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tothepointofinsanity · 7 months

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Greener Grass Awaits Lore "Masterpost"

[This post contains major spoilers for the game, so please be careful while interacting.]

[I would call this a fancy piece, but really it's just me incoherently blabbering about something I like not being talked about enough again. Read it with a kilogram of salt and view it as a discussion piece instead of what it tries to be. Be warned that this is a very long post, and it is encouraged to play the game before scrolling this.]

The Fundamentals: Greener Grass Awaits is advertised as a sport and horror game. In the former, your main objective is to finish all 12 holes on the golf course. In the latter, your character is stalked by undead entities under the moonlight that distract you from your said casual golfing spree. Before all else, we should start by considering the environments presented to us within the game itself, as it contains history and lore relevant to the bigger picture.

The Setting: You break into a prestigious golfing course known as the Green Canyon Golf Club, a club that has appeared on a magazine issue before which crowns it as one of 'the most inconvenient' courses in the world, likely due to the fact that it was built on an island, also featuring courses that loop around bodies of water. A bit of history given to us was that the course was initially meant to be left as open space before it underwent renovations accordingly in 1982. Today, you will find a large bridge that looms in the skyline between hole 9 to 11 which serves as one of the alternate entry ways to the island, as well as long walkways that cut between winding grasslands and forests.

The Golf Course: The lush and verdant environments of Green Canyon's courses boast the transplant of distinctly non-native, European trees to sport its current iconic look, and this impressive landscape is maintained by an outsource lawn-care company known as Greener Grass, a team that specialises in 'large, remote areas' and is known for its apparently weird advertisements. It is also implied from the bizarre ad and posters that plays at the end of the game that Greener Grass Co. has capabilities in helping to 'revive' dead or dried up lawns, and use a special brand of either soil or fertilising materials that assist in this process. The latter is implied from what you find around the caddy shack.

The further you pick and go with your ball, however, the more oppressive the atmosphere becomes. At some places you will see the illusion shedding its scales - bald, exposed trees on yellowed patches of ground despite being surrounded by other lush trees.

The Caddyshack: At the end of the twelfth hole lies a building you were warned to stay away from because "it's bad", according to an actual Green Canyon club member you met previously. All the doors in the building are locked except for the employee's only room, which will reveal a bloody scene. Presumably, the person you encountered previously who gave you the warning was dead on a chair, while a charred body lies on the office table in the middle of the room. Strewn about are cans of gasoline and Greener Grass Awaits co. bags, possibly containing the fertiliser or soil speculated before. The caddyshack is an important place as it functions as the gateway between the human world and the realm of the residing deity.

More of this will be explained later on.

The Forest: Entering the darkness of the room in the caddyshack will magically transport you to a different space of existence. Here, temples are separated by deep forests, with sacrificial alters occasionally in between them. The forests are dark, and staying in the light is necessary for survival. There are two objectives in this section of the game: pop The Blister and then Kill the Tree. You will need to repeat this objective twice as you march further into the home of the eldritch deity. The Blisters are pulsing gobs of flesh, like a heart, that are stuck onto the orifice of a tree in the forests. However, the game developer interestingly refers to them not as blisters, but as wounds. More on this later. Popping the blisters with your ball will open up the temples' entrance to access the Trees in question, hence the latter objective. You Kill the Trees by swinging your ball into the hole beneath its trunk. There are two Trees (so two Blisters altogether) to kill. When both trees are killed, your action provokes the deity living in this space of existence so much that a boss fight is instigated.

With that being said, it's important to now discuss the enemies we encounter in question.

The Antagonists: Sneaking in for some midnight golfing has its consequences the longer you overstay your welcome on the field and continuously stare down the face of evil. Interestingly, this game presents a surprisingly thought-out mechanism and line-up of enemies as they do not operate on a singular basis, but rather as a triangular feedback between a cult, a forest of angels, and a God out of this world.

The Cult: Under the guise of a landscape company skillful in maintaining the surrounding flora, it is heavily speculated that the Greener Grass co. are an elusive cult that has been offering human sacrifices to a foreign deity that promises everlasting scenery (satisfaction, contentment) in exchange. It is implied from some sign boards that the Greener Grass cult have been spreading the deity's influence outside of its realm and into the human world through the transplant of the aforementioned 'saplings from Europe'. The flora of this game are symbolic of the presence of this God, and potentially serves as an anchor for it to assist in the maintenance of the landscape. Some clues eluding to us that it is indeed a cult were the bloodied altars in the forest sections, as well as a weird book lying on one of the chairs in the Caddyshack. The inscription on the front cover is hard to make out.

The three enemies that stalk you through the game are Greener Grass employees, and are the poster children for both the cult and company given they are one and the same. The 'bizarre ad' that plays at the end also features the same trio, and the song played in it has lyrics hinting towards the company's true intentions. Some of these notable lyrics are: "my life is not what I imagined", "what if you could find that green, and all you had to do was come with me?", "it's the answer to your problems if you come with me". Definitely ominous, and the cult's whole ordeal with 'greener grass awaits you' is a play on the proverb of "the grass is greener on the other side".

Essentially, it is a cult that capitalises off people's insecure dissatisfaction with their own lives (which is pretty much in character for most cults in the real world anyways), takes advantage of sentiments of envy stemmed similarly, all with the lure that you will be happy if you join them. However, the cult does not just follow the stereotypical 'what if happiness was evil' trope, but because their motif is directly tied to the deity they serve under.

The 'Angels': The forests between the temples and altars are occupied with a crowd of stone statues that have that trademark grin the employees had. The angels operate in a very unique mechanism. Unlike the trio employees that stalk closer when your back is turned on them, the statues littering the forest grounds follow another modified system of the weeping angel formula - the second you stay with them in the dark without a light source, it will prompt flashing visages of their faces to psychicly overwhelm your vision. They do not directly attack you, instead choosing to paralyse you in with their surrounding numbers if you're left to wander in the darkness. I call them 'angels' as they seem to be closer to the original weeping angel family in terms of how they work, but also due to the fact that they look much more friendly in the light. They are also enthusiastic statues who rotate between striking an unnecessarily cute abundance of poses. All these poses involve them expressing their joy, almost in ecstasy. Praising, worshipping...something. The ironic liveliness of their poses grants them an impression that they are dancing behind your back.

I also like the detail that when a light source is on them, their expressions are always shut-eyed, but with the visages that flash repeatedly in dark areas, even if you can't see them well, the game shows you that their eyes are open, and thus the impression their expressions give off is that they're mocking you.

On their own, the angels are not a difficult enemy given their psychic esque attacks are ceased with keeping the light close to you. But this game is sadistic, so it eventually throws in the Greener Grass employees into the forests as well. What occurs then is that you're forced to move away constantly - so you either get killed by the employee for trying to keep the light with you, or you're killed by the angels once the employee drives you out of the light's radius. Extremely evil. Once again, it is to enforce the idea that everything that wants to kill you in the game are in cahoots with each other. Another minor detail I noticed was that the trio employees from the Greener Grass commercial also broke into dances over something viewed as trivial as growing lawn grass, which is likely a parallel to the Angels' poses. The expression of 'dancing' and a carved, permanent grin, I think, is done to honour their God.

A God: The overseer of the Greener Grass cult, a deity not from our familiar world who is connected to trees, nature, and most importantly, joy. The final enemy of this game is Exuberance, an eldritch divinity who has nefarious intentions of fully crossing over to 'our' world once the Last Sacrifice is Broke Open. A face with a grin stretched wide by tree branches.

Exuberance is an interesting name as it is generally defined by 'the quality of being full of energy, excitement, and cheerfulness; ebullience.' It's not simply the emotion of happiness, but rather, referring to a state of high spirits, of ecstatic liveliness being. Furthermore, and perhaps this is merely a clever coincidence, but 'exuberance' can also be used to describe, 'the quality of growing profusely; luxuriance' particularly with plants, which would circle back to how it is related to trees and the Greener Grass cult. The entities associated with Exuberance are then constantly in a state of 'bliss' and carve their own faces to resemble their deity. After all, since when was the last time you felt so happy the only method of expressing it is through a dance? It's a primal trait, undoubtedly.

It is thus speculated that this God is quite ancient given the appearance of its realm, the forest, contains archaic architecture of temples. Yet, the bodies we find on the sacrificial altars are fresh, the blood more red than rust. Exuberance had been collecting human sacrifices through its cult, as evident by the large amount of bodies/souls that are released whenever the deity takes damage. It has that same air of confidence and arrogance towards humans that most eldritch Gods carry themselves with. Likes to speak a lot. Here are all of its lines:

Abandon this endeavor. You can't kill a God! You will join me eventually, everyone does!

Now I realise who I'm talking to! No matter. Your suit of flesh is fragile. I will break it open, and you will pour out. That body will be the last sacrifice I need.

You cannot keep that world! I will take your dinner from you.

Upon your first playthrough, though, Exuberance's dialogue sounds like complete gibberish or madness when the context is not made clear yet. This whole journey thus far has not made much sense on how it transitions from casual golfing to killing a God, how Green Canyon Golf Club has to do with a cult; but it will hopefully become clearer with the next introduction: The Protagonist.

The Protagonist: Our local golfer may not just be as local as we thought.

We've discussed the setting and the enemies. Now we must talk about the main character: yourself. In the game, you have no reflection to view your character's appearance, but if it helps in any way, you seem to be slightly shorter than the majority of the enemies and NPCs you encounter. This isn't important information, I just think it's funny. Your character is generally regarded as a weirdo, even speculated to be mentally unstable or inebriated by some people discussing this game. The signs seem to be there: vaulting fences into a premium golf course after dark to play golf in the dark, having a tendency to stare at other characters straight in the eyes, unsettling even the security guard, and appears to be obsessed with the sport of golf. Your character is played up to be an infatuated madman with the latter, with mental barriers scribbled about how they wouldn't miss golf for the world, and the leading theory as a result was that the entire game was a hallucination birthed from their obsession with golf, or rather, too bloody drunk and passed out with strange dreams near the canyon. This would have been the case until you consider two things: Firstly, despite claiming to be a hardcore golfer, your character carries around a beginner's guide on the sport, and has only a simple putter and driver in their sling bag. When you kill Exuberance and wake up in front of the club's front door, you also do not recall where you were, only recognising your car was parked, and that you should leave. Not recognising Green Canyon Golf Club indicates to us that something is off, given as discussed prior, it is an infamous place for golfing, and had the character really been a die-hard for the sport, they would have realised it without problem. Secondly, the character you play from the start to the end of the boss fight compared to when you wake up seem to have differing personalities. The character you have been stuck with seems to know what they're doing at all times, and gives instructions on their next move. They're stiff, rigid, and are not easily excitable even in the face of the stalking employees or a dead body. They don't seem to care much about anything at all except for an odd aversion to water, as well as wanting to kill Exuberance. What is even stranger is that the font for the character's monologue is completely different after the boss fight ends.

During the game:

After the game/ending:

The former is more messy, like it's written by hand. The latter is a plain font. This implies that something about your character has changed — the truth was that you were possessed all along, most likely by another eldritch God whom is not Exuberance, and came to the golf course to slay it. There are some allusions to you being a separate eldritch entity: Exuberance recognises you. Not the character you were playing as, but whatever that was occupying the human vessel temporarily. An eldritch God has no reason to remember or know a mere human, after all, hence explaining the second and third line of dialogue by it in the temples, as well as why when the original owner of the body wakes up, they have no recollection of what occured whatsoever, and, effectively as other players have thought - it's all chalked up to both the ordinary you and the players as 'just a dream'.

Your character also refers to themselves as "this body" whenever you enter the water as the vessel you are possessing has no swimming skills. At the very start of the game, you even get to 'choose body'. You're choosing a vessel suitable to your liking to possess. What is more evident as well is the ominous answers that you can use to respond to whatever the NPCs are saying, as well as frightening them due to the possibility even they knew you felt off. You would often hear screams drone louder and louder in the background whenever you got near to these NPCs, as they are actually dead. We 'hear' the truth from what is not directly told to us by these spirits that were trying to advise against proceeding deeper into the course.

Yet, we proceed. The enemies would have directly charged at you from the get-go instead of waiting for you to look away since the way you look at something (eyes are the windows to the soul, and I wonder what kind of thing they would see in the place of one when others look at you) since you clearly hold a certain influence over them by presence and stare alone. The undead should have nothing to fear, and yet even they practice caution against something that reminds them of their patron God. Another reason I believe you're being possessed is because the font you have always used in the game feels handwritten, the same way Exuberance's font is more cursive and messy. Clearly, you are a deity by some means, just a different kind with different intentions; some intentions that are left unanswered even after finishing the game.

Just what exactly does all of this writing amount to?

The Final Story: An expansive golf course known as the Green Canyon Golf Club opens up in 1982 after being renovated from its previously barren state. It was founded on a large island, featuring a diverse, challenging number of holes for people to enjoy while they traverse the canyon's scenery. In order to maintain the green and natural state of the course, Green Canyon managers hired a company known as Greener Grass to assist them. Greener Grass co. appeared to be a rather new company, having only few reviews, but an eye catching advertisement and specialises in the lawn keeping for large, remote areas, which seemed to fit the canyon's liking and geographic description. The hired company set to work, transplanting in gorgeous trees supposedly from Europe, as well as using their own brand of soil to allow the environment of the course to prosper. The environment was clearly well tended to, with the course even forbidding golf carts due to how sensitive and delicate the fields were, as well as advising golfers to not hit their balls into the trees as native birds nested there. Despite these rules, the course was fairly prestigious, its popularity captured in several sports magazines.

