#realistically this person is a Very close friend i would not have any qualms with more cuddles or kissing them or | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

shihalyfie · 3 years

Text

The different aspects of Miyako’s personality and character arc

Miyako is a character where there’s just a lot going on with her in general, and asking different people to summarize Miyako in one phrase could feasibly get you some very different answers -- “the computer nerd girl”, or “the one who keeps talking about boys”, or “the one who panics all of the time”, or whatnot. Given that there’s so much to unpack at once even from her base profile, ironing out the full extent of her character arc can get a bit tricky, and there’s a lot going on with it. So, given that: Who is Miyako, anyway?

Miyako’s background and personality

Miyako is a character that I think is best understood by understanding what kind of person she is, and the personality and mentality she goes into the story of 02 with.

An interesting background story behind Miyako’s creation is that she’s based off a real person -- more accurately, a certain assistant producer on the series (whose identity has remained undisclosed, presumably for privacy reasons) was used as a reference for her behavior and actions. Although Adventure and 02 have a philosophy of portraying realistic human behavior in general, this level of specificity is a unique designation to have, and series director Kakudou Hiroyuki has referred to this a few times over the years -- it seems she’s the only of the Tokyo Chosen Children to have such a concrete single-person reference, and it’s also the reason her blood type of AB and star sign Gemini were given in 02 episode 25 (the other kids don’t have mentioned birthdays or blood types to prevent personality restrictions via horoscoping, but a real person having Miyako’s personality, star sign, and blood type wouldn’t make that as much of an issue). Even Volcano Ota himself confirmed Miyako’s resemblance to her upon hearing it after the fact! Indeed, a lot of 02 fans (especially adults) have admitted that Miyako’s probably one of the most relatable people in the cast, namely because her gushing about things she likes and panicking at things that overwhelm her is...well, a bit too uncomfortably on-point at times.

(And especially since so much about Miyako’s character has to do with how happy she makes everyone around her, it’s not too hard to imagine that the staff was so fond of her real-life inspiration that they wanted to pay tribute to her in such a way...)

Still, Miyako is a fictional character, one with her own backstory and interactions in 02′s story, and said backstory is such: she comes from a family that runs a convenience store in Odaiba, and is the youngest of a family of four siblings. Running a convenience store on a small island means that Miyako has probably seen a lot of the island’s residents, and her family also has various levels of connections to the other kids’ families (her older sisters Momoe and Chizuru are friends of Daisuke’s sister Jun, and Chizuru is Yamato’s classmate). Moreover, she’s befriended her nine-year-old neighbor (one who otherwise has trouble socializing with his peers) to the point of regularly going over to do computer repairs for his family. She’s also worked in the computer club under Koushirou, and even before the series has started, she looks up to him and adores him in a way not entirely unlike how Daisuke looks up to Taichi -- and although it’s unclear whether or not she started after the beginning of 02, 02 episode 29 reveals that she helps Yamato with his band.

The pattern here is that Miyako is extremely sociable, and one who actively pokes her nose into nearly everything so she can help out. This makes her a very different sort of Mom Friend from Sora -- both of them are Crest of Love holders for good reason, but in Sora’s case, she was compulsively going out of her way to help other people to the point of exhaustion, and her character arc was about trying to find a way to detach herself from obligations and do something for herself. Miyako is the complete opposite -- she’s the kind of extrovert who actively enjoys poking her head into other people’s business, picking up a bunch of peripheral hobbies so she can do something useful for everyone and go I’M HELPING!! If you actually look closely at those hobbies of “computer programming and hacking”, “hardware tinkering”, and “sound engineering”, other than vaguely being related to computers, they are completely different skillsets, and every single one of them is one Miyako’s depicted employing in order to help someone else out. (Koushirou is never really depicted as having super amazingly high technical skill and most of his unique talent comes from being a thorough analyst, but in contrast, while Miyako is established as being good at even hacking in Diablomon Strikes Back, she doesn’t really seem to have a huge propensity for deep analytical thought.) It’s hard to tell if she has any personal preference for any of them as much as she basically turned herself into a jack-of-all-trades so she could do whatever job was necessary for someone else.

If we’re to believe the official 02 site, Miyako’s been a bit pampered by her family -- as the youngest of four siblings, she’s the “baby of the family”, who hasn’t had to live with a ton of responsibility for others. This means that, much like Mimi, she seems to have been raised surrounded by a ton of affection, which is why she herself is such an openly affectionate person who’s open-minded towards trying all sorts of things, and why she’s used to wanting to help others by actively throwing herself into situations -- but it also means that, being the youngest of a family who is now in the situation of being the oldest in a new group, she ends up in Jou’s situation of suddenly being faced with the pressure of the concept of proper responsibility for others.

As far as Miyako’s general personality goes, she is constantly overflowing with affection and cheer and a desire to dote on everyone -- but the flip side is that she’s also aggressive. She has zero sense of restraint. (If you ever get around to listening to the Japanese version of 02, Natsuki Rio’s performance is energetic and over-the-top in almost every way imaginable to the point that you get the impression of Miyako as someone who doesn’t easily run out of batteries -- at least, until things start getting really serious.) When she loves something, she’ll gush about it as if there were hearts floating around her (and, depending on the level of closeness, even jump in and physically hug them), and she has no qualms against physically manhandling if she feels she needs to, and if she dislikes something, she will make it very clear (including yelling very loudly about it). You could argue that she’s actually closer to the archetype of the brash shounen protagonist than Daisuke himself is!

In fact, Miyako and Daisuke have very similar temperaments -- pure-hearted, but also rough around the edges -- but can be distinguished by the fact that while Daisuke is actually deferential and somewhat lacking in assertion, Miyako is actually aggressive, and while Daisuke’s “honesty about his feelings” is mainly because he’s too simple-minded to be any good at hiding anything, Miyako’s honesty is because she has no brain-to-mouth filter, and everything she’s thinking comes out of her mouth before she can control it -- in other words, Miyako has a huge case of foot-in-mouth syndrome. She doesn’t want to be insensitive, but it keeps coming out of her mouth before she can control it -- and even worse, her emotions are prone to taking control of her, and she is very prone to getting overwhelmed and collapsing into a massive panic.

If you think about the two archetypes of “girl who takes care of everyone” and “aggressive action girl”, Miyako has a tendency towards both at once, and moreover there’s an extra nail in it -- most “action girls” in the latter category would be portrayed as badass, put-together characters with a cool personality, but Miyako is a mess. She’s prone to panicking, all over the place, and her tendency to get in-your-face is not exactly in the most dignified manner. And as a result, a huge part of her character arc (as we will be going more into detail about below) is that she’s aware of this and doesn’t like this about herself -- because she doesn’t want to be insensitive or rude, and in fact she wants to be someone who can better help and take care of others, but, in her mind, her own personality keeps getting in the way.

Miyako in 02

After fully becoming a Chosen Child in 02 episode 2, it only takes one more episode for Miyako to bring food for everyone, as if to say “Right! I’m going to be working with everyone now! All of you are now my new best friends!” (”Bringing food for people” is one of Miyako’s many ways of showing love, given that she returns from Kyoto in 02 episode 34 and immediately hands off souvenir yatsuhashi to Koushirou.) And with that, Miyako settles into the archetype of the group’s “mood maker” -- someone whose role is to keep everyone in emotionally high spirits by influencing everyone with cheer and energy. 02 episode 5 features the debut of her famous “Digital Gate, open! Chosen Children, let’s roll!” catchphrase -- this and her other famous “Bingo!” catchphrase establish her as the only of the Tokyo Chosen Children to have a catchphrase (at least, in the Japanese version). Because catchphrases are fun.

As much as everyone (especially Daisuke) is a bit blindsided by her behavior at first, they eventually come to embrace the positive effect she has on all of them -- Daisuke very genuinely asks her for “the usual cheer” in 02 episode 10, and, all the way in 02 episode 22, this is such an agreed-on and established role that they’ll still wait on her to do the honors even when they’re in a hurry. So in other words, it didn’t take long for Miyako to go out of her way to shower everyone with cheer, and it didn’t take long for everyone to answer to that cheer and appreciate her for it.

The flip side of this, however, is that Miyako doesn’t start off being very emotionally equipped to handle this -- right off the bat in 02 episode 2, she says that she’s not inclined for fighting, and in 02 episode 4, she refers to it as being “like an adventure game”. That is to say, she’s not at the point where she’s able to handle the full gravity of what she’s just involved herself with (Daisuke reminds her that she’d panicked earlier, but she just blows it off). She’s handling it so cheerfully now because the series is still in its early stages, when she can enter and exit the Digital World at will, and she’s capable of treating it like this.

So when the stakes do get higher, she’s the first one to take the stress hard. As mentioned before, she’s the youngest in her family, now recast as the oldest in this group -- but unlike Jou, who consciously knew this fact and took stress onto himself because of the responsibility this entailed, Miyako seems to repeatedly forget that she’s the oldest in this group, and the events of 02 episodes 9-10 (when Agumon is kidnapped) cause her to break down from stress and have to take a time-out. (Which everyone allows her to do, because this is not a series where people are pressured to fight if they’re not emotionally ready for it.) Miyako comes to terms with the fact that the stakes are going to keep escalating, and she can’t just gloss over everything with cheer -- and she does manage to pull herself enough to bring Yamato into the fray at the end of the episode, but this continues to be a recurring theme for the rest of her character arc.

While we’re discussing these early parts of the series, one thing I want to briefly address is the part where Miyako infamously calls a lot of people hot. (Although, not as many as the fanbase would love to make you think; it’s only four people in total.) This tends to get her pinned as some kind of flirt whose head is only filled with being hot for people, but while she’s certainly a bit on the shallow end at this point of the series -- dealing with that being what this character arc is about, after all -- this trait of hers tends to get exaggerated by a lot of people in the audience as if she’s completely lacking in common sense. Miyako’s ridiculous (and we love her for it), but she does have some degree of grip on herself! Context is important here -- she might show a crush on someone, but at no point in the series itself does Miyako show any indication of seriously thinking of full-on dating.

For Miyako, who’s accustomed to just blurting out the first thing that comes to mind, commenting on someone being hot is like commenting on the weather -- she means it as a compliment, but there’s no evidence she thinks she has a chance with any of them, let alone wanting to try dating. This is especially when you take into account her self-esteem issues that we learn about later in the series, and also...well, the fact she’s only twelve. (Remember: even Daisuke’s thing for Hikari comes out as a lot of unfocused affection, and it’s unlikely he’s seriously considered the concept of following that up with a serious relationship -- any serious prospects of romance or dating are not going to be on the table for these kids for a while.) Miyako has also been accused by some of being abysmally shallow for still complimenting Ken’s looks in 02 episode 9 (after it’s already apparent he’s the Kaiser), but although she certainly is a bit shallow at this point of the series, she’s not that lacking in common sense; Iori got in on it too in this scene, and both of them were doing it to tease Daisuke more than they seriously wanted to compliment the Kaiser all that much. So in essence, it’s just “Miyako has eyes” -- she still completely agrees he’s their enemy and she’s not going to judge him any better for his looks, but she also doesn’t see this as a reason to lie about the fact she thinks he’s visually good-looking, especially if it’s to tease Daisuke about it.

In any case, 02 episode 14 digs a lot more into Miyako’s stance on herself regarding others -- in 02 episode 6, Miyako met Mimi for the first time, and latched onto her for their similar dispositions and her looking up to Mimi for being beautiful, amazing, and cool (and she should, because she’s right). 02 episode 14 adds another layer to this, however, when Miyako spends the duration negatively comparing herself to Mimi. At first it starts off as simply just shallow jealousy for Michael giving Mimi more attention, but as the situation with Digitamamon escalates, Miyako spends a prolonged period of time trying to figure out Mimi’s behavior of pure-heartedly choosing to trust Digitamamon despite everything, against Miyako’s insistence that Digitamamon’s behavior proves that he was untrustworthy the whole time.

Mimi and Miyako’s stances are both on extremes here -- Mimi’s pacifistic tendencies are causing her to let her get beaten up by Digitamamon despite the fact that “appealing to people’s hearts” has never really been demonstrated as a good way to get Evil Rings off (to be fair, this is probably the first time they’ve made an attempt at this with a Digimon that can still talk coherently with it on), but Miyako’s acting as if this retroactively proves him to be untrustworthy even though she knows that the Evil Rings are tantamount to brainwashing. Nevertheless, Miyako acknowledges that her own stance was borne out of her being shallow and judgmental, especially since the discussion between Mimi and Digitamamon brings out a question about the meaning of the “true self”.

Miyako, at this point, is confronting everything that’s bad about herself -- that she’s shallow and not as much of a “good person” as Mimi is. But the Crest of Purity -- once meaning “lack of malice” back when it applied to Mimi in Adventure -- now has a secondary meaning of “not lying to oneself” (the dub translation of “Sincerity” is not actually that off in this sense), and it also means that Miyako is not going to get anywhere pretending or forcing herself to be someone she’s not. The secondary Digimental arc has a recurring theme of understanding that there are still things you need to learn and improve on in order to do better, and this is Miyako’s version of it -- she will have to acknowledge all of the bad parts of herself before she can get anywhere and become a kind person like Mimi is -- and, indeed, becoming less shallow and judgmental and not jumping to conclusions, and learning to reach out to more substantial cores of the problem, ends up becoming a major part of her character arc in the latter half of the series.

This episode also implies one more thing, even if she doesn’t realize it yet at this moment: the path to her becoming a less shallow and more considerate person is not going to involve trying to force herself to be like Mimi, but rather in a way that’s closer to her “true self”.

Miyako’s first major turning point is in 02 episode 18, an episode that’s said to have such a profound impact on her that even Natsuki Rio testified to having to alter her Miyako performance thereafter.

Back in 02 episode 10, Miyako first started to realize that this whole experience of fighting as a Chosen Child was a lot more stressful than it seemed at first, and reacted badly to it. Here, the ante gets upped even more -- the kids decide to make use of their summer break and organize a Digital World stakeout, and, eventually, Hikari accidentally becomes indirectly responsible for tipping Miyako over the deep end by making an implication that they need more “determination” to the point of refusing to leave until they’ve beaten the Kaiser. (Remember that Hikari can be terrifyingly assertive as long as it’s not something to do with herself.) For Miyako, who’s never had the same experience of being in the Digital World for a prolonged period of time the same way the Adventure group has, this is terrifying, and she tries to “get herself together” over the night -- only to completely overshoot it and go into the complete other extreme. As much as this ends up being one of Miyako’s peak hilarity moments, it’s most certainly representative of her being under a huge amount of pressure and stress, and it’s effectively her “peak worst” moment -- which results in Hawkmon ending up having to cover for her, and getting injured in the process, and Miyako immediately realizing how badly she’d messed up.

Miyako is thus forced to face a major consequence of her behavior: if she doesn’t manage to figure out a way to get herself under control, other people will be hurt, and as someone who wants to do her best for other people, that’s one of the worst possible outcomes for her.

In addition, it’s also important to point out Hikari’s role in this. The Jogress arcs have yet to set in, but the series still gives you a little preview of what’s to come eventually, such as the insight we get about Daisuke and Ken’s initial attitudes towards each other in 02 episode 8, and Iori later personally witnessing (and being very disturbed by) Takeru losing his composure in 02 episode 19. In this case, we see a bit of what Miyako and Hikari’s opposing personalities can offer for each other (especially since the later 02 episode 31 more heavily involves Miyako returning the favor in the other direction) -- Hikari correctly identifies exactly what it was that set Miyako off, takes responsibility for it, and even decides to make sure Miyako and Hawkmon get proper alone time so that they can figure things out. In general, everyone in the 02 team is understanding of Miyako’s antics and doesn’t hold any of it against her because she’s doing her best, but right now, Hikari may be the only person in this group who can actually proactively do something about it, because Daisuke’s not assertive enough to step in, Takeru has a tendency to dodge things whenever they get awkward, and Iori’s holding himself back too much for the sake of manners (especially in the presence of Miyako, who’s the oldest one in this group). But while Hikari does have an emotional repression problem, she’s perfectly capable of holding herself together and putting her foot down when it comes to other people, and because of this, she’s the one who’s able to understand what exactly is going on with Miyako, and how to adjust the situation around her to make things easier for her.

Miyako and Hawkmon have a proper heart-to-heart, and we see more of Miyako’s self-hating tendencies going on here -- she refers exactly to her problems with impulse control, and even labels herself a “bad partner” as a result. But Hawkmon reassures her that she’s fine the way she is, and it ties into how a larger theme of her character arc will involve her learning to find better ways to channel the qualities she already has, rather than trying to force herself to be someone she’s not.

Once the Kaiser is defeated, the second half of the series is where we start to see Miyako’s growth start to really kick in. In 02 episode 24, there’s a short blink-and-you’ll-miss-it scene where Miyako suddenly takes Daisuke and puts him in charge of taking care of the Punimon. Why is this important? Because two episodes prior, Daisuke had been running around in circles like an idiot due to having been third wheeled by Takeru and Hikari, and the moment Daisuke started exhibiting similar signs this time, Miyako personally stepped in and gave him a job to do -- and her actions of keeping an eye on them and her conversation with Takeru and Hikari indicate that she did it exactly because she figured that he would like it. Or, in other words, Miyako correctly identified Daisuke’s need for validation and purpose, and became the first person to proactively do something to address it -- Hikari and Takeru had generally been dodging it awkwardly for the duration of the series, which had only really been making it worse, and, in the absence of another crisis to take care of or someone like Ken to fill the void in Daisuke’s life, Miyako was able to properly figure out exactly what he needed at the moment as a stopgap, and thus is starting to settle into her proper role of understanding what others need in terms of emotional support and actively working to address it.

Since the second half of 02 is dedicated to Ken slowly establishing his place in the group, 02 episode 25 is dedicated to Miyako tussling with her conflicted feelings on the situation -- she’s just as open-minded and pure-hearted as Daisuke is, but the one thing that’s bothering her is that she’s a little more doubtful than he is in regards to whether Ken’s heart is really in the right place with all of this. She says, outright, that she believes he’s learned his lesson -- in a way far more firm than Takeru, Hikari, and Iori are about it -- but that one thing about him having potentially killed Thunderballmon in cold blood doesn’t fit the optimistic image she’d like to have of him.

Daisuke is more practical-minded than she is and is more willing to accept that there might have been a good reason -- especially since he himself starts to consider in this very episode that killing an enemy may be necessary if it’s the only way to prevent more victims -- but Miyako is more emotionally oriented and just can’t accept the idea of doing this at all. Both the internal debate over accepting Ken and the internal debate over having to potentially do a kill tear her apart over the course of this episode, and Miyako finds herself constantly waffling back and forth between the two positions. It’s not just her expressing minor doubt; she actually agonizes over this for the duration of the night and the next day, to the point she even considers asking him about it (and eventually can’t bring herself to).

It’s also made a prominent point that Miyako’s prior attraction to Ken in 02 episode 8 was not the reason she wanted to be optimistic about him -- remember, back in 02 episode 14, she completely admitted that she judges people by appearances, but at this point she’s well past that! Miyako takes this entire issue of whether Ken should be considered a friend very seriously, and that’s why it torments her so much over the course of the episode.

