#and I kind of hate that she didn't win on some levels | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

y-rhywbeth2 · 17 days

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Ketheric continues to be the member of the Chosen I struggle to get a grip on. Like the other three I can tell you the details of why (I think) they grew up to monsters:

Long post.

Let's start with Gortash: spent his childhood being told he was a selfish monster for his thoughts - apparently from birth - for the way he perceived the world, for *checks notes* wanting his parents attention as an undeveloped human being that relies on its parents to survive and thrive.

Then his parents send him to hell as part of a deal. Because that's where monsters go isn't it? They go to hell to suffer eternal damnation because they were monsters in life.

So you grow up in one of the literal cesspits of the universe, where the only people you meet are the literal scum of the universe, or those you're going to learn to see as weak fools who had to rely on others - and were ultimately willing to commit atrocities themselves - who were taken advantage of by the scum of the universe. You get to the Hells by committing atrocities, either because you want something so badly you'll fuck somebody over for it (out of greed, or because you couldn't fix it yourself (weak)) or because you did them of your own volition. And curiously, some of these people had their price tags wrapped in such subtle terms they don't even realise they did anything wrong! Lesson learned; anyone will willingly be a monster if you make the evil sound nice. Every single devil you meet has had the humanity flayed from their soul, and they got to where they are in their existences by fomenting (and committing) hate and rape and murder and everything evil under the sun as a regular Monday morning in the ultimate goal to make the universe an evil place. Devils are also 'self made men', everybody started from nothing as a lemure and clawed their way to where they are now. Every social interaction in the Hells is manipulation and abuse. Everyone there hurts everyone.

But you do have one example of a good person! There's Hope! Lovely lady, kind and sweet... Trapped in hell being abused forever going insane because of it because your ambitious sister fucked you over. That's where trust and love being a good person gets you.

And that was his entire social life. That was the people he had to look to for examples. All his early experiences were limited to a sample of the absolute worst it has to offer, and he has a very skewed view of the universe.

And the fact that he's apparently so damn good at sex a lady gave him a ring worth everything she owns after growing up around a pleasure devil whose role is harming and corrupting people with sex and has built in charm person at etc is not ringing alarm bells(!) I'm not side-eyeing the boudoir at all.

I wonder why having a child/teen spend their formative years in the evil factory literally designed to spit out monsters... spat out a monster? Kudos to Karlach, though: just how many layers of defence mechanisms has she got in her brain?

Gortash's thought processes are 50% through the lens of engineering and 50% through the lens of a devil's perspective to me. People will sell out others for their own gain, because they're too weak to do it themselves or because they're bastards. If you don't get with the programme you're the victim. You only get ahead by being ruthless. Everybody is untrustworthy, and relying on them will get you betrayed. The world is divided into the weak and the ruthlessly strong who take what they want. Yes, he's a monster. And so are his parents. And so is everyone. And then Bane saw this perfect example of his way of thinking and said 'that one.'

Orin: obviously we've got grooming. The fact that her formative memories include her mother trying to murder her, and the fact that she feels like the only person who has ever cared about her or supported her is her grandfather. Who is implied to have been raping her, or intending to. All she's permitted is to have her brain poisoned by her faith, which her life revolves around, and then her kin 'does it all wrong' and inherits everything she's been groomed to believe is hers. But no, 'they're not wrong,' says everybody around her 'you are!'

She's a Bhaalspawn, so her relationships with her kin are "kill or be killed," as Helena proved. You will please father by slaughtering your siblings, or you will die - or worse. You must be and stay favoured by Bhaal above all the others to be truly safe ("safe"), and Durge outranking her is a threat to her existence. Actually Durge existing is a threat to her well-being. She has no way to live a life outside the cult, never has and never will. Her life is insanely lonely and mostly consists of paranoia.

But the overlaying theme here is that she's a changeling. She's mirrorkin with no unique physical identity of her own, she can only reflect those of others. To be dnd canon accurate: she has no real facial features, no pigmentation. She's not permitted an identity of her own, and was punished for trying. She's a mirror born and raised to reflect the glory of Bhaal, the glory of her failed grandfather, the rise of Bhaal's favourite child. Never her own. Gee, I wonder why she literally wears people's skins.

Denied the ability to do anything but live according to what she's told, she does her best to live up to it because to fail is to become her parents and the countless aunts and uncles currently enjoying their damnation in the Throne of Blood. And then she's told she's doing it wrong. By everybody. She's a 'rabid dog'. She, despite having doctrine poured into her ears and probably carved into her flesh her entire life 'doesn't understand Bhaal.' And everybody is insanely patronising about it! You're never allowed to be anything but what we tell you to be, but you're still not good enough! Which is death. The Temple of Bhaal needs murder feminism.

The Dark Urge is my favourite little nightmare, and I've talked about them at length: much of Orin's trauma also applies to them, although where she's a mirror made to reflect the egos of others, Durge is only allowed one identity: Bhaal's. Where Orin can never seem to reach the standards forced on her, Durge is never allowed to fail to meet them, or else. Every outside connection they ever had was brutally sabotaged, and they've had 'you're a monster and only I (your abusive Father) can love you' drilled into their mind. They hate themself. We got the threat of sexual exploitation (assuming it didn't happen), there's a subtle undercurrent of incest to some interactions. The prayer for forgiveness kind of sums it all up: 'I'm sorry for forming an emotional connection that isn't blind love for you father, but don't fret, I'll destroy it with my own hands just like everything else and then finally get to kill myself just like I've always wanted.'

But Ketheric? Like villains don't need tragic backstories to be terrible people, but it does make them more interesting.

OK, so your bio family is fucked up and I definitely get the impression that they sucked (Malus is giving me vibes that say he'd have been a villain anyway, and might've been secretly Sharran to start with; Gerringothe seems to be drowning whatever her issues are in gold), and then the loving family you made for yourself broke: your wife died, and your daughter died, sure. But plenty of people on Toril probably have similar if not the same stories and didn't go evil overlord! Why are you doing this? What is informing these decisions? Why does your existence hinge so much on your dead daughter that your son is basically named after her and you seem to hate him for existing and not being her? Does Shar have something to do with it? Has Ketheric just carved out so much memory and emotion, so much of his own identity, that all that's left is the grief and the hunger for the pain to stop but, as per Shar's intent, it keeps coming back, with less and less positive memories to soften the pain. A wound that festers and never heals. Is the obsession with Isobel because she's the icon of everything that was good in his life, and her loss was the moment everything good was gone? Was he a rational man who turned to Shar to stop the pain in a moment of understandable grief and rage at her sister, and then was trapped in a cycle that destroyed everything that was good in that man until we get the General?

Just guess working my way through his entire backstory...

#I just want to rescue Orin; she breaks my heart #and I kind of hate that she didn't win on some levels #I just want to rescue her ToB style but without the bad ending that got added in post-game #babbling #edgelord hours #villainous nonsense #the family circle #/durge #/orin #/gortash #/ketheric

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lunargrapejuice · 16 days

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thanks so much, hero

sephiroth x reader with no pronouns used | 3.3k + words

warnings: hurt/comfort, jealousy, teasing, mutual pining, reader works for shinra/soldier but i didn't specify what kind of job

it doesn’t mean anything. you know it doesn’t. and even more importantly, you try to remind yourself, it shouldn’t mean anything. at least not to you.

because what reason do you have to be upset over what wasn’t yours.. what would never be yours?

and wasn’t this your stupid, stupid, idea in the first place?

yes, it was you who brought up the idea of a fan meet and greet for the first class soldier as a means to ease the tension of the citizens during this trying time in the war with wutai and yes it was you who helped put the contest together knowing very well this could be the outcome. your foolish heart had just hoped it would end up with an angeal or genesis fan winning but the gods seemed to be enjoying watching your suffering and much to your displeasure, you were giving them a show.

you want to look away, to walk away, maybe just go home for the rest of the day, because you don’t know how much of this your heart can take but your legs and eyes betray you and keep you frozen in place, unable to take your gaze from the hands that touch sephiroth like he’s some kind of coveted item without feelings or emotions or boundaries and the fluttering eyes that are undressing him without any kind of shame.

the tablet in your arms nearly gets crushed against your chest when you hug it tightly seeing the contest winner touch the exposed skin of sephiroths chest and watching her take a step closer to him, breaking out in deep pink blush and smiling shyly up at him, only makes it worse.

is it just you or does she look even more beautiful all flushed too? maybe prettier than when she first walked through the door and became the nail to the coffin of your feelings for sephiroth. whether it was sealing it or attempting to break it, you had yet to decide and right now you don’t want to think about it, can’t think about it, even if the sparkling sharp tip is digging into your chest.

thank the goddess you can’t see his face with his back facing you. you don’t think he’s enjoying being touched by this stranger but it’s not a comfort whatsoever. a part of it is your fault. each of them had agreed to it before the contest was announced but it was your idea and there’s an unswallowable lump in your throat seeing it come to fruition now and it’s for more reasons than being a cause for his discomfort, though that certainly makes the top of the list.

or maybe he was fine with it and it’s only you with the problem here. not wanting someone to touch him in ways you wish only you could and with the gentle care one should use with something precious. not like how this woman is now, on a different level than how the research and development department handles him but it’s on par all the same. had she even asked him if he was okay with this?

is it silly to think that you could protect him in that way anyways? he is the strongest soldier, with power incomparable to any other and if he truly didn’t want her to, he could stop her without using an ounce of his strength but still..

you owe him one big apology once you can get your shit together long enough to slap on an expression that didn’t scream you hated every second of this and pretend it isn’t a punch to the gut and the heart that seems to ripple through every nerve in your body.

stupid legs, just move!

“careful now. you may burn a hole right through her skull if you stare any longer.”

genesis’ voice is what pulls your eyes away and you’re equally annoyed and grateful for that devilish smirk on his lips that says he knows way too much. at least you don’t have to look at sephiroth and this woman any longer and your body finally obeys, allowing you to walk away from this tormenting sight and back towards the first class floor.

“i’m not in the mood,” you say as you walk past genesis, ignoring how unsteady you found your voice.

“are you ever when it comes to your feelings for him?” he teases, following right on your heels.

how long had he been standing there? you wonder. goddess how long had you been standing there?

“remind me to be better about not letting my guard down around you,” there’s no real bite behind your words but right now you could do without his teasing.

“it wouldn’t matter if you did, you’re terrible at hiding your emotions,” he says it so easily, as if everyone knows it to be a fact. “but i think it is not me you need to worry about showing your true feelings too.” he pauses to push the elevator button and you think he’s quite lucky when a second later a handful of 2nd class come out of the elevator right as he adds, “unless of course you’d like him to see you being jealous.”

you take in a deep inhale, hating how right he is, ready to throw your tablet at him but instead you wordlessly step into the elevator, genesis following, and press the button for the first class floor. with a silent wish, you aim to make the rest of this ride a quiet one but it wasn’t like your friend to give in so easily.

“it’s quite cute on you, i must admit.”

you really couldn’t agree. jealousy, this.. protectiveness - possessiveness - that isn’t yours to claim over sephiroth, it felt frustrating.. ugly and heavy. “genesis-”

“you know as well as i do that it doesn’t mean anything to him,” he doesn’t bother clarifying but he doesn’t need to either.

