#seeing people on here say stuff like 'dragons are terrible and terrifying' like friend it's a fantasy story | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

lady-of-lyon · 3 years

Text

So, I made one post a while back about how awesomely feminist the show Wild Kratts was, with how its two main female characters were women of color in engineering and deserving roles of power, female villains who weren’t motivated by spite or quest for youth, etc, but today I wanted to talk about something slightly different, that I’ve wanted to cover for a while now, because I also think it’s very good - and that’s how the show portrays masculinity, in a way that’s really positive!

First, we have our two main characters, Chris and Martin Kratt. Keep in mind these two are basically self-inserts - and there are plenty of creators, especially males, who have used self-insert characters in really scummy ways - all I have to say is Powerpuff Girls reboot and you know exactly what I’m talking about. Even if they weren’t literal self-inserts, male characters, superheroes especially, oftentimes serve the male power fantasy, being just the strong, stoic, all-powerful person so many boys are told they’re supposed to be. I could get into a whole discussion about how the male power fantasy is present even when males are not (ever look through a fashion magazine and wonder why there are so few men? Sure, part of it is that the industry thrives off exploiting women’s insecurities, and men aren’t as concerned for their appearance, but another part of it is so that the guy, looking through it, can feel like he has no competition for these women - there’s a reason so many comedians have jokes about fashion magazines being their sexual awakening as kids. It’s really scummy) but that’s not what this is about. So, the bros had every opportunity to do just that - make themselves these traditional heroes who aren’t actually really good role models, like batman or what have you. It’s certainly not uncommon for celebrity cartoons to do stuff like that. But Martin and Chris chose a different approach. They’re pretty strong standouts for positive masculinity. They’re openly affectionate - both with eachother as brothers, and with their friends. They cry, sometimes over little things - most of the time when big superheroes cry, it’s ‘cause they lost the girl they loved or their mentor or something like that, only in the big, most agonizing moments do they shed a tear. But here, Chris or Martin will cry just because they’ve had a bad day, or because they’re overwhelmed and overjoyed that someone named a mantis after them! In a lot of shows or movies when a guy cries over something little, it’s usually played for laughs, or to emasculate him, but here it’s casual without being unreasonable or overdone. The brothers cry just ad much, maybe even more (haven’t gone back and counted or anything) as the girls do. Not to mention, it’s a very nice depiction of a loving, healthy sibling relationship. As the youngest sibling myself, it’s refreshing to see a pair who don’t abuse eachother with noogies or cruel and snarky remarks. When they do fight, it’s never a screaming match, and also because they had a conflict of interest or disagreed over a fact, not because, say, one of them stole the other’s shirt or is neglecting the other’s feelings. Kids, being very impressionable, get exposed to a lot of abusive sibling relationships played as normal in media, and start thinking this is how siblings are and should act. For instance, my sister (who is now my best friend and has gotten over all these bad habits over time) when she was younger watched a lot of Kim Possible, a show that is great, but has a bad family dynamic with Kim and her little siblings. The “tweebs” as she calls them are always irresponsible, destructive, and making Kim annoyed to no end. My older brother was one of the most polite, reserved, kind little kids, but she still treated him like he was a brat and a nuisance, because that’s what shows like Kim Possible taught her little brothers were. Additionally, I was always treated like a spoiled crybaby who just wanted attention and got away with everything - I was not any of those things, ever, but that’s what shows teach you little sisters are. Sure, Wild Kratts has a smidge of that, with Chris seemingly being the stereotype of the know-it-all little sibling, but instead of being constantly looked town upon for being too “perfect” like with Hailey Long in American Dragon, Martin often praises his brother for his abilities. Sure, Martin gets annoyed when Chris tries to correct him on things, like in the episode Wolf Hawks, but everyone else does too, so it feels more like a take-down of mansplaining than a sibling spat.

I talked too in the feminist post about how refreshing it is that Chris and Martin more or less willingly put themselves under the authority of Koki and Aviva, two women of color. I don’t think it’s possible to say any one character is the “leader,” they all work as a evenly balanced team, but it’s safe to say that Koki and Aviva make the more responsible decisions. The bros try to get out of their calls a few times, but the show plays it more like they’re being irresponsible, and less like they’re renegade cool dudes who don’t take nothing from nobody, especially not two girls. They are pretty much always punished via karma for their reckless choices, most especially in To Touch a Hummingbird, where their arrogant attitudes blow up in their faces rather spectacularly. We also never see the narrative most present in sitcoms, where the male leads mess up and go out of their way to cover it up and ultimately gets away with it - after all, you have to root for them, right, because sure they messed up and had no consequences, but aren’t they just so lovable? No, here Martin and Chris always have to fix their wrongdoing, and it’s always deserved when they get comeuppance. Another aspect of the show I like is that, many times, when the bros get captured or are in peril, they are saved by the women - and most refreshing of all, there’s never a moment of “wink wink nudge nudge wow I can’t believe I had to be rescued by a GIRL” or even “wow you saved me you’re pretty good honey guess I shouldn’t have underestimated you, you go girl!” No, when the girls save them, it’s just - you know, relief? Because they were saved? It’s never a scenario played as an exception, or any more dire than when the bros need to rescue eachother. The bros are genuinely happy to have them as teammates. The show even did the standard “boys vs girls” episode in the form of When Fish Fly - but instead of being actually girls vs. boys, it’s engineers vs. adventurers. There’s nothing really gendered about it - the girls happen to be engineers, and the boys happen to be adventurers. And the episode doesn’t end with the boys being “wow gosh darn I shouldn’t have doubted you girls are better at everything,” it’s a mutual agreement that both parties have hard jobs. Basically, the bros are very naturally respectful of women. That plays more into their feminist narrative too, but either way, it’s refreshing.

Then, we have Jimmy! Jimmy, the lovable gamerboy pizza man. At first glance Jimmy seems like the stereotypical cowardly, pathetic, emasculated loser. He’s frightened of most things, as of yet has no power suit, and he BAKES for crying out loud! But none of these things are framed as terribly bad traits. Sure, we laugh when he screams and runs from an animal, but though it happens over and over, the crew doesn’t get sick of it. They don’t berate him or belittle him because he’s so gosh darn cowardly. There’s a great scene in Rattlesnake Crystal where Jimmy has to deliver something to the bros alone, in the middle of a spooky desert. He is terrified the whole time, sprinting off after he delivers the goods. When Martin and Chris run into him, they don’t laugh at him for being spooked, they just greet and then bid fair well to their friend. To them, this is just Jimmy, and there’s nothing wrong with it. Jimmy isn’t coddled, but he is reassured many times that he’s a valuable member of the team. I love that little message, that you’re just as important of a person even if you can’t do as much or have greater limits. When his friends do try to get him over his fears, it’s not because they have to, that the day will somehow be ruined by Jimmy’s incompetence p, but because they’re his friends, and want him to experience fun and wonderful things that he would otherwise miss out on. But what Jimmy CAN do is just as important! Jimmy is a gamer, which in a lot of shows, is portrayed as a lazy, useless, mindless hobby. But here, because he plays video games, it makes him essential for piloting the ship and teleporting important items. There’s always the joke that video games improves your hand/eye coordination, but recent studies have shown it has much better effects. It can make you much better at keeping track of multiple moving objects and processing technical but variable information- two traits which, fittingly enough, are really really important for air traffic controllers and airplane pilots! He also demonstrates a lot more courage behind the wheel of the Tortuga, which makes sense - in an impersonal setting, he would have more sense of calm and control and courage, because it’s so similar to a video game world. It’s not all too different with how I feel more emboldened to pick fights with people on the internet, but get crazy anxious if a real person so much as looks at me. So Jimmy’s love of video games isn’t because he’s irresponsible, it has real benefits. A quick last point - Jimmy also eats a lot, but they thankfully don’t make him fat or greedy or anything like that. He never takes food from people, he actually bakes, and shares it with others! Having the baker be a boy is a lovely touch.

I might do another post about the toxic masculinity of the two villains, (or four villains, I guess, if I wanna discuss the minions) but I’ve got other work to do, and this post is long enough already, so I’ll get around to it later. I’ll sum it up with this - Wild Kratts is a show that teaches boys it’s not only ok to be kind, but essential. The brothers protect defenseless animals, advocate for things “icky” and “weird,” like bugs or snakes or worms - not because they’re boys, and boys like icky things, but because they genuinely see the beauty in all life, and are encouraging us to slow down and do the same. The Wild Kratts are heroes who save the world not by being the strongest or smartest or coolest, but by looking after those who are exploited and vulnerable, who are essential to the world, even if they can’t always do everything. In Wild Kratts the only weaknesses a man can have isn’t what he can’t do, but what he does do that he shouldn’t have. Sure, it’s a cute show about two funny guys who have cool powers, but it’s also a show about accountability, compassion, respect and trust. The show says “boys will be boys” in all the right ways - Martin is a lovable goof with a heart of gold, but he still has to get his act together when he messes up, and he’s still creative and smart and openly sensitive. Chris is a bit of a know-it-all show-off, but he can also mess up as much as his brother, and is still bold, brave, adventurous, and can put his money where his mouth is. Jimmy is a cowardly, napping, eating machine video-gamer, but he’s still a valued member of the team, has incredible skills and talents, and will always help his friends, even if he is really, really scared. It is so important to have role models like these, in a world dominated by unhealthy machismo. The Wild Kratts are heroes who save the world - both animated, and real.

All they need now is a canon queer character, and I’ll stan them forever! My money’s on Aviva!!

#wild kratts #chris kratt #martin kratt #long post #hottake #feminism #meninism #positive masculinity #toxic masculinity #jimmy z #wk jimmy #kratt brothers

359 notes · View notes

whatifxwereyou · 3 years

Text

Ashes Chapter 15: Same Old Story

Fandom: Mortal Kombat 2021

Pairing: Liu Kang x Reader

Summary: Some history for Y/N and some brotherly love from Cole.

A/N: when you so busy writing smut that you forget to update the story so you can get to the smut lmao. enjoy, fellow nerds.

First Chapter << Previous Chapter Next Chapter >> Chapter Index

You were uncomfortable talking about personal things, particularly your history, but Cole deserved answers and he was a patient listener. Being a father, you weren’t really surprised by that. “When I was a kid, like… nine I want to say? Honestly my childhood is pretty blurry. Feels like another life.” You cleared your throat. “Anyway, yeah, around then I fell ill. I had these… fits, for lack of a better word. I didn’t understand what they meant at the time because I was well, nine. No one else understood them either. As an adult I know that I was experiencing prophetic visions. Honestly, they weren’t really prophetic then, I guess. That’s a word Raiden uses a lot for them. Back then they were rarely of future events. It was more like gaining deep insight into the lives of others. I could touch someone or something that someone else had touched and I would disappear. I’d see a glimpse of their history or their present. I was too young to interpret it.”

“Like touch telepathy? I’ve seen television shows about that concept. This stuff is hard for me to wrap my mind around. Too much like fiction.”

“I suppose that’s a good thing to call it. When I saw things, I would also black out. And have a fit. Like a seizure, I suppose. And when that was happening, I would often say things about what I was seeing or hurt myself. It frightened people. My parents took me out of town and I stayed with my grandmother. I was homeschooled after that. My parents saw it as an embarrassment if I recall.” You laughed at the idea of that now. That life was so far behind you that it didn’t matter how stressful it had been. Back then it had felt like the end of the world but as an adult, it was a distant memory. Those experiences had made you different and strange but they had also made you unique and special. You had embraced the things that had separated you from normality since then.

“Well, that’s awful.”

“Oh, no, no pity. It’s fine, really. That was world’s ago.” You waved off his disapproval of a parent being embarrassed by their child for things they couldn’t control. Cole really was a good guy. “I stopped having the visions at around twelve and while I was weak from being so sick, I fought to be normal afterward. My dad ran a dojo and so I grew strong again. I focused on martial arts. It was something that helped me find strength and determination back then.” You smiled at the memory. You’d always had a fondness for it in your heart. That was one of the first things you and Kung Lao had bonded over. Your father had taught Wing Chun and that was what Kung Lao specialized in. “With time my father could no longer teach at the dojo so he moved in with my older sister. I took over the dojo and then opened a shop in the old storage space to make extra money. I had every intention of moving away. I would never be more than a weirdo or a witch there. It was too small a town.”

“Did you ever get to?”

“I mean, I’m here now. That’s a long story though. I’m trying to keep this brief.” You chuckled. “We can talk about that stuff another day.” That was a more casual and personal conversation. This was personal but definitely not casual. If you didn’t have to share these parts of your life then you never would have. Much of it was still too raw. But Cole Young was curious about your past and you were curious about his. It was nice having another friend who wasn’t Liu Kang. You really did get along with him and his family.

“Fair enough.”

“About five years ago I was still doing the same. There had been a robbery across the street and the thugs came into my shop afterward. And, well, I’m not the type to roll over and be robbed.”

“I’d say not.”

“It escalated. There was a man who came in to pick up herbs I had imported for him every month who came in after. He ended up helping me out. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you look at it, I killed one of those would-be robbers. He’d been trying to kill me so… I have come to terms with that. That’s how I got the dragon mark.” You pointed to your back. Yours was on your lower back on your left side. “The man who helped me was Liu Kang. I knew him then and he was kind enough to help me deal with the fallout at the time. It took ages for him to convince me to that there was any truth to any of this… Mortal Kombat and arcana nonsense. It’s kind of embarrassing looking back at it.” And the story was far more complicated too. You’d been attracted to Liu Kang from very early on. “I guess that’s why I’m so patient with Johnny. It’s easy for us to know what’s the truth but when you spend your whole life believing that fairytales are made with computers and science? It’s difficult to believe anything else.”

“Yeah, I get that. Not everyone had Sub Zero rushing them into the truth.” He joked. That was true enough. But Johnny Cage had had his come-to-jesus moment that afternoon you were pretty sure. You hadn’t had a moment like that in the beginning. Just Liu Kang’s word and his arcana.

“Liu showed me his arcana but I thought it was a trick. He was very persistent at the time. Tried to talk me into leaving everything I had ever known for what I thought was a trick. I was scared, I’m not too proud to admit that. The part of me that wanted to leave home and never look back had grown smaller over the years. I’d become complacent. I’d grown comfortable being known as a witch and honestly, the next generation of people in town hadn’t treated me so terribly. The kids even thought it was funny that everyone thought I was a witch. But then… I found my arcana.”

“The ink?”

“Yeah, it’s pretty and under control now but in the beginning, it was a nightmare. The first time I used it had been on accident. I nearly destroyed my store. Then I fell and had a fit and I was suddenly seeing things again. Those things I saw didn’t make any sense. None of it. I saw flashes of people and places I didn’t recognize. The best way that I can describe it is… nonsense. It didn’t mean anything.” You sighed heavily. Those moments had been terrifying. “The second time had been even worse. If Liu hadn’t been basically stalking me then someone would have gotten seriously hurt. I’d hurt him but he’d been tough enough to handle it. I felt terrible about it. By then I’d more than grown fond of him.” You didn’t want to get into the details but it hadn’t exactly been difficult to fall into Liu Kang’s arms and it hadn’t taken very long either.

“There’s a lot of history there, huh?”

“Yes. Focus.” You wanted to get this story over as quickly as you could. “After that I decided to go with him. It wasn’t worth the risk of hurting people in town with something I didn’t understand. I didn’t want to leave but I was glad that I did afterward. Raiden’s Temple was where I had needed to be for what came next. It was awful at first. The ink and the visions made me sick. I had little to no control over any of it. Raiden helped me. He could unravel what I saw even if it was just spaghetti to me. My visions helped him. At least he said that they did. Liu helped me get control over my arcana. There I met Kung Lao and I was happy. About a year later the visions stopped altogether and I was stronger than I’d ever been.”

“And now you’re having them again? Out of nowhere?” Cole didn’t sound terribly concerned. He had handled all of this very well. It was nice not to be taken too seriously or looked at like you were about to fracture. You didn’t think the visions were out of nowhere. In fact, you thought that the visions were likely triggered by Kung Lao’s death. Trauma did funny things to people. The things that happened to you were a little funnier than most.

“I confess that I didn’t realize I was having them at first.” You shrugged. It was difficult to explain but it seemed as though, at some point, Cole had abandoned his disbelief and had embraced chaos. “They were more like nightmares. It was difficult to decipher what was guilt and grief and what wasn’t. It wasn’t until the other night on the roof that I even considered they were visions. Well, that and I feel terrible. I haven’t felt this terrible since the last time I had them.” You were a little embarrassed to admit that. If you’d been honest about what you were feeling from the beginning then maybe you could have done things differently. You just hated being weak. It was a hot button for you.

“And that was when you saw what happened this afternoon?”

“Kind of? I saw the beach and a wave of corpses coming for us. Does that count?” You tried to joke. Cole tilted his head as if to consider if it counted or not.

“It does at least explain why you were extra creepy this morning.”

“Implying that I’m always a little creepy.”

“The ink is a little creepy, I decided.”

“I guess that’s fair.”

“But you’re okay? This morning was wild.”

Did you not seem okay? You supposed that you were feeling out of it after seeing Kung Lao’s death. You definitely weren’t feeling yourself but you thought that you’d hidden it pretty well. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

“You sound a little morose.” Cole looked to the door like he had somewhere else to be. He probably did. He had a family and all that. “I can’t say we know each other very well but whatever happened back there must have hit hard… and I mean… you were so different at the end of it.”

“I’m fine, Cole.” You reassured him with a forced smile. You were a little morose. That was a good word for what you were feeling. You wanted to sleep for the rest of the week until you had to go back to China.

“Ally, Emily, and I are going to go grab dinner. You’re welcome to join us. You could probably use some food.”

“No, no. Thank you but I think that I have encroached upon your family time enough this week.”

“We really don’t mind. You’re good company. Allison asked if you were joining us, even.”

“Really, Cole. I appreciate the offer but I’m not up to it. My social battery is completely drained.” You offered a weary smile. It was nice to be wanted. “I’m going to rest.”

“You’re just… so off. I feel bad leaving you alone.” Cole pulled his phone from his coat pocket. “I’m considering asking if Ally wants to grab food and then bring Emily here to watch a movie with you.”

“It’s okay, Cole. I need the time alone, I think. Besides, I’m allowed to be a little under the weather after that.” You smiled even so. You didn’t want him to pity you. You didn’t need that. You really would be okay. That morning had been difficult but you weren’t prepared to say the real reasons why. You were a mixture of angry and hurt but you’d trudge through it.

“Yeah…”

“Hey, look, you don’t need to feel responsible for me just because of what happened with Kung Lao.” You would happily absolve him of any guilt he felt in that regards. He was guilty of nothing but being a good man.

“What?” Cole was genuinely surprised and you internally winced at how you’d miscalculated. You’d read the whole situation wrong and instantly regretted your words.

“I thought you might be feeling some misplaced guilt about it. I don’t want that for you.”

“Oh. Maybe that was why I approached you on the street that day but I think we’re past that. We’re friends now. Am I wrong about that?”

“Not at all. It’s been lovely getting to know you and your family. I really mean that, I’m not just saying it. You’ve managed to get me a little out of my head which is nice. And you like my jokes which I appreciate. I’m sorry about the way that came off. I wasn’t trying to diminish our friendship. I just didn’t want you to carry around that guilt, either.”

“That goes for you too.”

“It’s been a hard day. I’m not coming across the way that I mean to. Let’s say lost in translation.”

“It’s okay, Y/N. Your English is pretty good so I’m not sure that excuse works, but I’ll let it slide.”

“I know, I know… I’m being cold without meaning to. Like you said, I’m a little morose right now. I do this thing when my feelings are difficult to process where I kind of shut off and… I can come off as cruel without meaning to. Honestly, even in Chinese it doesn’t sound much better.” You couldn’t help but laugh at yourself. “I’m sorry.”

“No need. Today was a reality check. It scared me too. And you’re clearly going through something. I wanted to help, is all. Sometimes when I get too far into my head things snowball and become an avalanche.”

“I appreciate that.” You kicked your shoes off next to the bed and laughed. You had no plans of going anywhere else for the rest of the day. “I used to have Kung Lao to keep that from happening. I appreciate you trying to help but you can go get food with your family and enjoy your afternoon. I’m exhausted. I’ll probably nap or meditate on what happened today.” What you really meant was that you would do whatever it took to get it out of your head. You were going to try and forget the awful things you’d seen today. You weren’t sure you could forget it. His death was burned into your mind’s eye. It would haunt you for the rest of your life.

“I will but before I go, I wanted to talk to you quickly about Liu.”

“I would very much prefer if you didn’t.” You scrunched up your face in distaste.

“I know that I’ve been teasing you about it.” He laughed and you rolled your eyes. “But is everything okay with that? I know, I know… it’s not my business, you’ve said it a dozen times now. It’s clearly complicated. You don’t owe me any details but if you need help with it then say the word. I’m happy to help.” Was Cole Young offering to be your wingman? Or was he offering to beat up Liu Kang? Either scenario was kind of hilarious.

“I’m obviously defensive about it. I’m sure that it’s hilarious from the outside looking in but Liu and I have more history than I care to explain. I’m not ready to get into it with anyone. Not you and definitely not with Liu, either.”

“But that’s okay?”

“Yeah, it will be. I’m a pretty tough lady.”

“On a scale of one to ten just how supportive do you need me to be?”

