#obviously that's not the case even though he's done horrible things in his life
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Flirty Stranger | Wednesday Addams
Warnings: swearing, Tyler
Wednesday x Galpin!fem
"That'll be 3.99 please, sir." You smiled polity at the taller man infront of you, he sniffled a smile; slamming a five dollar bill into your hand. You gritted your teeth, Lucas was always an ass.
You pressed down on the till, it slamming open; the coins and loss change jiggling when it did. You received his change, handing it to him with a smile.
"Have a nice day." It was a rule at the coffee store: be polite, smile and just be an averagely good person.
Lucas smiled back, placing the money onto the edge of the tip jar.
"Do you want my chaple change, Galpin?" Your nose flared, fingers wrapping around the counter of the table. This was a repeating game with the boy; he had some sick pleasure from you begging for his money. Today though, you honesly couldn't care if he got you fired. You'd burnt the tip of your finger in boiling water, an absolute fiend demanded that you got their order wrong, four times. Your older brother, Tyler, had stormed into the store late for his shift which somehow led to your dad shouting at you for not waking your brother up in time. Fair to say your day was horrible, and all you wanted to was dive head first into a book.
"I don't want, nor do I need your spare money, Lucas." His smiled dropped, eyes casting into a dark gaze.
"I think you miss spoke? Did you mean, Yes sir?" You could have sworn by the amount of times you'd gritted your teeth you wouldn't have any by the end of the shift.
"No. I did not miss speak."
He coughed, the coins teasing the tip jar.
"You know that job is a privilege, not a right." Another person entered the coffee shop, walking into the line that only consisted of Lucas.
"Are you being rude again?" The women asked, pressing her cold finger into Lucas' back. Lucas shrugged the finger off, face drifting into fear at the sight of the girl infront of him.
"No. No Wednesday, we- she was only.." he stuttered out, his fingers finally releasing the money into the jaw. He collected his coffee, sprinting out of the store without a second look.
"Evening. May I have a coffee?" You stared at the girl, her eyes cold and hooded when they looked at you. She was dressed in Nevermore uniform, which meant she had some sort of power.
"Obviously, this is a cafe?" You retorted, eyes tired. Your shoulders were sagged, aching from your bad posture, your eyes were dry and begging for a finger to run into the wisk lids.
"Black. No sugar, no cream."
You hummed, pouring the rich beads of bean's into the crusher. Within moments the coffee was done, steaming in the air. You cupped the lid, pressing it down onto the cup. You slid it onto the counter, telling the girl infont of you the price. She handed you the money, precisely.
"Here." She slipped a hundred dollor bill into the cup, nodding solemnly. You groaned, rolling your eyes. Your fingers dipped into the cup, pressing the bill into her chest.
"I'm not a charity case." She frowned deeper, hand holding the bill.
"I did not imply such a thing. I am measly complamenting your abilities of making an admirable coffee. Is that a crime?" The girl infront of you asked, speaking in such a formality you almost cringed.
"Look, it's nice and all but I'd rather you go on with your day. Makes my life easier." The girl carried on to frown, placing the bill once again into the jaw. The same action played out; you pulled the bill out, she placed it back in.
"Why are you so stubborn?"
"Why are you so stuborn?" You mocked, rolling your eyes.
"This surely isn't allowed as a worker, your being deliciously rude." The girl commented, standing slightly less tall; almost like you had drained the energy out of her.
Your eyes drooped, sighing out in frustration.
"I'm a barista, I'm literally serving coffee to pay my phone bill. I don't owe you anything, I'm not a slave, I shouldn't have to beg you to give me a tip- I don't want a tip. You've payed your bill, so leave."
Wednesday shifted on her feet, her tongue rolling over her teeth.
"Fine." You sighed out, thankful that she finally gave you the space. Then, her fingers wrapped around your belt loop; tugging you forward. She slid the note into your pant pocket, turning around before you could object.
You stared at the open space she once took up. Another customer taking up the empty space within momemts.
"Hi, Ma'am, how may I help you?"
---
Days went by, Lucas didn't harass you. Atleast not at work, at school was a different topic. You eventually learnt the ravens name; Wednesday Addams.
The door bell rang, in walking someone dressed all in black. Instead of coming straight to the till they went to table three. The smaller girl slid into open row, placing her hands on the table and locking them together.
You sigh, Wednesday sitting tall on the chair. You picked up your note book, walking towards the argumentative girl.
"What can I get you today?" You asked, smile plastered on your face. Your pen etched into the paper below it, awaiting the girls answer.
"Mm. My usual." She tucked herself further into the seat, glaring up at you.
You groaned, placing the book down on the table, resting your hand on it.
"Do you really think I can remember that?" Wednesday looked at you, fantom smile dancing on her lips.
"I bet you've remembered every detail of my face." She stated proudly, daring you with a smirk.
"Is that so?" You leaned down, your body tumbling over hers. She nodded, her finger tracking up your arm.
"I've remembered yours."
You hum into the air, smiling like you just won the lottery. You pulled back, your frame casting a shadow over Wednesday's small one.
"What's your name again?"
The question knocked the air out of Wednesday, sucking all of her confidence out.
"Uh. Wednesday Addams."
Your tongue rolled over your top teeth, then sucked your bottom lip into your mouth. Humming to fill the deafening silence.
"Wednesday? That's new. Do you still want that black coffee?" Wednesday clenched her jaw, moving her wandering hand away from you.
"Maybe your number would suffice." She muttered, her eyes still undressing you. You nodded, writing something down on your notepad.
You slid it over, not missing the way her eyes sparked and she almost groaned when the piece of paper was in her hands.
Nice try :) I'm not that easy <3
"That coffee will do, I guess." She groaned, staring at the paper in defeat. Her posture deflated, falling into a soulless sight.
"Fantastic"
Your shift dragged like always, your day seemingly never ending. The Raven haired girl that sent a nerve down your spine stayed, all day.
"Miss Addams, this cafe is closing." You mumbled out from under the counter, your hands cleaning up the beans you spilled earlier that day. Wednesday shuffled towards you, feet stopping when they came face to face with yours.
"May I walk you home?" She asked, standing taller with the suggestion. You was on your knees infront of her, staring through messy hair.
"Why?" You stood back up, placing the beans into the trash, wiping your hands free of the dust that built up on your open palm.
"Its dark, we never know what monster that lurkers outside the door." She said it in such a way that made you guess for what creep would be waiting for you. You nibbled on your bottom lip, staring at the girl who was similar height.
"I think that if any creep tried to have me they'd have to put up a fight. Plus, your the stranger." You noted, walking through the store with a cloth in your hand; wiping down the tables.
Wednesday followed closely after, following you like a lap dog.
"I don't have to be. If only you'd tell me your number. I've been told that I am a gracious date planner." She nodded, proud of her words; rethinking her previous conversations with someone.
"You've been on a date?" You laughed, mocking the implication. She shuffled on her feet, her fringe slightly frazzled at the tiresome day.
"Well no. But- but I assume I would be, I'm a bit of a perfectionist." You stared blankly at her, knowing she was eventually going to tire you down.
"No."
She blinked, her fist clenching around her skirt hem.
"And why not?" She all but whined, sounding like a toddler who wasn't allowed ice-cream, she may have well stomped her feet and screamed.
"Because I don't have time." You mumbled, pushing your lose hair out of your face. You brushed past her, not missing the way her fingers touched yours in a hope to grab your attention; when it didn't work she groaned.
"You can't possibly be that busy? Granted, you have school, maybe an after school activity? Then homework, coming here for- well awhile, then your free to spend your day." Wednesday thought, labeling your whole day.
You hummed, leaning over the counter. It was just like the first time you met, her standing infront of the counter, staring at you through dark eyes.
"I wake up at six, get dressed, plan my outfit and leave for school, I end school at three. I have rugby practise after school for two hours, then I have to come here. I leave her at eight, sometimes nine. After work I have to clean my whole house, cook for my dad and older brother, by then it's about eleven. Sometimes I can fit in my homework, other times i just do it in my breaks. After eleven, I have my shower, then I sleep and repeat my day." Wednesday placed her hand onto the counter, her face riddled with thought.
"Well. Give me your homework, so your break will be free and I can take you on a date, sound adequate?" You laughed, smiling at the girl who was dead serious.
"Why are you laughing? I did not state a joke." Wednesday muttered, pressing herself more into the counter. Your faces were inches away from each other, a daring smile still on yours.
"Uh huh. Your cute, Wednesday." Your finger brushed her fringe, making sure it was in the right place. You hummed seeing the same face that you saw a week previously.
"I'm not a cheat thought, nice try." You leaned forward, kissing her cheek before pulling away. She was left stuck, lost in the mist of your fruitfully perfume and flawless actions of physical touch.
"Care to leave now? I really need to get home before my dad does." You slipped out of the apron, pushing all of your lose hair out of your face; dragging the back of your wrist across your forehead, wiping away the steamed sweat.
"I'll be back." You didnt doubt her in anyway, automatically assuming Wednesday hadn't been told no often in her life. She stormed out of the store. Finally after a while you was left to breath, sighing into the dead silent cafe. The bell rang, Tyler barging through the door.
"Was that Wednesday Addams?"
#jenna ortega#jennaortega#lgbt#tara carpenter#wlw#wednesday addams x fem#wednesday addams x female reader#wednesday addmas x fem#wednesday addams#vada cavell#Lorraine day#jenna ortega x reader#jenna ortega x you#jenna ortega x fem#jenna ortega x fem!reader
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So, I did write about this in some depth five thousand years ago in Rambles About the Golden Age Part 11 (I cant even deal). But the long story short is, he’s not pulling the King apart to delight in his pain or destroy him as a person. He’s recognizing parallels between the King’s emotional place and experience of life and his own.
I mean look, if you think about the King’s character, he’s a genuinely great leader who is emotionally isolated and internally fragile in ways that no one appears to understand or recognize. He feels pressured to preserve the lives of his citizens and is tormented by his inability to do so. He is frustrated by how little lives mean and his powerlessness in the face of war and destruction. He is portrayed, in short, as someone who is trapped by his own position - a position that people are envious of but which he, himself, perceives as a burden. And the thing is until this moment no one realizes that’s how he feels - it’s when he feels that he’s lost Charlotte, who is his sole source of happiness and, as he puts it, warmth, that the cracks are revealed and he falls apart. Ultimately, this loss leads to his physical deterioration (and even the commission of a sexual assault that seems wholly out of character with the person he’s been up to that point).
...sound familiar?
Many of their lines are direct parallels going all the way back to Griffith’s observation during the BSM flashback that people’s lives are snuffed out as though they’re meaningless, which the King echoes in his rant. And when the King accuses him of having no way to understand the feeling of being responsible for lives, Grififth gives him a withering look that is replicated almost to the line in the Eclipse when he finally caves under the weight of the Godhand reminding him of all the deaths he’s caused and that if he stops he will have wasted those lives.
Even the smile in the post is not a smile of pleasure, it’s an expression Miura uses when Griffith is smiling through the pain, so to speak, e.g. when Guts blows off his insecurities about being a terrible person (by accident, obviously).
The parallel is even emphasized through Griffith’s comparison of the throne to a sword.
"You’ve done nothing more than not fail, how worthless.”
This section interesting because he’s saying that the King is seen as a great man and as having accomplished something great, but in reality all he’s done is keep succeeding - it’s easy to come off as a great man when you never have to deal with a loss, but the first time he takes a real (emotional in this case) hit he breaks like a crystal cup. Again, same thing as Griffith. And it’s really driven home later when he’s alone in the cell and refers to his own situation and self as worthless - the same thing he called the King.
The only difference Griffith appears to see between them IN THIS WAY is that he, Griffith, attempted to harness the beast instead of letting it run him over as the King has done, yet in the end they both ended up in the same place.
