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pink-sparkly-witch · 7 months

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The One That Got Away - Chapter Thirteen

Warnings: tw: child abuse, tw: physical abuse, tw: mentions of fire, tw: minor character death, tw: funeral, insecurities, self-doubt, a little fluff.

Word Count: 1.6k

Pairing: Firefighter!Dean Winchester x Female Reader

A/N: There are TRIGGER WARNINGS in this part - please heed these, and if you think you’ll be affected by any of them, please do not read.

You can catch up here!

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The fire in the abandoned warehouse had kept Dean and his crew out all night, only finally getting it under control as the sun broke out over the horizon. Arriving back at the firehouse, weary and covered in soot and sweat, Dean felt his insecurities take hold again.

“Captain, a word?” Bobby grumbled.

“Yeah, sure,” Dean replied, trying to keep his exhaustion out of his tone. “I’ll hang my gear up and be right in.”

Knocking on the door, Dean leaned against its frame and waited for permission to enter the Chief’s office. He couldn’t have stood up straight if he wanted to. His muscles were screaming at him from battling the warehouse inferno.

“Come in, and close the door behind you,” Bobby grunted, looking as tired as Dean felt.

“What’s up, Chief?” Dean said as he sat across the desk from his boss and mentor.

“Good job at the warehouse, Dean. You and your team did great tonight.” Bobby’s words of praise were scarce. His actions usually spoke louder than he did, so he meant it whenever he voiced how good of a job had been done.

“Thank you. I’ll pass that on to the crew. They’ll appreciate hearing that.”

“I also wanted to say that the paperwork can wait a while. The relief crew will have a lot of work to do to make the structure safe or have it condemned. It’s likely to roll into the next shift, so go home, eat, sleep, and come in tomorrow at some point and file your initial report,” Bobby said.

“Thanks, Chief. I’ll check in with everyone and make sure they’re good. A few bumps and scrapes happened in there, and I wanna make sure no one needs medical attention.”

“You’re a great captain, Dean, and it won’t be long until you’re sitting in this chair,” Bobby nodded his head to gesture at the seat he was sitting on. “And you’ll have my full backing.”

“Thanks, Bobby.” Dean shifted forward in his seat and sighed. “I hate to ask, but I haven’t heard from Y/N since we had our date the other night. Is she okay?”

The second the words were out of his mouth, and he saw Bobby’s face pale, he knew his insecurities were correct. He knew his second chance with her was over. He could feel it. She’d gone back to Chicago.

“She didn’t tell you?” Bobby’s voice was much softer than Dean had ever heard it before.

“Tell me what?” Dean asked, trying to stay calm and not let his emotions show.

“Danny passed away the night before last,” Bobby said solemnly.

Dean felt like the worst person in the world, questioning why she hadn’t called or contacted him when she was dealing with who knows what.

“She got a call from the hospice not long after you dropped her home. She went straight there and stayed with him until he died. I’m sorry, Dean. I thought you knew.”

“No, I had no idea,” Dean ran a hand down his face and huffed out a sigh. “How is she?” Before Bobby could answer, Dean’s phone chimed, and he pulled it from his pocket. “It’s Y/N.”

Y/N Hey, I’m sorry I didn’t reply sooner. My father passed away and I’ve been getting things arranged. I’ll call you in a couple of days when things calm down a little xx

Dean Sweetheart, I’m so sorry. If there’s anything I can do or anything you need, call me xx

“You’ll be there for her, won’t you, son?” Bobby asked, and Dean didn’t hesitate with his answer.

“Of course. Whatever she needs. Anything. Everything. Always.”

“Thank you. You were always her go-to person. She always relied on you and trusted you. I doubt that’s changed, and I’m worried she’ll take it harder than we think,” Bobby cleared his throat to rid himself of the building emotion.

“Now go home, Captain. Get some rest and check in on our girl.

The call from the hospice came almost immediately after Y/N had read the goodnight text from Dean. She’d rushed straight there when they told her father wouldn’t last the night.

When she arrived, Y/N was ushered straight to his room, and as she saw her father for the first time in twelve years, she felt sorry for him. He was a shadow of the man she knew back then, looking years older than he was and much frailer than she could’ve ever imagined.

“Y/N?” her father’s hoarse voice made her heart stop, but she fought with everything she had not to flinch or show him any fear. She’d shown enough weakness to this man and would be damned if the last thing he saw was her fear.

He holds no power over you. Not anymore. Repeated over and over in her head like a mantra. When she believed it, she took a deep breath and stepped further into the room.

“I’m so sorry, pumpkin,” her father said, holding his hand out. “For everything.”

Y/N sat in the chair next to the bed and took his hand. She didn’t want to speak to him, so she remained silent. She knew she’d never forgive herself for letting her father die without a small piece of comfort. Even if he was a monster, no one deserved to die alone.

It was the same reason she’d come at all. She knew the guilt would haunt her for the rest of her life if she hadn’t been there and at least tried to get the closure she needed.

Neither spoke and as her father took his last shaky breath, Y/N silently accepted his apology and cried tears of relief that it was finally over. She could forget all about him and move on with her life.

“Y/N?” Bobby’s concerned voice answered her late-night call.

“He’s gone.”

The next few days went past in a blur. Y/N had organised the funeral, not bothering to pass around the details, knowing no one but she would attend. She’d also hired a company to clear out his house and lawyers to deal with everything else. It’d be a cold day in Hell before she’d step foot on the street she grew up on, never mind the house.

Once the lawyers had checked the house for paperwork and anything of value, the clearing company was instructed to get rid of everything. She’d already taken some of her mom’s jewellery when she left for Chicago; it was all she’d wanted, and that wouldn’t change now, so why trawl through it all?

Standing alone at the freshly dug grave, Y/N listened to the birds singing more than the minister's prayer. She’d lost any faith in a god when her father broke her arm for the third time.

“Hey,” Dean’s voice pulled her from her thoughts.

“Dean. Hey,” Y/N couldn’t hide her shock that he knew the date of the funeral, let alone came. “What are you doing here?”

“You have no idea what I had to do to find out when and where this was!” he chuckled softly. “I’m here for you and only you, Princess. Not him. We all are,” Dean said as he held his hand out for her to take if she wanted to. She did, weaving her fingers through his.

“We?” she asked as she squeezed his hand gently. Dean tilted his head to the side, indicating she should look behind her.

Turning, Y/N saw Bobby, Jody, John, and Mary hanging back by the trees. “You didn’t need to come,” Y/N smiled softly at the group before turning to face forwards again.

“We came for you,” Dean reiterated.

“I’m here for me, too. I wasn’t going to, but you know, closure.”

“How are you holding up?” Dean asked, his eyes on the dirt being thrown into the grave.

“Am I a terrible person if I say I’m good?”

“No.” Dean’s answer was instant. “I think it’s completely understandable. That man put you through hell, and now he’s gone. You can rest easy now, sweetheart.”

“He apologised,” Y/N said, and Dean stayed silent. He knew her, knew she wasn’t finished and was replaying the memory again before voicing it aloud.

“His last words, just as I got to him, were, ‘I’m so sorry, pumpkin. For everything.’ I wasn’t expecting it, and I didn’t expect to feel so much relief at hearing him say it, you know? It’s like the final validation that it wasn’t my fault.”

“C’mere,” Dean whispered, pulling her into a desperately needed and comforting hug.

Dean kissed her forehead as he pulled back slightly and smiled softly. “Are you ready to go, or do you need some time?”

“No, I think I’m good.” Y/N sighed deeply and turned her back on her parent’s graves, possibly, she thought, for the last time.

Her mom’s grave was a place Y/N went to a lot when she was a kid when she missed her mom or needed to get out of the house. Whenever she visited, she’d tell her everything about her life and what was going on, but she knew that now her father was resting next to her, it wouldn’t bring her the same kind of peace it once had.

Dean followed her home and insisted he stay with her for a few hours. She’d probably never admit it, but she was grateful for that. There were a lot of emotions swirling around her and wanting to be felt, and she didn’t know what was up and what was down with it all.

They ordered pizza and drank some beers, and Dean listened when she wanted to talk and stayed silent when she withdrew into her thoughts. He stayed close enough to place a comforting hand on her thigh or on her shoulder or take her hand, but not close enough that he smothered her.

Dean made sure she was okay before leaving her apartment later that night. If he was honest, he only left her because they both had early shifts the next day, and she insisted she was fine. He promised to call her in a few days to arrange their next date and made her promise to call him if she needed him, and reluctantly went home.

Y/N went back to work the day after the funeral, not feeling the need to take any more time off than necessary. She certainly wasn’t grieving, so there really wasn’t any point in taking bereavement leave from the hospital.

Everything felt surreal but in a good way. The last time she remembered sleeping so well was when she last slept in Dean’s arms. She felt lighter than ever, and the weight that used to lay heavily on her shoulders had lifted. It was strange to have become so used to the tension and the tightness in her body that she didn’t even know it was there. It felt like she’d lost 100 lbs, and it made her giddy.

When her shift was over, and she got her cell phone out of her locker, the number of texts waiting to be read filled her chest with warmth. And as Y/N read through all of her family and friends messages that were just checking in, she felt loved and cared for.

Coming home might have been the best decision she’d ever made.

Next Chapter >>

Tags: @acitygrownwillow @akshi8278 @ashbatz @candy-coated-misery0731 @chriszgirl92 @deans-baby-momma @deans-spinster-witch @deansbbyx @deanwanddamons @duncanhillscoffeecups @foxyjwls007 @giggles1026 @globetrotter28 @hobby27 @hoboal87 @impala67rollingthroughtown @iprobablyshipit91 @jackles010378 @jamerlynn @jc-winchester @k-slla @kazsrm67 @kmc1989 @lacilou @ladysparkles78 @leigh70 @lyarr24 @maliburenee @michecolegate @mrsjenniferwinchester @nancymcl @negans-lucille-tblr @nelachu2423 @octoberclidan @perpetualabsurdity @roseblue373 @sandlee44 @sexyvixen7 @snackles87 @spnbaby-67 @spnwoman @stixnstripesworld @stoneyggirl2 @suckitands33 @synmorite @tristanrosspada-ackles @twinkleinadiamondsky @waters-2567 @winchestergirl1720

#the one that got away #firefighter!dean winchester x reader #au dean winchester x reader #tw: child abuse #tw: alcoholism #tw: physical abuse #tw: verbal abuse #firefighter!dean winchester #dean winchester x reader

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leclerced · 6 months

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ok ok ok so just imagine oscar does come around but y/n is still a bit closed off coz ya girl is hurt and oscar starts doing his lil acts of service to show he cares bcuz he's not a talker. like always shows up with her fave coffee order, sends flowers to her work, buys her a lil mclaren teddy to cuddle when she's too grumpy to cuddle him instead 🥹

crying over the teddy bear.

