Xanthous’ shoulder, and hissed at the burn, retracting his hand,
“Out.” Xanthosu said, and Elrik could see the tears in his eyes, barely held back as he blinked repeatedly. “Both if you.”
Elrik took a deep breath. This was fine. He’d give Xanthous some time to, well, not cool off, but calm down, then come back andsort everything out. “Should I leave Hell.”
Xanthous didn’t look at him, the tears starting to slip onto his cheeks. Elrik resisted the urge to wipe them off. “Yes. Portal’s open. Goodbye.”
Elrik sighed, gave Xanthous a sad look, and then left. He made his way to the portal. He knew he could fix this, he just wasn’t sure how.
#/okay to reblog#okay to reblog#xanrik#xanthous x elrik#a tale of magic#a tale of sorcery#xanthous hayfield#elrik elderwood#angst#fic#fanfic requests#asks#darkempressjustice fanfic requests#dark empress justice#my fanfics#no happy ending#sad ending#sad#angsty as fuck#cheating#implied cheating#misunderstanding#miscommunication#bad timing#istg i love then
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Another discourse I've seen going on recenlty re: Helaena is this idea that shipping her with a man is somehow devaluing her worth as a woman, that she's more than that, i.e. a plot device for a man's suffering. Of course 90% of this kind of "criticism" is directed towards Helaemond and the possibility about it becoming canon and it's mainly coming from, Helaegons and Alysmonds. But do they not see how the exact same argument can be made in their case? I mean quite a few Helaegons come up with headcanons and scenarios about possible interactions between Helaena and Aegon in S2 yet no one is losing their minds over how those possible scenes are going to reduce Helaena's character in favor of Aegon, nor should they. I can, for example, say that a scene in which he's nice to her is whitewashing his character to the audience who'll probably remember him as just a rapist. See how this works? It's insane logic. Same for Alys and Aemond: except for her (very possible) interactions with Daemon that she's going to have in S2 the rest of her storyline revolves mostly around Aemond and her relationship with him and even after his death this continues through their son. Yet I'm not seeing the argument and 100 pages essays that shippers are devaluing Alys and making her character solely about Aemond? Or that they're using her to woobify him, and trust me, you can make the argument that this is what some are doing!
It's a very hypocritical attitude and, frankly, is just the latest way for people to sound pretentious and intellectual when they could simply say "I dislike this ship and I don't want it to become canon" instead of coming up with this kind of crap.
Anyway, I guess my point is that a character's arc will inevitably revolve around other characters and the relationships they will have with them (AND THIS IS FINE!! this is how stories work!) so therefore it's very disingenuous for people to claim that X ship can only be about whitewashing a man's character or a mean for his character growth while devaluing the woman. Like Helaena loses her son because of Aemond's murder of Lucerys (yes, it's Daemon's fault for hiring B&C but still, it was a consequence of Aemond's actions and let's face it, he will blame himself for it in the show, will feel responsible for her grief and will seek revenge against Daemon for it), she's Aegon's wife, yet people are expecting that others should only explore and ship a certain relationship - Helaegon - because one it's canon, and condemn the other - Helaemond because it's not canon and, in their opinion, its only purpose will be Aemond's character growth? Like people can genuinely like Helaemond, it's not some conspiracy to make Aemond look better.
Anonymous asked: Ok just to clarify something in my previous ask since I didn't word it as I should have and I know is going to cause some problems: I didn't mean that the ones who came up with the whole "shipping Helaena with a man is devaluing her" mess are ALL Helaegons and Alysmond shippers and defenders, but rather that they're basically sounding the same as the people who came up with it and that they're directing their ire at Helaemonds (for reasons I already explained). Sorry about this misunderstanding and you can ignore this message!!