This is something that can make people uncomfortable mostly because the King is a horrible person who wants to sleep with his daughter whereas Griffith’s a pretty good guy, he’s just in love with a man. But it does make sense if you think of it from an EMOTIONAL AND PRACTICAL rather than a MORAL standpoint - it is a yearning that controls their respective lives and provides the fuel they need to keep doing what they’re doing, but which cannot be fulfilled due to Factors.
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stupid, a high school reincarnation ficlet
yes that's the title. no it's not a joke. you'll see why. this wasn't edited at all and i'm in my feels right now after tiktok put me there. ANYWAY! here's the moment mikasa saw eren for the first time!
Mikasa felt like she had no reason to be so heartbroken.
It was a rainy afternoon on a Monday in mid-October. Mina was her project and they worked well together. The project was already done and the two of them were just hanging out in the girl’s room.
“Are you on Instagram? I want to follow you!”
Mikasa shook her head, “I don’t really do social media.Tried it once, it’s way too stressful.”
“Fair enough.”
Mina went to the bathroom and Mikasa saw that the rain had let up a little bit. Well that was nice, maybe some fresh air.
Big mistake.
She didn’t know how she was going to meet Eren in this life, if she was even going to see him at all. As the years went by, the hope of it dwindled. There were other things going on in her life, so she tried not to think about how alone she was. Again.
She never thought this would be how.
Eren stood on the neighbor’s balcony and he wasn’t alone. There, on the balcony, for the world to see, he was making out with a girl. She didn’t know who and with their state of dress or lack thereof, it was obvious what they’d been doing.
Her chest constricted painfully and she forgot how to breathe. Her brain barely registered the fact that she was seeing Eren in front of her. It was now registering heartbreak on top of that. And all of that combined led her to gasp. And it was loud enough to get their attention.
This was a nightmare, it had to be. Their eyes met and before he could even run, she ran out. She had to leave. She had to go.
She heard her name and wasn’t sure who was calling it. The rain started again and she was soaked to the bone but she continued to run.
This was stupid, so stupid. She had no right to be upset. She had her share of wild nights with random guys. It still hurts though. And she can’t breathe. She’d wanted to find him for so long. Things had ended horribly for them, but there was always that promise.
See you later…
Beer couldn’t solve this. It was time to break out some of Kenny’s cheap whiskey. She almost collapsed on the sidewalk, but she wasn’t dramatic enough for that.
She never thought she’d see Eren again. Now, she wished that she never had…
-
Eren was panicking.
“You’re sure it was her, Eren?” Armin asked.
He scowled, though Armin couldn’t see him. He’d been forced to drive home after driving around for an hour. He knew that it was her. He’d know Mikasa Ackerman anywhere. He’d only been pining after her all this life and last.
“You think I wouldn’t be able to pick Mikasa out from a crowd. It was her, Armin. And she saw everything,” he gritted his teeth, kicking himself mentally again and again.
“Damn it,” Armin let out a deep breath. “You’re telling me she’s been around this whole time and the first time she sees you in this lifetime is after you hooked up with Lara Tybur, is that right?”
Eren made a noise, “I swear, Armin, if I have to repeat myself…”
Armin mumbled something under his breath, “Okay, I’ll see what I can find out. But you better be ready to grovel because this is just one more thing you have to make up for. I can’t believe you, honestly.”
“Yeah, I know. I already feel like shit, Armin, I’m just telling you that she’s here. I don’t know where she went but she saw me and booked it. You can punch me again at a later time. First, help me find her. That’s all.”
“Oh, I will. But Eren? She may not be ready to talk to you. So be ready if that’s the case.”
The line went dead and Eren was close to chucking it at the wall.
He was an idiot. When he met Lara again, it was awkward as hell, obviously. But she looked so much like Mikasa, it was almost scary. The attraction was there and they’d been going at it since June. The fact didn’t escape him that he went from literally eating her last life to eating her in a completely other way.
But Mikasa had seen and the summer he’d had was the furthest thing from his mind. Mikasa was the only girl that mattered to him. She was the only girl he’d ever loved, the only girl he would ever love. And he broke her heart. Again.
Lara texted him earlier and he just told her that their little arrangement was over. There was no room for interpretation, it was done. He wanted to find Mikasa. He wanted to be with Mikasa. Only her, no one else.
He just had to find her. And grovel. He was willing to get down on his knees and beg. He didn’t give a damn about his pride when it came to her.
-
They went to the same school. In fact, they had study hall together. What the fuck, how had he missed that? Oh right, their teacher couldn’t care less if they showed up or not and didn’t bother taking attendance.
She avoided him like the plague. He tried calling out to her and she just walked faster. It hurt, it hurt a lot but he was nothing if not persistent.
He tried to find her during break and lunch, no luck. Last life, she avoided him like the plague whenever she was upset. She was doing just that.
He did manage to run up to her at one point on Thursday afternoon, on the way to study hall. He tried to talk, he tried to say anything but she sighed. It wasn’t even a sigh of anger or frustration, she was just tired.
“I’m not in the mood for talking, Eren. Please leave me alone.”
“Mikasa, please,” he begged, his voice breaking. “I just want to talk. What you saw—”
“Eren. Leave. Me. Alone.”
She disappeared into the classroom before he could beg again. Study hall was their last period but they weren’t allowed to talk. She just ran off.
She didn’t want to talk.
He stood there. He didn’t want to give up, but he felt like the biggest piece of shit.
And maybe, he deserved it.
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Good Omens Season 2 - Overall Review
You know every now and then its nice to step outside of the echo chamber and get a fresh perspective on things. I've been looking at some negative reviews for GOS2 this evening after some critical comments came across my dash which was a surprise at first because my dash has otherwise been filled with GOS2 love and adoration (if perhaps also some odd theories floating around).
Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but it made me really consider mine, so I decided to write it down. I know I still have episode reviews for eps 2-6 to write up, which I will get to, but I needed to get this off my chest first. This is generally just a reaction post outlining all the things I liked and didn't like about GOS2. Under a cut because looooong.
I hadn't read the Good Omens book before I watched Season 1. I watched that show completely blind and my main reason for watching at the time was because
a) I'm always going to be a little bit in love with David Tennant and so watch absolutely everything he is in always no matter how horrible (Des was a particularly hard watch)
b) I had heard that GO was partially some of the original inspiration for Supernatural and I'll be a Supernatural slut til the end of time.
c) I love all things fantasy and it genuinely looked like a great show.
Whilst I loved the first season, the thing I loved about it, was Aziraphale and Crowley. I also very much enjoyed the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the Angels and Demons, and Anathama and Madam Tracey as characters.
I hated the kids. They were bloody awful and on every rewatch I have done in the past few years I have had to skip over their scenes. I find them completely unwatchable. I found Newt to be boring and Shadwell a pain in the ass. I don't find that particular brand of misogyny funny so his scenes are also just painful for me. I loathed the fact that he ended up with Madam Tracey in the end, AND that she changed who she was completely for him. What the FUCK was that all about?
Anyway, now that that is off my chest, the point I am making is that the only thing I really enjoyed about Good Omens was Crowley and Aziraphales love story plus a few of the awesome female characters they had helping them. I also enjoyed the quirky narration by God which I think had a distinctly Douglas Adam's feel to it (which I believe was the vibe Terry and Neil were going for at the time).
I have always been of the opinion that it was GOs faithfullness to the book which let it down. I read the book after watching the show and whilst it was a good book, it dragged on in parts, spent too long focusing on the kids, and Aziraphale and Crowley weren't quite as lovable in book format as they were brought to life by DT and MS. To me, the book was a 6/10, the show a 7/10. I was a fan of AziraCrow and their love story. I did not, and have not ever, believed they were "canon" in season 1 (though i was loathed to admit this due to the rabidity of the fandoms insistence that they were - which was spurred on by Gaiman much to his own detriment).
So when GOS2 came around I had no expectations that it would kick off with AziraCrow being all lovey dovey and shacked up - having confessed their love and living together as life partners - as I genuinely believe some GO fans expected to be the case - after all these are the fans that insisted it was canon in season 1! Surely that means they'll be together in season 2 right?
Well obviously that wasn't the case. First mistake for Neil Gaiman - maybe don't spend 4 years trying to convince your fanbase that these characters are already together and in love if you are going to write a whole second season revolving around the fact that they still aren't together.
I was also really worried when GOS2 was announced that they'd bring back the bloody kids, and Shadwell, and the other season 1 characters. I was very much relieved when I heard that wasn't the case. As much as I enjoyed Madam Tracey, she was ruined at the end of S1, and as much as I liked Anathama, I was very aware that her story was over the moment she burned the new prophecy book.
So going into Season 2, I was expecting and hoping for a few things:
The romantic development of AziraCrow from friends to lovers
More time with the angels and demons
A fun lesbian side story
Technically, I got all three things.
I am aware that GOS2 has its flaws. It's pacings a bit dodgy, and I do find some of the dialogue a bit jarring particularly in the Maggie and Nina scenes. The entire season has this slightly saccharine quality to it where I feel like if I watch it too many times too quickly I'll get sick from the sweetness. There needed to be a little bit more gruesomeness and angst to counteract all that sugar - Zombie Nazi's notwithstanding.
The Maggie and Nina mirrors to Aziraphale and Crowley were more heavy handed than in a season 8 MOTW episode of Supernatural. I've made that joke before, but it still stands. I wish that Neil had been a bit more subtle with it. As much as I like Maggie and Nina, they could have used a bit more development and a bit of distance from Zira and Crowley. I did find the scene where they sit down with Crowley at the end to basically tell him to get his shit together and tell Zira how he feels like something out of a fangirls dream. Does anyone remember that really OTT gay Hallmark style Christmas movie that came out last year? Single All The Way? Gods, when I first watched that movie I thought it was sweet, but it was so obviously taken from fanfiction that I couldn't take it seriously (I say this as someone who adores fanfiction and has huge respect for fanfiction writers - but we all start somewhere, and its usually as a teenager writing really sappy YAOI and that's what I feel inspired Single All The Way - side note: Trixie and Katya's review of Single All The Way is one of the funniest things I've ever watched, nothing like watching two drag queens absolutely destroy queer media that was absolutely NOT written with gay men in mind)). Anyway, I mention SATW because there is a scene towards the end of the movie where two teenage girls sit the protagonist down and tell him that he's an idiot who is clearly in love with his best friend and he should go confess his love before its too late.
Look I'm sure we've all had that fantasy. I know I did when it came to Destiel for years. Nothing better than picturing myself standing in the bunker shaking Dean Winchester by the shoulders yelling at him to go kiss Castiel because goddammit that angel needs to know he's loved!
It's a great fantasy. But I DO NOT want to EVER see it played out for real in ANY media. When I realised that this was exactly what was happening in GOS2 I curled up into a ball and screamed into my hands, and not in a good way. That was... bad. Someone slap Neil on the wrist for that terrible decision. There were a dozen better ways they could have explained the AziraCrow miscommunication issue.
Having said all this, everything else about GOS2 I adored. There is criticism about the minisodes. Sure, they are totally expansions on the popularity of Season 1's episode 3 opener, and are rather self indulgent and not really connected to the main Gabriel mystery, but they are each of them an absolute blast. They dig deeper into AziraCrow's relationship and help to understand a bit more of their dynamic and the underlying issues that they have been facing for their entire friendship.
I totally understand where people may criticise the Gabriel/Beelzebub romance coming out of left field as well. It was totally unexpected and yeah, sure, Gabriel was basically the villain of season 1, so I can understand the irritation and him getting to have a happy ever after love story when he has never even apologised to Zira. But I gotta be honest, I don't really care. I thought it was hilarious and a fun twist as well as well as a much more subtle narrative mirror to AziraCrow than Maggie and Nina were. You can accuse Neil of taking that idea from fans if you want, its totally possible that he came across some ineffable beurocracy fanart and thought huh, that could be fun. But I don't care if he did, or if it did come to him completely separately to the fans. I never shipped them, but I find it hilarious in the same way I find the Dean/Crowley ship in SPN hilarious. That went canon too, much to the horror of the entire SPN fandom. NO ONE ASKED FOR DROWLEY and yet they inflicted it on us anyway... I'll never quite get over that fact.