“i don’t know how he feels.”

“clearly.”

you don’t dare read into his words and feel that lump in your throat forming once more. it keeps you quiet and thankfully for the rest of the elevator ride genesis joins you in silence.

it’s too short lived.

one step onto the first class floor and angeals eyes on you, his question restarting the relentless torture you’ve found yourself in today but you think, just slightly, you prefer this over watching the man you’re helplessly in love with be ogled over and touched by another. someone who doesn’t truly know him or cares for him.

“what’s wrong?” angeal asks.

maybe you really were terrible at hiding your emotions. you hadn’t as much as looked his way but you knew genesis wore a smile and it was only you angeal could be talking to.

“someones jealous,” genesis answers for you.

hearing it again cracks your mask, makes it hard to breathe or think or care. you just wanted today to be over and then you were never ever going to suggest something at work again lest you end up in some other kind of fucked up situation where you’re left yearning and breaking under teasing you could handle had you been a little more centered. would it have been easier if you had told sephiroth how you felt? is it worth the risk of losing him when he inevitably doesn’t feel the same?

it’s not something you can think too deeply about right now.

“i. am. not. jealous.” every word is punctuated with a stride towards angeal. it feels like too much you could explode but you worry it would be you bursting into a fit of tears more than anything else and that’s the last thing you want. especially in front of these two. “she could stand to have some more tact,” you mumble under your breath, letting some of your emotions leak out, not able to care to hold it back or if they hear. you take the paperwork from angeals hands and turn towards genesis. “but what they do isn’t my concern.”

“what’s got you so upset then?” genesis asks.

“your slacking off,” you chide and push the paperwork into his chest, not meeting his eyes or angeals when you make your way towards the closed off office, thankful they seem to have gotten the hint you were finished with this conversation and that lazard is out for the rest of the day so you can sulk in peace. “get back to work.”

the office door shuts quietly behind you and you flip the lock as your back slides down the wood until you’re sitting on the floor, determined to not let anyone see the few tears escaping past your lashes that were hell bent on escaping no matter how much you willed them not to. you wipe them away quickly, like someone might catch you any moment but there’s no one to see.

you don’t know how long passes while you try to work away your frustration and guilt. the locked door handle moves at some point but it doesn’t open and you don’t look up or answer. your phone dings but you don’t pull it from your pocket. it’s not until the paperwork you had started is finished that you look up to see how late it is.

hardly anyone else is around by the time you leave the shinra building and you’re making the way up the stairs towards your apartment, deciding to make the walk up the last few flights instead of taking the elevator to try to work out the last of the lingering unease so maybe you could fall into bed and just sleep this all away. it’s not likely you’ll wake up and magically not have feelings for sephiroth, it’s a bit hard to even imagine that ever happening, but at least tomorrow you would -

your thoughts, your everything, stops in their tracks the second you step onto your floor and see a familiar figure leaning casually against your apartment door with his arms folded over his chest. there was no mistaking it’s sephiroth. you’ve never met anyone who matched his height or beauty or who captivated you as much as he does and his dark clothes and silver hair only help to give him away instantly.

the next shaky step you take, his head turns and your eyes meet. your heart skips far too many beats at the smile he offers you but somehow your legs don’t give way and you draw closer to him, your worries and woes from earlier in the day falling off of your shoulders and onto the ground behind you with each step you take towards him.

“wh-what are you doing here?” you question a bit breathlessly, blinking twice to be sure you weren’t imagining him. after each blink, every step you take, he’s still there, waiting for you.

he straightens, standing tall and taking a side step to allow you the space in front of your door. he looks down at you with mako eyes that shimmer in the dim hallway light, wearing an expression you can’t quite decipher but it’s soft, one you can’t tear your gaze from even as your cheeks warm.

he says your name and there’s no mistaking the gentle concern in his voice. “are you alright?”

it makes your chest ache and your mouth spews words that remind you of today’s uncomfortable events before you could stop them from coming out, before you could lie, tell him you’re fine with a smile that probably wouldn’t meet your eyes and would hardly convince his. “i really should be asking you that. honestly sephiroth, i owe you the biggest apology after today.i didn’t think about - i just -”

“own me an apology?” he quirks a brow at you and the confusion on his face is.. cute. boyish. you begin to feel the clouds of unease that had settled in your stomach slowly burst into butterflies. “you haven’t done anything wrong.”

“didn’t i though? if i haven’t come up with the contest idea..” you break your gaze from his, instead focusing on the patch of milky skin you had seen the woman touch earlier. your mouth feels dry, like your body is warning you to not say the words in case your jealousy also shows or he says something like he enjoyed her company and thanks you for introducing him to such a beautiful woman. you swallow it all down, hating how bitter and horrible it tastes, but push through. you know of how little others had cared for sephiroths personal space and you never wanted to be like those people, indirectly or not. this was the least you owed him. “i’m sorry if today was uncomfortable. i hadn’t considered the contest winner being so.. handsy.” goddess you wanted to cry. “fuck - sorry doesn’t even feel like it cuts it. seph, i - i -”

a touch on your arm, warm leather covering powerful fingers caressing just above your elbow, stops you in your tracks. a soft call of your name and the same gentle touch under your chin draws your attention back up towards the man that holds your very heart and doesn’t know it.

“there’s nothing for you to apologize for.” he uses a tone you’ve heard him use with the lower class soldiers, one with an unswaying conviction, leaving no room for doubt or question but with you it’s so unbelievably tender and considerate. “you don’t need to be sorry for other people's actions. i wouldn’t have agreed to the contest if i wasn’t okay with how strange someone may act around me.” he takes a step closer to you and in the same movement your hands reach for him, holding onto his coat that lingers with the same heat as his hands and as if to assure you that it’s okay, his own touch grows a bit bolder. the fingers under your chin glide along your skin beside your mouth and up to your cheek with the weight of a feather, tucking a piece of hair behind your ear and lingering there. “the contest was a great idea. you wished to help lift the spirits of others,” he smiles then, “that’s a wonderful thing.”

“b- but, what about you?” you don’t know how you spoke the words, your chest felt so weightless and yet so full. so full of sephiroth, the scent of leather and flora and the warmness of his body.

“i’m more than alright.” he sounds so sure as he closes the last bit of the distance between you, pulling you against him in a sweet embrace that allows you to wrap your arms around his slim waist before he pulls you flush against his massive and muscular body and after a silent moment whispers against the crown of your head, his voice vulnerable and soft, tugging at your heart strings and making you pull him closer still. “thank you for thinking of my comfort. not many have before.”

“i’ll do better next time,” you mumble into his chest, another apology on the tip of your tongue but before the words come out, with his strong arm still wrapped around you, sephiroth squeezes you lightly.

“you’ve already done so much. more than anyone.”

he lets go of you all too quickly, as if it was urgent that he do so and it leaves you in a dizzying spell that you want to melt into and chase after. as you blink and he clears his throat, it starts to clear, you find your bearings and can barely hear his next words over the sound of your thundering heart, asking again if you are okay.

“yeah, i’m okay,” and you mean it despite the earlier whirlwind of your emotions. but he has always had this effect on you, everything felt okay when he was around and when he held you it was like nothing else mattered.

sephiroth lets out an audible sigh of relief, like he had truly been worried you weren’t. “good, i’m glad.”

before you can stop your lips from moving, you ask what’s on the front of your mind out loud, much to your horror. “genesis didn’t say something did he?”

that adorably quizzically look tugs at his features once more. “should he have?”

“no, not at all!” you try to brush it off quickly, even if he had would you really want to hear more about how jealous you came off earlier? what would sephiroth think if he knew..? you can’t think about it right now when he’s standing right in front of you with your face burning and you can’t meet his eyes. “i was just - don’t mind me.”

“as long as you’re okay.”

“i am,” you assure him with a sweet, genuine smile. how could you not be okay with him here with you, checking on you, smiling back at you? the jealousy you felt feels a bit foolish now. genesis was right, it didn’t mean anything but this.. this felt like it meant something, even if it was just to you. “thanks for checking on me.”

“i’ll let you get inside then.”

“okay..” you didn’t want him to go but hold back your wishes for him to stay. “get home safe seph.”

“sleep well.”

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

it took nearly all of sephiroths strength to pull away from your embrace and somehow even more strength to refrain from running up the stairs back to your 20th floor apartment after he had made it outside of the building and took the first few steps back towards sector 0 and the soldier barracks.

somehow so much and not enough.. he wanted to be greedy, to hold you forever, call you his, accept your loving nature even if he was far from a man who deserved it. but tonight this would have to be enough, the searing of his skin everywhere you had touched him, the remembrance of how small and delicate you felt in his arms and the near painful longing to do it again alongside the overwhelming feeling of being cared for by you.

he’s no stranger to your kindness and thoughtfulness but it’s so foreign to him all the same.

the touch of others is all too familiar to him, and in worse ways than that of the winner of the contest today. it was something he learned to ignore, tune out, numb, but your touch was like being branded by the stars and cradled by the curve of the moon. every accidental swipe of your hands sending electricity through his entire body and the few times he had been bold enough to hold you left him basking in your warmth and gentleness and utterly aching when it was torn from him.

sephiroth feels it all over and over again on his walk back to the barracks and it snaps more of the strings on the leash of his feelings for you. it is getting so hard to hold back and today when it felt like you had been so far away, avoiding him, upset with him somehow, he could hardly stand it.

his worries are at least quelled for now and after your interaction he’s left with more emotions than he knows what to do with besides let them fill his chest and wrap around his heart. he can feel the heat of his cheeks lingering all the way through the shinra lobby and into the elevator.

should he tell you how he feels? could he handle the consequences of losing the only comfort in his life if you couldn’t return his feelings? could you love a man like him, someone who didn’t think they were even capable or deserving of this kind of love but wants to try for you, to give you everything and more.. for he would give you everything, even himself if you asked.

unusual for this late hour, the elevator stops on one of the soldier floors, stopping his thoughts and when sephiroth looks up, he sees a tired genesis step inside.

“late night?” he asks, a teasing lilt to his tone.

with a roll of his eyes, genesis replies, “it’s all thanks to you, hero.”

the first question sephiroth asks is if this is about you.

genesis only groans, “goddess help you both.”

main masterlist

#final fantasy vii #sephiroth #sephiroth x reader #final fantasy vii x reader #final fantasy x reader #final fantasy 7 #ff7 #ffvii #ff7 x reader #final fantasy 7 x reader

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milaisreading · 6 months

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🌱🩷: 6th story is here, you all! Hope you like it!

Pairings: Itoshi Sae x Isagi's sis!Yn (Post Blue Lock tl)

Warnings: Reader uses she/her.

⚽️Blue lock belongs to Muneyuki Kaneshiro and Yusuke Nomura⚽️

🎄Dec 15th🎄

"Good game, you two." Luna smiled as he patted Isagi and Sae's backs. The duo silently nodded, one giving of a slight smile as he thanked the older, while the other let out a indifferent 'Thank you.'

Another game between Barcha and Re Al had finished, with the 2nd team winning. Both players showed a different level of excitement. While Isagi was elated, this being his first match and win in the new team, Sae was completely stoic about it. It was just another game for him at that point.