I agree that it's a very disingenuous and insincere argument. You can say the same about any character in any ship ever. So if it applies to all of them, then it's not relevant for any of them. You're right in saying it's just a pretentious attempt to intellectualize their irrational dislike of helaemond, which is, for all intents and purposes, a random and innocuous ship. This level of mental gymnastics is so unnecessary; just admit you don't like something and move on. Christ. We all have stuff we don't really care for and sometimes the reason is just petty or dumb. Sure, it's still annoying for the enjoyers of that thing to read/hear some asinine motivation others might have for their dislike, but it's miles better being honest about it than trying to come off as 'superior' or 'deep' for being a hater.
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dms are awful truly., tell me about harukawa maki and why the fandom is wrong about her^_^
[Drags hands down my face]
preliminary: y'know how like. Kirigiri is. The Girl of thh? and Chiaki is for the sequel, and so overt 'THE GIRL' that her backstory was rewritten to be More Tragic in the special anime?
Haru is that for V3. Aka is bait.
It's, easier to comprehend n Digest Haru w/ that in mind. "Right. She's Kodaka's girl…" the reversible cover of V3 features Haru, prominently. That sort of thing. Genuinely shocked she doesn't have a figure yet, esp in the fashion of the bunnygirls, but Haru is quite controversial re: popularity. That might be why.
I could ramble. I've talked abt her, at length, and i'll spare you the howlings of 'SHE! ANGIE! NARRATIVE FOILS!!!' lucky you, on this special day
overall fandom re: haru has, a sort of, pendulum effect. One side or the other. 'She abuses, tortures, prolly would waterboard Ou,' or, 'sad girl who deserves the best,' y'know. The first part, I see mostly, in 310 fic. Whump. Ou bruised for h/c and Sai gives Haru n co. a PIECE OF HIS MIND!!! The latter… hahhhhhh.. Haru/Momo fic, or, 'Right! Haru's here too!' gotta include her somewhere. Give her a happy ending, a relationship w/ Momo. Done.
/head on hand, swaying
Neither of these are, true. At least if I had to pick, #2 - and I think that'd be Kodo's answer, too, lol. HAVE YOU SEEN HER LOVE ACROSS ANSWERS? SO EDGY. If this was a '00s game, Haru would be top of the charts in fan favorites. Her 8track playlist would start w/ the song, 'Pain' by TDG. Released in the wrong era, sad. A girl allowed, ENCOURAGED, to be sad… but bloody! Wow…!!! And she's pretty!
The 'why'. Well. Now, okay, lean forward, steel your heart……. why is the fandom so bad at Haru…?
Because she's a girl…………!!! I know. What? How? Girl hate?!
You're GONNA hear. 'No, i dislike her bc her motives don't make sense,' 'she fucks up the lategame plan,' 'she's too mean,' 'so bland,' degrees of these are true. I'm not saying basement Joe dislikes Haru solely due to her endowment. But fandom-wise, overall, yeah… altho vthree, particularly, has. Uhm. [twirls hair] 'Opinions' I'd disagree with, re: characters. All of them. The game is meant to be subjective, so of course there's a variety of feelings.
But girls are, mm, unwelcome? Generally. She [any girl] has to Warrant mere existing, and 10x that warrante for x-minutes of screentime. They become watered down, for ease, to be enjoyable. Fans heighten desirable characteristics, if they Mostly-like her, or her negatives if they Mostly-hate her. This sort of Upping the Ante isn't female-restricted, no, but the dials are ticked furthermore.
I can't think of any vthree girl that fandom 'gets,' really. N don't misunderstand me - the girls of the cast aren't TOO COMPLEX for these IMMATURE VIEWERS to UNDERSTAND!!! No, 'you have to have a high IQ,' bullshit. Rather, I think, people are tired and more inclined to extremes. Either tired of being 'annoyed' by girls - this is how we get Haru-basking - or tired of girl-hate, which is how we get to Haru, or Aka, [x girl here]-loving. Both of which don't cusp the truth of the girl.
And - I do this. You do this. I wave away a lot of Tenko's, Loudness n Hatred re: men, but not out of ignoring. I do acknowledge, even like it, due to my view of her backstory from the gleams we see. But I don't talk abt it, or depict it often, bc it's 'minor' when compared to the features I want to emphasize. 'Best girl, because of her purity!' It's inoffensive…….
