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#popularizing a trope in anime. It made me feel hopeless
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Thinking about Berserk again. I havent read any of the new chapters because Miura's death kind of got to me really bad so thinking about or talking about berserk at all just made me really depressed and I think I probably havent even looked at it since he passed (after I used to reread huge chunks of it like every week) but now its been like two years and Im thinking I should just accept it and give the new stuff a shot.
One thing I am always thinking about though is how Miura's death effected discussion around Berserk and how much it will continue to effect discussion. Like, I always felt Berserk never got enough criticism. You can search Berserk on here and find all my old posts complaining about how everybody was jumping the gun on calling it One Of The Greatest Manga Ever when it wasnt even done and at the time most people were convinced it hadnt been good since like what, conviction arc? And that was back before Kentaro Miura died and his death has only made the discussion even more like "Berserk is a beautiful wonderful masterpiece and anyone with problems doesnt GET IT".
So like I stopped reading under the idea that no matter what happened it wasnt gonna be what REALLY shouldve happened, now I think thats kind of unfair and maybe I should give it a shot, but I think that idea is gonna be influencing how people talk about a manga that was already being given alot of undue praise and adoration from people who seemed to mostly never have actually read it and had nothing more interesting to say about it beyond it being the manga that popularized the idea of a guy with a big big sword. I dunno.
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reluctanx · 3 years
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𝘽𝙉𝙃𝘼 𝙃𝙀𝘼𝘿𝘾𝘼𝙉𝙊𝙉 >> CLASS 1-B. || Fem!s/o
𝘾𝙃𝘼𝙍𝘼𝘾𝙏𝙀𝙍𝙎 𝙄𝙉𝘾𝙇𝙐𝘿𝙀𝘿: neito monoma, itsuka kendo, sen kaibara, ibara shiozaki, tetsutetsu tetsutetsu, reiko yanagi, setsuna tokage
𝙒𝘼𝙍𝙉𝙄𝙉𝙂 (𝙎) : n/a [?]
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-Neito Monoma
!! 🧺 | he’s actually very sweet, just a bit playful with you
!! 🧺 | he cracks joke just to make you laugh because your smile means EVERYTHING to him
!! 🧺 | i’m pretty sure he’s a nerd at color theory and would ALWAYS point out how beautiful your eyes are. even if it has a darker shade, he just knows that it’s a beautiful color that he loves so much
!! 🧺 | he doesn’t let other people touch his bunnies besides kendo, you may also be the exception
!! 🧺 | overly dramatic because he knows you can’t possibly, truly handle his bullshit
!! 🧺 | his teenager crush on you is so adorable, because he’s always in denial. or refuses to admit he have a crush on you
!! 🧺 | seeing that you’re not comparing him to a villain because of his quirk, wether it’s a joke or not. you automatically gain a part of his trust and respect. deadass
!! 🧺 | he bullies people for a reason, and you better deal with that
!! 🧺 | very argumentative, trying to fight with him with controversial topics is useless
!! 🧺 | LET. HIM. TOUCH. YO. HAIR………. pls
!! 🧺 | even if he tries, he can’t keep up late at night. HE WILL fall asleep, so sometimes you’ll be left on read accidentally-
!! 🧺 | when texting… he’s a total different person omg
!! 🧺 | no because if your seat is next to his, he will pass you the answers for the math exam.. (don’t lie, i know you’re a total dogshit at this subject. )
!! 🧺 | he’s a real big fan of Vlad king so you better be prepared seeing some of his merch in his closet
!! 🧺 | seeing you in his clothes makes him feel weird. he’ll try to make fun of you but he’s just really flustered to look at cha’ i swear
!! 🧺 | it’s rare to see him swear, so when he do so.. dear god..
!! 🧺 | HE DOESN’T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT YOUR BODY SHAPE, SIZE OR WHATEVER, HE LOVES YOU THE WAY YOU ARE AND HE WILL REMIND YOU THAT
!! 🧺 | “you love me o’ sooo much it makes you look stupid.”
!! 🧺 | “don’t tell kendo about this, but i like you. for real.”
!! 🧺 | pronouns first with this man, pronouns = priority, pronouns respected. period.
!! 🧺 | he would be such a simp for you..
!! 🧺 | not obsessive or possesive, per se just jealous in a healthy way
!! 🧺 | “i’m literally a low quality version of bakugo.”
!! 🧺 | THEATRICAL, AS FUCK.
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-Itsuka Kendo
!! 🧸 | SHE’S LITERALLY A SWEET HEART *SOBS SOBS*
!! 🧸 | she acts like your big sister sometimes.
!! 🧸 | she’s so shy and intimidated when she gets to date you bro..
!! 🧸 | your hero name? your hero costume? gives no shit, she find everything about you AMAZING.
!! 🧸 | you’re the little spoon, don’t prove me wrong, you’re the little spoon
!! 🧸 | she finds you so cute (especially if you have chubby cheeks, cause like uuuUhhh…)
!! 🧸 | she dresses you up when ya’ll get a girl days
!! 🧸 | she doesn’t know how to cook, depending on your cooking skills; either you get to cook or ya’ll order sum shit idk
!! 🧸 | she have a whole romantic cottagecore playlist dedicated for you whenever she thinks about you i swear.
!! 🧸 | you participates in her activity of : “knocking-down-neito-whenever-hes-been-an-ass”
!! 🧸 | can’t even afford to scold you the first time ya’ll meet, you’re so beautiful *sob sob*
!! 🧸 | if you’re in a social group space, you’re her favourite person, ya’ll are the duo of the friend group
!! 🧸 | “can’t sleep? that’s okay me too.”
!! 🧸 | picky, very picky eater. ya’ll may have trouble ordering something.
!! 🧸 | you’re the ticklish person, she’s the tickler. if you’re not, she’ll helplessly try to tickle you..-
!! 🧸 | “SPIDER, SPIDER!!”
!! 🧸 | your luck booster, i stg
!! 🧸 | she likes seeing you with fake cat ears, you look so adorable in her perspective
!! 🧸 | “LET’S WATCH A DISNEY MOVIE!!”
!! 🧸 | fast typer when texting.
!! 🧸 | you’re her angel, you are.
!! 🧸 | wants to be a make-up artist somedays.. so you better be ready and prepare to be a mannequin.
!! 🧸 | “you’re so weird *faces you* you’re so weird.”
!! 🧸 | 256 HOURS LONG OF TALK AND CHATS WHEN SHE ENCOUNTERS A LONG TIME FRIEND AT THE MALL
!! 🧸 | she wants to be a princess, your princess
!! 🧸 | SAY THAT YOU LOVE HER HAIR AND SHE WILL FLUSH
!! 🧸 | “why are you so pretty 🥺’
!! 🧸 | cottagecore lesbians :)
!! 🧸 | holding your hands + kisses + pecks on the lips, physical affection <<<<<<<<
!! 🧸 | gives you her stuffies, trust me she have LOADS of stuffies
!! 🧸 | BLUSHES SO HARD WHEN YOU WEAR HER CLOTHES
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Sen Kaibara
!! 📢 | you don’t understand, the amount of love he holds for you is HUGE!
!! 📢 | fairly confident when he’s fighting by your side, you give him confidence..
!! 📢 | bad habits to compare your beauty with his
!! 📢 | trying to make him blush? oh honey, you don’t have to try once you have a relationship with him..
!! 📢 | his smile <<<<<<<<<<<<<
!! 📢 | usually quiet but tends to be talkative ONLY to you
!! 📢 | his heart beats faster and faster when you get close to him, but his face says 😐
!! 📢 | “kiss me already, dummy”
!! 📢 | really likes anime actually, ya’ll watch animes or read mangas sometimes :)
!! 📢 | *strokes strokes, scrubs scrubs your hair gently*
!! 📢 | thinks you look so cute in his clothes but doesn’t mention it
!! 📢 | secretly tries to get one of the things you crave for (an item, celebrity’s autograph idk sum shit)
!! 📢 | mockery against you? not on his watch.
!! 📢 | his love language is physical touch *sobs sobs*
!! 📢 | rubs your hand gently to calm you down when you feel anxious
!! 📢 | old times french love songs of edith piaf is his jam..