"Say, want to get some food?" Sae asked as Luna and the others left to go to God knows where. Isagi looked back at the older and shook his head.

"Nah, my big sis and I have plans to go and eat something together. Thank you for the invite." Isagi said politely, surprising Sae with his first statement.

"(Y/n) is here? I thought she was in Italy with Oliver." Sae said bluntly. Now it was Isagi's turn to look at Sae in surprise.

"Since when are you on 1st name terms with my sis? Do you two know each other?"

"No.... uh, you mentioned her a few times. The 1st name must have slipped out." Sae said, trying to rationalize it with Isagi.

'Right. He doesn't know that (Y/n) and I met each other years ago.' The red-head thought as the younger looked at him suspiciously for a moment.

"Ook? But it's still weird-"

"Yoichi!! That was a great game!" The younger got cut off by a very familiar voice and someone pulling him into a tight hug.

"Big sis! Did I make you wait too long? Sorry about that." Isagi smiled, turning his attention to (Y/n), Sae only watched them silently.

"Ah, not really. I had to go to the toilet and freshen up a little." (Y/n) said calmly, then pointed behind herself.

"Oh! By the way, those kids over there asked for you. They seem to be big fans." Isagi, intrigued, looked over to where she was pointing. And, true to her words, a group of kids were looking over at Isagi while holding papers and pictures.

"Uhm.. big sis..." Isagi said nervously.

"Just go and make their day, striker." She laughed, nudging Isagi into their direction. (Y/n) kept on looking at her brother as he approached the group and started talking to them, excited how relaxed her brother looked.

"So, you are here.... In Madrid." The older Isagi jumped in surprise as Sae moved to stand next to her, looking bored as usual.

"Ah~ Sae-san! Yeah, I am. Good game, you did amazing as usually." (Y/n) smiled at the taller, who silently nodded his head.

"Thanks. I wasn't much into the game tho, Barcha are easy to beat when they play against us."

"Really? They were doing good, too." (Y/n) said back.

"Maybe to watchers. For us players it was a different situation." Sae said back, causing the girl to blush in embarrassment.

"True... But,still! Amazing job. You and Yoichi make a solid duo on the field."

Sae nodded along, glancing at the younger Isagi before looking back at the older.

"Yeah, I am thankful you made him agree to join Re Al, and not some other team. But, enough of that. How have you been? I thought you were in Italy with Aiku." Sae held himself back from gagging at the other's name. He hated him ever since (Y/n) and Oliver got together again.

"Oh... I have been fine, and Oliver is back in Italy. We... we kind of decided to break it off." (Y/n)'s face dropped for a moment, something Sae took notice off.

"You two broke it off?" Sae repeated again, trying to hide the slight smile at those words. Now was not the time to be petty.

'I will do that later.' He thought.

"Yeah, we just didn't work out. I came here to Madrid for a little change because of that." She said absent-mindedly. Sae raised an eyebrow at that as an idea hit him, but as he was about to say something, the redhead noticed Isagi returning to where they were.

"Say, your number didn't change, right?"

"Hm? No, why?" (Y/n) asked, but before she got an answer Isagi came back.

"Sis, can we go and eat now? I feel like dying." Isagi said, grabbing (Y/n)'s wrist and pulling her away.

"Sure, but Sae-san, would you like to join us?" (Y/n) glanced at the older Itoshi, who shook his head.

"Nah, I am not hungry. Enjoy yourselves, you two."

Sae sent them a mysterious smile and turned to walk away, confusing the two Isagis.

"I will never understand Sae-san." Isagi pouted as (Y/n) chuckled a little, watching as the redhead walked off.

"True, but I guess it's part of his charm."

☃️🎄☃️🎄☃️🎄☃️🎄☃️🎄☃️🎄☃️🎄☃️🎄

Later that night, (Y/n) was back in the apartment her and Isagi were sharing for now, looking at her plans for tomorrow.

'So, tomorrow I have my first 3 shoots... I hope this goes well.' (Y/n) bit her lip nervously. Was this a good idea? Sure, modeling sounded like a lot of fun and the manager she found said she had a good future in this field, but...

"It's also so risky...but I need to find a job. I can't depend on Yoichi here." She sighed. (Y/n) was about to put the phone away when a message popped up.

"Huh? Sae?" (Y/n)'s eyebrow raised, remembering she never really deleted his number in all these years.

'Let's go and get lunch tomorrow. I have a day off.'

(Y/n) looked at surprise at the message, which confused her a little. Why was she surprised? Sae was always straight forward. And it's not like lunch meant anything. He probably just wants to thank her for helping him. Or, so she thought.

🎄☃️🎄☃️🎄☃️🎄☃️🎄☃️🎄☃️🎄☃️🎄☃️

The next day both met up at a local restaurant that wasn't far away from (Y/n)'s last shoot. The lunch had to turn into a dinner as (Y/n) finished later than expected.

"I am sorry again-"

"You apologized like 5 times. It's fine, I know that you can't control these things." Sae said calmly, finding her flustered expression both amusing and adorable.

"Still, let me pay for the food as an apology-"

"No. Now, let's talk about something else. Did you adjust well in Madrid?" Sae quickly changed the subject, resting his head on his hands.

"Yeah, I would say I am doing well so far. I have been here for a month and I can't complain. I just hope this modeling thing works out, so I can stop burdening Yoichi."

"I am sure it will. I mean, you do have the looks for it, and brain, too." Sae said nonchalantly.

"Thank you!" (Y/n) said back, fighting back another blush.

"I just don't want to go home yet... you know."

"Mhm." Sae nodded along as she spoke a little bit more.

"But enough about me. What about you, Sae-san? Aside from football, how has life been?"

"It's been good. Rin and I have been talking more and more lately."

"Really?! I am so happy to hear that. It would have been a shame if you kept that icy attitude around each other." (Y/n) smiled as Sae nodded along.

"It's been better. In fact, my life got a little bit better since yesterday."

(Y/n) blinked a little, surprised by the low tone he used.

"Well, I guess winning against your rivals does that." She said back and Sae fought the urge to slap his face.

'This girl is so oblivious!'

🎄☃️🎄☃️🎄☃️🎄☃️🎄☃️🎄☃️🎄☃️🎄☃️

This all happened exactly 6 months ago. By now, it was already December and Madrid was all but decorated and prepared to celebrate the coming holiday. Isagi had left the capital to visit Japan, and most of the team went back home. The only one who still stayed in Madrid was Sae. (Y/n) had planned to leave om the same day as her brother, but was held back by a last minute shoot. In the past six months her career has taken off too. Granted, it did take a while till some brands started hiring her to model their things, but it happened, and (Y/n) couldn't have been more greatful. She would still get flustered when Sae would tease her about a new billboard picture of herself. Speaking of which...

'Sae...' (Y/n) held back a blush as she walked towards their meeting spot. A small and secluded area at the Christmas market. Over the months they grew closer, and although (Y/n) didn't want to fall in love again, she did. Was it Sae's sense of humor? His personality? Looks? Or all of them together? (Y/n) really didn't know what exactly made her fall for him, but she did.

And although she wanted to say how she feels, she couldn't bring herself to do so. After the disaster with Oliver, she didn't want another one.

"That's what I get for forgiving a cheater..." (Y/n) sighed sadly, feeling her heart break a little.

'But... I really like Sae...'

🎄☃️🎄☃️🎄☃️🎄☃️🎄☃️🎄☃️🎄☃️🎄☃️

"You... you really didn't have to. I didn't get you anything." (Y/n)'s red was tomato red as she stared at the bouquet of roses that Sae gave her. Both were sitting on a bench, not looking at each other, only sending short glances once in a while.

"It's just flowers, you don't have to get me anything." Sae said softly, glancing at the her.

'Cute.' He smiled behind his scarf.

"But still, thank you. I didn't get flowers in years." (Y/n) smiled happily, causing Sae's smile to drop a little.

"Didn't Aiku buy you them? I thought boyfriends did that."

Surprised by both his words and the bitter tone, (Y/n) kept quiet for a moment.

"No... not really. But, I never really asked him to buy me them either." She answered truthfully.

"That's a stupid excuse. He shouldn't wait for you to tell him that, no wonder he is alone."

"Sae, aren't you being too harsh on him now?" (Y/n) asked softly, looking over at the older Itoshi. To her surprise, the footballer had quite the scowl on his face.

"I think I am not harsh enough. I mean, he cheated on you. He deserves it."

"It's in the past, I am over it."

"But I am not." Sae argued back, causing (Y/n) to go silent. The older Itoshi took this opportunity to finally say what he thought for years.

"I wasn't honest with you for all this time. Mainly because I know you just got out of a shitty relationship,but also because I didn't want to put all of my emotions on you at once." Sae took as deep, (Y/n) still looking at him.

"I liked you for a while now, and I distanced myself when you announced that you and Aiku are back together. I knew he would do something stupid again, but I really hoped I was wrong. For your own sake, (Y/n). But now, after all of this, I really can't hold it in me." Sae took a deep breath and looked away again. (Y/n) felt her heartbeath quicken as she registered his words.

'He...he likes me?!' She thought.

"I don't expect you to like me back or anything. I just hope we can stay friends if you don't feel the same. And, I hope you know that guys like Aiku aren't worth your time." Sae finished as (Y/n) looked away. Her emotions were all over the place, it was all so overwhelming. But amidst all the turmoil, somethings she couldn't deny were the relief and happiness she felt from Sae's words.

'I am such an idiot... but it had to be said. I would have gone insane if I kept it all to myself.' Sae thought. (Y/n) moved the bouquet to the side and inched closer to Sae, resting her head against his arm.

"I like you, too. I am glad it's mutual." Her words were quiet, but loud enough for Sae to hear them. He felt a soft smile grace his face as he leaned into her.

"Thank you..."