UNTIL WE GET TO FAN META!!!!!!!!!!!!! Like, 'meta made by fans of vthree,' not meta made by fans of Haru. Clarifying.
[stepford smiler] Ignore all haru fan meta. All of it. I'm right about her, nobody else. Especially Haru + Ou meta. Everyone is wrong. OK? You promise? Don't look at anybody else's take… okay…? Let's do a blood pact, I'll start. [reaches for a prop knife]
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what are your thoughts about the fatphobic comments hoshi has made towards his own members. i am asking this as a genuine question but no hoshi fan whatever you guys are called wants to give me an answer lol
ok so i have been pretty offline and not keeping up w a lot of svt content so this conversation completely missed my radar ! i assume ur talking about this video since thats what ive seen recent conversation abt when i went looking.
- i do want to clarify i am not someone who has had to deal with fatphobia, so my word should not hold as much weight as those who have, and it should be important to uplift the voices of those most impacted by such comments.
we see comments like this often in kpop. an idol’s life revolves around being skinny and packaged of that perfect doll (and only a skinny one!), and the culture in korea (and east asia as a whole) further enforces that. however ! having HAD to deal with such pressure to be skinny they know very well how uncomfortable comments about your weight to be, no matter how joking in tone. in the video hoshi first makes a very unnecessary comment abt seungkwan being a “pig” - perhaps to make light of how peder had been commenting on how little seungkwan was eating - and no matter how the language difference affects the meaning of pig in korean, seungkwan very clearly expresses his displeasure with this comment (tho definitely exaggerated for the cameras). kwan has been dealing with comments like these for years and we have seen how painfully its affected his self esteem and body image, and the members know this. hoshi should definitely know better! right after the video cuts to when peder accidentally says boohae and the rest of bss joke to try and explain the meaning of the word thru their language difference. this also reads like theyre trying to make light of the situation, but dk telling peder to call seungkwan boohae again after theyd cleared up the misunderstanding is DEFINITELY crossing a line and i think thats the part i take most issue with, personally. these clips mostly seem to be the results of some poor taste in jokes taken too far.
ultimately, this is an issue seungkwan needs to clear up with his members, if it really is an issue. theyve known each other for (more than) a decade, so they can (and have) set boundaries about what to joke about and what not to - i’d be surprised if they hadnt already set boundaries abt this topic, but its not my place to pry into their personal lives and relationships with each other, nor it is my place to decide what they should do about this matter! there have been repeated offenses of fatphobic comments by various seventeen members so i do think it is very important that we talk with them about the harm these comments can cause, both to the people listening and the people they are talking about.
you are going to run into fatphobia in kpop spaces. from idols (both about themselves and the people around them), their companies, and from fans. but it really shouldnt be like that! it really shouldnt. this is a topic we do have to approach with nuance, considering both cultural and language differences, as well as the working conditions of an idol, but we cant simply excuse these comments because of that. idols should know better, and if they dont, we have the power to let them know that!
i hope we can continue to foster productive conversations about these issues and include idols in these conversations. i do firmly believe people are allowed to make mistakes and learn from them; we just have to make sure we are giving idols the opportunity to learn, and educate themselves, after making these comments. as fans, we are the people powering and funding this whole industry, and we do have power from this! i know its possible to make kpop a better space. it just takes time and a group effort. i have seen a lot of people write off serious, important criticism of groups as simply “hate” - which ultimately trivializes the whole issue and doing so does not accomplish anything. dogpiling on someone for a mistake can also make them feel attacked and adverse to changing if its not handled with enough tact. fandom spaces as a whole need to develop the skill of being able to seriously face topics that need addressing and learning how to then work together to solve/better these problems. the original(?) account i saw that posted the clips this month, a year after the videos posting, did have a history of posting derogatory tweets about hoshi, but that does not make the issue of fatphobia and body shaming among seventeen & kpop as a whole any less real, or any less in need of addressing. And scene
#okay this got really long and i was trying to write this in a Loud Room so i do not think i accomplished the level of articulation i had#hoped to achieve but i hope this answers your question nonny ! thank u for bringing this to my attention#anon tag 🌟#if anyone has some better organized thoughts about this i would love to hear them 👍❣️
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Ok, so I see a lot of backlash against AI art (which probably doesn't technically count as art but there's not a better term yet), and initially I kind of thought people just didn't understand the technology.