she’d secretly embroider his initials and number under the hoodie, right over where it’s heart is, and its her little secret no one will ever find out about. she takes it everywhere with her after he gifts it to her and she’d secretly spritz it with his cologne in the mornings after they leave for the day, if she isn’t going with them to the track or they’re back home during the off season.

he’s got a way with words when he’s inside her, knows just the right thing to say to make her fall apart, but outside of that he doesn’t have much to say. it frustrates her at first, when he’s not as forthcoming as lando is. she’s shocked by how different they are, when they come back from work and she asks how their days went. good or bad oscar just says same as usual or it was work as he cuddles up into her, head on her stomach, while lando spends an hour telling her every little detail. she listens intently while playing with oscar’s hair, nodding along and asking appropriate questions. oscar wishes he could talk like lando, but he just can’t, doesn’t really have anything to say, so he’s grateful his teammate is there to fill the silence while he relaxes into her.

he’s not good with words, but he’s good at showing he cares in every other way. he can read her better than lando can, knows what she’s thinking before she says it, finishes her sentences all the time. she finds it endearing the way he can read her mind, and can answer any questions she has. i know he’s said like, he would be an engineer if not a driver so i know he’s got brains, but also i feel he’s like weirdly smart in that he knows a lot about random things you wouldn’t expect, so she starts treating him like her personal google. he’s got an incredible memory when it comed to her, she’ll passively mention something and months later oscar has it for her, says he just saw it and thought she’d like it. she’ll mention she likes a certain body wash and he starts buying it for his apartment. he buys her perfume and lotion too for his place without mentioning it, she’d just stumble across the new bottles in his medicine cabinet one morning, right next to his cologne and daily moisturizer. he’d keep all her favorite snacks in his pantry and fridge too, he’s not good at cooking so they’re pretty much bare otherwise, so knowing he specifically goes to the grocery story just so she has snacks when she visits makes her heart skip a beat.

he always knows what she wants for breakfast when she wakes them up whining about being hungry and places an order for delivery while her and lando are still debating what they want. he’ll drift in and out of asleep, half listening to them try to decide for half an hour what to eat, then their food arrives. theyre confused when they’re back home, neither of them expecting company so early, and when they’re at a hotel during the season, she shouts that they don’t need house keeping while oscar rolls out of bed and puts on a pair of sweats to retrieve their breakfast. her and lando are always surprised, like it doesn’t happen every other morning. she trades them bites of their breakfast in exchange for kisses until she’s full and is pushing the food away even if they’re not finished bc she’s suddenly in the mood for something else.

#ask #anon #blindfold universe

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nova--spark · 5 months

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Alright I’m back from work and have recharged my battery! Time for more headcannons!!!!

Cuddling! Now that the bots are human they can hug the Jasper trio without fear of crushing them!

Optimus Prime: Op is more reserved when it comes to touch. It’s not that he doesn’t like it he just doesn’t want to make anyone uncomfortable. Not to mention back when he was Cybertronian he was the largest, so he was afraid of hurting someone. He’ll almost always asked before hugging someone and make sure he’s in their direct eyesight before touching them so he doesn’t startle them. Optimus gives the best hugs though 9/10 you usually have to ask for them. Elita, Bumblebee, Smokescreen and the Jasper Trio are the most common recipients. Arcee and Ratchet sometimes receive them but their much more prideful when it comes to that sorta thing

Elita-One: Elita’s love language is physical touch. Prove me wrong. You’ll always find her holding hands with Optimus, though she’ll keep more intimate stuff like cuddling or kissing private, mostly for Optimus’s sake. Op already blushes like crazy when Elita holds his hand, if she kissed him in front of the other he would die on the spot. She’s also the most likely to initiate a family cuddle session with Her, Op, Bee, and Smoke (and sometimes the Jasper Trio will join in). She’ll also give little forehead kisses to her children

BumbleBee: Takes after his mom in that he adores physical touch. He’s always willing to give a hug, even when not necessarily asked to. Which back when he was Cybertronian embarrassed Team Bee to no living end. He also likes to ruffle Raf’s hair something he protests to since I can imagine it takes him awhile to style it like that.

Smokescreen: He is so awkward when it comes to physical touch. He wants it but he’s been so long without it he doesn’t know how to process it now that he has a family willing to hold him. Touch starved boi. He gets super embarrassed when Elita or Bee hug him. And when Elita wants family cuddles he’ll usually just sit next to them awkwardly until someone pulls him into the pile.

Ratchet: Not a fan of physical touch but not completely unwilling to give it out. It just has to be on his terms. He doesn’t like being hugged out of nowhere, you need to ask him first and most likely prepare for the answer to be No unless he’s in a really good mood (or your Optimus). If he initiates it usually it’ll just be a comforting hand on the shoulder or knee. It’s hard to get a hug out of Ratchet. The last time anybody saw Ratchet hug someone was when Bee lost his voice box.

Bulkhead: Two word. Bear. Hug. If Bulk is gonna give you a hug he’s gonna go all out. He will pick you up, and if he’s particularly happy he’ll swing/spin you around. The only person who can match him in hugging strength is Miko. He has a little more restraint than someone like Wheeljack so he won’t hug someone like Ratchet or Ultra Magnus if they are truly against it. But otherwise no one is safe from a Bulkhead bear hug. It could happen anytime. anywhere.

Wheeljack: Wheeljack is similar to Bulkhead but with slightly less respect for boundaries. Don’t get me wrong, if you really don’t want to be touched he’ll respect that, he’s not that kind of asshole. But he won’t really ask for permission to touch someone which has occasionally led to him getting yelled at by Ratchet, Ultra Magnus, or Arcee for hugging them when they weren’t in the mood for that. He’s much more playful when it comes to touch, he’ll pick up the kids, hurl them over his shoulder, swing them around. And they have a blast. With the autobots he’ll give them a hardy slap on the back which will send most of them stumbling forward. He’s also been known to smack Bulkhead’s ass. Bulk is the only one he does that to and Bulk doesn’t care

Arcee: Arcee is much more wary about touch. She was always the smallest in a group of much larger mechs. They’re all good mechs but some of them don’t know their own strength (*cough**cough*Bulkhead*cough**cough*). It’s much easier for her to get hurt. So if you don’t want to get punched in the nose you will approach Arcee from the front, make sure she knows you’re there, and ask her first if she would like a hug. If you’re in public expect the answer to be no unless you have really good puppy dog eyes like Bee. If you two are in private she’ll usually say yes but if you tell anyone she’ll hunt you down and skin you alive. Arcee likes physical touch but she has to protect herself and her reputation first and foremost. Also Miko snapped a picture of her and Jack asleep with Jack resting his head on Arcee’s shoulder. Though Miko does have some self preservation so she’ll probably take that picture to her grave

Ultra Magnus: No Touching. Nope. Don’t try it. You will get lectured, by multiple people. The most you could ever hope for is a hand on the shoulder. Otherwise… No. Touching.

I already said it on Discord but WHEELJACK PLEASE--

I love this.

Cherri you are too good to me I swear

#mortal machines #transformers #maccadam #maccadams #transformers prime #tfp #tf prime #nova writings

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catchyhuh · 6 months

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annoying habits

originally this was a tiny one sentence a piece thing but the more i thought about it the more i was like good god. these people are insufferable! pet peeve central right here

lupin:

as we have previously discussed he just cannot sit still. it’s not REALLY that big of a deal unless you’ve had to sit beside him in silence for line five minutes and then he just. god. he’s shifting in his seat and his pants are crinkling he’s tapping on the counter he’s looking around the room for the hundredth time going “huh that’s new” under his breath. kidnapping this guy is an endurance test i have no idea why so many villains sincerely try it

interrupts. interrupts but not as much as you expect. it’s mostly when he’s way way invested in something and isn’t even thinking, but after he’s done it the first time he does it thirty more times over the remainder of the conversation like it’s some kinda gateway drug. his brain knows he can get away with it so he just keeps going so you gotta say “DUDE” the first time or he’ll just keep cutting you off

Double Dips.

jigen:

this is the part where i said aloud to myself “oh god i have to put smoking under all of them don’t i.” so just imagine that’s under all of them like canonically but ESPECIALLY jigen. at least the others have kind of sort of slowed down on that front but not jiggy. and if you say “you can’t smoke here” he’ll just grumble and keep the unlit one in his mouth and you KNOW he’s gonna light that shit the minute you’ve turned around so you have to watch him like a dog around slippers

CRACKS HIS KNUCKLES ALL THE TIME. it makes sense that the joints would stiffen up given how tense his trigger finger can get. just imagine it’s like dead silent for twenty minutes n then you hear “poppoppop” CMON BRO

interrupts more than you’d expect. because if you start saying some stupid shit he will NOT let you finish. “i just thought--” “oh you just THOUGHT” and then you can barely get a word in edgewise for the next two minutes because he’s just listing every flaw with your statement. like good lord

fujiko:

its more a thing she DOESN’T do but y’know when something is kinda sorta funny so you give a polite laugh. fujiko doesn’t do that (if she’s being sincere with her company) so you just get a flat smile and a “oh that’s funny” and it’s like is it? is it funny? girl c’mon you could at least pretend

tends to tap her nails on flat surfaces. or anything flat enough. not so jarring until shes wearing acrylics or some other thing and then its this loud, hollow tapping. jigen insists lupin picked up this habit from her

when she’s really fidgety or restless she tends to mess with her jewelry a bit, if it’s on the less ludicrously expensive “cannot be tarnished by human finger oils” side. usually it’s just twirling her bracelet or twisting her earrings, which is a relatively unobtrusive habit. the reason it’s annoying is because if absolutely anybody else even breathes on the jewelry she’ll start swatting at them like a fly insisting that “you’ll break it!!”

goemon:

ooh i gotta think on this. it’s that discipline dude he’s literally forcing himself to just do nothing. which i guess could be eerily unnatural seeming and annoying in and of itself so win! but that’s such a non-answer so let’s add in he is the BIGGEST stickler about IOUs. yes more than fujiko. yes more than jigen. it’s not about money. it’s about honor. or at least that’s what he says but make no mistake if you borrowed 20 bucks from him he WILL be getting that shit BACK and will REMIND YOU at EVERY DAMN OPPORTUNITY

he. doesn’t have as solid a pokerface as you’d initially think. when something really is amusing to him he gets this insufferable little side smirk. only annoying after you’ve lost to him the third time in a row that day and he’s almost on the verge of GIGGLING about it now. sore winner. sore winner is the term i’m looking for.