What was unknown to the club, however, was that this lawnscape company they hired was actually a cult, and the permission to freely introduce foreign flora to the land had been with the company's intention to bring in anchors tied to the God they made contact with, Exuberance. Through the golf course and perhaps other places not mentioned, Exuberance had been steadily increasing its influence over the human world as it received more and more sacrifices thanks to its formidable cult. The cult worked in a caddyshack on the golf course, and would lure in members of the golfing club with normal statements of refreshments available, only to offer them up as sacrifices to the altars of the temple. The sacrificed bodies were then burned and made into the materials the Greener Grass front used to maintain the lush landscapes. Countless rinse and repeat sessions of bloodshed later, Exuberance required just one more body still to cross over to the human world and, from there, become unstoppable with the fact that its associating flora were planted everywhere by the cult by then.

But the violent rituals of the Greener Grass cult had resulted in innocent souls trapped on the grounds of the course and realm in-between worlds. The souls screamed in their fate of immortalised anguish, and eventually this unbearable abundance of noise roused the deity of the human world from its previous state of inaction. Exuberance is a source of insolence, believing it could attempt to compete with Us for the world we looked after. Something must come out of this. The problem was that Exuberance's realm was closed off, difficult to penetrate without proper mobility. A plan was thus hatched: possess a suitable vessel to appear human in order to get closer to the home of the enemy. It risked vulnerability as the human body was fragile and had a mind occupying it already, but that doesn't matter when casting a heavy filter of obsession with the sport would properly motivate them to do the bidding. This different deity knows that Green Canyon Golf Club had been discreetly converted to a massive ritual ground at this point, and playing by the rules of the world of golf, even if tedious, was necessary to reaching the gateway and destroy the anchors tied to Exuberance.

You play the role of a victim as the undead start to stalk from behind, but something was off about this sacrifice, and the employees take turns reporting back to their God of this issue. Exuberance believed the disguise of a human, not being aware of what laid hidden under the layers of blood and bones. You finish the 12th hole, enter the caddyshack, and find yourself where you wanted to be: on the turf of the enemy's temples. Staying in the light was vital to survival here, and as fresh blood collects in the basin of the altar from a previous sacrifice, the innocence of a stolen life had purified to form a glowing orb. An orb that lights up like a star in the dreary landscape, taking the filth of flesh as it goes. By the time Exuberance had realised the scheme of a trojan horse, you had already successfully killed the trees, and all that was left was to kill Exuberance itself. With each swing, you take out pieces of the God, releasing the souls into the surroundings.

The fight ends with a clear victor, and you wake up outside of the golf club with no recollection of any of this. The deity possessing your vessel had relinquished control, allowing you to continue your life as normal. What occurs after then is unclear, as the advertisement sings its jingle, and we get to see the spine of a book inscribed with strange symbols on the right as the game ends with the sound of a closing door.

TLDR; Local grass cult goes overboard with human sacrifice rituals, acidentally summons worse eldritch being to kill their patron deity just so it would shut up. Happy golfing!

#Grass Archives #Greener Grass Awaits #Greener Grass Awaits game #today on: explaining things to the thin air #i really like the game's lore since it's written like a proper cosmic horror/lvcraft esque #but even outside of ignoring the lore it's an effective horror game #and by that i mean it takes advantage of paranoid people (me)#sound design and songs for this game rock too #Yatoimtop Archives

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rene-spade · 1 month

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Ok but how are the crazy f1 dads with their daughters dating? Who on the grid do they like?

oof this is a loaded ask bc they really are all out of it 😭 they just love their babies fr

♤ ♤ ♤

dad! kimi | growing up räikkönen!

FIRST OF ALL kimi doesn’t really vibe with most people in general, let alone anyone who’s trying to get with his little lumienkeli. kimi was lucky to raise a little girl similar to him, who listens when he places a no dating rule lasting until she’s 21 (as far as he knows anyways). despises the guys on the grid trying to get with her; he was one of them once so he thinks of them as animals, especially leclerc who’s known for his brow-raising dating life. also hates pierre but he already didn’t fw him bc he’s french. he is SLIGHTLY more easy going with women around his daughter so any grid guys with girlfriends might have an advantage. he finds that he wants the im-a-dog-and-ill-do-whatever-my-girl-says type for his daughter, but he dislikes unintelligence. he does not like anyone on the grid, but he best tolerates:

mick schumacher!

oscar piastri (+lily)

he vibes with kika okay but hates pierre 💀

bonus! he actually really likes max but his hate/distrust for jos overpowers that so he’s not letting that happen

♤ ♤ ♤

dad! jenson | growing up button!

OK SO JENSON is a bit less intense than kimi, however he is much more publicly affectionate with his daughter which means that he has definitely gone on public rants about how no man is good wen enough for his baby. that being said, he is a decent judge of character so he doesn’t hate anyone on the grid. but he gets real serious when he notices people hitting on his baby. this is mostly bc he was def a whore when he was younger so he isn’t quick to trust guys who are living the same lifestyle he was. he kind of turns on dad-mode when he notices anyone eyeing her up. but alas, he raised his own mini-me, who attracts just about everyone, and who likes to flirt back. it takes warming up to, but he can see himself fine with most of the drivers. he most prefers people who are friendly and who didn’t act like him when he was in f1 like:

george russel

daniel ricciardo

lando norris

♤ ♤ ♤

dad! fernando | growing up alonso!

NANDO IS DEFINITELY one of those guys who thinks he’s a “cool dad” bc he’s a young father and his daughter is his best friend. but in reality he’s one of those intense, fiercely overprotective dads who have impossibly high expectations for his daughters partner. 100% the type to punch a mechanic for saying gross things about his princesa. he’ll be calm and in a good mood then someone on the grid (or any man ever) mentions his daughter and he’s like 😐. UNLESS! it’s carlos. carlos is the only one who meets his standards, sorry to literally everyone else. but even with carlos, he can be a little stern just to get his point across about not messing with his only child. he just feels the need to personally approve of his daughter’s partner bc he’s hyper-paranoid about someone hurting her. his list looks something like:

carlos sainz!!!

that’s it

i mean if you put a gun to his head maybe max bc he’s a winner but he needs to learn to speak spanish so-

♤ ♤ ♤

dad! jos | growing up verstappen! unfortunately

FUCK JOS VERSTAPPEN obviously, however this man is one crazy dad who we have to discuss. his love for his youngest daughter is wild and unpredictable, and it’s very different from the way he treats his other children. his baby has some extreme one-sided beef with him that he’s smart enough to know about, so he isn’t too forceful about bonding, it’s definitely more desperate since max found success in f1 and she sticks with her big brother now. her entire life, he’s never allowed her to date, and when he found out about her first secret bf, he got arrested for trying to kill the kid so. he has IMPOSSIBLY high standards for his daughters partner and definitely wants her to marry within the f1 community, but he hates losers and despises half the grid.

suddenly he’s charles leclerc’s biggest fan !

lewis hamilton but he’ll never admit it

MAYBE carlos sainz

bonus! max obvi likes daniel ricciardo best but jos doesn’t fw him like that

♤ ♤ ♤

Ren

#dark! f1 #f1 fanfic #f1 fic #f1 grid x reader #obsessive f1 #carlos sainz x reader #charles leclerc x reader #f1 oc #f1 reverse harem #daniel riccardo x reader #max verstappen x reader #lando norris x reader #lewis hamilton x reader #kimi räikkönen x daughter reader #dad! jenson button #dad! fernando alonso #dad! kimi räikkönen #jos verstappen

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c-nstantine · 4 months

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Paranoid

Description: Based on the Ty Dolla Sign song. Dick sees both Y/N and Barbara Gordon in the club and Jason is no help.

Warnings: Cursing, Infidelity,

Word Count: 0.8k

Bonding, he had called it. Dick thought it would be a good idea for him and Jason to go out for drinks like somewhat normal, non-estranged siblings. Jason only agreed because Dick said that he'd pay for everything and unlike Gotham, cheap liquor was hard to come by in Bludhaven.

Dick was flirting with the bartender as she prepared two beers for the brothers. Out of the corner of his eye, he swore he saw her. He saw a flash of ginger hair. There was nothing to be worried about, he thought to himself. There were plenty of gingers in Bludhaven but it wasn't until he got a glimpse of her face that he realized who it was.

Flashing a smile at the bartender, Dick grabbed the beers before making his way to Jason. He stopped in his tracks when he smelt a familiar fragrance. One he recalled buying for his and Y/N's anniversary. Dick had never been more grateful for dark clubs because Y/N walked right passed her boyfriend and didn't even blink an eye.

"We gotta go, like right now," Dick said while forcing the beer into Jason's hand before chugging his own.

"Huh?" Jason was confused. Dick begged for this outing and now he was in a rush to leave for no apparent reason.

"Y/N's here," Dick explained partially. He grabbed his jacket and began to put it on. From where the two were sat, Dick had a clear advantage of the club. Y/N was in the DJ booth dancing to a song he'd never heard while Babs was sitting near the bar.

"So? Invite her over," Jason would never turn down the opportunity to see Y/N. She was so perfect in his eyes.

"I can't. Babs is also here," Dick damn near whispered as if that would summon one of them. The elder brother ran a hand through his hair before wiping the excess sweat onto his pants.

"Damn, if you get caught, can I date Y/N?"Sure, Dick was his brother, but Jason had priorities. If he'd only been a little quicker the night they met, Jason could've saved Y/N from this potential heartbreak.

"What?" Dick was baffled by this thought.

"I had a crush on her but you asked her out and we were just starting to repair our relationship so it didn't make sense to ruin it because of her," Jason explained while still slowly sipping his beer. He figured that he would take his sweet time because Dick was an asshole. Toying with Barbara was one thing but bringing Y/N into it was a step too far.

"You've had a crush on my girlfriend this entire time?" Dick's tone was accusatory as if he didn't just admit to cheating on his girlfriend.

"Well, I mean- You've had two girlfriends this entire time," Jason pointed out before grabbing his jacket. Dick peered out over the dancefloor one more time before determining the best route for escaping. The two brothers bumped through a sea of people. They were almost there just a few more feet and Dick would've been completely safe.

"Dick?" Y/N said as she approached the brothers. Now, Dick could've kept walking and pretended it wasn't him, but Jason had more devious plans in mind.

"Y/N, it's so good to see you," Jason spoke before pulling Y/N into a hug. He spun her around and made direct eye contact with Dick who was motioning a prayer a sign, a silent plead.

"Oh, wait is this the bonding thing you were talking about?" Y/N questioned before flicking back one of her goddess braids and pulling down her short mini dress that had ridden up when Jason spun her around. Jason stood quietly as he took in her beauty.

"Yup," Dick said stiffly. He felt exposed and he wasn't even home yet. His palms were sweatier than before and he was sure his face was flushed.

"Jason, it's so nice that you do this weekly. Dick told me how much it means to you to salvage your relationship," Y/N said with a smile, almost as if she was proud of her boyfriend.

"Did he?" Jason cut his eye to Dick who was staring at the floor.

"Jason? Dick? I didn't expect to see both of you. I thought you couldn't make it?" The red-headed woman's last question was directed mostly towards Dick. Richard Grayson thought that the floor looked most interesting and not the scene that was about to unfold.

"Couldn't make what?" Y/N asked. Her eyes flickered between Babs and Dick. Y/N knew of Babs but from her understanding, Dick and her were just friends.

"Well, I and Dick have a date every week about this time. I'm sorry who are you?" Barbara asked. She wasn't trying to be mean but her tone indicated otherwise.

"Fuck you, Richard," Y/N said throwing a drink in his face before stumbling towards the exit. She didn't know if it was the alcohol she had consumed or the tears forming in her eyes but she needed to get away from here.

"Y/N, let me make sure you get home okay. It's late and you've been drinking," Jason said while lightly placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Thank you, Jason. You're so sweet," She said while wrapping her arms around him. At least, one person got what they wanted tonight.

#x black!reader #black!reader #x black reader #black reader #jason todd #jason todd x reader #dick grayson #dick grayson x reader #jason todd x black!reader #dick grayson x black!reader

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teaberrii · 5 months

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Chapter 12: Eyes Everywhere

After ending a five-year relationship, you pour all your energy into work. Your latest assignment? Staying at a popular bed-and-breakfast to gather information. It should be a piece of cake... If only the owner isn't the man you scolded on the street.

Jing Yuan/You

Notes:

Cross-posted on Ao3

Female reader

Chapter index at the end of chapter one

You’re spending the rest of the afternoon doing research in the city. You manage to score an interview with some businessmen, and the responses of one of them have you see a silver lining.

“There are a lot of great business opportunities here besides hospitality. I mean… it truly is a great place if people here can get it up and running. It may be small, but they should take advantage of the island's natural resources. That can seriously boost its economy! I already know people who want to get factories up and running… but they’ve been and still are facing a lot of obstacles.

"Take this off the record, but I think the people here are too protective of themselves. Maybe it’s because of what happened to that owner that everyone sees outside influences as a threat.”

“Owner?” you ask.

“Yeah. Caelus… I think that was his name. He owned a boutique hotel”—the man points somewhere in the distance—” somewhere in that area on the next street over. I kind of knew his old man as my wife and I stayed there when it was just getting off the ground. It’s quite a shame. Their ideas were very unique, and I heard they were doing well before the awful news…”

“Have they said anything about their business running into some sort of trouble?”

“God, it was so long ago… but I remember a fight. Don’t know the man who was arguing with them but my wife was a local here. She’d never seen him before either, so it might’ve been an irritated customer since it was pretty clear he wanted to make a scene.”

You show him a picture of Caelus’s uncle. “Was this him?”