Because I'm not on twitter and I'm only loosely connected to the professional artist community, I only recently learned that some people (apparently there's a big overlap with the crypto assholes here go figure) are basically using it to steal art commissions and taking training data from artists who have expressly requested not to have their art used in that way. These practices are absolutely unethical and they should be stopped from doing it.
That said, it does seem like there's a misunderstanding about the tech, and it's causing the backlash to spill over onto the technology itself, which I feel is unwarranted.
Before I explain why, let me first clarify what type of AI i'm talking about. people tend to use the term for any computer-generated art and while that's fine (that's just how language is), I'm talking about a specific type of program here.
What I'm not talking about is a program that stitches existing images together (like whatever godforsaken monstrosity belches up bored apes).
What I'm talking about is images made with machine learning.
to drastically oversimplify, when you feed a training input to an ai, the program examines clusters of pixels, creates a new value for each cluster and passes it on to the next layer. repeat the process a few dozen times and then look at the output. depending on how the output relates to the desired outcome, you send feedback back down to the beginning of the chain, tweaking numbers along the way. No part of the image is stored by the program, and the output is discarded. this is repeated hundreds of times and the transformations on each layer gradually learn what images of the type contained within the set tend to look like, and how shapes tend to be connected in them and so on.
Note that, while I know the above is accurate with respect to image analysis ai, I'm not as well informed about image generation. Still, the general principles are the same on the training side of things, and some cursory research suggests that the same techniques are used for this part.
So based on that, while we colloquially describe the process as "feeding" the AI, it's more accurate to say that the AI is "adjusted based on how it responds to" the data.
Good AIs usually also have some random noise introduced into the process, which keeps it from hewing too closely to the training set.
I've seen a comparison where there was a work based on various famous paintings compared with what was supposedly AI output which was clearly just bits of the original paintings awkwardly stitched together. I can confidently say that if this really was ai output it's either a shitty one or was given like 500 copies of each of the handful of paintings and nothing else.
While it is possible to do art theft with ai if you force it to as described above, in the same way a human might painstakingly create a forgery, used normally, what it does genuinely is more similar to learning than anything else. for that reason, while I recognize that the technology is being abused, and art is being used without permission when it really shouldn't be, it isn't technically art theft.
Given all of this, I would personally propose three broad rules be implemented and enforced ASAP.
Always disclose when an image is AI generated and not human-made
Implement (and respect) an opt-out option on websites where art is posted (in account settings, with the ability to make exceptions for individual images (I don't really understand why you'd want to opt out, but it should be your choice)
Keep a record of every work used for training and credit them somewhere anyone who wants to look can find it
These aren't meant to be comprehensive or anything, and I'm almost certainly missing some things
Assorted closing thoughts:
I use these AIs every now and then and still commission artists exactly as much as I did before (like once a month or so).
This is probably because the things I want the AI to make from me are things that i don't care enough about to commission ("soda cans in a cave") or something really abstract that I want to see a machine's take on ("colorless green ideas sleep furiously")
Capitalism is really the main problem here, but what else is new
Neural networks aren't just "based on" the functioning of the human brain; in an abstract sense it is literally the same process, just scaled down and simplified.
Watermarks will work decently well in keeping an ai from accurately mimicking your style, but will also probably make the AIs output cooler looking
What do you think? I'm interested in hearing as many different takes on this as I can find.
#AI art#artificial intelligence#please be civil#i don't want to have a heated argument about this#It's ok if you disagree with me#feel free to let me know why you think i'm wrong#just please be polite about it is all#There's some genuinely shitty behavior going on and people are understandably upset about it#but I'm just tring to help here
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@toshiirou
Since OP kindly decided to delete everything I said, here is my response again.