“No scale. Just be yourself, Cole. You’re doing fine.”

“Even teasing you?”

“I’ve had worse teasing, trust me. I dated Kung Lao for years. Besides, it kind of lessens the frustration of it. Sometimes I get too serious and scary in my head. The joking grounds me a little.”

“Good to know.” Cole patted you on the back. It was nice having a friend to talk to. A friend that wasn’t Liu Kang. Not that you didn’t enjoy Liu Kang, things were just too complex between you right now. There was so much hurt and grief that you weren’t sure how things would pan out or if they would ever be fixable. And Cole was a good man. You enjoyed talking to Allison too and Emily had taken a shine to you. You hadn’t had the opportunity to be around kids in years and you were good with them at most ages. That was part of why you’d enjoyed running the dojo.

There was a knock at your door. You made to get up to answer it.

“I’ll get it. I’m on my way out anyway.” Cole stood and so you sat back down. You wouldn’t argue with him. Cole opened the door and there was Liu Kang, which was no surprise to you. You’d been expecting him to show up at some point. Who else would it have been, anyway? You were pretty sure that you’d rubbed Sonya and Jax the wrong way with all your talk of kidnapping. Cole stared Liu Kang down instead of greeting him and you tried not to laugh.

“Hello Cole.” Liu bowed his head politely in greeting. “I was hoping that I could speak with Y/N for a few minutes. Is she here? Did I come to the wrong room?” Liu peered around him and made eye contact with you. You offered him a curt wave.

“That’s up to her.”

You tried very hard not to laugh at the look of confusion on Liu’s face. He was bewildered.

“Of course it is.”

“You can come in, Liu.” You stopped that conversation before it got any weirder. Cole meant well, but wow.

“I was just leaving.” Cole clasped Liu on the shoulder as if to wish him good luck and then left, closing the door behind him after Liu had stepped past him. Liu watched the door close and then turned back to you. His expression was priceless. You’d have to thank Cole for that later.

Next Chapter >>

26 notes · View notes

averykedavra · 4 years

Text

A Heart I Couldn’t Silence

Hi everyone! This is late. Very, very late. But I’m doing my best to catch up with these prompts, so here’s a quicker one out of order for day five! It’s cliche to use Virgil for this prompt, but it’s a good cliche, and you can fight me. I’m in it for the cliched fluffy nonsense, okay? Okay. Glad we had this talk.

(Tagging @tsshipmonth2020! Title is from Feel Good by Gryffin and Illenium. Find this story on Ao3 here!)

Prompt: Any intense emotions your soulmate feels you will also experience .

Pairing: QPR Moxiety

Words: 7278

Warnings: self-hatred, crying, repression, and other unhealthy coping mechanisms like isolation, anxiety attack, food mention, a lil bit of an identity crisis

Patton feels bad for his soulmate.

He’s never met the guy, gal, or non binary pal, of course. But he knows he has one. He knows implicitly, he feels it, and also the random bursts of anxiety kind of point in that direction, too. His soulmate is anxious. His soulmate doesn’t sleep well because sometimes Patton wakes up to a racing heart and sweaty palms. His soulmate always feels relief at the end of the day, and Patton looks forward to that little bubble of happiness. Good for his soulmate, he always thinks. They’ve made it. Patton’s proud of them.

So yeah. He knows he has a soulmate. And he can always tell which emotions aren’t his own, because they come with little tingly edges. Like lightning zapping his fingers. Sometimes it’s scary or just annoying. Sometimes, when his soulmate is happy—which isn’t as often as Patton would like—it’s intoxicating, a rush of joy that makes Patton want to squeal.

Patton likes having a soulmate.

He’s pretty sure his soulmate doesn’t feel the same way, though.

See, Patton cries a lot.

Patton cries when a movie makes him happy. Patton cries when a movie makes him sad. Patton cries when he sees a really cute puppy. Patton cries when he fails a test. Patton cries when someone else is crying. Patton cries over everything—he has, literally, cried over spilled milk. It looked really sad sitting on the floor like that, and Patton also knew he had to clean it up, and it was a waste of milk, and before he knew it he was sniffling.

Patton cries over everything. Patton also, sometimes, cries over nothing at all. He just sits on the couch and his eyes prickle and he starts bawling, curling up and pressing his hands to his mouth and crying over nothing like a baby.

He just cries sometimes. He just gets upset sometimes and he’s learned to deal with that. Kind of. Maybe.

Not really, if he’s being honest.

But it’s fine! He’s happy the rest of the time, so it doesn’t really matter that sometimes he starts sobbing randomly at two in the morning. Maybe it’s repression. Maybe it’s being a teenager. Maybe it’s just the way Patton works. And honestly, he’s mostly okay with it. He’d much rather feel terrible for little moments of time than feel vaguely bad almost all the time. Not like he gets a choice—he can’t control how he feels.

Patton’s fine.

He’s worried his soulmate isn’t, though.

His soulmate, who can feel all his strongest emotions, good and bad.

God, his soulmate must think he’s a mess.

He’s not a mess. Mostly. Is he?

He’s tried very hard not to be. Or at least, to make it look like he’s not. Patton doesn’t like to lie, but this isn’t lying, it’s just…obscuring the truth? Ugh, wow, that sounds really bad.

It’s keeping private stuff private. It’s staying perky for his friends, because they need an anchor, someone to rely on. Patton is the happy one. The helpful one. And if he’s not helpful--if he doesn’t earn his keep--they won’t keep him around.

He hates that he thinks this. His friends are such wonderful people--he knows that, they’re amazing, they’re so kind and intelligent and fantastic--but he’s still scared, because he can’t possibly measure up, he can’t be as good as they are and the moment he slips up they’ll all see it. Everything will crumble and it’ll be all his fault.

They’ll see that he tries. They’ll see that he’s failed. And he won’t blame them for leaving him behind.

Maybe it’s not true. Maybe it is. Maybe it’s just another thing that his brain thinks up to make him cry but maybe it’s not. And can Patton take the risk?

Sometimes, he thinks he can.

Most of the time? No.

No, he’s just going to stay quiet, grin and bear it, keep everything from crumbling. His friends struggle. They fumble. They stumble through high school and they’re doing so great and it’ll just make them feel bad if Patton tells them. They don’t deserve another person to worry about.

Not that anything’s worrying, of course.

Patton’s fine.

He’s fine, he has everything handled, and even if he cries too much, he’s gotten good at holding it in until he’s alone.

He’s fine. He has so many good friends. His grades are good. Everything’s perfect and he’s not perfect but he’s good at pretending to be.

And he cries sometimes, but who doesn’t?

The only person who might be able to tell is his soulmate.

But Patton hasn’t met them yet, so it’s fine.

Everything’s completely fine.

---

“Everything is shit,” Virgil complains, collapsing into his chair and tossing his stuff on the desk with a thunk.

“Hey, honey, no!” Patton frowns. “What happened?”

“I just said. Everything.”

“Well, be more specific, then.”

Virgil rolls his eyes, and Patton can see a smirk already growing. Good, Virgil is relaxing.

“I’m pretty sure I bombed my test for earth systems,” Virgil grumbles. “I hate that whole class. Like, I don’t need to know earth systems. The earth is round and green and full of terrifying creatures. Why does it matter how it got born?”

Patton smiles and pats Virgil’s head. “I’m sure it wasn’t that bad.”

“You didn’t see the questions.” Virgil slumps over and drapes himself across Patton’s shoulder. It’s an awkward position. Patton’s a foot or so away, sitting at his own desk. But Patton just shifts and lets Virgil curl up next to him like a hoodied ball. Virgil’s head lolls on Patton’s shoulder. Patton stares for maybe a little longer than he should at the bridge of Virgil’s nose, the dye at the edges of his hair, the little ring in his lip. “I’m doomed.”

“Come on, be optimistic.” Patton knows Virgil takes to optimism like a dragon takes to embroidery, but practice makes progress! “You can’t know until you get the results back.”

“Yeah, I can,” Virgil mumbles. “I feel it. In my soul.”

“Is your soul lying to you?”

“How dare you. My soul is pure and untarnished.”

“Oh, really?” Patton shakes his head. “Might need to have some proof of that, mister.”

“You’re insulting my soul.” Virgil sits upright, thumping his chest. "Look at it. It’s wonderful.”

“I can’t see it,” Patton says.

“Look closer.” Virgil leans over intently. “It’s black, you know. But that doesn’t mean it’s a liar.”

Patton giggles. “So your soul is evil and black and emo but doesn’t lie?”

“My soul has standards.”

“I’m sure it does.” Patton smiles at Virgil. “But I don’t think it’s your soul that’s saying you failed the test.”

“My heart, then.” Virgil thumps his heart. “My old, blackened heart, shriveled yet still speaking the truth--and the truth is that I fucked up, Pat.”

“You did not!” Patton folds his arms. “You know what I think? I think it isn’t your heart or soul that’s telling you that.”

“Then what?” Virgil asks. He’s smiling. Good job, Patton, you did it!

“I think it’s a meanie little bit of brain.” Patton pokes at Virgil’s head. Virgil swats his hand away halfheartedly. “And it’s wrong. You did great, because you’re you--and even if you didn’t, we can’t do anything about it now.”

“Yeah, I guess.” Virgil shifts. “Um, thanks, Pat.”

“No problem!” Patton grins. “What are best friends for?”

“They’re for being quiet,” Janus calls from a few desks behind them. “Class is starting, guys.”

Virgil squeaks and flushes. Patton feels a pit of anxiety in his own stomach, which is odd, until he realizes it’s his soulmate. They must be nervous about something. He hopes they’re okay--and sure enough, as the lesson starts, the anxiety fades from his heart.

His soul.

Patton peeks at Virgil, who is drumming a pencil on his desk. Virgil catches his eye and smiles just a bit. Patton smiles back.

He wonders who Virgil’s soulmate is. Virgil doesn’t talk about his much, unlike Janus and Roman. He’s mentioned once or twice that his soulmate is really emotional.

People have trouble, sometimes, telling who their soulmate is. Because emotions are weird and complicated and sometimes people can fake them or they just come off different. So some people go through life never being sure of their soulmate, knowing maybe this person happens to have some similar feelings but it could be a coincidence, who knows.

Other people? They say they knew instantly. They felt it, the moment they met.

Patton hasn’t felt it with anyone. Which is good. Because he doesn’t really want to meet his soulmate all that much.

He hopes Virgil finds his.

He deserves it.

Patton sighs a bit, turns away, and feels a little thrum of happiness in his stomach. His soulmate is happy, relieved about something. Comfortable.

Patton wishes he was the same way.

But good for them.

---

Patton’s headed to math when Virgil accosts him in the hallway. Well, accosts is a strong word. But also kind of accurate. Virgil grabs his arm and pulls him into an empty classroom with no more than a hello.

Patton’s already had a bit of a rough day. He ran out of cereal this morning and cried about it, and his soulmate is really anxious right now which is making all his nerves crawl and screech and flail about. So he hates to admit it, but he really hopes this will be quick.

“Hey, kiddo,” he says slowly. “What’s up?”

Virgil barely responds. He’s hopped up onto a desk and now he’s tucking his legs to his chest. His knuckles are white on his hoodie.

Okay. Yeah. This...seems like a bad sign.

Patton swallows down the torrent of emotions in his gut and walks closer.

“Virgil,” he says softly, “hey.”

Virgil bites his lip, grabs at his binder, and shoves a paper into Patton’s hands. Patton reads it.

It’s Virgil’s earth systems test from last week.

The number circled in red is a very low number. And the letter next to it is a large spiky F.

“Oh, sweetie,” Patton says, looking up.

“I fucking knew it.” Virgil’s voice is tight. He’s not looking at Patton. He’s looking at the ground like he wants to stab it. “I fucking knew I’d screw it up, I didn’t study, I don’t know shit and now I’m going to fail--”

“Hey. Hey. Easy.” Patton reaches over to Virgil and stops himself. “Can I touch you?”

Virgil shakes his head.

“Okay. That’s okay. Thanks for telling me, honey.”

Virgil’s curling even tighter into himself. And the anxiety in Patton’s stomach is ratcheting up a level or seven, tightening like a winch.

Of course his soulmate is anxious the moment Patton needs to comfort his best friend. Of course.

Patton pushes it down like he always does. He sits cross-legged beneath Virgil, who is practically a ball of hoodie at this point, and gives him an encouraging smile. He can’t tell if Virgil sees it. Virgil’s face is hidden in his arms. He’s shaking.

Okay. Okay, okay, okay.

Patton can do this.

No matter that his insides feel like he’s being squeezed and pressed into a pulp. This is fine. He can pull it together and help his best friend.

“Breathe,” he says, trying to keep his own voice steady. “In and out, Virgil, okay?”

Virgil takes a breath so huge and raspy Patton can almost feel it. His stomach flips once, twice, three times.

He starts tapping a four-seven-eight rhythm on the ground. For both of them. Because his soulmate is panicking and Virgil is panicking and Patton is going to panic too if he's not careful.

He pushes it down.

He always, always pushes it down. Because Virgil comes first.

“Breathe,” he tells Virgil. “In and out.”

Virgil breathes.

Virgil is so, so good like that.

“Keep breathing, you’re doing great.” Patton pauses. “Want me to talk? You don’t have to listen, just keep breathing. Okay?”

Virgil gives him a short nod.

“So,” Patton starts, “I saw the cutest puppy the other day! And since it wasn’t a cat, I could pet it! I got to pet it, and it jumped up and licked my face--really energetic--I love dogs, you know that, and it was just really nice and I felt all happy inside and I want a dog--”

He’s rambling.

He’s rambling and he hopes Virgil doesn’t notice or care, because words are hard to string together when his hear is still hammering. He wishes he could calm his soulmate down, too.

He’s rambling and he hopes against hope that Virgil’s feeling better.

“--and I really think a movie night would be fun, if Roman doesn’t hog all the popcorn again, we could finally watch Brave because I missed it when it came out and I’ve been wanting to see it--”

Virgil’s still breathing. He’s uncurling, bit by bit. Patton catches a flash of dark eyes and almost beams.

“--movie nights are just the best! We should plan one, maybe!” Patton glances at Virgil. “I’d certainly love it--it’d be a reel treat to film my days with your company!”

And Virgil snorts, just a bit.

Patton smiles to himself. There he is.

“You’re breathing?” he asks Virgil.

“Yeah,” Virgil manages.

“Is touching okay?”

“Yeah.”

Patton gets up slowly and scooches next to Virgil. They barely fit on the desk but he balances on the edge and manages to stay on top. He places a hand on Virgil’s, and Virgil leans into him, sighing a bit.

He’s less anxious. And, weirdly, so is Patton--his soulmate has calmed down a bit, too. Patton smiles. He threads an arm around Virgil and sits there, feeling Virgil’s chest expand against his own. He imagines he can feel Virgil’s soul, flickering and dark but never lying, pressed up next to him.

His soulmate is calm. Virgil is calm. And Patton’s calm too.

Everything’s calm.

Of course, that’s when the alarm rings. Virgil shrieks and flails about, and Patton’s own chest sparks with panic, because apparently his soulmate has just been startled, but they’re calming down and Virgil’s calming down and it’s okay now--

Wait.

Virgil is calming down. Patton’s soulmate is calming down. Both had been really anxious recently and now both are okay but both got startled suddenly and both--

Both--

Patton’s staring. He’s staring at Virgil, his best friend, who he’s known for a year and a half ever since Virgil switched to their school. He knows Virgil’s favorite color--purple. He knows Virgil’s favorite band--Evanescence. He knows Virgil’s favorite food--potato chips. He knows Virgil’s schedule, he knows Virgil’s middle name, he knows Virgil’s house almost as well as he knows his own.

He knows Virgil, but suddenly, he feels like maybe he hasn’t known Virgil at all.

“Hey,” Patton says. He hopes his blind panic doesn’t leak into his voice. “Did I tell you? I got an A on my art assignment!”

“Really?” Virgil grins at him. “That’s great, Pat.”

And a flash of pride flickers through Patton’s chest, lightning in his heart.

“We should hurry up,” he tries, “we’re bound to be late.”

Virgil groans. “Oh, shit, you’re right.”

Panic. Annoyance. The pride fades and is replaced by...guilt?

“Sorry,” Virgil says only a second later. “I made you late, I--that wasn’t cool.”

“What? No, it’s fine!” Patton reaches out and squeezes Virgil’s hand. “I don’t mind, okay, honey? Talk to me anytime you need.”

“Thanks,” Virgil says, the gratitude clear in his voice. “You’re the best, Pat.”

Thankfulness, care, love, a soup in Patton’s stomach, making him feel dizzy.

Patton’s discomfort must show on his face, because Virgil frowns. “You okay?”

“Of course,” Patton forces out, shoving down the maelstrom of emotions in his mind. “I--my soulmate’s really going through the feelings right now, is all.”

“Oh," Virgil says, nodding. “Got it.”

“What’s your soulmate like?” Patton asks hesitantly as they walk toward the hallway together.

“Hard to tell.” Virgil pauses at the doorway and gives Patton a little salute. “They’re sad a lot, though.”

“Oh,” Patton manages, and then he starts walking down the hallway without even saying goodbye.

---

This isn’t a big deal.

Virgil is Patton’s best friend. Virgil, unless he’s lying to Patton--and why would he?--doesn’t know Patton’s his soulmate. Patton might have a bit of a squish on Virgil, and this is confirmation that they’re meant to be together. He could tell Virgil and they could be happy. Or he could not tell Virgil, and they could still be happy.

Either way, it’s not a big deal.

So why is Patton standing in the lobby and trying not to cry?

He’d managed to get through ten minutes of math. Then he grabbed a bathroom pass and wandered through the hallways until he ended up here. He’s next to the display case and the theater where Roman always practices--he reads a few plaques on the cups and trophies but he doesn’t recognize any of the names. Every time he moves, his shoes ring out against the endless stone floor.

He’s missing math class. He should care more about that, and he will, when he’s struggling to catch up later. Right now, though, all he can think of is Virgil.

Virgil, who he jokes with in every class they have together. Virgil, who sits with him at lunch and trades his chips for one of Patton’s cookies. Virgil, who’s quiet and snarky and talks bad about himself too much and is just so wonderful and sweet and amazing and--Patton’s soulmate.

Patton’s met his soulmate, and he hadn’t even realized.

Because it doesn’t matter. He doesn’t care that Virgil’s his soulmate. It doesn’t change anything.

Ugh.

Patton leans forward and presses his head against the cool glass of the trophy case.

It should make him feel better that his soulmate isn’t a stranger, that they’re compatible, that they’re friends. He’s always felt terrible for his soulmate. It should make him feel better that his soulmate seems to like him despite everything.

Except it doesn’t. Except Patton feels like he wants to sink into the glass case and disappear.

Footsteps behind him. Patton jerks upright and sees someone walking down the hallway towards him. He glances around for an escape. The door to the theater is cracked open.

Patton slips inside.

It’s a big theater, just got renovated last year. The lights are all off. The chairs are clustered together in the darkness and Patton does his best to avoid them, walking down one of the aisles and heading to the stage.

He’s been here a million times. Roman is a theater kid, and so is Janus, and Virgil--

Virgil helps with props.

Virgil helps with props, and he’s annoyed at Roman for always messing with the organization, and one time he spilled paint on the stage and he still feels guilty about it. Virgil loves raising the curtains. Virgil freaked out when the orchestra pit first opened because he was afraid he would fall. Virgil wrote his name in the corner of one of the seats during a three-hour-long assembly. Virgil helped fold up the programs.

Patton knows everything about Virgil.

How much does Virgil know about him?

How much is there for Virgil to know?

Patton isn’t a person. He’s a collection of smiles and words he’s crafted to make other people feel better. He’s a facade. And what’s under there? Who is he, underneath all the stuff he does for other people?

He doesn’t know. Not really.

How can he be someone’s soulmate if he can’t feel his own soul?

Patton touches a hand to his chest and imagines it. He pictures a butterfly with wings of light, fluttering around his heart, caged but tied to Virgil’s soul with a shimmering thread. Two halves of a whole, although that’s a kinda outdated phrase. It’s not about making your soulmate complete, it’s about being there for them and helping them be better.

Patton wants to feel better. But he doesn’t know how.

And what is ‘better’ anyway? What is happy? He knows how to act happy, and he thinks he is happy sometimes, but does he know? If he’s happy, why does he cry so much?

Why is he crying?

Patton swipes at his face. Tears smear on his favorite blue shirt. He takes a deep, shuddering breath.

All the lights are off in the theatre. Patton climbs onto the stage and sits on the edge. His legs dangle off, and even though his feet are only a few inches from the ground, he feels like he’s floating.

The wood is smooth under his hands and hard enough to almost hurt. Patton looks up at the ceiling and counts the stage lights, all turned off, aimed different directions and bubbled like melted glass. The curtain sits behind him, dusty and crimson and worn in places.

The seats fan out around him, like an audience.

Patton curls his hands around the edge of the stage and takes another deep breath.

Virgil always sits right there. They went to one of Roman’s performances together, the night Virgil had off, and Virgil bought Patton some snacks so they shared them as they whispered to each other and laughed at the not-very-funny jokes. Virgil left his hand on the arm of his chair and Patton grabbed it under the guise of being afraid of the sudden blasts of music. Virgil didn’t seem to mind. And it was platonic, of course it was, and Patton was disappointed in that, but in the moment he couldn’t imagine anything better--his face was on fire and the lights shone before them and Virgil was inches away.