Eventually, all is resolved (at least, for the time being) when it turns out that Ken has been dealing with non-sentient Dark Tower Digimon, and Miyako takes this as sufficient evidence that Ken has changed -- the morality debate about killing comes back in full force in 02 episode 43, and Ken himself ends up just as shaken about it, so the important part is that she understands that he’s trustworthy and wants to put faith in him. Attention is also given to Miyako deciding she’ll now call him by given name (”Ken-kun”) from now on -- even Daisuke himself won’t start calling him “Ken” regularly until 02 episode 39, but Miyako starts slowly inserting given-name basis for Ken into her vocabulary from this point on until she finally commits to it fully in 02 episode 30. This is a proactive and conscious act on Miyako’s part that she actively wants to get to know him better and consider him a close friend, and it’s because of this that she ends up one of the only people who never gets habituated into surname basis with him by the time everyone’s come to properly befriend him.

So, at this point: Within only one episode (and, in-universe, one day), Daisuke and Miyako landed on the same page with their ideological stance towards Ken. They’re both open-minded and forward-thinking, and have an interest in becoming his friend (the next person to show active and open goodwill towards him, Hikari, won’t do so for another 9 episodes). However, despite their surface temperaments being somewhat similar, they have some differences in their priorities and way of approaching things, and it means that each of them ends up reaching out to Ken in ways that the other isn’t as good at. Daisuke, being the very practical and simple-minded sort who doesn’t overthink things or get caught in arbitrary philosophy, is the one who most proactively reaches out to Ken and most famously connects with him the most due to Ken very badly needing guidance in how to move on forward and stop getting fixated on his past. Miyako, on the other hand, being very much the type to consciously think about things (to the point of sometimes thinking about too many things at once) and focus on “how do I most show my support for someone right now?”, puts her priorities on checking on Ken’s current emotional state and actively attempting to glean his feelings and position. 02 being a series about relationships and what people can provide for each other, this ends up reflecting on their roles in the group as a whole -- Daisuke becomes the person who can pull everyone forward in determining the best thing to do, whereas Miyako fills in the parts his rough-around-the-edges demeanor doesn’t quite cover in terms of supporting everyone emotionally and keeping them together.

And thus, Miyako resolves to “wait” until the day Ken will join them -- that is to say, she takes the stance that Ken deserves proper space and to come on his own terms. It’s an interesting inversion of the usual roles you’d expect from Daisuke and Miyako at this point -- and, again, since 02 is about relationships, “each character’s approach towards the new kid and how it impacts them” reflects a lot about their own characters. For Daisuke and Miyako, who were open-minded towards Ken early in the game, you can already see the impact on them -- the necessity of reaching out to Ken causes the normally deferential Daisuke to become more proactive and put his foot down, whereas the normally uncontrollably in-your-face Miyako comes to understand when something needs to be handled delicately and starts getting a better grasp on the concept of restraint.

Which means that Miyako’s actions regarding Ken in the following episodes are significantly more passive than Daisuke’s are, but it’s clear that she’s still supportive. Moreover, it’s also important to establish that she and Daisuke aren’t fighting about this or anything -- Miyako does want Ken to come around eventually, so she doesn’t stop the more proactive Daisuke from reaching out to Ken in an important way, but she instead exerts her position in ways such as joining in with the others reminding him that Ken might have gotten a bit emotionally overwhelmed by the Jogress (and thus that it’s understandable that he might need some time to parse this before pushing the issue further). The way Miyako words this statement so casually can easily be a distraction from the fact that she is completely correct -- as we see later, Ken did emotionally freak out the moment the incident was resolved and had to go home to think about this. Scatterbrained as Miyako may seem, as the series proceeds, it turns out that she has a natural propensity for empathy that means she’s capable of making perfectly correct readings of the situation, even without her thinking that hard about it.

Not that she’s correct all of the time, though. 02 episode 30 has her attempt to get Ken and Iori to hopefully be a little less tense around each other end in complete disaster (although to be fair to her, it’s not like she and Daisuke were particularly forceful about it, it’s just that their plan was so poorly set up that it was too easy to read the motive behind, and it’s ultimately thrown off because -- as Daisuke correctly points out -- the two are being really childish about it.) But in response, Miyako takes direct action and responsibility to fix the situation when Ken continues to refuse to help despite how badly the situation is escalating, and when she finally reaches him, she gets frustrated at the fact he’s being so stubborn, smacks him, and personally drags him back over. Miyako cared a lot about this, she had wanted Ken and Iori to get along for no reason of personal benefit to herself but more because she cared that much about the group’s dynamic and friendship, and she’d held herself back so much because she was worried about him, but here he’s taking all of that and still giving them all the cold shoulder when everyone is in grave danger, and all of that frustration causes her to break down at once.

And note Ken’s reaction -- he’d been holding off on the grounds that he was being a burden on everyone’s friendship, but he sees Miyako distraught and upset and calling him an idiot (i.e. his whole pretense of not hurting others has clearly not worked here), and his “idiot...?” comes out flustered and off-guard, and he shows no resentment towards her thereafter and comes quietly with no protest, even holding a hand to the place she’d smacked him as if mulling in agreement that he deserved that. So, again: Even when Miyako is coming to all of these conclusions in a haphazard manner, it doesn’t change the fact that her readings of these situations are often completely correct.

02 episode 31 is another landmark episode in which we get a lot of insight into Miyako’s current feelings regarding herself in comparison to others, and what she’s trying to achieve at this point in the series. Daisuke makes an offhand remark at the beginning of the episode about Hikari being more “kind” than Miyako (”kind” having a double meaning of “gentle” in Japanese, so Daisuke’s mainly referring to Miyako being such a rough and belligerent person). The way Miyako takes this statement indicates that Daisuke had accidentally just hit a very deep-seated complex within her -- Miyako had never liked the fact she was aggressive and belligerent and in-your-face (remember, back in 02 episode 14, she was constantly negatively comparing herself to Mimi for not being as good of a person as her, and now this has extended to Hikari, who “keeps so much inside”.). As the crisis in the episode escalates, Miyako continues to fall victim to her foot-in-mouth syndrome, saying things and instantly regretting it, because she sees herself as making the situation worse -- and especially when it comes to a situation also involving Ken, whom she’s actively trying to reach out to right now. Her frustration at the fact she can’t see what Ken and Hikari see is because, unable to understand what they’re talking about or what their feelings are, she’s basically a sitting duck who can’t do anything while things are getting worse for them.

Which ultimately results in Miyako completely losing her marbles and Hikari having to smack her out of it -- again, recall that in 02 episode 18, it was shown that Hikari is one of the few people who has enough assertiveness to be able to rein in Miyako’s behavior, and even outright admits that Miyako is a bit of a handful. Miyako, as it seems, had been carrying a complex that Hikari had been thinking of her badly for all of this -- but Hikari then proceeds to reveal the flip side of all of this: she’s also conversely jealous of Miyako for being able to express herself so clearly and easily, because she herself is the type who compulsively represses her own feelings about herself, which is why nobody had been able to properly reach out to her for the duration of Adventure and 02.

For someone who had spent so much time considering herself a “bad person” and a “worse person” in comparison to people like Mimi and Hikari, that someone considers her qualities outright enviable is a huge deal -- it’s not that Miyako’s an objectively worse person than all of the other people who aren’t as rough or in-your-face, but rather, that those qualities can bring out positive things in their own way. And, immediately after that, we see one of those things -- she makes Hikari laugh, thanks to her antics. Of course, it involves Miyako being a bit all over the place and making a lot of mistakes, but even she admits “I guess it is funny.”

And there’s another thing to this, too: Miyako continues to end up with foot-in-mouth as she casually refers to things like the Evil Ring and Ken being the Kaiser with zero fanfare, before realizing seconds after that she probably shouldn’t be doing that in front of him, but, once again, even without her realizing, her evaluation is not incorrect -- although the fact he’s extremely out of it doesn’t make that clear quite yet in this episode, Ken is not the kind of person who’s touchy about acknowledging that he was the Kaiser, and, by his own statement in 02 episode 23, his stance is that he wants to “accept everything about it”, take responsibility, and move on. So here we are with Miyako, who just casually tossed that statement out like it was no big deal, has accepted his past with no lingering grudge against him, and even made a casual evaluation about him presumably having the same resilience he had as the Kaiser, which, again, is completely accurate. All of this is exactly the kind of attitude that Ken needs to be surrounded by right now, and Miyako had just touched on this without even thinking that hard about it, and also is still making it clear she doesn’t want him to feel bad about it...

And so, the episode’s climax has Miyako finally attaining the solution to the question of reaching out to Hikari, the one that nobody had been able to successfully accomplish throughout Hikari’s childhood of never expressing herself properly and the majority of Adventure and 02: to get Hikari to stop being so passive and accepting her inevitable fate because she doesn’t want to burden others, someone as aggressive as her will need to reach her and yank her out, and hit all of the exact points about understanding that someone will be there for her and that she should not accept this defeatist mentality. Hikari is unusually, unhealthily passive, and Miyako, being outwardly aggressive and someone who never hesitates to be blunt about things, is the best person to yank her out of this; it was never a sign of her being a “bad person”, just something she needed to channel in the right direction.

At the end of the episode, we’re also reminded once again that this is a series about relationships, so this kind of growth is important to everyone’s relationships with others as well -- thanks to Miyako’s efforts, Hikari is finally able to speak honestly with Takeru in contrast to her way of leaving off in silence with him at the end of 02 episode 13, and Miyako herself is happy that she’s finally gotten to have a better understanding of both Hikari, whom she herself had been unsure about the position of earlier, and Ken, whom she’d been worried she hadn’t been reaching out to in the right way.

While Ken was out of it during said episode and unable to coherently respond, we do get confirmation that he himself has hopped on the train of respecting Miyako’s intent well enough that he doesn’t hold anything over her -- during 02 episode 33, a mere three episodes after she’d personally slapped him in the face and two episodes after he’d practically seen her at her emotional worst, he still takes it upon himself to personally deliver Poromon to Kyoto and trust her to handle the rest. This isn’t that particularly interesting by itself, but moreso in terms of the context this is in -- this is a point where Ken’s still at awkward arm’s length with a lot of the team (including even Daisuke, in some ways), and he’s seen Miyako do all of the above messy things only not too long ago, but he still is comfortable enough around her and trusting enough in her abilities that he’s okay with casually approaching her and saying “you got this.” So it’s working, all things considered!

We also learn that Miyako had trusted Koushirou with Poromon during her trip to Kyoto, which says a lot about the fact she trusts her senior that much -- and, on a meta level, seems there specifically to facilitate the existence of the above scene (it would have been very easy to save time by just having Poromon accompany Miyako from the get-go and ending Ken’s involvement in the episode at his conversation with Koushirou...).

The following episodes also meanwhile establish that Miyako’s relationship with Hikari has been improving a lot -- with Miyako now actually understanding what Hikari needs, she’s much more proactive in reaching out to Hikari, and it’s even said directly by Iori in 02 episode 36 that their relationship seems to have gotten much better now. And, once again, Miyako’s antics are depicted as making people laugh -- note her and Hawkmon’s over-the-top advertisement performance doing so for everyone in the vicinity.

Which is also reinforced, again, in 02 episode 38, when this even spreads to Ken himself, in a moment that’s said to be particularly unusual and portrayed as one of the first times Ken has been able to be truly carefree in a long time. Again, the point here is: Miyako’s “all-over-the-place” nature brings joy to other people, and that “she makes people laugh” is continually reinforced as a symbol of this over the course of the second half of the series.

Beyond that, the visit to Ken’s house kicks off with Miyako noticing the picture of Osamu and asking about it, to the point she’s shown leaning over and staring at it for quite a while -- Koushirou had allegedly informed her about it earlier, and a whole point is made that she’s the one very prominently wanting to understand more about Ken and his background.

Also, Miyako reminds us all that she still does think Ken is attractive, but it’s a huge contrast to her behavior from back in 02 episode 8, when she knew nothing about him except that he was some celebrity genius boy -- she got completely worked up about it, moped about it for a whole day, and even dragged the fixation into the next day when she started aggressively confronting Daisuke about it, but we’re here 30 episodes later with Miyako actually considering him an important friend that she respects the feelings of, and she simply casually tosses out the statement of him being cute in her usual “like it’s commenting on the weather” manner, with no extra weirdness about it.

We close up some of the threads of Miyako's character arcs when Miyako herself is forced to confront the possibility of fighting an enemy to the kill in 02 episode 44, and Silphymon is eventually forced to kill LadyDevimon to save Miyako's life. Miyako’s emotional reaction is given the most attention here, since she herself had fixated so much on the horror of potentially killing Golemon back in 02 episode 25 -- in fact, everything Miyako does in this episode is about her emotional empathy and empathy for others, in that she rails on LadyDevimon for being a “coward” who hurts other people. Eventually, it’s once again the assertive Hikari who’s able to get her back on her feet by putting it in a way she can understand -- they were not doing it out of a callous and cruel intent to kill, but to save the exact victims that Miyako herself wanted to prevent.

And, even to the very end of the series, Miyako continues to channel her proactivity into emotional awareness first and foremost -- 02 episode 46 has her take the lead in the Dark Seed roundtable, and it’s implied that she’s doing this mainly because she knows this is a very personal issue for Ken to have to witness. In contrast to the way she frantically started spitting out potentially insensitive things in front of Ken in 02 episode 31, here, she outright says that she doesn’t want to make him feel bad about this (and, fortunately, he understands perfectly well that she’s trying). Even all the way to the very end in 02 episode 50, she’s the one who first brings up the question of the issue, because of how emotionally invested she got into this and her high level of awareness as to how deeply this impacted Ken.

In 02 episode 49, BelialVamdemon presents everyone in the team with a potential deep-seated desire that none of them want to admit, and in the case of Miyako’s, it ends up being a rather tame thing in comparison to Iori and Takeru’s more severe family issues, Hikari’s desire for WORLD PEACE!!, and Ken’s complicated feelings about punishment and forgiveness. In Miyako’s dream world, she’s just eating cake, and it says a lot about the fact that were it not for the fact that she overthinks things and often gets easily stressed, she’s fundamentally fairly free of deep-seated issues in a way not entirely dissimilar to Daisuke’s simple and pure-hearted way of life.

The thing that causes Miyako’s issue is often misinterpreted to be about her selfishly wanting everything to herself, or the idea she’s fighting for attention with her siblings, but Hawkmon actually says what the real problem is in direct words: her crowded family is “noisy”. Or in other words -- Miyako, being the overly empathetic type and someone who easily succumbs to stress, is just really overwhelmed and stressed because of everything around her.

An interesting thing about Miyako’s “illusion” is that it’s the only one that in itself starts making its victim feel lonely and sad even before it’s taken away or dispelled -- Takeru and Iori had to have their happy images pulled away from them, Hikari had to have Tailmon clarify that everything is fake, and Ken had to have Wormmon personally chase the image of his brother away. But in the case of Miyako, all Hawkmon has to do is ask if she’s happy right now, and she’s quick to admit that she’s not. It’s just that everything was stressful and overwhelming and there was so much to deal with all of the time, and for once she wanted to be able to enjoy a little peace, but she loves her family and she loves everyone around her and she doesn’t want to be alone, and she’d rather have them back even if it’s stressful. Miyako’s love for others is so strong that even an illusion supposedly made to cater to her won’t make her happy if everyone’s gone.

Miyako also takes the moment to realize that for all Hawkmon’s been going out of his way to be steadfast and loyal to her, she hasn’t been doing enough to understand her own partner in turn, and there’s still a lot more she can do in terms of thinking of others.

Miyako after 02

As per Spring 2003, once Miyako graduates elementary school and moves to middle school, she continues trying to be helpful to her juniors -- she joins the computer club and once again ends up under Koushirou, and now outright makes music for Yamato’s band (some creative differences aside). It’s also interesting to note her attitude towards her other friends when she tries to recruit them into her music unit -- she snarks at everyone right up until she gets to Ken, who declines politely, and in exchange, she just can't bring herself to be mean to him and simply apologizes for asking too much. It’s ambiguous whether this is because she’s still trying to have a heightened level of consideration around him (this is still only four months after 02′s finish, after all), but it seems she’s still concerned about the idea of handling him overly roughly, and is able to exercise a proper level of restraint about him.

Which brings us all the way to Kizuna, a whole eight years later where we have to fill in a lot of blanks about what’s been happening in the meantime, but the official website establishes that she’s now pursuing a degree in computer programming at an engineering university, and is now on study abroad in Spain (implied to be Barcelona, given details in both the movie itself and the drama CD). Pretty ambitious stuff!...or at least that’s the first impression one would get, until it turns out that she’s getting her flighty personality enabled by the local culture. As we learn in the drama CD, she’s absolutely taking the time to milk this entire situation so she can play around -- and, in accordance with how she was established to be an important factor in bringing Hikari out of her shell, it’s rubbing off on Hikari, too.

In addition, Miyako is still working under Koushirou despite their educational careers having completely diverged, this time as his assistant in terms of managing the Chosen Child community. Interestingly, her specific job seems to be consultation, and people come to her for “advice and stuff” -- meaning that it’s very likely that a lot of new Chosen Children who are having a hard time adjusting to life with a partner are coming to her for practical and emotional advice, and she’s still continuing to channel her ability to be emotionally aware and supportive of others.

That is to say, until she gets a mysterious request from a certain Menoa Bellucci. We learn later that Menoa’s motive was to obtain the list of international Chosen Children, meaning that she most definitely was not approaching Miyako for emotional help, and with that, Miyako decides that she doesn’t want to do this and dumps it on her seniors...

...but then picks it back up with zero hesitation the moment her friends present her that exact same job, and not only is it just “zero hesitation”, Ken even comments on how “fast” she arrived to do so! (This was also before Iori came up with the plan to infiltrate Menoa’s office; there wasn’t any indication Miyako’s computer abilities would be particularly necessary at the time.) On top of that, the drama CD gives us full context as to why she was so willing to dump this on her seniors in the first place -- she had wanted to see her friends so badly that she practically invented D-3 gate exploitation so she could hang out with her friends despite technically being in another country, and even wanted to invite them to come visit her, and eventually they’d all made an organized plan to meet up in New York. In other words, her loyalty to her friends is still stronger than anything else -- remember, she’s the kind of person who was picking up tons of jobs specifically so she could help her friends in the first place.

On that note, Ken’s ability to be casual with everyone besides Daisuke has noticeably improved, and that’s especially prominent with Miyako, whom he proactively converses with in a way that wouldn’t have happened back in 02, and, likewise, in contrast to the sense of distance she’d still been maintaining with him back during the final arc of 02 and Spring 2003, she has no qualms about handling him as casually as she would anyone else.

Which eventually leads us to...

This is a recurring theme on this blog, but every so often I have to draw the distinction between creative concepts “in meta” (i.e. the way the audience will read it, in relation to franchise standards and other real-life factors) and said concepts “in-universe” (i.e. with audience factors completely removed, whether there’s a presumable logical reason for these events happening in-universe, and whether this is reasonable behavior to expect out of the characters). This blog is largely dedicated to the latter, but the reason why I have to keep drawing this distinction in the first place is that I get the impression that the staff behind Adventure and 02 really did not pay much mind to the former part as part of their dedication to the latter. And, I mean, part of the reason I respect the writing of Adventure and 02 so much is how uncompromising they were in terms of not really pandering to what a fanbase might expect, which allowed the story to retain a lot of creative integrity that it wouldn’t have otherwise.