Let's take this bit by bit, ok?
Firstly, I read the whole post. My issue wasn't that OP offended me, it's that she expressed frustration at the same misunderstanding that most people with the same opinion have- that somehow we blame Hylia for the reincarnation cycle. That's what I wanted to clear up first.
Now, you. You unknowingly brought up another misunderstanding- that Hylia Haters™ are all projecting religious trauma onto it, and that OP's post was about nuance.
You don't have to have religious trauma to enjoy gods as their fully flawed beings. Personally, I dislike Hylia and have nothing religious in my past. I'm not going to focus on that because it doesn't matter, but that also happens to be part of the reason I responded in the first place.
OP's post is also looking at the subject and taking away nuance from the characters and story, so it's more about disagreeing with nuance. I have nothing against that, and nothing against OP's interpretation of Hylia either- the point of my comments was to clarify.
I'm afraid that's coming directly from you.
Now you've irked me, because by making the claim that I made up the idea of complicated, selfish, morally gray gods who don't understand the suffering they inflict because they're simply bigger than humans in every way, you've entirely discredited yourself to speak on the subject. Anyone who's read anything about gods would know there's at least one in each mythology who acts like that, and gods are often portrayed that way. Go read some myths about Aphrodite.
Apathetic and loving doesn't make sense
Again, it's the idea of nuance and gods being larger than life and humanity. The thing about Hylia herself is that she seems to pick favorites (keyword seems, I'm going to explain now) as she isn't always present, helps more in some stories than others- consider Majora's Mask vs BotW. In Majora's Mask, Link has already fulfilled his role (twice!), and ends up in a dimension that she doesn't favor (Termina instead of Hyrule). She has no real reason to protect him there, but he is able to call on her divine power of time (she's the Goddess of Time, after all) whenever and for whatever he wants. Meanwhile, in BotW, Link and Zelda almost die, and Link is sat in a mortal-made machine for 100 years. It's not out of the question to assume that Hylia could have sped that process up a little, but she didn't. And of course, like I mentioned, sometimes she isn't even there.
Now even the idea of denying that Hylia's heroes are all children is ridiculous. You have played the games, haven't you? There are heroes aged from 10 years old to 17, which is technically the legal age for Hylians, but is absolutely not by our standards- this is intentionally used in at least one game (BotW) to show how young and unprepared the heroes are for what they have to do. The first Zelda game of all time features a 10-year-old protagonist. Child heroes have been a theme since the very beginning.
As for the last reply, I know OP didn't mean offence and as I says the first time, neither do I! But she did, in fact, express a misunderstanding of my group's interpretation. I respect her view, once again, all this was meant to do was clarify.
And as for the claim that I didn't examine the source material very well, you should really consider the power of a strong special interest, because I've been thinking about it for years.
Thanks.
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ok honestly this has been all over this week but - something it’s important to keep in mind abt the discussion of aros who say “I still feel love/have other kinds of rlshps” is that it’s usually not abt defending our humanity it’s abt combatting a very strong and very long standing kind of arophobia that says we can’t and don’t? and it can be framed in a shitty way. but saying that people can’t say that is also pretty :/ given the history of this community and the way we’ve had to defend our right to our love being real and legitimate. just bc some people don’t identify with or feel love doesn’t mean that other aros don’t have their love attacked. aro people may have very good reasons to need to assert or clarify that they CAN feel love and be close to others, and it’s not an attack on people who don’t feel love to do that. it’s also not true that doing so automatically means someone is “defending their humanity by relying on other forms of love.” i get that people feel hurt by interpreting statements like this as defence of humanity to the harm of loveless aros who are also human - but there’s nuance here and it’s being missed in a way that causes hurt to other aros who’ve had to defend the existence of their ability to love and are now being told they’re not allowed to do that.
Anon, I've never said that aros can't say that they feel love or want relationships. I fully support aros who desire those things, and I fully support them talking about those experiences and defending themselves when necessary.
it’s usually not abt defending our humanity it’s abt combatting a very strong and very long standing kind of arophobia that says we can’t and don’t? and it can be framed in a shitty way.