STEALS FOOD! more than jigen, more than lupin, goemon does not give a shit. he will take the most beautiful, golden, perfectly seasoned fry right off your plate before you can even raise a finger. and then go “hm. just ok” MAN FUCK OFF

zenigata:

don't have to think on this at all. like i’ve said before he cannot sit still for the life of him, so literally whatever you’re imagining has happened and will happen thirty times more. every restless habit all of the above has he ALSO has. guy gets bored and puts the car in park and just starts pushing the accelerator just to pass the time. AND he interrupts more than lupin and jigen COMBINED because he has BOTH of their flavors here

talks with his mouth full. he doesn’t mean to. he doesn’t take a big bite of a burger and go “i can’t wait to spit out sesame seeds like a bb gun” he just isn’t thinking and won’t ever shut up if you drop a Key Phrase in front of him

clicks pens. over and over and over. technically ties into just being restless but it warrants a special mention because i cannot imagine the patience every poor motherfucker destined to work with him must have sitting next to him in a cop car at 2 in the morning with the obnoxious overhead light on, this clown looking over a clipboard or something, and all you can hear is “hmmmmm” *clickkaclickkaclickkaclick*

#disclaimer: annoying is a ymmv term. these could be highly entertaining to you and the bane of anothers existence #such is the beauty of the great Lupin the 3rd Franchise #lupin iii #lupin the third #lupin #jigen #fujiko #goemon #zenigata

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thesparklingwriter · 1 year

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lunch is served!

“If only you were as good a cook as your outfit would suggest,”

tags: pet names, fem!reader, established relationship, they have a daughter, and reader still can’t cook (sorry)

ao3 link | taglist | masterlist | next

Hi I’m back, I did not forget about this I swear!!! Anyway I’m gonna go in with the usual spiel, requests for this are always open, and leave a comment if you want to be added to a taglist :) I’ll sort out links iab because mobile is being mean to me lol

When little Jingmei is fast asleep on her father’s lap after succumbing to a nap she’ll later deny the existence of, you often try to find topics to entertain Zhongli with as he waits patiently for his daughter to wake up. When you’re not around, he’ll pick up a book, or take a nap himself, but he takes great pleasure in talking to you like this.

When you open your mouth to start a new topic, he pats the space next to him on the sofa, gesturing for you to join him. And you do, nuzzling yourself into his chest, and pretending that you don’t notice the subtle sigh of content he lets out.

“Li,” you start, relaxing into him fully. “Why did you fall in love with me?”

Zhongli chuckles. “I am almost certain that this is some kind of trick.”

“It is not.” You scowl. “Am I not allowed to ask why my husband loves me?”

“You are, provided you don’t start a row when I give you my answer.” Zhongli’s hand trails up to your hair, gently massaging circles in your scalp.

If Zhongli really had to think about why he loves you, he’d probably struggle to quantify it. He’s been in love before, of course, but the way he feels with you is somewhat different. Perhaps it was initially your determination that drew him to you, or it could be your positivity, or the fact you brightened the days of all who were near you. But more than anything, it’s the fact that being with you feels like home. You’re his treasure—a gem he’s spent millennia searching for, and now he has you and he knows you love him as much as he does, he’s at peace. But expressing that in a few simple words will only lend itself to misunderstandings and you accusing him of using filler and metaphors to get away with not answering his question.

“I know my question wasn’t that hard.” You tease, prodding him slightly. His body is somewhat firmer when he’s in his half dragon form, yet at the same time, his touch envelops you in warmth and comfort. He tilts his head to look at you, his lips quirking into a smile.

“It was, my dear. How do you expect me to translate years of affection into one sentence?”

“I expect you to do it with enthusiasm.” You joke lightly. Jingmei stirs ever so slightly, muttering to herself as she adjusts herself, her tiny rounded horns digging into your thigh. “If I asked her why she loved me, she would answer immediately.”

“Jingmei would say it’s because you feed her.”

“And that is a perfectly valid and acceptable answer.”

“For an infant. I know you well enough to know you would not accept that from me.”

It’s true, you would not accept that from him. You expect his millennia on Teyvat to grant him the vocabulary necessary to express his love. But at the same time, seated the way you are, you can feel that he cares. It’s in the way he cradles you head to his chest, the way he strokes Jingmei’s hair with contented pride, the way his breathing slows as he savours the moment he’s sharing with you. Yes, you’d love for him to bullet point everything that's led him to this moment, but what’s to point in that?

“I changed my mind. Don’t say anything.”

“And why is that?”

“You’ll probably just make me cry, and then Jingmei will wake up.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, my love.” He chuckles. His laugh almost rumbles through him, stirring your daughter slightly. You pout, as if to complain, but in all honesty, you wouldn’t want her waking up any other way. But then her head drops and she falls back asleep again, whispering softly to herself.

“I do wonder what she dreams about,” Zhongli marvels.

“Probably food. On that note, I’ll make lunch.” As you stand to leave, Zhongli’s hand wraps around yours.

“Don’t go.”

“Why not?”

“Pretending your cooking is edible is an arduous affair. Let’s wait for Jingmei to wake up and then we can make something together.”

“You insult me.”

Despite the fact that your honour has been attacked, you wait for your daughter to wake up before tackling the matter of making lunch. At the mere mention of making food, Jingmei disappears up to her room, decking herself out in a chef’s outfit she’d gotten from Xiangling for her birthday.

“If only you were as good a cook as your outfit would suggest,” Zhongli jokes, helping her onto her stool so she can reach the kitchen counter.

“I am a good cook, Daddy. Promise.” She shoots back, crossing her arms petulantly.

“I believe you. Your father is just a big meanie.” You pull her into a hug, smothering her face and cheeks with kisses until she’s falling apart with giggles. “We should leave him here to make the food and play with your toys instead as punishment.”

“Let’s go!” Jingmei turns away from the counters and grabs your hand as she runs upstairs.

“You two are such cheats.” Zhongli complains quietly as he turns to the stove. His words fall on deaf ears as you’re already too far away to hear him.

#tswzhongliflufftober #zhongli #genshin impact #zhongli fluff #genshin fluff #zhongli x reader #fanfiction #zhongli fanfic #zhongli flufftober #flufftober #genshin impact fluff #genshin impact fan fiction #genshin fan fiction #genshin zhongli #zhongli genshin x reader #zhongli genshin impact

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miss-rogers-all-american · 2 years

Text

Advice for married couples:

Oftentimes you’ll see marriages fall apart out of seemingly nowhere, with one or more of the people stating that they were ‘unhappy’. I’ve noticed a trend in these marital collapses, and a lot of the issues seem pretty easy to fix.

The key advice here is; don’t get comfortable.

That may sound strange or even backwards, shouldn’t marriage be comfortable? Shouldn’t you relax around your partner? The answer to both of those questions is yes, absolutely. When I say don’t get comfortable I mean don’t let yourself stop putting in effort over the years simply because you got the girl or snatched the man.

For men there are a few key things I’ve noticed tend to cause arguments:

Lack of initiative

Lack of effort in wooing

Not leading the relationship

Offering solutions instead of listening

These are the main argument starters, and here’s why, they all communicate a lack of interest or a sense of complacency. For example, when your wife or girlfriend ask you to do something, and you don’t do it for months, or weeks, that communicates to her that you don’t listen, and that you aren’t dependable.

Take initiative, if you are asked to do a project, or run an errand or do a chore, don’t make her ask fifty times. Otherwise she’ll either; do it herself and resent you, hire someone else to do it and resent you, or you’ll finally do it after months and she won’t appreciate it because it was begrudging on your part. (Women are also less likely to desire sex when stressed out, if you want your wife to continue to desire sex, don’t leave her irritated because you didn’t do a simple task she asked of you- like loading the dishwasher)

When it comes to wooing, most men stop once they’ve got the girl. The romantic gestures, the compliments ,and zealous affection all usually stop. In my personally experience, this can really sour a relationship over time. It communicates to your girl that she is not worthy of wooing, that now that she’s tied to you she no longer matters.

Keep wooing her! Never stop chasing her! Women want to feel wanted and desired, compliment her, shower her with affection, occasionally bring her flowers or perform a small romantic gesture. Every woman will be different but oftentimes a heartfelt gesture, even if it’s picking up her favorite drink on your way home, can make a huge difference in her mood.

As far as leading the relationship goes, this may look different for everyone. The key here is once again, take initiative. Help with or take over decision making. I know for me personally a lot of my stress is alleviated by not having to make extra decisions on top of everything else I’m doing. It helps me to be more relaxed and bubbly. This can be big decisions, like making the final choice on a car, or it can be as small and simple as where to go for dinner or what movie to watch. Of course, you always want to take her opinions into account, but oftentimes making that final decision is really appreciated.

The last one is a key thing. It leads to frustration that often times can build and build until it boils over and an argument occurs. Instead of offering solutions when your girl is telling you about a problem, listen to her speak. Ask her if she wants a solution or a shoulder to cry/vent on.

For my ladies, here are the things I’ve noticed tend to be argument starters:

Nagging/ not being appreciative

Belittling or talking badly about your husband

Not taking pride in your appearance or only dressing up to go out with others

Not being affectionate or using sex as a weapon.

Looking at these, they might seem harsh, but these are the things that I have seen destroy relationships.

Nagging is admittedly a big problem for women, and in marriages it forms a sort of loop. The man doesn’t do a task on time or perfectly, the woman nags and needles the man, the man doesn’t want to do anything for the woman, the woman nags more and complains more, the man finally does the project to avoid nagging, the yelling usually starts her, and then the cycle resets. I’m my own personal experience I’ve noticed a huge difference in my father’s behavior since I stopped nagging and complaining. I’ll ask him to do something politely and emphasize that I need it done soon. He usually gets to it right after I ask, sometimes it doesn’t get done. When the task is complete, I say thank you and compliment him. He then is more eager to help me again. When I nag, he doesn’t want to help. My attitude changes his attitude. It’s the same for not being appreciative. If you don’t nag and you say thank you, your man will be more likely to help.

Belittling or speaking badly about your husband/partner, is something I’ve noticed is a huge issue. It only causes you to feel more resentment and be more critical. It’s also not biblical, we should always strive to be kind and respectful when speaking of our other half. Whether or not he hears you, you should never air your grievances in public for all to see. Discuss your concerns gently and kindly with your husband, and ask him to do the same. Don’t attack him or be defensive. Try to foster a safe place for open communication.

As far as appearance goes, this is the same principle as wooing. I’m not saying you can wear sweatpants or no makeup, but make sure you aren’t being a slob and only dressing up to go out with friends or to an event. I very much like mixed fashion, I go between fifties dresses and modern comfy clothes. When I first started dating my boyfriend I wore mostly dresses, always had my makeup and hair done, and generally looked nice. I noticed recently that I had begun to dress down around him, a habit I definitely don’t want to fall into. So now when he comes over after work, I make sure that my face is fresh and clean, that my outfit is nice (even if it’s casual), I’ll fix my hair, put perfume on and welcome him home. I’m not saying you should greet him at the door like a stepford wife in heels and pearls, (especially if you work as well) but it doesn’t hurt to at least freshen up and greet your spouse with a smile and a kiss. You don’t want to communicate to your husband that he isn’t important enough for your to dress up or care for your appearance.

As for sex, alot of women use sex as a weapon. If they are irritated or didn’t get their way they withhold sex for days, weeks, or months (sometimes even longer) just as the Bible says that the body of our husband is ours, the body of the wife is the husbands. Don’t withhold sex as a form of punishment, it won’t work nearly as well as your think it will.