As for Aziraphale's characterisations. I disagree with everyone who says he was out of character. I love that he's still struggling with the idea of not being part of heaven. I love that he is still dealing with the millennia of abuse and brainwashing and manipulation. I love that he still hasn't quite grasped the tyranny and institutional corruption at Heaven's heart. I found the end of season 1 to be very satisfying in a lot of ways (other than the lack of handholding in the Ritz) but when I really think about it, Season 1 really doesn't resolve Zira's issues with Heaven. He get's discorporated, decides he doesn't want to fight, goes back to Earth and then he's dealing with the apocalypse and he never actually has any communication with Heaven again after that, because it's Crowley who goes to Heaven in his place and witnesses just how cruel they are (at least Hell gave Crowley a trial).
Nothing happens at the end of season 1 that could be enough to break him away from 6000 years of cult-like indoctrination. He still puts it down to a few bad angels. He never actually talks to God, and whilst the Metatron disappoints him, its very easy to believe that Zira would change his mind after receiving a few kind words, and the promise of restoring Crowley to full angelhood.
Crowley was perfect throughout the entire season. 10/10. No notes. Absolutely utter perfection. Outstanding performance from DT, I laughed, I cried, I wept, I desperately want to hug Crowley and let him cry on my shoulder for an entire night.
Other things I adored about the season include the entirety of episode 5 The Ball. My fave episode. It was so silly and adorable and funny. The entire "Seamstress" conversation had me rolling with laughter. Shout out to Donna Preston (Our girl Despair) who absolutely stole every scene she was in. Miranda Richardson shines as Shax (an excellent choice to recast her as a new character after the butchering of Madam Tracey's character at the end of S1). I think Muriel was a bit underutilised but still loved their wide eyed innocence and naivity.
The biggest thing I think was missing was Francis McDormand's narration as God. They brought her back for episode 2 for a very minor role, I don't understand why Neil couldn't have just had God narrate it again, with more Douglas Adams crossed with Monty Python style sequences of explanation (the angels dancing on the head of a pin is one of my absolute favourite moments in all of season 1). I presume that God's narration in S1 was to ensure the books more abstract explanations got faithfully adapted, but I wish Neil could have at least tried to recreate that for S2.
Finally, the AziraCrow romance was almost exactly what I hoped for. All the way through the season they built on it and built on it, whilst also shedding light on the fundamental issues at their core. They are still so opposite even though they want nothing more than to be together. It's heartbreaking, it's shippy AF, its all romance tropes and fanservice sure - but I don't consider fanservice to be a dirty word. The kiss is heartbreaking. You can feel the desperation oozing off of Crowley in that moment. The heartbreaking cliffhanger is exactly what's needed at the end of act 2 of a 3 act structure. If we had been given the episodes week by week, i fully believe by week 6 we would have been more prepared for it, because after rewatching a few times now, its built in rather seemlessly imo. It was always gonna end that way.
When I consider everything, I can honestly say hand on heart that I preferred this season to the first. Though that's only because season 1 doesn't have enough AziraCrow in it and I'm ultimately here for them. This season was made for the AziraCrow fans, so it makes sense that I'd prefer it, whereas I suppose for book lovers and people who prefer the story of book 1 to the relationship between Az and Crow then yeah, for sure I can see why perhaps you wouldn't be too happy with this season. Perhaps Season 3 will be a better blend for all GO fans.
It was a joy. Fanservice? Yes. A bit like fanfiction? Also yes. Are either of these things bad? Not at all. It was extremely queer, fun, silly, romantic, and heartbreaking. The lack of overarching domineering plot was a good thing tbh. Some of my favourite shows focus more on character development than plot, look at WWDITS, which has never had a proper plot in a single episode of its 5 season run. Yet it is hugely successful and critically acclaimed. Half the time in Supernatural the plot was the absolute worst thing about it. You ignored the plot as much as possible and instead focused on the subtext because that's where all the fun was! So yeah, the lack of overarching plot doesn't bother me in the slightest.
I will leave it there. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, though I do wish that anyone who is particularly critical of GOS2 would please tag it as such, because now I've done my dive into the critique of it, I'd like to avoid and blacklist all such critique going forward. I want to remain in my little GOS2 happy bubble for a while longer - before I inevitably revert back into deep meta analysis of the much darker, and sometimes depressing story of The Sandman.
:)
#good omens#good omens season 2#good omens season 2 review#GOS2#good omens season 2 spoilers#ineffable husbands#aziraphale#crowley#neil gaiman#good omens meta#good omens meta review
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I'm curious what your thoughts are on this. In Saeran's after-ending, Saeran doesn't fall asleep when V gasses the RFA because he's developed a tolerance to the herbs Rika used due to his overexposure to the elixir during his time in Mint Eye.
However, MC also awakens pretty quickly. Obviously, we're going on an assumption of realism here using the canon to theorycraft, but it's rather unlikely that holding their breath alone could have allowed them to wake up as quickly as they did.
Saeran mentions in the subsequent chatroom that the doctors were surprised that MC woke up as fast as they did. V is equally astonished because he was sure he checked the saturation levels, and Rika says the gas is supposed to have put the RFA to sleep for 2 days at a minimum. (Zen also wakes up within this time frame, but it can be explained due to his monstrous healing).
Aside from the obvious answer here (re: the Power of Love™), I started thinking about the possibility that maybe MC was exposed to very, very minimal doses of the elixir while at Mint Eye, unbeknownst to Ray or Saeran, and that, combined with holding their breath allowed them to wake up sooner than the rest.
In Saeran's diary, he alludes that the food they were giving him at the start before he was taken to the basement was laced with more and more of the elixir to get him used to it and make him easier to coerce (he doesn't even notice around day 4, but by day 11, it's starting to make him feel sick). We know Ray only cooks some meals for MC since he's so busy. Is it possible that the meals Ray didn't prepare had minimal amounts of elixir in them, doing to MC what they had done to Saeran before?
And... with that in mind... could Saeran withholding food prepared by the believers have been his horribly misguided attempt to stop that from even potentially happening, whether it was the case or not? He brags about telling the believers not to feed MC, but in the same chatroom, he mocks that he would feed them himself if he found something nasty. The key here is him deciding when to feed them and what to feed them, not the other believers.
Just... I'm not crazy to think this is a similar sentiment right? Even the wording is similar.
Saeran's incoming call on Day 9 (Who will you go with?) also hints MC might have been exposed to the elixir without his knowledge if they talk to him like a believer.
I'm just trying to make narrative sense of the MC-wakes-up-even-though-they-aren't-supposed-to deuce ex machina in the after ending lmao, and I feel like this makes the most reasonable sense with the established narrative canon + gives Saeran a probable cause for having withheld food prepared by anyone other than himself??
Anyways, I'm so sorry, this is so much longer than I intended hahaha. I'm very interested in your perspective or headcanons on this, as I'm trying to make sense of this in my head.
So, the boring answer I can give you right off the bat is that it's a deus ex machina. It isn't supposed to be more complicated than that. It is just for the sake of convenience you are able to survive this situation, unlike the RFA.
We do not have the tolerance that he has and we shouldn't have it at all because he refused to let us so much as drink it. That is the boring answer but it is the answer from Cheritz's standpoint. There are a lot of little things like that in the game you aren't supposed to think that hard about but for those of us that love to make things feel more realistic, it's hard to not think about it.
The key problem I have with your speculation is the fact that Ray says outright from the very beginning when he decides that he doesn't want to give you the elixir, that he doesn't want you to be in pain. If you trust him, that means that you don't need to take the elixir. It'll be a little secret between the two of you and you can't tell anybody. He is fighting for his life out here trying to protect you from it.
That's why he goes so far as to make you a fake elixir in the first place. He is doing everything he can to make sure that you never have to taste it. Ray knows that it is going to destroy you in more ways than one and anything he can do to avoid that is something he will do in the confines of his route. He wants to avoid it. He fights to make sure it doesn't happen.
He is having full-on night terrors about you being in pain.
He took it upon himself to make sure that you were eating food he made. Even if that took time out of his busy schedule, he knew he had to do it otherwise it would not end well for you. He might be a paranoid character but so is his brother, and they have a reason to be paranoid because of the way people use power and control around them. I don't think he would have allowed anybody to make your food for you.
Even if there is a subtle implication that there were instances when he wasn't able to make food for you, I feel like he would have made a point to try to inspect it if possible. It would have been more work on his part, but you are worth that extra work. Even if he couldn't see you for a lot longer, he's not going to let anybody put that in you if he can help it.
This theory could be further substantiated by Suit Saeran's choices. Of course, the key factor why he denied you the food was because he was projecting his trauma onto you, but I have never seen somebody point out his actions and make this connection before so I must give you credit for that.
A huge part of Suit Saeran's actions near the end of the route does become something where he's trying to protect you from everything that he and Ray have suffered before and after you met them, so it wouldn't be a stretch to my imagination in the slightest if that had something to do with this.
But do I think that you have been subjected to any amount of elixir? I don't think so. I really don't think so. Even if you did, the amount of it you would've had to have taken would need to take way longer to do a job like that than a week or two. You would need to have been in the cult for months dealing with trace amounts of elixir to even get close to what tolerance Saeran Choi has.
I don't think it could have slipped through the cracks past Saeran or Ray more than once if it did happen. Plus the taste is so palpable no matter how small the amount, you would notice it if somebody put it in the food. Baby Saeran noticed the taste almost immediately and it made him recoil from the food for days until hunger set in. That's the part that's mentioned in his diary.
The only thing you do that the others don't do is hold your breath for a few seconds.
That probably helped a little bit but it shouldn't have helped to the point that you wake up a few hours later. There is a chance maybe the MC has natural tolerance to some of the chemicals in the elixir but even that seems like a stretch to me. I really don't have a logical answer.
#mod kait#ask#mystic messenger#mysme#saeran choi#mysticmessenger#choi saeran#mm#creator kami#character analysis#saeran after ending#mysme saeran#saeran mysme#mm saeran#saeran mystic messenger#saeran mm#mystic messenger saeran
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headcanon meme: 30 & 31
the excessively detailed hc meme.
30. most prized possession?
the handkerchief with an (ugly) embroidery of a haitang flower. it will never not be his most prized possession, but it's also a source of extreme heartache, because in both lifetimes Mo Ran forgot all about it and decided to shower Shi Mei with affection instead. but CWN had never received any kind of gifts before, especially not something handmade specifically for him. i'm sure Xue Meng would absolutely think of a thousand gifts to give to his shizun, but he wouldn't be bold enough to make it so personal, or be as persistent in adoring him as Mo Ran originally was. given that such handkerchiefs can be bought in town with flawless embroidery, sometimes he keeps two on his person in case he actually needs to use it. he'd rather use the other one if it's something like blood that could ruin his little treasure.
in 0.5 verse i'd also add that goddamn earring to the list because... he has extremely mixed feelings about it, as it's definitely not something he agreed to, nor had any choice but to keep. but CWN keeps everything that comes from Mo Ran, sometimes secretly stashed away, sometimes out in the open, and in that particular verse most of it were useless expensive trinkets he couldn't care less for. but that little earring made from TXJ's blood and forged with his spiritual energy (meant to serve as a light aphrodisiac and make CWN more pliant), while it seemed like a branding of sorts, a mark of belonging which he should've resented, was also the most intimate thing he's ever received. there was obviously no need to bind him to the man like that, but it also kinda... served its original purpose, which wasn't such a horrible touch. deep down, though he'd never admit it, he finds the whole idea incredibly hot.
31. thoughts on material possessions in general.