#bllk #blue lock anime #blue lock manga #blue lock x reader #bllk x reader #blue lock scenarios #isagi's sister #itoshi sae #bllk sae #blue lock sae #itoshi sae x reader #itoshi sae x y/n

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boredflautist · 2 months

Text

quotes that keep me alive

"all the people are fake, they're made out of metal. But I like you, and that is not fake" -young royals

"I could recognize him by touch alone, by smell; I would know him blind, by the way his breaths came and his feet struck the earth. I would know him in death, at the end of the world." -song of achilles

"No one ever says goodbye unless they want to see you again." -turtles all the way down

"I want to be with you. If we have to keep it a secret then... So be it, if thats the only way... But no more secrets between us. I love you" -young royals

"Why does the word 'love' from you hurt me so damn much?" -Only Friends

"I've always thought Ray was my 25th hour, my extra hour. But the truth is, everyone has the same 24 hours in a day. And within Ray's 24 hours, I'm not part of it. I'm not that special." -Only Friends

"If I'm gone, I won't be anyone's burden anymore, right?" -Only Friends

"You were wearing corduroy, acting like a poster boy" -poster boy by Lyn Lapid

"I would recognize you in total darkness, were you mute and I deaf. I would recognize you in another lifetime entirely, in different bodies, different times. And I would love you in all of this, until the very last star in the sky burnt out into oblivion" -song of achilles

"Tell me every terrible thing that you ever did, and let me love you anyway" -edgar allan poe

"The closer I get to you, the worse it gets. The thought of not being with you... I can't breathe. I'm haunted by the kiss that you should never have given me. My heart is beating, hoping that that kiss will not become a scar. You are in my very soul, tormenting me... What can I do? I will do anything that you ask." -anakin skywalker

"If changin' my clothes would make you like me more, if changing my hair would make you care, then I'd grab the kitchen scissors and cut myself to slivers" -jigsaw by conan gray

"'Sorry' doesn't make up for everything you did to me." -heartstopper

"You were my brother Anakin. I loved you." -revenge of the sith

"The truth is what I make it. I could set the world on fire, and call it rain." -red queen

" But isn't it also that on some fundamental level we find it difficult to understand that other people are human beings in the same way that we are? We idolize them as gods or dismiss them as animals." -paper towns

"And then I go and spoil it all by saying something stupid like 'I love you'" -somethin' stupid by frank sinatra

"Tell me it isn't true. Tell me I'm wrong. Tell me I'm blind. Tell me you love me. " -shatter me

"I do want to be your friend. I want to be the friend you fall hopelessly in love with. The one you take into your arms and into your bed and into the private world you keep trapped in your head. I want to be that kind of friend." -shatter me

"The truth is a painful reminder of why I prefer to live among the lies" -shatter me

"'Don't ask me questions you already know the answers to. Twice I've laid myself bare for you and all it's gotten me was a bullet wound and a broken heart. Don't torture me,' He says, meeting my eyes again. 'It's a cruel thing to do, even to someone like me.'" -shatter me

"Everything's a game, Avery Grambs. The only thing we get to decide in this life is if we play to win." -inheritance games

"The world was collapsing, and the only thing that really mattered to me was that she was alive." -the last olympian "You think I didn't fight the same fight? I halfway convinced myself that as long as Avery was just a riddle or a puzzle, as long as I was just playing, I'd be fine. Well, joke's on me, because somewhere along the way, I stopped playing." -the Hawthorne legacy

"When you're ready, if you're ever ready, if it's going to be me - just flip that disk. Heads, I kiss you." His voice broke slightly. "Tails, you kiss me. And either way, it means something." -the Hawthorne legacy

"Hell is empty, and all the devils are here" -william shakespeare

"But mostly I hate the way I don't hate you. Not even close, not even a little bit, not even at all" -10 things I hate about you

"It's just like the novels, side characters end up alone" -footnote by conan gray

"You made us past tense," I said, my voice cracking, "not me." -betting on you

"Because when they write the history of my life, I want it to include you" -red white and royal blue

"My life is the crown, and yours is just politics, and I will not trade one prison for another" -red white and royal blue

"Or maybe it was when I realized the bruises on your neck were fingerprints and wanted to kill them all over again just so I could do it slowly. Maybe it was the first time I recklessly kissed you or when I realized I'm fucked because I can't stop thinking about doing more than just kissing you. Does it even matter when, as long as it changed between us?" -fourth wing

"Oh darling all of the cities lights, never shined as bright as your eyes" -car's outside by james arthur

"I would rather lose this entire war than live without you, and if that means I have to prove myself over and over again, then I'll do it. You gave me your heart and I'm keeping it." -iron flame

"Because pain in the body quiets the pain in your head. It feels good - like a kill switch for your brain" -kill switch

"Then take your punishment like the pathetic creature that you are" -cruel prince

"Most of all, I hate you because I think of you. Often. It's disgusting, and I can't stop." -cruel prince

"If you're the sickness, I suppose you can't also be the cure." -the wicked king

"I hate you. I hate you so much that sometimes I can't think of anything else." -the wicked king

"Yes, my sweet villain, my darling god. I will be as sober as a stone carving, just as soon as I can." -the wicked king

"She is my wife," Cardan says, his voice carrying over the crowd. "The rightful High Queen of Elfhame. And most definitely not in exile." -the queen of nothing

"By you, I am forever undone." -the queen of nothing

"Come home and shout at me. Come home and fight with me. Come home and break my heart, if you just. Just come home." -the queen of nothing

"I wasted all those yesterdays and am completely out of tomorrows" -they both die at the end

"For what it's worth, I doubt I will ever like anyone else in the world as much as I like you." -book lovers

"I'd never thought about my favorite color before. It never seemed important. Not until I looked into a pair of ocean-blue eyes and realized that perhaps drowning was a beautiful thing" -powerless

if you've made it to the end good god please get some sleep

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historicity-was-already-taken · 5 months

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I want to echo all the nice things people have said about your work, and add one more: I appreciate that your blog offers space to mourn the Holocaust. Not the Holocaust as a metaphor, not the Holocaust as a rhetorical invocation, but the Holocaust in and of itself. It provides a sobering kind of relief. When I was a kid learning about the Holocaust, my classes always showed me Life is Beautiful and The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (UGH) and one teacher insisted that she wanted me to understand "how the Jews kicked Hitler's ass!" Which... no. On so many levels. So I admire how your work holds the dialectical truths of mass tragedy and brave resistance. Your scholarship matters, your mental health matters, and I can't wait to read your book next year!

This message is so lovely I was too verklempt to even answer it last night. Thank you, so much, for taking the time to write and send this.

And yes I totally get what you mean. It's not some, as you put it, rhetorical invocation populated by faceless martyrs, but the very real murders of millions of real, flawed, living, breathing humans. I think the rhetorical version, with its ideologies and hagiographies, is easier to swallow.

I hate most Holocaust movies. At least, American ones. They just want so badly for there to be a happy ending and...the Holocaust doesn't have one. [Unnamed legendary Jewish director] optioned the rights to [book similar in scope to mine which came out in the last 4 years] and I'm not even upset, because I don't enjoy that director's gentile-focused quasi-uplifting attempts to depict said events. Hitler said he was going to destroy the majority of European Jewry, and he did. In the space of 12 years he destroyed civilizations, cultures, and languages spanning 1000+ years; more, if you hold him responsible for the ethnic cleansing of MENA Jewish communities post-1948. Nothing uplifting there.

That's why I think I like weird, post-modern, magical realist approaches to Holocaust fiction [see: my boyfriend recently convinced me to watch Jojo Rabbit and Inglorious Basterds]. Telling any of these stories doesn't fit into Western narrative conventions. So make it weird; have the characters dance to David Bowie; make it a Western with subtitles; make the audience wonder if magic or just mundane in the specific context of the story. That's, imo, the only way to capture the sheer unreality of these very real events in fiction. I would LOVE a work of magical realist Holocaust fiction that involves the golem of Prague (if it exists omg tell me!) or something similar. Keeping in mind, of course, that I'm neither a film not a literary scholar. Just, as a historian who took one cultural criticism course in undergrad, those feels the most...right.

And oy your teacher. I feel for her; this is a difficult subject to teach. But...the Jews didn't kick Hitler's ass. That's the opposite of what happened. The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising is the most famous instance of organized Jewish resistance to the Holocaust, and those fighters only kicked ass until the Nazis (quickly) realized that they needed reinforcements and flamethrowers because oops these Jews came prepared. And even the fighters themselves knew that they weren't going to "win" anything. They were making a symbolic historical gesture/statement and fully expected to die. To the point that survivors almost uniformly express in their memoirs and testimonies that the ones who died fighting were the only real heroes and they rest of them are nbd, and this isn't something that should be talked about (which, is something that I'm trying to respect in my book! Like the fact that Zivia Lubetkin utterly rejected any attempt to describe her as a hero matters, even though that's how I personally view her).

Anyway I've rambled enough. Thank you again for the message!

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givemewallywestorgivemedeath · 1 year

Note

Logically I always feel like we're supposed to hate Rudy more but goddamn, Mary has always made my skin crawl. I mean there were a LOT of reasons why I could never get into the YJ cartoon but I specifically remember seeing the way it portrays Wally's parents and something about it just felt icky and wrong

Rudy on some level is just so cartoony of a villain.

Like, the fanon version of Rudy is this bumbling angry alcoholic who hits his son because he needs someone smaller than him to take out his aggression on and that version of Rudy is very real. I think that's why fanon tends to view him that way. Because it's a more realistic characterization and it's easier for them to understand and portray.

But the truth of the matter is that Rudy is cold, calm and calculating. He's smart. And he doesn't care. Not about Wally and definitely not about Mary. Rudy doesn't see them as a family, he sees them as a long con. A get rich scheme in the making. Wally is supposed to be powerful so Rudy tries to 'shape' him. The abuse isn't out of anger, it's Rudy's misguided attempts to make him stronger.

Rudy also tries to bond with Wally. He knows he needs a good relationship with Wally to keep Wally in line when he gets older. That's why you see things like Rudy poisoning the little league coach to let Wally play and letting the air out of the other team's tires so Wally's team wins.

He was really fucking bad at it but he was attempting to make Wally an ultimate weapon that only listened to him. What he did instead was push his son away and teach him what not to do.

But that kind of calculated, off-the-wall mentality is so foreign. It's bad and we can recognize it but it's like something out of Criminal Minds. It's hard to see any part of that in our daily lives.

But Mary? Mary is something else. Mary is little comments about Wally's outfits. Mary is guilt tripping her son into spending time with her. Mary is being confidently incorrect about her son's wants and needs. Mary is discouraging comments when you just need a hug. Mary is so real it hurts.

So yeah, I can absolutely agree with you. Rudy is on another fucking level and he objectively does worse things (like murder and child labor camps and cult stuff). But Mary is so real in her abuse. She genuinely horrifies me.

Also, yeah I can agree about the YJ thing. Rudy and Mary being terrible has been a central part of Wally's story since the beginning. (and before people say "but Walls, the Wests were so kind in their first appearance!" they were literally only in a few panels and Rudy didn't even have a name yet. Also it was a Titans comic and not the Flash comic, ofc the characterization would be off) It's definitely a disservice to the character to write the West's as good/normal parents in any capacity. Especially because the excuse was that all the other members of the team had bad home lives/childhoods so they wanted Wally to be 'normal'. Bruh. Hate to break it to you but the kids in suburbia with the white picket fences can also suffer abuse behind closed doors. It's unfortunately a very common and 'normal' thing.

#yeah im not a fan of how YJ handled that at all #especially given how fucking insane Rudy is in the comics #thats like writing Lex Luthor as just an average business guy who has normal emotions about Superman #its like ??? what???#dc #dc comics #the flash #kid flash #wally west #rudy west #mary west

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slycooperconfessions · 6 months

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This isn't a confession, I just wanted to have a discussion about this because I'm curious to see if anyone else feels the same way. Does anyone else feel like Sly 4 sort of retroactively lowered your opinion of Sly 3? Because I've realized a lot of the poor writing decisions in Sly 4 stem directly from flaws in Sly 3's own writing. For example, I hated the villain twist with Penelope in Sly 4. But I've actually seen a few people defending it, saying that Penelope was always kind of sketchy with her whole Black Baron persona. And to be honest, they're kind of not wrong. Sly 3 never really did give us much of an explanation for why the hell Penelope acts so different as the Baron. Honestly, as the Baron she's fucking RUTHLESS. She's willing to cheat and kill to win, is capable of fist fighting Sly on the wing of a moving plane, etc. Yet afterwards she acts all sweet, helpless and innocent and gets used as a damsel in distress multiple times, despite us seeing her combat capabilities as the Baron? Begrudgingly, I can kind of see how Sanzaru (or anyone else) could get the impression that there's something "off" about her.