The lights are off now. Patton is sitting on an empty stage, and he’s going to miss the rest of math class if he’s not careful.

He’s left tears on the wood.

Virgil.

Patton is alone, and Patton is scared, and Virgil can probably feel it, can’t he, and he doesn’t know who Patton is now but soon he’ll find out and he’ll pity Patton, or get worried, or leave him behind--

Who says he has to find out?

They’re sad a lot.

Patton isn’t sad a lot. At least, Virgil doesn’t think he is. So why would Virgil think Patton’s his soulmate? If Virgil hasn’t figured it out by now, what would change?

You found out today, says a nasty voice in the back of his mind. Why can’t he?

Be quiet, Patton tells it.

Virgil won’t find out.

Virgil won’t find out and everything will be fine.

So: game plan. Go back to math class. Continue life as normal. And just don’t tell Virgil, best friend and squish, that they’re soulmates.

Perfect. Patton can absolutely do this.

---

Patton absolutely can’t do this.

Okay, the thing is, he’s a terrible liar. Like, really bad. Like, tried-to-throw-a-surprise-party-and-blurted-out-the-secret-on-day-two bad. Every time he’s supposed to not mention something, it suddenly becomes the only thing he can think about.

So every time Patton sees Virgil, he immediately starts thinking about the fact that they’re soulmates and Patton can’t tell him and Patton is a terrible friend and he shouldn’t be thinking about them being soulmates and they’re soulmates.

Which means every time Patton sees Virgil, he panics.

Virgil’s catching on. Patton usually manages to recover himself after a few seconds, but he also ends up leaving, cutting the conversation short to spare himself the chance of messing things up. Virgil can tell. Virgil’s worried. Virgil’s a good friend like that.

Virgil’s a good friend who’s his soulmate and Patton can’t tell him--

Well, Patton could. Then he’d have to deal with the pain of his best friend leaving him.

So yeah. Not really an option.

"Hey,” Virgil says during lunch. “You okay? You’ve been...kind of distant lately?”

“I’m fine,” Patton says. “Just tired.”

“Hey,” Virgil says after school. “Wanna hang out later?”

“No thanks,” Patton says. “I’ve got a lot of homework.”

“We could do it together?”

“I’m really busy.” Patton gives him a smile. “Next time.”

“Ugh, I hate earth systems,” Virgil complains as he falls into the chair next to Patton. Patton gives him a sympathetic smile, swallows, and looks way.

“Chips for cookies?” Virgil asks during lunch.

“Of course,” Patton says, handing Virgil a cookie and getting a bag of chips in return. He doesn’t even like cookies, but it’s a good excuse to share his cookies with Virgil. He bakes them every weekend. Virgil likes chocolate chip. Patton draws little hearts in icing sometimes.

“So,” Virgil says, biting into the cookie and groaning, “how was class?”

“Good,” Patton says, and he pushes the chips into his lunch box and doesn’t eat them.

“Did I...” Virgil’s hesitant, drumming his fingers on his backpack. “Did I do something? Are you mad at me?”

Patton stares at him in horror for a few seconds. “No!” he finally blurts out, but he can’t think of how to elaborate, and the tears are already welling up--

“I have to go,” he says, and he pushes his way into the crowd and vanishes.

Virgil’s worried. Virgil has a right to be. Virgil is so good and cares so much and of course he’s upset that Patton’s suddenly distancing himself, of course he’s trying to help--

And Patton wishes he could stop. He really, really wishes he could. But that means he has to be around Virgil more, and explain what happened, and Virgil will know that Patton’s his soulmate and he’ll know that Patton’s a mess--

Well, maybe he already knows.

It’s getting harder to hide.

Patton can’t focus. School drips around him and everything goes through one ear and out the other. Patton tries to concentrate, he really does, but his mind is all scrambled up like a twisted ball of yarn, and if Patton tugs on one string nothing happens but if he tugs on another the whole thing collapses to threads.

“Is everything okay?” Roman asks one afternoon, giving Patton a searching expression. “Virgil says you’re avoiding him, and he’s really worried about it--”

"I’m fine,” Patton says firmly, as if he can turn a lie to truth through sheer force of will.

And Roman gives him a look.

Roman knows something is wrong.

And now Patton is avoiding his other friends. Patton is signing up for study sessions he doesn’t need so he can get away from the cafeteria and stay after school when they’d usually hang out. Roman invites him to rehearsal. Patton pretends he has to look after his neighbor’s dog. Janus asks him if he wants to go out for ice cream. Patton manufactures a family gathering. Virgil asks him if he’s okay, and Patton lies.

Patton’s lying so much.

He hates himself for it, and he can’t stop.

It’s like...like candy. Like Patton’s starving and little lie-candies are right there and they fill him up quickly and buy him more time. And he knows they’re not healthy, knows he can’t do this forever, but he just needs a little more time, something to tide him out of this one interaction, he’ll fix it later--

He doesn’t know if he can fix this.

Things are very quickly becoming unfixable.

Patton is a mess, and the world is overwhelming, and he almost starts crying in Spanish class because he can’t remember the word for hat, and everyone’s staring at him and he wants to just curl up into a little ball and disappear--

He fakes sick the next day.

He’s lying to his parents now. Great. That’s what good people do--lie to everyone they’ve got left in their corner.

He lies to his parents, and they believe them, because he’s never lied to them before.

He stays home. He watches TV and purposely puts on some of his favorite movies. The ones that always make him cry. And he finds himself dry-eyed, staring at Mufasa’s death scene and unable to feel anything, and the tears just stick in his throat and refuse to budge.

He cries later. He cries when Virgil sends him a text of a cute puppy and tells him to feel better soon. He stares at his screen and cries.

Because Virgil is such a good friend.

Patton doesn’t deserve Virgil as his soulmate.

He doesn’t want to leave Virgil on read, so he quickly writes back “I will.”

No heart emoji. No “thank you.” No nothing, because what is Patton supposed to write, I’m not sick and also I won’t feel better because I’m a terrible person and also your soulmate?

Maybe Virgil can feel Patton’s sadness like a lump in his own stomach. It would be enough to make Patton stop wallowing, if Patton even knew how.

It’s a good day at home. Patton makes himself a croissant for lunch and sleeps through dinner. He ends up scrolling on his phone at three in the morning, trying to find a new TV show to watch. None of them catch his eye so he just watches The Office bloopers again. Not healthy, but who cares? The rest of his life is a mess, why not stay up late?

Saw this and thought of u

It’s Virgil. He sent a cinnamon roll. There’s a little smiley face under it. Virgil always texts with all lower-case, and he shouldn’t be up this late, and it must have been really nerve-wracking for him to send that cinnamon roll.

Because Patton’s a cinnamon roll.

Patton laughs a bit and then he feels like crying.

He leaves Virgil on read. He can’t bring himself to care.

He’s probably messed up everything anyway.

---

Patton knows he can’t pull off being “sick” two days in a row, as much as he’d like to. So he sucks it up and drags himself out of bed. There are huge bags under his eyes and he feels like crap inside and out. Well, at least he has the excuse of having been “sick.”

He figured a day’s break would make him feel better about facing Virgil again.

He was really wrong.

The moment he saw Virgil, eyeshadow and purple jacket and fluffy little bangs, Patton’s heart felt like it had been crushed into a little pile of pieces. He’s been ignoring Virgil’s little zaps of feeling, but now they’re back with a vengeance. Virgil is jittery. He’s worried. And Patton can guess what about.

“Glad you’re back,” he says, and nothing else.

Patton pretends it doesn’t hurt.

He needs to fix this, he tells himself. Maybe he should tell Virgil that they’re soulmates. But what good would that do? Virgil’s upset with him, and for good reason. Patton just distanced himself from everyone out of panic, and now he has no idea how to rebuild those bridges.

He’ll have to explain himself somehow, and he has no idea how.

And why would Virgil even forgive him?

Virgil, who’s barely looked at him, whose knuckles are white on his seat. He flops into his chair and mutters something about earth systems, but it’s not to Patton, and he doesn’t even look Patton’s way.

Patton swallows down the ache.

He doesn’t have an excuse for missing lunch, so he sits at their usual table. He brings a book and pretends he needs to finish it. Nobody bothers him. Roman asks what he’s reading but trails off mid-sentence and leaves him be.

Patton tries to keep all his feelings down when he’s near them, to look okay and feel okay so Virgil feels okay and everything stays above water.

He follows Virgil out of the cafeteria, opens his mouth to call after him, and finds no words.

“What?” Virgil asks, turning around.

Patton just shakes his head.

Virgil looks...disappointed. He nods, though, and turns away.

Patton stands in the hallway and watches his best friend disappear. He wishes, for some stupid reason, that Virgil will turn around. Virgil doesn’t.

Virgil leaves him behind.

And that’s what Patton didn’t want all along, what he tried to prevent, what he lied to prevent--and he’s here anyway, because this is what he knew would happen, and fuck, why can’t he do anything right--

Patton runs.

Patton runs into the bathroom, locks the stall door, and stays there for a very long time.

---

Patton’s messed up.

And he hates it.

And he will do anything to make it right--

Will he?

Can he do this?

He has to.

He doesn’t think he could bear it if he lost Virgil for good.

---

Patton knows Virgil’s schedule by heart. So he slips into the hallway where Virgil passes by, sneaks out, and takes Virgil’s hand. Virgil starts and turns to look at him. Patton feels a storm of emotions batter him and he doesn’t bother trying to parse them.

“Come with me?” Patton asks softly, tugging at Virgil’s hand. “If that’s okay?”

Virgil glances up at the clock. Two minutes until math class. Patton is missing math again. Well. Some things are more important.

Of course, Virgil could easily say no, that he has class and Patton has some nerve to just walk up and ask to talk like nothing happened--

“Okay,” Virgil says. It’s so quick and so simple that Patton almost cries right then and there. But he shakes himself and leads Virgil out of the hallway, back to that empty classroom. He sits on the ground next to a desk. Virgil hops on top of another desk and swings his legs out, watching Patton carefully.

“What’s up?” Virgil finally asks, probably trying to be casual but failing miserably. Patton gives him a small smile for his effort.

“We’re--” The words get stuck. Patton tries again. “I--”

“Hey, you okay?” Virgil slides off the desk and kneels by Patton. “Who am I kidding, of course you’re not, you haven’t been for weeks and I should have fucking checked on you, I’m sorry--”

“No.” Patton shakes his head vehemently, because when in doubt, he can focus on Virgil talking bad about himself. “It’s okay, Virgil. I promise. It was my fault.”

“If you say so.” Virgil drops all the way to the ground. “So. Wanna talk about it?”

Patton presses a hand to his mouth. He’s not supposed to cry yet, he still needs to explain--

But the way Virgil’s looking at him, so soft, as if Patton hasn’t ghosted him for the past week--

“I--” Patton stammers out. “You--we--I’m sorry!”

“Okay.” Virgil nods. “Good start, Pat. Keep going.”

“I’m sorry, I--” Patton waves his hands. “I just left you, and I didn’t explain why, and that must have felt horrible, and I don’t want to stop being friends with you, I really don’t, and I’m so, so sorry--”

“Okay.” Virgil reaches over and takes Patton’s hands in his own. “What happened? Could you tell me that?”

“Do you--” Patton chokes on his own words. “Are you mad at me?”

“I don’t know.” Virgil gives him a wry little smirk. “Depends on the reason, Pat.”

“O-okay,” Patton says. “I--we--”

“Take your time.” Virgil scoots closer until he’s almost close enough to hug, to lean on, and Patton can’t bring himself to close the gap. “Take your time, Pat, I’m listening.”

“We--” Patton screws his eyes shut. “We’re soulmates.”

Virgil’s hands spasm in his own.

“We’re soulmates,” Patton repeats, as if the words will sound less ugly the second time around.

“We’re what?” Virgil asks. His voice is breathless. Patton opens one eye and sees Virgil staring at him, eyes wide.

“Soulmates,” Patton says a third time. It still sounds wrong to him.

A beautiful, twisted kind of wrong--where it could be right, it could be so right, if Patton wasn’t so close to tears.

“Soulmates,” Virgil echoes.

It sounds better when he says it.

“Yeah, I figured it out--” Patton’s voice breaks. “I’m sorry.”

“Stop apologizing, c’mon.” Virgil’s gentle reminder is almost an afterthought, though. He looks like Patton’s slapped him. “Soulmates. You’re--you’re sure?”

“Pretty sure. It all matches up.”

Virgil is quiet for a long moment. “My soulmate’s upset.”

Patton nods. “I’m upset.”

“I can tell.” Virgil shifts until he’s next to Patton instead of in front of him. It helps. Patton feels less caged-in now. He leans back against the desk and the cool metal legs dig into his back. “So...why’d that freak you out so much?”

Patton takes a deep, shuddering breath.

Virgil’s fingers tap a familiar rhythm on his palm. Four-seven-eight. Four-seven-eight. Four-seven-eight.

Patton breathes again, and again, and again.

“Because we’re--” Patton swallows. “You know what your soulmate is like. Upset. Sad.”

“Not all the time.”

“Too much.” Patton’s hands curl around Virgil’s. “I--I figured--I try so hard to deal with it, and--”

“Deal with what?” Virgil asks. Something’s flickering across his face and Patton can’t tell what it is.

“Deal with...” Patton searches for words. “Crying?”

“Deal with crying.” Virgil looks upset. Or angry. Patton can’t tell and he could try and figure it out with his soulmate bond, but that feels like cheating, and he’s in no state to parse out Virgil’s emotions from his own. “Deal with crying? Why?”

“‘Cause I’m not supposed to--” Patton swallows. “I didn’t want you to worry.”

“Worry?” Virgil repeats like he’s never heard the word in his life.

“You’ve got all your stuff going on,” Patton says, waving a hand at Virgil, “and I don’t wanna add to that, and I thought I could handle it but then you’re my soulmate so you can tell and I didn’t want you to feel like you had to--to pity me or baby me--and I can’t--I can’t be a good friend or a good soulmate if I’m this much of a mess. I can’t be--I can’t be anything!” Patton stares at his lap. “I’m not anything. Not really. So much of me--it’s just not real, honey.”

“Oh.” Virgil sounds absolutely heartbroken. “Oh, Pat.”

Patton sniffs and raises a hand to press away the tears.

“Pat, c’mon, look at me.” Virgil tucks a hand under Patton’s chin and lifts it up. “There we go. Okay?”

Patton stares at Virgil, who’s smiling at him, one hand brushing over Patton’s cheek.

“I’m sorry you felt like that,” Virgil says. “That’s really shitty and you’ve had a rough couple of weeks. But--Pat, being upset once in a while doesn’t mean you’re not you.”

“Me is--someone who you want me to be!” Patton bursts out. “I’m whatever you guys need and now I ruined it and I don’t know what to do!”

“Oh,” Virgil says again, and moves closer. “Pat, no.”

Patton looks at the ground again.

“You help me.” Virgil says it simply. “But--what, do you think you’re only helpful because you’re cheerful or whatever? You’re only helpful because you put aside your own stuff for mine? Do you think--” Virgil pauses. “Do you really think you’ve ruined stuff by making one mistake?”

Patton shudders.

“Come on. C’mere.” Virgil extends his arms. “C’mon, you need a hug. ‘Cause you’re my fucking best friend, that’s why. And my soulmate too. I don’t fucking care if you get upset. Friends help each other, that’s the entire goddamn point.”

Patton looks up.

“C’mere,” Virgil says again. “I wanna make you feel better.”

“I don’t think I can,” Patton admits, and it feels like he’s dredging up something painful inside of him--a thick rock in his chest that’s finally loosening. “I don’t know how.”

“Fine, then, forget the ‘better’ part.” Virgil shrugs. “I wanna let you feel shitty. How about that?”

Patton leans forward, and Virgil meets him halfway.

He curls into Virgil’s chest. He’s never been hugged by Virgil, not like this, and he’s never known how strong Virgil can be. Virgil wraps an arm around his shoulders and runs his other hand down Patton’s side. Almost involuntarily, Patton chokes on a sob.

“I’m gonna cry,” he warns.

“Go ahead.” Virgil’s voice rumbles in Patton’s chest. “Do it as much as you want--I don’t mind.”

Patton’s breath hitches. He tries to hold it in, out of habit, but Virgil’s hand has come up to rest in his hair and Patton has always been an easy crier.

He buries his face in Virgil’s hoodie and sobs.

The bell rings. Neither of them move.

Patton cries until he runs out of tears. Patton cries until the entire front of Virgil’s jacket is wet. He cries until his eyes burn and he feels like he’s been strung out and emptied and carved away.

“I’m sorry,” he whispers into Virgil’s shoulder.

“I forgive you,” Virgil says. “Always, Pat.”

“I don’t--” Patton raises his head and blinks away the last of the tears. “What am I supposed to do now?”

“Drink some water?” Virgil laughs. “No clue, Pat, you’ve gotta figure that one out for yourself.”

Patton nods.

“But I’ve got you, okay?” Virgil leans in and wipes at Patton’s eyes. “You’re my friend because I like you--you’re cute and funny and sweet and you make terrible puns and you make the best cookies. You’re not made up of the things you do for others, and your identity isn’t what other people think of you.” Virgil pauses. His eyes are misty. “And if you want to think of it this way--you help me the most by being you. Just you. That’s all I’ve ever needed.”

Patton feels like he might cry again. He settles for a combination squeal-giggle.

“And we’re soulmates.” Virgil blinks a few times. “Holy fuck, we’re soulmates. Holy fuck.”

“Language,” Patton chides, because the swearing is easier to address than the soulmates.

“I mean, I hoped--” Virgil seems to catch himself. “I...did have some--ideas--about who it could be. But I didn’t really--it seemed too much to ask for.”

“You wanted it to be me,” Patton says.

“Yep.” Virgil looks sheepish. “You’re--y’know, you’re the best, Pat.”

“You wanted it to be me.” Patton shakes his head. “You--you want? Me?”

“More than anything.” Virgil leans forward and presses their foreheads together. “Okay?”

“Definitely okay,” Patton manages. “So much more than okay.”

“Thank fucking god.” Virgil snorts. “All this time I’ve been pining away and you were right there--my soulmate--the whole time?”

“Apparently?” Patton grins. “Um, surprise? Your soul chose me?”

Virgil smiles back. “Well, my soul does have standards.”

Patton’s grin melts into something even more soppy and lovesick. He doesn’t mind.

“I--um--” Virgil scratches the back of his neck. “I--you--y’know--”

“I love you,” Patton says. “If...that’s what you were trying to say?”

“Yeah,” Virgil says, looking relieved. “I...I’m better with leaving it an understood thing. But yeah.”

“Understood!” Patton giggles. “We’re...um, we’re late for math?”

Virgil shrugs. “You miss math for me all the time. I’ll miss math for you.”

“Romantic,” Patton teases.

“You know it.” Virgil pulls Patton closer. “I--I never minded, by the way. When you were sad. You were excited other times, and either way--it always felt like you. Sad or happy. It was a little reminder that you were there.”

“You feel like lightning,” Patton says.

“Huh.” Virgil smirks. “That’s cool.”

“It’s all zappy.” Patton wiggles his fingers. “Feels like you’re pushing me farther, like you’re catching fire.”

“Cool,” Virgil says again, and this time it sounds a bit more lovestruck, and Patton is really happy with the idea of hearing that tone forever.

“You’re--you’re different.” Virgil reaches a hand up and hovers it over his chest. “You’re like...rain? No, like, directly after it rains. When all the grass is wet and it smells like rain and the clouds are still there.”

“Really?” Patton asks.

“Yeah. Happy or sad, it was--it was all nice.” Virgil smiles at him. “You’re my soulmate, Pat. Isn’t that cool?”

“Yeah,” Patton agrees, and smiles back, and for once it isn’t forced at all. “It’s amazing.”

General taglist:

@the17thmeatball

@most-likely-fandom

@csi-baker-street-babes

@caffeinated-cryptid

@thefivecalls

@ollyollyoxinfree

@the-gay-is-back

@dramaticsnakes

@stoicpanther

Taglist from @the-taglist-repository:

@dragonwithproblems @snowdice @locked-prism @nonasficcollection @enby-phoenix @idont-freaking-know @sign-from-god-complex @hitmewiththatfanart33 @aceawkwardunicorn @callboxkat @supernovainthenightsky @evoodo123 @hekking-happy-nonsense @cottonwoolsocks @a-fandom-trashdump @kieraelieson @star-crossed-shipper @somehow-i-got-an-account @just-your-typical-trans-guy @potatsanderssides @starlight-era @thatgaydemigodnerd @katelynn-a-fan @dwbh888 @royal-stormcloud @intruxiety @brain-deadx0 @the-grounded-raven @grouptalekindnesssoul @the-hoely-bleach @anvil527up @fanficloverinthesun

#sanders sides #moxiety #patton sanders #virgil sanders #sanders sides fic #averywrites #soulmate september #tw anxiety #okay so this is a bit of a mess and i don't know but here #it came out more angsty than i expected

287 notes · View notes

proudfreakmetarusonniku · 3 years

Note

Dream hcs?

Ahaha oh boy do I. Heads up though, there’s some dark stuff in here. Most of the tws are obvious relating to Dream, but there’s also a very brief reference to implied rape in bullet points 6 and 8.