But every so often you get something like this that makes me want to just bang my head on the table and scream, I swear, I get what you guys were going for, but I am begging you, please think a little harder about how people are going to read this!! In general, I do think there’s something that’s not very good about disregarding your audience completely, because if you’re trying to say important things and those things are going directly over your audience’s heads (this is a kids’ show, for goodness’s sake), you can’t call that good communication, and it’s not like you can blame the audience for getting blindsided or being upset, and this is before we get into what they just dropped on the global audience that was presumably full of young girls interested in STEM fields who were hoping to see them go all the way with that, or the feelings of those who are bothered that one character has to be singled out to be defined solely by her relationship to others, and I mean -- to be fair, with a character like Miyako and the tons of things going on with her, there was probably no outcome they could come up with that wouldn’t be reinforcing some negative stereotype (believe it or not, there are people who have conversely mentioned identifying deeply with Miyako’s personal story and the meaning of this ending to them, and have also expressed discomfort about some of the comments the fanbase has made over the years), but at the same time, holy hell, they really went for the one that immediately looks the worst on its face...

...That aside, I will reiterate that this is a blog and analysis meant for that latter category of “analyzing things in-universe”, and making good-faith assumptions that there was a reason for everything (and, I’ll be quite honest, reading everything the staff has said about the characters, including Miyako, there is no indication that they didn’t treat every single one of them with love and zero intention to curse any of them into a horrible fate). We can debate whether this was a good or bad choice in the context of real life, or how much they really should have thought this through more or considered alternative ways to do this, in another place and time (it’s been done by many other people, myself included, in the last 20 years, and it will most certainly continue after this, and probably should continue). It’s not like I’m necessarily giving my blessing to every single creative decision in Adventure or 02 in running this blog, it’s more of the attitude of “now that this decision was in the series, can we figure out what that was intended to mean?”, and that’s going to apply to this one too. And so, we’ll proceed with the analysis.

In any case, here’s the first thing to start with, which may surprise some people to learn: at no point in the epilogue is the word “housewife” ever used to refer to Miyako. The only words that Takeru uses to describe her are: that she is married to Ken and is a mother of three. Not only that, post-02 materials that have referred to the epilogue and Miyako’s part in it have also avoided using that word -- the Character Complete File and the Animation Chronicle only reiterate the same points of “married to Ken” and “mother of three children”, and practically go out of their way to avoid insinuating that being a stay-at-home housewife is the main focus of her life right now. It would have been so easy to say it outright if they’d wanted to, but they didn’t, and they consistently don’t, to the point the omission is almost suspicious. And, indeed, if you want to believe the Character Complete File, Miyako is not a full-time housewife and is simply not working at the time of the epilogue due to maternity leave because the third child had recently been born. So it’s completely within the realm of possibility that she’s still working! In that case, why is something that could easily be a big deal left ambiguous like this?

If you look at the way the epilogue presents its information, there’s a certain pattern: what information is emphasized and what information is given little attention or omitted has very little to do with “how curious the audience would be about it”, but rather “how relevant it is”; just because a certain piece of information is omitted doesn’t mean it necessarily isn’t true. For example, Sora; she’s married to Yamato, but despite how much the audience would probably consider that as vital information, it’s left for you to infer from the visuals and an oblique comment that Sora’s daughter is a “dependable older sister”, and even the question of whether Sora did succeed her mother in flower arrangement is left up in the air despite that also probably being a question the audience is curious about (and in fact, a few flower branches are clearly visible in the front, implying very heavily that, whatever happened, she’s at least still maintaining her roots with her family instead of violently cutting it all off). But we do learn about the fact that she went into fashion design, which is something that’s not an expectation that was placed by her family but rather something she presumably decided on herself. Hence, presumably why that’s the part emphasized, and moreso than her marriage to Yamato -- said marriage is of course an important part of her life, but it’s not as prominent as the fact that she has her own independent career, especially since her entire character arc was about doing things that she wanted for herself instead of doing things for others. That is to say, compared to their own individual ambitions, Sora and Yamato’s love life is “an important part, but not the important part.” This is especially when you add the context that Takeru is delivering abridged single-sentence “catch-up” descriptions of his friends on their behalf (possibly to the world, if this is part of his novel), and so, it begs the question: what would each of these characters want to be most remembered for accomplishing?

(And if you think I’m being tinfoil hat about this, remember that a constant theme with this blog I’m running is that “being annoyingly subtle and relying on ridiculously oblique messaging” like this permeates the entirety of 02 in general, and it’s definitely not the only time they’ve used this kind of technique to communicate details that are too consistent and on-the-nose to be passed off as coincidence. As far as assuming that this series follows rational storytelling logic goes, we are far past that point, and in ways that extend far beyond this epilogue.)

So we look back at Miyako, and the hobbies she’d indulged in and what purpose they were for, and her personality, and the fact that the main point of her character arc was about her complex that she would never be a good enough person who could properly emotionally reach out and take care of others -- in some ways, her arc was the opposite of Sora’s, in that while Sora’s was about not being as beholden to others, Miyako’s was about how to become someone who can better support others -- and once we apply the above question, there lies the answer to why the priority and emphasis given to her future in the epilogue is “Miyako is the kind of person who prioritizes taking care of and supporting her loved ones more than anything else.”

This is especially because (in an epilogue with not very many lines, so every bit of information becomes vital) the lines we see Miyako and her family exchange are representative of a lot of what that character arc was about. According to her son, Miyako is still her panicky and emotionally messy self, even when in the role of the matriarch of a large family who’s responsible for taking care of all of them. She did not ever become the ideal “gentle” and “mature” kind of person that she considered Mimi and Hikari to be and negatively compared herself to. However, her family responds by cheerfully laughing, which is -- most likely not coincidentally -- the same thing that was shown to be the positive flip side of Miyako’s over-the-top personality back in 02 episodes 31, 36, and 38, in that it brings joy and cheer to others.

If you do want to take the Character Complete File’s statement at face value, the fact that she’s on self-imposed maternity leave means that it’s very likely she wasn’t on a salaried job and was instead freelancing, or at least was involved with something that didn’t require constant commitment. Considering the fact she’s consistently portrayed as an impatient sort who gets bored easily, she probably would prefer something more flexible like freelancing or at least not being tied to a single thing; even looking back at her completely disparate hobbies back when she was a kid, when she was basically jack-of-all-trades-ing to fit whatever people needed her for, she never really came off as someone who could commit very easily to a single form of work, but what she did have commitment to was other people, especially her friends and family. If you (or, perhaps, Takeru) were to ask her during the time of the epilogue “what are you up to right now?”, it’s not really that hard to believe that gushing about her lovely family would come before everything else; not to say that everyone else here (especially her own husband) isn’t presumably devoted to their own families, but Miyako’s the type to have that much higher sense of pride in what she does for those she cares about than she would have particular attachment to any kind of work. Look at her behavior during Kizuna; she’s pursuing a degree in computer programming and thus is still aiming to be a busybody with a high level of skill, but when given a job by a stranger, she immediately dumps it off on her seniors so she can be with her friends, then happily accepts that same job again when the same friends present it back to her.

So, in other words, the conclusion is: the biggest priority and most important thing to Miyako in regards to her future is that she finally became someone who could properly support others around her, even in spite of her personality that would suggest otherwise.

In addition, the fact that she has three children might initially come off as a little in-your-face or overkill, but remember that Miyako came from a family with four siblings, and 02 episode 49 had her say outright that she does treasure that �� or, in other words, being part of a big family surrounded by affection and love is something she considers to be a valuable part of her life (especially since the age gaps between the three children imply a reasonable likelihood of actual family planning, moreso than even Miyako’s own).

Incidentally, this is just a bit of a personal note, but one might notice that I’ve also never actually used the word “housewife” to refer to the epilogue’s depiction of Miyako in the course of writing for this blog, because of how little evidence we have that she is one – being on temporary maternity leave still being a very viable and, given the post-02 materials we now have, arguably heavily likely interpretation, it’s not like you’d necessarily call someone a housewife if their break from work is only temporary, even if they’re a freelancer. Given the above circumstances, perhaps something like “family matriarch” would be more accurate…

#digimon #digimon adventure 02 #digimon adventure last evolution kizuna #inoue miyako #miyako inoue #kizuna spoilers #shihameta

96 notes · View notes

rorodawnchorus · 3 years

Text

C-drama rec: 《我在他鄉挺好的》 or Remembrance of Things Past

The literal translation of the title is "I'm doing fine in this place away from home." But I think the English title was well chosen and quite relevant to the core of the series. It's only 12 episodes (which is too short when it's such a good one!). I'll try to give away as little spoilers as possible.

[TW: Suicide]

Before anything else though, I'd like to add a very big trigger warning of suicide because the series opens to the scene of a girl jumping off a bridge. This girl is one of the 4 main characters; her name is Jing Jing. The series then follows the story of these four characters with them often recalling memories of Jing Jing as they stumble through life in Beijing city. Their struggles are very relatable and perhaps all too realistic. If you're looking for a feel good, escapist story that will lift you up, maybe this isn't the one. But I can tell you it's a great drama with well-written characters and a realistic and sensible plotline. Also, I ditched every other series I was watching just to watch this.

(Where to watch: Links at the end of post)

If I were to liken this to any other story that I know of, this series does remind me a little bit of the book by Celeste Ng, 'Everything I Never Told You'. The 3 characters and also one of the male characters grapple with the trauma of Jing Jing's death. For the 3 female characters, they're Jing Jing's closest friends and also one of them is her older cousin sister. (In China, as I've observed, cousins tend to be addressed as their own siblings and some of them do share very close bonds.) The story follows these characters as they go on with life but also each episode reveals a little bit about what might have led to Jing Jing's death. They realise how much they do not know of Jing Jing and each episode, they discover something or someone they'd never known. It prompts its audience to think, you may know someone and you may think you know everything about them but things may just turn upside down when you least expect it. And you won't even know what went wrong, who this person that you love so much was, and how people left behind deal with the trauma.

One of our main characters, Qiao Xi Chen (Qiao), works in the marketing department of a coffee company. She works hard when she has to, is very competent and smart, and is very confident in her work. But office politics throws things off balance. She then gets into a series of unfortunate events. The first one being swindled of her half year rental fee which she gave to the agent. She was kicked out of her house and it's honestly the most horrible and terrifying thing to lose a place to live in overnight. For those who might have rented rooms or houses in cities, you might have had some experience that are bad or your worst living nightmare. I personally have had a series of those. Her story is also very relatable for young women who live alone and work in a big city.

Jing Jing's other best friend is Xu Yan and she works at a company's customer service department. All day, she deals with phone calls of grumbling customers complaining about the products. She sometimes have to deal with calls from customers who speak with a heavy accent or dialect but she does her job pretty well too. However, her story arc is less relatable to me personally. She has an unhealthy obsession with branded handbags and items. She and her boyfriend are the typical "Moonlight Clan/Generation" who barely manages to have any savings because they're spending on rent, bills and all the miscellaneous luxury goods that are trending. She struggles with her self image because of her work environment and feel pressured to keep up with fashion trends or a lifestyle that she can show online. I don't think it's inherently wrong to want to pursue such a life. Enjoyment and leisure can be very different to many people even if it doesn't appeal to all. She may appear a little childish but she isn't actually hateable.

Jing Jing's cousin is the oldest in the group and they all call her "Nan Jia jie" (older sister). She's an entrepreneur who started her own events management company in Beijing. She's 35 and she's pressured by her mother to quickly get married. Problem is, her mother thinks she should just get married to anyone (literally ANY MAN) who is willing to marry her. She also considers purchasing a house but property prices in Beijing are impossibly high and she barely manages to put together money for her first instalment. I think we're living in an era which has made property ownership impossible difficult. And capitalism may still want you to think that you must own a house, this may not necessarily be the case anymore.

I really like all the tiny details of this story. The way everyone finishes work late and each go their own way because sending your colleague home at 3 or 4am across the city would mean you basically do not get sleep (like you might as well just stay in the office), or how you live further away from your workplace because you can't afford a place nearer. The commute to and from work during rush hour. The list is endless. But this feels like a story that is close to the hearts of many, it tells the tale of the average salaryman living in a metropolitan city (especially in Asia).

It's the kind of drama that will leave a mark on me for life, and in a good way. I feel like part of it is already engraved in me. The cast is also doing great at stringing you along in sharing their emotions (I don't think I've cried this many times at the very beginning of a series). The writing and pacing are all great. Characters are also very well written. I do have some qualms with certain characters and their actions but... Not too big and they aren't grave sins.

I also don't think they're doing the best job at depicting trauma of witnessing a suicide and dealing with the aftermath of the suicide of a loved one but, to me, it's handling these issues quite well. At least the story is indeed about them coming to terms with the suicide of Jing Jing and them trying to make sense of what led her to this end.

Where to watch Episode 1:

Remembrance of Things Past - MangoTV

On their Official YouTube Channel

#cdrama #chinese drama #cdrama rec #cdrama review #Slice of life #TW suicide #Asian drama #Asian drama recommend

11 notes · View notes

solomonish · 3 years

Note

Hey! If you're up for it how about The Fool, The Hierophant, and The Tower for Solomon. And The Moon as a bonus for any character that strikes your fancy!

hell YES i am up for it! i would do the entire thing for Solomon in one go if asked (please don’t ask......let me pace myself lol)

major arcana headcanon requests!

SOLOMON

The Fool - what are your muse’s thoughts on new beginnings? does it frighten them or excite them?

Well, I think Solomon has a different opinion on new beginnings for himself than he does others, first of all. Considering all he’s seen and been through and what role he has in the universe now, it makes sense that he’d hold himself to a different standard.

I think for him, he doesn’t necessarily think there’s even the option? Like, he has stagnated. His power and knowledge grows, sure, but in terms of personal development he’s kind of stuck. (At least, that’s how I think he defaults to seeing himself. Can’t keep the realms under control if you’re distracted by trying to be a better person, you know?) He just has to move forward without any thought to “starting over.” Maybe there’s too many layers to get through to start from the top again. Maybe he can never have a new beginning because he cannot end. Maybe he just forgets to take a personal day and do some self reflection because he’s busy, haha. But I can kind of see him not really...thinking that’s an option for himself. The concept seems like wishful thinking, but if ever given the opportunity he’d definitely have some reservations about whether or not he could make it through the transition. Not scared per se, but...wary.

For others, though, I think Solomon definitely thinks it’s possible, especially for humans. Angels and demons have such a stiff role they have to fulfill, but humans? They can kinda do whatever they want. Even if he feels a bit detached from humanity, he still cares deeply for it (them? us?) and the ability to just decide you’re unhappy and completely reinvent yourself, especially with the little time we have, probably just adds to our charm, you know? It’s probably one of the things he’s jealous of or misses, if he thinks about it

The Hierophant - what are your muse’s morals / ethics? do they follow their moral code strictly?

oh boy, solomon and ethics....

Solomon’s ethics are better off described rather than labeled. If you labeled them, you’d start with “gray” and then you’d get nowhere else. I definitely don’t think he’s amoral, and I don’t think he’s immoral either. It’s very easy to determine a person void of morals or ethics when judging them based on a life where there aren’t many choices that would be “immoral” but necessary. Like, in the average life, the most immoral thing is easy to not do. But considering he’s got, ahem, large responsibilities on his shoulders, there’s probably quite a few times where the best course of action would be horrifying for someone to hear of him doing.

Overall, he prioritizes humanity above all else, along with its longevity and preservation. He definitely has a different internal attitude (at least) when interacting with angels and demons as opposed to humans, a combination of not really feeling as directly responsible for them and also knowing that if he ever is, he would have few to no qualms about giving them the short end of the stick in a situation that would benefit “his team,” if he could manage to pass it by Diavolo or Michael.

I don’t think his internal values change, things like autonomy and equality for all, free pursuit of knowledge, y’know, all the good stuff everybody wants. And in his day-to-day life, he doesn’t seem the type to pass quick judgement or have some inherent unwillingness to compromise. “Morals” and “ethics” seems to imply a more grand scenario, and as the “keeper of humanity” or however he sees himself, he wouldn’t exactly be hesitant or emotionally torn apart by having to hurt somebody if it meant he could protect and support humanity as a whole.

I feel like I spent however many paragraphs being extremely vague and I’m not sure if this makes sense or even says anything of importance, haha...

The Tower - what event drastically changed your muse’s life? do they resent that event or are they glad of it?

Well, I mean, there’s a few obvious answers here. You have his fall from the graces of the heavens, the exchange program, any number of biblical events, his discovery of magic and the path he took to immortality, the fallout with his apprentice....and to be honest, with the exception of the exchange program, i think he is resentful but also glad? He’s the type to see the good and the bad outcomes of the situation. He’s probably made peace with the sentiment that “oh it made me who i am today” but he does have days where he grapples with all he’s lost and must now deal with for practically eternity.

Though, and these aren’t drastic events that shatter him forever (but i think they can be mentioned here), I do think that he takes little pieces of the people he meets and cares about until he becomes a sort of mosiac of the people he loves. Not necessarily romantic love, either. He met a witch who he was close friends with who couldn’t put down cheesy teen romance novels from a specific author, so you can find a few copies of her favorites sandwiched between spellbooks and old archival texts in his room. He isn’t big on self care, but Asmo did teach him a quick and efficient way to wash his face and keep his skin clear. Simeon and Luke gave him an appreciation for finely crafted tea sets. Again, the event i guess would be “making a friend” (which for him very well may be a once in a lifetime kind of deal lol) and isn’t what the question meant, but idk. I think it was worth mentioning here because long-term, it does incorporate into him as a person.

LUCIFER (my other fave <3)

The Moon - what does your muse long for? is it a realistic desire?

Not to be surface-level and cheesy, but I think he longs for him and his brothers to feel like a family. Not that they don’t already, but I think he longs for the way they used to be in the Celestial Realm, how complete they used to feel. In that way, it’s probably the most unrealistic desire. The hole in their family isn’t one that can or even should be filled, and your addition is just that - an addition, not a replacement.

Something that could give him (kind of) what he craves is if he and his brothers could heal. They’re already on the right path, but they’re still all kind of dysfunctional. The complicated part of this is that a lot of their strife is due to the nature of demons, and the wholesome unity is a brand that has never really been found in he Devildom. That’s not to say it’s impossible - the brothers still love each other, they still are loyal to each other, but Lucifer can feel that there is some sort of rift between them that has not yet been fixed that he yearns to solve.

(If you ask me, the “rift” is probably something caused by trying to heal in an environment that will never offer mercy or forgiveness. If the brothers can find solace in each other, maybe that’ll get them a step closer. But sometimes their interactions still feel like walking on eggshells, and...I don’t know. I really do think Lucifer longs for the type of relationship they had when they were angels, and he’s trying to deal with the realization that maybe that type of relationship just isn’t in the cards for a demon.)

#i think maybe this is just me saying a whole lot of something #ask game #lucifer #solomon #obey me #obey me solomon #obey me lucifer #solomon hcs #lucifer hcs #asked and answered #elvishdork #mine #asks

24 notes · View notes

engagemachine · 4 years

Note

I joined a tdkJoker gc and we were talking about fics. A lot of the stories they read are joker dub con. I didn’t knock it because that’s what they read. And anything with the joker in it is going to be dark fiction. But I brought up your stories & how much I loved them but they said it romanticized CSA. I don’t understand this accusation because the whole point of your story is to show the toxicity of Taylor and jokers relationship. Idk what to do or say now but every joker story is dark.