Yes, I am aware that it’s about that type of arophobia, and I feel the need to mention here that this type of arophobia can be harmful to all aros, even ones who don’t relate to love or don’t want relationships. I know that this is hurtful and I understand that you want to defend yourself. I am hurt by those beliefs as well.
it’s also not true that doing so automatically means someone is “defending their humanity by relying on other forms of love.” i get that people feel hurt by interpreting statements like this as defence of humanity to the harm of loveless aros who are also human
I think you are misunderstanding what I’m saying (and I don’t know who you are quoting there because I definitly didn’t say that). I’m not making some general statement about how aros who defend their ability to love are defending their humanity. As you said yourself, the argument that aros can still love can be framed in a shitty way. I am criticizing exactly those shitty framed arguments.
Let me put it this way, I have seen asexual people say of course I can still love people romantically, I’m not a monster/I’m just human - do you see how this statements would be arophobic? Yes, some ace people still love people romantically, but that doesn’t mean that aromantic people are monsters or less human for not doing so. The same goes for statements like I can feel other types of love, I’m still human after all and I can still feel love, I’m not a monster and the ableist one I can still feel love, I’m not a sociopath.
And to be clear, I am not making up these examples, I have seen them used many times. That is why I’m talking about dehumanization. There’s no problem in defending your ability to love, there is however a problem when you are framing it in a way that implies love is the defining factor that keeps you from being less human, or a bad person. This directly implies that those who do not feel love are less human or inherently bad people.
So yeah, there is nuance being missed but I’m not sure if it’s on my end to be honest. Again, I understand that you are hurt and want to defend yourself. But I have never said that aros who love in other ways aren’t allowed to talk about that. All I am asking is that people are more considerate in the arguments they use, so that the actual arophobia is addressed, rather than just deflected to other aros.
#I thought I made that point clear in the post you are referencing but sorry if it didn't come across that way#i hope this helped clarify things#also it's one in the morning and I'm tired so this was the best I could formulate at the moment#ask#anon
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Hello !
I was wondering whether you could rate and tell us of your top 5 favourite webnovels/cnovels of all time ?! (Sorry if this has already been answered lol😅)
Thank you, stay safe and have a nice day🖤
Awww, thank you and that is such a lovely ask!!!
From n1 to n5, here they are (they happen to be all danmei.)
1. The Husky and His White Cat Shizun (2ha) - my n1 forever and ever.
Taxian Jun, the horrific cultivation emperor of the world who razed cities and destroyed sects, is surrounded on his mountain. The righteous sects are terrified to confront him but tired of living, Taxian Jun consumes poison and dies by suicide at the age of 32. And opens his eyes as 16 year old Mo Ran, Mo Ran long before he became Taxian Jun, Mo Ran who is excited at a chance to save the one person he loved and lost. Oh, and to deal with his loathed shizun, the unapproachable and strict Chu Wanning, his past life’s biggest enemy.
I have no idea if it’s objectively the best on this list but it hits every trope I love, its bleak worldview (the world will change only incrementally but that’s enough, average person will not appreciate the sacrifice but it’s still worthwhile, and love is worth everything) mirrors mine, and the sheer complexity of the plot and cascade of plot twists each of which is insane and yet completely logical, is amazing (this is a rare novel where it’s even more fun to reread than read for the first time because you keep seeing all the hints and trail crumbs laid out that you did not see the first time.)
And the characters!!! I mean, this novel has multiple universes/timelines, a side trip to the Underworld AND the demon realm, a plot more twisted than a store’s worth of pretzels and yet the thing that hits me the most are the characters. Mo Ran is my favorite web novel character of all time and I love Chu Wanning so. All the secondary characters are wonderfully written (and some of them made me bawl) and they are all complex. My opinion of all of them changed many times over; the novel doesn’t make it easy to love some of them but then you do and it’s so worthwhile! That slow change is one of the delights of the novel - I started out disliking the unpleasant, superior Chu Wanning and cruel, callow Mo Ran and then I loved them so so hard and cried for them so so hard and was in awe of their heroism and sacrifice and selflessness and capacity to love.