Dream is a god of no particular domain, nor interest in gaining one. He’s absolutely no interest in gaining power in the godly plane, instead preferring to get power in the mortal realm. As such, his only real Godly power is agelessness

He’s one of the oldest beings on the server, vaguely around the age of Philza Minecraft (so several billions of years old).

He, DreamXD, and Drista are “siblings”- gods can’t have siblings since they spawn from nothing, but they see each other as siblings, Drista and DreamXD choose to appear like Dream, and the three of them often share power, information, ect. when they can.

Very soon after he and his siblings spawned, when they barely had any power at all, they were captured by slavers who wanted the prestige of having actual Gods under their heel.

Dream basically immediately agreed to do whatever if he could keep Drista and DreamXD safe. Later on in life, he’d call it pragmatic. Anyone else would say it was anything but.

Dream ended up on display as a caged god, for passerby’s to gawp at and be impressed by. Most only did that. Once guards found out he wouldn’t fight back, terrified for the consequences for his siblings… well, let’s just say that the prison isn’t Dream's first experience with torture.

DreamXD and Drista were also kept in captivity too, in more comfortable conditions and not harmed at all, as leverage. They were still shown off though.

Dream was kept like this for long enough to see generations grow (which he absolutely did- it’s a way to keep the time bored out of your mind. He tried to ignore the ones who resembled him too much). Oh, he could have escaped, but he’d go through anything for kin, and he couldn’t risk them getting hurt.

Of course, when the city was involved with a severe war and burnt down around him, he quickly got the hell out of dodge, brother and sister in hand.

While Drista and DreamXD went off to found cults and religions of their own, Dream solely looked for power in the mortal realm. Be it as a ruler, or something behind the scenes, he didn’t care. He just wanted- needed- power. He’d learnt that without it all that’s assured is pain.

Dream was petrified of anyone learning what he was for a while, constantly switching identities and going into hiding whenever he thought anyone figured out that he was a god. Even after his paranoia subsided somewhat, he retained this habit, and has gone through millions of different identities.

Dream's mask is part of his body- though he can summon and desummon it, it’s made of flesh and bone and hurts to break. He's taken his mask off around only his siblings, and eventually Tommy.

Dream met Techno when Techno was still young, barely even a champion of the Blood God. Both would claim the other started the fight, and both would claim they were the one who won. What they’re both clear on is that they enjoyed it, and they quickly became rivals, usually friendly, sometimes not depending on the war being fought on that day.

It was within the last few hundred years that Dream met BadBoyHalo and Skeppy. Dream found them interesting and stuck around, and eventually developed a friendship, while BadBoyHalo taught Dream the concept of morality (though he never quite grasped it.)

Dream was pretty much considered an adoptive member of the family, and when BadBoyHalo brought back and officially adopted an infant dragon-hybrid and blaze-hybrid, they grew up basically seeing Dream as a brother.

Dream met George in an assassination attempt gone terribly wrong. Not that George was an incompetent assassin- it’s just he didn’t have the advantage of thousands of years avoiding assassination Dream had. He thought the strange human was interesting, and spared his life in exchange for his friendship.

It was not long after this that the idea of the manhunts started. Dream was always reckless, and he and George sparring quickly turned into fighting to the (non-canon) death turned to George hunting Dream down for sport and Dream killing him until he gave up. As Sapnap grew up and his blaze instincts to set things ablaze started, he joined in on the bizarre game, and then news started to spread about the crazy fucker who spends every weekend getting hunted down for sport by his friends.

This was when the rules solidified- Dream would find an untouched server, and look to find the closest ender portal (since the end can’t be entered in Dream SMP, he couldn’t kill the dragon as an end state). If the hunters killed him before, they won. It was a safe, not harmful way to fuel his desire for power- if he had the upper hand he had the power to wipe the floor with everyone else, and even if he wasn’t he had the complete power to end the game the second it stopped being fun.

Dream started filming them, just for fun, and they quickly blew up- sure, it was non-canon deaths, but without the safety measures set up in Hypixel, any death that was too narratively satisfying could become canon.

Quickly, Dream found himself being referred to as “Dream, from the manhunts,” and he loved it. He thrived on the attention he got. He took advantage of this, and became a fairly well known and popular celebrity for his Manhunt sport. A few brave souls would even try the game themselves.

Dream met Antfrost during a game of Manhunt, after BadBoyHalo had joined their games. Dream was hiding in the middle of the forest, when he spotted a strange, two tailed cat, and he only had more questions when the cat turned into a humanoid form and immediately asked for autographs. Turns out the strange nekomata was a skilled magician and a huge fan of the Manhunts. The game immediately stopped for conversation, and Dream found him quite interesting indeed.

Dream found the server that would become the Dream SMP during one of his Manhunts. He didn’t think much of it at the time, but his mind drifted back to it a few times, and he decided to move there. After all, as the benevolent dictator of a small server he could have ultimate power and not hurt anyone (not that he cared much if he hurt anyone, but BadBoyHalo probably wouldn’t like it if he did it without provocation and BadBoyHalo was interesting enough Dream would rather not push him away).

Dream's obsession with Tommy started pretty much as soon as the disc wars did, and honestly it was a huge motivator for all his actions following.

When Dream said he felt villainised in his letter to Tommy in that one line c!Dream apologists obsess over for some reason, he was telling the truth. Why, he was just having fun! If everyone else cared about being ruthlessly slaughtered, well, they’re just spoilsports.

Everyone on the server was personally invited by Dream with a letter (even those after he went in prison- he handed Ranboo the letters and he delivered them). He handpicked who would be the most interesting people to befriend/toy with. The members who are on the server who weren’t are Tubbo (who he let stay because he knew Tommy would find a way to leave if Tubbo was kicked out), JSchlatt initially (who was kicked out until Tommy convinced Dream to let him back in, Ranboo (who Dream let stay because of their very obvious family resemblance), and Slimecicle (who Dream is unaware of the existence of).

Even in the beginning, Dream specifically built the protections of the server to be more focused on keeping everyone in than keeping out intruders- after all, Dream had ways of removing any wanderer and killing any threat. It’s easy to leave the server to visit elsewhere, but if you try and stay out, you’ll eventually just wake up in your bed in the server. Dream pretends it was an error he doesn’t know how to

#dream smp #dsmp #dream smp headcanons #dsmp headcanons #c!dream #c!dream headcanons #tw implied torture #tw implied rape #tw captivity #tw possessive behaviour

24 notes · View notes

pokedashwarrior55 · 3 years

Text

Raincloud HC and Mini Fic

BENTHOMAAR/VANIA HC DUMP.

CAN BE READ PLATONIC OR ROMANTIC BUT THESE TWO WOULD BE PERFECT FOR EACHOTHER EITHER WAY

Inspired By @parachutingkitten

- They saw each other at the nya tribute but didn't get to actually meet

-Bentho became king of merlopians but struggles with citizens seeing him as a real king, as many still are distrustful of the surface world

-He has gluttonous there as the royal scientist and Gripe helps him out, but the citizens still don’t view him has a true king after what happened with Kalmaar

-Bentho and Vania have a cordial meeting for royal business

-Vania is struggling less with her people and more with her city economically recovering.

-Bentho wants to bind the kingdoms somehow, since her kingdom is so inland that if they had good relations with a mountainous region it's one step closer to accepting him.

-They are skeptical of SURFACE DWELLERS not humans so it's a good try.

-establishes trade and economic relations with each other. Maybe trade or sell deepstone and bioluminescent stones for jewelry and architecture in return for some shintaro product unavailable under the sea. Maybe a metal or type of cuisine? Not sure. Flowers perhaps since they have so many in the garden.

-Both relate to having less than respectable family members and share experiences with defeating them

-share new ruler problems they face and can relate to each other very well

-benthomaar can keep up with the bubbly energy of Vania and they both have a backbone to keep their bond from being too unhealthy, fluffy and overly optimistic.

-bentho has trauma from kalmaar's abuse and goes overboard to try and impress vania and thinks he has to be the best damn guy and best royal ally possible to keep her current friendship

-Vania is pretty easily impressed and is very vocal with her admiration so he'll be overwhelmingly happy and confused when she latches on so quickly.

-she'll show him around the sky city, bentho never been so high up, and can introduce him to her allies down below.

-Bentho loves the caves much more than the city in the sense that it's more comforting and all the underwater streams and lakes remind him of home.

-all streams lead to the ocean so I'm not surprised if they find out the water is connected to merlopian seas some how

- this can also work to compliment the kingdoms

- Like Merlopia can reach out and achieve diplomacy with another kingdom instead of being so islationist, and shintaro struggles with moving on from a unsustainable and horrific economic system so they could help eachother alot.

-Both very isolated so coming together may be a good step for both countries’

-Merlopians could be accepting of geckles and munce since they live below the surface, and the shintarins live high above it (so they couldn’t flood it even if they wanted to). It’s baby steps towards liking the rest of NINJAGO as a continent.

-When they become closer friends she Opts for calling him Ben or Benny, since she is so outgoing and bubbly like that, but immediately backtracks and asks if it was ok and apologizes, saying she went over the line

- He would stand up for himself and deny BENNY but I think Ben would be a cute name between the two uwu

-Benthomaar is naturally formal in his ruling and has to push himself to relax while Vania is very lax and friendly with her ruling but needs to push herself to be demanding and formal (She took awhile to use the “Princess” card against Halmaar, opting instead for mutual understanding)

-ok quasi-fic time

___________________________________________________________

FIC SKELETON (might finish writing someday but here’s the basics with some interaction)

summary: : They spend the day learning about each other kingdoms, and in turn eachother.

________________________________________________________________

CHAPTER 1: Shintaro

Vania goes about giving Bentho a tour of her city and he is overly courteous of her. She finds it cute at first but then she starts worrying if Benthomaar thinks she can’t handle herself.

Introduces Bentho to Chompy. He finds the dragon very cute and that gets a big smile out of him, really showing off his very sharp teeth. Chompy loves him immediately and starts to climb over him and sit on his head and stuff. Bentho reciprocates pretty much immediately, no stranger to the values of an animal's unconditional love. (The only love that ever seems unconditional in his experience.)

He has trust issues from Kalmaar and tries extra hard to earn love so he goes overboard sometimes, he’ll be the sort to open doors literally all the time, agree with her ideas more aggressively than is really needed, go out of his way to try and physically protect her from perceived threats, etc. Not knowing this fact, and being insecure about her own leadership skills, she thinks he is babying her, or worse, pitying her. She eventually tells him that she can indeed handle herself.

“I can handle myself Benthomaar, you don’t have to do all these things for me.”

“I… Know that”

“You’re very sweet and I appreciate your generosity but… this”, gestures to all the things he bought or given or made for her, and gestures to the situation they were in where he immediately went to protect her from, “simply is too much”

The walk back is a tad awkward after that. Bentho remarks he’s never been so high up before and he does seem very dry from the heavy winds and cold air.

Good thing it’s about time to show him the lower parts of the Kingdom anyway.

“Halmar, I am escorting Benthomaar down through the mountain. Can you be in charge while I’m gone.”

“As you wish my queen”

Benthomaar looked the armored man up and down. “Halmaar? Are you of royal blood too?” he asked.

“What?” Halmar bluntly questioned aloud to the merlopean king before sputtering out in a bow, “I mean, Pardon?... Your majesty”

“Benthomaar this is Halmar. My right hand advisor and head of our defensive force.”

“Oh. In my people, -Maar is given to that of royalty. ‘Halmaar’ means Brave Sea. ”

“Well I can assure you he’s very brave.” Vania beamed as Halmar recovered from his bow. “And will protect the city while I'm gone” she reminded him playfully, as she moved benthomaar out of the temple.

________________________________________________________________

CHAPTER 2: The Dungeons

Going through the dungeons vania remarks on her father’s previous ruling over it. They share stories and struggles.

Talks about her father and how the ninja came to help. Goes into the topic of her ruling struggles.

“Now that I have helped bring King Vangelis, my father I mean, to justice, people expect me to fix everything. They come to me asking for plans to retain Shintaro's glory, or with pleas for more funds. The people put so much faith in my father and, although his actions were Terrible… it made the city so wonderful for everyone living here. I don’t think I’ll be able to make Shintaro prosper the way he did. I love my people but they expect so much of me all at once. I admit It is very difficult to keep track of it all.”

“That sounds rough, but at least your subjects care for you. The people of Merlopia don’t see me as their king...and they have every right to. I helped the surface dwellers and my actions led to Kalmaar’s death. In their eyes I am a traitor…. Many don’t follow my commands unless they are directed through Gripe. It’s understandable they won’t respect me… I was adopted after all...”

“Well I respect you. Why, from the past--” counts on her fingers with a tongue sticking out “-- three hours I’ve officially known you, I’d say you’re a wonderful ruler! I hereby royally dub you a great king! You can tell your people that!”

*Small air laugh recovering from his Sadness* “Thank you, Vania. I don’t know how much they’ll regard a compliment from the mouth of a ‘surface dweller’, though”

*Smol vania /hj sad pout to one side*

“But I appreciate it, really!!” He corrected arms waving at his front, trying to recover from his previous, in his eyes, disrespectful remark (also in his eyes failing horribly at doing so. He needs to queen to like him. This isn’t going well and-)

“I know you do.” she beamed, “ Now Come on, I see the cart tracks we’re getting closer!!” she happily stated, almost skipping past the new King.

Bentho looked onward at the long haired blond who was trying to walk and balance on the rim of the track, and smiled with relief that she is so easy going at him. He essentially disregarded her royal decree to her face and she brushed it off like nothing. Trimaar had always honored heavy respect towards other royals but it seems this Queen runs things very differently. Even the day had been tame. It felt more like some playdate than an official royal gathering,but with how stressful becoming King had been it was a pleasant change of pace.

“Hey Bentho! We’re HEeeereee!” Vania waved excitedly as the other royal caught up to her standing near a steep ledge leading down to an opening with a large passageway.

Have to go down a large mountainous trench first to reach the dungeons. Benthomaar prepares to scale down the cliff but Vania brings out her wings and tells bentho to hold on. She flies him down the cave--

(Flying is vaguely exciting, but also vaguely terrifying. He’s never really had to deal with the possibility of falling before. Buildings in Merlopia aren’t that tall and you literally can’t fall underwater, there’s always something supporting you.)

The two meet up with the chancellor of the geckles first. He welcomes Queen Gania and her friend Genthomaar and he asks first for trial by mino, but Vania orders him off. Scoffing at her majesty’s boring overriding of their usual procedures he opts for a simple vote for bringing the new unfamiliar face to the munce queen. Bentho gets rocks thrown at him and the geckles cheer as they escort the two to where murtessa is. Vania giggles at him.

Next up is the muntz.

So she'd challenge him to a quick duel to see if he is a fitting ally. Naturally Benthomaar rocks with a spear, so he's good, but he'll be really confused at first and probably not want to fight her.

He doesn’t win, but Murtessa sees through his fighting that he has a good heart, and a brave one. She declares him an ally of the Munce. King Menthomaar. And then gives him a hearty slap on the back and invites them all to dinner. They politely decline (Vania, to preserve her stomach. Munce food is, ah, something else.)

Murtessa thinks Bentho is a good kid and a good fighter. She thinks it's funny how polite he is, though. Gives him some royal advice that he’d be a little better off if he would carry himself like a king. “Confidence! Important in every Munce ruler!”

Bentho finds her and Munce a bit...much, but they also kind of remind him of the Maaray back home so he also finds it kind of familiar. (Also he doesn’t know it, but shark Merlopians are kind of rough and tumble, too. Like Munce, but without tight knit families or a set kingdom.)

________________________________________________________________

CHAPTER 3: Merlopia

Goes back to the temple to discuss whats next.

“If we are going to be partners in this royal engagement, I think you should see My homeland. Merlopia”

Vania just laughs at his wording

“What did I say?” Genuine confused babi just trying to be overly courteous cause he feels like he must be a GOOD KING. ULTRA KING.

Brings her to the beach. He signals her to wait there and he dives into the water to ask nya for some help in bringing Vania down the depths. She knew the bare basics of what happened but seeing nya in such a state made her a tad saddened.

“Nya. Can you help bring my friend to Merlopia?”

Nya nods all slow and goddess like. “You helped me defeat Wojira, correct? For that I’ll grant you this.”

“Thank you, nya”

“That’s NYA??”

“Do I… know you.”

She just frowns at that question. She knew she and nya were not super close but to be forgotten like that. Ouch. “I guess not”

Nya makes a large air bubble and descends quickly down the depths. And like cool camera pans and junk and bentho is riding the wave nya is making outta the bubble and vania sticks her head outta the bubble for a sec to meet his gaze and feel the current go by. Fluff insues

“Don’t worry there is air in the palace”

Vania just loudly exclaims in relief cause honestly she was prepared to be living in a bubble forever.

Nya just...disintegrates. Which is a bit strange to see, even for Vania who usually likes weird stuff. But she doesn’t linger on it long because ooooohhh Merlopia is so pretty! I mean Shintaro is pretty too but this is a whole different kind of pretty. It’s like the gardens of Shintaro, but that’s the whole city. It’s so colorful compared to the flawless Ivory City.

They tour around a little bit, with Vania looking at everything in interest. She even likes the Royal Ripper Sharks (who are being treated a bit nicer now that Kalmaar is gone, and are sicced on people far less frequently than before.) Benthomaar gets a bit nervous when Gripe runs up to him with a bunch of kingly concerns and kind of tells him a lot of noncommittal responses.

Since they declined dinner with the Munce, Vania’s stomach starts rumbling, and she embarrassedly admits that she was pretty hungry.

Benthomaar invites her to dinner in Merlopia.

They eat while discussing trade stuff and diplomacy? (And also their day and the G&M and such.)

Also a fun chance to make up some Merlopian culture and food, and for him to share it with her. Unsurprisingly, it’s a lot of fish. But that’s honestly great because they don’t have a lot of that in Shintaro. There are a few streams a hike away that she's had every now and again, but for the most part fish isn’t something eaten often in Shintaro.

Benthomaar is pretty happy with this set-up because he had been eating dinner all by himself which was very lonely and wistful. It's much nicer with her company, and he needs her to know that, and really wants her to stay around and to like him so that they can do this again. So his super-manners-having-to-prove-himself-worthy-of-friendship kick in again and he starts getting super formal and passing her stuff and offering dishes a little overzealously and such and she's like "this again what the huh?"

“My lord, you're...doing it again.”

“Sorry, I’ll do better.”

“Better? You’re doing just fine. Really. The meal is great, the presentation is beautiful, and you’re being so kind. I just...don’t need this much attention at once, that’s all.”

No I’m not it’s not good enough. I’m not good enough. * frowns silently * *internal screaming *

They decide to meet again later to discuss trade and commerce deals and both bow goodbye after dinner, but soon as she leaves the dining room and gets lost roaming the temple (this palace is constructed like the caves how do they find anything) eventually ends back up at the dining room, where benthomaar is cleaning up the table and stacking the used dishes and they both realize that she can't get back up on her own. They share a laugh and Bentho promises to escort her back up.

Vania wonders why he is cleaning and not the palace servents so she decides to help him clean up, since it seems his people weren’t going to.

The end

(Also Nya is busy being a goddess somewhere else, so they’ll have to get her transportation back at a later date. With any luck there’s an air-breather-friendly manta saddle that they can use for her.)

________________________________________________________________

They are too precious for this world someone please do more of thisssss

#ninjago #ns15 spoilers #ns15 #ninjago seabound #ninjago seabound spoilers #benthomaar #ninjago benthomaar #ninjago vania #vania #Vania X Benthomaar #raincloudshipping #ninjago raincloudshipping #raincloud #ninjago nya #nya smith

46 notes · View notes

popculturebuffet · 3 years

Text

Lilo and Stitch Crossovers: “Morpholomew” (American Dragon Long): Stop Trying to Make Am Drag a Thing (Commisson Done For WeirdKev27)

Hello all you happy people! And welcome to a brand new retrospective/story arc/thing from yours truly, comissoned directly by WeirdKev27. If you’d like to comission your own review or set of reviews like this one, it’s 5 bucks. Just contact me via my ask box or direct messages on this very blog or my discord technicolormuk#6550.

With Shadow Into Light in the books, Kev decided he wanted to comission something not duck related and a bit smaller as a buffer before the next big arc, ALL of three arcs from season 2 of Ducktales, and decided to go with something he suggested to be a while back as a possible future retrospective: The Lilo and Stitch Crossover episodes!

That’s right for the next three weeks, with TWO reviews this week since I had a spot open up and Kev paid for this one in full and way in advance, we’ll be taking a trip to Hawaii to visit everyone’s faviorte little girl, her best friend/pet/killing machine as they try to find homes for his 625 cousins.

I loved Lilo and Stitch when I was a kid: Disney admitely got their hooks in me on that one with their cool prequel comics in disney adventures. These comics set up the movie, showing Jumba creating Stitch and the events leading up to both getting captured. The movie did not disapoint with cool character designs, a drop dead gorgeous recreation of Hawaii, and a really heartfelt, heartbreaking and heartpumping story of loss, family, and ving rahmes voicing one of the few heroic child services workers i’ve seen in a medium, a refreshing change of pace. The film is a masterpiece and I really do need to watch it again sometime.

Given the series was a huge hit and that thsi was before the big lull in the late 2000′s and early 2010′s where Disney refused to make any tv shows based on their movies, a series followed, given a lead in by the direct to video movie Stitch.