!! 📢 | hopeless romantic :c
!! 📢 | insecure? not on his watch,
!! 📢 | gives you his juice box to you and only to you
!! 📢 | you’re his first kiss
!! 📢 | BEST HUG GIVER
!! 📢 | the type to put your hair behind your ears
!! 📢 | “you’re my everything..”
!! 📢 | KISSES YOUR CHEEKS INTENSIVELY
!! 📢 | loves to feel euphoric, you make him euphoric
!! 📢 | you get the blower during summer lmao
!! 📢 | buys you loads of icecreams during summer
!! 📢 | go to the heater side during winter, right now, right here.
!! 📢 | everything you ask somethinh, he’ll answer instantly
!! 📢 | want something? dont worry, sen gotchu’
!! 📢 | SIMP
!! 📢 | wants to be someone truly meaningful to you
!! 📢 | you make him feel special for doing literally nothing
!! 📢 | he loves you, so so much.
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Ibara Shiozaki
!! 🌱| literally the momo yaoyorazu of class 1-b but more theatrical
!! 🌱| you kinda just already knew that she have a preference for girls
!! 🌱| “mo- mother nature? what kind of silly things are you spouting out of that mouth of yours…”
!! 🌱| you are literally babied by her
!! 🌱| good baker and easily make your favorite dish/dessert
!! 🌱| you’re her top priority, and she carefully pays attention to you. deadass, she’s the type to wipe your mouth with her favorite tissue while she’s talking about a serious matter with her teamates bro
!! 🌱| she’s such a nerd in the rom-com industry, and gets pretty shy when you proceed to do something that is similar to a scene about one of her few rom-com movies. (ex: kadebon)
!! 🌱| she laughs so easily..
!! 🌱| “you’re so precious.”
!! 🌱| she showed all the symptoms of “crushing” back then, and you already knew that.
!! 🌱| everytime you hype her up, she smiles widely
!! 🌱| she’s so gift giving, she can’t leave you without giving you a gift first
!! 🌱| all the gifts you gave her stays safe and sound in her room
!! 🌱| “i might never be your hero, but i’ll be the winner of your heart.”
!! 🌱| she wants you to wear her clothes so ya’ll can match :)
!! 🌱| she’s quite wealthy, so she buys you some expensive gifts that reminds her of you
!! 🌱| always wrap her arms around you everywhere
!! 🌱| teases you but a lot
!! 🌱| she likes to do gardening stuff with you
!! 🌱| full knowledge on plants, every flowers she offers you was because of a characteristic that reminds her of you
!! 🌱| her efforts to be committed in your relationship is so visible
!! 🌱| always slips a little ‘I love you” everydays
!! 🌱| your love, affection and attention is enough to repay her for her consistent efforts.
!! 🌱| gets easily jealous but tries to hide it, but you obviously can tell due to her uncontrollable blush
!! 🌱| as she is so gift giving, you’ll try to argue with her saying she doesn’t need to give her this much gifts
!! 🌱| she gets overwhelmed when you make out of an exam/mission
!! 🌱| loves to give you a head massage while reading a book
!! 🌱| come and stargaze with her >:|
!! 🌱| kisses the back of your hand
!! 🌱| show you off when she have the chance to
!! 🌱| compared to what you may have assumed, she puts a lot of trust in her words when showin’ you off.
!! 🌱| “everyday and everynight, you make me happy just by thinking of your silly little face.”
!! 🌱| HELPS YOU WITH HOMEWORK
!! 🌱| SLEEPOVERS!!
!! 🌱| she felt insecure about her hair, so the fact that you had he audacity to pet her head made her fall inlove with you.
!! 🌱| gets genuinely confused when you laugh at her dramatic behavior
!! 🌱| her humor is kinda bad, so she may laugh at the stupidest thing ever
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Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu
!! 🦈| oh boy, everything would be so wild with him
!! 🦈| you cannot leave the room without giving him a hug first
!! 🦈| awkward, like really
!! 🦈| “you’re the most coolest— beautifulest—…uuh.. person!”
!! 🦈| doesn’t academically succeed a lot, but puts a lot of efforts in his works. every praises you give him makes him smile
!! 🦈| makes you laugh without him knowing
!! 🦈| please, he probably starts to laugh when you start talking too fast because he doesn’t understand-
!! 🦈| in summer, he turns his arms into steel so you can grip against it (since steel is usually cold)
!! 🦈| probably have adhd
!! 🦈| loves to caress your cheeks
!! 🦈| sometimes kisses your little fingers for fun
!! 🦈| buddies to lover trope :D
!! 🦈| uses kaomoji than emojis
!! 🦈| his favorite song is teenage dirtbag
!! 🦈| he requires a good listener as his s/o, because he is a very talkative person and bring numerous topics and persons at the same time when talking to him
!! 🦈| “you’re extra-beautiful..”
!! 🦈| offers a fish related plushie
!! 🦈| shows off his abs for you
!! 🦈| two dumb hoes doing shit trope
!! 🦈| “you kinda remind me of an otter..?
!! 🦈| “wanna be a teenage dirtbag with me?”
!! 🦈| he calls you the popular girl of the school for a reason.. 😭
!! 🦈| calls you tetsutetsu junior when you wear his clothes
!! 🦈| openly admit that ya’ll are in a relationship to everyone
!! 🦈| is actually ticklish himself-
!! 🦈| loves to kiss your forehead
!! 🦈| loves to point out how cute you are
!! 🦈| definitely introduces you to fatgum and kirishima
!! 🦈| he can’t really came up with a petname.. so he’ll give you stupid ones
!! 🦈| as you can tell, he’s clearly not experienced but he tries, for you :)
!! 🦈| okay but power couple
!! 🦈| “if you steal the blankets, i am about to put my cold feets on you.”
!! 🦈| gets out of hands when he’s too excited
!! 🦈| gives you back hugs when you’re not feeling well
!! 🦈| best caregiver 🥺
!! 🦈| adores you
!! 🦈| play games with you :)
!! 🦈| sends you stupid note under the door whenever you’re taking a shit-
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Reiko Yanagi
!! 👻|| you managed to get on her soft side when you told her that she wasn’t weird in any ways
!! 👻|| very quiet and patient with you
!! 👻|| really doesn’t wish to disturb or scare you, but she can’t let go of you — you were so nice
!! 👻|| when you tease her.. she’s a blushing mess
!! 👻|| you’re the only person she hangs most of her time with
!! 👻||she thinks that you’re so, so cool.
!! 👻|| doesn’t know how to react to all of your compliments, just knows how to cuddle
!! 👻|| she makes you listen to her favorite genre of music
!! 👻|| she tries her best to make your relationship with her dynamic as possible!
!! 👻|| with that say, praising is one of her top quality
!! 👻|| as much as she doesn’t know how to handle your praise, she can slap you back with her
!! 👻||”hey.. how abour we kiss? uh- um.. if- if you want to.”
!! 👻|| is actually a good kisser-
!! 👻|| her only way to calm you down was to kiss you when you get overwhelmed
!! 👻|| reiko is a really good listener and would literally listen to your 5 hours long story as she stare at you the whole time
!! 👻|| when you mention that her bags were really cool… good job bro, now she loves you
!! 👻|| SHE’S SO CLINGY, LIKE REALLY CLINGY
!! 👻|| unexpectedly good in video games
!! 👻|| “w-whoa.. i didn’t expected you to wear my clothes..you look adorable..”
!! 👻|| gets truly passionate when talking about paranormal facts
!! 👻|| she loves to play with the strands of your hair
!! 👻|| quality time <<<<<<<<
!! 👻|| would always remind you how beautiful you are
!! 👻|| once you have her sweater wrapped around your body, it’s officially yours now because she says so
!! 👻|| soft spokesperson with you bro..
!! 👻|| seems more confident when texting
!! 👻|| she loves taking pictures of you
!! 👻|| she probably wanted to make you visit the beach during the sunset
!! 👻|| she’s so proud of you..
!! 👻|| “oh, you deserve all of the praises of the world.”
!! 👻|| can’t even look at you in the eyes,, you’re so CUTE!!