“Yeah! Pretty sure.”

So, that meant Caelus’s uncle mainly or had always stayed in the city. Was he already trying to sabotage the hotel before the Star Rails project with Jing Yuan's ex? Did the resentment go that far?

You thank the man for his time. Then, as he walks away, you quickly turn around. Perhaps you’re paranoid, but you swear you sense someone looking at you. But all you see are people and tourists walking around. Nothing out of the ordinary.

“Well, well, if it isn’t everyone’s favourite mother.”

You recognize that voice anywhere. You turn around, and your guess is right. “Didn’t think I’d see our athlete superstar walking the streets alone.”

“Yeah, well, not everyone gets the special opportunity to spend time with the one and only,” Dan Feng says with an amused grin. “You’re lucky.” You give him a deadpan look but start walking with him nonetheless. “So, how was the date? Did Jing Yuan treat you like the queen you are?”

“Flattery will get you nowhere, son.”

“Oof. You got me.”

“But, since you asked... I had a lot of fun. It was wonderful."

“Wonderful? Really? You’re too young to be sounding so old, Mom.” You raise a fist, and Dan Feng quickly raises the bag of groceries he’s holding to protect himself. “Just kidding!” You face forward just as he asks, “So, are you two official?”

You don’t know what to tell him. The less people know, the better. However, Jing Yuan already messaged you about Yanqing's mistake. And there’s also the project. You may be digging up dirt on Star Rails, but you’re still partly responsible for this project's success. Perhaps it’s best to wait until this is all over to announce the news.

“All right, I get it,” Dan Feng says. “I think I know why you want to keep it hush-hush for now.” He winks at you. “I’ll keep your secret, Mom. Don’t worry. But… Did you know his ex is back?”

“Who did you hear that from?”

“No one. I saw her myself. If I were to take an educated guess, she was going to pick up Yanqing.”

“Have you met her before?”

“Twice. Once when she and Jing Yuan were dating. The next was on their wedding day.”

“...Ah.”

Dan Feng gently nudges you. “Hey, don’t be getting jealous. They’re done for.”

You want to say you’re not jealous. It doesn’t bother you at all. And, maybe you’d really feel that way if you’d never seen her. But now that you’ve seen and met her in person… it feels more real.

You clear your throat. “Where’s your brother?”

“He’s been worried about Jingliu, so they’re out on a little date. I wanted to go, but he insisted on going alone.”

“Someone sure sounds disappointed.”

“Just between you and me, I think he has a thing for her.”

“Don’t tell me you’re jealous.”

“Me?” Dan Feng scoffs. “Oh, please. It’s Jingliu. It’d take someone really special to sweep her off her feet.”

“You don’t think Dan Heng meets those standards?”

“Do you think he does?”

“Sir, why are you asking me?”

“Well, you and Jingliu are kind of alike… You’re both women.”

“Very well spotted, thanks.”

“Honestly, I don’t think there’s a man or woman who exists that can match Jingliu. She’s unmatched.”

You and Dan Feng are almost at the bed and breakfast when the conversation turns to his training for the Global Games next year.

“It’ll probably be my last competition.”

“...Are you thinking about retiring?”

Dan Feng smiles, but it doesn’t quite reach his eyes. “Yeah. I don’t think I have much of a choice.”

There’s more to the story, but you don’t get to ask when you reach the stone villa. You see March and Welt sitting on the couch inside, and Pom is anxiously looking upstairs. Knowing exactly where it leads, you glance up. You hear faint conversation but not enough to know what’s going on, but you’re sure that the voices belong to Jing Yuan and his ex.

“What’s going on?” Dan Feng asks, pushing open the door. “Why are you all just sitting here?”

March sighs. “Because there’s a war going on upstairs.”

“Where’s Yanqing?” you ask.

“Upstairs with Jing Yuan and… his ex,” Welt says.

Pom puts some glasses on the table. “Let’s calm down, everyone.”

You take out your phone and see the last text from Jing Yuan.

She found out through Yanqing.

You’re sitting next to Welt when Pom puts a glass of water in front of you. “Everything will be okay,” he reassures.

“Why is Yanqing up there?” Dan Feng asks. “Why are they up there, anyway?”

“She wanted a place ‘to talk’,” Pom says. “Neither of them wanted to go to his place."

“Wait. How do you know this?”

“I… sorta overheard a little bit of their conversation when they got back. They came in, and Jing Yuan said they’ll be using the balcony upstairs.”

March leans back. “God, why’d she have to show up?”

You don’t know if you’ll get a response, but you text Jing Yuan anyway.

I’m downstairs. Is everything okay?

Just then, everyone hears footsteps, and the first person to appear is Jing Yuan. He’s carrying Yanqing who's resting his head on Jing Yuan’s shoulder. The poor kid looks exhausted. Behind Jing Yuan is his ex.

When Yanqing sees you, he lifts his head, and Jing Yuan puts him down. You stand and meet them halfway. Yanqing hugs your knees, and you affectionately pat his head.

“Is he okay?” you ask Jing Yuan.

There's a tired but stern look in Jing Yuan’s eyes. “He’s fine."

Then, his ex walks up to you, ignoring the stares of the others. “Let’s have dinner together.” She crosses her arms. “I have the information that you want, and I’ll give it to you on one condition.” Where is she getting this confidence from? “So, since we’re both here, let’s use the time to get to know each other. Just the two—”

“Enough.” Jing Yuan’s interruption makes the room go completely silent. Then, he shoots his ex a cold look. “Yanqing gave you his answer.”

“This is between me and her.”

“No, it’s not. You’re using other ways to try to get what you want without any consideration for your son.”

“Stop.” Yanqing’s muffled voice sounds desperate. “Stop fighting… Please…”

His ex turns to you, looking a little rattled. “So, we’ll have dinner tonight. Just me and you.”

You clench your fists, but you hold your tongue for Yanqing’s sake. As soon as she walks out the door, March lets out a breath. You still have a comforting hand around Yanqing’s head when she walks over.

“Geezus, what happened up—”

Dan Feng’s nudge makes her stop. He nods at Yanqing who’s still hugging your legs.

“I wanna go home,” Yanqing says, his voice still muffled.

You crouch and put your hands on his cheeks. “Then, let’s go home.”

The car ride back to Jing Yuan’s house is a quiet one. Before you get there, Jing Yuan reaches over and gives your hand a little squeeze. You turn to him, and you can see it in his eyes. He’ll tell you what happened but not with Yanqing in the car.

A short while later, Jing Yuan is making Yanqing a snack in the kitchen. You and Yanqing are in the living room, playing a game of chess, but you can tell from the tired and sad look in his eyes that he’s focused on something else.

“...I made a mistake.” At first, you think he’s talking about the game. “When Dad was driving me to school, he told me beforehand that I shouldn’t call you Mom while she’s here. I forgot, and…”

“Hey…” You sit next to him. “Don’t tell me you’re blaming yourself.”

“Maybe if I didn’t make that mistake, they wouldn’t have fought and…”

Jing Yuan puts a plate of healthy, homemade snacks on the table, and you and Yanqing look up at him. Then, Jing Yuan crouches and puts a hand around his son’s head. “It’s not your fault, Yanqing.”

“But… She got so mad.”

Jing Yuan glances at you. “Do you think calling her Mom is something you shouldn’t do?”

Yanqing looks at you. “Well, if she doesn’t mind…”

You kiss his head. “Of course I don’t.”

Jing Yuan affectionately ruffles his son's hair. "That means it's okay, and you didn't do anything wrong." Yanqing manages a small smile and Jing Yuan affectionately ruffles his hair. “Why don’t you take your snacks and watch some TV while Mom and I have a little talk?”

Yanqing looks from Jing Yuan to you and back to Jing Yuan. Then, he picks up his plate and walks over to the couch. You and Jing Yuan end up in the kitchen where he also prepared you a little something. But food is the last thing on your mind.

“I’ve never seen him so quiet,” you say. “What in the world happened?”

Jing Yuan sighs. “She wants you to leave Yanqing alone. If you do, she'll tell you what you want to know."

It takes a moment for his words to sink in.

“Yanqing never said you were seeing anyone,” his ex said, glaring at Jing Yuan.

"It's not something he should have to tell you."

“I don’t care what kind of relationship she has with you, but she’s not taking Yanqing away from me.” Then, she crouched and put her hand on Yanqing's shoulders. He was sitting on the couch, trying to disassociate from all of this negativity. Jing Yuan never wanted him here, but his ex refused to let him leave as she also wanted to set things straight with him. “Yanqing, Mom will give you a much better life in the city. We recently moved into a bigger house, and a new private school just opened—”

“...I don’t want to go.”

“Why? You can still see your dad, and—”

“It’s not just because of Dad,” Yanqing interrupted quietly. “I like it here, and it’s not like Dad isn't letting me see you. I still visit, but I don’t want to stay there… forever.”

“Yanqing, you’re still too young to understand, but—”

“You say he’s too young," Jing Yuan interrupted, "but at least he knows what he wants." She stood upright, and Yanqing ran over to Jing Yuan. "That might change when he gets older, but stop pressuring him into doing something he doesn’t want.”

“Pressuring him? I’m not! I’m reasoning with him.” His ex scoffed and crossed her arms. “It’s also because of her, isn’t it?”

"Stop saying it's because of her." Jing Yuan glared at her. "Because it's not. You're not respecting him."

She walked up until she was close enough to lower her voice so Yanqing couldn't hear. "I know she's looking for some information. She wouldn't come to me if it was easy to get." She returned his glare with one of her down. "I want her out of Yanqing's life."

“I’m not going to let Yanqing see her anymore." Jing Yuan puts his hands on the counter behind him. "Not alone, at least.”

You scoff. “I’m also not going to give her what she wants.”

A short silence passes where both of you are mulling over your thoughts about what to do with this crazy woman until…

“...But I'll still have dinner with her.” Jing Yuan looks up and sees you leaning against the wall. “She knows that you’ll definitely tell me what happened on the balcony. And, knowing that, I’m not going to run away.”

“If you made up your mind, I have an idea.”

“I’m all ears, General.”

◆◆◆

Jing Yuan drops you off at a nearby restaurant later that evening. As soon as you enter, you see his ex already at a table near the window. Taking a small breath, you walk over. You know she sees you but she’s still looking out the window. You slip off your coat and drape it over the back of the chair. Then, you casually put your phone face down on the table. When you sit down, she finally acknowledges you.

“How long have you been seeing Jing Yuan?”

“I thought we were here to talk about your deal, not my relationship with Jing Yuan.”

She pours herself some wine. “It’s related.”

“What’s your condition?”

She scoffs. “I feel like I’m looking into a mirror.”

You force a smile. "Let's not waste time.”

“Didn’t Jing Yuan tell you? I want you out of Yanqing’s life.”

“That’s impossible.”

“Then, no deal.”

You cross one leg over the other. “Regardless of who Jing Yuan dates, that person will be part of Yanqing’s life. Are you going to refuse whoever comes into their lives? Or, is it because it’s me, someone who happens to work at Star Rails?” A pause as you pour yourself some wine. “I also have other ways of getting what I need.”

“Are you threatening me?”

“Of course not. What would I gain from doing that?” You calmly look her in the eyes. “I’m giving you a chance to clear your name. Everyone thinks Star Rails has something to do with Caelus’s death. You were part of that project. It’s natural that people suspect you.”

“A chance to clear my name? Don’t make me laugh. I don’t have anything to hide.”

“Caelus’s uncle was a stakeholder in that project. You handled everything. It’s impossible not to have met him at least once. That time, you and Jing Yuan were still together and you knew that Caelus was his friend.”

“...What are you getting at?”

"Caelus and his uncle didn't have a good relationship. He even caused a scene at his hotel before meeting you. He must have known long before that Caelus wouldn't accept the offer from Star Rails. So, to succeed, you tried convincing Jing Yuan to convince Caelus to go through with the project. But, that failed. And somehow Caelus ends up dead."

“I didn’t have anything to do with that!” The sudden outburst turns a few heads. Then, she exhales sharply. “Why would his uncle want him to partner with Star Rails in the first place?”

Do you have the right answer? You have no idea. But the one you can think of is the only one that makes the most sense.

“Money. Caelus’s uncle wasn’t happy that his brother left Caelus with everything, including the hotel. Partnering with Star Rails is one way for him to get some kind of control over the hotel. There’d also be potential money under the table.”

“And what would I gain from that, hm? Yes, I wanted the project to succeed, but why would I help him?”

“He knew a guy.”

“I was talking to one of my business partners today, and… he mentioned Caelus’s uncle,” Jing Yuan said. “Not knowing that I know him.”

“What did they say?”

“He was recommending him as a potential partner as he’s supposedly a great businessman and friend. And he also has connections.”

“Wait a minute… Don’t tell me…”

Jing Yuan nodded. “He said Caelus’s uncle has been on good terms with senior management at Star Rails for a long time.”

“Senior management, huh?”

“He could put in a good word for you and help you climb the ranks,” you say.

“That doesn't guarantee I'll get anything. You’re going to have to try harder than that, Honey.”

"Then, why didn't you file the project reports? There wasn't anything suspicious about it other than Caelus's uncle being listed as a stakeholder. If you really don't have anything to hide, why don't you give a clear explanation?"

She’s looking off to the side when she says, “I just forgot.”

You almost scoff, but you don’t hide the disappointment on your face. You thought she would’ve come up with a better excuse than that.

“I have proof that you didn’t just forget.”

You think she’d ask for it, but instead, there's a pause before she says, “...He approached me first.”