OMG. That’s okay, bby, really. When I tell you I don’t interact with probably 90% of the Joker fans on this website... it’s for a reason. It’s all good. And it’s truly none of my business what other people think of me.

This isn’t the first time I’m hearing about this, and I’m honestly not surprised some people would say that... but I do think it’s ironic since there is an egregious amount of romanticization/fetishization of the character of the Joker in this fandom, so much so to the point where I personally find it a little disturbing. That’s my opinion and I don’t really feel the need to say anything more about it. It’s not my intention to ruffle feathers, and everyone is entitled to write what they want to write. I’m not going to police other people’s work and I would hope that other people don’t feel the need to police mine. We’re all adults, here, there’s no need to tear other people down simply because our opinions on a fictional character differ.

I will be the first to say that my writing is extremely disturbing and not palatable to the casual reader, and I’m very open about the dark nature of my work and the sensitivity of the topics I write about. Ultimately, I cannot control how other people interpret my work -- that’s on them -- but to refer to my work as “romanticization of CSA” is an egregious oversight, and it deeply saddens me that people would misinterpret my writing as such given the amount of time, effort, and mental energy I have put into articulating what I hope is an incredibly realistic and poignant story about the effects of lifelong trauma/PTSD in an adolescent girl, and will eventually touch on the incredible amount of resilience and power that women hold inside themselves, a power they cannot be stripped of.

Burn has garnered a lot more attention than I ever expected -- I’ve had more longtime readers crawl out of the woodwork to introduce themselves and express their enthusiasm for my writing than I’ve ever had before -- and after the events that transpire at the end of chapter seven, it revealed to me that a lot more people were reading my work than I initially thought.

I think the situation would be different if I was the kind of author who was like, “uwu Joker is baby :’(” and “I just want the Joker to love/fuck me :(” here on my blog... but I’m not. And I never have been. If that’s how you feel about the Joker, that’s okay and that’s on YOU, and though I tend to find that insensitive and slightly immature given the nature of the character’s sordid history... that’s my own business, and I don’t sit here on a pedestal on my blog and talk down to other writers who do that. In fact, I don’t talk about it at all, and I don’t care to. I can only speak for myself when I say that, and I make absolutely no qualms about how disturbing/nasty I think the Joker is. I enjoy writing about him solely for the fact that he has absolutely no reservations -- about anything -- and there is so much freedom of expression in that. This is a villain I have enjoyed sinking my teeth into for so many years because there’s so much meat there. I keep tearing off more to chew and it’s never enough; just when I think I’ve found the depth’s of the Joker’s depravity, I always find he’s willing to sink just a little bit deeper.

I think when people talk about the “romanticization” in Burn, there is a severe lack of critical thinking that has gone into that statement (truly, I do not say this to offend) because Taylor does romanticize the Joker: but it’s because she’s been gaslighted, drugged, and psychologically manipulated into believing the Joker cares about her. Additionally, because the majority of the story is told in her POV, she does view the Joker through a set of lens that are incredibly rose-tinted. For that reason, she is an unreliable narrator.

What happens at the end of chapter seven is unquestionably rape. Even though she “wants” it, she’s still a minor, and therefore she cannot consent. But I also believe her age is rather arbitrary at this point, because even if she were eighteen (a legal, consenting adult in the United States) or even if she was nineteen, or twenty, I would still consider the events at the end of the chapter rape just because her mind has been so psychologically warped by the Joker for so many years. What is consent to a person who is straight up delusional? For all intents and purposes, you shouldn’t believe a thing that comes out of this girl’s mouth, even if her intentions are pure (and because it’s Taylor, they usually are).

Additionally, one of the main reasons why the scene at the end of the chapter is told from the Joker’s POV is so that you, as the reader, do not see Taylor romanticize the rape. That was very important to me to make that distinction. You only see it from the Joker’s POV, who regards the violation as him simply taking what he’s owed. That doesn’t mean in the future I will not show scenes of that nature from her POV, but given that it was their “first time”, so to speak, I wanted to strip any thoughts of romanticization out of the picture entirely. When Taylor tells the Joker she loves him, it is incredibly heartbreaking as much as it is fascinating. We’ve known that she’s loved him since forever, pretty much, so for her to express her love to him in the context of this particular moment, it’s horrifying.

And I find this dynamic so incredibly spellbinding just because it thrills me to write about a character’s involvement with the Joker throughout three different stages of her life: childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. I’ll be the first to admit it’s very hard to imagine the Joker we know and love in the comics and in TDK interacting with a teenager -- I just don’t see it happening -- but that’s exactly what thrills me about writing this dynamic, and why I created Clockwork; I love putting the Joker in scenarios you wouldn’t normally get to see him in.

Unfortunately, because of the nature of this content, there are always going to be people out there who misinterpret it. I also think it can be hard to appreciate a story like this when you’re not privy to the entire picture, which is to say that, as the reader, you don’t know how it will end, and it’s frightening seeing Taylor crawl further and further down the rabbit hole (no pun intended) and not knowing whether she will receive the freedom and catharsis she so painfully deserves.

I’m always open to discussing these topics -- as I said, it’s incredibly important to me to handle them with a certain level of tact and sensitivity -- and my readers know that nothing I write is ever for the ‘shock value’ of it, or to ‘romanticize’ CSA, which I find incredibly insulting given my own experiences and those of some of my close friends.

In closing: you really do not have to say anything to these people -- they are entitled to their opinions/thoughts/feelings -- and please don’t feel like you have to come to my defense. I have a handful of really incredible supporters out there (and some amazing friends) and I also know there’s a lot of silent readers out there who support my work, too. Thank you so much for your concern, anon, but I promise it’s okay, and I do really appreciate you reaching out. Please feel free to do so off anon, if you feel comfortable doing so, as I’d be really interested in talking to you personally. No pressure though, and thanks for your message. <3

#anonymous #asks #Burn #tw: rape #tw: CSA

30 notes · View notes

rubisaurus98 · 3 years

Note

seria if you wanna do another one for her paris if you dont

You know, I have no memory of doing any of these for Seria specifically, nor could I find one in my archives :/. I have mentioned her in past ones, but she wasn’t the focus. I’ve definitely written her story deeper than what surface we were given, but not in this format. What the hey, let’s do both.

Seria:

Headcanon A: realistic

The disdain Seria held towards rookie Summoners pre-GQ and then some was also fueled by the fact that Bloody Rose canonically takes in rookies displaying "problematic behaviors", among others. While she didn't take as much issue with that pre-Algmos, becoming Captain post-Algmos is when she really starts to have her issues, now in charge of troublesome folks who she's obviously stronger than. It got to a point where a vast majority of Bloody Rose's subsequent recruits were "problematic rookies", her general attitude towards new Summoners driving off many who otherwise would've enlisted, especially given the recruits' age range being impressionable teenager to young adult. Thus exacerbating her view of "all rookies are good-for-nothing weaklings."

Headcanon B: while it may not be realistic it is hilarious

I’ve mentioned this once before, but I like entertaining the idea of Seria secretly (at first) getting into Pokémon GO while doing her daily workouts, just as an added bonus. Like, she hears about it through the grapevines and suddenly, bam. She’s on the app. She’s on Team Valor b/c this is Seria we’re talking about. She guards one of the Gyms set up inside the Summoners’ Hall, and the one at the Arena. She’ll vehemently deny it at first, but the more she teaches students the more willingly open she becomes about it. Younger Summoners on other teams take this as a kind of incentive to do enough to dethrone her, even though she’ll be right back on. Roy, who joined Team Instinct, has already done this several times. I would include Wallace, but he’s on Team Valor and is like the last person you face before Seria.

Headcanon C: heart-crushing and awful, but fun to inflict on friends

Seria’s family didn’t know about the Algmos Incident until she finally decided to come clean about it, which was quite a bit of time post-GQ. No, she didn’t drop contact with them completely after the incident, but it did noticeably decrease in volume. A mix of “not talking about anything specific” and “barely talking about anything in general”, not wanting anyone to see her as anything to pity for; less than “strong with a successful career”. They were so proud when they got the news of her passing the Demon Slayer aptitude exam, and later her promotion to Lieutenant. And yet, here she was, choosing to pick up what little was left of a squad she, in her mind, had a hand in destroying. After all, she was close with that rookie and had no qualms about him being on that fateful mission.

Her family was none the wiser, thinking that work was just suddenly keeping her busy. Oh, how emotional things got when she finally told them the truth....(In a “Why didn’t you tell us sooner?” kind of way, please.)

Headcanon D: unrealistic, but I will disregard canon about it because I reject canon reality and substitute my own.

(Not unrealistic, but an alternate canon)

Seria isn't gonna willingly admit that Liam's the one who got her into Pokémon GO, and neither will he. She just noticed her favorite nephew playing it while they were out somewhere and got curiouser and curiouser. As Liam is on a different team than the one she picked, she's also secretly proud of when he takes out one of her Pokémon in a Gym.

Paris:

Headcanon A: realistic

The Lowendells, even ones that don't take up the path of the warrior, are known for their strong affinity for Thunder magic, though there are outliers here and there due to marrying those of other houses. Paris is also versed in Light and a bit of Fire from her non-Lowendell relatives.

Headcanon B: while it may not be realistic it is hilarious

While she had short hair, her bedhead would stick up in the most Shonen Anime Protagonist/Character ways. Think of just about any spiky-haired anime character. There has been a point where Paris’ bedhead has resembled them and she’s had to tame it down every morning.

Headcanon C: heart-crushing and awful, but fun to inflict on friends

I’m going to start swerving a little into my own verse for this:

That bit in Celgrad about how her parents disapproved of her joining Akras? Yeah, there’s more to that story. Paris was nowhere near ready mentally to become the next Imperial Guard commander in the absences of Eriole and Tesla. Hell, Eriole made and kept her third-in-command for everything but her true capabilities as a leader, and especially for her apparent naivete that he and Tesla were all too quick to point out back in Atharva once they disowned her.

Here’s the thing, though: Both sides of her family have strong ties to the Imperial Guard: father, older brother, and maternal aunt being very prominent members after Paris herself, who was appointed third-in-command to the previous commander so young. So, for Paris to suddenly up and try to “abandon tradition” instead of salvage the pieces was...inconceivable. Well, it was to some vocal members, such as her mother. Others just didn’t want to voice their opinions for one reason or another.

Then came her maternal grandmother, still a matriarch. And she supported Paris’ decision. This lead to other relatives coming forward and allowing her to distance herself and give herself some space. This gave Paris at least some ease in her decision to join Akras. Of course, she also has it in her mind that many back home are anticipating this being only a temporary stay....(Well, it turned out to be.)

Headcanon D: unrealistic, but I will disregard canon about it because I reject canon reality and substitute my own.

(Not so unrealistic, but and alternate canon)

After enrolling in the Academy for some supplemental classes after joining Akras, Paris takes a bit to both address Ren as "Instructor" and then shake the habit while in Ishgria. Not that Ren minds too much, but Paris is a bit embarrassed by the awkwardness.

4 notes · View notes

mairights · 5 years

Note

can you please write a blurb where it’s the readers first day of school and they’re very anxious and peter helps with cuddles/kisses/pet names and advice. i love your writing so so so much!!!!!

textbooks, pens, favorite highlighter. erasers, binder, yellow notebook. headphones, pencils, and mints upon mints in tiny white wrappers. every item is a check off of the list in your head, one more tick to count. everything is there, tucked safely in its place and ready for the day. the one thing left unprepared is you.

“guess everything is there,” you say absently, zipping up your bag for the third time in twenty minutes. peter, ever a patient boyfriend, looks up from his cell phone. of course, he was ready half an hour ago. he’s not nervous, no; only you.

“that’s good,” he says smilingly. his cell phone clicks off audibly. “ready to go then?”

oh, how you wish you were. it’s an odd predicament, really; school’s been a part of your life for nine months out of the year, every year, since you were five. realistically, nothing to get worked up over, nothing to overthink. but your mind has other intentions. every pen tucked away in your new pencil bag symbolizes another fear: red, instructors getting mad at you; blue, being too unmotivated to work; green, getting sick or tripping up in front of everyone; yellow, nobody likes you; purple, forgetting something; black, not knowing enough for the classes you take. if you owned more pens, more qualms would fill the list. the colors you do own take up enough space in your brain.

upon not receiving an answer, peter reaches across the table. his fingers— soft and warm, like always— brush yours. you’ve dropped your bag, but he can see you’re weighed down.

“you okay, baby?”

no. no. my answer is no, you think. something about vocalizing that is just so... so embarrassing. here you are, well-past kindergarten age and having lived most of your life, and you’re scared of school. of all things to be frightened of, that’s what makes your palms sweat this morning. not even the warm sun and peter’s dreamy, swimming brown eyes can coax a direct answer from you. instead, you shrug.

“i guess.”

but peter knows. he always knows when you’re upset. and besides, nothing could hide the same hesitance in your words or the shine to your eyes.

with a sigh, peter retracts his arm. your eyes dance up to his face, awash with concern. he scoots his chair back and pats his thigh.

“c’mere, sweet girl,” he says gently, “lay it on me.”

you hesitate a moment, not wanting to seem too much like a baby. after all, who needs comforting over this? at this age? but then you think about how nice a hug would feel right now and you climb onto peter’s lap. he wraps his arms around you while you tuck your head into his neck, where it’s warm and safe. soft kisses pattern your temples.

“now,” peter begins, whispering into your ear, “can you tell me what’s wrong?”

it’s so comfy in peter’s arms that you only tell him what plagues your mind with great reluctance; something’s so safe and welcoming about curling up on his lap, worries melting away. your chest feels tight when you next speak.

“i just don’t wanna mess up,” you admit with a breathy whisper. “i.. i don’t wanna get things wrong, get yelled at. ‘nd... i dunno. friends, i guess? ugh.” you palm your forehead and shove further into peter. his brow pinches with worry.

“what about your friends?”

you bite your lip. “dunno. ‘s been a while and i’m not exactly the most likable person. i don’t wanna see them and be obnoxious or awkward,” a frown tugs at your lips, “just don’t wanna go, pete.”

and he understands, really and truly does. however, he knows telling you that won’t help, won’t make you believe it any more than you do now. so, he tries for reassurance.

“you’re not gonna mess up, promise. you know you’re the most capable and smart human i know, right?”

you scoff. “very capable and smart, hm? even when i whine to you about this dumb shit?”

“god, baby, you’re allowed to have feelings,” peter admonishes, “it’s okay to have doubts; everyone does. but... it’s like... the city, right? some of the buildings are... oh, god, what am i saying?”

peter’s turn to palm his face, which accompanies a nervous giggle. you hide a grin in his sweater, wrapping your arms around his neck and snuggling further into them. the soft fabric soothes you and so does his laugh; you don’t tell him, just let him collect his thoughts, but the sound warms you from the inside out. the next time he speaks, it’s so close to your skin that you shiver (maybe that’s his goal).

“my point is,” he begins, “you’re gonna be okay, angel. i... can’t make it all go away. i’m not that cool. but i know your friends adore you just like me. and you’re totally gonna ace those classes. you’re not alone either, babydoll. not even a little.”

you consider his words for a moment. he’s right; he can’t fix your problems or make it all go away, but perhaps he underestimates how much he’s really helping you. you feel warmth like fresh bread and sweet cinnamon tea spread through your chest when he kisses the crown of your head— which is fitting, considering how often he likes to call you ‘princess.’

finally, you speak again. “i hope so,” you say quietly. quiet, but measured and hopeful. peter’s glad to hear the smile in your voice.

“mmm. i know so, bug.” he kisses your head again, this time closer to your temple. a little laugh bubbles from your throat.

it’s 7:44 in the morning, just a few minutes before you and peter parker need to head to school. the sun shines lazily and two teenage-appropriate backpacks sit readily under the dining table. and you, now at least slightly more content, are draped across peter’s lap, savoring the sound of his heartbeat and feel of his arms around your torso. with your eyes closed, you rattle off a list in your head: pens, mints, textbooks. peter, headphones, bus card— all things you’re happy to have, and one thing that has managed to assuage your worries better than you ever could alone.

to some, it probably looks like you’re sleeping away the day. but really, you’re wide awake, and ready as you’ll ever be.

#ask #anon #peter parker blurb #peter parker fluff #peter parker x reader #peter parker imagine

60 notes · View notes

goldenkamuyhunting · 5 years

Note

Hi i love your metas. I am now get worried that Tsurumi is a sociopath but he, Ogata are spies so hard to understand. I always think Ogata has BPD bcoz he is like this person and normal for a man. But author sometime writes him only for making plot twists. Sorry for bad english.

Thank you, I’m really glad you love my meta!

Don’t worry about your English as I’ve said many times English is not my mothertongue either.

Now, in regard to your ask and personality disorders let’s put some order in this as I’ve noticed there’s quite a lot of interest for this topic.

First of all rarely characters from works of fiction have accurate personality disorders. The best they can have is the trope version of that personality disorder, unless they’re stories dealing either with real life people or written by someone competent or that researched a lot into the topic as writing realistically someone with a personality disorder isn’t easy at all.

Also, more often than not they go for the extreme version of the personality disorder as the tame version wouldn’t be worth the effort.

That’s why instead than using my studies in psychology I fish up the trope descriptions for personality disorders and use them. It’s not just simpler but also more fitting considering the subjects at hands.

It’s also worth to note way too many authors aren’t trying to represent a personality disorder... with the result it becomes impossible to fit a character in that personality disorder because any resemblance is coincidental and the character simply isn’t meant to have it.

Long story short, I don’t think Noda had a particular disorder in mind for Ogata otherwise he would give him much more obvious syntoms.

Noda, instead than giving disorders to his characters, seems more focused in giving them traumatic experiences and maladaptative copying mechanisms giving them ambiguous disorders without really having to dig too much into them so as to make them accurate.

The only disorder Noda seems to refer at, albeit vaguely, in his manga, is the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as most of the cast is composed by war veterans who might be esperiencing it one way or another (well, actually in real life not everyone experience it but in fiction it either doesn’t exist or everyone experiences various deegress of it and becomes a Shell-Shocked Veteran).

The good part of having so many cast members who are probably experiencing this is that in order to keep characterizations different, each of them experiences it differently, giving the whole thing a tinge of realism instead than a flat aderence to a trope.

Of course this too can be Noda merely referring to a trauma and to the maladaptative copying mechanisms derived by it, without Noda really planning to dig too deep into the disorder’s condition.

Sugimoto, after all, isn’t really qualified to give a diagnosis for himself and the others and it’s worth to note part of the people he’s thinking at had pre-existing traumas.

Long story short, even if post-traumatic stress disorder seems a safe bet, we can’t really be sure about it.

Anyway, let’s give a look at the two disorders you mentioned.

Antisocial personality disorder (ASPD or APD) and Borderline personality disorder (BPD) don’t quite have a referencing trope as far as I know.

It can be because to people who aren’t really into personality disorders antisocial personality disorder closely resembles sociopathy and psychopathy and borderline personality disorder resembles post-traumatic stress disorder so media didn’t feel like digging into the distinctions.

Or maybe they just aren’t mainstream enough.

This of course lowers the chances Noda thought at them as well.

Anyway, Antisocial personality disorder.

I’ll just pick the main defining traits from tv trope again because they feel what an author would use more than the defining traits from a psychology book... even though since I’ve already said Ogata didn’t fit the sociopath trope, this might feel redundant.