!! 👻|| never leave you alone, never will or would
!! 👻|| always grips on your shirt so that you don’t get to be lost in a mission
!! 👻|| regularly checks up on you
!! 👻|| gives you LOADS of snacks during lunch
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Setsuna Tokage
!! 🐊| COMMITTED IN THE RELATIONSHIP
!! 🐊| literally takes you out everywhere on ya’ll date
!! 🐊| don’t be shy, skateboard with her
!! 🐊| literally asks to be partnered up with you during the sport festivals
!! 🐊| will do everything for you
!! 🐊| have a reptile pet, you’re the only person knowing about that
!! 🐊| CHERISH YOU UNTIL SHE DIES
!! 🐊| “my sweet sweet pumpkin pie!”
!! 🐊| “let me kiss you until you can’t handle me anymore, darling.”
!! 🐊| she loves snuggling to your neck and leave soft kisses
!! 🐊| eyes contact is important
!! 🐊| you’re her favourite person
!! 🐊| ya’ll be ruining your sleep schedule for each other
!! 🐊| you guys always wear something that matches with the other (a hat, item, shirt.. etc.)
!! 🐊| setsuna announces her relationship with you to the class as if she proposed to you in a mariage
aight ya’ll, bye!
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yandearest · 4 years
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May The Odds Be Ever in Your Favor (Hoseok x Reader Hunger Games AU) Chapter 1: The Reaping
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Summary - Living in District 4 you never thought you would have to worry about being selected for the Hunger Games. With a training centre right near the dock of the houseboat you lived and fished from, your district was known for volunteers who trained their whole lives for a shot at glory and riches. But at age 18, your name is called and no girls volunteer to take your place. Your devastation is answered when Kim Namjoon volunteers for the males shortly after. Tall, muscular, highly intelligent and charming, the years of diligent preparation have bestowed Namjoon with the expectation of being the next District 4 champion after Finnick Odair last won 3 years ago.
Fishing for a living has granted you skills with a knife but, as your mentor Finnick is quick to describe, your beautiful face may well be your best asset.
Upon arrival in the Capitol you are quickly faced with the reality that Namjoon may not even be the biggest danger inside the Arena. Especially when you capture the obsessive attention of District 2′s own volunteer, and killing machine, Jung Hoseok. Hope soon fades from ‘survival’ to ‘the mercy of a painless death’ but Hoseok certainly has other plans.
Pairing - Hoseok x (fem)Reader 
Genre - thriller, angst, yandere
Word Count 4.6K
Warnings - [in later chapters] major character death, graphic depictions of violence, swearing, obsession, dubcon-smut (smut will be marked so reading is optional), gore, unrealistically beautiful oc because I’m a sucker for that shitty trope and want to live vicariously through my writing (sue me)
The following is a dark fic featuring a yandere character, violence, obsession, and coercion. By no means does writing about this in a fictional setting condone any of those behaviours, much like Stephen King writing horror doesn’t mean he approves of psychotic killers in reality. Please avoid reading if any of these warnings makes you uncomfortable.
Cross posted on A03 so people can subscribe for updates/notifications
What little shred of hope for survival you may have had, after hearing your name announced from the reaping, was immediately squashed minutes later by two simple words. “I volunteer”.
Volunteers from District 4 were not uncommon. There was a not-so-secret training complex the capitol turned a blind eye to, in a warehouse near the docks. During your time in school you knew of several kids who trained before and after classes. At the age of twelve some of them dropped out all together, with the sole purpose of training every waking second of the day so they could volunteer at eighteen. There was no need for an education if your only purpose in life was to compete in a death match that offered a lifetime of rewards to the winner.
After the misfortune of having your name drawn you looked around, silently begging for one of the girls to come up and replace you, only for no takers. But when Kim Namjoon eagerly announced his intentions of volunteering (the reaped twelve-year-old boy on stage immediately bursting into grateful tears and rushing back to his mother in the square) it was easy to understand why no one had stepped up this year. Back when you had attended school, before dropping out to assist your father on his fishing boat after your mother died, Namjoon had been in some of your classes –although he very rarely showed up. He was immensely popular with everyone; in part because of his handsome physique and model like dimples, partially because of his superior intelligence, but mostly because it was well known he was by far the leader from all the kids in training.
You had never attended a training session (more fool you for thinking you would never be unlucky enough to have your name drawn, and banking on one of the girls who did train to take your place if you did) but the center near the wharf was close to where your family’s boat — that functioned as both a fishing ship and your house — was docked. During the many occasions you had walked past, you sometimes stopped to peer through a crack in the doorway and watch. A majority of the times you had seen Namjoon inside amongst the group of around twenty regulars; working out with weights, sparring with an array of weapons, or climbing the rope attached to the ceiling that was surely 30 feet high with nothing but cement to drop back down to. The years of work had turned the dimpled twelve-year-old you once shared a math class with into a lethal killing machine. And now you were going to be stuck in an arena with you as one of his targets.
You stood frozen as Namjoon strode up on stage, a grin on his face, waving to the camera before shaking the hand of the capitol’s representative — a pastel blue haired woman by the name of Periwinkle Eveweather. You could tell Periwinkle much preferred Namjoon to you from the twinkle in her eye at how well he was playing up to the camera. There would be no need for her to have to force him to act like being slaughtered like an animal was an honor, like she would for you. The next moments passed far too quickly in a blur, being lead off stage to bid farewell to your families. As you sobbed in your father’s arms, an only child saying your last goodbye, Namjoon was getting a pat on the back from his older sister, a previous volunteer and victor. Shortly after you were ushered on board to the train where you now sat, Namjoon at your side and your mentor sitting across the table.
A small part of your brain found it difficult to take Finnick Odair as a mentor seriously given he was younger than you. But your rational side was quick to silence that judgment with a reminder that exact dismissal of his age was a major contributing factor to his win three years ago. The feeling of despair ate away at your insides as Finnick took an immediate liking to Namjoon. You couldn’t blame him for it, Namjoon was by far the more likely of the two of you to survive, so it only made sense for him to put more attention on the candidate with the best chance, but it still made you feel awful none the less.
“And what about you YN?”
You jumped feeling Namjoon’s hand tapping your leg softly under the table, his head wordlessly nodding in Finnick’s direction without making any eye contact to you. You had become so distracted by the mug of tea in a decorative porcelain cup in your hands, you failed to recognize your mentor’s piercing sea green eyes were now focused on you.
“Sorry, what about my what?” you mumbled dumbly, feeling incredibly insecure at Finnick’s sigh.
“Your skills, what do you bring to the games?”
Well that explained why you had tuned out, there was no need for you to listen to Namjoon describing all the potential ways he was going to kill you within a week or so. And there were a hell of a lot of ways.
“I don’t know really, I’m not someone who’s trained like Namjoon,” you paused to think, pretending not to notice Namjoon’s smug smirk in the corner of your peripheral vision as Finnick frowned slightly.
“Neither was I, and that caused a lot of the careers to underestimate me,” Finnick replied, shooting Namjoon a pointed look which caused his smirk to disappear. You tried not to smile at that, settling instead for relaxing slightly into your seat.
“I can fish, so depending on the arena I can potentially find food, but more importantly I know my way around with a knife,” you declared, feeling a little more confident. The hopeless despair was still overwhelming but the least you could do for yourself, and your father, was to go out with honor.
“Very good,” Finnick nodded “don’t underestimate your face either.”
“My face?” You furrowed your eyebrows in confusion. “How am I supposed to kill anyone with that?”
Finnick sighed, leaning further back into the lounge he was occupying on his own, pinching the bridge of his nose on his handsome face in exasperation.
“Both of you listen, this is potentially more important than all of those little training sessions or fishing catches the both of you have ever made combined. You’re clearly genetically blessed to continue District 4’s reputation of having the most beautiful tributes, you in particular” He paused to lazily point in your direction. “If you actually want to win the games, you want the people of the capitol to adore you. And they’re a city of shallow cunts,” another pause to shoot a charming smile in Periwinkle’s direction “no offense”.
“Offense taken!” Periwinkle gasped indignantly but Finnick was already speaking over her without a care.