Jing Yuan’s ex walked into a restaurant that evening. A stakeholder had invited her to a business dinner, and she'd thought others involved in the project would attend. But when she arrived, there was only one person. He was still dressed in the same outfit from the meeting earlier today.

“Ah, you’re here.”

She sat across from him, thinking whether she should stay or make an excuse to leave. “I thought there would be others joining us.”

He filled his glass and then hers with wine. “Let’s get right to it, shall we?” He picked up his glass and gestured for her to pick up hers. She reluctantly did so.

Clink!

“I’ve heard a lot of great things about your performance," he said, "and this project is apparently a make or break for a big promotion.”

“...Um, yes. That’s right. Does this have anything to do with—”

“My nephew is the owner of the boutique hotel.”

It took a moment for those words to sink in. She shouldn’t be so surprised as they have the same last name, but it was so common that she didn’t think twice.

“Let me tell you now that you won’t have any luck trying to convince him. This project is just an idea… a vision of what could happen. But, it’s not going to work.”

“If you have such strong concerns about it, why didn’t you raise them during the meeting?”

He extends his arms to the side. “Because if I did, the project wouldn’t be a success.”

“What… What are you saying?”

“My nephew won’t partner with Star Rails because our vision doesn’t align with his. Regardless of what happens, he wants to remain independent, and he won’t change his mind. Unless…”

“Are we ready to order?”

You almost frown when you hear the young waiter interrupt Jing Yuan’s ex. When you look at him, his innocent smile almost makes you sigh. After the waiter leaves, you turn back and see Jing Yuan’s ex calmly sipping her wine.

“...You were saying?” you ask.

She puts her wine glass on the table. “There’s nothing else to say.”

There is. You can feel it.

“...Did he have something to do with Caelus’s death?”

“You’re asking the wrong person.”

Are you, really?

“But, I had nothing to do with it."

After a brief silence, you say, “...You asked how long I was seeing Jing Yuan. What about you and your fiancé? How did you two meet?”

She slightly narrows her eyes. “Why are you asking?”

“He told me today that I had no idea what you went through. It just made me curious is all.”

“...Why would he tell you that?”

You look her in the eyes. “You tell me. It sounded like it had something to do with Caelus.”

“Let’s not get off topic. I told you what you wanted to know. Now, it’s my turn. Stay away from Yanqing.”

“This isn’t about me. Have you considered what he wants?”

“He’s too young to understand.”

“About what? You say he’s too young, but even I don’t understand why you want him to stay away from me."

"I don't need another person to be a bad influence on him. I'm already trying to get him out of this godforsaken town." She gives you a cold look. "Convincing Jing Yuan is hard enough. I don't need another person in my way."

"Godforsaken town? Why do you hate this place so much?"

She scoffs. "You haven't noticed? They aren't exactly the friendliest people to outsiders who want to do business here. They're too narrow-minded. I only want what's best for my son."

“Having me stay away from him isn’t going to help your case. It’s a short-term solution to a long-term problem. He may be young, but you should at least respect him.”

“Sorry for the wait!”

You don’t bother looking at the waiter as he sets your food in front of you. You give a nod of thanks just before he leaves. When you turn back, Jing Yuan’s ex is looking at you with a composed expression unlike before.

She looks as if she has something to say, but her phone goes off. After a glance, she says, “So, I take you aren’t going to do it.”

Perhaps you're paranoid, but you turn around. You sense you're being watched. But nothing seems out of the ordinary.

When you turn back, Jing Yuan's ex is already standing and putting on her coat. "Then, we have nothing else to discuss." She calls the waiter over, and there's confusion on his face but he does as he's told. He walks over, glances at you, and packs away her food.

You watch as they walk away. When you glance out the window, you see her cross the street and get into a car. You pick up your phone and turn off the recording that's been going on ever since you sat down. After texting Jing Yuan and knowing he’s on his way, you go to pay for your food. You step out into the cold, scrolling through your phone as you think about what you’ve learned.

You're sure Caelus's uncle has something to do with Caelus's death, and you also have a hunch that Jing Yuan's ex knows something about it if her fiancé's words are anything to go by. Was it the guilt of knowing and not doing anything? Or was it guilt—

Your eyes widen when a hand swiftly covers your nose and mouth. Your phone drops to the ground. Your hands are in a bind behind you. Despite your struggles, your attacker drags you into an alleyway, leaving your phone with an incoming call from Jing Yuan on the cold cement.

Chapter 13

Tag list: @suoshiii @lordbugs @lxry-chxn @seirenspinel @immahuman @queencybow @nqctre @grimreapersscythe @winterpein @asakenajustexistshere

#jing yuan x reader #jing yuan x y/n #jingyuan x you #jingyuan x reader #jing yuan x you #honkai jing yuan #hsr jing yuan

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am-i-the-asshole-official · 8 months

Note

AITA for accepting a date and dumping him the next day?

This story is a few years old, but I still worry about it. I, (17F, though at the time i was 14/15F) had a classmate (14/15M) who I didn't get along the best with. We were both austic/ had adhd, and often clashed because of our different needs. At the time, I had thought we had become rocky friends. He took me to the movies, invited me to his house, and once went to a restaurant with my family on his request, but I thought not much of it. Afterall, I didn't think we were close, we often argued and didn't get along. I'm a blunt and usually low patience person, and he was someone who breached boundaries and personal feelings a lot, and found it funny when I got upset, but I never complained about it because didn't want to cause a scene.

One day, after a sports event, I was putting some equipment away, when he decided to follow me and help me put things away into the gym. It was just us, and it was late into the night. He was in the way of the exit, and started talking about how close we were, and how much I meant to him, until finally asking me out.

I'm not someone who's ever really had much romantic feelings or attraction, and at this point I was a closeted lesbian. It didn't help I was also a very paranoid person, and I'd always heard stories of people who'd refuse others advances and get put in danger and sometimes even killed. It was just me and him in the empty gym with no lights, cctv, or staff inside, and no teachers knew we were there, so I panicked.

I accepted, and he was really happy, but after I made it home, I mostly just felt sick. I really regretted accepting it, because I was now leading him on without meaning to, but I had been scared he would do something, even if it was probably unreasonable of me to think so. The next day at school, he had apparently already told many people in our year that we were dating. I'm a private person, and he hadn't asked or told me he did this.

I had tried to think over what to do the entire day, before telling a close friend that I trusted the whole situation. Since my family were not the kind of people I wanted involved in my life. She obviously told me I shouldn't have accepted, and to dump him, but I wasn't sure how. I'd never been in a relationship with someone before this, due to not having many feelings towards any guys, and this was way too much for me immediately.

He wanted to take me out to lunch at McDonalds, and I asked my friend to come along. The entire trip there, he kept grabbing my hand, when I'm very touch repulsed due to traumas, and also it just being a matter of personal preference. But when I tried to explain this to him, and told him to stop because it made me uncomfortable, he told me all people in relationships held hands, and repeatedly asked why and wouldn't stop touching me.

By the time we got to the McDonalds, he started on a speech about how he really cares about me, and that he'd been dumped before tons of times and couldn't understand why. He talked about how his previous girlfriends would take advantage of his generous nature, and how he'd spend a lot of money on them and give them tons of gifts, and also how his heart couldn't take another breakup. Then he said how I wasn't like them at all, and I would be different, and how much this all meant to him.

Then he went to go order his meal. My friend had been sitting at the table the entire time, and told me point blank I needed to dump him. I knew I should, and I didn't want to lead him on, I just felt really guilty for adding to his list of ex's and after he paid for me and my friend's meal. Since it would look like I had just used him as free food, when I really didn't want any of this.

We had the the things we ordered, before heading back, which consisted of a lot of the same before. A lot of non-consensual hand holding, and general touching, as I tried to explain why I wasn't comfortable with it, while my friend tried to help me. It didn't sway his feelings on the matter, and we made it back to school.

The guilt was really crushing me at this point, and it was the last period before school. My friend was understandably fed up with me, and was telling me to break up with him. I wanted to, but I wasn't sure how to, and it got to the point where she stood up at the end of class and told him for me. I really hadn't wanted her to do that, because no one deserves to be broken up with like that, but I also think I wouldn't have had the courage to break up with him sooner.

He was really upset, and for the next year or so people referred to me as the girl who broke up with him. He was pretty aggressive to me afterwards for a long while, and I later found out from the same friend that helped me that the day I broke up with him, he texted her, asking her out and calling me a "tool" and a "whore" and saying I had been using him. She turned him down, but it upsets me a lot, though I don't know if I had it coming.

AITA for this? I know I was definitely in the wrong for accepting in the first place, and I still feel really stupid for it.

What are these acronyms?

#aita #am i the asshole

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boreal-wood · 8 months

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Alright wise guy, what are your thoughts on the theme(s) of the first Mistborn book. This is literally an excuse for you to ramble about it, have fun.

VOID I LOVE YOU SM

So spoilers for Mistborn: The Final Empire! If you haven't read it, please beware because under the cut, Here There Be Spoilers (and also beware, Very Long post under the cut!)

The big running theme in The Final Empire is trust. Who can one really trust? Is it worth it to put your life in the hands of other people? What says they won't betray you as soon as it becomes favorable to do so?

Honestly this really is what Vin's character arc in the first book is about. At the beginning of the book, she's trapped in a low-level street gang where everyone is always out to get everyone else. Heck, the second time the audience ever sees her use her powers is when she is helping her boss betray a business partner.

Vin's brother has beaten into her the idea that she can trust nobody, not even him. Everyone is always out to hurt her or take advantage of her, and if she does not prove her immediate worth to her group, then at best she will be kicked out.

This, of course, is not helped by the fact that she is part of the literal slave class! Which is a whole nother essay tbh.

Then Kelsier takes her in and everything changes. There's a scene early on in the book, after vin formally joins the crew, where Kelsier and his men are all laughing and enjoying themselves while plotting their Big Plan™. And Vin, who does not trust any of them, is on the outside, quite literally. She's outside the room, watching them plan, wishing she could be included but not allowing herself to, because at this point in the book she still thinks they could betray her at any time.

I think now is a really good time to mention that being a Mistborn is built on secrecy and paranoia. Mistborn are literally the nobility's assassins. They hide their identities under hoods that blend into the mist so as not to be seen. So their powers cannot be used against them or their Noble Houses. In broad daylight they have to pretend to be normal people, or at best, regular Mistings. They can't trust anyone with the truth that they are Mistborn.

(Heck, even a quarter of their powerset- Copper and Bronze- create mistrust. With Bronze, after all, one can hear the allomantic pulses of burning another metal. Copper, on the other hand, blocks that; the use cases for these two metals lies in paranoia that someone else can use their Allomantic powers against you.)

Anyways! So we've explored some of the different aspects of mistrust in Mistborn, so what's the counterargument?

In a word: Kelsier.

Kelsier shakes up everything that Vin believes about how relationships work. He introduces his crew as something different- despite being a thieving crew, they operate under a principle of trust and camaraderie. "My crews rely on trust," Kelsier says at one point. In direct contrast to the dirty, paranoid crews Vin worked with before, Kelsier's crew is welcoming, understanding, and trusting of her.

But Kelsier's trust isn't just talk, either. When we learn that the crew believes Mare betrayed them in their last heist, Vin asks Kelsier how he could love Mare even though she betrayed him. Kelsier answers that given the choice between loving Mare and being betrayed or never knowing her, he would choose loving her. "I'd rather trust my men than worry about what will happen if they turn on me."

In the same passage as above, Kelsier poses a question to Vin: where has she been happier? with the old crews that we built on lies and suspicious, or with Kelsier's crew, who trusted each other and let their guards down? It's a rhetorical question, and the meaning is clear: Vin and Kelsier both are happier for risking themselves in order to be loved.

I don't think I've nearly done this topic justice. There are a million more points I could pull out and point to, but I want to end with my favorite quote from The Final Empire. It's from Vin, in Chapter 32. She says:

“Once I may have thought you a fool, but… well, that’s kind of what trust is, isn’t it? A willful self-delusion? You have to shut out that voice that whispers about betrayal, and just hope that your friends aren’t going to hurt you... Distrust is really the same thing, only on the other side. I can see how a person, given the choice of two assumptions, would choose to trust.”

#I have SO MUCH MORE I COULD SAY ABOUT THIS #but this post was too long already #THANK YOU SO MUCH VOID FOR ASKING #i didn't even get to the part about how allomancy itself is also an act of trust #since yknow. you have to have some level of trust to be able to push yourself through the air #and how Vin's first time steelpushing herself in their air is a literal AND metaphorical leap of faith #I have so many thoughts on this book #mistborn #mistborn the final empire #mistborn era 1 #kelsier #vin mistborn #vin #cosmere #brandon sanderson #i love literary analysis #taking the tools they taught on boring books and putting it into the things im passionate about #literary analysis #taiga says things

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kingofpopmj · 2 months

Text

Conscious Decision

Part 4

July 16th, 1988

This chapter is from Michael’s point of view because I love you all that much!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I think my mom is upset I stole you from her.” I said playfully. Y/N shook her head laughing.

“Well, I am her favorite.” She teased. We were getting ready for the day. Together. For a moment, I imagined we were a normal couple getting ready for work. She was heading off to the hospital while I was off to the office. We lived in a beautiful house in a nice neighborhood. We lived nearby the school, so our kids could ride their bikes. Our kids were kids. We were happy. “She’s not mad. She loves us together.” Y/N added kissing my shoulder.

Thankfully, it took very little convincing to get Y/N to move into my suite. It’s a bit more spacious and more importantly there are two beds. We’ve shared a bed before, but given recent events in our relationship sharing a bed came with added pressure. I don’t want to rush anything and ruin this. This was a lifetime in the making.