So for my married couples (or those who are courting and want advice), that’s my two cents. A lot of these issues simply create a loop of buildup, resentment, and argument, until finally divorce occurs. Don’t let your irritation create a cycle. Work through your issues with open and honest communication.

#tradfem #traditional gender roles #traditionalism #feminine #beautiful #femininity #orthodox christian #housewife in training #1950s #christianity #antiochian orthodox #greek orthodox #pro life #tradfemme #stepford wife #masculine #masculinity #trad men

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midnightsun-if · 7 months

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Hello!

I just have questions about how the romance gonna work? Do MC have to take initiative being shy or bold to flirt with ROs (you know the usual) or MC says sth or even some certain choices that make ROs fall for them?

Do we have to flirt shamelessly to earn romance points with ROs? Cause I really don’t want to make a fool of myself by flirting with Scarlett then get slap in the face 😭

Hello ❤️

Romance points, at least when it comes to Midnight Sun, will mainly affect scenes/flavor texts and how the ROs will interact with the MC as a whole. Is it helpful to get them while romancing a specific RO? Yes, absolutely, as you’d probably be missing quite a bit without them. However! It’s not at all required as you’ll get the option to lock into a romance, regardless of the points acquired, later down the line. So you don’t have to flirt with the ROs to end up getting one of them, but it would be a more fulfilling experience if you do… If that makes sense.

Scarlett, regardless of how she may feel towards you at the current moment, would never physically harm the MC. Unless said person really deserved it, but if the MC were to get to that point, which you won’t, you wouldn’t have a chance in hell of romancing Scarlett in the first place. So you’re good on that front! All Scarlett will mainly do, at least at first, will either blatantly ignore the flirting or she’ll just arch a brow and make some form of quip. (Which makes it all the more rewarding whenever she slowly starts to open up and respond in kind.)

Edit: Also completely forgot to answer one part of your question, I apologize! There will be a few ways the MC can flirt, not all of them will show up at the same time (as it’ll sometimes depend on the character, the scene, and the situation overall), but you’ll have your usual shy/bold options (which you were able to see with Caden), oblivious flirting (which will be marked differently than the shy/bold), and there will just be overall romance choices that’ll move the romance forward without the need for flirting at all (like a silent connection that’s been made/or like an understanding passing between you and the RO).

#midnight sun #asks #ro: scarlett voltaire #romance points

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eyrieofsynapses · 2 years

Note

Chaos prompts: 46 for the Leverage OT3!

Aaah, sure thing!

I know the worm-on-a-string meme thing was more of a 2016 thing, buuuuut I'm gonna pretend like it happened in 2013-2014 because I like my get-together fics within a year or two post-Long Goodbye. Less edited than my usual fics because I'm a bit short on time rn and can't be bothered.

Edit because I'm silly and forgot: prompt was "Why do you need 500 worms-on-a-string?"

---

Eliot’s gotten pretty used to finding weird stuff on the counter when he comes up to Parker and Hardison’s apartment over the brewpub. Robotic parts, building plans, enough scented sparkly pens for an entire office building (if said office building was made up of children under the age of ten), tiny figurines of people with grimacing faces that could give a lesser man nightmares—he’d say at this point there’s little that could surprise him. So he’s not shocked, exactly, when he comes in with two bags of groceries and has to clear five large bags of brightly-colored fuzzy things out of the way.

Once he’s done putting the perishables into the fridge, he picks up one of the packages and gives it a look-over. Its label informs him there’s a hundred items inside.

“Hardison,” he calls. “Why the hell do you need five hundred worms-on-a-string?”

He’s well aware of the things; Hardison spent a solid three hours teaching Parker how to make them move around a couple years back. Nate had yelled at the two of them five separate times to quit leaving them around the apartment. That was probably because he’d gotten tired of finding them stuck in the silverware drawer, hanging over his bed, and nestled onto the decks of his model ships.

In Eliot’s opinion, absolutely nothing belongs in the produce drawer or any part of the kitchen except for utensils and food. But he hadn’t come down so hard on Hardison that time. The expression on Nate’s face whenever he found a new one was worth it.

As a general rule, questions like this require at least two minutes for Hardison to yank himself away from his orcs and elves and what-have-you before coming into the kitchen. This time the door swings back within about twenty seconds.

“You ain’t supposed to come in today,” Hardison says, frowning hard at him. “Thought you said you were gonna go out with that chick you met last week.”

“She had a work thing,” Eliot says shortly.

(Technically it had been a conference at the same time as their initial date. She’d suggested they do dinner instead.

There’d been a sale on raspberries at the farmer’s market this morning, though, and they tended to start losing their flavor and bruise within about forty-eight hours, and he already had a recipe picked out he’d been meaning to share with the other two for the last month, and, well—

He just hadn’t been in the mood for a date, that was all.)

Hardison raises an eyebrow. “Right.”

“Seriously,” Eliot says, waving the bag at him. “You better not be thinking about putting these all over the pub.”

“Who said I got them?” He’s avoiding making eye contact, shifting his weight in a way that Hardison himself would probably call shifty if he could see himself. Possibly Eliot’s suggestion is exactly what he plans to do; he might have something else in mind that’s worse. Either way, Eliot’s pretty sure Hardison’s at least partly responsible for the packages.

“Uh-huh,” he answers, instead of listing all of that out. Sometimes it’s easier to let Hardison dig his holes on his own.

“Parker loves ‘em, man, there was a sale and I figured I’d get her some. What’s so wrong with that?”

“It’s Parker,” Eliot says flatly.

“She’ll enjoy them!”

She will, he knows that. As in, she’ll enjoy sticking them all over the entire building. He’s going to be finding the things in the walk-in freezer for days.

And she’ll be grinning every second of it, all sunshine and bright glee, laughing like a little kid and looking for all the world like their life was pure paradise.

…fuck.

“I’m holding you responsible if she puts them in the brewery,” he says, tossing the bag down.

“You think I can control her any more than you can?” Hardison grumbles. He moves the bags, though. When Eliot hands him a pile of carrots and a chopping board, he gets to work without complaint.

---

Eliot’s fears turn out to be well-founded. In fact, they’re an underestimation.

He encounters the first worm two days after Hardison left them out on the counter. It’s bright red and twisted around into the shape of a heart, with a tiny message tagged to it that says, in glittery pink pen, HELLO FREND!

It’s tucked into the pocket of his jeans. At his apartment. In his drawer.

“Dammit, Parker,” he growls under his breath. It’s not like he expects her to stay out of his apartment anymore—not after he walked into the living room one morning to find her sprawled on his couch with the TV on and a bowl of pasta in her lap—but there’s leaving a tiny creepy imitation of a rag doll on top of his recipe card box, and then there’s going through his clothes.

…at his place, anyway. At least four flannel shirts have been involuntarily sacrificed for her out of his duffle bags and suitcases. But that’s when his rooms have been beside hers. It never entailed her going out of her way to come all the way out to his apartment, bypass his security measures (which is easy for her but hell for anyone else) and find the pair of jeans he’s most likely to use next, all to stick a note and a fuzzy piece of plastic in the pocket.

He intends to chuck it in the wastebasket and move on. It’s not like she’s going to be short of them anytime soon.

But he’s got to shower first, and then he can’t really be bothered to pull it out, and after that he’s busy cooking and driving to the brewpub and revising the menu and planning the next job with the other two and really, he doesn’t mean to keep it. It’s just that after carrying it around all day it seems a shame to throw it away when he gets home.

He tosses it onto the nightstand, rolls into bed, and turns out the light.

---

There’s a blue worm in the pocket of his flannel shirt the next morning. This one is in the same heart shape, but this time, the note says WORM TIME BABY in matching glitter pen.

He sighs, puts it on his dresser, and goes to water his plants.

That day he finds five more worms in the brewpub, two of which are in the staff area with tags with his name. Amy and the rest of the cooks and waitstaff know better than to say anything directly, but he catches them whispering and grinning behind his back.

The customers have been worse over the last few days than usual. Eliot lets it go, just this once.

They keep turning up, of course; Parker drags out jokes like nobody else, and he resigns himself to keeping them all in a drawer. She’ll be offended if she finds them in the trash all the time, and then he’ll just have to deal with even more. The traffic-cone-orange worm that has the tag PEACE WAS NEVER AN OPTION doesn’t have anything at all to do with any of this.

Days turn into weeks. Jobs come and go. They travel to Canada, where he finds thirty different worms over the course of two days, hidden anywhere from the files to his suitcase to the shower. This time, they’ve got a suite of rooms, one for him and one for the other two, and this, if anything, makes it worse. One time he finds neon yellow worms wrapped around both arms of his glasses.

(If he tries not to wonder if he’d find any fuzzy worms in their room, if he finds himself awake on the couch at three AM the second day—well, it can’t mean anything. It just… can’t.

He never does meet back up with that girl.)

The notes range from short and (though he’d never admit it to anyone) cute to creepy to indecipherable: ARSONIST!, I WILL HARVEST YOUR SOUL, SQUIRM? SQUIRM. SQUIRM!!!, TIME TO SIN, WILL STEAL YOUR KNEECAPS, PERISH, and, perhaps most disturbingly of all, LOVE <3. Unless it’s intentionally wrapped around something, every single worm is carefully twisted in the shape of a heart.

The creepy ones are definitely the most common. It’s Parker, so he can’t expect anything less.

(The LOVE <3 ones show up a lot more often than the others, though. He’s not sure what to make of that.)

He tells her off. Repeatedly. With emphasis. Once he threatens not to bake anything with chocolate for the next month. Every time, she just shrugs at him, pulls a worm out from nowhere (she’s been tying them up around her hairbands sometimes), and informs him with varying degrees of cheekiness that they’re just her friends and really, why would he mind her sharing friends?

“Because your friends are creepy, Parker,” he says once, and she gasps in dismay and pets the top of her worm’s head.

“Don’t say that, Eliot.”

Hardison’s laughing behind him, quiet enough not to be mocking to Parker but loud enough to be mocking to Eliot. He resigns himself to growling at the both of them and lobbing the next worm he finds out the window.

(He picks it up later, because he’s not one of those assholes that litters.)

At the end of the Canada trip, they find a deserted local ice rink and spend half the day messing around on the ice. Hardison’s better than Eliot had expected, good enough to skate hand-in-hand with Parker at a decently high speed.

Eliot tries to stick near the edges and let the two of them have their fun. They won’t let him. He keeps finding one of their hands warm in his, pulling him after them in a chain, and after a while he gives up and allows it. It’s easier than it maybe should be.

At one point Parker tugs them both out to the middle of the rink to make them twirl with her. Somehow, though, she manages to throw her weight at just the wrong angle, and suddenly they’re all toppling to the frigid floor. Eliot manages to catch them so that the blades of their skates don’t come anywhere near close enough to slice anybody’s skin open. This has the unfortunate side effect of landing both of them directly on top of him.