“And as shallow cunts what these people love, more than anything in their pathetic little vapid lives, is beauty. You,” a point to Namjoon, “have been training your whole life for this and will have a body to represent that. Show it off. They love flair, they love confidence, they love a show. Flex those biceps for them, they’ll go mad. Flash your abs and they’ll fall in love. And work those dimples, cause these suckers sure worked for me, got me a trident,” Finnick grinned to show off his smile and twin indents on each corner of his mouth, Namjoon mirrored the gesture and you felt your heart clench at how easily he seemed to turn on his charm. Tall, well built and handsome, he was just as gorgeous as Finnick. Too bad he was very likely about to be the literal death of you.
“And you,” Finnick turned his attention to your direction and you felt Namjoon’s eyes burning into you from the side “you’ll be the prettiest thing they’ve seen in years, possibly in the history of the games”
Your face flushed at the comment, even though you knew it wasn’t intended as a compliment. There was no point in sweet little lies to butter you up and the fact of the matter was you knew you had an aesthetically pleasing face. Your facial features were in perfect balance, skin clear, thick hair that fell to the middle of your back and eyes that you had been told sparkled like stars in the night.
“They’ll love that shit,” his finger lazily circled around pointing to your cheeks that were flushed in embarrassment at his candid assessment of your appearance.
“These people are so used to artificial, that something so beautiful and pure will be coveted like the fattest diamond they could possibly hang from their necks. You ever fucked a guy, sweetheart?”
“Excuse me?” you balked at the invasive question, earning a sharp laugh out of Namjoon, a scandalized shriek from Periwinkle, and an eye roll from Finnick.
“I’ll take that for a yes and don’t worry I’m not interested. The capitol thrives on corruption, greed, and a need to claim rare treasures for their own. Put an innocent little dove like you, with a face like yours, in front of them and they’ll go insane. Act right at the parade and in your interviews and you’ll have sponsors gifting you everything you could ever need in that arena”.
You sat wide eyed not even knowing how to respond. You didn’t bother with arguing over the status of your supposed virginity because whether it was true or not didn’t actually matter, it was all about the perception. If getting dolled up and fluttering your eyelashes could potentially result in a knife being dropped from the sky in the arena, you could suck it up and give these disgusting people what they wanted.
X
The train ride to the capitol took just under three days in total. During that time Finnick and Namjoon spent a lot of time together, which you weren’t surprised with in the least. It was only natural to favor the tribute with the better odds, as much as Finnick’s little speech on the first day tried to make you think you could have a chance. Finnick still made some time for you though, which was mostly spent on guiding you how to attract sponsors. You spent a majority of the time in your room, a lot of it crying, most of it sleeping, and some of it playing around with technologies you had never had access to before in your life. The only time you really saw Namjoon was during breakfast and dinner where you ate together with Finnick to discuss district strategy. You weren’t surprised at all by Namjoon’s plan to join the career pack, but you were slightly surprised when he spoke of you as a part of that plan. You were a little annoyed he didn’t even think to ask your opinion, but logically speaking it’s not like you had any option. It was either join them or make yourself an easy target. Plus, any alliance with Namjoon reduced your need to have kill any other tributes personally. The only thing now was to hope districts 1 and 2 were as receptive to the idea as you were.
When you arrived at the capitol you were immediately ushered into a clinic that was like a fusion between a spa and a hospital. You were stripped, examined, and assessed by a doctor before being dressed in a paper thin hospital gown. After a painful injection (“that’s your tracker dear, so the capitol can monitor you in the arena”) you were passed over to the beauty department who scrubbed, exfoliated, waxed, showered, moisturized, treated, conditioned and polished your entire body from head to toe. But at the end when you were standing before a mirror, you could see the results were worth it.
As Finnick had stated, you were already beautiful to start with, but it was like taking an uncut gem and polishing the stone to make it shine. Your hair was a couple of inches shorter with all the damage from years of saltwater being trimmed off. A treatment of conditioners you couldn’t care to remember had tamed your thick locks into smooth waves that had been layered to frame your face and flow prettily down your back. Whatever impurities that existed on your skin before had been entirely lasered away, and your whole complexion was now soft and glowing. Your eyebrows had been plucked into identical manicured arches and some sort of needled gun had permanently filled them in. A gel had been applied to your lips to boost their plumpness, without overly inflating them or drastically changing their shape, giving your mouth a cherubic quality. Staring at your reflection you raised a perfectly manicured finger to poke at your cheek, feeling the new silky smoothness beneath your fingertip, watching as your mirror image copied the action. It was surreal. You recognized the person in front of you as yourself, all of your features were still the same, but just somehow perfected?
You mostly ignored the gushing of your newly assigned stylist team — a set of triplets named Ruby, Garnet and Quartz — as they picked out garments, stretched measuring tape across and around your body and argued over what colors would bring out your eyes the best. They were sweet and well meaning with their compliments, but the growing nerves over being prepped for the chariot parade in a few hours made you unreceptive.
The concept they eventually decided on for your fishing district was ‘Rulers of the Sea’ and you were dressed in a Grecian inspired gown. The iridescent blue and green material, that sparkled like the sun reflecting off the ocean, was clasped at the top of your left shoulder with a silver broach in the shape of a starfish. Intricate embroidery was patterned around around the waist where the fabric was cinched tightly to create an overly enhanced hourglass silhouette. The bottom half flowed to your sandal clad feet and seemed to sway with the slightest of moments, a split on the right ran to the middle part of your thigh. Your eyes were a smoky combination of the colors from your dress, lashes coated in extensions and a layer of mascara to give you a seductive yet doe eyed appearance. There was a strange dichotomy in your styling where they were attempting to preserve your ‘natural’ and ‘innocent’ traits whilst simultaneously taking full advantage of the fact you were eighteen in order to market sex appeal.
Your favorite part (that you hated to admit even liking given the circumstance you were even in) was your hair. A section from each side had been pulled away and pinned at the back in a princess style, with numerous tiny clips of glowing sea shells and starfish holding it in place. Glittery extensions had been clipped in tastefully creating an appearance as if your hair was literally shining. This was then finished off by an ornate tiara placed on the top of your head.
By the time you were finished your stylists were practically in tears, fawning over you and calling you’re their greatest masterpiece. They mistook your eyes watering as pride in their work and not disgust at their pride in dressing a cow off before sending it to the slaughterhouse.
“No dear, you can’t cry and ruin all that make up we just spent so much time perfecting” Ruby chided, dabbing at your eyes with a tissue as Quartz and Garnet guided you out the door and into the small vehicle which was about to take you from the clinic to the parade. You didn’t dignify her with a response, merely grabbing the tissue from her hand as you were forced into the car. As soon as you were inside the car sped off, arriving at the destination very shortly after. From behind your tinted windows you could see horses being lead to empty chariots and your first sight of the other tributes, the people you were either going to have to kill or be killed by.
When the car stopped, Finnick was the one to open your door and offer you a hand to get out, which you accepted. As you stood up he appraisingly ran his eyes over all the details of your make-over, before nodding his approval.
“They did well,” he stated and you nodded your head in passive agreement as he dropped your hand to press his to the small of your back and guide you towards your chariot. Namjoon was already there, dressed in his own Grecian toga of the same fabric with a crown on the top of his newly styled hair. Sensing your arrival, he turned to look at you. Namjoon’s eyes widened comically before quickly composing his features almost as instantly as he had reacted. “Very well,” Finnick whispered, and you allowed an amused puff of air out.
“Your chariot awaits my dear,” Finnick said with a mock bow as he nudged you towards Namjoon, who extended his arm for you to hold on to. Not sure what else to do, you placed your hand delicately on his forearm, his other hand then coming to rest over the top. For a brief moment as Namjoon guided you both into the chariot, you could almost imagine you were a princess being taken to a ball by a handsome prince, but any such delusions were ruined by what Namjoon whispered next.
“It’s such a shame there can only be one winner, you really look good by my side.”
Your jaw clenched and you moved to rip your hand off his arm but his grip over yours instantly tightened with a laugh, as if expecting that exact reaction.