As much as I want to completely immerse myself in Y/N, in our relationship, I have to be smart about it. I have to be careful. I’d never forgive myself if I put her in danger. I don’t want to be this paranoid, but so much has changed over the past few years. This life isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. I do my best to adapt to the circumstances without compromising who I am. I’m human. I’m not that different. I’m not weird even though people try mercilessly to label me as such.

I sit on the bed watching her style her hair and I could feel my heart rate increase. I remember doing this exact same thing throughout our relationship. When we were kids I nagged her, sometimes threw a pillow or two to get her to hurry. Then, as teenagers I had to fight the urge to stare- to admire her the entire time. It was some of the best and worst times of my life. We were so close. She was so close yet so far. And now, we’re here, where we belong.

Y/N is my safe haven. She always has been. She’s always the one I run to. When my dad lost his temper. When my brothers teased me. When I felt unworthy. When I felt I couldn’t handle the world watching me constantly. When I let the awful words of the press affect me. As long as I protect her she’ll always be there. She won’t have to struggle to adapt if I just keep her safe.

She’s everything. She’s my everything.

She was the first person I confided in when I noticed discoloration on my chest and legs. She didn’t wince at the sight, she didn’t call me names and above everything she didn’t treat me different. She helped me find the best dermatologist and she was with me every step of the way. I guess that’s one of the advantages of your best friend being a doctor. Y/N made sure I got the best care. She explained everything to me in a way I could understand. She protected me from being poked and prodded at. She refused to let anyone treat me like a walking circus act, which unfortunately has become my new normal.

“I’m ready.” I heard her sweet voice and immediately she had my undivided attention.

“After you my lady.” I smiled holding my arm out for her to take.

“Are you sure it’s okay for me to tag along?”

“You’re only here a few more days. I want as much Y/N time as I can get.” I giggled as we piled into the elevator. I’m accompanied by guards everywhere I go, but lately it’s dawned on me just how abnormal it is. My life has changed so much and being with Y/N I can’t help but notice it all. She reminds me of everything I love. Everything I’ve been missing out on. Everything I never want to be without.

“I’m not ready to leave you.” She said softly wrapping her arms around my waist. She subtly surveyed the small space filled with giant men before pulling away from me.

“Don’t.” I whispered pulling her back into me. Usually, I avoid physical touch, public displays of affection, but that doesn’t apply to Y/N. She has her own set of rules. That means she could do absolutely anything she wants to me, for me, around me and I’m all for it. She makes me feel everything. She makes me feel. No matter what’s going on around us I can be myself with her. Our own little world; my escape. It’s a feeling I thought I’d lost forever, but I was wrong.

“Wait!” I turned to Y/N as the elevator came to a stop. The noise from outside becoming overwhelming as the doors opened. I stood for a moment trying to think. “Here.” I took my jacket off before throwing it over her head.

“Michael, what’s going on?” Her voice was muffled and slightly annoyed.

“Just trust me.” I secured my face mask before stepping out of the elevator guiding Y/N beside me.

“I can’t see.” She complained. “Is this really necessary?”

“I got you.” The screams intensified as we neared the exit. “We’re almost there.” I held onto her as the crowd enclosed around us. There was very little I could do while the guards formed a path to the car. Once the door was opened I helped Y/N inside and climbed in behind her. She ripped the jacket off her head revealing her messy hair.

“Do I have to do that all the time?” She huffed trying to fix her hair.

“Maybe.” I smiled nervously.

“Why?”

“Look, I’m going to shout from the rooftops I have a girl. The best girl. I’m taken as far as they’ll know, but I want to protect you from the craziness.”

“I see. I guess I understand that.”

“They’ll find out everything about you overnight. It’ll be front page news in the morning. True or not. Unfortunately, fabricated stories sell better, so that’s usually what they strive for.”

“Thank you for protecting me.” She adjusted laying her head in my lap looking up at me. “Just like when we were kids. You used to throw dirt at those kids to get them to leave us alone.”

“I may have to bring that move back.” I smiled at the memory. “And it serves them right, especially, that Antonio.”

“Here we go.”

“He had a crush on you and he would bug me endlessly because you were always with me. Then, he had the nerve to ask you to prom in high school. That- that fathead.”

“Fathead?” She laughed uncontrollably. It was music to my ears. “I said no! I went to prom with you.”

“I remember.”

“I like you better without this.” She sat up untying my face mask. “There he is.”

“You’re making me blush.”

“Good.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Dance with me.” I pulled Y/N on stage with me as the band practiced.

“This is very discreet.” She playfully rolled her eyes.

“I trust everyone here. Plus, they really like you. They like us.” I booped her nose making her smile.

“I was thinking about our date tonight. What if we move it to tomorrow afternoon? I mean you’re going to be exhausted after the show. I don’t want to keep you from getting rest.”

“No! No. I already have everything planned. It’s happening. Prepare to be swept off your feet.”

“Oh, Mr. Jackson is that smugness I hear?”

“Nope. It’s not smugness, it’s confidence!”

“Confidence. Is that so?”

“Yes, because I finally got the girl.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The curtain closed behind me and I shrugged off my letterman jacket. As Karen touched up my makeup I looked over to find Y/N sitting off to the side. She was in deep conversation with my mother about god knows what. My mom smirked at me before making my stare known. Y/N winked blowing a few kisses my way. I instantly felt giddy. My face felt hot and I hoped no one else would notice.

“She’s a good one.” Karen whispered to me.

“She’s the one.” It slipped out and even though I meant it. It was a different feeling to say it out loud.

“I think so too.” She grinned clapping her hands. “Your mom and I kept wondering how long it was going to take you two. We almost put a bet together with Greg and the guys. I think it’s great. You deserve someone who makes you genuinely happy. Above all, she loved you before all this, she loves you in-spite of all this.”

“She did. She does.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The drive back to the hotel was about an hour. I couldn’t stop fidgeting. Our first date was minutes away and I needed everything to be perfect.

“Katherine wants to have breakfast together.” Y/N spoke from beside me.

“I think I have some press stuff early, but after works. It’ll have to be a brunch.”

“I’ll let her know. She really wants to see us. She has many questions, but I thought it’d be more fun to leave you to answer them.”

“Yeah, she’s been planning our wedding since we were twelve.”

“You’re lying!”

“I’m not. One day, Jermaine was teasing me because I was too chicken to admit I liked you. He threatened to put the moves on you since I was too scared to do it. My mom lit him up. She threw a biscuit at his head.” I let out a deep belly laugh as I recalled that explosive family dinner. “She told him- well everyone that you were going to be her daughter-in-law one day, but he would not be your groom.”

“Wow.”

“It was the best day. I’ve never seen anyone put Jermaine in his place like that.”

“She’s the best.”

“She really is.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We sat in the car looking out of the tinted windows. The crowds outside our hotel had multiplied, but were slightly more controlled since barricades were put up.

“Michael, there are so many people.” Y/N said in awe. “You should stay out for a bit. Aw, look!” There was a little girl holding up a sparkly pink poster that read ‘It’s my birthday! My only wish is a hug from Michael!’

“Alright, I’m going to have Bill escort you inside.” I leaned in kissing her. I could feel her lips curve up into a smile. Oh, her lips taste like candy. The kiss intensified as our hands began to roam each other’s bodies. Goodness, she’s so addicting. It ended as quickly as it began when a loud knock on the window startled us. I gave her one last look before stepping out of the car closing the door behind me. “Please get her inside safely. I won’t be long wait in the lobby.” I told Bill receiving a nod in return. “Thank you.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Hey there rockstar!” Y/N laughed as I entered the lobby. “Can I have an autograph too?” She pouted.

“You can have more than an autograph.” I teased as my arm found its place around her waist.

“You’re bad.” She closed her eyes as a blush painted over her face.

“You haven’t even seen the half of it.” We laughed loudly as other guests looked at us in confusion. “Let’s go before we get kicked out.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Michael, oh my goodness.”

“I went down to the shop, but I couldn’t decide they were all so beautiful.” I watched as she took small steps into our hotel room stopping to admire each flower arrangement. “I kind of just got all of them. They all have different meanings and each one reminded me of you.” She bent down touching the pedals of a white rose.

“Those mean eternal loyalty, love and new beginnings.”

“That’s fitting.” She smiled sniffing a light pink peony.

“Those mean love, honor and happiness.” Each step she took I was right behind her. The flowers lined the walls on both sides of us making the walkway very narrow, nonetheless, it was a stunning sight.

“Sunflowers mean positivity, strength and strong bonds. Red roses mean romance and passion. The white peony means-“ she twirled around cutting me off with a kiss.

“I can’t believe you did all of this.” She leaned into me. “It’s like my own private botanical garden.” She giggled hugging me tighter.

“The surprises have just begun my love.” I quickly lifted her off the ground throwing her over my shoulder and ran down the rest of the path.

“Don’t you dare drop me!”

“Let’s eat.” I placed her down and led her out onto the balcony. A candle lit dinner awaited us. I walked over to her chair pulling it out for her.

“How did you do all this?”

“I have my ways.”

“I can’t believe you did all of this for me. It’s beautiful.”

“I’d do anything for you.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After we finished dinner we decided to relax outside and do some stargazing. There was the distant sound of the city, but it was peaceful.

“Y/N, I really wish you wouldn’t leave.”

“I can visit again in a few months.”

“Months?” I loudly blurted which startled her. “Sorry.” I avoided her eyes as I stood up walking inside. I didn’t realize how fast I was walking until I heard her voice from behind me.

“You can visit me too.”

“I’m busy. My calendar is booked months in advance. I barely have anytime for myself.”

“Okay.. so what do you have in mind?”

“Stay. Travel with me.”

“Michael, that sounds incredible it really does, but I have a job I can’t just disappear.”

“Quit.”

“I love my job.”

“Don’t you love me?”

“I do love you.”

“Then I don’t understand the issue.” I shook my head falling back onto the mattress. I wasn’t necessarily proud of what was coming out of my mouth, but it was too late to back down now. “Anything you want or need I can take care of. I’ll do everything, anything for you.”

“Michael.”

“Y/N.” I retorted a bit more childishly than I intended.

“I love you. I want to be with you, but I can’t agree to that. I just can’t.”

“Why not?”

“You deserve to have people in your life that are there for you and only you. People that want to be in your life to add to it not take. You have so much to offer from here.” She said placing her hand over my heart. “And here.” She ran her hand along the sides of my head, tucking some hair behind my ear and kissing me sweetly. “I’m yours and I’m in love with you beyond words. I’d do anything for you, absolutely anything, but I draw the line at living off of you. I will not exploit your kindness, generosity, talent or privacy. I will never use you for my own personal gain. I will not take advantage of you. I will never betray you. I will never hurt you.”

I stood still for a moment deep in thought. I wanted to object. I wanted to fight for her to stay, but after that speech how could I?

“I understand.” I sat up looking at the wall.

“You’re upset. Please don’t be upset.”

“I like when you’re here.” I said hastily surprising even myself. “I don’t like being alone.”

“You’re not alone. I’m here.” She attempted to cuddle with me, but I moved away.

“You’re leaving in like two days.” I said, knowingly exaggerating her stay. She’ll be here with me for another week, but it wasn’t enough.

“Michael, it feels like you want to fight with me.” She said sadly. “This transition from friendship to relationship is difficult enough as is. If you don’t communicate with me and tell me what you’re feeling then this is going to be… it’s not going to be good. Please don’t shut me out. I’ve waited for you my whole life.”

“I don’t want to do long distance.” I made it to my feet searching for what to say next. “I don’t want to go months without seeing each other. We’ve done it before, but that was different. We weren’t dating. I had no right complaining about how much I missed you then. I know you’ve worked hard to get where you are now. I’m so proud of you. I just- I want to know what’s going to happen in the future- our future- because I want that- a future with you- what happens when we get married or have kids? Or have kids then get married I mean either order is fine with me as long as I’m with you. It’s really up to you I mean especially the kids part-it’s your body. And then how many kids? I love kids- oh I’d love to have a big family but if we want a big family we should probably start sooner rather than later. I think we’d have beautiful babies, especially if they take after their mother. I mean I don’t know do we want them back to back? I don’t mind either way. And then what kind of house do you want? Where do you want to live? Would you continue to work? Would you quit? What would we name them? I like Prince for a boy- you know like my grandfather. Unless you hate that. Would you be a stay at home mother? Do you have baby names in mind? Would you like Neverland as our home or should I start looking for a new place? I love Neverland, but we could just have it as a vacation home I guess. Can we have a trampoline at the new place? Wait! Do you want to take my last name? I’d love that! Mr. and Mrs. Jackson- so grown up of us- Would you want me to quit what I do? I mean I could be a stay at home dad. Or would you and the kids travel with me? I mean I’m not opposed to-“

“Michael. Honey breathe.” I felt her soft hands on my cheeks and the room stopped spinning instantly. “We can discuss all this if you’d like, but let’s breathe and slow down first.”

I pulled her into me and inhaled the lovely scent of her shampoo. I held onto her like my life depended on keeping her close. I feel myself relax as she ran her delicate fingers through my hair.

“I’m sorry.” I lowly spoke.

“Michael.” Her touch sent jolts throughout my body as she undid the buttons of my top. She looked into my eyes with an expression I’ve never seen before. Oh, I hope this isn’t the last time I see that expression. I could feel what was about to happen. I couldn’t take my eyes off of her.

“You’re beautiful.” I said into the kiss. My blue button down shirt fell to the ground as I felt her fingers fumbling with my belt. I gently held her hands in mine in attempt to slow things down.