He means to grumble at them to get off, because they’re heavy and the ice is freezing against his neck. But then Parker immediately wriggles in closer, tucking herself up against his shoulder as she giggles. Hardison’s on his other side, squawking indignantly about fragile bones and whatever, but he’s got some kind of pleased note in his voice that Eliot can’t quite parse.

It’s stupid and sweet and comforting and, staring up at the blue, blue skies, he can’t help but want to stay down here for just a little while longer. Just long enough to memorize the sound of Parker’s laughter. Long enough to ingrain the way Hardison fits up against his other side into his memory.

Long enough to believe that maybe, maybe, he’s reading this right after all.

But that’s all kinds of dangerous, so he pushes them off him with excuses about frostbite, hauls himself up off his ass, and skates around the rim of the rink while they stumble to their feet.

They get back to the brewpub at an unholy hour of the morning. He collapses into the guest bed, staring up at the constellations in the glow-starred ceiling until sleep steals him away. Midafternoon, he gets up to find one single worm, smaller than the rest of them, laid neatly on top of his folded clothing. It’s curled in the same heart shape as the rest of them and bright green. (He gets fewer of those than the others. They’re Parker’s favorites, so most of them stay with her.)

Written on its tiny tag in blue glitter pen are the words:

WORM YOU BE MY DATE?

Eliot blinks, rubs his eyes, and checks again. When he finds the same phrase, he heads for the shower, turns the water to winter-lake-ice-cold, and spends a good ten minutes under it.

The tag is still the same when he comes back.

“What the fuck,” he mumbles under his breath. He’s half-tempted to say she’d meant to leave it for Hardison, except…

Except Parker doesn’t make mistakes like that, and she’d have had to go to a lot of effort to get into his room without waking him, and…

He dresses, tucks the worm into the pocket of his shirt, and steps out into the apartment. The other two are seated at the counter. Parker idly stirs her cereal while Hardison mutters at his laptop with a bowl of leftover eggs and rice at his side. They look up when they hear the door creak, watching him.

Eliot holds up the worm. It trembles slightly in his grip.

“What’s this about?” he asks, going for warily amused. It comes out closer to wobbly and very obviously desperate.

They glance at each other, shifting on their seats. Hardison closes his laptop. Parker puts down her spoon.

“We know it’s kinda unusual,” Hardison starts carefully. “And you don’t have to say yes, okay, and if not we’ll shut up and never speak of it again and all that, but—”

“But there’s a special at that place you like tomorrow and we thought you’d like to go and maybe we could go as more than just friends?” Parker asks in a rush.

The world shifts under his feet. Everything blurs, just a moment.

LOVE <3, he remembers. The last few weeks click into place.

“Yeah,” he says, tucking the worm back into his pocket. It takes him an extra try; his hands, always steady, are betraying him in this moment. He’s not sure he cares. “Yeah, I’d like that.”

They both beam, brighter than sunshine, warmer than fresh-baked bread, and he decides that can Parker can put as many worms in his stuff as she likes. This is worth it.

#leverage #leverage fic #thiefsome #parker x hardison x eliot #this fic totally ran away from me #probably gonna post this on Ao3 when I get the chance to edit #synapse writes

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nrc-broadcasting · 11 months

Note

imagine the students sending anonymous messages formatted like those aita posts in reddit. like "aita for almost killing 5 students?" or like misleading titles like "aita for strangling my friend?" and like the story says the friend was ta

What A Shame She’s Fvcked In The Head

⋆﹥━━━━━━━🎧━━━━━━━﹤⋆

This has been an increasingly big issue in my area, so I propose a scenario that’s usually not what people think of when they hear someone say ‘*insert name*’s miscarriage was a good thing’

Warnings: Sensitive Topics, Miscarriages, Moral Issues, Cursing, Subjective

Yuu adjusts their mic, straightening it from it’s oblique position as they start tapping on it a few times to check if it’s working after a long time of being out of commission.

“Good morning, Twisted Wonderland. I am not dead just yet, so I’ll be continuing this broadcast after an unannounced and unexpected hiatus I went on,” they scratch their head sheepishly.

“Anyway!” They clasps their hands together. “Let’s start off today with an anonymous submission,” they pull up their laptop and scrolling through the eclectic submissions sent in and spread out for them. They hum as they choose, the subtle scent of their wooden table wafting up their nose and ensconcing a familiarity in them after being away from this studio for so long.

One particular submission catches their eye and they click on in, opening it. They clear their throat, “here we have our first submission for today, ‘Am I the assh0le for telling my cousin it’s good thing the had a miscarriage—?!”

“WOAH.”

They blink a few times, trying to process what in the Underworld they’ve just read.

“Okay, I’m definitely reading this whole thing before answering that. Damn!” Yuu shakes their head and start to read the submission.

They clear their throat once again, starting to read the submission with a rather… perplexed expression on their face. “‘My cousin’s the definition of evil incarnate, she’s always been unnecessarily rude to serves and unbelievably cruel to most people. Especially kids. So when she got married, it was obvious that there was a power imbalance between her and her husband, as she tips the scale into her favor. If she bothered trying, I saw that she would’ve made such a lovely bride, what a shame she’s fvcked in the head. When the news that she was pregnant came out, it was safe to say the air was tense every time we talked about it in the family,’ she sounds… machiavellian.” They remark.

“I’m assuming the whole family thinks of her the same way you do? Anyways, I’ll continue now. ‘She was always quick to anger and prone to emotional outbursts, even in situations where she can clearly control them. Everyone knows emotions are likely causes of miscarriages. But my cousin doesn’t seem to care about the child in her womb, only the privileges and the demands she can make because of it. She’s even went so far as to verbally admit she’ll micromanage every detail of the child’s life.’ Remind me of someone,” they mutter, remembering Riddle’s mother.

“‘It’s safe to say everyone that knows her knows she’ll only cause her child emotional and if she’d hide it enough, physical abuse. So when she came to us, crying in a way so obviously only for pity, she was met with silence. I took the initiative and told her it was a good thing, as she’d never be a good mother to the child. No one sided with her and she merely left, her tears stopping as she stopped pretending to care for the lost of her baby’s life. We were all throughly disturbed…’ this is… a very heavy topic.” They furrow their eyebrows.

“But I don’t think what you did was incorrect, maybe it was out of line for some people, but you told the truth on behalf of your entire family.” They sigh.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t think I’ll be able to provide you an answer to this submission.” They shake their head.

⋆﹥━━━━━━━🎧━━━━━━━﹤⋆

Our fairytale has come to an end.

#twst yuu #disney twst #twisted wonderland #twst #unique magic: listen up #twst mc #answered asks #unique magic #twst characters #sensitive topic

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deputyash · 1 year

Note

How about all of section 3 for Dove for those oc asks? If it’s not too much?

Thanks for sending some in! :D Sorry it took awhile haha

Section 3 - Other:

What other OCs would they get along with?

Oh I can finally answer this haha. Well to start with my own OCs, Dove gets along with Rovanna because they already exist in some AUs together and they're BFFs. I don’t know about my other OCs really since they’re from Cyberpunk and RDR2 haha, but Dove can get along with most people so maybe she'd get along with them.

Now, for other people’s OCs, there’s a few now that I think would definitely get along haha. @harmonyowl’s Grace (eventually anyways haha), your Cooper of course, and a lot of @derelictheretic’s OCs, namely, Heather (depending on the situation haha), Piper, Anya, and Dean! :D

What’s their singing voice like?

I think Dove would have a decent singing voice. Perhaps not perfect or well trained as some people but it’s nice and I think people would enjoy hearing her sing (if they can manage to convince and/or be close enough to her to get the privilege of hearing her sing.)

Take a personality test as the character. Post results.

I took this one: https://www.16personalities.com/free-personality-test

Advocate: INFJ-T (I think this was my personality result too back when I took one for funsies lol. We definitely had some different answers though.)

68% Introverted | 32% Extroverted (This one is actually more complicated for Dove. She’s not really that strong of an introvert, but she leans that way initially. Also, she wasn’t always so introverted growing up, in fact she was quite the opposite as a kid/early teen. When she warms up to someone she is very outgoing. Or if she’s on her own in an environment that doesn’t have her feeling the pressure of being perfect or successful, she will relax and have fun. However, she definitely prefers a few close friends over multiple friends she vaguely knows.)

59% Intuitive | 41% Observant (I think she’s fairly observant too but intuitive works.)

73% Feeling | 27% Thinking (Hmm, yeah I think I agree mostly. She frequently does things based on her gut feeling, but sometimes will force herself to change her decision to something more “logical.”)

57% Judging | 43% Prospecting (I like how they called this one judging, but it’s talking about organization and structure/routines. This is fairly accurate I think. Both of these are fairly even between spontaneity and structure.)

81% Turbulent | 19% Assertive (Yeah…Dove is a little stressed lol. Although a big part of her character development is that she stops worrying so much about living up to the expectations and starts living her life in a way that makes her happy.)

What would be their fighting style in a fighting game like Mortal Kombat, Super Smash Brothers, or Street Fighter?

Dove doesn’t really play a whole lot of video games, so she’d probably be a button-masher. She just hits buttons and hopes it works haha. (Also I don’t know much about fighting games so this is the best I can offer haha. I don’t know what the different fighting styles would be lol.)

What are some mannerisms/quirks?

I had a bit of a hard time thinking of others, but here’s some that came to mind.

If something is bothering or upsetting Dove, she tends to get quieter and more reserved. When she’s nervous, she usually crosses her arms over her chest or messes with her shirt sleeve or shirt hem. She also tends to (subtly) move away from people who are making her nervous or upset (and sometimes moves closer to people she trusts or she feels safe around).

She will frequently just walk away from an argument when it’s really upsetting her. She tries not to feed into the anger so she goes to cool off on her own for a bit.

Depending on the person she’s talking to, she can sometimes be a bit stubborn or has an overwhelming need to prove herself (again it’s depending on the situation/context, otherwise she’ll just walk away or dismiss the conversation).

Describe their favorite meal.

It’s so hard for me to pick just one favorite meal for her haha. I think last time I said barbacoa tacos? Nothing beats a corn tortilla with delicious juicy barbacoa and cilantro, and some lime. (Oh and it has to be beef cheek barbacoa, not just seasoned beef roast, unless she’s living in Hope County…then it has to be beef roast lol. Sorry Dovie.)

What do they do when they’re bored?

She would probably try to go spend some time outdoors, going for a walk, fishing, or something along those lines. She’d probably collect some new plants/flowers for her journal too. She would probably try to sketch something in her journal too. Oh and photography of course!

If none of that wasn’t interesting to her at that moment, I could see her watching a movie (at home or at a theater) or going out to eat somewhere. And depending on the universe/storyline, she may go see if she can spend time with a close friend or significant other. She likes spending time with loved ones.

How do they express love/affection for someone?

