the problem with watching new stuff is seeing reactions like "oh this is so creepy, this is so gory, etc" and thinking this is what they get for not watching hannibal (2013)

Spoiling You With All My Might -- Comte Collection Story Translation

I've been meaning to post this one for a while, as it's honestly in my top ten Comte events of all time. For this Collection story event, it was basically all the suitors comforting MC when she's stressed/tired/overworked. And lbr, who doesn't need that in their life?

Enjoy everyone, and just a reminder that I'm no professional--I just translate these for my own enjoyment. Without further ado:

In the early afternoon, when the hands on the clock are pointing to 3pm-- I was alone drinking tea in a quiet kitchen. (I’ve been busy lately…I think I’m a little burnt out.) My cup of tea was already empty, but somehow I didn’t have the energy to stand up-- Comte: MC, are you taking a break? Turning around revealed Comte standing in the middle of the doorway.

Okay but like. I gotta say just the thought of him peeking around the corner is killing me, he's the cutest man alive I swear

But also. Now I'm wondering if he's lowkey like IS IT MEOW MEOW TIME? MEOW MEOW T I M E!!!!!! pounces on the opportunity for quality time. Somehow that's even more adorable I'm going to explode from uwus

MC: Indeed I am. Would you like to have some tea, too? Comte: That’s an attractive invitation, but if you don’t mind, would you spend some time with me for a little while after this? MC: Go out with you…? Comte: I’m thinking of going for a walk. Would you like to join me? His hand was outstretched in a gentlemanly gesture that touched/eased my heart. MC: Haha, I’d love to.

I laughed a little at this because I'm definitely the kind of person that's like "omg pls, you are not beating the silly goose allegations!!!" over him being all suave over a walk together but. At the same time. HEART EYES M-- King of romantics everywhere. Gentleman of my heart. Mellifluous seducer have MERCY

More under the cut!

Comte’s escort led me to a forest a short walking distance from the mansion. As I walk alongside him, the sunbeams penetrate through the trees as they sway with the breeze. Comte: The weather is lovely today, making it a perfect occasion for a walk. MC: You’re right…the wind feels nice, too. As I walked slowly listening to the rustling trees, I could feel the fatigue/tension draining out of me little by little. (It feels like my heart is being cleansed. It’s so soothing…) Comte: … It was then that I noticed Comte gazing at me calmly.

As somebody who used to be plus ultra literally every minute of my life, this made me so softe inside. The way he cares so much about her ;-; he really said "I will die before I disrespect a girlboss, but also. I am here. For to help PLS. Also a crumb of attention...p l swleseskje...."

(Ah…by any chance) MC: Comte Comte: Yes? MC: …You invited me out for a change of pace, didn’t you? Comte smiled softly at my words. Comte: I just wanted to take a walk with you like this.

I do love how, especially in recent events, MC notices his gestures more and more 🥺💛💛💛💛💛💛 I think it's really cute that he wants to be sneaky sweet and supportive, and whenever she realizes it he's like. C'est moi? You're not fooling anyone pretty boy!!! I know you have brain cells up there!!! But also the sincerity in that last line, of how he really does also just want to spend some time with her. How he's always saying the most wonderful thing she can give him is her time.

Just put my body out to sea I can't do this anymore--

I was enveloped in the sound of his voice, warming my heart, and my feet stopped involuntarily. Comte: MC? MC: Every time you treat me so kindly like this…I’m so happy I could cry Jokingly, Comte turned around and spread his coat. Comte: If you want to do so, that’s okay too MC: Huh… Comte: After all, there is no one here but us. If you want to cry, you can cry. Comte wrapped me gently in his open coat and murmured in my ear. Comte: Like this, there will be no trace of tears left behind. MC: Oh… (It’s okay to cry…that’s not something you hear very often when you’re fully grown.) (Just hearing him say that in such a sweet voice makes my heart feel lighter…) (Comte really is amazing)

Honestly this part just made me melt, I have no words--I'm down bad fellas. We love a man who encourages his partner that its safe to be vulnerable 😭🙏🏼

But also I feel the need to say. Comte don't offer this to me because from that point on I will live in your coat. It will no longer be 'Comte's nice coat,' but rather:

MC: Thank you. But…Aren’t you spoiling me too much? When I looked up and asked him, he leaned over to drop a kiss to my forehead… MC: Oh… Comte: I see. I think I don’t spoil you enough. Comte’s long fingers reached out to wipe my eyes gently. Comte: MC, I love everything about you. Comte: Your fatigue and your tears, don’t forget that it’s my privilege to soothe them with these hands. He gazes deeply into my eyes, and I can’t help how my heart races in response.