“You’re perfect.” Y/N said as she left tender kisses down my neck. She knew exactly what I was thinking. I was afraid for her to see me- all of me- for the first time- our first time. Her hands slid down my chest to the hem of my white v-neck. I felt myself take in a sharp breath as she pulled it over my head leaving me bare. The pads of her fingers traced the uneven marks on my chest- beauty sprinkles as Y/N calls them- and once again I felt her lips against my skin. “You’re beautiful Michael.”

“Y/N?”

“Yes Michael?”

“Marry me.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hunnies!!

Part 4! 🙈

Oh my! This was a challenge. Hopefully I did Michael justice in this chapter. It was fun writing from his perspective.

Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed it!

#michael jackson #michael joseph jackson #michael jackson imagine #michael jackson x reader #king of pop

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literary-illuminati · 10 months

Text

Book Review 39 – Lying for Money: How Legendary Frauds Reveal the Workings of the World

This is one of those books I’d heard mentioned in a dozen different places before I finally decided to read it. I think it was the review in Thing of Things that finally pushed me over the edge and convinced me to read it myself? Very happy I did, even if I had a severe case of deja vu reading a few particular passages (and even if it does suffer from a few of the usual pop nonfiction issues at times).

The title gets across the substance of the book clearly enough; this is, to paraphrase the author, a work of counter-economics. That is, an attempt to illuminate the workings of an advanced capitalist economy by showcasing the sorts of crimes that take advantage of its complexity and parsitize it. It’s nowhere near as dry or academic as all that, of course (Davies keeps up a chatty, conversational sort of tone throughout, and takes every chance to dunk on academic economics as a discipline that presents itself); most of the meat of the book is case studies and anecdotes of particularly famous or illuminating frauds, which are all great reading. Honestly reading about con artists is so fun I should really feel guiltier about how hypocritical my disdain for more traditional true crime is.

The books, if not central thesis, then definitely on of the main things it keeps coming back to, is that the optimal level of fraud in an economy is higher than zero. Fraud is fundamentally an abuse of trust, after all, and if no one’s trust is getting abused, then that probably means that an unjustifiable amount of resources are being spent checking up on every possible thing, and a great deal of productive work isn’t getting done because people are too paranoid to work with each other.

The term Davies uses is the Canadian Paradox. Which is the fact (anecdote, popular wisdom, whatever) that Canada, with its mostly trustworthy institutions and rule of law and developed financial system, has vastly more fraud than, say, Greek shipping (I don’t know why specifically Greek and specifically shipping. Specifically Canada because in the ‘90s the Vancouver Stock Exchange was apparently the most full of scams and fakes in the world). The reason for this being that Canadian investors more or less assume that anyone with a stock listing is probably on the level, because they’re usually right; Greek shipowners, by contrast, absolutely expect to get screwed over if they leave themselves vulnerable, and so do business exclusively with people who they have strong relationships and embedded social ties with. The overwhelmingly intended takeaway being that the Canadian equilibrium is the one to aspire to.

The book’s organized around Davies’ own taxonomy of fraud – he divides the broader category into four distinct (if overlapping) types based on the trust they abuse and so (in a broad sense) are crimes against. Those types being: 1) the Long Firm (neither of the words mean what you think they do here), which is just lying and defrauding someone, buying on credit, reselling and skipping town before the first bill comes due, etc 2) Counterfeiting, of currency yes, but also legal documentation, audited account books, hell even mining samples, providing forged documentation that people trust so they accept your lies 3) Control Frauds, when employees or trustees take advantage of their control over assets to juice the books and manipulate returns in ways that maximize ‘legitimate’ profits for themselves (distinct from embezzlement, which is just taking advantage of control over assets to, well, take them) and 4) Market Crimes, which intuitively might not seem like crimes at all, at least in a moral sense, but are regulated or criminalized or made taboo because people engaging in them damages the wider structure society or the market or capitalism or whatever relies upon.

The types of fraud, you’ll notice, get steadily more abstract and conceptual as you go on – the only thing that distinguishes most control fraud from managerial incompetence and over-optimism is a paper trail showing they knew what they were doing. The only thing that distinguishes a market crime form just, being good at business, is the opinion of whatever jurisdiction your in’s regulatory authorities. One gets the sense that these sorts of tricky conceptual crimes interest Davies more than more straightforward sorts of fraud, and his discussions of them certainly get more philosophical than the mostly technical descriptions of long firms and counterfeiting.

Of course, you don’t really read a book like this for the theorizing – I mean, I didn’t, anyway – but for the interesting and absurd case studies of historical frauds. Of which the book delivers in spades; everything from the ‘salad oil king’ of New Jersey with with his vats of water with a layer of oil floating on top, to Ponzi and his original scheme, to the counterfeiter who destabilized the Portuguese economy sufficiently to pave the way for a reactionary military coup, to the first actually comprehensible explanation of the whole Savings&Loans crisis in ‘80s America that I’ve ever read to, of course, the 2008 Mortgage Crisis.

One trait of historical frauds that gets more salient the more of them you read is that, because many of them involve taking advantage of some since-patched loophole in law or regulation, in retrospect it seems positively absurd that they could ever have worked. The book cautions against this point of view – given how bewilderingly complex the modern economy is, there are doubtless more absurd loopholes and abuses of what people will take on trust now than there have ever been. People just haven't written books about them yet.

Anyways, speaking of 2008 - the financial crisis was a generation-defining event for the people who got fucked over by it, but it clearly did a number on the paradigms of guys like Davies too. It gets a chapter to itself as an ‘innocent’ control fraud. That is, an institutional setup and incentive set that inevitably causes massive amounts of crime even though the people at the top actually profiting from it all are, technically speaking, innocent (and most of the low-level employees doing the crimes are mostly just trying to meet aggressive sales targets and keep their jobs. Which, hardly justifies a lot of the conduct, but they weren't profiting from the enterprise like the managers and executives.) The term Davies uses is ‘crimogenic’ – as in, an environment that incentivizes and will almost inevitably lead to the commission of crimes.

A note on the author – Davies was a regulator and then a market analyst in the UK for much of the early 21st century, and whatever the specifics is clearly someone with an insider’s view of financial markets and investment banking. Not really an apologist – or I mean, he is, to the extent that he clearly considers them useful institutions that do more good than harm for the world at large, and considers the present regulatory setup governing the markets if not just, then at least pragmatically useful. But about the culture and foibles of the financial services industry itself he’s pretty cynical. In any event, as the book goes on he starts peppering in personal anecdotes about how he was personally involved with some event on the periphery of the frauds he’s discussing or saw them happen live, which I mostly found charming but I can see how it would grate.

In any event, it’s a very chatty, casually written book, by a centre-left pro-regulation but incredibly finance-brained guy. So, you know, caveat lector if you’re going to find that totally insufferable. For myself I found it a fun, casual read, and a more educational one that I really expected.

#book review #dan davies #nonfiction #economics

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iwonderwh0 · 2 months

Text

I wanna expand on Emma's character. She likes attention, she likes filming herself. There are piano in their room, so it's practically inevitable that she learns to play it. Who is her teacher? It's possible that it is human as, you know, music, maybe her rich parents think that it's best to learn it from humans. At least, we never heard that household models could teach playing instruments. Or actually, she probably learns using built-in program in the piano itself. Like, we saw this holographic screen when Markus was playing, it must include some learning modes.

She has favourite bands. She probably has some kind of spiritual beliefs, probably not like any specific religion but a mix of some new-age ones, at least their home looks like they are like this, like, if I remember it correctly there are Buddha statues so that's one thing. I think Emma, at least, believes in a few things, like karma and manifestations.

Her wrists are full of those handmade bracelets. Did she make them with someone? Alone? Are those friendship bracelets and there are some friends of her that have them too? She must've made at least one of those with Daniel, and it would be such a nice detail for him to wear one in-game. Missed opportunity. Maybe he took it off?

Daniel was activated for four years (huh, I thought longer, but it's still years though), so his character must've been quite developed for a while even prior to deviancy. Or, actually, maybe he deviated a lot earlier than the day we see him in the game. It is entirely possible that there was another event that made him freak out of his line, perhaps after fucking up and accidentally endangering Emma (they kept it a secret. I headcanon that Emma loves secrets. It makes her feel special), but he just stayed and continued his life with Phillips as if nothing happened without change because he liked it and felt responsible about it. I mean, it's not like he had somewhere to go — he doesn't know about Jericho as was confirmed in the evidence room. But ever since that day of his potential deviation he started to accumulate suspicions and paranoia that tipped over when he found out about AP700.

You know, it's kinda ironic that kids with household androids raise them as much if not more than household androids raise them. For kids those androids are part of their life, for androids it's their whole world (I mean, outside of some additional errands and other family members interactions that I don't think are composing even half of the time androids spend with kids they're looking after). Emma was 5-6 years old when Daniel was first introduced into her life. She must've already had friends and all kind of interests by that time, so Daniel didn't raise her from infancy.

You know, it's possible even that those kinds of androids get jealous of kid's other friends and family members. Daniel definitely feels like a jealous type, I doubt August 15 was his first time feeling resentment. The fact that he became Emma's first choice in four years must've been a really deliberate effort on his part, which, I mean, he spends the most time with her so he had this advantage.

Daniel belongs to the Phillips family but at the same time Daniel developed such a possessive attitude towards Emma as if she was his property. He integrated himself into her life as a "need, not want" and he will take her with him on his death row. He wants to believe that Emma needs him, but the truth is he needs Emma much more than she ever could. And it drives him mad.

Hear me out

What if

What if he was so jealous of Emma's other friends and so paranoid about her distancing herself from him that he cultivated circumstances where Emma preferred him over anyone else. A victory. And he put so much effort competing with other people for her attention that possibly of Emma replacing him with another android never crossed his mind. Until it hit him like an anvil. All of his work was for nothing. All this time he thought of himself as her friend. A person. Competing with other people. Turned out he wasn't even within the same category. He had always been only a toy.

#dbh #dbh emma #dbh daniel #dbh headcanons #detroit become human

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thisisntreaver · 2 months

Note

okay so first of all I want to say that I have absolutely no intention of starting any kind of fight and everyone is fully entitled to their own opinions.

and second of all let me comment on the state of things in fandom spaces that make me feel like that disclaimer was necessary before actually sharing my opinion

but I never really saw Theresa as evil or 100% selfish or anything? I do feel like she actually means well? we know she can see the future, but it's never really explicit how detailed it is and what she does and doesn't see? unless I missed that somewhere.

the way I thought about the whole logan and hobw thing was that she knew that there were only so many ways it was possible for Albion to survive, and she told logan this, but he reacted to the information by becoming the tyrant he did. so then you step up to tske his place, and you're faced with some of the same choices he is. kind of like she can see the different paths there are, and tries to steer people in a certain direction, but she can't force anyone to make a specific decision.

it's like 2 am for me so this might not be all that coherent but the whole thing boils down to this; I think Theresa does know shit about the future, but she doesn't know or forsee everything. so she tries to make certain things come to pass and to prevent others, but sometimes there are still outcomes she couldn't have predicted.

sidenote, which I think is also why she wants the spire, because then she can have greater control and accuracy in her visions

I didn't take this as you wanting to fight, but I do love a good discussion so thats why this reply is kind lengthy. You're also fully entitled to your own opinion on this but this is why I view Theresa the way I do.

So the thing is you are right in your last paragraph. Thats why she wants the spire, she all but says it to us in the see the future dlc, for her visions to be more accurate and have more of a reach.

That is an inherently selfish want though, as much as she tries to justify it, it wasn't a necessity. In order to get it she takes Luciens grief for his wife and child and twists it whispering to him to push him over the edge to be willing to do anything to get them back.

Then she goes and manipulates Rose into buying the music box so that she and sparrow get called to the castle. Rose is very realistic, she says that they could eat for a week, which would be monumental for them, and Theresa fires back with "and at the end of that week you won't be any closer to your dream of being in the castle." She uses Roses childish fantasies against her and it gets her killed.

In only two actions shes absolutely decimated Lucien as a person by taking advantage of his mental state at the lowest point in his life, and pushes Rose to her death by putting it in her head that this music box can change her life.

With Logan and by extension HOBW I do think its a bit more complicated. At that point she could see all the possibilities. She told Logan flat out that the darkness was coming to Albion, immediately after he watched al his men die by the Crawler. It makes him paranoid, and he goes down the tyrant path because he doesn't know what to do, and she isn't really helping him. Then with HOBW she over corrects and doesn't tell them anything, gives them not even the smallest bit of information about the darkness so that they focus all their feelings on Logan, and think hes just evil for no reason, then drops a bomb on them about the darkness. When the hobw is upset about that she tells them "I told you what you needed to know" or in the case you choose to execute Logan and HOBW upset about that she says "well that was your choice."

She is steering people in certain directions. The ones she deems correct with very little thought in how it effects them or what they would do without her input.

Theresas not evil, but she is selfish. She doesn't tell anything she thinks could harm her cause, she manipulates others for her own needs, and she justifys it by saying its fo the good of Albion. But Fable 2 wouldn't have gone the way it does without her initial inferences, and Fable 3 wouldn't have happened at all if she hadn't made the decision that she wanted the spire and that Albion needed it.