I also hated the Carmelita belly dancing bit in Sly 4 and thought it was fucking gross. But to be honest, Sly 3 itself sort of set a precedent for treating Carmelita this way. "Carmelargea" from the Rumble Down Under level was maybe less overtly sexual but no less gross. They literally had us climbing up her pants for that fight. You can't look at that and tell me someone on the Sly 3 dev team didn't have a giantess fetish. So them skimping on giving Rumble Down Under a proper antagonist just so that they could instead have the Mask of Dark Earth as an excuse to enlarge Carmelita is... pretty sleazy, actually.

Then there was the whole Sly faking amnesia thing. During Sly 4 I couldn't help but feel like Carmelita was being a little hypocritical for her anger at being lied to by Sly. She literally lied too. She lied to someone she thought was an amnesiac about his identity. Which just sort of highlights how bad the end of Sly 3 is. They decided to have Sly and Carmelita start off their new relationship based on lies? Ok then.

I'm not sure if I would go so far as to say that Sly 4 changed my opinion of Sly 3, but there are some valid points here.

As far as Penelope's huge personality shift from the Baron to her normal self, I think it was partly to throw people off of the reveal that the Baron IS Penelope. Hell, Penelope even helps the gang in Episode 3 by defending their hangar from goons looking to wreck their plane, whereas the Baron seems to have no issues with foul play and engages in it often. Thinking about it deeper, the Baron might have become a full-fledged alternate personality for Penelope since she was using the ruse so often and got pumped up by people treating him as a celebrity. When she gets some sense slapped into her after fighting Sly, I think it snapped her out of this pattern and she was able to let it go. As far has how strong the Baron is, there's theories that the Baron suit is actually a cybernetic situation that greatly enhances her physical abilities, which I think holds water because her natural abilities are more tailored to her technical know-how and inventions. Once she abandons the Baron suit, she abandons the raw strength and ruthlessness the Baron gave her. I've held the opinion that her turning more villainous in Sly 4 is not necessarily out of nowhere, it was just written horribly and abruptly IMO. There's nothing we see leading up to it that makes it make sense, it just happens. Had it been handled differently, I think it would have been received much better.

As far as giant Carmelita...yeah, I got nothing. Probably a case of the "writer's poorly disguised fetish" meme because I remember being 11 years old thinking "This is...odd." But by then I had also developed an attraction to both Sly and Carmelita, so I rolled with it lol.

What do y'all think?

#Sly Cooper #Thieves in Time #Penelope #Carmelita Fox #Gaming

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dross-the-fish · 7 months

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I can't find it now but I saw a post where you said Erik's mask isn't a comfort item. Why do you think it isn't? Why would he get so angry at Christine if it wasn't?

Ok, I'm about to get ranty and it's not directed at you specifically so don't take it personally.

I hate the take that Erik's mask is his "security blanket" or his "comfort device" because it's incredibly LAZY.

It's fucking lazy. It's a lazy and reductive take and it almost always comes with the intent of woobifying Erik and villainizing Christine.

Erik does not find his mask comforting, he feels he has to wear it to conceal himself and if anything he gives the sense that he would much rather be able to live without it. He's angry at Christine for a few reasons and I speculate some of them are not even about Christine.

The most obvious and superficial reason is that his carefully laid plan has gone to shit

Erik believed whole heartedly that if Christine didn't know what he looked like that she might be compelled to return to him if he let her go. My guess is that he had planned to try and win her over and wait to tell her the truth after they re-built some of the lost trust...trust lost because he lied to her...and kidnapped her.

Erik is a wee bit unhinged.

But I also think there's more to his freak out. This may be headcanon on my part but I always interpreted this

As being something of a traumatized response. Not because the mask gives him comfort or something like that, but because when someone is deformed, especially back in that time period, people often stared or treated them like a horror novelty. Erik has no doubt endured a life time of people trying to look at his face as some kind of morbid curiosity to be gawked at and Christine snatching it may have put him back in that mindset and he is PISSED.

His bit about "Women being inquisitive" also strikes me as him referencing things that happened before. I almost wonder if Christine wasn't the first person to catch his interest and if he's tried this before with....horrible results.

It reads less like "Oh no! You took my safety blanket! Now I'm exposed and vulnerable!" and more akin to

This specifically is why I hate the whole "mask is his comfort item" take because it makes Erik sound like a toddler throwing a tantrum because someone took his binky and paints Christine as being somehow in the wrong for wanting to see her kidnapper's face.

A thing she had already demanded of him previously which he denied without giving any explanation whatsoever. I cannot stress enough that Erik is the one with the power in this scenario. They are in his house, he has her trapped and he has been the older mentor/protector figure in her life for some time. The scale is tipped in HIS favor, not hers. I've always felt that at this point in their relationship her taking off the mask is, in a way, her trying to level the field because he's had her at such a disadvantage this whole time.

And that's not to say that Christine doesn't have feelings of some kind for Erik. Christine's feelings for Erik are messy and complicated but there is an undeniable fear and discomfort that she expresses over her captivity. She does pity him enough to come back, I think she also feels a lingering attachment to him, despite everything, but Erik keeps making. The. Worst. Possible. Choices.

To be clear, Christine is not in any way to blame for "provoking" Erik. He is a victim of the the time period and the society he lives in but he is not in any way shape or form CHRISTINE'S victim.

Erik isn't to blame for how he's been treated by the world at large and he's clearly been through some shit, he deserves sympathy but that doesn't make his treatment of Christine ok or make it Christine's job to give him affection and companionship.

#the phantom of the opera #Poto discourse

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stxr-du5t · 7 months

Text

My little Rosebud

Summary: Foolish and Rose have an special kind of friendship

Pairing: Foolish Gamers x Rose (Reader)

Contents/Warnings: None, just some teasing and fluff, Foosh being a sweetheart

Rosalie comes into her best friend's gaming room while he's so focused on the Minecraft Championship, she sees him and sits next to him in silence

"I swear to god do not mess this up for me. I'm like actually doing so well right now." Foolish was extra focused on MCC. It had been a pretty close game so far, with Foolish's team was slightly in the lead. It was a few hours into the stream, but Foolish was still as upbeat and entertaining as ever.

"Noah is doing so well, I'm impressed" Rose says sarcastically, feeling a little drained already from his energy

"Oh come on! I'm actually putting forth an honest effort here!" Noah threw his arms up in the air in mock frustration. He glanced over to Rose with a playful grin, trying to hide his own internal exhaustion. "You know what? I think you're just salty that I'm winning and your team didn't had me last year"

"Nuh uh, I can win easily, GG for me" She smiled, matching his energy even if she was soooo tired "I'm still being gentle with you"

"Oh please" Mocked Foolish. "I've seen you play... you're good, but not that good. I think you're just intimidated by my natural talent." He gave Rose a cheeky wink and a sly grin. "But I guess I can understand why. I'm pretty darn amazing."

"Come down form your cloud, Mr amazing" She jokes "Everyone know you might be good on this game but suck on Valorant"

"Hey!" Foolish let out a dramatic gasp, "I do not suck at Valorant! I'm not great, but I'll have you know that I'm actually pretty good!" He pouted and stuck his bottom lip out in a playful display of exaggerated outrage. "I may not be a pro-level player, but I can still hold my own."

"Whatever helps you sleep at night, sweetheart" Rose is clearly joking but suddenly the chat start to attack her for putting down their streamer

Foolish's playful expression quickly drops as he glances at his chat. "Hey, guys, seriously...? She's just joking." He turned back to Rose, genuinely apologetic. "Sorry about them. I don't know why they're taking that so seriously... but trust me, I really am not that bad at Valorant"

"I believe you, Noah, and I do, before you start barking at me" Rose chuckles seeing how the mods are doing their best to delete any hate and time out people

Foolish lets out a heavy sigh, relieved. "Thanks, Rose." He gave her a reassuring smile. "Thanks for sticking up for me... I don't know why people get so angry about jokes. Like, we're just playing around with each other, it's just harmless fun." He glanced back at chat, hoping that the negative comments had died down.

"Those are not your Doozers, they are goofy like you, there's maybe other people who don't know how to behave in a twitch chat" She says, sounding like Philza "And you know damn well all your jokes will be matched and upped with me" Rose chuckles lighthearted

"You're right about that." Foolish agreed, looking a little mischievous. "You and I are always going to take the jokes up a level, that's just how we are." He smirked, his blue eyes sparkling with laughter. "But that's the best part about our banter, it's like a continuous arms race of wit and sass. I love it."

"Now say it without blushing" She joked again "That's part of what we are, true"

Foolish started to feel the heat rise in his cheeks. "Oh shut up, Rose." He groaned, but his voice was more playful than angry. "You're the one who's always blushing first."

"Do you see me blushing?" She asks, and there's no blush, and she's not even wearing make up "I win this one"

"Oh come on, I've seen you blush plenty of times." He teased, smirking at her failed attempt to hide her embarrassment. "You're not fooling anyone." He rolled his eyes playfully, then laughed. "You're just as easy to read as I am sometimes, Rose. You can't hide that pretty pink tint in your cheeks no matter how hard you try."

"God damnit, Noah!" She hides behind her hands, very obviously blushing, his chat goes crazy again, this time they are shipping them "GiggleDuo my parents" She mocks the comment and giggles

"Aha! I knew it!" Foolish couldn't contain his laughter as he pointed at Rose, his voice full of glee. "I knew I could get you to blush! Always so predictable, Rose. You blush so easily, it's adorable." He teased, his eyes sparkling with laughter. "GiggleDuo, huh? I guess we should consider making that our official ship name."

Rose laughs at his comment "Oh please, no, My chat is probably here too and they never let anything go" She says seriously "Like the ship between Wilbur and I that ruined our friendship"

"Oh, come on, Rose... we've already gone this far, there's no backing down now." Foolish insisted, his smile growing wider. "You know how the internet is, they'll ship us no matter what we do. So we may as well embrace it and have some fun with it, right?" He gestured playfully to Rose, indicating the two of them. "Besides, you and I are like a dynamic duo, we're practically already a ship. It's just a matter of time until the rest of the world catches up."

"You're so fucking right" Rose smiles "Fuck it, GiggleDuo we are"

Foolish's smile widened as he heard Rose's agreement. "We're GiggleDuo now, baby! And there's nothing our chat or anyone else can do about it." He gave Rose a triumphant look, feeling more playful and mischievous than ever. "So let's give them something to talk about!"

"What?" Rose slightly panics, she knows how unpredictable he could be in that mood

Foolish's eyes twinkled with mischief. "Come on, Rose... you want to have some fun, right? Let's give them something more than just a playful rivalry." He gave her a playful wink. "Let's do something to make the chat go wild... something completely unexpected..."

Rose blinked a couple times and then smiles "Roll the clips, I guess" She leans in, looks in his eyes for second to then catch her lips with his in a short sweet kiss

Foolish's heart skipped a beat when Rose leaned in and kissed him. His whole body felt like it was on fire as he returned the kiss, his arms wrapping around Rose to pull her closer. As their lips parted, Foolish could feel the heat rising in his cheeks. "You just had to go and make it interesting, didn't you?" He teased, his voice a mix of amusement and affection. "Looks like the chat has more than enough to talk about now..."