CWN genuinely doesn't give a damn about those, unless they're gifts. he's more than content with the quiet life they have in post-canon, even though that life is far from rich (but not broke either, especially considering TXJ's 'he can think it's fine to have him live like this, but Wanning deserves the best' reservation). usually he doesn't have too much stuff, his possessions are mostly limited to his engineering tools and calligraphy brushes and ink sets. he could've easily been rich if he didn't strike a deal for his inventions to be sold at a lower price than their creation originally cost. not to mention that he deliberately chose a sect that didn't charge for helping common people. there are many things he could've done to ensure a good life for himself, wealth-wise, but what matters more to him is being able to help others and do so in an affordable way.
and he's also more than content to wear simple clothes and less intricate headpieces. despite his high status, it doesn't bother him at all. the life of luxury at the imperial palace didn't do much for him, he could never be bribed with any sorts of material gifts.
#hc.#the earring deserved more attention. i think about it a lot.#speaking of things he finds hot dhksf
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so the glowing blitz silhouette from the look my way MV inspired me to draw Remi in the same pose because I.. see so much of myself in Blitz.
I know I spend alot of my time doing silly goofy meme art as well as oc x Blitz polyamory shipart and while some see it as me being some Blitz fangirl or cringy simp, sure. I guess people can judge me for the gushy self insert characters x blitz shipart.
but I don't do this because I'm a Blitz Fangirl.
there is a reason I obsess and hyperfocus on Blitz so much and it's because I connect so deeply to him that it's kinda super personal.
I know that seems silly.. but I also DO know I'm not the only one that feels the same way. I've seen other blitz fans who kin him and feel the same way I do.
I'm not gonna sugar coat this when I say blitz has a LOT to work on.
thats fact.
He deals with self hate, he genuinely thinks he doesn't even deserve love or affection, but he feels SO lonely. hes afraid hes going to DIE alone. and he also blames himself for things that were accident, showing he has a pretty bad guilt complex that has made him feel SUPER guilty about his childhood tent fire accident. he also has individuals who hate him as we've seen throughout the series (Verosika, Fizz, his own sister barbie, ect, though we already saw him and fizz make up. which is awesome! ^^)
and well.. yea..
theres just.. SO much Blitz goes through as a character.. and me personally, I've been through each and EVERY Single thing he's going through.
and yes. it HITS hard...
I know what it's like to self hate. I've been dealing with self hate my entire life. growing up I did a piss poor job building up the self love and seeing my worth. even to this day I still deal with self hate. yea, I know that I have people who tell me my arts good, or that im a good friend, or that I've inspired them, and truthfully yea I know my arts good, and I know I inspire others cause that's always been my goal is to inspire people, and if it works yay! but I am working on myself still. it's a rough road of getting out of the pit of self hate. self love is SUPER hard. my boyfriend even sees how hard it can be and how damaging self hate can be to me. but he still believes in me. just like I know all of my friends in this fandom believe in me. and I think that alone is what helps me try.
and seeing Blitz go through this definitely makes me connect and idk. it speaks to me..
I know what it's like to feel like I'm unloveable.. before I met my boyfriend Christian, I had such a hard time with relationships. people used me. cheated on me, abused me. yknow the gist. back in 2015 I was SO close to giving up because I thought I was worthless and unlovable.. I was so fucking hopeless. I felt so unloved, and unwanted and blamed myself... anyone I'd have feelings for, I would get friendzoned, or shot down. I just felt super hopeless until I met christian. we.. admittedly had a rocky start and ups and downs.. but here we are 8 years later, moved in together, and still holding on to one another. I love him to death, and would do anything for him..
and obviously in Blitz's case in the show, after seeing the episode truth seekers, and ozzies, I felt so bad for him. truthfully this is why i made remi. I had MADE remi to ship with blitz to make comfort art of him in HAPPY art pieces because it pained me to see him go through all this stuff in the show.
and I seriously can't wait to finally see him SUPER happy with Stolas when they finally get together canonically of course! <3 it's gonna be amazing <3
I know what it's like to suffer from a really bad guilt complex..
I've done and said things I didn't mean in the past.. I'm not gonna sugar coat it, I was AWFUL, but I'm learning from my mistakes.. and I'll be real, I still feel guilty over the things I've said and done because yea. I feel horrible. dispite people I've wronged, forgiving me, and me bettring meself, years later I still feel horrible and have my moments where I'll just sit at my table, stare off and then cry, having an emotional break down.
so seeing blitz HATE himself AND beat himself up, and being guilty for the circus fire even though it was an accident.. man it hurts and hits me really hard cause that shit is so relatable...
so.. Idk.. I don't just "simp" or "fangirl" for blitz (I mean I wont deny it I do simp, and fangirl to the extreme lol)
I just.. relate to him so much on a personal level it's insane..
so it makes me happy seeing him happy. cause all the poor dude seems to get is big fat F yous in the show left and right, and I draw him shipped with My ocs Remi and Tiziri because both Remi AND tiziri are representation of me somewhat, and because I used to go through what hes going through, It comforts me drawing shipart.
dispite what the haters think, Even after stolas x blitz becomes canon, yes, I'm STILL gonna ship my ocs with blitz in my lil AU..
but know I also cannot wait to see stolas and blitz happy.
agh.. I know this is alot. sorry. <XD
I'm kinda emotional rn..
anyway. er. yea. this is my peice. hopefully people kinda understand a little bit of why I stick to oc x blitz ships so much.. and if not hey, thats okay. I get it.
thank you for reading.
artwork was inspired off of the blitz silhouette from the look my way music video
Art (c) me
Remi (c) mine
helluva boss (c) vivziepop
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There are people who genuinely believe that sonic villains don’t kill people?
Ok if they mean outright, like attempting murder I can understand. But if they mean at all? I don’t think so
The amount of collateral damage that round bitch has done is enough to almost destroy the entire word, and even if everyone was somehow able to live though world altering events then it definitely hurt and damaged a lot of people. The amount of people who has had to go though hospitals ( and lord I know they would be packed as shit ) due to stuff ranging from minor to major injuries is enough to mentally scar an entire generation of people.
We’re not even going into how blowing up the fucking moon ( I PISSED ON THE MOON YOU IDIOT- ) affects the wave tides and therefore the aquatic life. The amount of forest fires, air pollution of any kind, the possible ocean pollution, and the excessive use of energy is simply not good for the environment and can really, and I do mean really, fuck up the entire ecosystem witch could cause a chain reaction that would make everything harder for everyone.
And no, I’m not gonna get into how this affects the economy cuz that’s an entire own thing and I don’t wanna open that up.
Has eggman outwardly attempted to kill? Maybe, if you count sonic. But other then that? Not really. Has he fucked over many cities and traumatized an entire two, maybe three, generation of people? Hell fuckin yes.
I really think sonic should just kill him at this point tbh lmao
Well the outright attempting murder is actually the blatant stuff in the games that can't be denied at all in all this. Eggman's intent and desire for murder has very clearly been there. He doesn't just threaten to destroy, crush, burn to ashes, make mincemeat out of, close one's eyes forever, etc, or say that he'll make the place their tomb, that it's their funeral, etc. Even though all of that very obviously means the same thing anyway, as they all very obviously imply and would result in death.
But he also even blatantly threatens to kill and tells people to die while outright using the specific words "kill" and "die." Just a few examples that I've posted to put here again are with Sonic, Amy, and Tails but there's a lot more obvious stuff too. That's how genuinely violent and murderous he really is and he even says it'll be his pleasure.
And he's not the only Sonic villain that's blatantly tried to kill people on screen (and visibly succeeded at times) so a lot of villains including Eggman being attempted murderers in the very least can't be denied.
But also the collateral damage of many of the villains' plans, especially Eggman's as they've had a catastrophic destructive impact on a global scale multiple times, would absolutely result in deaths. The worldwide and global catastrophies and severe environmental damage would definitely kill many and traumatize those that survive and result in horrible living conditions, which is also just as bad anyway whether people die or not but they definitely would too. So the fact that it's undermined and downplayed so hard either way is really wild.
He realistically has to have a body count of thousands or millions, even when it's just collateral and he's just totally apathetic towards it. Though he's also actually genuinely intended to wipe innocent people out on a large scale too, such as when he tried to blow up Station Square. And then of course he's directly attempting to murder of Sonic and co all the time, even the youngest children, which is also seriously fucked up and isn't any less just because he didn't succeed in those cases. They would've just been a few more numbers to his name.
Plus, even in Lost World, Eggman just carelessly and casually acknowledges that his plan to commit genocide on the Zeti (which is also another example of blatant intent to directly kill in itself) would also have collateral damage that would result in killing everything else around them too. And there's absolutely no way that it would be the only time that any of his actions ever would've resulted in such if he had gone through with it, after all the other mass destruction he has actually carried out on a global scale so many times lol
It really just seems to be a age rating thing in the sense that they can't outright state in words that they've actually succeeded in killing/that people are dead as a result from all that chaotic destruction, in the same way they can at least blatantly show it and the intentions and attempting of it. But that shouldn't automatically mean that none of the villains have ever actually killed anyone if it's not stated outright, it doesn't mean it's a story choice for the character just because of ratings. And realistically, there's no way it would make any sense at all for nobody to ever die.
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This post by @ellewritesandrants got me thinking about Will and Billy bonding, which is something I don't see often enough.
I think it would be really awkward to start. Honestly I think Billy bonding with any of the Party members would be incredibly awkward to start with. But Will and Billy have a lot of common ground tbh. Finding their way to it would just be...hard.
In an Billy Lives AU I'm imagining El and Max are the most likely to visit him in the hospital. Max learned how much she actually cares about him when she nearly lost him, and El has seen some of the deepest parts of his mind and knows hes more like a kicked dog than an actually horrible person.
They go keep him company almost every afternoon, to the point where one if the others, probably Mike makes a comment about it. Something something why are you wasting your time on Billy Hargrove of all people something something He's really not that bad when someone isn't constantly attacking him something something.
It gets brought up, probably by Dustin, that technically he killed a bunch of people, almost including them. That's when Will chimes in, because hey no Mindflayer murders shouldn't count against the Flayed. Dustin realizes his mistake and tries to backpedal, while maintaining that Will was different since Will was fighting it, obviously.
This does not have the intended effect. If anything Will seems more upset because how do you know he wasn't fighting it??? Fighting a mindflayer looks like your body sitting in place for hours while you're scratching at the walls of your own mind, screaming and trying to get back to yourself. None of them knew Billy well enough to know if he had just given in to the mindflayer. Or in Max's case, she hadn’t been home enough to know.
Someone, probably Lucas (which from his perspective is absolutely justified, btw, wanna be very clear on that), mutters that given what he was like before, he can't really picture Billy fighting being evil.
That pisses off Max, El, and Will.
Max snaps about how none of them knew what it was like for him at their house, for either of them for that matter. While he was a dick, yeah, he wasn’t just like that. He isn't evil any more than Max herself is, even though she can be a little much sometimes.
El is frowning when she explains what she actually did to get him to break the mindflayer's control, and it was essentially just reminding him that someone has cared about him at one point in his life. Reaching out to show him the smallest bit of kindness had been enough to let him break the mental hold of a creature that El herself had had trouble fighting.
And Will. Will storms out of the house, now determined to actually ask Billy himself because he's starting to get the sense that no one really ever has.
Billy is surprised to see Will when he gets there, having not ever really talked to the kid. From what he'd seen, he was shy and soft spoken, non-confrontational. It was almost alarming to see him roll up with a fire in his eyes.
His voice is still soft when he talks though, when he apologizes for storming in and asks if he can ask him some things. Billy is bored out of his mind and decides, what the hell, lets see where this goes.
So they talk.