#fable #fable 2 #fable 3 #lord lucien #fable theresa #logan fable #fable rose #hero of brightwall

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9toji · 10 months

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could i please request some kind of hc/drabble of what character/s you think would be good at being publicly protective of reader? coming from someone paranoid of men in public, what characters do you think would take a fear like that seriously and make you feel safe?

thank you 💗🙏🏽

‧₊˚✩彡 KEEP YOU SAFE ! — jjk & bllk boys

characters ; gojo, megumi, kunigami (post-wildcard), rin

rina's comments ; i hope you're okay anon! i made this extra fluffy for you <3 i didnt know whether to write for jjk or bllk so i did both! hope you enjoy!! <3

tags ; established relationship, they keep you safe wherever you go

gojo was always the type to make you feel safe and to protect you, there are lots of things he'd like to shield you from but he lets you do what makes you happy, he doesn't want to feel like he's suffocating you. satoru always wants to see you safe and happy after all.

always the type to squeeze your hand in crowds, to make sure you two pass through with ease. being that tall had its advantages, he looks back at you a few times to make sure you're okay and that you're still beside him before leading you out of the sea of people on the streets.

assuring you that you were safe, in case you felt a little worried. “i'm here pretty thing, you're okay.” he whispers into your ear before proceeding to walk to wherever he wants to take you, you two always go out just because gojo loves trying new restaurants that he spots whenever he's away at work but he brings you so you don't feel left out and you get to eat the food he also wants to eat.

satoru spoils you with gifts whenever you two go out, even if you insist that you don't need such things. now, you have keychains dangling from your purse than matches his, keychains of little sushi figures that you two bought from a restaurant that sells them. “now we match!” he exclaims with a cheeky grin and a kiss to your forehead.

megumi isn't protective unless you two are outside, asking you to cling on to his arm while you two walk. and for both your pleasure, he holds your hand which he rarely does at home because his hands get all sweaty but during dates he insists to, so he can keep you close.

even when his hands get sweaty, he grips on to your hand tight. “i'll keep you close, let's wipe my hand off later.” megumi is shy about it, the fact that his hand gets sweaty because even though he's been with you for a while, he still gets a little nervous and shaky about physical touch.

on dates, he takes you to art galleries and small underground cafes. and when you ask about how he knows about such places since they're pretty unknown, he murmurs gojo's name which makes you laugh. knowing that gojo offers him advice too. even when the places you go to have few people inside, megumi is cautious.

“let's go look around, hold on to me.. okay?” your boyfriend asks with a soft tone, placing a soft kiss on your forehead as you two walk around. your hand and his own sweaty hand keeping you two close to each other, wiping his hand down with tissues whenever you two rest and sit down on benches.

kunigami is very protective of you, even when his demeanor doesn't really show it. “stay close.” he huffs indignantly, but there's a faint blush tainting his cheeks as you wrap you arm around him. always the one to give accidental resting bitch faces as he walks down the sidewalk, making him look scarier than he actually is.

he's the type to bring you to cutesy cafes, just because you want to. even to plushie stores where he examines each and every one, keeping you close by with a slight grin. kunigami loves seeing you happy, and so he squeezes your hand, and when you make a little ow! sound, he apologizes. not meaning to hurt you in his little moment of having butterflies.

every person or more specifically men that approach you whenever he goes off to the restroom receives a dirty look or a glare, the severity depending on the situation. his muscular arm placed on the man's shoulder as he gives a very simple, but scary-sounding, warning. “back off, they're mine.”

and when the man leaves, kunigami blinks at him with a confused look. not meaning to make the man extremely afraid of him, he looks to you and smiles. “at least you're safe, let's go?” rensuke asks as he lets you drag him away, inspecting more cute trinkets that caught your eye.

as a soccer celebrity, which rin hated being called by the way.. came with its advantages. not that he gets swarmed by loads of soccer fans but he does ask his bodyguards to accompany you on dates, which is a little awkward but he insists, because it means it'll give you two more room to breathe and it'll mean you'll be safe a lot more.

the go-to dating spots between you two are always expensive restaurants, that serve good food but in miniscule portions. so one day, you ask rin if you two could eat out to somewhere where you can eat more without missing out on good food, and rin contemplates before agreeing. immediately calling his bodyguards to accompany you two.

even with them around, rin always had a hand snaked around your waist to keep you closer. “you're alright babe, we'll be safe.” he looks behind him and sees his guards coughing as if they weren't used to seeing rin display affection, which was true.. since he always has a frown on his face while training or when he's alone. rin scowls and goes a little red, looking down at his shoes before smiling slyly at you.

rin actually enjoys the food at the local restaurant much more than the expensive, really expensive gourmet that serves only little, almost drop like sizes. your boyfriend sighs as he eats with gusto and when he turns to you and grins a little, he says slowly “let's come here more often, love.” wiping away the small spill at the side of your cheek. putting him in a good mood and even smiling at his fans that wait for him outside the small restaurant.

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notmoreflippingelves · 8 months

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It suddenly occurs to me that although "Island of Youth" seems at first a relatively innocuous fun little adventure on the surface, it's actually one of the more quietly devastating Elena of Avalor episodes when you consider it in the context of Esteban's backstory and stop to think about its wider implications. I'm going to put the rest below the cut as it got VERY long and because I do briefly touch on some character headcanons that may be triggering for some people. (warning for some discussion of abusive power dynamics especially as they relate to sexual harassment/coercion).

The episode is set on Esteban's birthday but even though the show does not explicitly remind us of this, this isn't just any old birthday for Esteban. This is specifically during the first birthday that he's had since the liberation of Avalor. It's set during the first birthday in forty-one years (!) that Esteban will be able to celebrate with his family again.

And while Esteban himself is acutely aware of its special significance, the rest of his family is probably not. Because from their perspective, they celebrated Esteban's birthday with him only last year--even if they did so with an Esteban who looks and acts distinctly different from this one. (Elena is the only probable exception as she was the only one besides Esteban to really feel the passage of those long years, even as they did not physically age her as they did him. It's probably why she organizes the surprise party in the first place and charges herself to keep Esteban company while"distracting" him from the surprise).

And though it's only just-barely alluded to in the show itself, this is also the first birthday Esteban's had since he was a teenager--the first birthday in over four decades--where he wasn't eking out a miserable existence trapped under Shuriki's thumb.

His decision to look for the fountain of youth is not the rather pathetic wish of a vain, bitter older man wants to relive some of the glory days of his youth. It's the very understandable wish of a tired, jaded (if also admittedly vain) older man who who never got have a proper youth in the first place--let alone any glory days to cling to.

He did not have the opportunity to squander his own youth, because that youth was taken from him by Shuriki--just as she took Esteban's family, country, and innocence away from him. (And yeah, I know he is partially to blame for his own bad situation, but in Esteban's defense, he was an insecure, frightened and stupid teenager at the time and as a result made the same sort of bad decisions that insecure, frightened, stupid teenagers are wont to make.)

In order to survive--not thrive, merely to survive--under Shuriki's thumb, Esteban was forced to grow up and grow up fast. And grow up in ways that no one should ever have to.

This is true in general but especially true if one tends toward the interpretation that Shuriki may have abused her power over Esteban to take advantage of him in other ways (i.e. sexually) .

In which case, his vanity throughout the show might also have this underlying Freudian excuse undertone to it that Esteban himself may not be consciously aware of. Over the years of Shuriki's reign, Esteban learned to view his looks as perhaps the only thing keeping him alive. So he learned to meticulously maintain his appearance, because as long as he remained handsome, virile and charming, Shuriki would be less likely to have him executed.

And I highly doubt that Esteban would be able to break out of this conditioning--that losing his looks might mean losing his life-- even after Shuriki's defeat. In Esteban's paranoid mind, finding the Fountain of Youth is just another way of protecting himself in the event that Shuriki should return (because there's no way he's not going to be looking over his shoulder for her the rest of his life).

All of which frames his ultimate decision--his choosing to save Elena rather than the canteen of youth-restoring water in a much more complex and noble light.

He's not giving up on a second chance on a youth that he'd voluntarily squandered; he's sacrificing his last opportunity at a real "first chance" of youth on his own terms. Because he recognizes that Elena's life is worth more than the life Esteban never got to have.

He's not reluctantly conceding that his cousin's life is worth more than Esteban's own vanity. He's conceding that his cousin's life is worth more than his own means of survival. In a small, understated way, he's making the choice that he should've made decades earlier: putting his family's safety before his own.

Although the show really doesn't dwell too much on the meaning of this (unsurprisingly), this episode provides a really interesting parallel with the finale. We see early signs that when it really comes down to it, Esteban can be much braver and much more selfless than even he realizes.

#elena of avalor #chancellor esteban #esteban flores #elena of avalor meta #disney #oh no; elves found another blorbo that is more complex than they initially appear or the narrative lets them be #and now you're all gonna have to put with my over analysis of everything #not to mention that this one is in a fandom intended for literal children.#*pats blorbo on the head* this baby can fit so much trauma and psychoanalysis in it

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consumed-by-fandom · 4 months

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MY ARGUMENT FOR WHY LOOK WHAT YOU MADE ME DO BY TAYLOR SWIFT FITS OSWALD COBBLEPOT A LITTLE TOO WELL

So people seemed quite interested in my thoughts on this sooo here ya go! :p

Spoilers for Gotham (2014) obvs

For context the song fits with Oswald’s Season 3 Arc, where he becomes mayor of Gotham and is taken down and killed by Edward after Oswald kills Ed’s ‘weird ass totally-a-clone-of-his-dead-ex’ girlfriend, Isabella. Oswald survives because of course he does, and plots his revenge against Ed for the rest of the season. AND HE FUCKING GETS IT BECAUSE HES OSWALD FUCKING COBBLEPOT

Anyway lets get into the lyrics shall we?

First off, Riddler is known for his games and puzzles, and in particular his whole revenge plan might have been seen as a game to both of them, with Ed seeing it as a strategic game to destroy Oswald, and Oswald seeing it as a childish game played unfairly to Ed’s own agenda. The tilted stage also ties to Riddler’s showmanship and love of being in the spotlight, as well as how, to Oswald’s perspective, he’s putting himself up on a pedestal while criticising Oswald despite everything Oswald has done for him (I think Oswald definitely saw Isabella’s murder as an act of kindness or love, the latter might be canon too?) Oswald being forced to play the fool is pretty self-explanatory, he was thrown through the rings of Ed’s deception and tests none the wiser to Ed being the culprit.

I think even Oswald would have to admit that Ed outplayed him, using everything he knew about Oswald, all his weaknesses and vulnerabilities, to completely ruin his life and prove a point (even if that point got disproven because he accidentally proved Oswald WAS capable of real love lmao) And how Oswald, as paranoid and wary as he is, still did not believe for a second that Ed would betray him. (This is unrelated but Oswald’s trust issues is so sad to see because as the show goes on he gets increasingly more distrustful of others and by season 5 it doesn’t take much for him to go “YOUVE BETRAYED ME I FUCKING KNEW IT” poor lad). Anyway Ed is a pro at shit eating grins, and has no qualms lying to others, something I think hurts Oswald even more because he always believed that they’d be honest with one another (even though he went behind Ed’s back… hes a bit of a hypocrite guys) But Ed is also one to gloat and mock, perhaps even more than Oswald, and he definitely rubs it in Oswald’s face when he reveals that it was his plan all along, that he was behind everything. Stretching a bit with the gun here but I like to think that Oswald believed they were always on the same page, that Oswald would always call the shots so to speak, that he was the one in control. Ironically it was the shot that Oswald took that pushed Ed to take a shot of his own (i am NOT sorry for the wordplay >:] )

Speaking of wordplay. “Isn’t cool” Ahahah. Get it. Cuz. Cuz ed gets… anyway.

What does Oswald Cobblepot do best when wronged? Plan an elaborate revenge scheme of course! He learns from his mistakes, learns more about who Edward is as a person, and also learns not to let love weaken him :,). His revenge against him does what Ed initially did to him - use his flaws and characteristics to his advantage. And Oswald PLAYS HIM LIKE A FIDDLE by practically leading him to his doom, right until the reveal by the pier. Him escaping death is also surprisingly common for him, surviving from the pier not once, but TWICE by this point in the show. Not to mention all the other murder attempts on his life. The list of names would relate to Oswald’s growing enemies, his revenge hitlist so to speak, with Ed being at the very top for obvious reasons.

I think Oswald would definitely blame other people for his behaviour. Like “you made me this way, you provoked me, you forced my hand.” No dude you just love murder and vengeance get over urself. I MEAN he probably knows he’s ‘just like that’ but he’d still blame people anyway lmao.

When Ed got shipped to Arkham for girlfriend strangling and cop killing Oswald eventually got him out so he could be by his side as he campaigned for mayor of gotham, and he was pretty dedicated to being there for Ed as Ed was for him, even including him in paintings and promoting him to chief of staff. He loved him so much, and would do anything for him (even if it meant doing what he thought was for his benefit. Like killing girlfriends.) So naturally Ed ruining his life and then going off and making a name for himself as the Riddler would absolutely piss Oswald off, because to Oswald he had been so generous and a good friend/potential life partner, and this was the thanks he gets? I could also see Riddler’s rise to prominence as something Oswald would be jealous of, because thats his crime spotlight he’s stealing dammit!

Also. Also Ed stole the keys to his heart ahahahAGUGHUGHUHGAHGHH

Gotham is full of drama all day everyday 24/7, I have to imagine even Oswald gets sick of it after a while lol. Anyway he’s very good at losing himself to his own plans and thoughts driven by his emotions, pushing the rest of the world aside so he can solely focus on his revenge. He never forgets a grudge, he always gets what’s “deserved” to him (and he’s actually really good at getting revenge too, using Ed’s eventual sentence as an example). Ironically that also fits with how Oswald got his punishment for Isabella’s death, but now he’s paid the price, its Ed’s turn (and anyone else who Oswald had a vendetta against at the time. Which was probably a lot of people idk Oswald makes a lot of enemies in the show)

Again, Oswald has MAJOR trust issues and this paranoid only grows as the show goes on and more people betray or leave him. He’s also pretty sly himself, and if his plans include completely screwing you over for whatever reason, you better bet he’s going to do it.