Antisocials will simply take what they need or want, and don't think of anybody as a friend; everybody is a tool.

While Ogata has no friends, not everybody is a tool to him as, as I mentioned discussing the sociopath and the narcissist tropes, he went out of his way to spare Huci, help Nikaido, spare Shinpei and even comforted Koito.

They have a reputation for rationalizing acts most would consider dog kicking, in the process shaming their accuser for standing up for themselves. Contrition and remorse are tools for getting what they want and nothing more; if they think or know that they can win their way back into someone's good graces by appearing to want to atone for their actions, they will, only to revert to their old ways the minute that they have succeeded.

Ogata never tries to atone for his own actions... but I’ve already discussed how he clearly feels guilty for Yuusaku’s death.

They are also notoriously prone to violent and aggressive behavior and will frequently seek revenge after a setback, and their general inability to experience guilt or appreciate consequences means that they are unlikely to view punishment as anything other than an undeserved injustice, something to bullshit their way out of, or as a score to settle.

Ogata, being the trope of the cold sniper isn’t really prone to violent and aggressive behaviour. Sure, he used scissors against Ejiri Matasuke, but that’s probably the only time Ogata did used physical violence against someone without being in need of it (kicking Koito to render him unconscious is tactical, not gratuitous violence).

He didn’t kick Asirpa when she tried to reach for the arrows nor beat Koito after he was immobilized to take revenge for Koito hitting his nose with his head.

In a time period in which people are actually very violent (look at the Nikaido brothers beating Sugimoto up or at Sugimoto threatening Shiraishi or even at him and Kiro beating the guys who were trying to rob them), Ogata is comparatively very calm and cold.

More traditional methods of teaching empathy are generally held to be useless with antisocials, as they typically just learn how to be better manipulators.

Again, I’ve talked already about how Ogata fails as a manipulator.

(They) have no qualms of violating established rules or disproving widely held theories.

This can be perceived as fitting... but it actually fit all the cast. No one is really following the law in the gold hunt, it’s a pre-requisite to take part to the gold hunt itself and again just a trait wouldn’t be enough to.

Long story short, no I don’t think Noda had this in mind when he created Ogata.

Borderline personality disorder now.

I’ll skip all the elements it has in common with post-traumatic stress disorder... as this can be a disorder in Golden Kamuy.

So... defining traits that differentiate it from post-traumatic stress disorder are: frantic fear of abandonment, unstable and intense relationships, impulsiveness and inconsistent image of self.

None of this really fits Ogata.

He is an abandoned child, true, but while he likely would have preferred for Asirpa not to leave him, he didn’t show a ‘frantic fear of being abandoned’ by her.

His relationships aren’t intense or they wouldn’t fit with the trope of cold sniper.

Ogata isn’t consistently impulsive, he’s a risk taker, true, but he usually plans things first when possible and hardly acts on impulse.

Regarding Ogata’s image of self he knows very well how good he is as a sniper... but also how little worth he had in his father’s eyes.

Long story short I don’t think Ogata was meant to have this one disorder either.

Again it’s just me.

If the Golden Kamuy characters were real life people to make a diagnosis about what they might suffer would be a lot more complicate than just checking a checklist. As they’re just characters, we should expect them to have just the defining traits to the disease, the ones that would eventually create a trope.

Still, if you want, you might consider reading @chibivesicle‘s post which actually considered the chance of Ogata having borderline personality disorder per the NIH as @chibivesicle diggest into this not from the trope side but from the psychological side.

Now... can Tsurumi be a sociopath?

Skipping I don’t think Noda had in mind specific diseases for his characters, Tsurumi is much more complicate than Ogata to analyze because we hardly have any introspection for him... and since he’s meant to fit the trope of chessmaster and manipulative bastard we hardly see him in contests in which he can be himself still... let’s try.

Mind you, this time I’m going to report only the main points and not the descriptions.

1) Lack of Empathy and Devoid of Conscience

As I said there are little to no introspection scenes with Tsurumi so we can’t really say if his actions are due to how he feels or due to the image he has to project outside to play out his role of chessmaster and manipulative bastard to judge.

However the fact he tries to send away Fina and Olga...

...and seemed to genuinely suffer for their dead

since he remained with Fina until she died, holding her hand and even told her his true name, showed affection for Olga...

...and even set them down to rest together before leaving...

... make me think in those moments he was showing empathy and coscience otherwise he would have had no reasons to waste his time with them once Kiro and Co were out of sign.

Also although it would have been easy for him to persuade his men to get rid of the lightnight bandit and O-gin, he spared him and even entrusted him to Huci alongw ith some money wrapped in his parents’ clothes so he would even have mementos of them.

2) Consummate Liar and Manipulator.

As said before Tsurumi fits the tropes of chessmaster and manipulative bastard so of course he’s a consummate liar and manipulator, the best in the whole Golden Kamuy were everyone lies and way too many have tried manipulating someone.

The problem comes from the fact this isn’t an enduring maladaptative behaviour which characterize a personality disorder but a set of skills he had to learn to be an effective spy and that now is using to reach his goal. As we’ve no info on Tsurumi PRIOR to him becoming a spy, we can’t know if he’s just someone with enduring maladaptative behaviours which he’s using to do his job or if those are merely acquired skills.

3) Pathological Need for Stimulation.

I wouldn’t say Tsurumi is doing all this for the thrill, even if there are moments in which he seems to relish on the thrill. We also have no info about him viewing his existence as boring or meaningless.

Tsurumi seems to have a clear goal in mind, and all this doesn’t seem just an excuse to have fun.

4) Shallow Affect and Complete Lack of Emotional Reciprocity.

Again he seemed to care for Fina and Olga but, due to the situation, it’s hard to say how much. He might care/might have cared for others, like Tsukishima, but again, his plans get in the way and with the lack of internal dialogue we can’t really tell, just speculate.

5) Grandiose Sense of Self-Worth.

I can’t remember Tsurumi babbling at how clever he is but since he wants to become the new Hokkaido dictator I guess he could have some.

To sum it up.

Info on Tsurumi are vague and, due to the tropes he represents and the lack of inner info or past info about him, we can’t really sort him well.

Tsurumi has very little evidence going again the idea he’s not a sociopath (never mentioning Noda even had fun compating him to hitler or a demon) and actually, considering other factors people could very well buy he’s one.

Is that the case?

Actually I still think we miss pieces of his past that we should know before judging him... and I’m not sure Noda aimed to represent personality disorders and, in this case, the resemblance with one is ‘coincidental’, the result of Tsurumi being an antagonist as well as Noda wanting to use the chessmaster and manipulative bastard tropes, and not to a genuine effort to portray a personality disorder... but again, maybe I only saw the tip of the iceberg.

Still, it's worth to note I think if he wanted us to buy he's a sociopath he would have given us absolutely 0 evidence he could not be one and instead he gave us 2 moments that seem to deny it and much more evidence he's one when there are actually some parts for which we've no evidence.

In short Tsurumi I understand how people can thinks Tsurumi can be a sociopath... but his resemblance to the Sociopath trope can very well be coincidental due to the other tropes he represents and due to us missing some info. It’s hard to say FOR SURE as for now we've nowhere near enough elements to judge... and some elements seem to go against this theory.

Noda seemed to favour being vague so I think we can only wait and see.

Thank you for your ask and sorry if something in my reply was unclear but I had a pretty terrible week and now I’m mostly worn out. Sorry again!

#Ogata Hyakunosuke #Tsurumi Tokushirou #Golden Kamuy #Ask

14 notes · View notes

scftuan · 6 years

Text

Get Oh (Part 1)

Genre: romance/thriller

Rating: M

Characters: Sehun x reader feat. Chanyeol

——————————

There were many things you prided yourself on.

Your academic achievements, your musical accomplishments, your ability to be liked by every teacher on campus (though you swore you weren’t a teachers pet).

Yet there was one thing that you were having to reconsider as being something to be proud of (mainly because you were lacking in it greatly at the moment).

And that thing was: patience.

For somehow you had slept through your alarm and wound up barely making it to your morning lecture, which meant the only seats left were the ones in the back and there was only one person who made a habit of sitting in the very back.

Oh Sehun.

Tall, broad-shouldered, nice ass, a handsome face with a stern brow over a pair of dark brown eyes that were always somehow partially shrouded by his messy black hair-it was blonde a week ago, the jackass would be bald before he graduated college-and a mouth that would make even a straight man melt.

And you hated him.

Why?

Because currently he was in the back of the class, completely at ease as his latest catch of the week draped herself across him, whispering what must be the most disgustingly pathetic sexual promises and emphasizing it by touching everything she could and not-so-subtly trying to suck a hickey into his neck.

You ground your teeth as you tried to ignore their antics and focus on the lecture, but it was becoming increasingly hard as the giggles and soft sighs of imaginary pleasure continued behind you. By the end of the lecture, you had managed to write a handful of notes and leave with at least the beginning and ending statements intact in your mind.

As you gathered your things to leave, you rolled your eyes at the continued chit-chat between Sehun and his…girl. She seemed to be pouting about not having sex with him immediately but he assured her he’d give her a call. You scoffed, rolling your eyes at the two of them. ‘Of course he won’t, the jackass.’ You thought as you tucked away the last of your things and prepared to make your exit.

Unfortunately, you were met by firm resistance in the form of the aforementioned jackass.

For whatever reason, Sehun had parked himself right in your way, his signature smirk turning the corners of his mouth up slightly.

With a slight sigh, you looked up at him and asked with the most deadpanned tone you could manage: “What do you want Sehun?”

In mock hurt, Sehun placed a hand over his heart and gasped at you, “Why Y/n, you wound me so, I thought we were closer than that.”

You laughed, shooting him a unamused look as you replied: “I think all of those bleaches and dyes are going to your head Sehun, in what universe have we ever been close?”

He grinned at that, his perfectly white teeth practically blinding (seriously, who was his family dentist?). “For the record, I only ever choose colors that allow me to never have to bleach my hair. But anyway, I wanted to ask you how you enjoyed the show in the background?”

You glared at him, pulling the straps of your book bag up as you prepared to make your escape. “Oh you mean the soft porn that was going on in the middle of a lecture concerning only the highest of philosophies known to man?” You took a step closer, ignoring the obvious height difference and the fact Sehun smelled like mint and something distinctly woodsy, “Honestly Sehun, we all know that if it wasn’t for the money your daddy pays this school every year, you’d have been kicked out before your first month of freshman year.”

Not waiting to see his reaction, you pushed past and headed for the exit, a small part of you feeling almost as bad for the jab as the other part felt victorious.

——————————

In all honesty, you weren’t sure why you hated Sehun so much, at first you assumed it was just a general dislike for his fuckboy ways. But when he’d slept with your roommate and left her absolutely broken, you’d sworn to hate him with every ounce of your being.

Oh Sehun was the epitome of everything you despised. Loose with his morals, thought with his dick more than his brain, unnecessarily privileged (his dad practically owned half the school), and lacking a basic conscience and academic desire-you weren’t even sure what his major was.

With a sigh, you leaned back on your apartment’s couch, tipping the contents of the beer your roommate had smuggled in into your mouth, the harsh burn of the alcohol welcoming with all the shit you had going on.

Though you never let it show, your academics were beginning to crush you, leaving you drained and unable to find joy in almost everything, even your music, the thing you’d dreamed of since childhood, felt unreachable and far too luxurious to imagine.

“For fucks sake Y/n, I can practically hear your depressing thoughts from the hallway.”

You smiled slightly, looking over to see that your roommate Suzy had finally arrived, takeout in one hand, random movie from the local redbox in the other.

“I hope you brought as much chow mein as you could afford because I am ready to drown all of my problems in as much greasy and unauthentic Chinese food as I can.” You shot her a grin, and though her eye roll was probably meant to be ‘tired of your antics’, it came off as more of ‘let me support you with food and beer.’

As you and Suzy began to spread out the takeout and the extra bottles of beer, the conversation quickly picked up and wound up revolving around the subject of your day and just how suckish it was.

“So tell me,” Suzy began, tilting her head inquisitively at you as she twirled her chopsticks around, “why exactly did Sehun cause you so much trouble today?”

You rolled your eyes and stuffed another bunch of noodles into your mouth in order to buy enough time to think of a proper answer. Once you had gracefully swallowed and taken a long sip of your beer (okay maybe it was more like downing the rest of the bottle in one go), you finally replied. “In all honesty I don’t quite know myself, I just know that he’s an overly privileged jackass who treats women like dirt and they all still fall down on their knees for him.”

Suzy laughed, “Oh Y/n, if you only knew what he could be like in bed…”

You practically choked on your piece of chicken, the memory of Suzy having once slept with the asshole (and promptly had her heart broken) suddenly coming back to you. “B-but he broke your heart?”

Your friend shrugged and continued to dig into her food, “You have to remember that was almost a year ago and I’m an overly sensitive type who gets attached for the amount of time it takes to have an orgasm and then promptly forgets all about it.”

You opened your mouth to argue but quickly realized she was right. Suzy had no qualms about her sexuality and enjoyed the occasional hookup. You’d only just met her when she’d had the fling with Sehun and so seeing her with a ‘broken heart’ had made your dislike for the young man secure-not knowing that Suzy would easily move on within three days.

Once the takeout (and the beer) had been demolished and Suzy had discovered a comfortable sleeping position on the nearest couch, you managed to stumble your half drunk self into a shower and then promptly into your bed. That night, your dreams were filled with brokenhearted cries and the flash of a charming smile before a mouth was pressed against your own.

Morning came much too soon for your taste; the sun streaming in through the curtains making your eyes squint and your head throb. You discovered your body was slightly sweaty and uncomfortable from your dream last night (images of being kissed by someone you swore you knew still flashed across your mind). “I’ve really gotta stop drinking.” You mumbled, a large yawn assaulting you as you stretched your arms above your head. You hadn’t even managed to pull on a more decent pair of pants (what? Last night you were drunk and tired, panties seemed like the best option) before Suzy was bursting into your room, eyes flashing with excitement as she bounded towards you.

“You would never believe it!” she half squealed, “We’ve just been invited to what is going to be the largest-second only to the end of the school year bash-of the semester!”

Translation: Suzy had been invited and she was dragging you along with her.

You scrunched your nose up at the thought and finished properly buttoning your jeans. “Thanks, but no thanks.” You replied, grabbing the nearest brush to drag through your hair before tying it into a rather realistic looking ponytale. “You know that’s just not my thing, I prefer to get drunk in the safety of my own apartment.”

But Suzy gave you a look that told you you would indeed be going if she had to drag you out by your book bag.

And all you could do was sigh.

—————————

The party proved to be as much of a bore as you dreaded. College kids swayed together with the overly loud music, red solo cups overly full with booze grasped in the hands that weren’t trying to grope each other.

You frowned at your colleagues and continued sipping at the bottle of soda you’d brought with you (someone had to be the designated driver). Suzy had disappeared into the crowd and abandoned you to observe the scene in a lowly corner of the room. You sighed as your eyes scanned the room, distain at the obvious grotesqueness of the way most of the others acted, and curiosity at any scene that looked slightly interesting. As you continued your menial task, your eyes happened to land on none other than Oh Sehun himself.

As usual, some random girl was draped on him, his arm holding her possessively by the waist. Yet he seemed…distracted. His eyes darted this way and that and he kept shifting from side to side, he even ignored whatever the girl was trying to whisper to him as she pressed herself against him. You hadn’t realized you’d practically been staring until his gaze landed on you. For a moment, you thought he’d throw one of his stupid winks and smirk at you, instead, he shot you a frown and subtly shook his head.

But now you were fully intrigued.

For the rest of the evening you kept an eye on Sehun, the young man drifting from place to place, the girl following him about, yet he remained uninterested and distracted.

You stared down at the now empty bottle in your hand, your eyes flicking between it and Sehun, who had managed to somehow magically detach himself from his girl and who was now standing closer to the end of the room. His look continued to grow more intense as the night wore on; he couldn’t stay in one place, always walking this way and that, as if he were waiting for something.

Out of pure boredom, you looked away for a moment (you didn’t think Sehun would go far), but by the time you’d looked back to his original position, the tall young man was gone.

You frowned, wondering where he could have disappeared to. Setting your bottle down, you prepared to go after him when it occurred to you just how odd you were acting. Go after Sehun? What were you, one of his admirers/stalkers? With a groan, you stepped back, deciding that you had obsessed over Oh Sehun quite enough for one night.

Yet even as the event wore on, you couldn’t shake the oddness of Sehun’s behavior.

——————————

The next couple of days passed in a blur. Ever since the party (which had proven to be just boring as you originally thought), you hadn’t been able to take your mind off of Sehun, and with the way he’d been acting in class lately, it became even harder.

For some reason, Sehun hadn’t seemed like himself. To anyone else, he looked like just as much of an ass as he always had, a girl always on his arm; yet his eyes betrayed that something else was going on. For some odd reason, you’d find random excuses to glance back at where the boy sat in his usual spot in the back. He always looked calm enough, his aura one of boredom with whatever the professor in front of him was babbling on about, but his eyes held a dark determination you’d never seen before.

Finally, after hardly a week of this behavior, you couldn’t take it anymore.

You were going to confront Sehun head on and get whatever this curiosity was out of your system.

It was late on Friday when you found yourself in the library, the place practically empty save for you, a librarian, and none other than Oh Sehun. You glanced up from your studies to see the aforementioned wandering farther into the rows of books, his brows furrowed in concentration as he looked over their titles.

You barely heard the librarian give her ten minute warning till closing time, instead choosing to quietly move from your seat to follow Sehun as he kept walking.

This was crazy, there was no way you were stalking Sehun (okay you wouldn’t call it stalking, just keeping an eye on him until you got up the nerve to let him know how his behavior had been bothering you). You only noticed the dimming of the lights and just how deep into the recesses of the library you had walked when Sehun suddenly spun around, his dark eyes catching you and pinning you into place.

You waited for him to send you a smirk (maybe a laugh if he was in a good mood), followed by some flirty comment on how you just couldn’t stay away. But instead his eyes were like steel, his expression clearly not amused.

You just barely registered the click of a lock and the final dimming of the lights, leaving you and Sehun shrouded in the evening shadows, the fading sun doing little to give you much illumination.

As you opened your mouth to speak, the sudden sound of a door being opened reached your ears, followed by a few harsh whispers.

You didn’t move, choosing to continue staring at Sehun as the whispers cut off.

Why your breathing was so heavy you had no idea, but you did know that it was too much for the extreme silence in the room.

Sehun stared back at you, his breathing just as heavy but much more silent. You barely had time to register the flash of annoyance in his dark eyes before he was grabbing your hand and pulling you harshly into the closest hiding place.

You tried to protest but were cut off by his large hand over your mouth, though the proximity of your bodies in such a small space was enough to leave you speechless anyway.

“If you make a single noise,” he hissed, “I will personally kill you myself.”

663 notes · View notes

ganymedesclock · 6 years

Text

ALL RIGHTY, onto them TFA people. since these take a lot more out of me than I was expecting, I’m gonna close this particular meme for now and not take any more asks.

Bear in mind these reads are only as far as SUV: Society of Ultimate Villainy and I would really prefer to avoid any spoilers! I’ve already seen some and it’s not fun. And yes, I do read the tags/replies on this post so watch y’alls spoilery mouths, people.