So like. Do you ever just cry and die. Because.

I'm like somewhere between "WE GOT A 2319!!!!!!!!!" and inches from professing my eternal love and loyalty like some kind of lovelorn knight too afraid to even touch the radiance of their beloved. Comte how on earth am I supposed to look at you without being blinded. Sun that's too bright!!!!! That's too b r i g h t!

I just. "Your fatigue and your tears, don’t forget that it’s my privilege to soothe them with these hands." [muffled wailing noises] Did I ASK--

Mfer out here like 'oh the terrible fate of being tied to me for eternity' meanwhile every second of being with him is either dizzyingly passionate or like being wrapped up in the warmest, fluffiest blankie imaginable. I HAVE TO S T A N SIR--

MC: Ah, if you spoil me so much, I’m afraid I won’t be able to do anything on my own anymore. Comte smiled a little as I laughed deceptively in the hopes of hiding how delighted I was. Comte: That’s great. I’d love to see that, myself. The fingers that had been stroking my eyes slipped down my cheek to touch my lips. Comte: If you can’t manage to walk alone--I’ll be there to hold you up, and walk alongside you. His sweet whisper ends when his lips gently cover mine. MC: Mn… In the midst of his enveloping kiss, I gently entrusted my body to the person dearest to me--

Can I just ?????? Say????? How much I love MC being teasing/catty with him as the events go on. I LOVE it here. I think I really like how she grows into her own strength, and how she feels comfortable expressing her shyness without ceding that integrity. One thing I've noticed that I love in relationships is this ability to air grievances in a playful way, where the stakes are low--but the person can still express their feelings and be comforted. I think I like how it's not about putting pressure on the person, but getting it out in the open and resolved all the same. It just fills me with warm fuzzies c:

Also. "If you can’t manage to walk alone--I’ll be there to hold you up, and walk alongside you." Like not to beat a dead horse, but wow. Pretty sure this metaphysically changed me as a person. Thanks, I will never be the same. True love exists, [unhinged barking noises], etc etc

“you only like zutara because they look good together”

yeah, well no sht

no but the more I think about it the more I just don’t get it - what the fuck kind of black magic compulsion did otto hightower have over viserys targaryen to make him always default back to him?

did they fuck once? were they exes? did otto have him dickmatized? did rhaenyra and alicent come by their Big Gay Longings via genetics? what the fuck is going on???

been seeing some weird takes ab the shiv pregnancy. like being ambivalent about how the writers will play it is one thing — it could end up being an incredible exploration into shiv’s internal life and her as a person beyond her relationships with men, but there are also a lot of ways to fuck up a pregnancy narrative and most are exercises in thinly veiled sexism, so it’s only natural to feel uncertain. we just don’t know how it’ll go yet!

…..buuuut. saying that pregnancy playing a role at all in shiv’s life/arc/character inherently reduces her to being The Woman just feels soooo like … rooted in internalized misogyny to me? that’s kinda doing the same thing as everyone always does — thinking less of a woman once she shows signs of, y’know, actually ‘being a woman’ quote unquote. a female character won’t stop being fully-fleshed-out, strong, independent, and interesting the second she get pregnant. pregnancy isn’t, like, just a sexist trope, guys. it’s a real thing with real importance in the lives of many, many people! pregnancy isn’t reductive to women, it’s just a part of life for some women! a lot of the time it feels like ‘good female characters’ are only seen as ‘good’ so long as you can almost forget that they’re female, so long as they act so ‘masculine’ it’s like they’re just a regular complex male character repackaged in a female body. but to be a complex female character, you’re going to have a relationship to your gender! that’s inevitable and necessary in order to actually create a good female character, rather than a good character who just so happens to be female. and this isn’t even touching upon the weird essentialism of being like oh womanhood = pregnancy & vice versa like…. y’all are complaining about the show ‘reducing shiv to womanhood’ but are you sure you’re not doing that? and besides what do you even mean ‘reduced to womanhood’? was she not a woman before? is she only a woman now that she’s pregnant? just some fucking bizarre takes all around.