“Calm down princess, I don’t plan on killing your pretty little face for a while yet.”
You looked up at him like he was insane as the chariot began to move forward. He thought your reaction was from fear he was going to kill you now? And not that he perceived your life as only having value from being pretty enough for him? You were furious and about to rip into him before you heard the approaching roar of the crowd ahead at the end of the tunnel. Namjoon was oblivious to your rage, a perfectly poised smile, flexing his dimples that Finnick would be proud of, already painted on his face. You paused, for all you knew that could be an attempt to psych you out before facing the crowds, potentially losing you sponsor opportunities. Turning away from Namjoon, you took a deep breath to try and compose yourself. You plastered the docile soft-smiled wide eyed expression on your face that you had practiced with Finnick on the train, as your carriage emerged form the tunnel and onto the road lined with screaming spectators.
The entire parade was a blur of flashing lights, fireworks, thunderous cheering and echoes from the microphone that distorted whatever message the president greeted you with. By the time your chariot returned to the tunnel your mind was entirely blank but with the satisfied nod from Finnick as he waited to welcome you both back, you knew you had done well.
“If District 2 is anything to go by then you’ve won yourself a lot of admirers tonight” Finnick practically sang as he helped you down. Confused by his words you turned around looking for the other district to see the duo from two, the carriage over from yours. Dressed in gladiator styled garments, that was common from them every year, the girl was fiddling with a ruby dagger (you hoped was just a prop) whilst the boy was staring straight at you. ‘Boy’ was the wrong word to describe him, as he definitely had to have been the same age as you, if anything he looked slightly more mature than the legal age to even be here. He was tall, though not as tall as Namjoon, and lithe. Beneath a decorative breastplate you could see his sun kissed golden skin adorned with the toned definition of his pectoral and abdominal muscles. His face was incredibly handsome, by far the most handsome of any of the male tributes. Rich copper hair had been styled to frame his aristocratic features; a high bridged pointed nose, high cheekbones, sharp jawline and rich dark chocolate brown eyes that were intently focused on you.
“Speaking to other tributes before training is technically not allowed, but it’s enforced the same way as your training centers are, so not at all. You’ve got five minutes until those cars arrive to take you to the living quarters, go talk to the careers and work out an alliance,” You broke the eye contact to look at Finnick as he spoke, clearly having witnessed your little interaction.
Namjoon took the lead, confidently stepping off the carriage with a winning smile and striding towards the pair from two. With a sigh you hitched up the long material of your dress and followed behind him. You could still feel the male’s eyes burning into your skull as you looked across to notice the pair from District 1 also making their way over — their own mentor likely having given them the same advice as your own.
“I’m Namjoon and this is YN,” you weren’t particularly pleased by Namjoon deciding to speak on your behalf, but chose to roll your eyes behind him rather than interrupting. “We’re interested in continuing a long standing tradition of successful career pack alliances. I assume from you joining us over here, that you are as well.”
“I would typically say that to assume only makes an ‘ass’ out of ‘u’ and ‘me’, but in this instance you are correct,” the other male from District 1 spoke. You tried to stifle a laugh, but the warning glare Namjoon shot you from the corner of his eye told you that it wasn’t successful. You merely smiled back and blinked innocently with a shrug.
“My name’s Yoongi, and an alliance would be in all of our best interests.” He was shorter than Namjoon and District 2, only an inch or two taller than yourself, but somehow still just as intimidating. His pale skin was contrasted by pitch black hair and sharp coal like eyes that were openly assessing the group of you.
“Krystal,” his district mate offered by means of introduction, and you wondered if the two were siblings. She shared his light complexion, dark eyes and her sleek midnight hair was dead straight down past her waist. Both were dressed in black, their outfits embodying the luxury their district was known for; Yoongi in a tailored suit with subtle embroidery detail, Krystal in an elegant fitted gown made of the same fabric, both topped off with luxurious fur capes draped over their shoulders.
“I’m Athena and he’s Hoseok,” the girl from two spoke. She appeared to be the same height as Yoongi but you noticed a heel on her sandals giving her an extra few inches. You couldn’t bring yourself to look across to Hoseok, knowing his gaze still hadn’t broken since staring at you from the carriage.
“Is that real?” you asked, gesturing towards the dagger Athena had been playing with before that was now held limply in her right hand.
“Why don’t we find out,” she replied with a smirk, instantly flipping the dagger in her hands to point the tip between your eyes.
“Athena!” Hoseok hissed dangerously, slapping the dagger from her hands and cause it to fall onto the ground below. The lack of metallic ‘clang’ revealing it as fake.
“Calm down, it was a joke!” Athena snapped back, reaching down to pick it back up, whilst shaking her head in annoyance. Before you could assure her it was fine, Hoseok stepped forward to present you with his own version of the prop. Reaching out he grabbed your wrist to place the ‘dagger’ in your hand.
“See, the material is just a type of fiber that gives the illusion of metal, but is really not hard at all.” Gently he ran the blade along your palm, and true to his word there was no edge at all. But the image still looked real and seeing a blade dancing across your skin, knowing someone was going to try to kill you with a real one very soon, made you feel ill. Sensing your discomfort from the trembling hand, Hoseok immediately pocketed the knife, but still maintained his hold on your wrist.
“Don’t worry, I’m not going to hurt you, angel,” he spoke softly and you frantically looked to the others to see if they could hear him. Namjoon who was the closest merely looked amused, Athena was showing Yoongi the fake dagger, whilst Krystal had her eyebrow raised in your direction.
“I hope not,” you awkwardly tried to joke, pulling your wrist slightly to subtly try and break the hold, but he only tightened his grip forcing you to look up and back into his eyes again. His gaze from a distance had already been intense but up close it was heart stopping. There was a passion in his eyes you had never seen before in your life and it was solely focused entirely on you. It was frightening, you couldn’t imagine what you had possibly done to warrant being on the receiving end of something so intense. You tilted your head down and away from the others, humiliated over being so easily intimidated. If an attractive man holding your wrist and making eye contact with you was all it took to fluster you, you may as well just sign your own death certificate now.
“Hey, look at me,” he whispered, dropping your wrist to place his finger on your chin and raise your head back upwards, though you kept your eyes lowered, staring at his jawline to avoid direct eye contact again.
“I’m promise I won’t hurt you, love. Not now, not ever.”
You were about to ask him how he could possibly say something like that given you were about to become direct competitors in a battle to the death, when a sharp whistle stole your attention. Snapping your head to the side you saw Finnick jerk his head, indicating for you and Namjoon to return. You exhaled in relief, grateful for the reprieve.
“We’ll see you tomorrow,” Namjoon said to the group, moving next to you and causing Hoseok to pull his hand away. You nodded to show your agreement with Namjoon whilst making eye contact with the other three you barely had a chance to speak to. You hoped they didn’t think that you were somehow forming something just with Hoseok based on his actions. You were going to need all the help you possibly could get if you wanted a chance to survive.
“Tomorrow,” Krystal agreed, making proper eye contact with you for the first time. She was smaller in height than you, thinner too, but somehow carried a cold and intimidating aura. You offered her a polite smile in return and a nod, relieved when she nodded back, before you returned to Finnick with Namjoon.
“How did it go? Looked pretty good” Finnick asked just as the capitol vehicle pulled up to take you to the tribute quarters.
“It seems our little dove here won’t just have the capitol for an admirer,” Namjoon smirked, getting into the car.
“So I saw,” Finnick muttered as a reply to Namjoon’s back, then turned to face you.
“Don’t let him psych you out,” he said, stepping aside so you could follow Namjoon into the vehicle.
You glanced at Namjoon before turning back to see Hoseok standing by his car but staring directly at you again. His eyes were still radiating the same intense passion from moments ago, you had no idea what to make of it.
“Who?” you whispered back to Finnick, ducking your head as you stepped inside. Finnick moved to shut the door.
“Both of them”
This is basically an introductory chapter to gauge reception. Future updates should be longer. I have the whole fic plotted and the outline itself is 5.9K words and this chapter was only based on the first paragraph. The next update will focus on the training sessions/interview with Caesar and the update after should be the one where they actually enter the arena.