@numinousbones said:prowl and shiro for the ask meme!

Shiro was last masterpost, so, Prowl!

Prowl is my absolute favorite out of the main crew so far and that’s pretty darn hot competition since most of the TFA main cast won me over fast and hard. I mostly love how deeply expressive he is with his noticeably flat affect and how this isn’t met with a “ha ha but what is Prowl feeling or thinking??? he’s such an impossibly unreadable enigma.” Prowl does have his enigmatic qualities but they are not tied to his autistic traits.

Also when he grinned really big in Megatron Rising Part 2 that absolutely melted my heart. Prowl, you are like almost definitely a child soldier career assassin with deep personal issues where do you get off being that cute.

Evaluating the attractiveness of robots is. weird. I like Prowl’s color scheme and also him being a delicate-built lanky motorcycle man.

hogwarts house: gryffindor | slytherin | ravenclaw | hufflepuff

This was a tough one. I almost went with Ravenclaw or Slytherin, and excluded the former because while Prowl is smart and observant, he doesn’t particularly value knowledge for its own sake- his curiosity and fascination is saved for specific things that capture his interest.

And Slytherin is right out- Prowl might be ambitious, but the other side of Slytherin is interpersonal loyalty, maintenance of a trusted circle, and while Prowl heavily benefits from that, he relies on others to build it for him, and often doesn’t really think to reach out to it.

Thus, Gryffindor remains- because if there’s one thing to be said about Prowl, he’s very headstrong- about what he believes in, about what he thinks needs to be done. He pushes tenacity further and further to the point that in Fistful of Energon in particular, “whatever it takes” is practically his mantra.

best quality:

His empathetic side is pretty prominent, especially when that’s the thing that reigns him in during Fistful of Energon. Where his mind can justify almost anything with the urgent, hand-to-mouth way he seems used to operating, he sets his compass to his heart to figure out if he’s going too far. Also, he loves cats, and that’s adorable.

worst quality:

Prowl. Prowl for the love of fuck I don’t know what your backstory is yet but these implications are incredibly viciously unhappy please just. pursue journaling. Get a cat. Talking to your teammates might be too uncomfortable and you’re afraid of the only friends you’ve had in a while judging you and that’s understandable but please talk to someone, and, of course, you won’t, not until this becomes an informative but upsetting episode plot. :/

ship them with:

I have no Prowl ships at present. Mostly I’m trying to figure out what exactly his approximate age ‘in human years’ is.

brotp them with:

Honestly Ratchet loaning him the EMP generator in Fistful of Energon was a pretty deep statement of trust, which makes me really want to see the two of them interacting more in positive situations. As far as relationships we’ve actually seen, I really like his interactions with Bulkhead and Optimus.

needs to stay away from:

I Still Don’t Know Prowl’s Backstory disclaimer but nobody gets like that without someone else setting things up and I have three guesses who and all of them start with “fucking” and end with “Megatron.”

misc. thoughts:

I have a Prowl backstory theory and it’s one part the entire way he relates to Grimlock and one part “so anybody, at any point, gonna call Prowl on his ability to fly and noticeably dark, murky color scheme compared to literally every other autobot we have clapped eyeballs on”

@theicombaticon said: Hi! Since you're doing the character asks and I haven't seen you say as much about her.....what are your thoughts on Sari?

So Sari is one of the few details I knew about Transformers Animated before watching it (specifically her having some sort of relationship with Cybertron/ not being all human) but I didn’t have that many assumptions about her character, but whoa nelly does she deliver.

I would seriously point to Sari as a case study in how to attach a Kid Sidekick to any kind of long-running franchise. Because she’s narratively, perfect- has a well-defined niche, conflicts and problems, unique and reasonable relationships with multiple characters, she’s cute, endearing, has character flaws and conflicts, has nicely diversified interests and is proactive in a way that’s both realistic and effective.

She Is An Eight Year Old.

hogwarts house: gryffindor | slytherin | ravenclaw | hufflepuff

In like... the third damn episode Sari basically told the gods to fuck off and brought Optimus back from the dead because what’s the point of gaming the system if you can’t punch the world hard enough to make it cough your friend back up and that is like the most Slytherin possible exercise in heroism I have ever seen, ever.

best quality:

Honestly I love this scheming eight-year-old. I love her heroics and equally obvious inclination to break the rules because. what are you gonna do??? stop her?

worst quality:

I mean she has character flaws but a lot of them are related to her debilitating loneliness and the growing horrified realization that a lot of her life was living in a kind of narrow protected bubble that her father made for her because the possibility for magic destiny aside, the Allspark itself pretty clearly implied that her story isn’t one that she particularly is gonna enjoy hearing.

And that just feels... mean to criticize. She’s eight. She’s doing the best she can. That’s only so much.

ship them with:

This Is An Entire Child.

brotp them with:

Her sibling relationship with Bee and Bulkhead is adorable, and I would LOVE to see more out of her interactions with Ratchet but this is because I want to see Ratchet interact more with everyone because I love Ambulance Dad from the bottom of my heart.

But y’know what I really, really want? I honestly want Arachnia and Sari to take their grudging mutual same-hat to the next level. I want Arachnia to become Sari’s terrible decisions big sister. By their powers combined they would be literally unstoppable. Optimus gets to find out second hand what sort of shit his sorta surrogate niece and his Significant It’s Complicated have been up to when Arachnia rolls up an hour past midnight like “guess who’s officially a wanted criminal in Botswana?”

There is at least one (1) heist in which Arachnia gets Sari to climb in the vents to infiltrate a place, which she complains about the entire time but is mollified when someone corners her and tauntingly asks what a Little Girl can possibly threaten him with and then Sari’s just like “oh, y’know” and a giant spider crashes through the wall.

needs to stay away from:

Fuck you, Powell.

misc. thoughts:

Literally my only qualm with Sari is why the hell doesn’t she take her pigtails and hairclips off to sleep. What’s up with that Sari. I know you’re some manner of bizarre cyborg child but what.

Anonymous said: TFA Optimus Prime

So I’ve been very aware of Transformers for a long time because it’s pretty impossible not to be, but I’ve also been obstinately indifferent to it for a long time. Watched the first episode of Prime ages ago, really didn’t get into it, haven’t really felt compelled to look further until friends of mine whose cartoon tastes I trust talked me into TFA.

Optimus... won me over a lot. It’s really nice to see energy and color breathed into a character who’s such an archetypal cornerstone hero- he feels fleshed out and this allows me to actually connect with him as a character.

I know all the autobots have pretty baby blues but like... Optimus in particular. They are nice. I also like the curvature of his mouth because especially in his more snide expressions (e.g. The Headmaster Returns) it means that Optimus Prime, Headliner Hero of the Transformers Franchise, goes >:3 sometimes. Also when he’s sorta miffed about something, it makes him look like he’s pouting.

hogwarts house: gryffindor | slytherin | ravenclaw | hufflepuff

See the interesting thing here is Optimus is exactly the kind of person who’d get incredibly snippy at the Hufflepuff House reputation, but, what mostly sticks with me is that fitting with his fireman’s motif, Optimus’s primary weapon in this setting is a fire axe- which is not a weapon meant for fighting. It’s a tool- meant for clearing obstructions in the way of rescuing people.

This is both a rather powerful statement of confidence- it implies that the enemies he faces down are obstacles, rather than rivals, reflecting both his formidable skill as a combatant and the certain degree of unforgiving pressure he brings to bear on people he sees as obstructing what needs to be done- and it heavily suggests that to Optimus, combat is a labor of necessity, not something particularly glorious or to be reveled in.

Optimus is a hard worker. His morals are stated repeatedly in someone willing to put his nose to the grind and who would rather be doing meaningful work with people he finds honorable than reveling in glory. In a meta sense in Garbage In, Garbage Out, an episode partially about being a hero and what that makes, the first thing we see Optimus doing is personally hauling waste because it’s a job that needs to be done- and it’s Prowl that comments on the indignity of it all, not Optimus who was actively covered in other people’s trash.

best quality:

Optimus has an impressive tenacity of personal character. He’s, I think, one of the big archetypal Lawful Good characters out there, and his willingness to do things like take Sentinel out in Mission Accomplished is contrasted by his willingness to calmly walk right up to Ultra Magnus and state that he accomplished his objective- if Optimus appears to rebel from the system, it’s because, in his eyes, he’s not the one turning away from the ideal of what should be- it’s Sentinel, it’s Magnus, it’s Cybertron that turns away and leaves him to chase what he’s sure is the right course of action, and, as a Lawful Good, he is also willing to quietly turn himself in and face the consequences of his actions as long as he feels his point has been made.

worst quality:

He feels pretty overly responsible for other people. This can lead him to sink deep into personal grief (see Along Came A Spider and the way he parsed Elita’s fate before reuniting with Arachnia), it can make him a little pushy and intrusive (see the way he needles Ratchet about opening up to him about his history in Transform And Roll Out part 1 and again in Thrill Of The Hunt, the latter only acknowledging there’s a reason Ratchet might not want to discuss it after something similar happened to him) and, at his absolute worst, it can make him incredibly snappy and controlling when he feels like every minor thing counts (several occasions, but Megatron Rising part 1 is the cleanest example)

ship them with:

Arachnia. It’s pretty clear they both miss each other terribly, though, they’ve still got a lot of work to do.

brotp them with:

BRIDGE CREW! BRIDGE CREW! I particularly like his interactions with Ratchet (surprise there, huh) and Prowl.

I’d like to invite Sentinel to this party but Sentinel has a lot of emotional shit he needs to sort out first, because, while Sentinel is clearly at least awkwardly trying to patch their friendship, he’s still not... listening to Optimus about what’s important to him.

needs to stay away from:

Nobody in particular that’s not a general hazard to all autobots.

misc. thoughts:

For the longest time I thought Optimus was the equivalent of a twentysomething but now I am genuinely wondering if he’s actually like. basically eighteen. The bridge crew is just Ratchet shepherding a bunch of teenagers around.

@sepublic asked: General opinion on Lugnut?

Lugnut’s honestly got me really intrigued. From his appearance to the sheer raw firepower he’s capable of to the way he is absolutely, to the bottom of his soul terrified of Megatron and at the same time snarls at the idea of anyone so much as suggesting Megatron is less than a grand and benevolent god resplendent on the planet raises some deeply upsetting questions. There’s clearly something to him we haven’t heard, yet.

Not necessarily in the conventional sense but he’s got a really appealing monsterish design that makes him stand out a lot visually.

hogwarts house: gryffindor | slytherin | ravenclaw | hufflepuff

Fervent, unyielding loyalty, personal ferocity in the face of battle. Lugnut never abdicates unless it’s in the face of Megatron- if anything, we’ve never seen him afraid of anything except his beloved lord.

best quality:

Loyalty and tenacity, definitely.

worst quality:

Like Sari, it feels a little mean to criticize Lugnut because I think it’s pretty obvious a lot of his flaws aren’t really of his own crafting outside of stubbornness. He’s pretty obviously profoundly indoctrinated, and the purr to Megatron’s voice in Lost And Found when he calls Lugnut “truly loyal” is deeply disquieting when we know thanks to Soundwave and Grimlock both that Megatron is quite fond of child soldiers... and Lugnut looks almost nothing like a conventional cybertronian.

ship them with:

I’m not convinced he’s not a child given cybertronians basically pupate directly to their adult size and then stay there so I consider him off the shipping table.’

brotp them with:

None of his current canon connections seem super appealing to me. I mean, in an AUish sense I really like the idea of after Megatron’s defeated or driven off Earth, Isaac Sumdac taking in Lugnut and helping rehabilitate him. The guy just... really deserves better than to fling himself reverently at the feet of an abusive person who actively finds his worship either obligatory or annoying.

needs to stay away from:

Megatron, child protection services has a sniper on the roof.

misc. thoughts:

Lugnut’s really not a guy I expected to care about this much, which is kinda the story of TFA. If I didn’t go in expecting to love the character, I was proven wrong.

#send me a character #readmore

9 notes · View notes

sachiro · 7 years

Photo

The Many Faces of Victor Nikiforov - Episode 6

And here we are, back in the international competitive circuit! We get a good look at how the other skaters and coaches think of Victor and Yuuri’s situation and how Victor deals with their reactions. Let’s dive right in!

Actually, character development aside, I just love this first one for how peaceful it is. Even the little details like Yuuri talking in his sleep and Victor drooling in his make them feel more realistic than they would were they perfectly put together when unconscious. They’ll need the rest too, considering the amount of socializing they’re about to get thrown into. Also, you can catch a subtle banquet reference before this shot with Victor asking Yuuri if he wants any champagne!

So your first thought for this second choice might be “but this isn’t a Victor gif” and I thought so too but I feel like the composition of this shot is actually really interesting in regards to him. I think there was a part of Victor that was hoping Yakov wouldn’t be too mad at him for up and leaving when Yakov so clearly disapproved of the plan. Or maybe Victor knew what Yakov’s reaction was bound to be like and decided to brave the flames regardless, but either way Victor invites Yakov to dinner with a smile on his face like nothing had changed since the last time they talked. But Yakov rejects it, along with Victor’s coaching endeavours in the process, and we as viewers are deprived of Victor’s immediate reaction to it. There may have been some kind of spasm of emotion on his face, such as hurt, before he plasters on the smile and obliviously cheery attitude to cover it up. So, the fact that this isn’t specifically a Victor gif is exactly what makes it one.

And then that hurt leads us to this third gif, where Victor has gone and gotten himself drunk right before a competition day. Remember back in episode 3, how we touched on Victor’s drinking habits being a bad coping mechanism to deal with his depression/upset/disappointment? Here’s another instance in which he drowns his sorrows with alcohol. If nothing else, this speaks to how much Yakov’s disapproval of Victor’s career choice hurt him, even if Victor never talks about it.

But Yakov isn’t the only one who disapproves, as seen by the girls talking to Victor here in this fourth clip. Something interesting to note in terms of body language: Victor has his arms crossed. This is a real easy way to tell if someone is closed off. Compared to when he was talking with Yakov, when his body language was very open (and thus very susceptible to Yakov’s words and opinions), he seems to have either learned his lesson and goes in expecting disapproval or never particularly cared what these girls thought in the first place (or very possibly a mix of both). I do also find it interesting that they seem to think that Victor is only there for a booty call and nothing else. Their message of “it’s not going to last” also speaks to me about Victor’s past relationships; namely that he’s never had any that were really long term and/or serious.

I actually love this fifth gif with Chris because it shows how close they are as friends in just a few simple details: that Victor is comfortable enough with Chris to not mind him in his personal space bubble, that he has no qualms shushing him, and that he listens and responds to Chris’ query. Unlike everyone else so far (except Yuuri) where he’s either kept some space between them or not responded directly to their questions/comments, he seems to share an ease with Chris that we haven’t seen before.

For this sixth choice, I’d like to talk a bit about the words Victor’s saying and the sentiment behind them. He’s telling Yuuri that he doesn’t need to be a katsudon or a beautiful woman to seduce Victor; Yuuri just needs to be himself. Sound familiar? I believe that this line and sentiment is a direct parallel to the beach scene in episode 4 where Yuuri imparts the exact same message to Victor. They both encourage each other to just be themselves and not put on a mask because the mask isn’t necessary, they were attracted to each other – and continue to be so – because of who they are as people and not what they can provide in any other “roles”. I also love how Victor tops it off with “and you already know that, don’t you?” because it shows Victor’s trust and confidence in him. And then Yuuri goes off and responds by skating the best Short Program he’s ever done with more references to the beach scene (“I’m the only one who knows Victor’s love”, “I’ll show it to you through my skating”).

Okay, I will admit that my reason for adding this seventh gif in was because it’s an expression of pure arousal. Yuuri has definitely succeeded at seducing Victor and he is completely turned on. He just looks so enraptured and unguarded. Also, another thing to note: this is the first time that Yuuri has finished skating and Victor’s first reaction wasn’t to be critical, which I think is a mixture of learning how to be a better coach for Yuuri as well as how completely blown away he was by Yuuri’s performance.

I find this eighth gif particularly fascinating because Yuuri obviously gives a response that Victor was not expecting. Victor asks Yuuri if he felt good out there (which was also a sexual innuendo in the original Japanese… Victor please, you’re in public) and Yuuri responds with saying that he hopes everyone else felt good watching him. Yuuri continues to surprise Victor, even in the small things, and I love how they show that to us so we can watch them grow with each other.

Victor’s pure joy here is something that I love just for being what it is. Even if Yuuri can’t see the scores that well, he should still have been able to hear them over the loudspeakers (and see the number of digits he got) but he doesn’t have much of an expression. It feels to me like he was completely in the zone while he was skating and he’s still trying to work himself out of it. But for Victor, he’s just bursting with happiness at Yuuri’s results for no other reason than because Yuuri did so well. If anyone ever had any doubts about Victor being invested in Yuuri’s skating then I feel like this moment would have set those worries to rest.

And for this last gif, I just love their casual affection. Before, Yuuri used to back away from any kind of physical touch or others being in his personal space bubble and Victor wouldn’t touch unless he had a specific reason for it (like flirting or comfort). But now, Victor so easily clings onto Yuuri while watching Chris’ program like it’s something they do all the time (and it very well might be). It makes me think back to episode 4, how Victor was leaning on Yuuri’s shoulder as a method of comforting him. Although that had a reason, it’s interesting to watch the slow development of their physical comfort around each other. They may not tell us much about it directly, but they’ve really gotten quite close since Victor first arrived in Hasetsu.

To me, this episode felt like a middle point when it came to development. It threw some new information at us, but mostly was meant to show us where Victor and Yuuri were at and how others saw them (along with how they reacted to those perceptions). I probably talked a lot more about Yuuri in this set but by this point he’s becoming an inseparable part of Victor’s development so it’s almost impossible not to. I hope you still enjoyed regardless and look forward to next week for the episode you’ve all been waiting for!

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [Duetto]

Bonus because he just looks so cute here to pass up:

#yuri!!! on ice #yuri on ice #meta #yoimeta #fyeahyoi #victuri #victor nikiforov #my meta #my gifs #my post #Yuuri got a big mention in this set wow #I'm still sad over how much everyone else #seems to disapprove of Victor and Yuuri's relationship #either as coach/skater or anything else #:(#but they'll prove it to them!

500 notes · View notes

oh-my-otome · 6 years

Note

I absolutely adore your thoughts on the psychological health within the SLBP characters! If you don’t mind, could you scale MidC, DtL, and IkeSen (pick whichever game you want!), too? If it’s not too much to ask ☺️

Hello, Precious! Let’s do all three!

Again, purely for fun! And, like the last time, there will be SPOILERS!

0=unstable, 50=borderline, 100=normal

MidCin, you’re up!

Louis (65):

Tsunderes, kuuderes and yanderes, by design, are not normal to begin with, because their logic only makes sense to themselves.

Louis being both a kuudere and a yandere are what take his score down.

Frequently thinking it to himself, and sometimes saying it out loud, Louis has obsessive thoughts about wanting to keep his love interest to himself, and fantasizes about keeping her somewhere where only he can see.

He also thinks that acting like a frigid ass, like the nobles, will somehow save her from the nobles.

Even though Louis falls deeply in love with the princess, he will also lie to her face without a hint of hesitation, undermine her hard work, and jeopardize the stability of the monarchy.

He also entertains a suicidal fantasy, and attempts to see it through.