the rest is under the cut because this got long, sorry !

i mean, why are we acting like the decision to explicitly explore shiv’s relationship with motherhood and femininity is bad writing and rooted in misogyny — like, not even the way it’s done, just the decision to make shiv pregnant? like, making a female character pregnant is not sexist in itself, at all! that is just part and parcel of some women’s lives! the only reason you would think pregnancy as a concept for a woman is sexist is if your internalized misogyny makes you think that pregnancy weakens or devalues a ‘strong woman’ !!! why are y’all acting like pregnancy is this terrible emasculating trope that puts the curse of Woman on characters like you sound like the roy men

and, like, maybe the storyline will suck! maybe it’ll be shitty and weird and not-so-secretly misogynistic. maybe the way they end up writing it will be yet another Career Woman Grows Heart And Has Kids or the equally bad Career Woman Feels Forced To Reject ‘Womanhood’ Entirely And That’s Supposed To Be Empowering narrative. but maybe it won’t. maybe it’ll be fucking great. maybe it’s fucking needed — maybe it will try to unravel to undo this exact centuries-long prejudice against pregnancy, against women who ‘act like’ women, whatever that’s supposed to mean. we just don’t know yet. so, like, while it is so fair to feel ambivalent about this development, maybe try to figure out what the root of that ambivalence is — is it fear that the writers will fuck it up, or is it your own pre-existing biases about pregnancy and stereotypically ‘feminine’ experiences and traits? because, yknow. it just feels kind of weird to act like the mere existence of pregnancy in the arc of a female character is inherently diminishing and reductive to her — after all, what you’re saying between the lines is not only that pregnancy diminishes and reduces independent powerful women to just being women, but youre also literally reducing the entirety of womanhood to pregnancy and the entirety of pregnancy to womanhood, and all of that feels just, like. a strange stance to take, maybe

What's interesting about witnessing the shift in Tom and Shiv's relationship, is that for the first 3 seasons Shiv got to live in comfort of being her father in the relationship. She was in control. She was the emotionally detached one, keeping Tom at a distance from her inner vulnerable self like her father does to her and her siblings, despite Tom always appealing to that side of her, bearing himself and wanting that intimacy. She held all the power, and in holding all the power she felt secure that she wasn't going to be screwed over (like her dad did to her mum) and abandoned (like she felt her mum did to her). She could escape the fucked up divorce her parents had by being the embodiment of power (her father),,, which, like a lot of children of a messy divorce, she wanted to avoid such a thing for herself at all cost, and pride herself on her marriage and choice of partner instead of getting help for the trauma and damage she'd carried since childhood. Shiv was safe. She was secure. Like her dad, she had her own dog to kick to test its loyalty and feel secure and reassured every time that dog came back to her side.

But then the dog did bite back. Tom did betray her. The man she viewed as beneath her, all worshipping, and in her eyes nowhere near as smart as her, outplayed her and betrayed her and won over the approval of the very man that she'd been emulating. And now she's not her father. She's the last person she ever wanted to be. She's her mother. She's the one on the receiving end of Logan through Tom, making the divorce messy and difficult and painful by using the same tactics he did with her mother, something that gets to her easily and makes her extremely upset to the point where she's verging on tears. Tom is the one at Waystar + ATN. Tom is the one saying "uh huh." To her.

She thought that she could escape her mother's fate by being her father. By being cold and distant and emotionally closed off. By being the one who kicked the dog. She let her trauma and fears rule and guide her into making decisions and behaving in harmful ways (to Tom and herself) that she thought would protect her and never let her be hurt. And none of it worked. Because despite it all, she became her mother.