It starts off just being about mindflayer stuff, given that they're really the only two people who can understand what that's like. Will never realized how...good?? It would feel to have someone to really talk to about it?? Billy is obviously still a little gun shy about it, but hearing that that's what happened to Will when he went missing, that he had to go through an experience that horrific at such a young age, immediately vaults him over a lot of Billy's walls. Its the worst kind of common ground, the kind found between vets after a war has ended.
Will attempts to place a hand over Billy's, which garners a flinch, and another piece of common ground is unearthed. Will knows that reaction, has seen Jonathan do it, has done it himself, knows his mom makes an effort to keep her own flinches under wraps.
He wants to hug him, if he's honest. Knows he could probably use it, but also knows that now isn't exactly the time.
Will doesn't mention the flinch and Billy doesn't either, but Will files it away for later.
After that, Will starts joining the girls when they go to visit Billy. They talk more, and for longer as Billy starts getting his energy back. Its weird to Billy, who's not had anything resembling an actual family, but he starts to develop affection for these kids who keep choosing to spend time with him.
He's still slow to truly trust, especially people who he should be able to trust like family, but hes learning. Its slow and its made of small steps like a newborn fawn learning to walk, but Billy starts to open up to them.
He tells El how he misses his Mom, but at the same time he thinks he hates her. El tells him how she feels about her own parents, and how she's still not fully sure about it.
He finally tells Max what Neil did to him when she asks. Little bits and pieces, never anything graphic, but enough that she can understand why he acted the way he did. He apologizes again, and this time when she hugs him and tells him she forgives him, its not with the looming knowledge that he's about to die hanging above them.
He tells Will how scared he's always been about someone catching him looking at his friends for just a little too long. Will hadn’t told him how he feels about Mike, but Billy isn't stupid. He could hear it in the way he talked about him, the way he smiled. He takes the leap first since Will took the leap to get close in the first place. Billy ends up being the first person Will properly comes out to, and Will cries for a good ten minutes because its as relieving as it is terrifying. Billy swears to take the secret to his grave. Its the first time Will hasn't felt like a freak because of something about himself that he can't change, and its the first time Billy hasn't either.
Just....Billy and Will being really ride or die for each other.
#stranger things#billy hargrove#will byers#el hopper#max mayfield#mike wheeler#lucas sinclair#dustin henderson#billy deserved better#this got a little bit away from me#but I think these two should have gotten to be friends#and tbh Jonathan too but this one wasn't about him#Billy and Will have a shitload in common for two characters who have nothing to do with each other#also it would have been really nice for Will to have someone to talk to about mindflayer trauma#would have been nice for el too#i just feel like these three kids should have a teen of their own#like this whole dynamic just makes sense imo??#mage cleric rogue berserker team??#also it would be a good way to get the rest of the Party through the work of getting to know Billy#when half your Party is ride or die with the dude you're at least gonna see him sometimes#i think he'd actually make the most effort with Lucas#both as a Hey I'm Sorry For Being a Racist Asshole#and also as a I'm A Protective Older Brother Sorry I Snapped At You But Like I'll Still Murder You If You Hurt My Sister#kinda thing???#their dynamic is wonky#probably will be for a while#i could see them bonding though#over sports or some really obscure interest that they both have and know for a FACT no one else knows shit about#so they bond out of necessity and end up actually working out their issues#Dustin and Mike take longer because they're both stubborn as fuck but they come around EVENTUALLY
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Random ask to get to know you better: Could you share your ideas on Unparalleled Innocence? I've read everything about them that canon has to offer (which is... not much at all) and I'm curious what your thoughts / headcanons are for them.
My interpretation of this bastard (affectionate) changes every time I think about them but here’s the current loose bundle of headcanons. It’s… derailed, so under the cut:
The Ancients built them at around the same time as Five Pebbles, but gave the two very different personalities — UI was programmed to be more.. passive? and accept the duty of being an iterator, as opposed to FP who was meant to resent his purpose in an attempt to accelerate the solving of the Great Problem, because a hyperintelligent computer who hated his job would get it done faster and not find some convoluted manner of circumventing his procedures, obviously.
Due to this programming to stay true to their purpose, UI also felt closer to the Ancients than most iterators, and (understandably) felt very, very betrayed when the Ancients all died anyway — you’d built us to solve your problems, and just left because we didn’t do it fast enough??
After that, they still sought someone to look up to, someone they could help so they’d feel fulfilled in supposedly being a gift to the world, which they once desired to be for the Ancients. They grew quite close to Moon, their local group senior, and she was fond of them too, partly for their (mostly) collected and polite demeanor and partly for their continued work on the Great Problem after many other iterators had already abandoned it, namely a certain Erratic Pulse, whom UI did not like for his research into personal ascension. Similar to Chasing Wind (and possibly Moon as well), UI was rather suspicious of this EP guy, but on top of that, believed him to be violating the purpose and the rules he was given, and often annoys him over it (Is NGI from SliverOfOcean actually UI? Perhaps.) EP/FP himself, however, said L + ratio + didn’t ask + no karma, and continued with his work.
Fast-forward to when FP begins doing his thing and Moon gets exploded. UI is, naturally, being a good friend of hers, extremely unhappy with this, and considering the 1654.110 (Sky Islands 4) pearl, was probably aware that FP was at fault.
They never liked the guy, but now they’re ready to ruin his entire life.
FP refuses to talk for a long time. Is he stricken with guilt, realizing what he’s done? Did his plan work, letting him silently wait to die? Or has something gone horribly wrong on his end too?
Every now and then, UI puts out an overseer. They see all the evidence of their world’s ruin and the negligence of those they once called parents — it’s no news to them. This time, though, they’ve caught something from FP’s superstructure, and sweet Void he’s going to hate seeing this in the chat.
The overseer peeks at them, beaming a projection of its saved data: walls covered in thick, tarry slime, some congealing into cysts that glow an unnatural blue at their cores. It’s Rot, and one of the worst cases yet, no less.
Didn’t even die right. Typical.
UI imports the overseer data to themself, and attaches it in a public message to the local group.
Overseer found this at Pebbles’. The consequences of his actions.
…Well, Chasing Wind didn’t like that.
#rain world#unparalleled innocence#five pebbles#(honorary tag because he features a lot)#rain world headcanon#this is surprisingly only around 500 words#i wrote it all on my phone and it’s 12:30 am rn i am Dying#thanks for letting me go all out on the funny computers though!#asks#got so caught up in the euphoria of blorbo rambling that i forgot this was an ask lmao
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— EPISODE 3. (JUNHUI)
title: it's never too late to adopt! even if it's ghosts. (alt title: you have a daughter, i adopted a ghost and we watch cocomelon. we are not the same.)
— episode details: 2.6k words. warns/tws includes some language, an attempt at horror, secondhand embarrassment, implications of death. also some REALLY out of pocket shit from jun in the latter half, i swear to god
(it may be confusing with the format we're writing these in. so like, be warned!! its kinda like. multi,, pov ish in a sense with the narrative. but at the same time, i have no idea either)
w's annotation: i've considered going back and editing it from top to bottom just because it seems weirdly paced- but it's already so lengthy. plus, we've done what we could and that's ok ^^ but im not gonna lie. the ending was a bit hard to do because like- words weren't wording!! i had to do it like this im soso sorry. also, it's REALLY fucking long, so it'll be utc. please enjoy :3
— previous (mingyu) ; masterlist ; next (cheol)
; camping with the 95z and 96z guys is always a delight, if you put aside all the bullshit they get into. one simple detail was that sometimes, they think of the most random things to do.
; and one big example that was not in fact hypothetical, is playing truth or dare. no drinking, just going all crazy because they can, and YOLO as one does.
; and junhui was glad (very fucking happy even) that they'd played this dumb truth or dare game before evening. otherwise, he'd be switching lanes and begging for joshua to give him a truth.
; it was about five in the afternoon then, and he was strutting into a forest with many dark rumors surrounding it, like they didn't exist at all. no phone, no emotional support, and a complementary horror game flashlight. he's killing it, you guys.
; the rumors were mainly things like- "oh, some people came in here and never lived to see the light of day," or "deep inside, there's a monster that lures children and eats them", things like that. obviously just some things to keep their kids from wandering too far.
; and to be honest, he didn't believe that shit. people lived beside the forest, there was a camping site that they could have to themselves beside the forest, and like- google showed that there was a neat lake on the other side of this forest.
; there was literally nothing to be scared of, the fuck are these people on?? (the last thoughts of a dead man, 2023)
; but back to the present. with his long legs and his audacity, jun was near the very heart of the forest. even when the sun was starting to set, he pushed through because fuck it, it's wen junhui.
; (plus, if he managed to come back unscathed and untraumatized, joshua owed him cash. anything for that man's money.)
; though all he'd been hearing on the way were the leaves crunching underneath his shoes, the occasional whistle of the wind, and a bird. normal things that were to be expected in a place of nature and greenery. blinding in the day, calming in the afternoon, and horrible in the night.
; despite what could happen, the what-if's and such, jun just continued for the sake of the dare. though in the back of his mind, maybe he should have brought his phone. so in case some axe killer was about to end his life, he could call joshua and blame him.
; (no, he'd call the police, duh.)
; and finally, after like. about two hours - though in reality, it's only been thirty-two minutes - something was off. what he shouldn't be hearing in this forest is other people, let alone people who were like. a decade and seven years younger than him.
; there were children laughing in the near distance, and the ravenette couldn't help but look to where it was coming from. his curiosity was accompanied by concern, as this laughter was accompanied by one person's cries.
; were they laughing at this nameless figure, or was the crying just… extreme laughing? he couldn't tell with just sounds. and when words started to become coherent, jun snuck over to a tree nearest to these people, and eavesdropped. (stupid, he's aware, but curiosity's killing the cat right now. very slowly.)
; "come on, candy, we've been here for a while now! you're scared of a little dark forest? huh?" some kid said to this girl curled up on the ground, crying into her hands. "seriously, this is probably why you're here in the first place."
; pause, what.
; 'candy' looked up, and even if jun was peeking from behind the oak, he could see that she didn't like what the other had said. not at all.
; a more lanky girl rolled her eyes and circled her, until she was standing right behind the shimmery form. "shut up, viv, you're making her cry. like a baby. we're supposed to be nice to babies, right? where's your mom, candy?"
; this was getting weird.
; "oh my god, you didn't," viv elbowed her. "you literally just said to be nice to her."
; "i am, viv. i wanna try helping candy, we have to find her mommy," she sing-songed, nudging the helpless girl with her knee. "or maybe she's at the lake with the rest of us!"
; "shut up, ivy!" she finally snapped, getting up on her feet with her small hands grabbing fistfuls of her vest. "you pushed me! i didn't even mean to-"
; "hey hey hey, stop that right now!" jun finally broke the almost never-ending commotion but with the blank stares he received, he thought onto his plan b. as the kids stared at him in silence, clearing his throat, he rested his hands on his hips and puffed out his chest. "bullying is not right!" ah yes. very mature. using his 'opera singer' voice.
; the reactions were flipped from his expectations. while he expected a more of a guilty look, all he heard were small snorts and giggles coming from the established bullies.
; "is he really doing this right now-" vivi managed through her laughs. "that voice was so bad." ivy only nodded along, sort of doubled over with one hand on the other girl's shoulder. "and that pose- vivi, what is he, really, somebody's dad? get a load of this, candy."
; the mentioned child rolled her eyes this time, unamused by the two's antics. this thankfully went unnoticed as they were more focused on… to them, this weirdo that came out of nowhere.
; humiliated? yes. jun was that very word at that moment. a grown man now being a target of the endless bullying was about to be his 13th reason.
; "w-well, maybe i am her dad!" he was not this child's father. "and i'm actually… looking to take her back home with my very loving wife who is in fact her very mother, so excuse us," jun improvised as he approached the girls and ushered candy away from ivy and vivi. "i'll be taking her away from the likes of you two. i'm definitely telling your parents about this."