The movie set up the basic premise; 624 capsules containing Jumba’s previous experiments, cousins as Stitch calls them, ended up raining over Kauai, awakening when dropped into water or any other liquid. Lilo and Stitch, with help from Jumba, his live in boyfriend Pleakley, her tought but fair sister Nani, and her boyfriend David, who dosen’t show up as much as i’d like but is my boy so he gets a mention here. But anyways our heroes try to reform the various engines of distructoin who all have unique powers and find them their one place they truly belong.

So yes the show was a Mons-type show clearly captalizing off pokemon.. but the slice of life setting as opposed to the shonen style of most shows following in pokemon’s wake, gave it it’s own unique feel: while our heroes did fight, it was more about shenanigans, adventures and what not with these unique creatures and the purpose is very heartflet: Lilo simply wants to give these guys the same kind of love and support she’s given Stitch and a chance to do good.

Opposing them is Gantu, the shark bounty hunter from the first film who, now out of a job, is working for Dr. Hamstervile, an imprisoned sceintest and a character I really don’t like that much as he’s not funny or a genuine threat or both and feels like a waste of time. Thankfully he’s not the focus and Gantu is instead partnered with 625, my faviorite Lilo and Stitch character. 625, as the name suggests, is stitch’s immediate prototype.. but unlike Stitch is too lazy and peaceful to be a real threat and isn’t even really a villian despite being on Gantu’s side. He’s busy making samwitches, his calling to the point when he gets a name in the finale movie it’s naturally Ruben, and snarking at gantu. He’s sadly not in this one but hopefully it’s JUST this one.

As you can tell I liked this show a LOT at the time. I haven’t watched it since, mostly because disney scarely replayed it after it’s run, but it was vibrant, fun and intresting and a nicely laidback and creative take. The fact I came into the franchise with the comics and thus 625, who was introduced there in fact, and had a hunger to know more about the other experiments certainly helped. It was great fun.

But while I grew up with the show and the four shows it teamed up with, i’ve never seen these episodes before these reviews. I wondered why for years as I caught the tail end of the kim possible one and saw images ocasionally, but never saw them.

Turns out it’s because in general Season 2 got screwed over. While Season 1 was pushed out the door fast and aired at a rapid pace Season 2.. was portioned out over several years, and the Recess crossover one, the last one aired and the last one i’ll be covering never even got to Disney channel, only airing on ABC kids, DIsney’s saturday morning block at the time I rarely watched. I did watch it’s predecessor one saturday morning though. Good stuff.

Since I couldn’t find any making of stuff for why these episodes happened, my best guess is DIsney wanted some cross promotion, and the shows used were chosen because they were the most popular at the time and honestly all 4 represent some of disney’s best, with Recess being in heavy reruns at the time, hence i’ts conclusion despite the show being finished before Lilo And Stitch the movie came out, let alone the series.

So yeah i’m taking this ride for the first time.. but I was happy to. While Kev pays for a lot of my work, I still have to accept the idea.. and this was a great one. It allows me to cover 5 amazing series and gage how much people would want to see reviews of said series on this blog in one fell swoop.

So to kick us off we have American Dragon: Jake Long, a series I waited forever to come to Disney + as I loved it at the time, badly need to rewatch it (Been busy ), and find it genuinely great: It’s a great teen superhero story about the magical protector of new york, with a charming lead, a great setting and horrifcally great villians in the violently racist magic creature hunting huntsclan.. and their top agent who happens to be jake’s love intrest Rose. It’s really excellent and i’m glad it’s now widely avaliable for all to see. I will say ahead that all four shows in this crossover arc are excellent, and were fine choices for this.

So what happens when an action comedy about a hip hop teenage dragon meets a slice of life show about aliens? Find out under the cut.

So we open at a fancy hotel where Lilo’s bringing lunch to her sister Nani when she runs into.. Keoni Jameson.

The second I remembered this kid all the hate just came flooding back, coursing through my veigns. Just pure liquid hatred for this little perosnalitiless little punk. Keoni is Lilo’s crush and local “stupid white audience stand in”. He has no real personality other than “generic cool kid” and “likes skating”, and just sucks the air out of the room anytime he’s in an episode. Keoni is part of a recurring problem in cartoons across the ages, one that’s slowly going away: the bland love intrest. Intorducing a character whose only traits are being cool for the lead to fawn over with usually no intent of either getting the two togehter or just ending it. IT’s annoying, it was in a good chunk of my childhood, I wish it’d stop. I cannot tell you how many shows used this trope. There were exceptions, American Dragon Jake Long actually used it well by not only making Rose a fleshed out character.. but making her jake’s nemisis in their other lives, and thus making things increidbly difficult on both once the truth comes out, with Jake grappling with if he can trust her or not and Rose grappling with the slow relization eveyrthing she was taught her whole life was wrong.

And again I have seen GOOD storylines using this as a tool: Dipper and Wendy ended with her having been aware teh whole time, but simply not knowing how to let him down given the age gap, and Regular Show rebounded the best from it: it turned the stop and start relatoinshpi of Mordecai and Margret’s relationship into a character flaw for him, openly explored it.. and ended up having him work past it and actually date her for a bit. Before she moved away, he got an even better love interest, then they destoryed the relationship in the worst way posisble and I wil lbe getting to that at some point. Some point.

So yeah even at the time it was done better, hindsight haas only made it worse and it made watching the first few minutes tough because I had to keep pasuing because I hate him so damn much. He just adds NOTHING to the show and is a blank yanwing void from which no good came out of and I was terrified he’d be in the rest of the episode. Thankfully while he drives the plot he’s only in this scene.. but it’s still one more scene than both 625 and Pleakly got. yeah both are missing, as is nani.

I did uncover one fun fact that made things a bit easier though: The crew ALSO hated Keoni. No really. Disney forced the character on them as they wanted an audience surrogate, and this abomination is what popped out. They DID NOT want him here and likely only used him as mcuh as they did because Disney forced it on them. And Disney would NOT learn from this as Star Vs got saddled with Alphonso and Ferguson soley because of network mandate. The two aren’t TERRIBLE characters but they aren’t great and feel as tacked on as they were. And part of this does fall on the crew: you CAN twist a stupid mandate like this to work well: Joe Murray was asked to add “A female character with a hook”, as in some sort of dumb gimmick to Rocko. He used those words, meant to create a superfical girl power cardboard cutout.. and created the wonderful Dr. Hutchenson, a bright cheery doctor, the series best sidecharacter.. and someone with a hook hand. But I won’t go too hard on them: they probably didn’t have as much room to manuver and the fact Keoni was sitll being shoved into episodes in season 2 tells me they likely had a set number of episodes he had to show up. I’m suprised they didn’t demand they have characters ask “Where’s Keonie?” any time he wasn’t in an episode. He was unecessary and it comes across with a massive chunk of unforutnate implications: that they didn’t think a series with a mostly hawaiann cast would work, that they wanted at least one other “nice” white character to offset myrtle instead of having the only major white character be a bully and antagonist, and that they thought tehir mostly white audience coudln’t enjoy a series without a white character, which as someone who was in the target demo at the time, I call bullshit on. As I said I hated him then, I hate him now and his involvement is the worst aspect of this episode.

So after Lilo fawns over him for a bit we find out this chonk of wood’s purpose in the episode: to set up the plot. There’s a massive Skate Competition coming to town with the prize being a really cool skateboard. This plot point itself.. I don’t mind. Jake is a skater, it’s part of his character and one of the things he loves doing in what minsicule spare time he has. And while it was a common trope at the time having a character skateboard really dosen’t harm most works. We’ve gotten great characters like Jake, Jackie Lynn Thomas, Branwen and Ronnie Anne Santiago out of it, and it feels like natural parts of the character, and frankly An Extremley Goofy Movie wouldn’t be NEARLY as awesome without having skateboarding bizzarley attached to the plot via the college x-games. Granted somtimes you get Rocket Power out of the deal but that’s the price you pay for the good stuff. I only regret it’s involved because Keoni has to be there and I had to pause multiple times to get through his scene. He’s just a sampler platter of terrible decisions made in 2000′s cartoons and he irritates me more than this guy.

And anyone whose read my Loud House reviews can tell you that is a high bar to clear.

So naturally Lilo wants to enter the Hawiann X-Games to get the board for Keoni. Though I will give the writers credit for having Stitch voice their thoughts and the audiences thoughts by having him take Keoni’s picture and throw it in the garbage. Where he belongs.

Lilo’s not great at it as they practice.. and said practice naturally ends up waking up a new experiment, 316.. who i’m just going to go ahead and call Morpholomew. Stitch eventually catches him though like many of the experiments he’s not actively malevelolent and is easy enough to get home.

Jumba gets to his schitck of breaking down what the experiment of the week does: In this case Morpholomew is a shapeshifter though he has a VERY intresting twist on those powers: while he can naturally morph himself into anything he’s seen or has a picture of, he can do the same to anyone he touches. It dosen’t effect their voices, but otherwise it’s a perfect recreation.

So Lilo instead of finding him a home right away.. decides to wait until after the compettition because we need him for the plot.

So at the Skateboard Competittion Lilo tries to enter, but finds she’s too young.. but since she has a picture of Keoni, which is a nice way to use her photo hobby from the movie for plot reasons and thus dosen’t feel like an ass pull. Why Keoni’s not in town to skate is as his dad left because it’d be too crowded.. even though the event is at the resort he owns.

So while Lilo commits identtity theft, our guest star appears. He’s cool, he’s hot like a frozen son, he’s young and fast he’s the chosen one, people i’m not braggin, i’ts the American Dragon. Jake is here for two reasons: the first is that Grandpa Long got reports of magical creatures out in the open, so naturally they need to look into that. It’s a clever way to get him, along with Grandpa, Fu, Trixie and Spud, over to Hawaii. The Dragon Council would defintely be suspcious hearing about this, and my guess to why they hadn’t sent another dragon over is they simply dont’ have one on the islands. As for why the Huntsclan didn’t get involved in any way, it’s simply too public for them. With the magical community in new york, they don’t have to worry about exposure because neither side wants it, so neither side can out the other. Here with a bunch of creatures out in the open it runs the risk of the Hunstclan being dragged into the light.. and given the populace dosne’t care about the “magical creatures” alongside them, it would make them look like the monsters they are.

Spud and Trixie tagging along also makes sense besides “they needed them for the plot”: While they’d obviously want to come to Hawaii, the skate competition is likely Jake’s cover for why he’s there, as well as one for why it’s just him and grandpa going with a couple of his friends so they don’t have to deal with manuvering around jake’s dad. That sad them never TELLING jake’s Dad is it’s own can of worms as it feels cruel, made things harder for jake and there was no real reason not to. At worst he’d want Jake to stop for his own saftey but given ther’es an active threat in the huntsclan for the first season and a half, NOT helping people would be the right thing and I feel he’s a sensible enough man to understand eventually.

And it’s stuff like this that already makes this crossover really work for me: they don’t really have to strain to get Jake over there or tell the audience heavily, the blanks fill in themslves. Or I am but that’s because it’s my job and I love doin it.

So everyone goes off to their corners; Jake to do a few practice runs, Foo Dog to bet on his friend because of course, Trixie and Spud to go to the beach (even though Spud’s terrified of sharks so I question why Trixie needs him for this), and in a delightfully adorable subplot, finds a lady to woo: local fruit stand vendoer and crankly old lady Mrs. Hasagawa.

I am here for this subplot: While Grandpa not focusing on the mission is weird for him that’s the entire point.. and their just really cute together. He’s smitten with her entirely because he sees her chewing out one of the people running the contest for making her sign too small. And he performs one hell of a romantic gesture by, while everyone’s back is turned, using his dragon fire to make an add for her on the skate ramp itself, and they have a lovely montage of their time together.. which also weirdly includes grandpa using his dragon fire on stage inf ront of everyone which makes no sense for his charcter but is so cute and does feature david I really don’t care. The writers of Lilo and Stitch probably weren’t deeply familiar with the show and likely just wanted a fun gag. Could be wrong there but it’s cute. He continues to act grossly out of character by trying to avoid going home at the end.. but again I find it simply because he’s in love, they have genuine chemstiry and I like to think they stayed in touch and he retired out there at some point once Jake was old enough to handle things himself. This may not be a ship I expected to support going in but I will die for it going out.

So back to the main plot, Lilo uses Keoni’s body to imitate him which... she’s only loosely called out on and realizes is bad by the end only because she gets stuck in another body. And that’s not even getting into the fact she BREAKS UP WITH KEONI’S GIRLFRIEND. Yes really.. she just does that to get her out of the way. She comes around and realizes she was wrong and tries to fix it which would be fine.. if hte episode didn’t try to cop it out by revealing “Oh she’s not his girlfriend, she’s just someone who keeps telling people that”. It just feels lazy and dumb and a way to keep Lilo’s crush on Keoni for reasons I DO. NOT. GET. But the identity theft is just brushed aside by everyone: Keoni never finds out, and Jake just brushes it off. The real issue is more her trying to bribe keoni into likng her which while something kids need to learn is not the only thing she did wrong here. It feels like they didn’t think all the implications out here and it hampers the episode

Speaking of which as Gantu captures Jake, he sees him transform into dragon mode and assumes he’s the experiment, Jake’s charactization is pretty shallow. And why yes it DOES feel weird writing sentences about a character with the same name thank you for asking. I wasn’t expecting a deep character piece or anything: This is a guest spot, the writers here are not the same normal ones for American Dragon. That’s fine. The problem.. is that they clearly did not get Jake. Grandpa being partly out of character is half the joke, Trixie actually gets a really nice moment towards the end, and Spud.. is eh. But out of them Jake just feels like a basic character description: He likes hip hop, he likes skateboards, he calls himself Am Drag despite that sounding like a good name for a drag act but a terrible name to shorten your title, he fights.. that’s it.

While jake is all of that in the main series, he’s also a kind young man who while sometimes irresponsible does the right thing when the chips are down. He’s someone weighed down by a responsiblity he didn’t ask for, often makes his life more difficult and often finds himself in trouble because his mother and grandfather won’t bother to tell his dad he’s a dragon. Yes that part still bothers me, and I don’t see why we couldn’t just have a superhero show where both parents know. But regardless this just dosen’t feel like Jake , like they just watched the intro and that was it. Jake feels more like a plot device in his own crossover.

That being said there is some good stuff: The minute Jake realizes some Sci Fi stuff is going on instead of hte normal magic stuff he tells him “The am drag’s show isn’t about sci fi” a nice meta bit and then breaks out. Meanwhile Lilo takes on his form.. and ends up stuck after badly botching her run again, as Gantu finds the real shapeshifter.

We get the best stretch of the episode from here though: Lilo awkardly tries to play jake and like jake we get a nice meta nod to how diffrent their show is as she’s worried about his belief in magical creatures.. and is startled out of her charade when Foo Dog talks, a really nice bit especially since it’s tame compared to the weirdness he deals with. Spud and Trixie have questions... only for Jake to show up and his agressive behavior leads to the best bit of the episode: Jake Vs Stitch. The catlyst is understandable: jake has no idea why Lilo’s taken his identity and Sttich is just protecting his best friend from harm. The animation is fluid, the fight is fun and quick and uses both’s powers stellarl. Whle “two heroes get into a misunderstanding and then fight” is a well worn cliche at this point, it’s moments like this that show why: you get to see two heroes who in this case never have interacted before or sense, duke it out, why each is special and it’s fun to watch.

Lilo breaks it up, and admits to the whole thing.. including the whole give Keani the board stuff. While Jake and Spud, being awkard with girls and a loveable moron don’t see the problem with that Trixie gets a moment to shine. As far as I can remember she really didn’t get much on the show proper so it was a nice suprise to see her mentor lilo her, telling her trying to give someone gifts to love you is not okay, she should just be herself all that good stuff. It’s a nice character stuff and tha’ts the kind of character interaction this episode needed more of.

With the misunderstandings washed away our heroes team up and storm gantu’s ship leading to another great sequence as Stitch rides on Jake’s back while the two keep him busy and Lilo gets turned back, Trixie complimenting her dress “Thanks I have 10 just like it at home”. It’s such a sweet and genuine moment” They head back out and gantu semeingly grabs morpholmew from where they hide.. only to find out when he gets back it’s spud, our adorable little blob monster transforming Gantu into a bunny and our heroes leaving. How does Gantu get out of being a bunny?

But it’s a nice enough gag. So we end the episode. We get another nice gag as grandpa had himself and his lady transformed to try and avoid going home, and Jake is fine with having lost out on the board what matters is he made a friend. Sadly we did not get a followup in ADJL., but spud does name our experiment, Morpholomew.

We end on Morph getting his home: a costume shop where he gets paid in fried chicken, he was shown to enjoy it throughtout the episode and changes people into things. It’s a nice little button to the episode and one of the funnest parts of the show was figuring out where the experiment would end up at the end.

Final Thoughts:

This episode is a really mixed bag. There is some good character interactions, two tremendous fight scens and Trixie gets a chance to shine for once if only for a scene or two, and the clashing genres end up making for some great jokes> The shows do go well together as while Lilo and Stitch is more laid back both have slice of life elements. And hasgawa X Grandpa is just oto cute for words.

The episode is held back by Jake and Lilo’s lackluster characterizatons: Jake is simply the theme song as a character, which in theory is awesome because that theme song slaps but in practice is pretty lame, and Lilo is selfish and irresponsible even for her in a way that dosen’t feel at all convincing. It drags down what’s otherwise a fun crossover and Morpholomew is truly a unique and wonderful experiment. Still if you like either show it’s worth a watch even if you have to suffer through Keoni for it. It’s worth it.. I just wish it was better and hopefully the next 3 will keep the good parts but take out the bad. Granted this was produced last so I could be wrong, but here’s hoping. Oh this episode also featured Miranda Cosgrove as the girl who claims to be Keoni’s girlfriend. This is also Keoni’s last episode meaning I do NOT have to worry about accidently running into him. Thank fucking christ.

Next Time On American Dragon Jake Long: Jake’s dad drags him and his friends on a camping trip and Jake ends up encountering the Jersey Devil. Now all they need is a sexy lady devil cake to lure it out... what it worked for the Cake Boss. And yes that happened, Allison Pregler did an episode on that episode. Check it out.

Next Time On Lilo and Stitch Crossovers: It’s the family, the family, proud familllyyy as the Prouds take a vacation at Peakly and Jumbas bed but not breakfast and we get some kind of squirrel demon for our experiment of the week. We also get Wizard Kelly appearing...

See you at the next rainbow.

#lilo and stitch #american dragon jake long #Lilo Pelekai #Stitch #experment 626 #jake long #luong lao shi #fu dog #trixie carter #arthur p spudinkski #gantu #crossovers #reviews #disney channel #morpholomew

27 notes · View notes

flyingupward · 3 years

Text

critical role - vox machina chapter 4 - attack of the conclave

all sentences taken from episodes 39-56 of the first campaign of critical role. feel free to change pronouns, phrasing etc. to fit your needs!

“All this time, you’ve been trying to kick my teeth in and your true enemy was right over there.”

“That’s good. Moving is not my forte.”

“We’re in a hentai. Make it go away.”

“Not all short people look alike.”

“God, I wish I was not made of farts.”

“We live in a cold, cold world. No one deserves anything.”

“You chose so poorly. It is truly impressive how poorly you chose.”

“Stay away from all men. Forever.”

“I’m glad I came in handy for that field trip.”

“I hate your friends!”

“Little do they know I shop for everything at Home Goods so joke’s on them.”

“It’s just radioactive material in the basement. It’s fine.”

“Somehow the coffee has not been poured on your head. That’s the greatest magic trick I’ve seen all morning.”

“Everything else was dragons. Why wouldn’t it be dragons?”

“Sorry, I was so caught up in the fact that I’m literally going up against death incarnate.”

“You’re a magnificent handsome bastard. Don’t die.”

“Do not go far from me.”

“He’s just a sociopath, that’s all.”

“There are dragons outside and we’re playing rugby with a fucking skull!”

“A simple mind is looking for a simple solution to a complex problem.”

“I’m a firm believer that there’s always a way to victory if we’re smart about it and we’re quick about it.”

“We either stand now or we might as well be dead.”

“We try, we mostly fail, but occasionally we get it right.”

“It was such a bad deal I said no. Can you imagine how bad of a deal it must have been?”

“No offense darling, but you look like shit.”

“If we’re going to be roaming about the streets, I’d like you to not fall open like a can of baked beans if you don’t mind.”

“Let’s not get overexcited about the sudden realization that some of us can be a bit iffy.”

“Thank you for that smattering of applause.”

“I have one of those terrible ideas I get on occasion.”

“This is politics. You’re not supposed to like them.”

“You can talk my fucking ear off in a moment. Shut up for a second.”

“If the parasite hasn’t a host to feed on, the parasite dies.”

“I never forget that when I rule, I rule these people as well.”

“One day, you’re going to stop being afraid of me and I hope that day comes soon.”

“There’s no swinging by, that’s a caper.”

“It will be built back better than before. That’s what we do.”

“We have a lot of Pop Tarts, but not very many gold pieces.”

“This is where I live. What are you doing here?”

“I’m cold and I still haven’t been paid.”

“We’re not trying to score points. We are trying to do right.”

“This is fucking happy fun bunch over here. They bring death with them everywhere they go.”