"I was holding that kiss for a while, wow" She says, not really wanting to look at chat "Yeah, looks like it" She paused "Tina was right"

"Oh really?" Foolish's eyebrow rose in curiosity. "What did she say?" He looked at Rose expectantly, eagerly awaiting her answer.

"You do have a crush" She teases him, playfully poking his firm biscep

Foolish blushed deeply at Rose's teasing poke. "Oh shut it, you knew I had a crush all along," He huffed, trying to hide just how flustered he was. "But you're the one who made the first move... you're just as smitten with me as I am with you. Admit it, Rose."

"I was under pressure, you know what happens" She smiles at how blushy he was "Little Foosh has a crush!" She keeps teasing

Foolish's cheeks flushed even more at the nickname. "Goddammit, Rose!" He laughed, trying to play it off. "I swear, you're only teasing me 'cause you know damn well how to get to me, you adorable little tease."

She giggles and smiles proudly "I do know you very well" If chat could be on fire, they would be in that moment

"You know me too well," Foolish agreed. "You always seem to know exactly what buttons to push to make my heart race. It's like you have a direct connection to my nervous system." He gave Rose a sly look, feeling the fire between them. "You're my beautiful little tease, Rose. And I can't resist you."

Rose couldn't stop the squeal that came out of her as she blushes "And you're my favorite ken himbo that barks under stress" She laughs again

Foolish's blush only deepened at Rose's words. "Oh my god, did you really just call me a ken himbo that barks under stress?" He asked, sounding both amused and incredulous. "Why does that sound so hilariously accurate?" He laughed, shaking his head at the absurdity of it all. "You do love messing with me, don't you?"

"Sounds accurate because it is" The girl gave glimpse side eye to the chat "And yes, messing with you is my favorite sport"

Foolish sighed dramatically, putting on a pouty expression. "I'm being seriously outmatched here... but I'm not complaining, not when you're the one messing with me." He smirked, his eyes twinkling with mischief. "Do your best, Rose... I dare you to make me blush even more."

"You look so cute when you pout" She said simply

Foolish's blush deepened to an even deeper shade. "Oh god, you're killing me, Rose." He laughed, feeling flustered and playful. "You're too good at this... I'm at a total loss for words right now." He was clearly enjoying every second of Rose's teasing. "But I'm not gonna lie... I think I kind of like it."

"This is going into a YouTube compilation titled 'Rose and Foolish being cute for 15 minutes'" She laughed softly "Sorry, GiggleDuo now"

Foolish let out a dramatic groan, his embarrassment only growing deeper. "Oh god, I'm not sure if I should be flattered or embarrassed right now... who am I kidding? It's definitely both. You're such a sly little tease, Rose." He shook his head, but he couldn't wipe the silly grin from his face. "I think I'm okay with being featured in a cute compilation. Anything with you in it is worth it."

"You're such a simp" She contains the inhumane screams she was about to drop "it's cute"

Foolish blushed deeply at Rose's words. "Hey, being a simp for you isn't so bad. It's like it's my official title now. 'Foolish, the Rose simp.' Has a nice ring to it, don't you think?" He gave her a playful wink. "You know you love me... admit it, Rose."

"That's sounds kinda badass, not gonna lie" She covers her mouth as she laughed "And I'm not going to admit anything until I get my lawyer"

Foolish rolled his eyes playfully. "Oh come on, Rose, you're such a tease. You love me and you know it. You're just too stubborn to admit it." He gave her a teasing, lopsided grin. "And a lawyer? Really? You know I can make you blush with just a look. No fancy lawyer is going to save you then."

Rose can't stop smiling now, her cheeks hurt "I give up, I admit it"

Foolish's smiled widened with triumph. "And there it is! The beautiful sound of Rose's admission of love. I knew I could make you say it." He chuckled, taking the opportunity to gently poke Rose's cheek. "You look so cute when you blush, you know that?"

"Stop it, Noah, I will explode, I swear to God" She's out of frame and so red, it's embarrassing

Foolish's smile grew even wider at Rose's reaction. "Aww, am I making my Rose blush too much? Does someone need a timeout for a few minutes?" He teased playfully. "Or are you enjoying this teasing... just a little bit?" He smirked, knowing full well that Rose was enjoying every second of it. "How can you say no to this cute little rosebud when she gets all pink and flustered, huh? I'm just too adorable to resist.

Off camera, Rose let out an inhumane squeal overwhelmed by all the teasing, she bright red, she looks at Foolish and fakes being an angry Chihuahua as she barks at him

Foolish laughed uproariously at Rose's cute impression of a barking Chihuahua. "Oh my god, Rose, you're too much. I can't handle how adorable you are when you get mad. It's like you're a little pink ball of rage and it's so damn cute." He grabbed Rose to pull her close, unable to resist her preciousness even in her angry puppy mode. "You may be a little angry flower, but you're my favorite flower and I wouldn't have it any other way."

She pouts embarrassed but gets close to Foolish and sits on his lap to hug him suddenly turning into little kid that's too tired to keep playing "I'm eepy"

Foolish let out an amused chuckle at Rose's sudden change in demeanor. "Oh my gosh, look at you... you just went from ferocious barking puppy to sleepy little kid in a snap. It's like you have multiple personalities or something." He teased, wrapping his arms around Rose to pull her close. "But don't you worry, my adorable little Sleepy Rose... I don't mind being your pillow. I'll protect you while you rest."

"What can I say, I hang out way too much with Roier and his 47 personalities" She laughed softly, so tired as she clings to his body getting comfortable

Foolish laughed at Rose's observation. "Oh yeah, Roier and his endless collection of personalities. It's like they just keep adding more to the mix, it's hilarious." He hugged Rose a little tighter. "But you know what's even more hilarious? The fact that you trust me enough to fall asleep on me. I must be one lucky guy to have charmed your rosebud self to the point of knocking out."

Rose laughs at that "I'm enchanted like the rose from beauty and the beast" She teased almost falling asleep

Foolish's smile widened as Rose's comment. "That's the cutest analogy I've heard in a while. You're my own personal Beauty sleeping on me... and just like the movie, I'll protect you from any wolves that try to harm you." He gave her a reassuring squeeze. "You can sleep peacefully, my little Rosebud ... I'll be here to make sure nothing bad happens while you dream."

"Shut up or I'll cry, first warning" She's starts to close her eyes but can't fall asleep completely, she hears Foolish talking with his chat and continues to play

Foolish chuckled at Rose's warning. "Oh come on, Rose, you know me... I like to rile you up. What fun is life without a little teasing?" He gave Rose a mischievous grin. "But I'll make a deal with you... I won't make you cry if you promise to keep sleeping on my lap and stay as cute and precious as you are right now." He wrapped his arms around her gently, his voice growing soft and sincere. "Fair trade, right?"

"Yeah" She sighs more than comfortable, trying to fall asleep

Foolish's playful teasing voice turned to a gentle and caring tone. "Good girl, you deserve a rest. Just relax and sleep... Let me take care of you." He held Rose close, feeling the warmth of her body against his. "I've got you, Rose... you're safe." The sounds of the stream faded into the background, and Foolish's sweet and soothing voice was the only thing left, lulling her into a peaceful slumber on his lap.

#foolish gamers fluff #foolish gamers #foolish gamers x reader #noah brown #qsmp #mcyt

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falseren · 2 months

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fantasy arranged marriage au falseren (based after my favourite arranged marriage hiccstrid fic) in which the elders arrange it for the sake of alliance/ politics. false is displeased that she's going to marry some random guy who's probably an egotistic asshole until she's told that she's marrying ren, someone she actually got along with when they spent time as kids dragged along to meetings. because she remembers ren as being kind and silly in comparison to the other boorish, arrogant heirs. and everyone around her is like "false don't worry, you're intimidating and strong and an accomplished warrior, you'll totally boss him around, he'll crumple like wet paper in front of you, he'll do whatever you says, you're totally winning in this union." false considers her options and thinks this could be worse. as a kid ren for whatever reason was keen to impress her and liked her a lot, so she assumes he'll still have an okay impression of her as adults. and she's like "okay maybe we can be civil and work together". and everyone around her flatters her like wowwww you're sooo cool false there's no way he won't want you and btw he probably had a crush on you as kids and she's like. wait. what

so false goes to the wedding feeling nervous but pretty okay because this could be worse and she retains the impression that ren likes her and wants to impress her. BUT then she actually sees ren. ren who is a sweaty nervous wreck and looking veeeerrry anxious and pathetic. they get to talk and it's AWKWARD but false decides to be nice and strike up a friendship. but before she can say anything, ren immediately jumps in with a rambly

"i'm sorry i didn't want this either i asked for a non-marriage alliance but the elders made me do it i don't want this and i'm so sorry maybe we can get this annulled—"

and false, who'd thought ren was at least okay with marrying her, is suddenly mortified by her assumption. her ego gets critically hit. he doesn't want to marry her? when she's strong and capable and smart and a good fighter?? oh? oh??? he hates this alliance? he hates spending time with her? he HATES her?????????

false feels so offended by this that she doesn't try to act nice and coldly goes "glad we're on the same page" (they're not) (they're really not) (she feels awful that she assumed he liked her even if just on a surface level) (and hurt that she'd made peace with the alliance and was kinda looking forward to getting to know him and he's not reciprocating)

in reality, ren thinks false is super duper cool and awesome and she doesn't deserve to be chained to someone like him, and he's certain she'll find him weak and useless and clumsy and hence she'll hate him. so with these assumptions, he decided to jump the boat and pacify her by saying he didn't want this, because of course false would loathe being stuck with a loser like him, of course she hates this entire affair, and she'll be better off if this never happened. and ren thought false would feel relieved to hear that he didn't want this (he actually did kind of want her compared to the other options because he thinks she's amazing but his own insecurity kicks him in butt, and he's scared she'll think he's creepy). but false is aloof and ren is like. ah. i was right. she's PISSED that she's getting married to ME. she HATES me. deserved. tbh.

so it's like awkward miscommunication and ren going ";-; i'm not good enough and she hates me ;-;" and false going "how DARE he hate me!" but secretly they're both like "whyyyy won't they like me as much as i like them :("

#sillies :]#fuck. this got so long #arranged marriage aus my beloved (consequences of being into hiccstrid)#arranged marriage au

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misscrawfords · 13 days

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Watched Bridgerton with a bit too much wine and a new cross-stitch. Immediate thoughts:

highly watchable. Four hours sped by. Whatever else it might be, it's a very addictive, winning formula. Liked it much more than I anticipated despite feeling that a) Penelope's unrequited friends-to-lovers fantasy is going to hit me very hard and b) Colin Bridgerton is not attractive and never will be.

Francesca Francesca Francesca!!! I don't remember much about her book and from the trailers/promo pics didn't think much of the new actress but I am now obsessed with Francesca. Adore her being autistic coded with a music special interest. Adore that for her. Adore the music. Absolutely everything. She's my girl!!!!!! Love her being silent with John. I'm so sad knowing what happens but I want this for her. I cant stop thinking about how he listened to her info dump about that violinist and then got the damn piece transcribed for her to play. I mean. Listen. My hear, you guys, my heart. I don't care about anything or anyone else!