Sid (80):

Even though he lies for a living, Sid praises honesty when it comes to his inner circle.

He has no qualms teasing Louis left and right, because he’s made it known to Louis that he wants to save him from himself.

Finding himself trapped in a loveless engagement, Sid makes sure that his fiancée knows ahead of time that he doesn’t love her and never will. He gives her the chance to break it off, even making sure that she understands that he will take other lovers, and is only with her to get information about her father.

Because Sid always has to be “on,” in order to take advantage of any kind of situation, so that he gets the information he needs to do his job, Sid sometimes has a problem with reigning it in and just being himself– and not his trickster alter ego.

This causes communication problems between him and princess, but Sid always knows how to smooth it over.

In every case where parents are involved, in MidCin, Sid has the most positive and supporting relationship with his.

He is close to his adopted father, who always has his back, and builds a positive relationship with his estranged parents.

Giles (70):

Anything– and I do mean A N Y T H I N G ! –that the princess does, whether positive or negative reflects on Giles. And I mean that the princess’ reactions reflect on Giles as a person and on his capacity as a Chamberlain who knows what he’s doing.

We all give him crap for it, but one small mishap from princess could realistically cost Giles his entire life’s work, since the first thing out of anyone’s mouth would be to question why she wasn’t taught and trained better– which isn’t Leo’s job, but Giles’.

And “well, I told her not to!” isn’t a valid answer. It’s Giles’ job to ensure.

Understandably, we can see why he has a vested interest in breathing down Princess’ neck, all the time. It’s also why he’s always so stressed out, and persnickety.

To add to that, his family life is complicated, leaving him depressed and estranged.

Giles is also sickly, and prone to bouts of fever, so his plate is quite full.

He works himself to the bone, and cant even get a decent amount of rest due to both lack of time, and a weak body.

Fortunately, Giles’ strong character keeps him running, even we he wants nothing more than to crawl into bed and cuddle up with his cat.

Always able to be depended on, one would never know from looking at him that he’s hiding so much turmoil inside.

Alyn (75):

His biggest “quirk” is that he hates tomatoes. who can blame him

He’s pretty damn normal, aside from his random and intense one-sided feud with his twin brother, Leo.

Alyn knows that his brother needs help, but doesn’t really do much to facilitate that, beyond throwing a few words of encouragement at his brother’s girlfriend.

His attitude toward Leo’s anguish is basically the embodiment of the phrase: “like pouring water on a drowning man.”

However, when he’s needed, Alyn will be there in a pinch, ready to make good on his promise to protect.

Although physically strong, he can be a bit of a pushover under the right conditions.

Leo (50):

You would think for someone who has women climbing into trebuchets in order to launch themselves at him, that Leo would be a little smoother than he is.

What brings his score down so low is that Leo’s backstory isn’t just a backstory– it’s right there with him in the present.

He (and Alyn) experience a trauma so deep that it continues into adulthood.

As such, Leo entertains the dangerous idea of pre-meditated murder in the hope of avenging his family, not realizing that he’s also contributing to its destruction.

Byron (65):

It’s supposed to be looked at as a way to get to know him, but not being aware of one’s own feelings– positive, negative, or neutral –and questioning whether it is “okay” to feel them, or express them, is neither normal nor cute.

Byron is also given to whims, either not giving a damn at all what the nobles say, or purposefully putting them in their place with ostentatious displays of affection.

Byron is very sweet to his romantic interest, but is also coldly indifferent to others who are close to him.

He understands that he wields incredible power, but he’s not above making his own brother (Nico), another king (Alyn), and a close friend (Louis) essentially beg on their hands and knees before he’ll lift a finger to help them.

He can also be unnervingly detached, such as when he’s attacked in broad daylight and just shrugs it off while his best friend throws himself bodily in the way to block a sword.

Byron may not like his father, but the apple didn’t exactly fall far from the tree, either.

They may not be exactly alike, as one wouldn’t expect them to be– they’re two different people –but he is definitely Gerald Wagner’s son, by blood and to some extent, personality.

Nico (65):

When the only thing that stops you from murdering a man in the middle of the woods is that your brother and his friend arrived just in time to prevent it, because they didn’t have much trouble following the trail of other people’s blood that you’ve been leaving, have a seat because you’re not normal.

Nico started out his young life as the bastard son of a king, who was forced by circumstances outside of his control to survive on the streets.

Even when he was taken in by his brother, Nico was forced to live in two different worlds: in the light as someone that everyone in the castle can see and here, and know that he’s there, but also in the shadows, as his relationship to the royal family was still kept secret.

In that sense, the sins of the father were carried on by one of his sons, Byron, who wanted to rescue his brother, but also treated him to some extent like the nobles who had chased Nico and his mother from the castle.

Nico says himself that no one really takes him seriously about anything, and that his opinions don’t matter.

Albert is very comfortable with making Nico his whipping boy right in front of Byron.

Byron, for his part, barely ever defends his brother.

All of this can’t be easy for Nico, who confesses to the first person he crushes on.

Not only that, he goes way out of his way, almost killing himself, to protect the person who truly loves him, and risks displacing a monarchy to ensure that he can maintain his relationship.

Albert (75):

Albert’s flippant nature stems from the fact that no one’s checked his ass, before Princess.

If not for her, he would continue on forever, bowing and scraping before his king, without realizing that there can be loyalty beyond fealty, and devotion that transcends admiration and patriotism.

Through love, Albert comes to understand trust and forgiveness, and how to handle one’s emotions.

Albert likes to plan for every situation, but as a tsundere, he is also reactionary.

Robert (65):

Robert’s idea of dealing with the past is never talking about it, ever, which is neither helpful nor healthy.

He also likes to literally run away from his problems, and is just fine with up and leaving at a moment’s notice, with no regard for how that might potentially unnerve, frighten, or traumatize another person– in his case, a group of four specific individuals, all still technically children, who were close to him: Byron, Albert, Nico, and Princess.

While mature in every other regard, Robert is prone to lashing out verbally when people try to talk about his past, even in private.

He also uses stone walling and pretending the incident didn’t happen, as defense mechanisms.

He will also actively ignore any past connections until doing otherwise suits his purposes, leaving the people he used to know in the awkward position of having to guess at whether they’re supposed to try to reach out to him, or go along with acting like strangers.

Now for DtL!

Todo (30):

Todo, first name Heisuke, is the identical twin of Kyo.

Separated at birth, Todo grew up as the wealthy little lord (bocchama) of a crime-ridden family.

At some point, that house fell, and Todo would frequently dream that was in a futuristic place.

In one dream, he discovered that he had a twin, Kyo.

In his dreams, Todo would visit his brother regularly, and that’s when he realized that it wasn’t a dream at all!

Todo possesses the ability to travel across time, backwards and forwards, without restriction– and what he was seeing in his “dreams” was actually real.

Oh, and he’s also a pathokinetic empath who can control the emotions and physical well-being of others, most notably, Kyo.

Apparently, the knowledge that one has powers such as these will mess a person right up, and Todo proceeds to lose his damn mind.

Because time means nothing to him, death and life also mean nothing to him, since all he would have to do is press fast forward or rewind or whatever he does, and “fix” everything.

It would also mean, if he chose to, he could go forward in time and know everything.

Living in an era where superstitions are still deeply rooted in the culture, Todo oscillates between understanding that Kyo is a completely separate person from himself, and thinking that Kyo is literally a part of him that was split off.

Kyo (70):

Pretty normal until he takes his NOTICE ME, SENPAI! act straight into outright threatening others to stay away from the woman he’s crushing on.

He is skeptical and hard-working.

Handsy, clingy and uncomfortably honest when drunk, Kyo is otherwise a good-natured person who enjoys helping others.

Yamazaki (85):

Yamazaki is as popular with the ladies as any other ikemen, but he is also insecure and occasionally distrusting of other’s intentions, particularly around women in the RLD, whom he suspects want to use him (he’s half-right).

He also lets Okita get away with far too much, but he also possesses the power to lay Okita out like a picnic blanket, if he wanted to, so maybe it’s a good thing that Yamazaki chooses to let so many of Okita’s shenanigans slide.

An unrepentant hand fetishist, Yamazaki may look and act innocent, but he’s a beast in the bedroom.

Saito (80):

Saito is secretive and mysterious, but also kind and helpful.

He always keeps his promises, and trains his MC in self-defense so that she has an added layer of protection in an unfamiliar place, beyond ‘I know a bunch of samurai, so don’t mess with me.’

However, he can also be distant and secretive in a negative way, such as getting himself a fiancée when he’s still in love with his MC.

Haru/Kirisato (45):

That moment when the year is 1864 and The Silence of the Lambs novel won’t be published until 124 years later, and you’re talking about someone else’s skin belonging to you– while being completely, creepily serious –is how you know you’re not normal and never will be.

That and the fact that he’s very firmly in yandere territory.

Haru lives a double life as a spy, hitman, and courtesan, who seems to be keeping it all together, until he meets his love interest.

Keiki (60):

Not only does Keiki start out depressed, his own MC makes sure that he can barely climb his way back out, by actively traumatizing him when he needed her the most.

Keiki still carries the pain of watching a friend die in front of him, and as such, dislikes anything that reminds him that beauty– like life –is fleeting.

He is also surprisingly trusting, once he lets his guard down, and very fragile once his trust has been broken.

Kondo (90):

His biggest flaw is that he has no sense of direction, and that he loves animals, but they don’t love him, AND THAT HE DOESN’T HAVE A ROUTE!

Sakamoto (85):

Stubborn and brusque, Sakamoto has a preternatural intuition that has saved him and The Exclusionists more than once.

Too bad it didn’t help in that alley!

Sakamoto is typically chased down and pestered by women, and to that end tries to make himself inconspicuous as much as possible, which is easy to do when you have flaming red hair.

He is thick-headed, but also sensitive, playful but considerate.

Okubo (85):

A graduate of the Byron Wagner School for Robots, Okubo doesn’t know what love is, but wants you to show him.

But look out, because he is chock full of naughty kinks, such as being a very frisky and bold drunk, playing footsie, an unashamed ear kissing and biting fetish, and dominating during sex.

Okubo is very observant when he’s not reading at the speed of light, and his anger is prone to his whims– sometimes he briefly says what is bothering him, and other times he is quite angsty and demanding.

Although he often vague, he is a sincere person.

He is also forgetful, and has no qualms about mooching off of others.

Katsura (90):

Energetic and suave, calculating and capable, Katsura is surprisingly sensitive.

Unable to leave others alone when they need him, he even goes so far as to politely ignore the fact that his former friend’s wife has been coming on to him for years, all because he doesn’t know how to say ‘no,’ without hurting her feelings.

Comfortably open about his hair fetish.

Okita (55):

Okita manages to be both gullible and naïve, which are not mutually exclusive.

His score is low because he is a yandere. He doesn’t find it odd in the slightest that the first thing to pop into in his mind is orchestrating another man’s death, rather than explaining the situation.

Because of his illness, Okita is understandably depressed and anxious, causing him to react to situations in ways that a healthy person wouldn’t.

He is also intensely loyal, and finds that a life spent living without the people he’s close to, is no life at all.

Hijikata (75):

Hijikata likes to take on more than he can chew, but at the same time, doing exactly that frustrates him. He’s super stressed, but finds it difficult to say no.

Like his real-life counterpart, Hijikata believes that someone must go down with the ship, and he has sworn undying loyalty to the Shinsengumi and the shogun, alike.

Because of his workload, and the fact that he is a light sleeper, Hijikata spends his days running on fumes, barely able to get any shut-eye, until he finds his MC.

Although his devotion to Kondo and Keiki is unshakable, Hijikata folds like a cheap suit when Kyo slides up to him and tells him to break up with his MC.

Doesn’t give a damn about anyone knowing that he likes women’s accessories, and wants to dress Yamazaki in women’s clothes.

Yuki (90):

Gender-fluid, bi-sexual Yuki is almost always bubbly and positive.

However, he is not above threatening others when he sees the need, as he doesn’t take kindly at all to having to watch the woman he likes be with a man whom he feels doesn’t deserve her.

His kimono shop is a legitimate business, but also a front where one can buy guns, swords and yes– smoke bombs!

He sometimes pretends to be drunk to get information, or further the romance of his love interest and her chosen partner.

He is stronger than Hijikata and Sakamoto. Combined.

Yuki also has sword skills that make Saito weep.

Takasugi (55):

Retroactively forced into the kuudere box, Takasugi is now a kuu/tsun mix of volatile angst and depression, often using silence as a weapon just as much as his angry retorts.

Takasugi knows that his illness is getting the best of him, and uses others where he cannot succeed on his own.

Stubborn and prideful, Takasugi just wants to be loved, but doesn’t know how to be straightforward about it.

Your turn, IkeSen!

Nobunaga (75):

Nobunaga has inexhaustible trust and faith in his inner circle, and rather than treat them like lesser lords, he treats them like family.

Even as an adult, he still experiences the trauma of a failed assassination attempt, and cannot sleep comfortable until he meets his MC.

He is stubborn about his feelings, denying them and excusing them away, until they become so blatant that he can’t help but act on them.

Ieyasu (55):

Hard-headed and resistant, Ieyasu has a hard time letting others care for him. Quick to try to prove himself, Ieyasu is prove to bouts of seeking vengeance even when the situation is in control.

Obsessed with affirmations of love, Ieyasu is several different dere-types, most notably a yandere.

He takes it personally when people have talent, but squander it.

Hideyoshi (60):

Loyal to the death, Hideyoshi is devoted to Nobunaga with every fiber of his being.

When Nobunaga is believed dead, Hideyoshi proceeds nose dive into a pit of despair so deep that he can barely feel anything.

Mitsuhide (75):

Genuinely believing that there is nothing worth loving about him, Mitsuhide is a sadodere who enjoys teasing others– the closest thing to love that he thinks he’s allowed to have.

Because Mitsuhide keeps his feelings and secrets close to his chest, he is often mistaken as a villain, which exactly what he wants.

Mitsunari (80):

Obtuse and clueless, Mitsunari lovable and pure.

His score is lowered because he actively refuses, at his age, to learn to take care of himself, and has a co-dependent relationship with the other warlords, who merely joke or chastise him about it, rather than taking him aside and demanding that he get himself together, since he is in no capacity a child.

Kennyo (55):

Self-loathing, and chock full of martyr complex, Kennyo goes from murdering madman to regretful, forlorn monk at the speed of light.

His determination to see Nobunaga fall blinds him to the fact that he has other options such as forgiveness.

Shingen (90):

Laid back and chivalrous, Shingen is mature, and dependable to those in his inner circle.

He keeps his illness a secret, which is a personal choice.

Kenshin (50):

A yandere bent on keeping those close to him, Kenshin honestly believes that he cannot die.

The first thing out of Kenshin’s mouth is that he won’t be cowed by a hostage, but the next time you turn around, he’s wrapping himself all kinds of ways around his MC’s (hostage) finger, the better to acquiesce to her every request.

As such, Kenshin experiences the cognitive dissonance of presenting himself one way, but behaving another.

Even knowing that that is how others see him, he is quick to defend himself when made fun of, as he doesn’t like his good intentions joked about.

Battle hungry and single-minded, Kenshin is often in the grip of ennui so strong that only extreme circumstances can pull him out.

Yukimura (70):

The only thing that brings Yukimura’s score down so low is his penchant for joking even when his MC has said she’s had enough, and the act that he’s extremely reactionary under the right circumstances, such as having sex on an unprotected battlefield and leaving his love interest there, deep asleep, with no shelter or anyone/thing to keep her safe.

Masamune (75):

Quixotic and capricious, Masamune is always raring to battle. He is preoccupied with appearing cool at any cost, but is also considerate and thoughtful.

His stubbornness is what cost him a higher score, as he contributes to his MC almost killing a man to prove herself, before he realizes that prattling about his own resolve has an effect on others’.

Sasuke (80):

Sasuke is incredibly smart, but he’s also a bit of a masochist, on top of being a huge fanboy.

He also subscribes to taking forever to notice/confess his feelings, but he is extremely loyal, and down-to-earth.

#q&a #midnight cinderella #destined to love #ikemen sengoku

128 notes · View notes

bxebxee · 7 years

Text

and what a way to go

Note: written for @jeonalis because i love my college girl <3 Based on THIS THING. Names of gadgets and widgets and places and things cheerfully borrowed from all the nerd stuff I used to love many years ago. Mostly Ratchet and Clank though. I think there was also an unintentional fight club reference, but i’ve never seen the movie and have no desire to do so either. Points if you spot all the random nerd stuff I put in there.

Pairing: Jungkook x Reader Genre: Crack, Sci-Fi, Smut Lite (Diet Smut a.k.a. Lazy Smut) Warnings: it’s crack. it’s (bad, lazy) porn. Ah, actually there’s some physical violence. Word Count: 4225 Rating: BC, for bad crack.

“I want you to hit me as hard as you can,” you tell Jungkook.

“Excuse me?” he splutters.

“You heard the woman,” Jimin eggs him on.

“Hit me,” you dare.

Good entertainment is hard to come by in the Year of Our Lord 3333. Jungkook warily orders his holo-projector to turn off the hyper-realistic porn of two human women tribbing because it’s a re-run, and he’s used up his free trial of the sensory package. Somehow actually smelling the sex and experiencing mild neuro-stimulating jolts at key points of the adult film really made the whole porn watching experience better. Anything less was just depressing.

“Did you shut that shit off?” Yoongi asks from outside Jungkook’s bedroom. The door being shut is a clear indication that Masturbatory Events were happening, so the older human boy has learned to not even bother knocking.

Jungkook heaves a sigh because he doesn’t even have a boner. “Yeah,” he answers glumly.

“Is your junk tucked in?”

“It wasn’t out to begin with.”

The bedroom door opens with a force that only comes from a person seeking to pick a fight. Yoongi frowns at Jungkook’s unmoving, prone figure. “You do know that your holo-projector is still connected to the amplifier downstairs, right?”

Jungkook bolts out of his bed, face drawn into a comically horrified picture of contrition and shame. “Uh...” And Yoongi’s girlfriend was over too. He’s dead. More than dead. Deader than dead.

“Lucky for you my girlfriend found it hot and a little bit funny, but seriously...”

This is mortifying, and Jungkook swears he needs to move out as soon as possible - except he’s still broke and fixing hovercrafts from time to time wasn’t any way to make a steady living.

“Sorry,” he grimaces, and scratches the back of his head with a sigh. “I’ll... leave you guys to it then.” (He tries his best not to look her in the eye when she leaves. She fucking waves though. Weird.)

It is 127% because of boredom that he finds himself “borrowing” (read: taking without consent) Yoongi’s mobile airship for the express purpose of hyperwarping to Abraxas-II for a night of wild, youthful revelry. Much to his roommate-slash-employer’s dismay, Jungkook has no qualms about contributing to the statistics of bored young human boys wreaking havoc across the galaxy. If not now, then when? Humans did have one of the lowest life expectancies around, and he wasn’t going to wait until he was pushing fifty-five and seeking cryo-regenification to have a little fun.

“Warning, impending destruction of Abraxas-II,” the Computer tells him twenty minutes into hyperwarp. “Recalculating.”

What the actual fuck. Jungkook takes out his limited edition communicator designed in the tradition of old-school, earth-class cellular devices from the early 21st century. Thankfully he still has signal. At least the UMN was doing something good for the galaxy.