“And to think I might have briefly missed you.”

“You have to find the no name guy who’s going to help you find the stuff that’s hidden that nobody knows where it is or what it is.”

“What do you want to do? Do you want to stay here while the world burns?”

“World’s always ending, baby.”

“It would be wondrous, after we complete this transaction, that we never meet again.”

“Oh my God, I just buy healing to save my life, what a waste.”

“I’m going to stand over here and fail to stay in character, okay?”

“Let’s all have a toast to the inevitability of the universe.”

“My God, I love other people’s problems.”

“Are we sober yet?”

“I think her foolish impulses are exactly what we’re looking for.”

“Better to die a fool for something than live in regret for doing nothing.”

“I think we want her to do her stupidest.”

“You’re… brooding.”

“I tend to glaze over when he’s talking.”

“Lead the way, shitkicker.”

“A lot of your friends are very weird.”

“I would just like to point out that I’m mostly sober.”

“That’s okay because remember, I’m me.”

“I’d like to stand up, please.”

“I’m scared to death which is why the math is so bad.”

“I’ve met few as unremarkable as you in my travels.”

“Well then, we’re in trouble. I have an attitude about everything.”

“Yeah, there’s like 37 things we have to do before tomorrow so… ”

“She’s not really gonna care about court so much as ripping the bones from your back.”

“I thought you were gonna tell me a dirty joke or something. When you say, ‘Come here,’ that’s usually what that means.”

“It doesn’t matter if it’s going to be daylight if we’re underground.”

“I’m really hoping that it’s the worst decision we make because then everything’s uphill.”

“I like who we are together and I think that that’s important.”

“Dying in slow motion over here.”

“Oh good, more darkness.”

“Oh my God, you’re going into a special section of your book. That’s never good.”

“I’m very aware that my greed killed me.”

“Oh, I must have missed it because I was dead. That’s right.”

“Do you have feelings and did that hurt them?”

“I’m pretty tired after dying.”

“I think I love you too. I’m just terrified to allow myself to.”

“We are a city of seasonal affective disorder.”

“So I heard a rumor that you sort of saved my life in a really creepy sort of way.”

“By the power vested in me, I now pronounce you my Pokemon.”

“Your secret is safe with my indifference.”

“I always fucking hear you in my mind. It’s very quiet in there these days.”

“If it becomes a problem, just raise your hand and scream.”

“Our lives are so bizarre now.”

“Why is my brain tingling? Is someone noodling around up there?”

“You know what? It’s just fire. I will be on fire.”

“Did someone lose an orb?”

“Are we really about to pretend to do CrossFit?”

“Not enough spit takes in the world for this moment in time.”

“Beyond it being an engineering issue, it might be a greed issue first.”

"She's an adult. Deep levels of arrested development, but an adult nonetheless."

“Retroactively, you’ve never been seen in your entire lives.”

“You take everything good away from all of us.”

“It’s not one problem, it’s a very large problem and a massive problem.”

“Those that give a fuck, speak up.”

“We’ve lived half our life in the shadows. You’ve made them your home.”

“I love my reckless brother as much as he hurts my heart.”

“Duck hunt’s a bitch.”

“This is so dumb. Why am I doing this?”

“Congratulations, you’re creepy as fuck.”

“Give me this you fucking hoarder. What’s the matter with you?”

“I will smite you.”

“I was born to shove things in holes.”

“Knowledge is power, for reals!”

“Are we time bandits now? Is that what’s happening?”

“I hate time travel. I hate time travel so much.”

“No worries. I didn’t need to live anyway.”

“Perhaps it’s time to be a better badass.”

“It’s been a traumatic five minutes.”

“Like any good plan, everything will go wrong.”

“Oh well, I’m fucked then.”

“Oh, tiny dancer, you are fucked.”

“He died as he lived: Deeply unimpressed.”

“Don’t you dare die happy.”

“I like that we managed to make solving problems with violence into an ABC afternoon special.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say, ‘At dawn, we plan.’”

“I genuinely don’t understand the place you come from.”

“That is the weirdest coping mechanism I’ve ever heard of.”

“Maybe we should just sleep together and see what happens.”

“Thank you for telling me the truth after you sort of lied to me.”

“Yeah keep twitching, twitchy.”

“We totally planned at dawn!”

“Everything is terrible. Our lives are terrible. They are way worse than they were six months ago.”

“You are a fucking madman, but I’m glad you’re here.”

“I’m fucked. I understand I’m fucked. It’s fine.”

“This was all part of the plan, the hastily smushed together plan.”

“He’s a liar and a bringer of death and he’s smiling at you while he does it.”

“Bravery means nothing. Survival and victory mean everything.”

“Oh shut up, you flying suitcase.”

“You don’t need inspiration, you’re fine!”

“If I move, he’ll kill me. So I won’t.”

“Cursed Lizard! We’re going to give all your gold to the poor!”

“Don’t be so glum you old fool! This is a day of glory!”

“We will all die. It just depends on cost.”

“Oh, wow. You just said a lot of things in a very short amount of time.”

“You are the worst of us.”

“If there’s a dare involved, that’s completely different.”

“I don’t like wanting things.”

“Is it the people or is it the fact that you have finally realized how pointless it all is?”

“I feel like I’ve been lied to my entire goddam life and it’s all crashing down upon me right now.”

“The thing is you’re not wrong and you’re not crazy, but it’s not hopeless either.”

“Even surrounded by friends, I often feel so alone.”

“Thank you for being a friend even though we just met.”

“The terrible woman may have a point.”

“Woo! Good leadership!”

“The awkward woman makes a fine point.”

“It is not about idolizing ourselves, it is about a very long story which we are a very small part of.”

“I’m doing something very stupid now with my friends. We’re going to try to save the world.”

“I admire everyone in our band of misfit toys, but you most of all.”

“You are all kinds of fucked up all the time and that’s why we love you.”

“We’re all all kinds of fucked up and that’s why we all are together.”

“That’s all we can be is ish.”

#MEME | incoming #long post #i know i still have some other memes to answer but i finished this one so #send me these and i'll answer them all tonight/tomorrow

9 notes · View notes

that-was-anticlimactic · 3 years

Note

📂 hmmm let's see... how about Toph?

aw Toph Beifong, how I love you,

Okay. So. First:

Obviously, Toph can tell when people are lying, but much like how the gaang always forgets that she’s blind, they forget that she’s a living lie detector. After the war ends, the kiddos are all obviously traumatized and always ask each other how they’re doing and they usually always say “fine” and Toph can feel that they’re lying but she just... doesn’t do anything. Sometimes it’s obvious a person is lying, but sometimes they can really pull it off and Toph is the only one who knows. She just lets them be, though, because she would want to be left alone too. In her mind, if it was a big enough deal, they wouldn’t say that they’re fine (also because that’s the reasoning she gives herself to not talk about her problems). She doesn’t want to push them.

Eventually, and let’s use Aang here because poor kid suffers so much trauma and no one really talks about that much (myself included, I need to pay more attention to Aang), Aang’s mental health really starts declining and everyone is really worried but Toph always lets it go because she doesn’t want to push him or stress him out. One time, it’s so bad that they ask Toph to out Aang for lying and she just shrugs and says “he wasn’t lying” even though he definitely was.

After a week or two like this, Aang kind of just breaks down and Toph instantly feels guilty because deep down she feels like she could have prevented it, but she didn’t. It’s one of those times when she learns that letting people believe a lie, no matter how good intentions are, is worse and more hurtful than telling the truth.

It kind of starts making her more honest than before. She began by calling everyone out on every little lie until she realized it would probably be better to talk to people in private and I just... mmm... I feel like Toph wields so much power after the war because everyone will always say “I’m fine” and she knows, she knows, they’re lying.

And now for an angsty Toph-related headcanon because I said so:)

Toph’s parents. Mmmm. I have not read the comics and also I heard they were... iffy... so we’re disregarding comics here. Toph’s parents kind of suck. Like, once she talks to them after the war, they treat her like a helpless child again and not the LITERAL HERO she is. She doesn’t live with them, but she wants a relationship with them, even though she physically cannot make her say it out loud. So, eventually she blows up at them and Earthbends and her parents are like “okay, if you’re not a child, then start acting like an adult” and COMPLETELY misread the intention behind what Toph was saying. Ontop of that, they constantly complain about everything to her. Like trivial things. They complain about trivial things to a traumatized child (not to mention they did like nothing during the war smh, they just sat there and were rich). Like, they complain about each other to Toph say all of these things that she never wanted to hear ever and that no parents should actually burden their child with. Eventually she just... stops.

She just never answers letters, never returns to the city, much less the house. And it just... it kills her because she wanted to fix their relationship. She wanted to try and be a family again and she tried. She tried so hard but her parents never pit any effort in.

It was actually Zuko (or Azula...) who kind of made her realize. Like, I’m just gonna say: Sokka and Katara HATE Toph’s parents, like, with a burning passion. Toph offhandedly mentioned some of the terrible things her mom said about her dad and vice versa to the gaang and Katara was about to go give them the biggest lecture they had ever received. Katara lowkey got all mother hen (but sometimes Suki would have to drag her back and be like “you’re smothering her” so Toph wouldn’t feel like Katara was acting like her parents) (and again, Toph would never say it outloud, but she could never think of Katara in that way ever. She’s SUCH a better person than her parents could ever be) and would try and... not be the mother Toph never got to have, but give her the support she never had.

Anyways, Zuko or Azula talk to Toph and are like “take it from one abused child to another, your parents are abusing you” which just confirms the suspicions she had deep down but refused to believe. She was just filled with so much rage because it’s not fair and she was trying so hard but her parents really don’t care about her in the way that they should of and she gave them so many chances to be better but they never took it.

okay so, sadness over, let’s make Toph happy:)

Toph is asexual (and maybe aromantic, unsure as of right now) because I said so:))

Toph takes great pleasure in going to The Jasmine Dragon and just... listening to make sure no one is ever rude to Iroh or any of the other employees ever. If they are, she causes trouble so they can feel ashamed for being mean to people in food service.

no you know what? Am I going too overboard? Yes. Do I care? No. One friendship Toph headcanon for everyone in the gaang.

Aang: Toph and Aang both help remind the other that they’re children because they both forget sometimes. Toph is great at taking Aang away from work and making him take breaks and spend time for himself rather than others. Aang is great at giving Toph the “having friends as a child” experience she never had. He teaches her games he learned from all four nations as a child and sometimes they do really ‘childish’ things like playing bending tag or even like regular tag with each other just because it’s nice.

Katara: oooh the Toph and Katara friendship is one of my favorites in the show. The two are both ridiculously competitive. Like. Out of everyone in the gaang, they are the most competitive (let’s be real, Sokka is too petty and WE NEED TO FOLLOW THE GAMES RULES to be competitive and Zuko just gets angry and rage quits). But eventually, they learn that they’re stronger when they work together and make a competitive truce. So whenever people need to team up for games, they immediately go to each other and they destroy everyone.

Sokka: Sokka and Toph ahhhhh I love them so much. Sokka adopted Toph as his daughter-sister, as in he can’t choose whether he wants to replace her dad and be her dad or be the protective but not overly protective older brother she never had, so he calls himself “father-brother” and everyone hates it, but Sokka was never good at naming things. Also, one time they were really bored, so they decided to try and invent a language that is never spoken, but can be interpreted through Earthbending. Like, different methods of bending meant different things and stuff. It worked... kind of? Sokka likes learning and Toph likes kicking dirt and making people confused about what they were doing. They both have short attention spans, though, so they didn’t get far. They each still remember s=certain things and still talk through it (since Sokka is not an Earthbender, he taps his foot on the ground or kicks dirt a certain way. It’s kind of like morse code, bit different because only Toph can feel the taps).

Suki: Suki Suki Suki I love you! Suki is Toph’s go-to for fake relationships. Like. These two have been in a fake relationship with each other too many times to count. Toph’s parents invite her to a formal event but she needs to bring a date (and also she doesn’t want to go but she wants to repair the relationship)? Suki is her date. Suki needs to attend a royal event because she’s the highest Fire Nation palace guard (because I said so)? Toph comes as her date. A random person is hitting on either of them and they don’t know how to respond without unnecessary violence? Find the other and kiss their face.

Zuko: Zuko and Toph, what a pair. They both find beauty in nature (in different ways, obviously), so they’re walking buddies. They’ve gone on hikes together, like week-long hikes together. They’ll walk around the palace together... sometimes they’ll just sit together in silence because they don’t always need words to be friends.

Azula: (because yes, I am including the three girls): y’all. These two together can scare the entire world. Not just because they are actually insanely powerful, but because they make the most horrific self-deprecating jokes known to man and say it with intense seriousness that everyone has been genuinely worried at some point before they caught on (if it’s serious, they say it as a joke). One time, they both made these depressing jokes at lunch and Aang choked on his food. He didn’t die, but like. He was so unprepared that he choked. What I’m saying is, these two have a really weird relationship that takes place entirely through insults at each other, theirself, and everyone they love.

Ty Lee: Toph was actually scared of Ty Lee at first because of her chi blocking abilities. Not like terrified-scared, but like if you even take one more step towards me I will smash you with a boulder no matter your intentions-scared. Also, Ty Lee was so perky and kind of loud and Toph found that suspicious at first. It wasn’t like an Aang perky or loud, it was like... well, Toph couldn’t explain it (as in, I, op, cannot explain it), but it was a bit overwhelming? And then one time Ty Lee just. randomly visited her at her parents’ house even though they “weren’t friends” and Toph was just ????? but let her come in for dinner anyway because she kind of wanted to see how her parents would react to this peppy girl. Her parents ended up making a kind of snide remark at Toph’s expense during dinner (which was the usual but Toph didn’t realize it was a b u s e) and Ty Lee went off. That’s when Toph knew there were reasons to be terrified of this girl, but she would never be on the receiving end of her fury unless she really deserved it. They have very different family situations, but take pleasure in actually talking about it to each other. Because Ty Lee is a very open person and Toph is not. Toph thinks it’s nice to just let Ty Lee ramble on (kind of like Mai) and Ty Lee thinks Toph gives really good advice and has good insights (plus strives to help her feel more comfortable with her feelings). They become spontaneous buddies and randomly show up at each other’s houses when they’re living at home and it’s just nice.

Mai: last but never least, Mai and Toph! These two. feel for each other. so much. Rich kids, only children, parents who ignore them, ahhhhh, do you smell that? The repression of feelings:) Sometimes, they prefer to just be around each other because everyone else can kind of be overwhelming. They can communicate through few words and they both like throwing things, so they like sparring together a lot, It gives them a chance to throw things with another person who likes throwing things. For them, sparring is like this connection and it’s own method of loving each other (as friends do) and it’s just really nice for both of them.

Okay. I am done. Thank you, Grace, for fueling me.

I love Toph and I don’t give her enough attention.

#atla #avatar the last airbender #atla Headcanons #avatar Headcanons #atla toph #Toph Headcanons #in this house we love and appreciate Toph Beifong #not me making her parents fight to cope with my parent’s divorce lol #no but seriously her parents give me secretly hating each other but being too petty to divorce vibes #Toph angst #and Toph love #zukkaclawthorne #:)

44 notes · View notes

twentiethcenturymoviesandtv · 3 years

Text

The Goonies: Genre and Themes

As with every film, The Goonies is a hodgepodge of elements borrowed from different genres: a series of intertwined different sets of expectations that the audience is to expect payoff on.

Usually, a movie gains an audience by appealing to fans of its genre, or genres, since, as I mentioned, most films contain more than one. Typically, by appealing to these fans with a combination of appropriate star power, the name of a good director, and a use of genre brings in an audience, who is familiar with these elements, knows what to expect, and wants to see more of it. Genre is best used as a series of audience expectations that a filmmaker has to fulfill, rather than a series of tropes that have to be checked off in interesting ways to make a good action film, or western, or horror.

The reason for this is simple: one, if you want an audience, don’t confuse them, don’t bore them, and don’t disappoint them, and that means meeting their expectations, or subtly adjusting them along the way.

So…what were the expectations for The Goonies?

At first, it might seem easiest to say that it’s an adventure film.

Which, it is.

The story for The Goonies follows a group of kids avoiding dangerous criminals while searching for buried treasure, encountering booby traps, raging waterfalls, and skeletons galore. It very much strikes in atmosphere and surroundings an Indiana Jones-style feeling of adventure, bringing to mind the opening of Raiders of the Lost Ark. However, while the Indiana Jones films, while possessing a slight comedic slant in several scenes, including action ones, the stakes in those films are typically much higher than the Goondocks, and as a result, it overall takes itself more seriously.

The Goonies is not a film spent with the audience at the edge of their seat, biting their nails in terror that one of the kids is going to be killed, or even seriously hurt. At no point does the audience believe that Chunk’s hand is actually going to be subjected to the blender, nor do they think that Data’s fall will kill him, or that the floor collapsing from under Mouth is going to lead to his untimely, unceremonious demise. The stakes are there, certainly, and the characters clearly believe they are in danger (rightfully), but the audience never has a heart-in-throat moment of: this is it for them.

Which is odd, because our villains are armed with guns, and the floor does collapse, and our heroes are in danger. They believe it, to the point where Brand pulls Mikey out of the cave, away from the loot, because their lives are more important than the treasure. The group bursts into hysterics when they think Data has fallen to his death, and Brand and Mouth don’t exactly handle seeing a skeleton, a reminder of their own mortality, trapped under one of One-Eyed Willy’s booby traps. Characters are held at gunpoint, swordpoint, are pushed off of planks, and are nearly crushed by falling rocks, and while, for the sake of the story, they are terrified for their own lives, the audience never really feels the danger.

We feel the danger for their sakes, certainly, but in the end, the audience is actually more concerned with whether or not Mikey and Co. are going to get the treasure to save the Goondocks than whether or not they’ll survive, because we know that already. We know, based on the tone and style of the film, that they have to make it, and be alright in the end. The stakes of the goal are high to the characters and the audience: the money for the Goondocks, but the stakes for the story aren’t quite as severe, seemingly.

Part of that is due to, like I said, the tone, which I’ll get to in a minute. But the other portion to assisting the audience’s suspension of disbelief has to do with the themes of the film.

See, themes aren’t only for in-depth films that contemplate the meaning of life. Themes are present in every film we watch, whether it’s a theme of anti-authoritarianism (Escape from New York, They Live), success through perseverance (Rocky), or as simple as love (Casablanca) or good vs. evil (Star Wars). Even if it’s not intentional, every movie carries with it the inherited worldview of its creators and what matters to them, especially as it concerns this particular story. The same is true for The Goonies.

At the center of The Goonies is, of course, a basic struggle of good vs. evil, albeit in far less ‘epic’ terms: a group of kids trying to save their homes versus murderous criminals, and worse, businessmen trying to uproot their homes and separate them, leading to the real major theme of the movie: friendship.

The Goonies don’t want to leave Astoria because they’re so terribly fond of their own driveways. It’s because they’re fond of each other. As much as they squabble and tease each other and argue, they are friends, and they don’t want to be separated. In fact, their friendship and love for their home is so strong that, even when their lives are endangered, they stick together, even where there are opportunities to turn back.

But as important as the friendship between the Goonies is, it’s not the only friendship in the film that’s key to the story.

Chunk’s bonding with Sloth not only saves their lives, but also provides a happy ending for Sloth, too. By the end of the film, Sloth is practically a Goonie himself, and the rest of the group embraces him without a second thought. The group functions almost like a large family: they don’t always get along, (in fact, they often don’t) but in the end, what matters is that they care about each other, enough to face some pretty intense stuff.

Which is another good point.

While friendship and good vs. evil factor easily into a good adventure movie, what’s interesting to note is that while Indiana Jones or any other average adventure hero has to go with it: tons of courage, and usually some competency to go along. The Goonies unfortunately only have the former, which makes sense. The average age of the lot of them is thirteen.

Bravery isn’t exactly uncommon to see in adventure films: nobody wants to watch a cowardly hero in a straight adventure film. But for the average hero, they have skills that help along the way, strength, speed, wits, intelligence, a specialized set of abilities. The Goonies, on the other hand?

They’re kids. The oldest among them are still high-schoolers. Their skills are limited: Data’s inventions, Mikey’s leadership and optimism, Mouth’s ability to translate Spanish, and Chunk’s timing all come in handy throughout the film, but it never changes the fact that they’re kids against three adults who won’t think twice about killing children. This changes their ‘courage’ somewhat into either some insane levels of idealism, or determination at the cost (sometimes) of common sense. Mikey has to be convinced to escape from the collapsing cave instead of going back to get the treasure.

So what does that tell us?

It tells us that their goal means something to them, that they care immensely about it, and that it’s worth the danger. Are they scared? Of course. But in that friendship, in that goal to defeat the evil of the Fratellis and the rich families about to bulldoze their houses, they find the courage to keep moving, to reach that goal.

In the end, the Goonies never beat the Fratellis. They get away, sure, but it’s Sloth and the police who have far more to do with the actual ‘defeat of’ the main villains of the film. After the Goonies escape, the prize of the movie seems to be their lives, with the Fratellis being left behind with the treasure. You could argue this means that the Goonies aren’t very brave, seeing as they never had a final ‘battle’, or climax with the Fratellis, but it’s important to remember that the Fratellis aren’t really the antagonist of the Goonies. They’re antagonists, for sure, but they aren’t the person who is causing the problem in the first place, kicking off the adventure. That would be Mr. Perkins, the guy trying to get them out of the Goondocks. As a result, while the Fratellis are apprehended by third-party law enforcement, the Goonies get to ‘defeat’ Mr. Perkins themselves, by having enough money to save their homes.