Feedback is much loved, but please avoid asking for updates. I don’t have a schedule but I do have crippling depression so I write when the motivation hits lol
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sabinefm · 4 years
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( bruna marquezine , cis female , peach ) welcome to aida&stefano , SABINA REUBE ! thank you for choosing to stay here. in this form it says that you go by the SHE / HER , you’re TWENTY THREE years old , you’re originally from SAN FRANCISCO , and you’ve been staying here for ONE YEAR . it also says you’re known to be + RESOURCEFUL , but also - SELFISH. that really shouldn’t be a problem though. check in at the front , hope you enjoy your stay ! (the click of heels, hot sand under your bare feet, chocolate covered strawberries, the imprints a bra leaves on your skin, red lipstick staining your fingertips )
ABOUT THE MUN.  i hope this email never finds you 
hello all, my name is pepper and i have never been on time for anything, ever in my life sdjkdskj this is especially true today, rip. no but honestly, i never thought i would actually get accepted into this beautiful rp so i stalled checking acceptances cause i’m a Scaredy Cat and that made me really late, and then i ended up taking the rest of my coworker’s shift cause she had to go and thus ended up coming home even later than i thought which has made me really really late... BUT against all the odds i’m here! and ready to party! and tell y’all about my bby sabina! but first a little bit about me, i am twenty four (ew), i can’t cook (rip), and i currently spend most of my lonely quarantine days either watching anime or scrolling through tiktok. i am canadian but every canadian that meets me thinks i’m american and i don’t know why. when i was a child i had an irrational (or yk very rational) fear of sharkboy from sharkboy and lava girl, and tbh it has never left me. i was also afraid of gill from kim possible so you can imagine my horror when that fish f*cking movie won an oscar?? when i was younger i also thot god looked like king triton from the little mermaid cause he was white and he had a beard yk. it fit in my little brain. and finally i just recently discovered girl in red and therefore feel like i finally got my bi girl card,,, feeling validated in this chillis tonight. and if that doesn’t tell you everything you need to know about me idk what will. anyways, that’s officially enough about me onto who we’re all really here for, ms sabine!
BIO.  the lengths i would go to to both get attention and avoid it... astounding  tldr ; daughter of a guy who created a dating site + app, came to a&s after leaving her husband to be at the alter after catching him cheating with her mother, wants to be a bad bitch, sometimes succeeds. 
THEN.
sabina came into the world the child of a mediocre stay at home mom and a penniless entrepreneur so it goes without saying that she had very little. her dad had a lot of passion and a lot of drive but no one would really give him a chance, and her mother kind of only married the man because she was expecting him to make it big enough for her to never have to work another day in her life so? yeah she was hella disappointed tbh 
but not sabina! she looked up to her father so much as a child. while her mom was kind of ~emotionally unavailable~ her father was too, but like at least he had a dream he believed in, yk? he wanted to help people fall in love and sabine being the big romantic she was as a child had never heard of anything so noble. her daddy was her hero. sabina honestly had big daddy’s little girl vibes until she was like 22 tkjsdkjd
one day when their family credit card got rejected one too many times sabina’s mother called it quits on yk the whole mother gig. she left sabina on a bench outside of the grocery store while she went to go home and ‘get some cash’ which even at seven sabine knew was a damn lie cause they were too broke to have any damn cash. and yeah that was the last sabina heard of her for a long ass time. it was a reverse ‘dad went to get some cigarettes’ situation but just as traumatic honestly. 
although not as much for sabine’s dad. that man literally saw his wife leaving him as a minor setback and moved on. he threw himself harder into his work, to the point where sabine barely saw him. this was the start of sabine desperately trying to compete with her father’s business for even a sliver of his attention. this was a battle she usually lost. 
sabine raised herself for a while there, since her father yk remarried his job and her mother was following the jonas brother’s cross country. she became both very independent and very lonely for a child, which was an odd combination that both haunted sabine for pretty much the rest of her life after that point and lead her to make most of her worst decisions. but that’s a story for another time, because right when all hope was lost sabine’s father won the lottery. literally. 
all at once they were five million dollars richer. they went from nothing to everything real quick. and this marked a change in the reube’s lives in a way sabine couldn’t have even imagine at the time. 
sabine’s father hector used the money to fund his business and that shit blew up! he created a site by the name of loveisblind that was in the ring with the likes of match.com and christianmingle yk, one of those dating sites. everyone on loveisblind is set up on blind dates based on the information they fill out on their profile and are only allowed to see each other when they reach a certain point of emotional intimacy. the site had wild success rates, and got very popular, blah, blah, the point was the reubes? suddenly rich af!
and you think that would give hector more time to spend with his daughter right? no. it gave hector the money to hire nannies for his daughter. 
yes, somehow despite hector no longer having to work himself to the bone, sabine saw him even less. tragic really. she really became that lonely rich girl trope real quick, and this is what unfortunately got sabine into the habit of seeking the attention she wasn’t getting from her father in other men and women, which she is not proud of. 
that unfortunately didn’t fill the void that sabine had but you know what did? making the loveisblind app so her daddy would love her. basically around the time that tinder started gaining traction and getting popular, people stopped going on the loveisblind site and started instead turning to apps. her father was trying and failing to get into that market, and sabina, being yk, actually a lot more intelligent than her father ever gave her credit for, created the app for his site and pitched it to him over his lunch one day. it was honestly one of the first times sabina can remember her father really paying attention to her in the longest time. it was also the proudest she’s ever seen him. 
the app was a big success! a whole new generation was using it and finding love, including one ms sabine reube. in the early days of the app launch sabine met her prince charming, christopher ‘kit’ johannson. he swept her right off her feet, and she fell HARD, and when they debuted their relationship it wasn’t long until they kind of became the face of the app?? like sabine’s father was the creator after all, the fact that his daughter found love on the app too was big news for a while. people followed their relationship and strived for something like that for themselves. sabine didn’t know it at the time but they were basically a walking advertisement, and her father was LIVING for that.
fast forward a bit and your girl went to yale for computer engineering and business (did her daddy’s status and money ease the way? maybe man, nepotism am i right) whilst kit went to harvard, they were long distance for a bit before they graduated and kit very publicly proposed (the whole thing was well recorded too, gotta get that gram), and then both sab and kit moved in together and both started working for their families respective companies. it was around then that sabine started to understand just how much and how often kit was cheating on her. it was a real wakeup call. 
sabine ended up breaking down to her father about her suspicions, and he basically ended up telling her to suck it up and think of the business. the fact was sabine and kit, the face of their new generation and one of the first successful couples from the app getting married and living happily ever after was amazing for the company. and the two of them calling the whole thing off just because of a little infidelity just wasn’t going to cut it. 
now once again, this is where sabine’s deep desire to be loved and accepted really bites her in the ass. this was one of the first times sabine’s father had ever really asked her for anything so... she did it. or at least she did her best to do it. she lasted until the wedding day around the time where she caught kit and her own mother (who she only invited out of a deep rooted need to actually know the woman who gave birth to her again) going at it in the coat closet of their wedding venue. yeah, at that point sabine pretty much snapped, blacked out, smashed a whole wedding cake over kit’s head, and took their honeymoon to venice on her own. she arrived at Aida&Stefano with running mascara in a ruined wedding dress trying to ask about a honeymoon suite. it was a whole mess, but you know what so is sab so at least she was on brand. 
NOW.
after sabina arrived she spent about a week mourning her failed almost-marriage and yk, destroyed family before she decided to fuck it all and reinvent herself. she desperately wanted to become someone new, someone unrecognizable from who she was before, even if it was only on the inside. so she cut her hair (the first step to every transformation) hardened everything soft about herself and made the irrevocable decision to become a bad bitch. she (mostly) succeeded. kind of. 
sabine basically curb stomped out the soft, hopeless romantic people pleaser in her and decided to become someone more unsympathetic. someone who puts her own needs first instead of burning herself up to keep others warm (cause what good has that ever done her before?). someone who people would be afraid to hurt but who wouldn’t even feel pain anyways. and to sum it up that person is a heartless bitch. or at least she tries to be.
i’m gonna stop here because this is already a lot longer than i wanted it to be and i haven’t even got to the other sections yet rip but you get the point i feel
PERSONALITY.  *feels nothing* mmm, don’t like that *feels something but like too much* mmm not a fan of that either 
most of this is tbd because i’m still developing her but
VAIN. the kind of girl who will file her nails or check herself out in the mirror while you’re talking to her. will reapply her lipstick in the rearview mirror of her car while she’s driving. checks herself out in any reflective surface, i mean i would too if i looked like bruna but Still 
KIND. even though sab tries to be a hard ass she’s probably the most loyal, generous, kind person you would ever meet deep down. like she puts on this persona of being heartless, but if anyone needs her she will be there for them. kind of hates that she’s such a softie sometimes but she can’t help it. 