Oh, and the fact that this novel does something almost impossible - it has its protagonist start out as so clearly irredeemable and then slowly and painfully and thoroughly redeems him (without ever letting the reader forget what it is he needs redemption for.)
Also, for a novel that made me cry so hard I felt ill, this book is just so damn funny with the most sarcastic sense of humor imaginable (the serious angst doesn’t even kick in until 90+ chapters!)
Anyway I should stop or I will write a dissertation. But this is the one web novel that I would put in my top 5 not just web novels but any novels in any shape or form. The plentiful trigger warnings are there for a reason so stay away if they are an issue, but if not, if anyone hasn’t read it yet, what are you doing with your life?!
2. Stains of Filth (Yuwu) - another novel by the author of 2ha. Clearly she just pushes all my buttons every time. This one is much shorter and has a plot that is twisty but less twisty than 2ha. Still, all that means is that intensity and the pain are more concentrated.
Aristocratic Mo Xi and former slave Gu Mang were both legendary generals of the empire and lovers. But Gu Mang betrayed the country and switched to the enemy. Now he is back as a peace offering by that country and Mo Xi has to deal with the fact that his feelings are as strong as ever.
This novel!!! So much pain and intensity!!! So many amazing plot twists and supporting characters. The same bleak world view, the same unjust society, the same protagonists doing right things despite the cost. Mo Xi’s intensity and inability to let go (he’s imprinted on Gu Mang and that’s it) is romantic, bone-shakingly intense, and tragic all at once. And oh Gu Mang! So many times I just wanted to reach into the book physically to protect him. The novel deals with unjust societies, memory versus personality, what it’s like to be good in a bad universe etc. And it both made me sob and giggle, repeatedly, and sold me on literally death-defying (but not honor-defying!) love.
Oh, and special shout out to the fact that like 2ha, you may start out hating some characters and end up a rabid fangirl (cough Murong Lian!)
3. Qiang Jin Jiu - a dense political tome that takes a while to get going but then it’s a runaway train.
In a fictional dynasty, Shen Zechuan, the only remaining son of a disgraced aristocratic family and Xiao Chiye, the younger son of a family of generals guarding the border join forces (and then something else) to get power and pull down the dysfunctional system.
This is so elegant and smart (a rare web novel I’d recommend to anyone who just loves solid period fiction) and you probably need a notebook to keep track of the politics and military strategy. These characters are very very smart not just because the author says so.
As to the characters, there is a large cast and I love many of them, but for me the novel is made by Shen Zechuan and Xiao Chiye. SZC is gorgeous and delicate and icy and can kill you before you have time to blink. Saddled with the sins of the family he had no pleasant interaction with, he claws his way out of hell (seeing the sinkhole he was trapped in, literally as well) to take down those who wronged him but also to amass power so all the tragedy and corruption won’t happen again and the whole rotten system comes crashing down. XCY is a military genius who is trapped as a hostage in the capital because the court doesn’t trust his family. He longs to return to the plains of home and to take his rightful place. The two men start out as bitter enemies, then reluctant and sniping allies, then as friends and eventually as one of the most gorgeous, tender, swoony OTPs.
Anyway this is one is a bona fide masterpiece, equal parts smart and emotionally intense.
4. Wu Chang Jie - are you an emotional vampire? I am and this novel is a banquet.
In a highly fantastical setting, we meet our protagonists - the sunny Xie Bian and the intense and surly Fan Wushe. Xie Bian is a human who assists his master in conveying souls to the underworld and making sure no mishaps happen. Bian is concentrated sunshine in human form and to meet him is to love him. When the novel opens, his drunk master brings back another human to be his shidi and assist with duties - said human is uncommunicative, intense and surly Wushe. Bian is excited to have a shidi but little does he know that a story dealing with the horrors of past lifetime is about to start.