Dove is just full of love/affection honestly haha. I think she really loves touch-oriented affection such as hugs, kisses, cuddles, etc. But she also very much likes giving gifts or setting up a surprise for her loved one. She can also be vocally affectionate, but she’s a little more reserved about it at first, but once she’s very serious about a relationship she is much more open about expressing her love verbally.

Most embarrassing thing that could/has happened to them?

Hmm, I think the most embarrassing thing that could happen to her would be someone making fun of her interests/hobbies or things that truly make her happy. She already has to endure criticism from her parents about those things, so when people she meets or wants to be friends with do it, it’s very disheartening.

Make a portrait sketch of them!

Very quick and rough sketch, but I think she looks cute! :3

#also no eyes on the sketch cause that would've taken too long haha #replies #my ocs #deputyash's ocs #dove ash #oc asks

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richincolor · 1 year

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Book Review: Daughters of Oduma

Title: Daughter of Oduma

Author: Moses Ose Utomi

Genres: Fantasy

Pages: 368

Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers

Review Copy: ARC by publisher

Availability: Available now

Summary:

Eat. Dance. Fight.

This is the life of the girls who compete in the Isle’s elite, all-female fighting sport of Bowing. But it isn’t really Dirt’s life anymore. At sixteen, she is old and has retired from competition. Instead, she spends her days coaching the younger sisters of the Mud Fam and dreading her fast-approaching birthday, when she’ll have to leave her sisters to fulfill whatever destiny the Gods choose for her.

Dirt’s young sisters are coming along nicely, and the Mud Fam is sure to win the upcoming South God Bow tournament, which is crucial: the tiny Fam needs the new recruits that come with victory. Then an attack from a powerful rival leaves the Mud without their top Bower, and Dirt is the only one who can compete in the tournament. But Dirt is old, out of shape, and afraid. She has never wanted to be a leader. Victory seems impossible—yet defeat would mean the end of her beloved Fam. And no way is Dirt going to let that happen.

Review: *Sigh* I really wanted to fall in love with this book as I found it an interesting premise for a debut fantasy novel. It seemed very different from the typical “hero’s journey” type of story that has the chosen main character on some journey to save the world. In “Daughters of Oduma” Dirt’s chosen family is her world and she must save them. I expected a very different type of fantasy and I definitely did, but to me there was something missing. I initially could’t figure it out as I was reading as I struggled to connect to the story. It was later as I realized what took me out of the novel so many times was that the world building felt incomplete to me and I was struggling due to not having these answers.

Daughters of Oduma was set on some island country(?) on some world where children were split into groups of four communities (the Bower Girls, the Butterfly/Mosquito Girls, the Pusher Boys, and the Flag Boys). There is only one adult (Antie Yaya) who seems to oversee all of the groups (I think) but definitely knows more than she lets on. The Bower Girls are the sporty girls of this society and the novel focuses on the biggest tournament of their year, the God Bow Tournament. As you can see, I had some confusion about location and the structure of the society. Also, my teacher instincts kicked in and I was very troubled that there were no other adults around. The ages of the girls in Dirt’s fam range from 4 to 16, with no adult taking care of them according to what I understand of the societal set up and I couldn’t help but worry about the kids. This one concern kept taking me out of the story as I wondered “who initially taught the children to survive?” “Who taught the children all the rules of the God Bow tournament?” “Who built all the structures described in the story?” “How did a world without adults come to be?” I feel like this is where world building broke down because there was no mythos introduced that would help us make sense of this world; it was if we were dropped in a moment of time in Dirt’s life and we were expected to know the same information that Dirt did. And while that idea is usually true, in many fantasy novels establishing mythos is usually told through beliefs or stories to help orient the reader to the world of the novel. I feel like Utomi could have slowed down some of the action of the novel to establish his world more clearly.

On the other hand, Daughters of Oduma moved at a brisk pace. There were definitely some gut wrenching moments, specifically the event that has Dirt realize that in order to save her family she must come out of retirement to compete in the tournament. The relationships with the sisters was lovely and really showed why Dirt was willing to do anything to save her family. The stakes were truly very high for Dirt as she had two weeks to get herself in shape in order to compete, but also had to overcome her mental blocks, which I felt were the strongest aspect of the novel. Dirt was happy in her “retirement” because she really didn’t enjoy Bowing and to find herself in the position of having to fight or else is not just a physical battle but an emotional battle and the journey that Dirt goes on was written beautifully. There were many times where I felt with and for her as self-doubt can really harm us and hold us back. I was with her when she had to fight her inner demons, or the Whispers as they were called in the novel, in order to stand for her family. To me, Dirt’s inner life was the strongest aspect of the novel.

Overall, while I didn’t fall in love with the novel I do not see it as time wasted. I was into it at many points and connected with some of the characters. The story moved well and there were many wonderful moments that I truly enjoyed.

#book review #weneeddiversebooks

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itsclydebitches · 2 years

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RWBY Fairy Tales Recaps: “The Girl in the Tower”

Hello, everyone! It’s been a long time since I added to this collection. My bad 😬

That’s because—as I mentioned in passing a couple of times while answering asks—I got pretty stuck on recapping this fairy tale. I realized (several weeks after I’d first started) that this was because I wasn’t actually recapping “The Girl in the Tower.” Rather, my thoughts regarding Salem and the implications attached to this short spiraled into a much broader dive into RWBY’s handling of sympathetic villains, particularly the women. Though everything I wrote is relevant to the tale, it got to the point where I was trying to do far too much in an otherwise narrowly defined post, spinning in writing circles until it felt like I didn’t know what I was trying to accomplish anymore.

Eventually I made the painful, but necessary move of scraping everything and starting over. Now, here we are!

Much of what I originally had to say still colors this recap, but let’s actually stick to the fairy tale this time, yeah? In addition, though in the past I’ve done a detailed comparison to Myers’ original story, this time there was so much to cover I didn’t want to get sidetracked again. Outside of a quote or two towards the end, we’re keeping to the adaptation.

Let’s get started!

Ozpin begins the story by summarizing that “a beautiful girl was locked in a tower by her cruel father” and right off the bat we hit one of my biggest problems with this fairy tale as a part of the RWBY-verse: there’s no subversion. There’s no twist, no surprise, not spark of originality here. RWBY markets itself as a fairy tale that plays with other fairy tales and though yes, we’ve discussed as a community how those changes can mean almost anything nowadays (there’s no unifying intention, let alone one that actually functions as a subversion most of the time), but something usually exists to spark viewer interest. Little Red Riding Hood now hunts the wolves herself. In this universe the Tin Man already had, but lost, his heart. Pinocchio still becomes human, but then gives her life less than an hour after achieving that (never established) dream. You get the idea. Even when RWBY is playing with fairy tales in a manner that arguably hurts the story as a whole, it’s still some kind of innovation that might keep the viewer interested, at least for a time. Yet here, “The Girl in the Tower” is as straightforward as any Golden Era Disney film which, while not inherently bad, doesn’t exactly fit RWBY’s marketed appeal. There is a “beautiful girl,” a “cruel father,” the terrible fate of being locked away, and eventually the handsome knight come to save her. There’s admittedly agency in Salem sending her notes (we’ll get to that) and the ways in which this story is colored by our knowledge that she’ll become a villain past her Happy Ending... but the actual fairy tale on its own? It’s as bland and straightforward as they come, made all the worse by giving Salem the means to do something compelling—powerful magic at her fingertips—and simply... not using that.

As is the trend in this collection, a lackluster tale is made better by the stylistic presentation, particularly when it comes to the backgrounds. We get to see the ruin of Salem’s castle moving backwards to its initial glory—and, notably, looking a whole lot like Beacon Academy. Crush my heart why don’t you—and all the animated gears work like a puppet display, cranking individual pieces into a unified whole. I don’t need to explain to anyone reading this why the gears themselves are significant.

We’re introduced to the King who, in true king fashion, wears a crown. Now, question: is it the same as the Crown of Choice?

I’m honestly not sure. (Bear with me. I promise I don’t need to get my eyes checked.) One would think not given that they’re made of different materials and have different gem stones too. The King’s is silver with some kind of blue jewel, whereas the king from “The Indecisive King”—whom we know did possess the Relic—is copper-y with... emeralds? I’m not going to pretend that I can identify gems in real life, let alone through RT’s animation. The point is that they’re even shaped differently, which should imply that no, there’s no connection between the two.

However, RWBY is also the show that gave us this:

I’ll get into the problems of erasing the SEW’s race in my recap of “The Warrior in the Woods,” but for now it’s just important to note that RT didn’t bother to keep their character consistent between their show and the book that it’s based on, even when this visual connection is the one thing that ties two different mediums together. RWBY is also the webseries that gave us this symbol

alongside this one

yet has now, apparently, insisted that there’s no connection between them. As far as I can tell, this was confirmed during a Reddit AMA back in December of 2021 with Kerry saying, “in hindsight we probably shouldn’t have let some elements be so similar, but no, Jaune and Salem aren’t related” (Lucifer_Crowe). AKA, all us “Jaune is a descendant of Salem with the emblem becoming simplified over the generations” theorists should pack up that idea and move onto something else. A part of me is very revealed by this announcement, mostly because I wasn’t interested in dealing with the fallout of Jaune getting (another) major contribution to the plot. That relief aside though, this admission that “we probably shouldn’t have let some elements be so similar” reinforces the idea that we really can’t trust what we see on screen in RWBY. Very similar emblems (and hair color, eye color, a powerful lineage, to say nothing of Tyrian’s comment) apparently mean nothing. And this is by no means a one-off mistake. There’s no effort made to adapt a canonical illustration. The animators had to scramble to distinguish silver eyes after the writers didn’t consider that gray eyes would look identical. Our last arc gave Ironwood a semblance that provided no noticeable difference in how he was animated once his aura was broken, despite that being a core way for the audience to determine what abilities are or are not influencing the story. In short, as a visual medium the RWBY franchise should encourage a wealth of analysis about the animation itself, but the story is so inconsistent we simply cannot trust that anything we visually pick up on is actually significant. Or, in turn, that a difference means that there’s truly no connection here. Is the crown that adorns Salem’s father’s head the same Relic that caused a previous king so much grief, perhaps providing an explanation for his similarly gaunt appearance and his strange choice to keep his daughter locked away, convinced she will perish if set free?

Or is there no connection between the two images, leaving the King as a generic, motiveless bad guy in a tale already struggling to live up to RWBY’s attempts to innovate, the visual parallels pure coincidence?

It’s most likely the latter, but we can’t be sure because RT has a long history of visual mistakes. They really are the studio that might animate two totally different crowns and then unexpectedly go, “Actually yeah, they are the same. Why don’t they look alike? Uh… because they’re shown in different stories! Yeah, or something like that. It’s a smart stylistic choice, trust us ;)” Fans should be able to theorize about a story with confidence, knowing the authors will either validate the details they caught, or surprise us by going in a new direction that is, crucially, still supported by what we see and hear on screen. Yet RWBY continues to fail on both fronts, forgetting to include significant details in their show while simultaneously positioning others as only existing in meta-commentary.