EMOTIONALLY UNAVAILABLE. doesn’t want to be hurt again and will do pretty much anything to avoid that. tries to keep people at arms length especially romantically. loves making friends though, and will indeed spoil them. 
HEADCANNONS.  who wants to hire me as their maid i’m not gonna clean im just gonna wear a cute maid outfit dust like 6 things and bend down a lot
has the vibes of that drunk rich aunt that’s always smoking like sexily as she looks far into the distance and wears like a super luxurious coat. will gossip with you. will buy you things your mom won’t. will cuss out your toxic father at the dinner table. that’s her energy.
unfortunately actually does smoke. i hate 
okay fun fact, the only reason sabine went to university for computer programming and business was because she felt her father wanted her to. she honestly has no real passion for the subject and just wanted to use her talent to make her father as proud of her as he was on the day she debuted that app to him. but now that making daddy proud isn’t like the only thing occupying her entire brain sabine like is like ??? wait what do i actually want to do with my life ??? and it took her a while to figure it out but after a while she fell back on one of her passions, art. she’s actually making a graphic novel aimed towards young adults about a modern day hades and persephone vibe, kind of about a girl who falls in love with the grim reaper and the lengths she goes to to chase after her (yes it is a Lady Reaper) into the depths of hell,,, it’s wild. she’s very proud of it but also kind of shy about it tbh. her go to critic is georgio, because she knows that little shit will be honest and yk what she respects that. 
but when it comes to making actual money your girl turns to cam work most of the time, because well. at the very least it’s quick, easy, and semi discreet. and sometimes she gets something out of it too. she figures it’s a win win, and she’s been doing it for about a year now, mostly because she absolutely refuses to use any of her father’s money. 
is allergic to cucumber. 
has a different 'relationship’ like every week or so, along with a few one night stands peppered in. unfortunately still attracted to people who are bad for her (kit for example was an asshole and a cheater and DEFINITELY conservative like she messed up on that one), but is also very afraid of falling in love again and letting herself get hurt, so she normally doesn’t let things last too long before she starts self sabotaging. 
if you ever catch sabine with like... her nails growing out or her nail polish chipped, something is wrong. like something is deeply wrong. sabine will have her nails done in the middle of the apocalypse, the only reason they would be less than perfect is if she is having a breakdown. always has colour on her nails, and usually it’s a shade of red, purple, or black. 
always has wild ass stories to tell about her tinder dates or one night stands and will tell them without shame for your entertainment. is a great storyteller honestly, a talent she got from her mother but she doesn’t want to admit that. 
fun fact, her mother mariah was PISSED when hector got rich AFTER she left him and tried for years to sue him or something but no dice. she was so angry and vengeful over the whole thing that she took the opportunity of being invited to her daughters wedding to get back at her husband where it hurt, his business. thus sleeping with kit. didn’t really think about how her daughter might feel about the whole thing because she was yk blinded by rage, but that’s just how mariah is so i mean,,, rip sabina. 
shops when she’s sad, or happy, or angry, or confused sdkjdsj will use any excuse to shop, and at this point she has more clothes than she knows what to do with. her style can be kind of out there at times, but she will let you borrow things though. 
she has a cat named momo. yes that is inspired by her being the peach skeleton. also has a parrot named poe i think. i also have the urge to give her a snake but... i will resist. so sabine wants a snake for sure 
her favourite colours are black and red
she is a horrible terrible driver. don’t drive with sabine unless you’re an adrenaline junkie or like want to die tbh 
her dad 100% set up the relationship between kit and sabine as a pr stunt, but sabine doesn’t know that yet and when she finds out her father used her like that ooh boy things are gonna get wildt. as it is now sabine just thinks she disappointed him and it’s kind of eating her alive. half the reason she’s staying here is because she doesn’t want to face him or yk her old life anymore. her father is so caught up in the shame she caused him that he hasn’t even tried to call her after the whole thing and the one time sabine got hella drunk and called him all he did was tell her what a disappointment she was and ask when she was coming back to work so we love ~parenting~
WANTED CONNECTIONS. girls will “🥺🥺🥺🥺” their way out of everything
close friends please and thanks, best friends also please, uh, can i get some awkward one night stands that avoid each other at all cost, can i get a neighbour who’s ear sabine is always talking off in the hallway between their rooms even tho they just want to go home but can’t because sabine is Oversharing, maybe a flirtationship, but also i would love an enemy (it could be for a ridiculous reason or a completely valid reason but either way please give it to me), someone she goes out dancing/partying with at piccolo, a sibling like relationship, a confidante, someone who she trusts to read her comic and maybe even do some linework, and absolutely anything else okay my brain is fried rn but i want it all! please like this and i will slip and slide into your dms <3
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team-crtq · 7 years
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How RWBY Uses Cliches Well.
Mod Quartz here again. Been recovering from the flu from hell (Seriously? Two whole weeks of sickness? What the hell?) And I’m here to talk about perhaps the biggest draw RWBY has for me: How it uses clichés well.
I think I should preface this by saying: I hate “dark and mature” edgy shows that constantly fuck around with tropes and clichés because it’s “smart” AKA because one show did it and it was good and now everyone must do it while barely understanding why it was good in the first place (both the first show and the clichés themselves.) Yeah, a good deconstruction is good every once in a while and it’s even healthy for the genre and medium as a whole. But when it becomes the norm and everything starts trying to be the “smart and edgy” show it gets tiring very quickly as the actual appeal wears out way too fast and the original appeal of said tropes and clichés are gone now, leaving you with nothing to enjoy.
I say all of this to show why RWBY deciding to not go this route was a good idea. I’m not saying RWBY can’t deconstruct a trope or cliché (in fact the show HAS done it before with things as small as like Ruby skipping two grades has made her feel out of place and looked down upon to as big as the fairy tale setting showing how screwed up a world like that would actually be) but that’s not the sole or even major appeal of RWBY. The show manages to take worn out tropes and clichés and make them appealing and entertaining once again.
One way RWBY does this is with the main character Ruby herself. Ruby is your average innocent hero whose out to help save the world because she’s altruistic. However, while most shows would leave it at that and thus would make it boring, the show expands on this to show why the character works: Ruby is altruistic because she is childish but shows that this childishness can be both good (Like how her pure heart often leads her to do the most selfless thing possible) and bad (Like how the world is more complex than her child-like mindset would allow her to acknowledge). It shows us how so many different people would react to such a character like with Blake being quietly cynical at her motivations and actions to Yang admiring them to Weiss being openly critical of them. And it shows us how this character would positively affect people like how Weiss becomes softer and more personable because of Ruby and how Ruby inspires people around her to keep moving forward through her determination and selflessness. And this isn’t limited to Ruby herse3lf. almost every character is a tried and true character archetype that shows us later on why the character works.
Another way RWBY works the way it does with the tropes and clichés is  the setting. The setting sounds like an average Shounen fantasy world anime with an inhuman enemy that is incomprehensible to humanity while a select group of humanity fighting back against the enemy. The show goes out of it’s way to show the complexity of the world: How the world would actually work (as humanity is constantly on edge) how humanity wouldn’t really change with the new surroundings (liken how the main Villians are in fact humans for the most part with the monsters serving as an extension of them or as a recurring physical enemy) and how heroic these people would be to fight against this enemy and how inspirational they are through their struggles and battles (Ruby ad Yang being prime examples of this.) The show goes to great lengths to explore the world and how it functions to make it feel more real and entertaining.