; (note from author w.: i'm amused but also getting secondhand embarrassment)
; as they were leaving them behind, candy spared him a glance, brows furrowed as he was recovering from the situation they were walking away from. only then did she speak up when they were further away. "um… thank you."
; "... i couldn't leave you with those two," he murmured, rubbing his neck with his free hand. then jun kneeled in front of the girl, checking anywhere for anything. "did they hurt you at all? push you, pull you, anything?"
; "no... not physically at least," candy answered, growing quiet near the end of her reply. she studied the man in front of her, eyes following as he actively searched for any wounds or potential signs of more life-threatening scars. the forest wasn't… exactly the safest place. especially for a child. let alone three of them- because while the two were particularly not the most pleasant kids around, they were still… you know, kids.
; it was on the backburner for now though, because his current concern was candy.
; after jun close inspection, he finally eyed the girl. "alright. do you know where your parents are? any relatives?" his now stable voice quired, and a sense of relief washed over his whole being after a slight nod from candy.
; "thank god. let's get you out of this forest and then you can try to lead me to them, yeah?"
candy sighed. "u-um… they're dead. both of them. you can't actually lead me to them… unless you were some kind of wizard." if the atmosphere wasn't tense before, it surely was now. probably even more unbearable and a bit suffocating.
; after a bit of silence, a small 'oh' was all jun could utter out. afraid if he says something more, this little girl will unleash all of her pent up rage and rip him into shreds.
; "... i'm… sorry," the older awkwardly responded. "i'm no wizard. but it must've been hard." the nonchalant shrug was a bit surprising though, as she wrung her hands. "mama's always said that i'm ahead of other girls. i know how to do stuff."
; jun words fell short. nods sending the basic sign that he was indeed listening. the slightly bewildered man cleared his throat, "let's… get you out of here. we'll figure out what to do afterwards." he nodded along with his request and candy copied the same gesture, also a bit hesitant on the next step of this mission.
; if joshua was expecting anything from jun once he was out, it would not have included an abandoned child he rescued from a forest with bullies. but hey, jun is a (in)sane man full of many quirks.
; the mission out was fairly simple… to people who had this forest down by memory. jun was almost a lost soul upon the tall trees and the secrets that lie in the dark within. "you don't know how to get out, don't you?" candy wasn't shocked in the slightest. what do you even expect from a wannabe opera singer? exactly.
; "my friends just sent me in here! it's not like they gave me a map!" the male exclaimed, anxiety lacing his voice. he exhaled heavily while he combed his tensed hands in his unraveled hair.
; silence once again engulfed them along with the trees. candy willingly letting it swallow them both whole for she can let the oblivious man calm down and then process that there was indeed a path that can lead them out. he was literally on said path.
; "mister..." the more put together girl called out to the man pacing around. murmuring something along the lines of 'what am i going to do?' and 'where am i going to shit and piss here?' but candy really did not want to know the answer to the latter. "HEY, SIR." jun panicked motions come to an abrupt pause, heaving a bit shakily. "there's a path." candy hands rose and motioned forward towards the remainder of the trail ahead, leading to where he'd entered from.
; something took over jun. a sense of relief that he doesn't have to shit in a nearby bush and wipe with sticks? possibly. but whatever it was, it prompted him to do something.
; he took candy's hand (or tried to) and began to zoom ahead. only slowing and coming to a complete halt when he didn't hear the second pair of quick footsteps following behind. in a swift motion, he turned back around just to realize that girl was still glued to her place and has not moved not even an inch.
; did he miss her hand? as bamboozled and startled as he was, he treaded back and went towards candy again. steps slow and steady.
; once a few inches in front of the child, he reached for her hand again. this time making direct contact to make sure for a fact he grasps her hand this time.
; every inch closer his hand gets, the more goosebumps start to cover his skin. like seriously. his hand was freezing as the proximity between him and the child shrunk. as if candy radiated the season of winter from her very self.
; he slowly began to close his hand around the girls and… it went right through her. only the icy temperature wrapping onto him. what? what kind of AI bullshit is this? once again and the same outcome happened. it took jun a few (many) times before his mind started to click into place that this was not going to have his way.
; he even went to the girl's other hand just to make sure his mind was not in fact teasing him. he already has to deal with that at home. "w-what is going on?" jun fested up. eyeing candy with a bit of hope because he did in fact know what was going on. but confirmation is what he needed and man… did he hope for one answer to his masked question.
; "do you promise not to get scared?" it wasn't a direct answer, but jun did get what he wanted from that question alone. the much more taller man bent down again, slowly shaking his head.
; candy stared the man down before admitting her truth. "i'm a ghost."
a beat of silence. a silent 'i see' coming from the other. all he could do after though was stare at the girl blankly, expecting a laugh or a twist of emotion spiking out after her funny bone was picked a little too much but… nothing. just a look full of expectancy.
; "how did you die?" jun broke down the silent bubble. wow. what a way to add to the list of conversation starters.
; "can we go?" candy smoothly dodged the ticket to reiterate her very short-term life. "i know you want to leave too."
; 'right.' jun placed himself back onto his feet with practiced ease. except the small ache in his knees but look, aging comes with some consequences. "just… follow along."
; it took maybe around 20 minutes before finally hearing the passing of cars and an added 5 minutes before they were back on the sidewalk where joshua basically ended the poor man's life. the two stood there for a moment, breathing in fresher and less suffocating air
; "thank you," jun heard candy speak out, and he was supposed to say something back with a turn of the head, but found nobody there. as if this couldn't get any weirder, the girl's sudden disappearance prompted him to do a double take, turn on his heel to get a 360 on where she could have gone.
; then again, he remembered what she'd said before; she's dead. a ghost, a spirit, and maybe she'd been put to rest by leaving that forest. leaving behind those other two girls who were picking on her, for no reason too, might he add.
; with a sigh and a lot of questions left unanswered (he didn't know if he wanted any answers anyway), the ravenette walked off to the campsite, just about done with the night. hopefully there was food, and hopefully the others were ready to be on jun control. the guy was ready to throttle joshua on sight because what the hell was that.
; for the rest of his stay, whenever silence enveloped the area, all that occupied his thoughts were candy's wherabouts and what exactly happened in the forest. that feeling from when he attempted to hold her hand, it was worry, and it was coming back despite the child's absence around him.
; even with her circumstances, he couldn't help but feel this way. he couldn't help but wonder what could have happened to her. but that could be saved for… some other time, or whenever he could think about it. life was full of mysterious things, after all.
. . .
(two days later, they all went back home to their respective places of residence, and jun was the last. his belongings were on his couch and coffee table, to be re-organized into their spaces in a couple hours. there was no way that there was energy left after that trip back, the guy's only plan was to sleep with his bag as a pillow.
after waving off wonwoo and telling him not to die on the way back (what the hell), jun closed the door and let out a breath. though upon turning around, that breath transitioned into a scream. it was followed by the coat rack getting knocked over when he stumbled. he stared in shock, for the nth time that week, at the girl that stood there.
"... c-candy, how did you get inside my house-")
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I've been binging The Boys off my dad's account recently and having read the original comics like any self-respecting edgy teenager, I can see why people say the show is an improvement over the comics so fucking often. It's a pretty addictive show and does a good job adapting the broad-strokes storyline to a new medium, a new decade, and a new audience. Only slightly disappointed they haven't done the all-black-trenchcoats uniform look from the comics yet, hopefully they're saving that for a big moment in a later season. And thank God they gave Kimiko an actual name and way to communicate.
Cw for mentions of all the kind of shit that happens in The Boys, in case you don't want to read about that on a nice Wednesday afternoon. (Meaning: sexual abuse and excessive violence.) Also, long.
The political aspect is often sharper than you'd really expect from an Amazon product, too. It's not gonna start a socialist critique of the political economy or call for revolution anytime soon, but the commentary on the relationship between mass media (Vought), original and/or neo- Nazism (Stormfront), and neoconservativism (Homelander) is pretty well-done for a show mostly about superpowered violence. My one gripe is that the political commentary doesn't have that Ennis-brand bite to it that the comics have, the evil is a bit less in-your-face and gratuitous (and even the heroes are a slightly lighter shade of grey, like 75% from 90). Might be a surprising thing for me to say about a show that loves head-exploding effects even more than Scanners, but this is in comparison to Ennis writing any rich or powerful character as being one or more of: a serial rapist, a pedophile, a child murderer (I guess the show has this but we're told it was an accident where Ennis would have done it on purpose), a perverted serial killer, etc etc etc. On one hand, you could argue this gives the show villains that feel more realistic and less outlandish; but on the other, it's really missing the viscerally palpable disgust and disdain Ennis displays for the upper crust. That said, as much as I like the way Ennis displays the bourgeois as grostesquely evil, I'm more than happy to give it up if it means we can avoid the habit of violently transmisogynistic caricatures he always includes in his work.
There is a couple places where the political commentary does fall short compared to the comics, though. Particularly when it comes to criticizing the military and to criticizing monopolized corporate control of the media. Now granted, both the show and comic Boys work for a CIA contract to different extents, but because almost everyone in the comics is a bit more of a dickhead than in the show, the CIA likewise doesn't come off as clean. Not that the show is entirely unwilling to have the CIA and the US government suck, in both versions it stays an alliance of convenience between the Boys and the CIA against the temporarily greater common enemy in Vought, but the comics are just a little bit more willing to show that the CIA have themselves done indefensible and unforgivable things. In the show they tend to come off more sanitized Jack Reacher types, doing morally gray things for morally good reasons, instead of the more true-to-life morally dark things for morally dark reasons. The third season gets a little closer by mentioning Iran-Contra and the CIA crack smuggling in Black neighborhoods, but that's still just "accurately showing historical events the CIA was in" rather than the comics' "coming up with new horrible shit just to remind you the CIA's no good."
Now, as for the monopolized corporate control of the media. There's two levels to this, as I see it. There's the ways in which the show has been limited in criticizing the mass media on its own merits; and then there's the ways in which the show's criticisms of the mass media differ in content and direction from the comics. For the former, there's obviously a big elephant in the room: Amazon. The Boys show clearly wants to criticize the ways in which mass media influences our view of world events, and its central villain even moreso than Homelander is their world's largest and richest company, Vought International. But you can obviously only criticize the actions of a fictional megacorporation so much when your show is produced by one of the real world's top five megacorporations. So thus far the show's commentary has focused it's most pointed criticisms at stuff like social media, news media, religious influencers, and daytime TV (like talk shows, reality shows, etc). Those criticisms have been very good, especially the social media stuff and the stochastic terrorism induced by Stormfront, but I do notice that the areas they focus on are never really areas Amazon has a lot of money invested. While there have been spoofs about streaming services -- and I really enjoy all the in-universe media the cast and crew have put together to sell the illusion of this massive media franchise, it makes the show's internal history feel really lived-in -- I find that it has more of a wink-and-nudge self-deprecating vibe rather than the pointed criticism other media gets. The Prime analogue gets the harmless goofy Seven movies, the real pernicious media manipulation moments happen more often on livestreams or news broadcasts. Part of this might just be a difference in style: the Supes are shown to be more brash and unpredictable opportunists while Vought themselves are patient and surreptitious manipulators, but then Vought's big moves are also announced via press conference more often than not. I don't mean to act like they never criticize Vought's ersatz Amazon Prime, though. It is shown to be a shitty, erratic place to work full of impossible to placate alpha personalities that mainly makes propaganda for evil and powerful people. There might be something to be said about Amazon also being run by impossible to placate alpha personalities and Prime Video acting as propaganda for evil and powerful people. But on the other hand, all the Vought employees tend to be either actually evil, helplessly idiotic sycophants, or nameless grunts. I'd be more impressed if they had the stones to show, say, Vought Video employees threatened by laser to work crunch time, or Vought warehouse workers made to smuggle Compound V. Maybe I shouldn't go too hard on them, they are doing a lot more than other shows, but I always get the vibe that there's a line they keep toeing but can't cross because of corporate.