As for the latter lyric…

Do i even need to explain this one?

There isn’t much I can link for this it just seems like something Oswald would say lmao

Aaaaaand thats all! I didn’t go over repeating choruses for obvious reasons, but that’s my own brainrot explanation for why this song fits him soooo well. Now if you’ll excuse me i’m going to daydream about the animation that would go to this that I’ll probably never do.

#insane ramblings #analysis #now i just need to find a song that fits Ed’s perspective lmao #gotham tv #oswald cobblepot #edward nygma #nygmobblepot #i wrote all this at 3am #as one does #gotham #gotham season 3 #gotham fox #i put too much effort into this

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sweetlikehoneystingslikeabee · 11 months

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Sorry for all the asks lately but I have to know... what are some relationship turnoffs or deal breakers for (your versions of) Killer Croc, Riddler, Bane, and Harley?

"Dealbreakers" Killer Croc, Riddler, Bane and Harley Quinn

You're all good! I have plenty of asks in my box to keep me mentally distracted from animal hospital work externship and bullshit at my regular job lol.

Note: all of my interpretations actively have the dealbreaker if the person is homophobic, racist, ableist, etc. As well as judgement over criminal careers. So those are a baseline.

TW: suggestive/discussing kinks, brief mentions of abuse

Killer Croc

Obviously the big one is people being Weird about his condition. Either as a fetish or out of disgust. He's experienced both, fetishes creep him out. Yeah, yeah size kink is fun, he's on that. But he's a Person first.

Treating him like he's stupid. Is he the brightest guy? No, he'll be the first to admit to that, but he's not an idiot. Condescending anything will get you nowhere fast.

Mentions of kids, pregnancy kink, stuff along that line. Fill you up, marking you? good. Bringing up his very complicated relationship with genetics and offspring? bad.

Riddler

Ignorance. Stupidity annoys him, yes, but you can teach stupid. Stupid can be changed and molded in the right hands. Ignorance is purposeful and stubborn. Ignorance... refuses to learn. It's the scourge and plague of humanity to a man like himself.

Complete restraint. He's been in full suit restraint at Arkham a number of times and not having that control makes him paranoid and itchy. It's ironic because HE likes tying up his partners and having control but no you can't do it to him. Fuzzy handcuffs and MAYBE light bondage okay.

Shushing him. Oh. That fills him with unbridled rage. If he's in a certain mood, gags are a kinky submissive thing but SHUSHING HIM while he's TALKING? You might as well have told him you don't think he's intelligent. the unmitigated GALL.

Bane

Seeing him only for his physical strength rather than all of him. If someone were to treat him as if he were just a brute for example. Instant relationship killer. Ogling his strength is fine and good but there's a fine distinctive line there.

Most forms of roleplay. He doesn't really... get it? Logically, he understands the why, he doesn't feel any emotional connection or attachment to it. Police or prison roleplay is something that will make him actually angry. If he's going to have sex with you, he wants sex with YOU.

Spooky stuff. Look, he knows what he looks like, he knows who he works with at times. That adrenaline that makes people horny and fun when they get a little spooked at movies or haunted houses? No, he wants to punch a wall when he's startled. Do not try moves on him.

Harley

Anything that's a potential red flag for abusive behavior. Trying to isolate her from friends and family, breaking her things, raising your voice a certain way- She is very careful to try and not show big visible reactions to triggers because of how others could take advantage of that but if you know you can see how it bothers her.

Telling her she's weird and meaning it in the negative. Been there, done that, get on her level, loser!

Anyone who dislikes Ivy. Sorry, Pamela is a part of the package, even if it's not romantic/sexual. She's the reason Harley is alive in the present, Poison Ivy's not going anywhere.

She's really not into pain as a kink. Sparring is a separate thing and that can lead to other things- Hurting her during sex is a hard turn-off. Reminds her way too much of Joker and his bullshit.

#killer croc #riddler #bane #harley quinn #x reader #foxwriting

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animeyanderelover · 2 years

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May I request Tendou, Chuuya, Aomine, Kageyama, Karma, and Tanjiro with an S/O who has a skin condition called Vitiligo and is called names becuase of it.

I'm no expert so forgive me and tell me if I misunderstood anything!

Vitiligo: Vitiligo is a skin disorder that causes the skin and even hair to lose color. It is caused by the lack of melanin in cells.

Tw: Yandere themes, unhealthy mindset, unhealthy relationship, possessive behavior, obsession, protective behavior, delusion, bullying, warning, threats, violence, manipulation, sabotage, isolation

S/o with Vitiligo gets called names

Tobio Kageyama

🌧️He might have never stumbled across the term Vitiligo before, he can only guess the really obvious from the lighter skin patches on your body. That makes him a bit insecure and even if you tell him that your condition is nothing life-threatening, he's quite uneasy without knowing better about it though knowing that it's nothing lethal has him feeling a bit more relieved. He does his best to help where he can though, especially since the medical terms such as lack of melanin and certain therapies you might receive are above his understanding. On sunny days he always makes sure that you apply sunscreen to prevent a sunburn on the sensitive patches of white skin. Tobio also grows more paranoid, afraid that he might say something that hurts you due to your skin disease and is always frantically apologizing when he thinks that he did.

🌧️Especially once Kageyama notices the rude stares and unkind words from others is he really careful with what he says and how he treats you. Above everything else he gets mad though at anyone who dares to do this. As soon as he hears someone throwing a remark at you, he turns around in a frightening speed, a dark look on his face. It's not uncommon for him to start shouting at someone in public, towering over them with an intimidating glare. He's extremely sensitive at one point, especially because you suffer from all the insults and names that it escalates to the point where he's about to physically engage in a fight if it wouldn't be for you holding him back. Tobio grows paranoid to the point where he doesn't want to let you go under people anymore, his heart can't take more of you feeling more and more insecure about yourself. He's overbearing, frets over you as soon as you look a bit down and glues himself to your hip. His affection and praises increase in an attempt to smother you in his love and adoration to make you feel better about yourself.

Satori Tendou

❤️Tendou is at first more of a stalker but does his research nevertheless about his darling. Vitiligo is a new word for him but it doesn't discourage him to learn what it means, hours are spent watching documentaries and reading articles about how he can help you. This knowledge before he even dares to approach you helps him a bit once he is your boyfriend since he already knows what he has to do though he's aware there are certainly things he still doesn't know. Supports you through whatever therapy you might take in order to help a bit with your skin condition, even if there is no cure for it. Satori might feel frustrated with the lack of help he can provide sometimes so he just helps in all other aspects of your life as good as he can. Honestly, he's so sweet and doting albeit quite clingy at one point.

❤️He's been called names for his looks too which is why he can sympathize with his s/o more on a personal level. Yet seeing and hearing it is infuriating. He's fine if he's being bullied but bullying his darling is entirely different and awakes the inner sadist he reserves for everyone who hurts s/o. Tendou takes full advantage of his height, his creepiness and his looks and he really does enjoy when he scares others away. He grows rather shameless. He's also quick to abandon his initial insecurities if he's enough for you when he realizes that you're being insulted and that he has no time to feel so insecure when his darling has it worse than him. As a worshipper, Satori attempts to do about anything he can to cheer you up. He constantly tries to make you laugh when you're down and is very verbal about his adoration and love for you. Always prepares you your favorite meals or buys you a small present to cheer you up and constantly showers you with kisses and cuddles. He's a bit toxic though because he manipulates you to stay inside the house with him.

Daiki Aomine

💙He's on the rougher side before he softens up due to his obsession but Daiki feels guilty because he sort of stared impolitely the first time he saw his darling. He's apologetic ever after. Since Aomine is on a protective side, he's bound to want to know more about your skin condition though he definitely is overwhelmed with the amount of medical terms. At least he's stubborn so give him credit for his persistence. Due to his very protective nature, there is maybe initially frustration that he can't help you as much as he'd like to do and even the fact that Vitiligo can't really be cured and that you have to suffer with comments and rude stares. He's mad but soon realizes that his s/o might wish more than anyone else that their skin would look normal which is why he feels bad again, seeks out Momoi and constantly asks her what he can do to make up for it.

💙He's been a bit the same initially, he's witnessed the lingering looks and heard the rude nicknames you've been given due to your skin. To say that Daiki transforms into an aggressive guard dog is a bit of an understatement. He barely leaves your side, has always an arm wrapped around you and throws scary glares at anyone whose gaze lingers too long. His demeanor alone is enough to scare off many already but if someone actually insults you in front of him, he's throwing hands. It's likely for him to grab someone by the collar and even if you interfere, he forces an apology out of them before warning them that the next time they won't be lucky. If his darling isn't with him, he might actually throw a punch. Daiki grows rather uncomfortable to have you alone outside if he isn't with you, calls Momoi so she can accompany you. His mood gets affected by you, he's more irritable if he knows that you're insecure. Tries about anything he can think of, from kissing your skin with the discolored areas to doing everything you want as long as it makes you happy.

Nakahara Chuuya

🟠He doesn't really care about looks since you've captured the Port Mafia's heart with your personality and own quirky charms. Chuuya even dares to say that he finds that you possess a unique beauty due to your discolored skin though he holds that statement back, unsure how you'd feel about it. He's a charmer anyways so he's sure to make your heart race in other ways, you're his gorgeous doll after all. He's clueless about Vitiligo as well and whilst at first worried about the fact that it's a skin disease, he calms down when he gets to know that it's nothing lethal though he has to watch out for the sun since your skin is sensitive. Chuuya is persistent to take over the bill for the therapy though. Now that you're his, he sees it as his responsibility to care for you, insists on paying even if you protest. He knows that his darling has it rough, he plans to change that.

🟠Best of luck insulting his precious babe because not only is Chuuya very protective, he's also a certified hothead who is skilled in hand-to-hand combat. Not only that but he is aware of your history with being bulied and called mean names, knows that you suffer from insecurities and hate yourself for your looks sometimes and it drives the poor man crazy. Chuuya turns as a response extremely violent with everyone, afraid that you'll only end up getting dragged down more. Bones are broken and blood is being splattered around yet he doesn't feel an ounce of guilt for any of them. He's more terrified to be under too many people due to that, convinces you more than just once to do something that only requires you two since neither of you two have a good time as soon as you notice the whispers and stares you're given. Chuuya becomes more smothering himself when he's more paranoid, admits to you that he finds you even gorgeous with your discolored patches, spoils you with lavish presents and pretty clothes to show you how dazzling you really are.

Akabane Karma

🔴Karma probably ends up mentioning darling's look upon first meeting one way or another, even if it isn't exactly to insult them. They catch his eye due to their unique appearance, he's a bit curious about them yet once he's fully invested it's the start signal for his obsession. Chances might even be that he knows what Vitiligo is though the therapy is still unknown to him. As obsessive as he is, he goes out of his way to find out about everything he can though, he has fun whilst being obsessed with you, it's creepy. Even in a relationship he still teases you for your skin though he backs down and apologizes if he notices that he's struck a nerve. He's definitely mean enough though to actually say something with the intention to strike your insecure side, specifically when you're very close to someone or he's mad with you about something.

🔴Whilst Karma makes use of your insecurities for his own good, he won't exactly permit others to do the same. It's quite obvious from the first time that he saw you that you're probably meeting jerks who don't know how to shut up but it becomes personal once you're his s/o. He's mischievous yet seems to at least think that he only is being mean when you put up too much of a struggle against him, everyone else is just being a tasteless moron though. Karma is actually more protective when someone he cherishes is involved and he's a little devil, a sadistic one to top it all. He doesn't lash out, instead has a gleeful and cocky smile on his face, provokes someone by stepping closer whilst whispering his threats and if they try to throw a punch, he flips them over, might break intentionally a finger or two. Who knows, he might even carry a knife around and make use of it, in either case he enjoys tormenting someone who doesn't know when to shut up. He's weirdly nice, sometimes even coddling, after such incidents to you, treats you something you wish for.

Kamado Tanjiro

❤️Tanjiro approaches his darling with an open mindset, is incredibly nice and never mentions anything hurtful about your appearance. He's curious but doesn't want to be insensitive since he can imagine the jeers you had to go through due to your discolored skin so he either waits until you tell him or he feels like he's close enough to you to not come over as disrespectful by asking. Listens sincerely to what you tell him, does his own research and might even ask Shinobu if she knows more. Incredibly supportive himself, Tanjiro is quick to do about anything he can do to support and help you. He's basically itching to somehow help you somehow and that isn't quenched by merely ensuring that you don't suffer from sunburns or accompanying you when you head to the hospital for your therapy. Tanjiro literally ends up doing chores and stuff you didn't even ask for.

❤️He's the friendliest whenever someone can't help but slip a comment about your appearance. He's still quick to call out whoever made such an uncalled-for statement, demands an apology before leaving whilst busily trying to lift your mood. If a person apologizes because they realize their mistake, Tanjiro won't even hold a grudge. If he's faced with someone who thinks that it's fun or someone who has a past of bullying you, there's a firm look in his eyes. If Inosuke and Zenitsu are with him, he asks them to go somewhere else with you whilst he deals with the person. The feeling he's giving of is a bit unique to describe, he's neither scary nor really intimidating. His tone is firm and the look in his eyes is piercing, something just makes the other person uneasy at one point. Encourages his darling to talk about their insecurities and fears, he imagines that it must be difficult to keep everything bottled up inside and is always willing to listen. He's a sweetheart, picks flowers for you or prepares your favorite snacks. Also lets you hang out with his two friends and sister since they're chaotic but bound to make you laugh in some way.

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