Penelope's glow-up is awesome.

Love Alice and Will Mondrich. Again, did not see this coming but finding their storyline pretty cool.

Love that we get more Hyacinth. She's my favourite Bridgerton because when I read her book I related to her so hard I had some kind of life crisis, so the fact she has more to do and is growing up just fills me with joy.

Weirdly love the Featheringtons and the very bizarre inheritance/pregnancy plot. The girls don't know what sex is and neither do their loser husbands? The whole thing is so utterly off the wall, it's compelling! Their S02 plot was so dull but I'm finding this completely bonkers and compelling. Maybe it's the wine?

Cressida and Eloise??!!! Like, Cressida is ticking all my "mean rich bitch with unexpected trauma and hidden depths" box and I hate myself for it but there we go. Here for it. I hope she isn't completely villainised.

Eloise's development baffles me. I hate that she's all "I'm not like other girls" with the sewing and she seems to veer towards learning that maybe she can get on with girls and change and then she's dragged back into her insufferable superiority. And how is the character who is written like this supposed to end up as the stepmum to Marina Crane's children vegetating in the countryside? It does not make sense at all for show!Eloise. Actually the only thing that makes sense is to make her a lesbian, or at least bi, which would be in keeping with her "I don't fit in/I'm different" narrative. Otherwise... what? ngl I want Cressida/Eloise fanfic and I did not think that would be my takeaway from this show when I woke up today.

Colin is just not sexy. He's not sexy, he has an unsexy name (4th on my ranking of "how sexy are the Bridgerton boys' names" btw: 1 is Benedict obv - top tier sexy name; 2 is Anthony - mid-level but clearly worked for Cleopatra, has definite potential in the right circumstances; 3 is Gregory - not sexy especially if abbreviated but could work with a lot of effort in a particularly charming individual but Colin? Nope. Can you imagine screaming "COLIN!" in the heights of passion? No, didn't think so.) And I just don't buy him as a character. Why must maturity and new-found confidence equal having threesomes? He lacks coherency to me. Oh well. I don't hate him but I would take John Stirling's silence and top tier gift giving or Lord Debling's honesty, kindness, and dedicated to real interests over his... whatever it is is Colin has... any day.

Penelope's glow-up is great and she looks hot af and I'm here for it and her arc is certainly compelling but it's actually... not the most compelling part of the show for me. Whoops!

The dig about embroidery was very unnecessary.

Don't know what Benedict is doing in this plot but he's still very entertaining and has more character than Colin.

Yeah. I enjoyed it way more than expected and I only feel mildly heartbroken about the whole friends-to-lovers thing but that's probably the wine. Part 2 is released on my birthday so happy birthday to me, I guess!!

#bridgerton #bridgerton spoilers #spoilers

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finitevoid · 1 year

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these prompts are so fucking funny and I absolutely MUST know your answers to the following for any of the Core Four (or if another character speaks to you, go for it)....... 13, 16, 22, 24, 29, 34 and 38

@sparrowmoth THANK YOU SPARROW <33 THIS WAS SO MUCH FUN. i threw some twst in the mix for spice, but its mostly various combos of the rotten ot4. i, uh. wrote a bunch of little drabbles. bon apetit

13. Who would smoke weed in a confessionary?

"I mean, does she have a rule against it?" Ruggie asks, wiggling his fingers. His hair is mussed-- artfully, though Riddle is loathe to admit it-- and his clothes are rumpled. Likely from the manhandling Riddle gave him as he dragged him outside by the wrist a few minutes ago. Ruggie's chin is balanced on his palm, elbow leaning on his bent knees, looking for all purposes like the patron saint of not-giving-a-damn.

"Well--" Riddle puffs his chest out, before deflating in defeat. "No. Not that specifically. But--! You got thrown out of a church!"

Ruggie tips his face towards the sky, squinting in thought. His legs are splayed over the church steps, and the stained glass behind him is bathing him all kinds of colors. It's beautiful; it makes him understand the artists of yore, trying to capture their muse. Riddle hates it with a passion.

"Worth it."

"You are such a bad influence!" Riddle cries. "I mean-- drugs! Illicit substances! In a place of worship!"

"I'm s'possed to confess my crimes, right? What better way than by showin' him exactly what I've been doing?"

Riddle shoves at his shoulder. "You're the worst!"

"Yeah, but Queenie," he sways into Riddle's space, filling the air in front of Riddle's face with warmth, with the smell of him. "Which one of us is out here with me?"

Riddle smacks the back of his head. Ruggie just laughs.

16. Who would be best at drag?

Jay poses dramatically in the mirror, the eyeliner and glitter covering his eyes anything but tasteful. He buries a hand in his hair, fluffing the ends up, pursing his lips in a mockery of coyness.

Behind him, Mal cackles like a hyena. Evie is surveying her work with a critical eye, sweeping him over. Stepping closer to him, she grips him by the straps of his remarkably stupidly short dress. When he's standing still enough for her tastes, she sweeps a necklace from her pocket, glittering silver.

It's cold around his neck. He turns to survey himself again, eyeing the way it brings out the warm tones in his skin. "Oh, yeah," he says, cocking a hip. "I look hot!"

Mal buries her face in her pillow to muffle the hysterical screams of mirth she's giving out. But what does she know, anyway?

22. Who lets the intrusive thoughts win constantly?

Evie eyes herself critically in the pitifully small screen of her phone. She has the camera on, pointed at herself, squinting past pixels and smudges to get a good look at her appearance. She curses herself for forgetting her compact; she's in the trenches at this very fancy, very Auradon party without it.

Well, she needs to reapply her lipstick, that much is obvious. And she should probably excuse herself to the little girl's room to re-do her hair. It's starting to look a little... frizzy. And oh, God, is that a pimple--?!

Carlos shouts, with the kind of rage that levels happy little kingdoms like Auradon, "Oh my God, you did not just drop your fucking pickle into my drink!"

Mal laces her hands behind her head, smirking in self-satisfaction. "Well, you said you didn't want to eat it."

"I don't want to drink it either, you little shit--"

"I can always feed it to you like a baby bird?"

Carlos stands, grabs his water glass, and dumps it over Mal's head. She gasps, her perfectly curled and style hair plastered to her skin. Her eyes are flaring, but she's stifling laughter, even as she launches herself over the table with a shout of, "De Vil--!"

Evie sighs into her hands. Well, at least she's not worried about how she looks, anymore.

24. Who goes to a haunted place only to start yelling at the ghosts to try to challenge them?

"Come on out, little ghosties!" Mal shouts. Jay presses a palm over her mouth, trying and failing to quiet her. She merely grips his palm and yanks it away from her face. "The big, mean, evil faerie is here! Come and get me! I'm not scared of you! My mom's the mistress of all evil, bitches! You're nothing!"

"Big?" Jay asks, raising an eyebrow.

Mal whirls on him, jabbing a finger to his chest. "Say that again, and I'll turn you into a ghost."

He holds up his hands in surrender, but his grin gives up the game. "Girl, you like me way too much for that."

"Girl?"

"What, you want me to call you pet names in front of the ghosties? What would you prefer? Baby? Sweetheart?" He slowly wraps his arms around her middle, nosing against her cheek as she hisses putridly at him. "Honey-bunches? Schnookums?"

She guffaws, shoving his face away with her hand. "You're gonna wish you were a ghost by the time I'm done with you, asshole!" She squirms, but he holds steady. When a ghost-- an actor in a morphsuit, as far as he can tell-- jerks out at them, she jumps about a foot in the air with a two-toned, piercing shriek.

She calms, cheeks blazing pink as she stares at the actor in embarrassment. As if it's, like, cringe of her to fall for the whole game of a haunted house?

"Come on, miss evil-faeirie, let's not get thrown out of the haunted house, yeah?"

She snarls at him again, but holds his hand all the way to the end.

29. Who gets arrested the quickest?

Worth it, Evie mouths. She's visible through the window of the cop car, cheek spattered with a splash of dark blood. She looks utterly at home, sighing in lazy contentment. Then, with a start, she sits up, opening the door.

"Puppy? Take my bag, will you?" She says, handing him her blue, sequined purse. He takes it, nearly pitching forward from the sheer unexpected weight. He let's out a loud, annoyed groan, hefting it up. It clinks audibly.

"How many knives?"

"In there? Oh, honey, too many to count."

The cop comes around the corner, slamming the door shut. Evie laughs into her palm, eyes little half-moon circles of mirth. He says, "I don't want to see you again, Grimhilde."

Sickly sweet, Evie drawls, "Of course not, officer."

34. Who’s been accused of murder?

The lunch table goes deathly quiet. Jay meets Evie's eyes first, then Carlos', then Mal's. As one, they turn to face Chad Charming. He's holding his lunch tray defiantly, sticking his chin out with an arrogant swagger.

"Dude. You realize nobody can die on the Isle, right?"

Chad balks at them. "Really? Oh, thank God. So you haven't killed anyone! I was starting to get worried."

"What?" Evie says. "Worried?"

Mal says, "Do you really think a bunch of Villain Kid's wouldn't take advantage of the fact that corpses don't last?"

Chad's starting to go chalky white.

Evie balances her chin on her hand, sighing wistfully. "I miss being able to get kill the creepy men. It was cathartic, you know?"

"One time I threw Harry into the sea," Carlos adds, tapping away at his phone.

Chad's eyes are shuttered with open fear. Swallowing visibly, he manages, "But not you, Jay?"

He raises an eyebrow. "Why do you think Carlos threw Harry into the sea?"

38. Who accidentally ate 400mg worth of edibles?

"I'm fine," Carlos slurs, sinking into the couch. It's a considerable feat, considering that, before, he'd been sunk so far into it that you could barely see him. He's dressed in one of Jay's sweatshirts, hood pulled up over his head and drawstring tight. His cheeks are flushed and his pupils are blown wide, and he keeps blinking, slowly, and then startling up.

"Yeah, I'm gonna be honest, you really don't seem fine." Mal replies. "Why does it smell like weed? Is that why you're like this?"

"Did you know," Carlos says sharply, with the kind of abrupt cadence of someone deeply inconvenienced, "that cannabis can be cooked into baked goods?"

"Uh oh, you're being a smartass." She presses the back of her hand to his forehead, and he whines. "Very ominous. Never a good sign."

"Shut the fuck up," he mutters, yanking the nearest blanket over his head.

Mal leans over the back of the couch, pitching herself forward. The couch digs into her stomach, her feet hovering off the ground as her face lands in the mess of blankets and pillows on the couch. It's almost nestlike, honestly. She pulls herself up onto her elbows, legs dangling free.

"Did the puppy eat too many pot brownies?" She cooes, reaching out to tap condescendingly at where she thinks his cheek is. He snarls wordlessly. She snorts. "Stay here. I'll get your dumbass some water and food. It'll sober you up."

As she turns toward the kitchen, so weakly she can barely hear it, there's a soft hiss of, "Thanks."

#i think sometimes i need to get just contextless banter and shenanigans out of my system so they dont bleed into my melodramatic novels #so thank you for this #descendants #twisted wonderland #riddleruggie #rotten ot4 #carvie #marlos #jal #jayvie #my writing*

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gnar-slabdash · 1 year

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I know some otherwise intelligent people that can't seem to appreciate "Leverage". How can this be?