That segues nicely into the latter way, how the show's criticism of media differs from the comics. Obviously, the comics have a lot more freedom of speech as a creator-owned series under an indie publisher than as a megacorporation's high-budget production. But there's an even bigger difference at their core direction, and I think it's the biggest loss in the transition from page to screen. The Boys (show) values using its evil supes as an exaggerated analogy for political power and celebrity culture, in addition to the "power corrupts and superpowers would be more likely to fuck you up than make you a hero" central message that it shares with the comics. In contrast, while The Boys (comics) does also share that central message, and also talked about political power and celebrity culture, what it values most is using its evil supes as an exaggerated analogy to criticise pre-existing superhero comics and narratives. It was in direct dialogue and in direct opposition to the existing highly duopolized corporate superhero comics industry. The Boys (show) isn't nearly as interested in being in direct dialogue with the MCU or DC cinematic universe. Honestly I think this is the main reason people going to the comics from the show find a lot of the supe characters flat and uninteresting or even mean-spirited: most of them aren't characters in their own right but parodies of existing characters that don't really make sense without the metatextual background of Big Two superhero comics. Yeah, the comic does have a lot of weak spots in its characters and plot, but especially so if you only view it on the layer of the literal story. Many of those weak spots are a lot stronger when understood by analogy. I'd argue the metatextual analogy is a solid 50% of the comics' message. Don't get me wrong, there are still a good amount of weak spots left over -- Ennis's jokes can keep going long after they stop being funny -- but the comics are greatly improved if you don't take them as a completely literal or serious text all the time. Vought in the comics isn't just any massive corporation, the particular ways it exploits supes isn't a generic criticism of capitalism, it's more often than not a specific criticism of what the Big Two superhero comics duopoly of Marvel and DC have done to the comics industry. Vought superheroes encroaching into every aspect of the economy and culture? That's Marvel/DC taking over the comics industry and pushing out almost every other genre of comics in favor of superheroes. Without spoiling too much, even the central ideological conflict of Butcher vs Wee Hughie/Starlight vs Vought supes can be taken as a metaphor for different views on the superhero genre's role in the comics industry. The show is really missing an opportunity (maybe deliberately) to take similar shots at the superhero blockbuster movie industry. The conflict is arguably more potent than ever, as superhero movies dominate the cinema to an unprecedented degree, and with far more widespread cultural influence than comic books have ever had. The show has mostly limited itself to a couple jokes about Batman V Superman and the Snyder cut, which is a far cry from what they could be doing. I'd love to see them really take a fucking swing at the MCU, maybe bring in Tek-Knight as an Iron Man analogue, have him be a rich asshole making tons of movies, making billions off of his underpaid and overworked support staff, insisting on having his company cronies take over other projects outside his wheelhouse like idk healthcare to disastrous results. Really, yknow, try to say something about Disney-Marvel's monopolization and bad work practices! But, they'd be a real shift in direction for the show's writing, so I don't think they'd go for it. Just a shame that the analogy layer isn't present so much in the show, even if the literal layer of the plot is better to make up for it.
I think that's all I had to say. Oh wait also I was sad they downgraded Love Sausage from the most successful hero of the Soviet Union's supe program, with the full standard set of super-strength/durability/speed, a loyal communist long after the fall of the USSR, one of the very few comics supes that's a genuinely decent person, one of the fighters who beat Stormfront to death, and who just happens to also have a massive penis; to basically being just the dick joke and having dick-related powers. What a downgrade! This guy was a powerful supe and a total bro to the Boys! When he (bit of a spoiler) dies, he spends his last breaths sending out a warning to save Wee Hughie's life! Justice for my man the Love Sausage, capitalist Amazon hates to see a communist winning lmao
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was about to go to bed when it hit me why I don’t personally think c!dream can be classified as morally grey and the reason is this- all the good and ideals he’s working towards he’s doing without the Knowledge or Consent of the people he’s trying to help, and therefore doing much more hurt.
because, to simplify things, a morally grey character is a character who can’t be fully defined as a hero or a villain. this includes anti-heroes and anti-villains, along with characters who genuinely don’t fall under either category. it’s not just, like, a catch all for anyone who isn’t cartoonishly good or evil, else it’d just be every character ever. even bowser shows love for his kids, and is a good boss and leader to his minions. should that be enough to classify bowser as morally grey? no, of course not. he can be sympathetic and likeable in certain entries, but you’re certainly not meant to look at him and question whether he’s Really That Bad.
now, c!dream is a much more complicated character than bowser, obviously, and he’s definitely not as card carrying a villain as him (though I think it’d be funny if he wanted to do that, I’d support him). but i’d argue he Also has done far too much willing harm to be in any sense Morally Debatable, and that’s again because his actions are done without Knowledge and Consent. no matter his goals, violating these things is traumatic in and of itself.
now, this could be of a debatable morality If c!Dream Had No Other Option- and this isn’t the case. because c!dream went Well Beyond anything necessary. even if he needed c!tommy to Not Interfere for a while in the case of exile, for instance, he could have done so many other things that were of lesser harm. he could have just. Asked. for one. if it was That Important to c!dream. c!tommy is a troublemaker, but he’s usually not a malicious one. failing that, he could have created some sort of distraction, or he could have been the one to leave the server. even if all that failed, conditioning and abusing c!tommy was blatantly unnecessary for any noble goal.
and what noble goal is worth such harm? I would argue that a Big Happy Family would not be worth the trauma. if you asked me if i’d be happier living life as it is now, or living a completely Peaceful life, but only after my home was destroyed, my friend abused, and myself horribly traumatised in a mock execution, i’d say i’d prefer what i’ve got now, and i imagine c!tubbo would too. but he was never asked, and put through immense amount of trauma for something that would ultimately not make him happier. same with… basically everyone on the server but maybe c!punz tbh. even if all of his actions were 100% necessary for a big happy family, and he was going to completely stop with the abuse and shit the second that happened, the harm would still vastly outweigh the good for most server members.
and there’s a caveat. it’s If he stopped- but who’s to say he would, if he thought these disproportionate solutions were necessary in the first place? what if he sees any perceived flaws in his ideal to need correction too? what if his big happy family isn’t so happy (because of the extreme trauma)? how would he resolve that? what if someone decided they didn’t want to be a part of this? would he let them leave? what if they didn’t want to leave their home? c!dream has Consistently responded with a disproportionate level of action to even Minor Threats before- why would he suddenly stop doing it? achieving your ideal isn’t exactly therapy.
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so pre acosf i was a major anti nesta. like i really disliked her. but i respected the fact that she was a bitch through and through and wasn’t changing for anything or anyone. and then i read acosf and really disliked rhysand (who was my number 1 book boyfriend previously) and it’s literally the terrible internalised misogyny in sjm and her writing that made me dislike him
firstly i thought it was so weird how the inner circle treated nesta like she was the greatest evil of all time and had murdered their children. i thought it was just so silly 💀 like nesta and her mistakes compared to what rhysand has done, compared to how many people az and cass hahe killed is literally just nothing. like compared to what all the other characters have done i feel like nesta being a bitch and letting feyre hunt is honestly so much less evil and feels so hypocritical for the inner circle to regard her in such a negative way because of it (considering the evil things they’ve done)
but anyway, i honestly started to hate rhysand after the entire pregnancy secret came out. was nesta in the right? NO. absolutely not. but rhys is the reason it was even able to come out like that. he’s the man with power and withheld the info from feyre because apparently no more choices for feyre exist after acowar 🫶
but to have to read about rhys sitting in velaris and laughing with cassian about nesta getting punished for spilling the beans as if his wife didn’t just find out she’s gonna die and he didn’t just threaten to kill nesta was so oddly misogynistic to me that i had to pause. like rhys really got out of that situation scott free? i know everyone makes headcanons that feyre yelled at him or something but … come on. in canon no one blames rhys for shit. even cassian doesn’t blame rhys at all and just punished nesta on that god awful hike where he makes her walk (on a trail he himself says could easily kill someone unexperienced WHILE NESTA IS UNEXPERIENCED) for 4 days until she passes out of exhaustion is just … horrible? i think that’s when my opinion on nesta really just flipped.
like i just feel sad for her and the narrative that is honestly never on her side. after acowar, i’m not sure why rhysand still hated her so much like she literally saved cassian’s life twice? helped them through acomaf with the queens and then all through acowar? obviously she was a bitch that used their money but honestly she kept to herself and only lashed out when they sought her out. like she didn’t go out of her way to find them and fight with them. idk the entire inner circle feels so weird after acosf like this happy bubble just popped and honestly they’re not as amazing as i’ve thought they were?
this turned into a rant but i really need sjm to address this whole nesta punishment situation in some way in the future books (i know she won’t because rhys is rarely held accountable or truly made to look like a bad guy) but i really need some justice for nesta 😭
i know lots of people blame nesta and say she deserved the way she was treated in acosf and after telling feyre about the pregnancy but after reading acosf through really neutral and unbiased eyes, i honestly think rhysands behaviour is excused just bec he’s a guy that everyone loves and nesta is a bitch so she ‘deserves’ to be treated badly and unfairly
There are a few things I miss from acomaf - Rhys, and the IC.
This isn't character development, it's like character demolishment, especially in Rhys's case. That anon I answered earlier this week said that they think he was in character in acosf, but I still just have a hard time with that! Not necessarily with Nesta, because I could see that building from the moment they met, but with the pregnancy. That's beside the point, though.
I wonder.... I wonder if this is because of sjm's habit of not writing villains very well, and by that I don't mean Nesta is a villain - like objectively speaking, she doesn't serve that function in the story - but what I mean is that her villains are very two-dimensional, boring, flat, I rarely understand their motivations. And her protagonists are very good, beautiful, powerful, the Most Best Ever. Then enter Nesta, who is somewhere in between the most perfect angel/demon... idk, I kinda wonder if this didn't expose a weakness in sjm's characterization overall, that she just couldn't write a character with flaws and like, deal with that in a normal way?
I do think that the IC as individuals all dealt with Nesta in different ways, and to me most of those ways made sense. Amren, Mor, Azriel, even Cassian, their behavior, while not perfect or ideal, makes sense to me. But Rhys? He got turned into a prop to create conflict in acosf.
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Shared Memories
Natsume week day 5: whispers/sharing
Summary: Gossiping isn't something Takashi liked, but it still led him to having a fun afternoon with one of his best friends. After all, experiencing something new together was always better than doing it alone.
Additional: Natsume, Tanuma, Natsume's childhood, fluff
Since Natsume Takashi could remember, he had always been surrounded by whispers. They were of all different kinds, but there were three main categories. The murmuring of youkai, rumors and slander.
Unfortunately for him they almost always went together, at least in his case. He wasn't sure if it was typical for others as well, but he didn't really think so.
When Takashi was a kid, he'd learned early on that words could have a lot of power.
He still heard people calling him a liar in his dreams and sometimes, on really bad days, he could hear his friends and family saying the same thing.
'Liar' was one of the words most often used to describe him, but it was, by far, not the only one. Some had been screamed in his face, others had been whispered behind his back. Despite their attempt at secrecy, he still overheard most of them.
With time, Takashi got somewhat used to it. That of course didn't mean that they did not hurt anymore. It's pretty hard to grow numb to that kind of stuff.
Together with the insults came the rumors. Changing one's place of residence as often as he did, obviously attracted the town's gossip. He wasn't sure if the people didn't notice that he heard them or if they just didn't care.
Few of the things they said about him were actually true. He was an orphan and he clearly moved a lot, so much was obvious. That he didn't have any friends was, unfortunately, also true.
Most other tales about him though, were either complete lies or things that got horribly misinterpreted.
One of the rumors that he couldn't seem to shake, no matter where he went, for example, was the belief - mostly of concerned parents - that he liked to scare other children with his monster stories. They thought he made those up to get attention, but if they'd actually known him, they would've been aware of the fact that Takashi was absolutely incapable of spinning tales. He could lie, sure, though to be fair, as a young child he hadn't been skilled in that either, but something as extravagant as what they accused him of making up? No, definitely not his division.