That tangent aside, let’s get to the plot proper. We’re introduced to this King whose wife (also unnamed) dies while delivering Salem (another tired choice imo). He’s so consumed by grief that he can’t even hold his daughter when the nurse presents her to him and initially, I took this to mean that the King locked Salem away out of a warped sense of danger. Hence, theories about how the Crown of Choice might be influencing him. Apparently though, from what else we can gather, he’s just an abusive asshole. That it. It’s originally implied that Salem is locked up because the King feared losing her as he did his wife, but then that’s shown to be an excuse for his far more generic cruelty. He claims to keep her in the tower so that Salem may be safe from the evils of the world, but the understanding for the audience is that in reality he just sees her as another of his possessions, a living treasure to keep secure in an overly-large chest. Frankly, it feels like too many motivations for what amounts to a character with literal seconds of screen time. RWBY as a franchise has a habit of introducing various concepts in an effort the make characters complex, but then the failure to follow up on any of those ideas results in minor confusion at best, outright contradictions at worst. The King is by no means the most overt example of this, but I find it notable that even for what is ultimately meant to be a cardboard cutout dude functioning as a plot devise, RWBY feels the need to introduce “nuance” that inevitably falls flat when nothing is done with it.

“You are my most precious possession,” he tells a very young Salem, just in case there was any lingering confusion about whether he considers her a person or not. Why make the King interesting with an internal life of his own when you can just make him another bad man doing bad things for... reasons.

The strangeness of the King’s characterization aside, something I do love about this moment is his hand reaching out towards Salem, overly large and looming… only to settle kindly on the top of her head. It’s a great visual for an abuser, where we as the audience know he means Salem harm, is currently enacting that harm, the implications of the shot are not inaccurate—and yet the end result of the gesture is just a pat on the head. This shot neatly summarizes how abusers can hide behind perceived intentions, enacting choices that appear kind if you don’t know the whole situation. We see similar work with the teddy bear he gives to Salem. Is a father giving his daughter a toy in-and-of-itself a wonderful, wholesome gesture? Yes. Is a father giving his daughter a toy in an attempt to compensate for keeping her perpetually locked in a tower wonderful and wholesome? I sure hope we all know the answer to that… Every once in a while, RWBY manages something really nice and I’m forcibly reminded of the potential this series isn’t capitalizing on.

This is Salem’s norm all throughout her childhood, asking to be let out and instead being given additional treasures to pass the time. Later, when she’s much older—sometime in her teens—we see her attempt to pass through the barrier that surrounds the tower and keeps her from escaping out the window. Frankly, I would have given the audience this moment when she was still a kid because as it stands, the action reads like this is Salem’s first time trying to leave the confines of her room. And that’s not just because it’s our first time seeing the attempt: Salem deliberately touches the barrier and then cradles her hand against her chest as if it has hurt her and like yeah, sure, maybe she prods the equivalent of an electrical shock because she’s that bored, but it’s just strange to show an action she would have learned to avoid by now, especially when you’ve already modeled her as a child. It’s one of those choices that doesn’t mean much on its own, but considering that one of my primary questions is how much Salem has tested the limits of her freedom prior to calling on strangers to die in her name… yeah, I’d like to know why an acknowledgement of the barrier doesn’t come until years after it was erected.

Unable to go outside, Salem asks her father for books instead, so that she might at least experience things second-hand. “The world in these books,” Salem says. “What a marvelous place!” This series has certainly played with the concept of storytelling itself—seen most notably in the faunus fairy tales and Ozpin’s meta-comments on each story — and though “The Girl in the Tower” doesn’t capitalize on the implication, I’m intrigued by Salem’s use of the singular here: “world” and “place.” It’s like she’s conceptualized all these different stories into a single vision of what the world is. Again, it’s not something RWBY is interested in exploring (and there certainly isn’t time for it), but does Salem think that everything she’s been given is non-fiction? Is she able to distinguish between a story, a history, and the bias that influences both? The answer is likely “no” given that she has, canonically, never set foot outside this room. For those fans who are interested in exploring Salem’s character in fic, it’s worth unpacking what she thought Remnant might look like vs. what she actually ended up with — death, cruel gods, a curse she’s maybe incapable of breaking depending on whether the grimm pool left her with the ability to grow and come to understand the (supposed) importance of death...

Basically, there’s a contrast here between the bright-eyed Salem in love with the world of her books and the abusive, monstrous Salem we get later in the series. It’s a change that’s ripe for some introspective consideration.

In time though, Salem finishes all the books in the castle and, for obvious reasons, still finds herself unsatisfied. “Tomorrow I’ll be sixteen and I’ve never even stepped outside!” It’s in her anger that Salem throws the book she’s just finished and it sails out the window, right through the barrier. Again, not to nitpick the five minute fairy tale, but it really took Salem sixteen years to realize that objects could leave the tower? Honestly, no wonder the heroes are winning so easily. Salem has always been a little slow on the uptake, huh?

Okay, okay, jokes aside, I am serious about this. Wouldn’t it have been better to have kid!Salem throw a temper tantrum and discover this loophole earlier? Give us a childhood and early teenage years of her trying various ways to escape, only to eventually succumb to what she sees as a horrible necessity? Honestly, I have a lot of feelings about this “Salem did nothing for sixteen years and then jumped straight to murder” plot-line. Because to skip ahead just a tad, Salem decides to call on all the nearby knights to kill her father.

Here then, we get to the part of the recap where I feel the need to explain that I’m not trying to victim blame Salem here, but rather I’m commenting on RT’s inability to craft a situation where the extreme nature of Salem’s solution feels justified. Because for me, justification is tied not just to the horrific nature of what she’s trying to escape, but also her duty as a human being. If Salem is going to settle on allowing others to fight this battle on her behalf, under arguably false pretenses, and with all but one of those volunteers dying in the process… I want to be convinced by the story that Salem tried every better option first; that this is indeed the last possible resort. Has she tried to sneak past her father? Get the maid to help her? Fight him herself given that, as said, she’s a very powerful magic wielder who does eventually fight her way out of the castle?

That’s probably my biggest sticking point with this story: what was the point of taking a character already established as individually powerful and having them sit around for someone else to come save them? Especially when they’re a woman who the audience will be reading through a decades-long history of passively written characters. Double especially in a franchise that’s supposedly built around both emphasizing women’s agency and undermining our expectations for fairy tales. Yes, Salem’s story here needs to match up with what we were shown in The Lost Fable (not that RWBY has a good track record of keeping things consistent…) yet that just showcases how badly thought out this was in the larger scheme of the RWBY universe. Who looked at our series’ Big Bad, an unfathomably powerful obstacle living in a world at least somewhat interested in turning fairy tale expectations on their head, someone who, based on the writing of “The Lost Fable” and Ozpin’s established character since Episode One, was always conceived of as having personal power, even before she got tangled up with the Gods…

…and then decided to stick her in a tower to wait around for the knight’s rescue?

Contrary to what some critics might claim—and what many of my own metas might imply—the RWBY characters are not actually cardboard cutouts who exist solely to forward a plot, or even impart some moral message. They’re meant to have personalities, goals, and above all motivation, which makes “The Girl in the Tower” flounder considering this isn’t even a generic side-character, but Salem herself. She’s arguably the character next to Ruby. Yet Salem feels so flat to me here, largely due to that lack of agency and the equal lack of creativity that inevitably lumps her in with every other sanitized fairy tale. Why give us a determined woman pushing the limits of her father’s imprisonment when Salem could just sit there for the whole story? Again, I want to stress that there’s nothing inherently wrong with these character traits in any real-life situation we might equate this to. Yes, I know enough to understand that most abuse victims are going to accommodate their abusers out of a need to keep themselves safe, alongside being conditioned—in this case since childhood—to see this as normal, thereby making Salem’s passiveness at least semi-realistic. I also understand that not every character needs to be a kick-ass taker of what they want (I actually have a great deal of dislike for the Strong Female Character) and that Salem’s love of reading is just as valid a characterization as someone who, I don’t know, encourages the maid to do more on her behalf. We can even make the case that this quiet, bookish Salem makes for a wonderful contrast to the power-hungry threat she’d become, or that she’s perfectly in character given the still unexplained thousand years she spent just sitting around, not going after her goals until the heroes were conveniently in combat school. All of this is true!

But Salem isn’t a real person undergoing real abuse. If we’ve learned anything from RWBY’s handling of Blake’s faunus heritage and Yang’s disability—both of which were dropped after introducing the bare bones of nuance—it’s that RT is very willing to throw respect for those subjects aside in an effort to craft an exciting tale. No one (according to canon implications and a few Word of God comments) wants to watch Yang working through a depression at home, or Ruby grappling with nightmares, or Blake overcoming systemic racism… despite the fact that they chose to introduce those plot-lines in the first place. The show would much prefer to put emphasis on the fun, exciting aspects that RWBY was originally built on. This conflict is obviously a problem, but the flip-side is that Salem’s story is, arguably, one place where RT could have emphasized the Rule of Cool over real world allegories without any issues… and they didn’t. I can obviously only speak for myself, but I don’t need a fairy tale that tries to unpack the complexities of a woman held prisoner, especially when that character will go on to become both a domestic abuser herself, as well as the series’ Big Bad. Outside of a very generalize takeaway of “Abuse is cyclical” that the viewer might come to in their own time, there’s simply too much there to unpack. Don’t even try. However, you know what the story could use? That sort of simplicity used as a springboard for a kickass plot where a woman saves herself from captivity.

As it stands, Salem apparently thought little of her imprisonment for sixteen years, suddenly got mad about it, decided on a manipulative murder scheme as the only solution, and yet continued to stand around while others carried that out. It’s... not a great combination.

She has this light-bulb moment about the book going through the barrier and the next day, when the King visits to gift Salem with all the jewels and clothes befitting a captive princess on her birthday, she asks him for pen and paper (quill and paper? When did the word “pen” come into use?) so that she can write stories of her own. The tone of the conversation is notable in that the King appears rather taken with her request — he asks that Salem read him her stories when she’s finished — but Salem clearly sounds like she’s plotting something. Specifically, she writes a story about herself, folds numerous copies into paper... birds, since airplanes don’t exist yet, and throws them out her window for others to find.

Now, ignoring both that Salem writes this cry for help as a story rather than a first-person note that people would be much more likely to take seriously, and that her little folding technique would only fly a few feet before plummeting to the ground (unless she’s using magic?) here’s my problem with this whole plan:

“Once there was a beautiful maiden locked in a tower by her cruel, lord father. She longed to experience the world outside, but she was his prisoner. If only some brave, strong warrior would defeat the evil lord and free her at last, they would marry, inherit all of the father’s riches, and live happily ever after.”