I mean I feel like mostly the answer is "because different intelligent people naturally have different tastes" and also "one does not control the special interest." But here's a few possible answers just for kicks: 1. If you can't get them to START watching, are you sure you're meeting them on their level? I've been telling my bff about Leverage for years and he's never been interested. Then I remembered that he was never interested in MCR either until I showed him the Danger Days music videos, because what he IS into is apocalypse stories and comics and classic anime. BAM, he was obsessed. So I told him about all the people from STAR TREK who work on Leverage and he was like "WHY did you never tell me this before???" He still hasn't actually WATCHED it because he's just become a full-fledged Ivy League professor and also has ADHD up the wazoo, but now it's actually on his radar because I started where he's at.

2. If they've started watching and aren't getting into it, make sure they're watching in the CORRECT ORDER. As with a certain other halcyon 2000s show, the episodes were originally aired in the wrong order, and that's the order that streaming services usually retain (I believe the DVDs have the intended order). You can just google to find the right order, I usually find it in imdb's trivia section. How big a difference the change makes will vary by person, but for me watching int he wrong order made the emotional storylines make a lot less sense. Episode 3, for example, was SUPPOSED to be the Wedding Job, not the Two Horse Job. So it feels like she's really jumping the gun when Eliot's ex tells him he has a new family now -- really, he's known these people for like a month?? Well, that was supposed to come later. And likewise, this was supposed to be the point where Sophie freaks out because she doesn't know where her relationship with Nate was going. But because they moved THAT to later, it feels like she's happily settled into the status quo and then blows up out of nowhere. I legitimately didn't like Sophie at all when I first watched the first season, and it's NOT HER FAULT -- it's because they fucked up her emotional storyline by putting the episodes in the wrong places.

3. A lot of people fucking hate that the main character is a white male tortured asshole genius trope. Yeah there are lots of other characters they can focus on, but Nate is kind of a lot if that's not what you're into. I will never in my life UNDERSTAND not being into it because that trope is literally what got me into the show, but I realize I'm in the minority there.

4. Gotta get a little more serious now. One thing I appreciate about the Leverage fandom is we usually don't get hung up in arguments about what's problematic about the show and what issues people "should be talking about." We realize it's a show from the late 2000s created by a couple of white guys and it's not perfect, and then we focus on all the great stuff it was able to accomplish anyway. I LIKE that. BUT. It means when we go to recommend it to people, we sometimes oversell it. "It's a queer poly band of thieves trying to take down capitalism!" Well, no, it actually isn't. Just because JR likes to talk about how the OT3 is so totally canon actually doesn't make it true. He says he did everything the network allowed him to do, but now that he's making Redemption the way it is, we can guess that's not entirely true either. I think there are actually no canon gays except that one lady cop. And speaking of cops, there are a lot of those, and they're sometimes corrupt but they're very often good guys and sending the bad guys to jail is very often written as a major win, and that is understandably a problem for a lot of people. And finally, they are not actually trying to take down capitalism. I think it was Latimer who told them that they were actually just trying to REGULATE the system, not take it down -- and HE WAS RIGHT. They're trying to fix the system by taking down the Bad CEOS and replacing them with Good CEOS, which is an easier sell on 2000s network TV than it is to a new watcher today. There are other issues that might be more problematic to some people, I'm just using these ones to make my point that some of the most commonly mentioned selling points of Leverage aren't entirely accurate. So just be realistic when recommending it to avoid some serious sticker shock.

#leverage #thanks for coming to my ted talk #and thanks anon for asking!

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sailorgundam308 · 2 months

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okay but you're right about the petite tav thing (also idk if you know but someone's lame ass "callout" post about you being a bully and how you'll never get commissions is circulating)

like in a game where you can create nearly anything with a tav it's boring as fuck to make them look copy pasted of every conventional girl irl. ive always thought that, it's why I can't read certain super popular fics in this fandom because the tav absolutely rips me out of any enjoyment (cough, the arrangement)

but it's not fair for people to be harassing you over your opinion, it's your blog if they don't wanna make themselves upset maybe they shouldn't be lurking on your page

It's what I think. I have no interest, never had, in any media, when a protagonist is the pretty standard petite girl. It doesn't resonate with me at all and, therefore, they come across as very boring to me.

About the post circulating about me, I know about it. It was made by 2 girls who didn't like when I said I don't like pairing Astarion with the aforementioned pretty petite tav type. They then devolved into, apparently, some sort of Alex Jones, calling into question my values as a person, made up what I said and whatnot. They've been flooding me with hate messages for a while, stopping short only of telling me to kill myself. But then, of course, I'm the bully in the story. lol

It's very much their problem. Anyone following me, reading what I say, knows what I stand for - and what I don't, cause I tend to say it pretty clearly.

And I agree with you, too: tumblr is a collection of personal blogs of people with differing opinions. Unless someone is attacking or harming a real person, or being an actual bigot, it's all a matter of thinking differently about things. And that's not an issue.

You'd think people who claim to be so inclusive would understand that not everyone has to agree on things - and that you shouldn't dig the internet for content that will piss you off because you feel like going on a moral rampage for the sake of feeling superior. You WILL find content to make you angry. Thing is, some of that will be justified. Some, apparently, will just be me saying im not into X type of pairing.

Sound's pretty easy to do, but some folks are actually pretty incredible in regards to the amount of effort they'll put to go after someone they (don't know) but decided they dislike.

One of the girls saying she "took a screenshot" of what I said is from a discord I'm also a member of, and I think she got jealous cause I only posted Karlach x Astarion art and they shipped him with a different character. The other one is just a hardcore harasser. I got all their hate messages saved. Maybe one day I'll post it so people can see what kind low level stuff they said to me. It was WILD.

In any case. I never deleted the post where I said I think Astarion doesn't look good with pretty cutesy girly tavs cause I DO think that, and there's nothing wrong with me saying it. I'm not talking about any real person, nor even any tav in particular. But people like to distort shit to make waves then feel morally superior.

Thankfully, my commissions are doing great! I don't beg anyone to hire me, and as with everything else online, no one is forced to anything - commission me or even interact with my blog. There is a block function here and I use it often - it works wonders.

Anyway, thanks for saying that. Truly. This whole thing was pretty upsetting at first, but I soon realized there was no conversation to be had with thesef people - they don't want to talk. They want to tear someone they don't know apart to feel superior and "win".

It's nice to know not everyone bought into the gaslighting shit these two (and probably now more ppl) are spouting.

#ask #anon ask #tumblr drama #bg3 toxic fandom #toxic tumblr users #online harassment #harassment #bg3

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iosagol · 2 months

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finished Ragnarok, feeling very warm and happy

so I hated the way Fjord's character was basically just a copy of Vidar for no discernable reason for over half the series, poor boy's entire set of complex ideals and history were all slam dunked into a gutter the moment the funeral somehow switched his entire brain chemistry

were the giants inconsistent in their characterization and intelligence levels, sure

did I dislike Magne basically being Smeagol for most of season 3, yeah

but aside from those three things

Wow I really really love this show

I heard a lot of complaints that there weren't big battle scenes but idk I'm not a battle scene child so I didn't care :)) I was so happy to have a show full of hiking in mountains and cooking in kitchens and going to the Edda Grill, with plenty of character-centric work all the time always

I loved how normal everything felt. The Seier's house looked like my aunt's house. The clothes the middle class characters wore all looked worn and pretty common, I could probably find their clothes in a thrift store.

All the small quirky things were so gooddddd

I love Magne's 24/7 facial expression of complete and utter "No thoughts, what the hell is happening to me, I'm so done with this life" except for the times when he's accidentally knocking over trees and playing catch with his own hammer and then he smiles so much :D Love how he's the mid guy at school, a virgin, nearsighted, internally panicking always and forever. He had some very interesting arcs and asked a lot of interesting questions. Looks like the brother of a friend of mine. Very chill person.

Laurits is such a joy, of course. Head over heels for him watching Finding Nemo twice to cope with Fjor abusing his tapeworm child, having a crying fit while making soup and blaming it on the onions, shopping for boots on Amazon + saying he's busy, and casually working as a double agent between the gods and giants for over a year to earn money so he can feed his child. Beautiful man, beautiful attitude, convinced me to start using mascara.

Jens grew on me. I was kind of annoyed about him while Laurits was just pining over him, but he redeemed himself being the only living creature with a braincell in season 3 and staying sane despite all the insane drama and his boyfriend having a massive scary tapeworm child <33

I love the women of this show and how they're all very beautiful but they're not hypersexualized or dumbed down like women are in the Thor movies in Marvel.

Turid made me think about my own relationship with my mom, 10/10 most complex mother I've seen depicted in media. Love how she comes across as both so worn/tired and so loving/caring. I loved her acting. Beautiful performance from her.

Saxa was very hard to read, I think. Her motivations were all over the place and I could never tell whether to pity her or hate her. But I liked how unpredictable she was, I really did. It was a lot of fun to watch her switch around, and it made sense for her character since she has a lack of emotions. She gave Azula vibes quite a bit.

I was always happy to see Iman onscreen <33 A cute, fun, silly girl who likes to flirt but isn't an idiot? Who wins fights by being precise and conserving her energy? Who uses her powers to get things for free and squeals happily about it? Got so excited that her friend could lift her up and down with one hand? She's either Batman or Robin? A gem. A real gem.

And Isolde. I'm sad she died because she was my favorite character up until then, loved her snark and loved that there was a super chill fun friendship there, but she kind of became the beating heart of the show when she died. Loved that she was this underlying reason to keep pushing forward and advocating for change.

Vidar was super funny to me because he was all fun and horny games when Magne was just learning his powers but then Magne killed Vidar's dog and that man actually ripped off his clothes and swore vengeance on the house of Thor and lost his tiny brain in a split second, he's the funniest man of all time

Ran... I don't know. She didn't really resonate with me at any point? I liked the way she always shifted in the giant family, adopting whatever mindset would keep her family together at all costs. Very much a bitch though :) I really like the Ran Jutul who gave that awesome speech, she was so cool ;D

Erik looked better with a beard, that's all I'm saying, are you really a Norwegian man if you don't grow a red beard fr

I vastly enjoyed that entire thing of "Norse mythology wouldn't work in the modern age because it's all fighting and killing and that's not allowed now" and the show literally was the exact reversal of that, it was all strategy and scheming and laying down weapons :D

The cinematography was remarkably fresh, it felt like it was actually trying to be engaging and interesting. Loved the lighting choices at all times, loved the nature shots, loved the minimal usage of CGI

This show made me get into researching climate change and I'm really grateful for that too

Really intrigued by the negative stance it took towards big corporations manhandling citizens' lives, felt dystopian in an extremely down to earth way

Loved the twists and adaptation choices

THE SOUND TRACK

The SONGS

Love the music to hel and back fr

Loved the finale since I interpreted it as Magne just reconsidering how the final battle could have gone, overcoming his trauma, and moving on from the fight for good.

4.67 stars out of 5. :))

#ragnarok netflix #Magne seier #laurits seier #Turid seier #fjor jutul #Saxa jutul

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