And all that stemmed from the same issue. Takashi was able to hear, see and interact with things most others didn't even believe existed. Of course it would be less complicated to just keep telling themselves that that weird, orphaned child was either a desperate attention seeker or had something wrong with them, that could probably be diagnosed if somebody would've bothered to make an effort. Not that anyone had cared enough.
But it was different now and it was strange yet so wonderful. Takashi still feared that this beautiful card house he was living in would one day crash and burn, but it was easier to forget about it for short periods of time. The people around him could make him forget it.
It'd been so long since Takashi met someone who'd genuinely enjoyed his company and wanted him with them.
The Fujiwaras were the kindest people he'd ever met and he would never be able to pay them back for everything they had done for him.
Nyanko-sensei could be complicated at times, but Takashi would be forever grateful for his company.
The youkai of the Yatsuhara forest had surprisingly become a fixture in his life as well. Never would he have guessed that he could grow so fond of youkai.
And then there were his friends. His amazing, understanding and considerate friends. The last close thing that he'd had to something like that, was when he'd run into Ogata. Quite literally.
Now there were Nishimura, the first person in his new class to talk to him, and Kitamoto, who always cared for what Takashi had to say.
Sasada was often a bit pushy, but he admired her perseverance and somehow she too had waltzed her way into his friend group.
And then, of course, there were Tanuma and Taki. Taki was incredibly kind-hearted and he knew could go to her with everything.
The same applied to Tanuma, obviously. But even though Taki knew about the things he could see and had had a glimpse at them herself, his bond to Tanuma was different.
Tanuma understood him on a deeper level. They shared a lot of the same or similar experiences and childhood memories. The loneliness and isolation, the tendency to fall ill and the awareness of the presence of youkai to name a few of them.
It was easy to talk to him and although Takashi was afraid to drag the other boy into danger where he could get seriously hurt, he was still glad that Tanuma stood by his side. Because they were both socially awkward, they had a hard time making new friends and sometimes struggled with social cues and interacting with others. Maybe that was another reason why they fit so well together.
Takashi was glad that he had a friend like Tanuma.
—---
Takashi knew what it was like to be the subject of gossip and rumors. That's why he was all the happier that his new school was relatively tame in that department. Needless to say there was still some school tattle, they were teenagers after all, but there was definitely less of it than he was used to. They weren't as malicious either.
Also, the longer he lived in this town, there seemed to be less and less rumors about him, which was a big relief.
—---
Takashi stood in the hall, Tanuma next to him was leaning out of the open window to let the breeze ruffle his hair. A group of girls walked past them, chattering and snickering.
"-met him over the internet. At least, that's what I heard," was one sharing.
"No way!" exclaimed another.
Then they were past them and Takashi couldn't understand them anymore.
He looked over to Tanuma as the boy huffed annoyed. They looked at each other and Takashi raised one eyebrow in question. Tanuma shrugged. "I don't like gossipers," he admitted. Takashi nodded understandingly.
"Who does?"
"Other gossipers, probably," guessed Tanuma.
Well, he couldn't argue with that.
"I hate how far and fast things travel because of them."
"Yeah," agreed Takashi. "That's never a good thing. It's the reason I don't tell most people anything about me. Doesn't always work though. One time I told Nishimura and Kitamoto that I couldn't ride a bike. They didn't tell anyone - they would never - but someone from another class saw us and two days later the whole school knew it. It was pretty embarrassing. The others had my back though."
Tanuma shot him a sympathetic look.
"I get you. Something similar happened to me last week. Some people in my class were arguing about what the most autumnal activity was, building chestnut men or flying kites. When they asked me, I told them that I thought I wasn't the best source because I've never flown a kite before. They'd looked at me weirdly, but didn't say anything. The next day I overheard someone in a class over ours talk about it. I'm pretty sure it didn't make a big round, but it's still not cool."
"It really isn't. It shouldn't have been a big deal. I have never done it either. It's not a big deal," reassured him Takashi and patted Tanuma's shoulder.
They were disrupted by the warning bell before either of them could say anything else. With that they said their goodbyes and went back to their respective classrooms.
—---
On his way back home, Takashi couldn't forget what he and Tanuma had talked about. He thought about it hard and carefully and just as he reached the gate from his house, he made a decision. With his mind made up, he scratched Nyanko-sensei, who had been dozing on the garden wall, between his ears and then hurried to the house.
"I'm home," Takashi called as he entered.
"Welcome home, Takashi-kun," came Touko-san's response from the kitchen.
The boy toed off his shoes and went over to the kitchen.
Touko-san stood in front of the stove and was preparing lunch. When he entered she turned towards him with a warm smile. He smiled back.
"Can I ask you something, Touko-san?"
"Of course!"
—---
Takashi waited outside of Tanuma's classroom for the boy. When he left the room he walked towards Takashi. The two fell into step next to each other, as they walked towards the stairs and than down to the shoe lockers.
"Do you have anything planned for today," inquired Takashi, exchanging his indoor shoes with his outside ones.
"No." Tanuma shook his head and looked at him questioningly. "Why are you asking?" He and Takashi left the school.
"I wanted to ask you if you'd like to come over this afternoon," he explained.
Tanuma knew his friend had something planned, but he couldn't tell what. Even so, he still accepted the invitation gladly.
When their ways separated, Tanuma assured Takashi that he'd come over as soon as he finished his homework. Although he was obviously curios, he didn't ask Takashi any questions. It was a sign of trust that warmed the blond's heart.
A little over two hours later, Tanuma arrived at Takashi's house and knocked at the door. The boy opened the door and stepped out, already dressed and something that was wrapped in a piece of cloth was tucked under his arm. Nyanko-sensei was trotting behind him.
"Can we go?" he asked Takashi brightly.
Tanuma chuckled. "I have no idea where we are heading, but sure. Lead the way."
Takashi told him that it wasn't far, just a few minutes. With that they got moving.
True to his word, Takashi hadn't led them anywhere that was further than five minutes away. They stopped on a wide open field.
Tanuma looked quizzically at him, but Takashi had already squatted down and was now unpacking whatever he'd brought with him.
As he folded back the final sheet corner, he looked up at Tanuma with a sunny smile.
"I thought we could try it out together," revealed Takashi.
There on the floor laid a colorful, diamond-shaped kite. Tanuma's eyes went wide as he looked back and forth between the kite and Takashi. The latter was getting a bit anxious and hoped he hadn't overstepped. His anxieties were immediately smothered when Tanuma smiled warmly at him.
"That sounds like a great idea!"
With that they started setting up the kite he had borrowed from Touko-san. After the two boys had figured out what they had to do, it was just trying to get a hang of it. It took them quite a while to get it airborne, not made easier by Nyanko-sensei who'd started chasing the kite's tail - unsuccessfully, should be added - , but it was still a lot of fun. Flying the kite itself was even better though. Tanuma was the first to try it out and when Takashi saw the joyous sparkle in his friend's eyes, he knew it had been worth it.
They spent the whole afternoon outside, alternating who took control of the kite. At the beginning it often crashed, but with time they got the hang of it. It was a lot of fun.
When the sun had already started to set, they finally stopped. Packing everything up, Tanuma and Takashi made their way back to the Fujiwara residence.
They walked in peaceful silence for a bit, before Tanuma opened his mouth. "Thank you, Natsume, for doing this for me," he said sincerely. Takashi smiled happily. "No need to thank me. If anything, thank you for being there."
The boys brushed shoulders as they shared a warm look. It was really nice having a friend like that by your side, thought both of them.
#fanfic#fanfiction#natsume yūjin chō#natsume's book of friends#natsume yuujinchou#natsume week#natsumeweek#natsumeweek 2022#natsume takashi#tanuma kaname#fluff#lonlyness#gossip#rumors
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Arthur for the character ask, please
Thank you :D @tolkienlockian
Also this turned into a huge rant bc I was feeling hangry when I wrote this and I can’t talk about Arthur without talking about hwo incompetent the writers are. So uh get ready
First impression: he’s a dick obviously. Super annoying. Classic rich white boy who says “do you know who my ✨ FATHER ✨ is???” But he has this way about him that’s sort of…lessens the edge? I think it’s bc Arthur is framed as young and ignorant, so the viewer assumes taht Arthur will grow into the exact opposite of how he appears now. So when he is saying or doing something bigoted, yes it does hurt, but there is a sort of optimism there. But the general feeling of “ugh this shit again I have it suffer through before he changes”
Impression now: Arthur didn’t change much :/ at least not enough in my opinion. I genuinely think season one is the best bc of this reason. Because there are amazing moments where Arthur saves Merlin’s life and shows humility and genuine sense of justice, regardless of their religion(case in point, mordred episode). And it feels like it’s all thrown away in favor of the writers keeping him in his rich white boy persona. At least in season one, it makes sense for Arthur’s development to eb and flow a bit, but thsi is far too extreme for a satisfying narrative to happen the whole show. One step forward, two steps back. I honestly feel that if Arthur was a real person, he would have grown so much. And so I often feel like I don’t know Arthur at all, bc it seams like it’s my responsibility to pick and chose what is actually “cannon” based on what I think is probable in my opinion. Witch sucks, bc I dotn feel like I really have an impression on Arthur as a character, and more of a sense of confusion. I often end up cherrypicking the most optimistic spin on Arthur, bc I want to believe what Merlin believes as a veiwer who is supposed to root for the main character and his cause. I feel like there is a general divide among the fandom about hwat is cannon aboht arthit and what isn’t, and it’s confusing and sort of frustrating.
Favorite moment: I’d have to say favorite moment is when Arthur comforted Merlin after freya died. It shows this side of Arthur that I want to see much more of. It’s suprizing as it is heartwarming when Arthur showed so much emotional intelligence wheb he knew Merlin was upset. THIS. THIS should be why Arthur deserves Merlin’s devotion. Not jsut merlins blissful fantasies of a world where merlisn not scared of Arthur one day wanting him dead. I’m sorry Am I getting too dark? But anyways, the best part was that it was successful. Merlin smiled and laughed. He got a moment of happiness to distract him from his grief.
Idea for a story: Arthur learns about Merlin’s magic in the dragon lord ep. Think about it. Arthur overhears Merlin’s conversation with his father before he died, Arthur stays quiet about it all the way back home bc he’s so completely stunned. And it gives him ample time to thing about things, especially bc Merlin probably wouldn’t want to talk much anyway. Even though Arthur’s pretty oblivious, I think he’d know that this really isn’t the time for bringing more drama into this about merljnscmagic. When Merlin is preparing Arthur for his battle w kilgara, Merlin picks up a sword and Arthur sees how determined Merlin is and alwyas was. And Arthur tells Merlin that he knows about Merlin’s power and that he’s literally their only hope. Dragon fight same as before BUT Arthur is secretly consious during wheb melrin sends away kilgara. Boom. Done. Not only dose Arthur know about Merlin’s magic, but it is done in the most charitable way possible. Merlin will only be shown in his best and most compassionate light, showing Arthur taht Merlin is the same Merlin he alwyas was.
Unpopular option: framing Arthur getting body shamed and being told to eat less is very bad actually and I genuinely don’t care how horrible he is to be around. No one deserves that and it’s sick it was portrayed as ok to young kids watching. Same to when Merlin sexually harassed him in the aithusia episode. A lot of wierd noncon shit happens to Arthur and it’s fucking sick. No wonder he’s such a bitch to be around.
Favorate relationship: merthur, although idk if anyones suprized. It’s hard not to love the pairing tbh. Too biseuxal to not love em
Favorite headcanon: definitely dyslexic!arthur, although @tolkienlockian definitely knows that by now lol. I would go on a huge rant about it but I already started a thred so I won’t
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