I don't have any WIPs so I'll just ask you about yours lol. what's goin on in the FC5 prequel one 👀

aww thanks for asking!!!💞 so excited to share and yap

it’s called cherry waves (or whatever else i may call it in the future), which is an au where instead of burning down the barn/beating up their foster parents jacob takes joseph and john and runs away, which results in jacob never going to juvie, the seed bros never get separated, and jacob possibly never even enlists in the military (but he still finna be a kickass teenager). i’m still working out the kinks, including the time period (their timeline is wacky asf as it is!) so probably mid/late-80s? early-ish 90s?

also— joseph still becomes a cult leader surprise surprise 🙃 but it’s kinda like a children of the corn type thing?? he’d still be young, like around eleven or twelve. just a baby faced cult megalomaniac <3 gathering people for the end of the world, killing people, and jacob having absolutely none of that shit. john would be a wee bab but still has an effect on the story.

i will possibly introduce other fc5 characters, but considering the timeline, i’m kinda iffy about it. plus i don’t know if the story would take place in georgia, or in hope county. maybe joseph intentionally leads jacob to hope county so he can build his cult, and not just to seek safe haven from abuse and neglect??? maybe he’s more manipulative here because he’s just a kiddo and nobody expects a kiddo to supposedly talk to god about nuclear warfare and killing people??? he’s just using jacob to get him to where he needs to be like in canon???

what an asshole kid, honestly.

I bet you guys were not here when Noah denied TWICE that Will was gay. And he did bc he considered it a spoiler. Stand up lmao.

.

Thinking abt villain Dia and villain Iris now and like

Idk, idk where I'm going w this but I'm just gonna spit this out before it haunts me for the rest of the week hahah

Anyways

Smth smth abt how both of them were treated back then and how they treat people now

Like,, Diantha was hurt physically. Her mother would hit her, she burnt her skin, would slap her, even pour liquor on her, telling her to stop crying, crying shows weakness. And then there's her acting career and such and how some roles would often demand more from her body and it'd fuck her up sometimes. There's Ignis, one of the former Elite Four, how he tore apart the LucarioMan cape and hat Drasna got for her, kicking her to the ground, going on how she's a Champion, she should act like one, not act like a child. But she was a child. She was just a child and everyone fucking hated her. Scars and burns littered her body beneath all that concealer and make up and she fucking hated it.

Iris was hurt emotionally. No one ever hit her or anything like that, but rather they'd make fun of her, taunt her, make snide comments on anything abt her. Even as she grew up, everyone looked down on her. Always a shadow of Drayden, a shadow of Alder, a shadow of Hilbert and Hilda. She'd hear comments on how she's just trying too hard, how they still don't see her as a Champion, how could they if they never even saw her as a proper Gym Leader back then. She was always seen as a child by everyone, even after years, still going on how she's just embarrassing herself w how hard she's trying and failing. No matter what she does, everyone fucking hated her. Underneath her faux persona of optimism, her heart was already broken by their piercing words.

But Diantha lacked the physical strength to hit back, instead, she relied on her wits. She was a smart kid. Drasna always told her that, she was rather smart for her age, she knows a lot. About people especially. She knows how to break someone with just her words, knows their deepest fears and insecurities, knows all their imperfections, knows all their flaws. And she'd be the one to voice it, she'd be the one to tell them how they're unfit to live in this world, tell them how useless they truly are, how weak they were.

Iris didn't lack that strength, rather the people of Unova denied she was ever strong in the first place. And if they didn't see it the first time, then she'll show it to them again. She spared no one, made them see how powerful she truly was. The people of Unova didn't appreciate her strength, but Kyurem did, Plasma did. Plasma became so much better with her as the new leader now. They were stronger, even the Heroes were struggling against them. She knows how weak the people of Unova are, and here she is, taunting them about their own strength. She watches them from above, watches them run and cry and scream and fight, fruitless she'd say, as they continue to struggle under Plasma's power, and their fate being sealed with Kyurem's Glaciate.

. (tw heterosexuality)

Thinking Abt bandee n how the first few dark matter attacks really did just forever alter his brain n he hasn't really "recovered" since

as there is going to be some posted in the next couple of days - some of my dragons use neopronouns, including nounself pronouns. i do this as a way to show support for the important people in my life who use neopronouns, and as a way to practice them.

i will not accept any negative comments towards neopronouns, neogenders, or xenogenders. people's identities are to be respected, no matter what your personal opinion is.

also hope the internet is ready for the bara Kirishima and little Bakugou dynamic that Fire on the Horizon is bringing bc I feel like the fandom has robbed me of this kind of content and I have somehow made it my M.O to provide it

its wild how when your self esteem is low it seems like your insecurities and fears are infused into all of the stimuli you interact with? then everything annoys you because its all reminiscent of the falicies that are keeping you stuck in the mental state you're in. :/