BREAKING: LARGE METEOR IMPACT TO DESTROY “SIN PLANET” ABRAXAS-II - says the headlines. Almost immediately, there are op-ed interviews from Voths and Cragmites who loved to, colloquially speaking, talk shit about everyone else - especially anyone else having fun. Jungkook suspects it’s not some freak meteor because the live feed of the impending destruction shows the “meteor” looks a lot like an intentional laser beam coming from an ominous-looking ship.

“Changing course to Abraxas-X,” the Computer lets him know in a cheery voice. “Estimated time of arrival: seventeen minutes.”

“Uh, Computer, I think I’d rather just go home,” Jungkook tells the ship’s control mainframe.

“Unable to execute command. Due to the projected debris fallout from Abraxas-II’s destruction, all routes back to HOME are closed until further notice from the Federation. We Apologize For The Inconvenience.”

Yoongi will kill him for real this time.

“Did you hear? It’s Abraxas-II this time,” Jimin remarks, wrapping his hand in bandages for the fight tonight. As his “fling for the night” you were allowed in the locker rooms by a creepy looking Agorian guard.

You roll your eyes because of course you heard about the “meteor” about to destroy another planet. The Federation really needed to get their act together. And where was Captain Qwark when you needed him?

“Don’t get distracted, baby boy,” you smirk, completely ignoring his question in favor of sticking to a topic you actually cared about - money. “Tonight is a toss-up.”

You and Jimin played dirty when it came to Abraxas-X’s infamous underground fighting cages. It was a pretty simple scam: Jimin fought based on a pre-determined strategy and you either bet for or against him depending on how it was supposed to go. Sometimes it made more sense to dope up on nanotech painkilers and lose on purpose, and you made sure to bet high and reckless on those days.

Win or lose, you and Jimin always made sure to come out on top. Sometimes though, Jimin faced odd toss-ups like the one for tonight, V, and you had to bet carefully based on Jimin’s condition.

“I think it’ll be a win for tonight,” Jimin decides, handing you the vial of unused nanotech. And herein lie the loophole that allowed for your cute little scam: officials only checked the winners to see who’s doping. Never the losers. This made it easy for Jimin to inject, inhale, and rub as much nano into his system on Lose Nights so that he could take a beating and come out normal the next morning.

“If you say so,” you hum, “And be safe.”

The Agorian guard opens the door, and Jimin pulls you into a kiss fit for the pay-per-view holo-channels. “Fight’s starting soon, lovebirds.”

“Thanks for the hot sex, baby,” you laugh at a smirking Jimin, waving as you exit. “I’ll be cheering for you.”

Jungkook nearly pisses his pants when he gets to Abraxas-X because it’s the furthest thing from Abraxas-II. For one, it’s fucking cold and snowing, unlike Abraxas-II’s modulated temperature system where it was always tropical year round. He’s ridiculously under-dressed for this climate, but that doesn’t mean he can afford to planet hop until he gets somewhere warmer. He’s running out of hyperwarp fuel, and his communicator’s battery is nearly dead.

For another, it’s pretty much deserted along the landing site in a scary, dystopian kind of way.

“Oh fuck me,” he says, but it sounds more like, “Oh-hoh, fuc-c-c-ck, m-me-hee,” because his teeth clack from the cold.

He has a good seven percent battery left which he uses to shiver his way towards civilization. The first group of parka-adorned humanoids he enounters looks at him as if he’s a fucking Cragmite.

“What’s up,” Jungkook smiles in what he hopes to be something more winsome and not pained. “Hey, can you guys direct me to the closest Gadgetron vendor? My communicator is about to die.”

Parka One points to a cave with a fading sign that reads COLOSSEUM, as if the anguished shouts and curses weren’t frightening enough.

“I don’t know if they sell communicators though,” Parka Two tell him. “The guy’s an ex-RYNO dealer.”

What the fuck was this planet even?

“Th-thank you.” Jungkook prays it’s warmer inside.

“No Foul.”

You glare at the referee who refuses to call a foul on that shout. That V fighter asshole is very good at getting in potshots that look legal, and you don’t like it one bit. Jimin is getting his ass handed to him on a rusty copper platter, and you’re more than a little pissed off that you just bet a whole week’s income on this.

V, or whatever his fucking name was, actually has the nerve to wink at you. Apparently he thinks you’re Jimin’s fuck toy, and he’s trying to use playground tactics to piss off your “boyfriend” into making mistakes in the ring. Well, the joke is on you because neither Jimin nor you cared two shits about taunting, and Jimin was still losing.

Your gaze shifts to your partner in crime who shakes his head. He should have taken the fucking nano.

You nod slowly while tucking your hair behind your left ear and blink three, distinct times. The message is there: Next round, submission, tap out. It would be a loss for tonight, but at least Jimin wouldn’t be too injured.

In a fit of annoyance you leave the crowd and make your way towards the exit.

“You don’t accept bolts?” comes an incredulous voice by the entrance next to Jeff, the Gadgetron vendor. “How could you possibly not accept bolts?”

“Sorry, my sexy, muscular, human macho man,” Jeff purrs, “It’s either munny, gil, or credits. I don’t live in the stone ages of bolts.”

You blink when you see a human man fuming at the way Jeff condescendingly refuses to sell him a communicator battery pack. Humans were rare in these parts, so you’re a little taken aback to see one standing at the entrance of the Colosseum wearing nothing but a thin t-shirt and a pair of black pants that looked like they were painted onto his skin.

“My friend, no- my boss is going to kill me unless I get in touch with him, and I literally only have three percent battery. This Abraxas-II bullshit is really-”

“Oh honey, everyone is inconvenienced by Abraxas-II,” Jeff smiles, knowing a wallet when he sees one.

Unfortunately for Jeff, you also know a wallet when you see one too, and that guy with the nice thighs looks like he could do some serious damage in the ring. You want him - for your scam, of course.

“Oh Jeff,” you call out in sing-song voice, hastily shrugging off your parka and pulling down your top.

“Whaddya want?”

“A communicator battery pack,” you answer with a cute smile and a wink in the human guy’s direction.

“Five hundred credits-”

You give him a long look. “Jeff.”

“Abraxas-II-”

“Don’t,” you warn, balling your fist.

“Two hundred,” he replies meekly, and you pay him using your card.

You accept the battery pack and promptly hand it over to the human who’s looking at you in awe. Hook, line, and sinker. And for your next act, you turn away saucily and head for the locker rooms, even though that’s exactly where you came from. You’re pretty sure the pretty boy wouldn’t notice.

“Hey wait,” comes his voice, and you can’t help but to smile because it’s all so predictable. “Wait, what’s your name?”

“Like that’s important,” you laugh, shooting him a flirtatious look. “You got your battery. Go make your call.”

You walk into the crowds once more just in time to see Jimin tap out with a sour look on his face. He looks surprised to see you still here because he thought you would have just left.

“What the hell is this place?” the human next to you exhales, looking around in awe.

“Welcome to the Pits of Abraxas-X,” you grin. “People beat each other up here for money.” As if it weren’t obvious.

“Well fuck.”

“Jungkook, Jimin. Jimin, Jungkook,” you make the introductions in a careless fashion as Jimin ices his bruises. You hand him a vial of nano with a frown.

“Nice to meet you,” Jungkook mutters, eyeing Jimin’s black eye warily.

“Yeah, whatever,” you brush the niceties aside, “Now that we all know each other and seeing as we’re all in the at-least-fifty-percent-human club, let’s get down to business.”

“Wait what?” Jungkook frowns, looking at you with a giant question mark on his face. He only followed you in here because he thought you were hot and maybe (just maybe) on the slim chance that you might blow him in some seedy locker room.

“First of all, you owe me two hundred credits plus tax,” you inform Jungkook who looks like he swallowed a lemon. “Second of all, if you came in here in an airship, you’ll need hyperwarp fuel, which is expensive as fuck on this planet.”

Jungkook gulps.

“Oh, unless your boss can wire you two thousand credits of course,” you smile sweetly.

“Two Thousand,” Jungkook hiccups.

“Lucky for you I have a plan,” you continue, ignoring the way Jimin groans. “My fighter is going to be out of commission for the pits until the nano’s out of his system, and I’m already in the negatives for this week.”

“So what’s your plan?” Jungkook asks, already getting a sense as to where this is going.

“You are the plan, Jungkook,” you tell him, “I need you to play substitute for Jimin for about a week. Can you do that?”

And even you ask him, you’re not really asking him. You’re practically ordering Jungkook to be Jimin’s substitute. The “or else” doesn’t even need to be said because the guy has no other options. He’s stranded here anyway, in desperate need of cash to escape and already two hundred credits in debt with yours truly.

“I don’t know how to fight,” he sighs glumly, “I’m gonna get beat up a lot, huh?”

Your gaze drifts to his thighs and his biceps. “Jungkook, I think with a little training you should be okay. But yeah, you’re going to get wailed on.”

He looks terrified so you amend your statement. “Ah, you’re not going to feel any of it though. You just have to act like you’re in pain.”

“What?” he gasps.

You hold up a fresh bottle of nano. “I love biotechnology and messing around with this shit,” you giggle, “Everyone reacts differently to nano, but for humans, it’s found to be particularly good at repairing physical damage. That’s why it’s illegal in most fighting communities.”

Jungkook lets out a small, choked sound because not only was nano injections illegal in “fighting communities,” this shit was also illegal in five hundredish out of six hundredish planets in the Federation. Whole Planets have outlawed this substance, including his home world.

“It’s safe,” you guess, “From my experience.”

And Jungkook does not know what to say because it’s either get beat up by alien uglies without nano, or get beat up with nano. Yoongi would probably tell him to “just say no to drugs” but Yoongi wasn’t the one facing a just-under-five-foot terror in the shape of a human girl.

“How can I trust you?” he asks, attempting to sound cool.

And you really have to laugh because he’s too cute. “You don’t get out very much, do you?” you smirk, shaking the tube of nano before injecting it straight into a vein in your forearm.

“Here we go,” Jimin snorts, watching the two of you share in Prime Banter. Jungkook almost forgot the older human man was even there.

You let the nano filter through your system, and it’s quick because you’ve done it so many times now. “I want you to hit me as hard as you can,” you tell Jungkook.

“Excuse me?” he splutters.

“You heard the woman,” Jimin eggs him on.

“Hit me,” you dare.

“Wha- I- I can’t hit a girl!” Jungkook finally spits out.

“Cute,” Jimin rolls his eyes. “If you won’t, I will.”

And Jungkook, bless that boy, actually steps in between you and Jimin. “No, dude,” he says in his best strongman voice. “It’s not right.”

“She has a million little robot things currently filling up her entire body waiting to repair even the slightest bit of damage,” Jimin explains as if he’s talking to a little kid.

“She is right here,” you remind the boys, tapping Jungkook’s shoulder. He turns around and you promptly wack him across the face. “And she is still waiting for that hit, Jungkook.”

Jungkook to his credit really doesn’t like getting physical. He was kind of lying when he said he didn’t fight because he did learn some human fighting techniques growing up, and he could hold his own in a bar brawl. But that was always up against human fighters, never stronger, weirder aliens that could potentially kill him.

You piss him off though. He realizes belatedly that you probably paid for his battery pack on purpose, and he’s beyond annoyed because if there’s one thing he hates, it’s being used.

“You wanna get hit so bad?” he challenges through gritted teeth, and you nod.

“Go for it, baby,” you tease, crooking your finger in a crude, pseudo-sexual gesture. “Give me your best shot-”

Jungkook steps back, engaging in a standard stance and rears his leg up to kick you square in chin. The force of the blow has you slamming into the lockers, the loud metallic sound ringing through the cramped space. You’re dizzy and disoriented, but you don’t feel a damn thing other than excited.

“Oh,” you sigh, mouth curving into a satisfied smile, “Oh, fuck, you’re good.”

Jungkook doesn’t have a damn clue what to say.

Jimin takes a day to teach him how to play Wounded Warrior in the pits, and you take another day to teach him the ins and outs of Coliseum etiquette, frequently encountered alien species, and about Abraxas-X in general.

Jungkook is thankful that Yoongi is more worried about him being stranded on a foreign planet rather than angry at his missing mobile airship.

“Sorry,” Jungkook apologizes for the fifth time. “I really, really fucked up.”

Yoongi doesn’t disagree. “Yeah, but you’re safe. And you’ll find a way of getting back. Just don’t die.”

“I’ll try my best,” Jungkook sighs, depressed out of his mind when he hangs up. His first fight is tonight, and while you’ve gone over the plan with him a million times, he still can’t get rid of the jittery feeling that he’s going to ruin everything.

“You’re actually perfect, you know,” you tell Jungkook. “See, you look really built and like you’d totally kick everyone’s asses. And they’re gonna bet that way. But you’re going to lose, Jungkook. You’re going to take the hits and get on the ground.”

“Can’t wait,” he deadpans.

“Good,” you smile cheerfully, ignoring his willful attempts to be sullen, “Because my estimations show that we’re going to make about five hundred credits tonight.”

Jungkook whips his head towards you from the news. Five hundred? that only meant four nights of this could lead to his freedom.

“Don’t get too excited, champ,” you tell him as you pat him on the shoulder. “It’s five hundred divided by three.”

“Three?”

“Jimin’s cut of course.” You don’t leave your friends out of a cut, even if he did fuck things up with V.

Jungkook looks like he might cry.

The first thing Jungkook notices about the ring is that it smells bad. It smells like the time when Yoongi’s Markazian ex-girlfriend’s cat-looking pet climbed into the exhaust vent of their repair shop and never came back out. They had searched, and searched for that annoying little beast, and they finally found it from the stench of the rotting corpse.

Likewise, it smelled like rotting organisms here.

Jungkook wants to throw up from the smell and from the nerves. The nano is in his system, and it feel kind of itchy and akin to someone tickling him from the inside. His opponent is an eight-feet tall Agorian boxer. Fuck Everything.

“You can do it, sexy!” you shout from the crowd, playing your part of adoring pit fangirl. The funny thing is that you’re not the only one yelling these sentiments to him. There are other pit girls screaming their love for Jungkook even though this is his literal first time making an appearance.

To be completely honest, you didn’t blame them one bit.

The horn sounds, and the Agorian charges at Jungkook. And instead of cowering, Jungkook charges right back, much to your surprise.

“Oh,” you gasp, eyes widening when he draws first blood, using the same kick he used to hit you with on the Agorian.

Jungkook’s opponent is unfazed, and sends a killer right hook at Jungkook’s side. The blow sounds painful and like it hit a bone from the nasty crunching sound. You can see Jungkook’s confusion because he heard the sound, and he felt the force from the blow, but there was also a distinct lack of pain.

The surprise fades nearly instantaneously and you only notice it because you were looking for a flaw in his acting skills. Jungkook launches into the routine Jimin trained him on - rolling on the floor in pain. The referee blows his whistle and it’s all over.

The fangirls mope around you.

“It’s his first time,” one of them says.

“Yeah,” another one agrees.

“He’ll get better. He has to. I mean look at him.”

You smirk when you see the referee shake his head and signal to the official that this match is over by TKO. Keep dreaming girls, you think. This is your house.

“Payday,” you smile, handing over Jungkook’s cut of the winnings.

Jungkook’s eyes go wide at the number. All that for taking a punch to his ribs?

“Good job out there,” you compliment. “Couldn’t have done it without you.”

Jungkook wonders if he should even feel proud of this, but it does feel nice to have done something to work towards a goal.

“I have to say I was surprised though,” you comment, “I didn’t think you’d charge at Ortax the Merciless like that.”

“Just reflex,” Jungkook mutters shyly. He doesn’t really know why he did it either.

You wink, and watch as Jungkook’s ears go red in front of you. “It was a nice touch. Got the bets going up in your favor for a short while.” You pause, wondering if you say the next thing on your mind for all of three seconds before deciding that life was too short to play it safe. “It was fucking sexy.”

Jungkook blinks owlishly.

“Goodnight handsome. Take your vitamins.”

Jungkook continues the losing for two more days until he’s matched up with V.

You frown at the match up because you can’t tell what kind of alien V is because he looks so humanoid, but he’s not completely homosapiens either. His eyes and reflexes give everything away.

“You have to win this one,” you tell him point blank.

“Are you nuts?”

You shake your head. “You have to. We lost the shock factor of people betting for you. Now people are going to bet against you, and even if you lose it’s not going to make a difference money-wise. You have to win for us to collect the winnings from tonight.”

Jungkook swallows. “That means no nano.”

“Nope,” you confirm. “You go in cold. And you have to win.”

“Gee, thanks for not putting any pressure on me,” Jungkook sighs.

You don’t have the luxury of feeling bad because your rent is kind of past due. “Jungkook, let me put it this way,” you start, “If you win, that means you’ll probably have enough money to back to your home planet.”

“Where Yoongi will murder me,” Jungkook nods. He’s pouting again.

Your heart warms at how his expression is in direct contrast to how his body looks cut up and bruised from the fights he’s had in the past few days. Jungkook’s handsome, baby face is so incredibly juxtaposed on his toned fighter’s body in the best way possible.

“You’ll get another thing if you win,” you start, biting your lip and sitting down next to him.

“What?”

“I’ll kiss your boo-boos better,” you mutter into his ear. It’s a come-on, obviously.

Jungkook swallows thickly when he sees your suggestive expression. “Like a blowjob?” he asks.

“Yes,” you answer, opting for simplicity.

Jungkook wins.

Jimin is not expecting this at all. He’s finally recovered from his fight with V, and after getting a text announcing Jungkook’s victory, he supposes a little congratulations is in order for the youngest in your group of scammers. Jimin breaks out the Ogre Killer from his stash of Serious Liquors, and makes his way towards the locker rooms where Jungkook and you would no doubt be high-fiving it up.

He sees the Agorian guards with their ears pressed against the door when he arrives.

“Uh-”

“Can you shut up?” Agorian A hisses, ear pressed firmly on the metal.

“Fuck, I just heard her slurp,” Agorian B giggles.

Agorian A glares at Jimin. “I missed the slurp because of you.”

“Slurp?” Jimin questions. Without a word, they unlock the door for Jimin to enter, and he sees you on kneeling on the floor with a mouthful of Jungkook’s dick.

The younger man’s attention is entirely focused on you, but you manage to make a sideways eye-contact with Jimin.

“Shut the door,” Jimin orders, glaring at the guards.

Jungkook gasps when he hears Jimin’s voice, but you pull him back to concentrate on you when you pull away to suck at the tip of his penis.

“Jungkook was really good today,” you laugh, laving your tongue against the underside of his cock. “He beat V.”

“So I heard,” Jimin replies, taking a seat on a bench and staring at the image in front of him. “Just to clarify, you texted me so that I could watch you suck his dick, correct?”

“Correct,” you answer.

“Correct? What the fuck?” Jungkook moans. You suck him in deep and let him hit the back of your throat. And just to add a little spice, you fake a gag. “Fuck!”

You make him cum in about sixty seconds.

(Later: “What do you mean you’re staying in Abraxas-X?” Yoongi hisses over speaker. He calms down only marginally after Jungkook tell him he just wired him money for the mobile airship. That wasn’t even the point? This Kid!)

#bangtan bookclub #bts writers #noonanet #CMBNetwork #jungkook fic #jungkook scenarios #jungkook scenario #jeonalis #member: jungkook #genre: crack #jungkook smut

215 notes · View notes