Anyway, why WCJ? So many reasons. It has such a dark bleak worldview - this world is a horrifying system where powerful cannibalize each other’s cores for an impossible chance to ascend, where gods have sealed off their realm and all that’s left is neverending human misery and hell (the only way you’d see a deity is if they’d been sent down to suffer over and over and over), where even reincarnation doesn’t fix things and bad acts are often unpunished. And the novel then asks - is it worth being a good person in such a world? More, is it worth being a good person in such a world when nothing good has ever happened to you and you have been repeatedly betrayed due to your goodness? And the answer, on Bian’s part, is an uncompromising yes.
Ah yes, the other reason to love this novel - the protagonists and their fucked up fucked up relationship. Bian (who was Prince Ziheng in the past life) is so genuinely good. But he is that rare thing - good but not saintly, noble but not cloying. So much of the novel is his getting taken apart over and over and barely able to put himself back together every time but his soul is still as amazing as ever.
And then there is Wushe (who was Prince Zixiao in past life, Ziheng’s not-bio-related brother.) Wushe is not a good person. He is a monster. And he loves Bian/Ziheng more than his life and his soul and the entire world but he’s also the one who hurt him more than anyone else ever could and did it over and over. His love survived a literal century of torture in the worst kind of hell and refused the usual memory loss of new life. But it also humiliated and broke Ziheng down to his constituent parts.
One of the things that is so fascinating to me about this novel is the question of what can be forgiven/what should be forgiven/what kind of expiation is enough/can you ever love someone who you loved so much and then he hurt you so badly and is now repentant? And it never sweeps trauma under the rug or hand waves it away but deals with it head on.
If you want healthy relationships, you should stay far away from this novel but if intense insane ones with a feral barely human one capable of destroying the world leashed by love and guilt to the sane deeply good one is your bag, come right in.
There is also the world building and the fact that yes, the big fall out between Ziheng x Zixiao is based on not knowing all the facts but it’s not “why can’t you talk?! This is dumb!” But is totally in keeping with both events and their characters. It’s reasonable for Ziheng to do what he does and for Zixiao to misunderstand and decide Ziheng is now his biggest enemy (but still one he’s fixated on) and for Ziheng to never be able to clarify.
Anyway, once again this is trigger warning central so please heed those, but if they are no issue, this one is wonderful.
5. OK, this is hard and switches between Sha Po Lang, Heaven Official’s Blessing and The Golden Stage depending on my mood. So what the hell, I am gonna write about all of them.
Sha Po Lang - so smart and so much clever world building. There is enough politicking to satisfy a Qiang Jin Jiu fan, it’s steampunk, and our two protagonists - Gu Yun, the empire’s most powerful general, who’s loyal to the empire despite being badly wronged by it, and Chang Geng, a cursed prince with barbarian blood and horrifying childhood - are wonderful separately and together. This is a huge slow burn but it’s totally worth it! They fall in love with each other’s hearts and brains and ability as much as anything. (Yes, this is the one with the yifu thing. Gu Yun is made Chang Geng’s foster father when he rescues him and brings him back to the capital as a way to keep CG safe in imperial strife. They are 12 and 19 at the time so clearly it’s never a parental relationship.)
Heaven Official’s Blessing (TCGF) - I love it’s sprawling narrative and cast, I love its inventive setting and picaresque story. It’s hilarious and can make me cry. But the novel’s place on this list is due to Xie Lian who is part Kenshin part drama WWX part pure goodness wrapped in heartbreak and trauma wrapped in sunshine.
The Golden Stage - two smart and principled (yes, they both have principles different though they may be) men navigate their arranged marriage, their past friendship and their past break up, become a super couple (one of the healthiest danmei couples I’ve ever read and proves healthy doesn’t have to be boring), save the country and bring down the emperor or two and just generally this is my rainy day book.
I guess I didn’t write as much for the three n5 candidates as I did for 1-4 but my brain is beginning to curdle so...
#cnovel#heaven official's blessing#2ha#yuwu#sha po lang#qiang jin jiu#wu chang jie#the golden stage#tcgf#asks
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