This is so manipulative. The fandom gives Ozpin shit for not being forthcoming about Salem’s immortality, but at least he never presented the war itself as some sunny quest with a big reward at the end. Here, Salem is leading strangers to their deaths by a) promising them things that, at this point in the story, we don’t know whether she intends to uphold (does she really mean to marry whoever saves her? Sure, she fell for Ozpin, but what if it hadn’t been him? Will she give up her inheritance if she’s no longer marrying the guy she promised it to?) and b) failing to warn anyone that her father is a crazy powerful sorcerer who will obliterate anyone who tries to take his daughter away. “Lord” doesn’t cover any of that! Note how cushy she makes this all sound. I’m beautiful! I’m a maiden! You, person I’ve never laid eyes on, are so brave and strong ;) Come murder my father and we can totally get married, you’ll get all my dad’s shit, and we’ll definitely be happy for ever and ever and ever.

There’s just so much of this that I can’t get behind which, yes, includes Salem wanting to kill her dad. Look, I’m not defending the rat bastard. Locking your kid up in a tower — whether that’s due to seeing her as a possession, or a learned fear that loved ones will perish if not kept perfectly safe, both of which the narrative implies — is really fucked up. Salem deserves her freedom. But it’s also fucked up to do a fantasy equivalent of a Craigslist call for a hit on your dad when, as far as we’ve seen, Salem never tried any other means of escape. She just realized that objects can pass through his barrier — which to me says she hasn’t tried very hard to test the limits of her imprisonment. — and then jumped straight to not only getting someone else to kill the King, but doing so in a way that puts those volunteers in the most dangerous position possible: lusting after her, desiring riches, and having no real idea what they’re about to face.

Namely, this:

How many people did Salem get killed?? Okay, yes, in some respects this is similar to Ozpin’s situation with his students in that regardless of how much information these warriors had to work from, they all ultimately decided for themselves to take the risk. There’s even a line that implies that many of them did it because saving her was the right thing to do, not because they were after the rewards: “the story of the girls’ tragic circumstances spread far and wide.” Salem didn’t put a fantasy gun to their head and force them here. But unlike Ozpin’s rock and hard place problem (you really can’t fight an army of endless grimm without an army of your own), Salem didn’t try anything before her “Let other people die for me” plan. Then when she realizes these guys are dying for her, she looks real upset about it...

...but doesn’t try to put a stop to what she’s started.

That was the tipping point for me. If this was the story of an abused, isolated sixteen-year-old who made an impulsive decision, only to realize with horror the unintended consequences of that and try desperately to fix it... that would be different. But Salem doesn’t seem to care that all these guys are dying for her, not enough to try and stop it, anyway. We know that her notes spread “far and wide,” that “one warrior after another” came, and that “many tried,” but “just as many fell to the lord’s powerful, evil magic.” It’s only “one day” that Ozpin himself showed up, meaning we have this undetermined stretch of time where Salem just watched from her tower as all these knights were obliterated, apparently coming to the conclusion, “Alright, that’s sad and all, but my freedom is totally worth it. What I want trumps others’ lives.”

“Why is this a problem, Clyde?” you might ask. “Salem is the villain. Surely you’ve got nothing against villains doing questionable things, right?” I sure don’t! Rather, the problem here is that Salem wasn’t supposed to be a villain just yet and yes, I know that for a fact due to “The Lost Fable.” This isn’t a case of fans being upset because a backstory didn’t meet their specific preferences or expectations, this is a case of the backstory undermining the emotional core of events that we’ve already seen. Regardless of where you fall on the Salem vs. the Gods debate — how much was she a victim of their cruelty, how much was their curse deserved based on her choices, etc. — we nevertheless start with the story of a victim whose traditional Happy Ending was blown to pieces when the True Love Protagonist (Ozpin) dies. Hell, that debate hinges on agreeing that Salem was a good person and then did questionable things. Yet now, thanks to “The Girl in the Tower,” I’m no longer able to read “The Lost Fable” as a tragic tale of grief taken to an extreme, I’m just like, “Oh, Salem was always a budding sociopath, huh?”

(“Someone is here to murder Dad and whatever staff and guards get in the way! Woohoo! I’ll wait up here until they’ve done the majority of the work. I’ll just kill a few people on my way out. As a treat.”)

Which yeah, is a story. No matter what version of Salem we get, or what else RT might add that changes our reading of her arc, every version possible is always going to resonate with someone. I have no doubt that plenty of fans adore the reveal that Salem was always toying with the manipulation and callous dismissal of others’ lives that would later become staples of her villainy. For me though, it’s just another way that RT has muddied the waters of their abuse themes, reiterating that they don’t know what they’re trying to say about such complex topics and unintentionally ruining what good writing we originally had. Salem was a generic Big Bad. Then she was made sympathetic. Then we debated how much. Then she became Ozpin’s abuser. Then the fandom dismissed that. Then she underwent a journey that twisted her into who she is today. Then we were told that journey isn’t actually important because she was flirting with those horrors from the get-go. She’s the victim. She’s the manipulator. She’s the puppet-master. She’s going to wait around for someone to save her. She doesn’t care how many die in her name, She’s the classic princess walking off into the sunset with her knight... This isn’t character complexity, this is RWBY flip-flopping every other scene until I no longer know what to think of Salem’s character, let alone what messages the story might be trying to impart.

By the end of the episode, Ozpin says that “Stories hold great power over their audiences. The girl in the tower used her power and led many warriors to their deaths,” so I’m like okay, at least the writers are aware of how fucked up that scenario is, but THEN:

“We must read with some skepticism and decide the truth for ourselves.”

Oh, now the fucked-up-ness is suddenly up for debate? What’s the point of acknowledging it then? Besides, Ozpin, you lived this. Salem would have told him the first half of this story long before her fall into the grimm pool, meaning before she became someone who was overtly keeping secrets and/or lying to him. What do he mean we need to “read with some skepticism.” About what? Which part? What truth is Ozpin doubting here? Because from the audience’s perspective, this is the one fairy tale that we know for a fact is not a fairy tale at all. It’s history and sure, even lived history is remembered with bias, but that’s a far cry from the black and white “truth” that the episode seems to be peddling.

RWBY has no idea what it’s trying to say and I will die on that hill.

Meanwhile, I’m watching this animation of a whole line of warriors arriving to face down the King + his army and I’m going, “Damn, if it’s a one vs. many situation regardless, how about Salem give it a go? At least she has magic of her own, unlike these guys with just sword and shield. She could blast her dad the second he opens the door to her room. If you want him dead so badly just kill him yourself!”

But no, Salem waits, which both keeps her in the passive princess position and makes her at least somewhat responsible for these deaths — or at least fairly indifferent towards her hand in setting everything in motion. So what exactly does RT want me to get out of this story? Because my takeaway is that Salem was always a villain in the making, prone to jumping to the most violent solution first and uncaring that others are dying in her stead, despite the fact that she too has the tools — arguably better tools — to secure her own freedom, but we always need to wait for the man heroically open the door, right? (I’m sorry, Ozpin, I love you, you’re just been put into a shitty, archetypal position here.) Again, ignoring the potential, realistic behavior of an abuse victim that simply doesn’t exist within RWBY, the implication is that Salem prefers to be the puppet master literally standing on high as others do her dirty work for her, but she didn’t come into that through the journey we’ve seen throughout the rest of the franchise, it was just always there?

Bad people are innately bad, I guess? God knows we’ve acknowledged RWBY’s messy double-standard when it comes to redemption on this blog.

After all this, Ozpin’s arrival is barely a blip on my radar. He wins against the King because he has his own “powerful magic,” but then we watch Salem escaping with him, blasting through guards with an orange magic beam equal to his green one. It’s another example of how the visuals in RWBY are meaningless because although they’re animated as identical, we have to assume Ozpin is stronger because otherwise why wouldn’t Salem free herself?

“You have rescued me from this castle,” the girl said.

“You have rescued yourself.”

He and Salem hold hands as they walk off into the woods together, Ozpin saying that Salem will decide where they go since she has yet to see the world. We pull out from the fairy tale and back into Ozpin’s office where he says that, “This fairy tale is unique on Remnant in that the protagonist writes her own story... and her ending.”

Setting aside my continued frustration over Salem’s agency in this — the references to writing stories as a metaphor for carving your own path just aren’t working for me here, not when the story is so unclear about what any of that amounts to in this world. It’s just a bunch of wise-sounding mumbo-jumbo — on a plot level Salem told Ozpin all this first-hand. What he didn’t experience for himself, of course. Salem’s ending is in reference to her turning into a grimm queen hell-bent on destroying everyone in an effort to die.

Or, to put it another way, Salem’s ending is being willing to sacrifice whoever is necessary to get what she personally wants.

Except that’s no longer a trait instilled in her from the grimm pool, or developed over years of torturous immortality thanks to the Gods’ actions, (did she really write her own ending, or was that forced on her by two all-powerful beings?), or even something Salem embraced sometime during the start of the series. It is, apparently, a perspective she’s been willing to entertain since she was sixteen-years-old while being almost entirely untouched by the world outside. It’s who she is.

So Salem didn’t write her story, her story was already written within her from the get-go. For a franchise supposedly about choice, RWBY keeps pushing predeterminism a lot.

Ozpin finally ends with, “Because in real life... there is no happily ever after” and I likewise end this recap with a (mental) scream of rage because Ozpin would never say that. Literally! I can prove it! Here’s the original ending:

“If you look far enough ahead, even a story with a happy ending may reveal itself a tragedy, and heroes may turn out to be villains. Hopefully, the reverse is also true.”

That’s WAY more optimistic. Yeah, the guy who has been through hell and back would be grappling with how the Happy Ending isn’t all it’s cracked up to be (something introduced at the very beginning of the series via Ruby and Blake’s conversation), but Ozpin also has enough faith to realize — and teach — that things can always circle back around. It’s always darkest before the dawn and all that. Who is this super pessimistic guy who writes off happiness as a whole? That’s not Ozpin. Ozpin has been fighting for over a thousand years, buoyed by his belief that people are inherently good and a better future is always achievable. Ozpin thinks back on the horrors he’s experienced, all the terrible mistakes he’s made, and still manages to muster up a smile for his students. Ozpin was betrayed, dragged through his trauma, assaulted, dismissed, and still arrived to save his friends because he cares, even when no one else does. Miss me with this shadowed, nihilist wannabe ending on a sour note. To me, that line alone is proof that there’s little thought going into these shorts... which is a damn shame considering that Myers’ book already did it better.

Yeah, this recap took me forever and that’s largely due to the hard-to-explain problems throughout: frustrating enough to warrant inclusion, but messy enough that they’re not easily picked apart. Hopefully most of this made sense and if not? I can still happily hang this recap on the meta wall and never look at it again. Cheers to that🥂

***

Lucifer_Crowe. “We are E.C. Myers, Eddy Rivas, and Kerry Shawcross...” Reddit, 15 Dec. 2021. https://www.reddit.com/r/RWBY/comments/rh2c8w/we_are_e_c_myers_eddy_rivas_and_kerry_shawcross/hoowvzv/?context=3.

#rwde #rwby #mymetas #rwby: fairy tales

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