Is it ‘final battle’ level of epic climax? No. But again, they’re thirteen years old, and with that in mind, then staying one step ahead of hardened criminals, escaping, and saving their home anyway (all against adults more competent and powerful than they are) is plenty brave enough for me.

Both villains in this story have one thing in common: Greed. Greed has always been a pretty common theme in stories, and that extends to moviemaking too: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Wall Street, and Citizen Kane are films held in high regard that revolve around greed, and what it does to people. Other films like It’s a Wonderful Life take an even firmer, more obvious stance, pitting its protagonist against a cruel, greedy antagonist with no redeeming qualities. In short, we as audience members have a pretty good idea of what greediness looks like, and we know that we don’t like it. The Fratellis and Mr. Perkins are entirely motivated by money: Mr. Perkins can only think of the benefits to himself for tearing down the Goondocks, whereas the Fratellis, counterfeiters and thieves, are simply after the treasure for their own personal gain.

Now, of course, the Goonies are after it too, but you’ll notice something very important here.

Sure, the Goonies want the treasure. That’s the whole point. But the thing that prevents this from being an act of greed is obvious: ‘intent’. Mikey’s protests about wanting to go back and get the loot is not because Mikey was struck by sudden gold-fever or Dragon Sickness, it’s because he wants, more than anything, to save their home. It’s what they all want, in fact. They’re doing this for a good cause: for each other, not just themselves, to meet a need. None of the kids ever mention getting rich from this. They all have the same goal, and there are never any of the typical fights about how the treasure gets split, or what they’ll do with their share.

These themes all overlap very neatly into the film itself, though it seems a little odd to cut them up and lay them out like this, but there is one thing that ties it all together, albeit, probably without meaning to. I’ve mentioned the ages of the kids a few times: ranging from about thirteen to around sixteen or seventeen. There have been plenty of movies about kids, for kids, and about kids for adults, but The Goonies manages to straddle a line and become a movie about kids, for everyone.

Youth is a huge part of this movie. Adults do not find treasure maps and decide to go on an adventure in order to save their homes because the insane, idealistic, wide-eyed streak has already been burned out of them by life. They already know the rules of the world, and know that that’s not how that works. As such, the fact is, there’s no ‘Goonie’ storyline if the characters aren’t children. Kids are infinitely more emotionally attached to their homes at that age, and will do anything to stay together. Kids haven’t been told yet by the world that their hopes and dreams are unrealistic. They still believe they can do great things, like save the Goondocks.

Even throughout the rest of the film, you can’t replace these characters with adults. They cry, they scream, they panic, they fight and argue with each other, and they all remain friends, unquestionably, and the adventure molds around them, allowing them to continue to be children as the story progresses. The danger is real, but it never feels too big for them, or too small for everyone else.

So, what does that mean for genre?

None of this detracts from the fact that The Goonies is very much an adventure film. Early on, the expectations are set up for the audience: the opening car chase and the discovery of the map in Mikey’s attic immediately set up the idea that there is going to be an exciting, dangerous story ahead, full of unexpected, unusual circumstances. That’s exactly what we get.

While the audience may never feel outright danger for the characters’ lives, like I said, they do worry for the Goonies’ end goal, and there is certainly plenty of excitement along the way. That is, in fact, the emotion most felt by the audience throughout the film. The movie is a roller-coaster full of superficial danger without any real stakes, and plenty of heart-in-throat moments. The trek through the tunnels, Chunk’s run-ins with the Fratellis, meeting Sloth, finding the pirate ship: are all dips and climbs throughout the amusement park ride that is The Goonies. The audience is constantly on the edge of their seat, and almost every story beat is active payoff of that adventurous expectation.

But there’s more to this movie than just the thrills.

Part of the difficulty of developing an adventure film for kids is that you either have to put children in danger, or you run the risk of feeling too safe. Kid adventure movies of the ‘80s like E.T. the Extra Terrestrial utilized an even balance, but as I mentioned, there’s no real fear for the Goonies’ lives. This is for a rather specific reason:

The Goonies went for the laughs with the thrills.

Data falling through the cave floor? Terrifying. Data falling through the cave floor and being saved by his invention while the rest of the Goonies go into hysterics? Hilarious.

The Goonies going after the treasure? Exciting.

The Goonies letting the air out of Brand’s tires so he has to steal a little kid’s bicycle to go after them? A comedy highlight.

The Goonies being cornered by the Fratellis and forced to give up the treasure? Legitimately upsetting in the moment.

Mama Fratelli forcing Mouth to spit out the gobs of gold and pearls that he’s stashed in his mouth? Genuinely funny.

The movie is constantly playing that balance. No exciting moment is without it’s humorous side. The kids are in danger, but they’re also always reacting in humorous ways, like Mikey making a half-hearted joke when Andy’s trying to play the bone organ while the floor collapses. A lot of what people remember about this movie are the laughs, with good reason: there’s a ton of them.

The Goonies has no shortage of funny moments and humorous lines, again, some of the most quoted lines of the film happen to be the ones that made people laugh. But as I’ve said before: there’s a lot more to being a comedy than just being funny.

Comedy is a very broad umbrella, one of the genres most easily mixed with others to create a blend: such as, what would seem to be a comedy-adventure story. Comedies typically rely on either absurd, exaggerated, or humorous characters, or an absurd, exaggerated, humorous plot, such as in films like Coming to America or Ghostbusters.

So, how does The Goonies fit? The plot is exaggerated, for sure, but not exactly in an inherently humorous way.

There’s a very easy way to tell exactly what genre it is, between adventure and comedy, and I’ll show you right now:

Typically, a really good way to tell a film’s genre is to take a good look at the characters, especially the main protagonist, and the story beats. These elements best illustrate exactly what kind of story you have, and in the case of The Goonies, it’s fairly easy.

Like I said, the story for The Goonies is clearly exaggerated beyond the realm of belief. Kids don’t find treasure maps in their attics that lead them to pirate ships. However, the story isn’t played as ‘funny’, nearly ever. The skeletons and booby traps are played completely straight, with very little to laugh at. Indeed, in another movie, these booby traps may have actually hurt or killed a character.

In The Goonies however, while the plotline is a very straightforward ‘kids Indiana Jones’ adventure story, the characters are considerably more…colorful.

And funny.

Mikey’s mispronunciations and his bickering brother relationship with Brand, Andy’s hysteria, Data’s plucky mildly ‘nutty professor’ vibe, Chunk’s over-the-top reaction to his misadventures, Mouth’s…mouth, and Stef’s complete and total irritation with everyone around her lead to some hilarious interactions, and some genuinely funny characters in their own right. Everyone is quirky, and not just to give them more character, it’s also to get them to be funnier. They aren’t alone in this, either.

The Fratellis, although still remaining chief antagonists, are not without their own comedic slants as well. Their own bickering amongst themselves and the over-the-top levels of abuse that get doled out equally manage to keep them intimidating for the kids, but funny for the audience, enough that there’s never a point where they reach true ‘villain’ status.

With that combination in mind, the film actually manages to hit the comedy-adventure balance pretty evenly. The situation remains threatening, but the thing that actually prevents the audience from worrying are the characters themselves and how they are portrayed: as indestructible characters in a cartoon. They’re likeable enough to keep the audience invested, but humorous enough to keep the audience from fearing for them. It’s the ideal combination, and it works, with just a dash of something more:

Heart.

The Goonies is remembered for its humor and its adventure, but it’s also remembered for its heart. Brand hugging Mikey as they briefly connect over the fear and sadness of losing their home, Mikey’s inspiring speeches, ‘Goonies Never Say Die!’, Mouth’s passionate outburst about his dream, his wish, Sloth’s friendship with Chunk, even the ending, with Brand and Mikey’s dad proudly proclaiming that there will be no signing, with the kids watching the pirate ship sail into the sunset…it fills the audience with at least a little bit of warmth.

In the end, we care about the Goonies because the movie makes us care about them. They make us like them, and so we feel for their adventures. There’s a real, legitimate sense of family throughout it, down to the aggressive fighting to the make-up hugs that follow.

The Goonies is often considered a ‘family’ movie, something that may surprise viewers after hearing some of the language used by the kids, the corpses, and the fact that the kids are in legitimate danger at times, but in a way, it’s not very surprising that this is considered a family film.

The tempering of the action with the comedy certainly helps, but the real kicker to make sure that it’s considered a ‘family’ film is its focus: family. Friendship. The people you care about. Banding together against all odds.

Yes, the plot appeals to kids, and so do the characters, for obvious reasons: the characters are kids, with child-like goals. Adults typically don’t react so strongly to learning that they have to move, at least, not to the point of going treasure-hunting to prevent it. However, while kids can grasp what the Goonies are about, adults can too.

Adults remember what it’s like to be kids, to have those hopes and fears and dreams, and can get into it just as well. Family movies aren’t movies for kids, necessarily, but they are movies for families, that can be enjoyed by everyone, because everyone can relate to the story and characters. This means that family movies tend to be pretty basic, uncomplicated, full of what could be derogatorily called ‘false excitement’, with characters that are fairly static and simple, but with gripping emotional themes that everyone can get behind.

In the case of The Goonies?

It fits the bill every step of the way.

In the end, The Goonies is an adventure film, one that promises it’s audience excitement and pays off every minute, and a comedy film that promises laughs, and again, delivers, and in being both of those things, it’s also a family film, with both of those things, and lots of heart to go with it, to offer in spades to an entire family.

The result?

The Goonies is an exciting, charming, funny adventure film about kids who are charming, funny, and adventurous, leading to a perfect, consistent tonal blend that manages to stay with the movie from start to finish, creating a roller coaster, amusement-park ride of a film that has been loved, with good reason, by people of all ages since it was first released, entertaining families passing it down through generations for over thirty years, and will continue to entertain families for years to come, as long as kids continue to be kids, and adults can remember what being a kid is like.

Don’t forget to leave a comment, like, or some other form of love if you enjoyed this analysis, and please, follow for more articles like this! Thanks so much for reading, and I hope to see you in the next article.

#80s #1985 #Film #Movies #The Goonies #The Goonies 1985 #Adventure #Comedy #Family #PG #Sean Astin #Josh Brolin #Jeff Cohen #Corey Feldman #Kerri Green #Martha Plimpton #Ke Huy Quan #Richard Donner

14 notes · View notes

carcinized · 3 years

Note

replying to your reply to that ask i sent via an ask bc. long ahah. that sentence isn't confusing at all-

:O allyster sovereign skittles i am. thank you. that is. that means a lot. and i have been thinking about this since last night if not longer but! if it means anything! you are! you are also sunshine personified! in my eyes at least. you're always so positive and you make me smile and you're easy to talk to and you're warm and bright and i would say you are yellow but there are quite a few colors that i associate with you it depends (but one of them is yellow). so! your theme is sunny but so are you and honestly you are the brightest part of your blog ! if that makes sense.

no worries about messaging first, it's something that i am also terrible at! it's why the only person i talk to irl is my best friend ahah (she is also bad at messaging first, but she does it for me and i am eternally grateful). for some reason it's easier for me when it's on here? idk

speaking of songs!! i am making a sunshine playlist and i'm very happy about it. also! Good Morning Sunlight by I Fight Dragons is such a lovely song that i am recommending to you :D

i'm glad you're feeling better after yesterday, similar things have happened at my school- nothing quite that bad as far as i know but. it's terrifying. that does sound lovely and ahhh tenor fun!! one of my closest friends is a tenor and yeahhh you guys always have really fun notes and harmonies and stuff. and ahhh yay nice new people!! people <3 :D

i love youuuuuuu :DD

DFJLDFK i get that lmao dw

of course!! i am simply telling the truth <3 !! and asdgssHSDKLFJFD i am so honoured that you see me this way :( i have been told that i am like this before and i believe it to some extent but the only person i know who like. is PROPERLY like that is you? so i just imagine that the sunshiney vibes you give ME are the sunshiney vibes i give off ?? idk we could ask summer or skyy if theyre actually the same LMAO but i guess i am not good at believeing it lmao. but!! i do my best o7

aWWW i am glad i am yellowy among other colours!! :D my associations of you are yellow + a bit of light pink i think!! also you smell like lavendar in my synesthesia mind :] i cannot think of anyone else who smells of lavendar either you are special!! <3

i am the brightest part of my blog ueueue im gonna cry DSFHDSDSFFS aaaa <3

SDJFDSF you can relate then... this is a formal apology to all my mutuals & friends i am SO SORRY i do not message anyone first besides two people in the whole world i am SO SORRY ITS NOT BECAUSE I DONT LIKE YOU ITS THE OPPOSITE SFHDSKF

oooooh :DD song i will listen now!! its so pretty aaaa <3

yeah :/// just another thing to add to my list of "the american education system is falling apart and my school is going first" i am unreasonably passionate about fixing the education system honeslty... hazard of growing up lower class with two parents for teachers i suppose fjskdfj

yeah!! :D tenor is rlly fun :]]] i wish i sang it more but its just in one song SDFJKDS however i will take the one song its v fun!! and its. such a nice song too!! lovely day by bill withers... funky old 70s song that never fails to make me smile youd probably like it (if you havent heard it before!!) we're singing an a capella version its gonna b rlly cool :]

ilyt :(( <333

#stardust !#ask #long post #lovely asks

3 notes · View notes

ad1thi · 4 years

Text

just friends (?) P3

part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4

- just out of curiosity, how does everyone feel about a kofi goal dedicated to a companion piece from tony’s perspective??

There’s moments in Steve’s life - where time feels like it's come to a standstill. Where nobody moves, nobody even breathes - they’re just suspended.

This moment, when he looks up to see Tony staring back at him, this is one of those moments. The entire coffee shop dulls around him, faint background noise compared to the pounding of his heart - and all Steve can see is Tony.

He wants to move, to get out of his seat and walk over to Tony, to talk to him, to touch him, to explain - but he’s stuck to his seat; immobile under the sheer weight of Tony’s gaze.

He’s imagined this moment for months, it's not beneath him to admit that he frequents this coffee shop with this very scenario in mind; but now that it's actually happening - Steve has no idea what to do.

There’s small mercy in the fact that Tony seems to be the same - stuck, unmoving, that is of course until the old gentleman standing behind him in line prods him none too gently with his walking stick and complains that Tony’s holding up the line.

Tony shifts his gaze to look at the man standing behind him, and it's like the spell is lifted, and the world starts spinning ‘round again. He desperately wants to look up at Tony again, but instead he keeps his eyes strictly on his sketchbook. Steve isn’t an idiot, he knows that Tony didn’t mean to come to the coffee shop that he frequents, that this is nothing more than a chance encounter, and so Steve won’t do Tony the disservice of looking back up and forcing Tony to acknowledge his presence.

He’d reconciled himself to the idea that he might never see Tony again, so even just getting to see Tony from across a coffee shop is more than he could’ve hoped for. It was going to happen eventually, he reasons, pencil idly spinning in his hand, we were going to run into each other eventually. After everything, the least that Steve can do is give Tony the option to gracefully make an exit.

“Is this seat taken?” says a voice near him and Steve opens his mouth to say no, because he doesn’t want company right now but the words get stuck in his mouth - because Tony is hovering near the empty chair.

“Steve?” Tony says again, furrowing his brows, “Are you waiting on someone?”

“No!” Steve half-yells, suddenly terrified that Tony will walk away. Tony raises an eyebrow and he clears his throat, “I mean no, not it's not taken.”

“So I can sit down I presume?” Tony asks teasingly, and Steve replies “Anytime.” He means it to come out flippant, to match the tone that Tony is obviously trying to set, but from the way Tony’s face twists - it must come out as honest instead.

Still, Tony doesn’t call him out on it, just smoothly settles in the chair opposite him. Steve’s heart is beating so hard that he can hear it roaring inside him, but then Tony flashes him a soft smile - and it's like everything inside him settles.

Things get better after that.

Steve had assumed that the meeting at the coffee shop was a fluke, hoarding the stilted bits of small talk close to his chest like a dragon hoards gold - but Tony shows up at the coffee shop every Wednesday morning like clockwork; grabbing a coffee and settling down in front of Steve for light conversation while he sips his drink.

They fall into a tentative friendship. It isn’t as easy or as smooth as what they used to have, but Steve can recognise that it's far more than he thought he would have a month ago - and when it comes to Tony, he’ll take what he can get.

That, at least is familiar.

They talk about everything they’ve missed in each other’s lives over the last six months - from Steve’s degree (he graduated last month and is sending out portfolios to galleries), to SI (Tony just got back from a two week event in Tokyo) and everything in between.

Once, Steve tried to bring up Bucky, but Tony held up his hand and said in a pained tone, “Don’t. I’m not ready for that, not yet.”

Steve had nodded, “Until you are ready, just please know how terribly sorry I am,” and that had been the end of it.

It isn’t good, there’s periods of silence, and times when Steve can see Tony pulling away from him, building up walls so that he doesn't get hurt again, so that Steve doesn’t hurt him again - but then Steve will say something and Tony will smile, wide and unabashed - and it’s worth it.

Tony has always been worth it.

He knows that he has to bring it up with Bucky, but that doesn’t mean that Steve’s looking forward to it. Or that it’s going to be an easy conversation.

Hence why Steve is currently cooking for the first time in almost two weeks, and he’s pulling out all the stops. He’s just about to put the lasagna in the oven when there’s a knock at the door, and he cranes his neck back to yell “It’s open!!”

A couple of seconds later, Bucky shows up in his line of sight, and whistles lowly when he sees the mess in the kitchen. “Aw shucks Stevie you didn’t need to do all this for little ol’ me, what’s the occasion?” he says in an exaggerated tone, and Steve rolls his eyes.

“Can’t a fella cook his best pal a lasagna without getting the second degree?” he tries for a joking tone, but from the way Bucky’s eyebrows arch - it obviously falls flat.

“A fella can,” Bucky starts cautiously, “but somehow I don’t think that’s what's going on here.” So much for weaselling out of this, Steve thinks, patting his hands against his apron and turning to Bucky.

“I have to tell you something, but I don’t think you’re going to like it very much,” Steve stuffs his fists in the pockets of his jeans, “just - just wait until I’m done before you say anything?”

“Stevie, you didn’t kill someone did you?” Bucky chuckles nervously, “because I have to be upfront with you, these shoes aren’t made for mud and I don’t have a shovel on me.”

“No it's not that don’t be a punk,” Steve licks his lips, heart beating erratically against his chest, “I’m uhh - I’ve been seeing Tony for the past couple of months.”

Bucky goes unnaturally still and Steve rushes to explain, “Not in the way you’re thinking of! I’m not like stepping out with him or nothing, he’s just - you know the coffee shop round the corner from SI? I go there sometimes when I’m stuck for inspiration or need a change in scenery and for the past couple of weeks, Tony’s been showing up too. It’s honestly nothing, he just hangs around long enough to get through a coffee and then he’s off but I wanted you to know.”

Steve rubs the back of his head and says firmly, “I fucked up with both of you once and I’m not about to do it again. There’s nothing going on I swear on my Ma, but I am seeing him again.”

Bucky stays quiet for what feels like an eternity, before he says in a very quiet tone, “Do you still love him?”

“I think I might love him until I die,” Steve says back, equally soft, and Bucky nods once. He pulls out a chair and sits down. Steve opens his mouth to say something, but the oven pings; and he’s forced to grab oven mitts and pull out the lasagna before it burns.

When he sets the carousel down on the table, Bucky starts up conversation like everything’s normal, like Steve didn’t just admit to being in love with his ex-fiance - and while Steve isn’t naive enough to think that that’s the end of it, the knot that’s been building in his stomach ever since Tony sat down across him in the coffee shop a month ago slowly loosens.

“So,” Sam says, apropos of nothing, “Are you gonna tell him?”. Steve jerks in surprise, almost dropping the tub of paint in his hand onto the easel he’s been staring out for the last 10 minutes. He turns to face Sam with a glare, hoping it conveys all of his complex emotions, but Sam just stares back, unrepentant.

“Well?” Sam asks again when Steve isn’t forthcoming, “Are you?”. Sam’s gaze shifts to the canvas that Steve was previously staring at, and Steve doesn’t need to look behind him to know that the half done face of Tony Stark is going to be staring back at him.

“No,” Steve says mulishly, “I’m not. I just got Tony and Bucky back in my life again, I’m not going to fuck that up a second time.”

“Because keeping this,” his hands gesture vaguely at the canvas, “keeping this from him is exactly what fucked things up the first time. But no, I can see your point about how doing the exact same thing is a good idea. What’s that quote from Einstein? Something about how a fool does the same thing over and over and expects a new outcome?”

“Fuck off,” Steve says, throwing a rag that Sam expertly dodges, but its half hearted. He knows that Sam’s right, but he’s just reached a good place with Tony, and he knows in his bones that telling Tony about his feelings will just fuck that up again. He can’t do it, he won’t do it. He won’t live through losing Tony a second time.

“Steve I’m serious, what’s your game plan here? Are you just going to pine uselessly for the rest of your life? He’s going to move on from Bucky eventually you know, what happens then? Are you just going to watch him fall for other people all over again? I don’t get your angle here.”