A different way RWBY works with the clichés is the tone of the series. While the show initially feels like a happy go lucky, innocent show: it quickly shows that the world and characters are a bit more complex than that. And while the show does get rather dark at times, it is always quick to show that things are not hopeless and that the world ca be both light and dark. Because of this, RWBY can explore both sides of a trope or a cliché without the threat of tonal whiplash. The show can examine and show everything about a trope using the freedom the tone it has chosen gives.
And finally: There is the feeling that the writers are using these tropes and clichés not to make a quick buck but because they honestly enjoy these things in writing and want to make them enjoyable to other people. There is honest to God effort in writing these and an honest effort to show why they are enjoyable through likeable characters, colorful settings and good acting. There is an effort to make them entertaining, which is more than can be said for a lot of things sadly.
There are a lot of ways that RWBY works with the clichés and tropes through the characters, world, tone, effort and so much more. It’s these and more why RWBy has become as popular and groundbreaking as it is. There are very good reasons why RWBY is so well loved and looked up to. And I hope I made it clear here and now.
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Series: Hana Yori Dango
Other Titles: Boys Over Flowers
Genre: Drama, Romance, School Life, Shojo
Series Run: 51 Episodes (aprox. 22 Min per)
Distributors: Viz Media, Discotek Media
Requested By: Janie
  I make no secret of the fact that I am a hopeless romantic who has a taste for the dromatic.  So, when the lady of my life requested that I review one of the few anime she has seen within the genre I was ecstatic.  Moreover, the fact that it is a shojo in a high-school setting made me wax nostalgic about our own romance so I was all-in.  While I don’t regret my gunge-ho approach to this series there were some moments that went way over the line of what was acceptable and made this an uncomfortable watch. But I will address that later in the review.
On a personal note, Dear I hope you like this one.
The Story
Hana Yori Dango is a school-life anime surrounding the exploits of Tsukushi Makino, a new student at Eitoku Academy who happens to be of lesser means. Desiring nothing more than a low-profile existence among the upper-crust of society Tsukushi’s world is turned upside down when she encounters an elite clique of popular men known as the F4. From here, she begins a chaotic, fish out of water story where the boys are constantly involved. In the midst of this, she manages to fall for two of the Flowers Four creating a romantic triangle with two distinct flavors.
The first relationship is your standard aloof love interest angle with Rui Hanazawa. I like the quiet, kind, artist, nature of the character and his dynamic when opposite Tsukushi elegantly done despite the lack of dialogue between them However, this ceases to be when their growing relationship is subvert by his returning flame, Shizuka Toudou. While Shizuka was a welcomed addition providing exposition on the F4’s history, a humanizing character for the group as a whole, and a sort of guide for Tsukushi she felt more like a protagonist in her own right rather than a supporting character. But, by far, the worst thing the writers of the anime could have done was use the sympathetic character to remove Rui as the love interest for the secondary alternative.
The secondary Romance begins with the leader of the F4. Tskasa Domyouji. To say that I despise this character is a gross understatement. His personality shifts between childishly lording his status over characters to picking on Tsukushi to being uncharacteristically nice to her. Worse yet he seems to have an almost incestuous fixation with his sister who happens to look like our main heroine. As if to feed into the creep factor he holds her down and nearly RAPES her in an early episode.
While he does mature throughout the series the and eventually becomes worthy of the love interest role the aforementioned moments irredeemably corrupted the character to such a degree that I cannot stand his on-screen prescience. Even after he redeems himself by softening up I still detest the character I am supposed to root for. In short I found him to be a pretty face with little more than a base understanding of social functions that was easily overshadowed by almost every other character.
this brings me to the side-characters which can be summed up in the phrase as bland as white bread. In fact, the only two character’s whose names I remember without consulting MyAnimeList ar Soujirou and Akira and their main functions were to act as the F4’s exposition and voices of reason. Otherwise, every other character in the series is a direct embodiment of their trope. The childhood friend is a cookie-cutter childhood friend. Tsukushi’s family seems to be the cliché poor family composed of the overbearing mother, the pathetic father, and the annoying little brother. After that every other character just blends into the background until they decide to cause trouble or just randomly speaks up. To remind Tsukushi of her place.
The focus on the pauper-versus-prince wealth disparity that persists throughout the series is a glaring weakness in storytelling. While this is a universal plot element that transcends its medium it actually weakens the relationship building aspect of the show. Combine this with the night-and day dynamic between Tsukushi and Tsukasa and the viewer gets a dysfunctional relationship that feels forced and unrealistic. Sure, one might see it as a clear case of opposites attract but, Boys Over Flowers executes this poorly.
Thus I come to the shows worst flaw of this entire narrative. its execution If the story of an independent woman finding herself in a high-society prep school featuring a cast of bishounen men is familiar to you have likely seen a reverse-harem anime in the last 20 years. While the show’s formula is well-trotted ground for many anime fans at this point the story’s progression is painfully slow providing the viewer with very little pay-off. For any romantic plot steady character growth and interaction is key. Hana Youri Dango’s characters grow at a snail’s pace making its run a slog to get through.
Style:
Alongside the painfully weak story Hana Yori Dango suffers from an eye-ruining animation style that seems to be a halfhearted attempt to simply colorize the cells of the original manga. While the muted colors and stark background would have translated well to the manga format the same cannot be said for animation. In fact. I found the lack of vibrancy and life in some scenes to be somewhat distracting at times. Aside from that character movements seem a bit stiff which forces some of the dialogue-heavy moments feel more like poorly animated GIFs rather than properly animated sequences. But, discounting my nitpicking, I feel that character and background designs are beautiful when assessed separately as portraiture.
Sound Design:
Much to my delight, Hana Yori Dango scores highest in the category of sound design. Unfortunately, this applies to the series’ soundtrack rather than its vocal performances. While they can be taken separately, I feel the two are inexorably linked and aides the viewer in suspending their disbelief. For their time, the talent did a passable job of bringing the characters to life. But, it is important to remember that the 90s were an awkward time for anime dubs and this anime suffers greatly from the growing pains of the time. Thankfully the music does a great job of distracting us from the flawed delivery.
For the most part, the music of Hana Yori Dango does quite a bit to amplify the high-society feel of the show. The opening and ending themes are light and airy J-pop pieces that connotes a relaxed and energetic tone. This does a great job of setting the tone as a slice of life piece. Intermittent pieces like Tomaso Abononi’s Symphony No. 5 adds depth to the upper-class feel of Eitoku Academy. Together, classical and popular styles fill the gap created by poor voice acting. Sadly, it isn’t enough.
I watched the series in its English dub as distributed by Viz Media as instructed by the one who requested this review. While it was nice to hear popular 90s era voice actors like Micheal Adamthwaite and Stephen Park in the roles of Tsukasa Domyouji and Rui Hanazawa I feel that Kelly Sherodin was completely miscast as Tsukushi. This led to my great dismay as her pronunciations of the name Rui as Luis grated on my ears. Alongside this, some dialog was stiff and stilted leading to an overall flat delivery. The lack of compelling delivery forces me to dislike the dub but only slightly.
Recommendations:
I do not usually give my recommendations separate from my conclusion but since the following are TV dramas rather than anime I feel obligated to break form and inform you as to the existence of two great shows.  If you wish to see this concept done  properly I point you to the Taiwanese Drama Meteor Garden as I believe the acters Vic Zhou and Jerry Yan provide the best characterizations of the two male leads.  While the Karean variant has its merits, I find it slightly less appealing.  Still, feel free to check both out for yorself as this is a matter of preference to me.
Final Thoughts:
In conclusion I feel that Hana Yori Dango suffers from a lack of proper execution. But, it is still a salvageable piece. In many ways it is the progenitor to great series in its genre and I encourage fans of pieces like Ouran High School Host Club to check this out, The dub is currently licensed by Viz Media and is available at Rightstufanime. Please feel free to enjoy Boys Over Flowers and stay tuned here for more reviews.
Anime Review: Boys over Flower Series: Hana Yori Dango Other Titles: Boys Over Flowers Genre: Drama, Romance, School Life, Shojo Series Run: …
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