“There is no angle!” Steve says loudly, before clearing his throat and bringing his voice back to normal, “There is no angle, there is no game plan there’s just - keeping Tony in my life.” He looks up at Sam with wide eyes, “I can’t go through that again Sam, and if that means just keeping him part-time, then that’s enough for me.”

There must be something in Steve’s voice, because he knows that Sam came here with the intent of fighting him but he just deflates, padding over to pull Steve in for a hug. He rests his chin against the top of Steve’s head, running his fingers through his hair, and Steve lets himself lean against Sam’s chest.

“I won’t push it anymore,” Sam murmurs after a fashion, “but I think you should tell him Rogers. His answer might surprise you.”

That’s what I’m afraid of, Steve thinks to himself, but says nothing - just hums in reply.

tbc

taglist: @honeybearrhodey, @rogers-stark45, @tried-our-best, @kirouskasa, @fincaffeinaddict, @endlesslove1084, @imaginestevetony, @illegalchandler, @poughkeepsies, @scarletluvscas, @thewondersoflebanon, @kylizzles, @medio-melon, @moon6shadow-main , @benjamin-solos, @dauntlessdiva, @capnstarkey, @geraderlopoly, @xarawnsamaax, @angelmydear, @theavengays, @imposter-human, @tonystarkisanangel, @littlemissstark , @allthingsmarvel100 , @endrega23 , @riotfalling , @spiderrpcrker, @rxmanoff , @firebrands , @omg-just-peachy, @iam93percentstardust, @dreamsofg0ld, @thxngam, @krzyktty101, @velvetjane, @rebel13lion39, @superhusbands-superfan

#my writing #stevetony #superhusbands #steve rogers x tony stark #steve rogers/tony stark #just friends AU #steve rogers pov #steve rogers centric #i know i said 3 parts #but i promise that part 4 will be out next week #and maybe an epilogue??#idk how do people feel about that #as always #please let me know if you want to be added to the tag list

104 notes · View notes

your-turn-to-role · 4 years

Note

hi okay i hate sending asks to people without knowing them but you seem kind so im trying: during the break, i’ve been working my way through VM, and i’m at episode 75. my question, because i’ve read some of your more recent meta, is “what’s Percy’s deal?” i know he’s loved by the fandom, but i can’t find myself relating to him, and i find his assertions that he’s the only one with a plan offputting. is there more context you can give to me about percy’s character that explains his motivations?

aww, thank you!

(and yeah, asks like this are totally fine, i totally get that anxiety, good job on sending this!)

i mean, first off, you don't have to like a character everyone else does? if you don't relate to percy you can just, not relate to percy, that's fine

(and to be fair, as much as i love him as a character, i would not want him as a friend, because he's a very flawed person that has a lot to work on, but in fiction those traits are interesting to watch rather than difficult to deal with)

but, percy's deal! the short answer is people generally like him because taliesin's funny and charismatic and he does morally grey right, which is rare and a fun thing to explore (also in his relationships with other people, the entire vex-vax-percy-keyleth square is full of neat parallels and opposites and interesting things and i have whole essays in my head on all six combos there)

i don’t know which posts you’ve read so i’ll link this one here too, just to cover a couple more of the generally unnoticed aspects of his character, and things i like about percy

he’s also far from perfect, as you’ve noted, he does tend to believe he’s the smartest person in any given room, because he’s young and clever and used to being that, which you’re allowed to find off putting, but i will say i find he does that less than a lot of characters of his general archetype? he listens to pike, he listens to keyleth, he listens to vex, he respects when they have more knowledge than him on a particular subject, he’s not above asking for help. and generally most of the arguments he has with keyleth on that subject aren’t him asserting he knows more than her, but more a matter of principles and values (they’re a really interesting pair that way, they have similar backgrounds, both children of royalty running away from the crown, but they’re such opposites. percy is a natural leader who would rather anyone rule than him, keyleth fumbles her way through all of it but sticks to it because she doesn’t want to let anyone down, percy is a pragmatist, keyleth is an idealist, they both are too focused on the big picture but in two completely different ways, i could write a whole other post on this, but to get to my point, they wouldn’t be such good balances for each other if percy didn’t absolutely respect where keyleth is coming from)

for the long answer, i’m gonna break this down into parts and try to get to the core of percy's character and why he is the way he is

(under the cut bc this gets long)

1 - heavy trauma

like... this is the really really big one. percy, at age 17 or 18, had his entire life up to that point completely destroyed. his family was killed, his friends were killed, people he trusted like family (professor anders, who was a more present figure in percy's life than his actual parents) betrayed him and helped the briarwoods, he was imprisoned in his own castle's dungeons and tortured for information, they threw his siblings' bodies in there with him to make a point, cassandra helped him escape but as far as he knew she died helping him. he has two years of his life after that he straight up doesn't remember, his hair turned white from the stress of it.

trying to go after ripley the first time didn't work, he was captured and left to starve in a prison cell, for the first few months of travelling with vox machina he genuinely believed it wasn't real, because realistically no one was gonna come save him, this was just a hallucination of his dying mind. returning to whitestone he was forced to confront the fact that literally everyone he ever knew growing up (with the sole exception of archibald) was either dead or working with the briarwoods, and even after retaking the city there's a lot that can never be repaired.

and he's just... never really dealt with any of this? like, he gave vox machina the technical details of what happened to him in the briarwood arc, because they needed to know that information, but the first time he actually started processing his trauma, the first time he admits it out loud to anyone, is the final episode of campaign one. before then it had been occasional snide or handwavey comments, and like, he'll let himself feel the anger over it (in the beginning of the story he encouraged it, because then he didn't have to feel anything else), but he's never processed the grief, never admitted to himself how badly that affected him

which means he's got a lot of pent up emotions in there that he just keeps burying, and sometimes they come out in unhealthy ways. having so much taken from him also makes him really motivated to keep the things he does have - he’s got some deep set abandonment issues and takes any kind of betrayal really badly, don’t know if you’ve got up to the scanlan stuff by the time i post this, but that’s something to keep in mind as to why he acts the way he does there. (and it’s not more explicit because percy was raised nobility, keeping a brave face through anything is part of who he is, he tends to cover emotions he’s insecure about in snark or indifference or, for the intense ones, anger, because those are the things he thinks he’s allowed to show, but the real emotions show up occasionally, when they’re particularly strong, or if you’re reading between the lines. he really does care a lot about vox machina)

2 - legacy and loyalty.

speaking of nobility, it's hard to do a character study on percy without mentioning whitestone and the house of de rolo. this is the number one thing to percy. he was raised to respect title and name, and most importantly, raised to respect the people he represents - both the townsfolk of whitestone and also percy's ancestors and future de rolo generations. whitestone is more important than any one life, he has a duty to protect and serve it, and that comes before any personal wants he may have. it's also important to him for family reasons - he was a pretty lonely child, but he loved reading about the history of the city, all the weird ghost stories whitestone had even before the briarwoods. it probably made him feel more connected to all of that, this is the place he belongs. and after his family dies, it becomes even more important, because this is his connection to them. the soul of a city lives as long as its people, by protecting what's left, he keeps a little bit of what came before

(and also in just tidbits to understand percy's character, he sees all cities and man-made things the same way - in a world where some races live for centuries or millennia, their history exists mostly by word of mouth, you can physically talk to people who were around 500 years ago and get their take on things - humans don't have that, they get 100 years at most, so the things they build are vital to their heritage. this is how you keep people alive long after they're gone, by honouring what they created. and especially for someone so concerned with legacy and history, percy literally says abandoning westruun would be blasphemy, because the place people grew up is important, yes it's better that they live, but letting the city be abandoned and destroyed would be an irreparable act of violence.)

this is the number one thing on percy's mind when evaluating anything about himself, where do i come from, and what do i leave behind? which is a question that has a lot of moments to be tested, because of my next point...

3 - pragmatism and terrible thoughts

when it comes down to it, percy is a very ends justify the means kind of person. he finds it very easy to square away any kind of collateral damage as long as it gets him to his end goal. see: trial of the take, where he's fine to catch his friends in the blast radius of a new bomb design because he's so excited that it worked, preparing to fight vorugal and resigning himself to potentially having to kill innocent people to kill the dragon (he wasn’t okay with that, but he would do it), also his conscious decision to let ripley go, knowing she would lead to the deaths of thousands because it was her or the briarwoods and he wanted revenge

(this is by his own admission his lowest point and worst mistake, because as mentioned, he thinks about the consequences of his actions near constantly, he knew she would reproduce his guns and they would lead to a whole new form of warfare. but in that moment he was just blinded by grief and way too emotionally burnt out and did not have the capacity to care. and he spends the rest of the campaign and honestly probably the rest of his life trying to make up for that one)

he's also, by his own admission, someone who has a lot of bad thoughts he doesn't act on, he's very clever and creative and ideas for ways to use those skills for violence or vengeance come easily to him (like, percy as an actual villain would be ripley but worse, ripley's intelligent but a very direct point a to point b kind of thinker, percy has multiple times criticised her lack of imagination, a percy with her lack of morals would be terrifying)

(honestly this is why i was seeing percy so much in taliesin's narrative telephone, because "sometimes i wake up having dreamed of a terrible thing, and normally i just file that away for things that i would never do, because i wanna maintain friendships, but then LIAM did something to me." and the whole being absolutely fine with throwing the rest of the cast under the bus just to enact revenge on liam was quintessential percy)

but we’ve seen the pragmatic anti hero everywhere, anyone can be a terrible person, and have reasons for it, that alone doesn’t make an interesting character (at least not for me)

what does, is my last point

4 - trying to be good

i still vividly remember when i first watched campaign one, being really surprised at how much percy asked for help? like, i went in expecting the usual full on demon possession storyline, i expected percy to hide how bad it was, i expected him to make poor decisions without realising he was doing it until he was in too deep to back out

and like, he had some of that. but at the first sign of things being out of his control, he asked his friends for help. he let pike greater restoration him. he told vax to kill him if things ever got too out of hand. he was really, genuinely scared about what he got himself into and what he might do because of it. there was never a point where he pretended, even to himself, that making a deal with orthax was okay. the minute he realised there was a demon involved, he was working to stop it. and yeah, by the time he realised it was already a bit too late, there were already some things out of his control (and also taliesin kept having the worst rolls against the whitestone corruption which was really fun on a meta level), which is how things got as bad as they did. but honestly, all things considered, there’s very little to criticise about the way percy handled himself in the briarwood arc.

and he keeps doing that, trying to get better. he struggles with it, he struggles a lot, against his anger issues, against all the trauma, against the fact that he really doesn’t want to be here and things would be so much easier if he were dead. but he recognises he holds grudges too easily, so he starts actively trying to forgive those who’ve wronged him (this is something he and vex have in common, and something they were working on together before they were together, which probably helped a lot in getting them to that point as well). he recognises he makes poor decisions when he’s angry, so he starts learning to step back in those moments and leave the decisions to someone else. he has never not owned up to his mistakes, he takes responsibility for everything he’s done, and if he notices a problem he can’t solve himself, he asks for help.

and i find that fun to explore. like, percy’s been likened to hamlet in the actual show, and i was the kid who got super obsessed with hamlet when i was like 15 because i was in that same mental space of suicidal self hatred and existential melancholy but also thinking i was the smartest person in any given room and being too young to have gotten over the arrogance that makes you ignore everyone else’s needs for the sake of indulging your own problems. and then i got older and realised there are smarter ways to go about things, like having empathy and appreciating the light in the world and not being a dickhead to people because it makes you feel better, and maybe hamlet can be justified and in the wrong at the same time. and while there’s some stuff i won’t spoil for you, percy after ripley kills him is definitely starting to learn that, which you rarely see in the hamlet archetype, bc everyone’s like “ah yes so Deep so Important who cares what bad things this person did they had Trauma and are Clever”

well, percy cares about the bad things he did, and cares about not doing those anymore. so like, he’s still a disaster of a person bc he’s like 23 and no one has their life together at 23, especially not someone in percy’s situation, and honestly i find that fun to watch as well bc i like watching characters make stupid mistakes and do stuff i’d never approve of in real life, and as i mentioned at the start, taliesin makes captivating and funny characters. but yeah, that’s generally where percy’s at, most of the time

#would you believe me if i said this was the second shorter attempt at answering this ask?#i honestly tried to pare it down but this hit at least 6 or 7 separate essays in my head that all wanted to be included #and then i had to figure out how to combine them #my brain keeps giving me more things i should add but i think this is enough to be going on with for now 😂#but hey anyone who likes listening to me talk about percy know i can keep going #this is my word MINIMUM #(and it's still over 2k im so sorry)#but yeah hope this helped!#cr1 #percy de rolo #cr thoughts #text #meta #ask #megabees3

86 notes · View notes

surveys-at-your-service · 3 years

Text

Survey #375

“why do i see her, the never-ending night / why do i see her, wearing nothing but the dark?”

Who’s one person who changed how you viewed something? I hold Rhett & Link responsible for "curing" my homophobia. I went through a phase where I shipped them like CRAZY, and they're still my "OTP," and it really made me question why I had such a disgusting belief. The switch was officially flipped when listening to their podcast with Hannah Hart, who discussed growing up as a lesbian surrounded by homophobia. Let me tell you, it felt fucking good to let that repulsive belief go. It was my former religion that tied me to it, but it could no longer be an excuse to me, even when I stayed Christian a while longer. And here I am now as a bisexual woman who wants to deck younger me dead in the face. :') Were you ever scared of driving? What scared you about it? I am TERRIFIED of driving. I'm most scared of getting in a wreck and killing somebody, something I would never. Ever. Ever. Forgive myself for. I'm also petrified of, once again, getting in a wreck and I wind up paralyzed from the neck down. The most memorable time that you skipped school, what did you do? Nothing very exciting. What was the last topic you did thorough research on? Why? Toxic masculinity for an essay in college. What is a dish you absolutely love, but hate to prepare yourself? I don't cook, so. Of the many different American accents, which one is your favorite? New York. Is there anything hanging from the doorknob in your room? No. Why did you move to where you’re living now? Because we had to get out of our former house because the growing mold problem was a health hazard (especially for Mom, given her then-recent cancer diagnosis), and our family friend newly owned this house as a part of the former resident's will. Said resident knew Mom as well and the house problems, so she wanted Tobey to help us into this house anyway. What’s your opinion on wearing pajamas in public? Do you yourself do that? I literally couldn't care less. I do it a lot. Do you usually fill up at the same gas station? No; Mom just pays attention to the price. Are you currently looking for a new job? No. I don't plan to until I'm done with TMS therapy. Are any of your relatives musicians? No. Have you ever had an asthma attack? Thank goodness no. My mom has asthma and I have seen her have an attack, so I know they're terrifying. Have you ever been in a hospital and not felt safe? There was one occasion during a psych hospital stay that my roommate had WILD anger issues. She would explode out of seemingly NOWHERE, to the point once or twice she had to be put in solitary because she would literally scream and damage shit, like throwing tables and such. She scared the piss out of me to the point I finally plucked up the courage to tell the nurses that I needed a different room. What’s the highest fever you’ve ever had? I don't remember. Have you ever been hospitalized for a day or more? At psych hospitals. I think my shortest visit was just shy of a week. Have you ever had surgery? Two. Are you lonely? I'm admittedly very lonely. Are you mad at someone right now? No. Do you eat late at night? I sometimes need a small midnight or so snack because I cannoooooooot sleep when my stomach is growling. If I'm in basically any sort of discomfort, I have extreme trouble sleeping. Who do you miss? A lot of people. I miss Jason, Megan, Mini, Hannia, Emily, Journee... I don't feel like dwelling on those I've lost. Who do you admire most? Mark. If you could transform into any animal what would it be and why? Maybe a cat. Quick, agile, stealthy, majestic, well-equipped to defend itself... sounds pretty good. Are you more artistic or mathematical? Definitely more artistic. Which supermarket do you usually shop at? Wal-Mart. When was the last time you went to McDonald’s? I'm not sure, but it's been a while. Maybe around a month. What was the last chocolate bar you ate? I believe I had a 3 Musketeers because I was really craving one. Who was the last person you talked to on Skype/video chat? The woman who was doing my evaluation to determine if I was a good fit for TMS therapy. Can you remember the first time you ever talked to the person you love/like? Does he/she remember? I think I might have a vague idea, but I don't really remember. Would you be able to have a relationship with someone you didn’t find attractive, if they had a nice personality and treated you well? Yep. It sounds cheesy, but I do mean it when I say a beautiful inside blossoms into the body itself for me personally. Does the last person you kissed have brown eyes? Yes. Have you ever really liked someone to begin with, then changed your mind about them? I guess you could say Girt, because I had a pretty big crush on him when I started HS. We were just friends for way too long that when we finally dated years upon years later, it felt much too weird. He really was my "brother from another mother" by that point. Has anyone ever told you that they wanted to spend the rest of their life with you? Aaaaand he left. :^) If you decided to dye your hair, would you choose to go lighter or darker? Lighter. I want to dye my hair pastel colors so very badly. Do you know what the Enneagram is and if so, what’s your type? INFP. Do you listen to Mayday Parade? I only know "Terrible Things," which I positively adore. Do you have trouble falling asleep at night? I have an extremely hard time sleeping at night. It's honestly one reason I sometimes sleep so much during the day. Are you on a laptop, desktop or phone/iPod? A laptop. Have you ever been so angry that you screamed out of nowhere? I've screamed into a pillow. What’s the longest movie you’ve ever watched? I dunno, maybe over three hours? What was the last thing you watched on Netflix or Hulu? I have no clue. What do you think about your current relationship status? I mean I miss being in love and having someone who sees a future with me, but I know in the deepest part of me that it's wiser that I stay single until I figure some things out. Of most concern, I don't have a job or even a confident sign I'll have one soon, I'm not in school headed for a career, I don't drive, I don't cook... I'm a liability, financially and in other ways. It wouldn't be fair to my partner or even myself to go into a relationship with a heavy risk of heartbreak because I'm taking too long to get to where I want to be. I'm 25 now - if/when I get into a relationship, I want forever, and I'm not wasting time on anyone for almost inevitable failure as romantic partners. I want to AT LEAST have a steady job before I enter another relationship. How many people have you kissed? Three or four. Do you go out on dates? I have no one to go on a date with. Do you kiss on the first date? I never have and probably wouldn't, but I guess if things went very well and I was really into the person, maybe I would. What’s the farthest you’ve gone with someone? Doing to do. Would you rather receive a stuffed animal, flowers, or chocolate? I'd really appreciate any. I think flowers are sorta overrated though honestly, like someone ripped some healthy flowers from their roots and doomed them to a quickly-approaching death, but society still has a part of me thinking "oh that's sweet." I think more than anything, I'd be crazy over a meerkat plushy. Or would expensive jewelry just be fine? You really don't have to do that for me; I don't really wear much jewelry at all anyway. Odds are you'd be wasting your money. What’s the cheesiest romantic gift you’ve ever received? I don't know. Do you like romantic poetry? Yessssssssss. Have you ever been rickrolled? I'm unsure. Do you like bologna? Yeah. It was my favorite lunch meat as a kid. Have you ever had a nose bleed? Yes. Have you ever puked on a fair ride before? No, because I don't go on rides that generally induce that sort of risk. What animals have you ridden? Just ponies. What is your parents' idea of grounding you? Taking away my access to the computer. Dragons or unicorns? Dragons! Do you wish vampires existed? Uh, no. At the moment what is your favorite song? I'm going through another phase of really digging "Castle of Glass" by Linkin Park. Have you ever been pantsed? No. What is your favorite magazine? I don’t read any. Did you ever like Barbies? Do you currently like Barbies? I never really was, I just played with them when my little sister wanted to. I was more into playing with my dinosaurs and Pokemon and stuff. I'm not into them now, either. What’s your favorite hit song right now? I don't know what songs are "hits" right now. What’s your favorite element? (fire, water, air) Fire, aesthetically. Have you ever been to a wild party? Nah. Do you put on a robe when it’s cold? I don't own a robe. Is the last person you kissed gay? She's demisexual. What breed was the last dog you saw? She's some sort of hound mix. We think there might be dalmatian in her, too. What type of day are you having? It's been all right. I'm just REALLY not feeling this damn heat. Driving an hour and back to the TMS office in a car that has no A/C is agony. Have you ever thought about getting your nose pierced? It's been pierced multiple times, and I want to do it again, but this time with a nostril hoop versus a stud so the goddamn thing stays in. Do you prefer warm or cold weather? I have an incredibly strong preference for cold weather. Fuck the heat. Like just 70*F is "too hot" to me. Who was the last person you talked to in person? My mom. Do you hate the person you fell hardest for? No. Do you like rain? Yes, but I don't like being caught out in it. I just like looking at and listening to it. Have you ever liked somebody and never told them? Yep. Do you like to cuddle? If I really like you and it's not too hot, yeah. Are you shy? I'm excruciatingly shy. If you were paid 1 million dollars to spend the night in a supposed haunted house, would you? Hunny, I'd do that for free. Which do you like better- zebra print or leopard print? I'm not really a fan of either particular pattern on anything but the animal. Do you have any stickers on your car? I don't have my own car, but Mom has one that allows her to park in her old school's parking lot. Do you watch Pretty Little Liars? No. My sister Misty, tho

#survey #surveys #questions #lyrics: ''her silent language'' by dark tranquility

3 notes · View notes