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soulfulazrael · 4 months

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Why me not likey Stolitz and how I decide to write it

In light of recent news that the Full Moon episode will come in this lifetime and will be most definitely HEAVILY Stolitz centric I decided to make a post about what I do not like about this ship (I know, revolutionary) and how I prefer to write it and how I would prefer for it to be written in the show itself... Okay. I am not 100% honest here. Part of the reason why decided to write cringey post about a ship in a disappointing cartoon is this:

THE REASON KIDS ARE TOLD TO NOT TO TALK TO STRANGERS IS BECAUSE OF PEOPLE LIKE YOU! (Yes, Filthy Frank reference. I am not in fact saying they are some predator, I just think they are cringey enough to warrant a reference to good old days when you pointed and laughed at this shit. Do not harass them. Fuck you if you do.).

Okay. Let's get to the ship. Careful... This is going to be long. Filled with annoyance and frustartion boiling over due to collective brain damage I get whenever I see Stolitz shippers talk like teenagers in heat. Enjoy this cancer.

Stolitz has LOTS of issues. Mainly, the writing. Which is atrocious on it. And the worst part about the writing? It didn't have to be this way. Because to me all of the issues with it are amplified by how much of a missed opportunity it is. But let's not lose track. Basically the writing on it is pretty much a standard Disney fare of first sight love which already puts us in a very VERY bad position. This Ars Goetia, one of the most powerful immortal demons is all over this one Imp because they saw them once as a child as they tried to make balloon animals and saw them smile on a line. Riveting. The whole childhood thing already kills A LOT of my interest here. It's so transparent what they are doing that this is just embarrassing. It's manipulative as all Hell (yes, yes, I said Hell, get it out of your system) and adds fuck all to this relationship besides the amount of cheese to make everyone in the world lactose intolerant. And you use this kind of plot for an ARS GOETIA from HELL. WHY!? Why do this? I know it is subversive, but it is so goddamn stupid.

And the stupidest part about it is what this garbage takes away. Because, due to this DAMN ship Ars Goetia are not different in ANY way to normal Hellborn. At all. They just have magic and look like furry avian Habsburgs. All of them are almost indistinguishable from normal Hellborn aside from us being told they are royalty and them having magic. They age the same way as Imps, Hounds and Humans do and if you want to give the "HELL YEARS" excuse, let me remind it would mean in a year time in this show we would have to go to sci-fi and there would be constant wall of bodies falling from the sky every day.

Basically this robs Ars Goetia of being truly unique. They have no unique culture, they have barely any different personalities, they are just bird people. And it's a shame because woes of immortality could be explored here in VERY interesting ways and much of that could have been applied to Stolas as well which I will delve into later. All you need to know for now is that this already puts a SOLID hit to worldbuilding of this setting and makes all the more boring.

Which is what this relationship is at this point. BORING. It's boring now because now it is very clear what direction it will all go in as both Blitzo and Stolas are just pushed as this perfect for each other pair where most amount of conflict is simply "Will they? Or Wont they?" Oh Gee! I wonder what the answer is about this relationship with a character you admitted to change because you found the pairing cute. Golly Gee. I am so anxious to find out. It is simply a waste. There is NO meaningful conflict left here besides them just finding out they are perfect for one another and then beating all those meanies that are in their way and the most meaningful conflict will probably be about forcing Octavia to see how GOOD Blitzo is and how it is okay for Stolas to do what he does... I may or may not have some prior knowledges btw, but I wont say anything. All you need to know is that I want to die.

Which brings us to the most insulting in my opinion issue with both Stolas and Blitzo (O is not silent you gremlin). NOTHING is allowed to be their fault. NOTHING. Every time something seems like they fucked up is immediately forgiven, revealed to NOT be their fault or is swept conveniently under the rug under the guise of "it's just a comic relief bit" or "it's just filler". I genuinely hate that. Both Stolas and Blitzo are awful and flawed people and it would be NICE if this show LEANED INTO THAT. Because that is interesting, but instead this show wants you to root for them by making you forget they are flawed, awful people. Where everyone against them is the evil one or a friend that needs to forgive them and see how hurt THEY are. That is infuriating because it makes both of them a goddamn chore to watch as they are facing no consequences or accountability for any action they did. There is no nuance there. They are just nice people who at most have issues with communication and like to swear, have sex and cry (which doesn't make them deep). I must say Blitzo has SOME interesting conflict to him, but it's beaten down by how much this show tries to make him into some ultra cool badass who is never really in the wrong despite him acting like a complete twat. Which makes me feel like the writing team genuinely thinks like Daffy here at the end:

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And I know this is set in Hell, but it means Jack when you try to make people believe your "asshole" characters are not them. You do not embrace it. You just try to have a cake and eat it too and Viv, you need to go on a diet with how much it happens in both of your shows.

In this topic I think user named crooked-wasteland made a better case than I ever could about the way this show tries to absolve Blitzo at least. Linke here: https://www.tumblr.com/crooked-wasteland/735943916971524096/the-anti-bojack-anti-intellectualism-and-the?source=share

It's a good read that delves nicely into why Blitzo's conflicts end up being so shallow. Also adding to that post. Think about it. Barbie is made up to be the child killer, drug dealer and someone who *gasp* doesn't forgive little pure Blitzy who just wants to reconcile. It's clear who's side this show wants you to be on. Again. NO nuance. Just telling you what to think.

And then there is the side characters in this "conflict" where most characters are basically just props. Loona? Prop to make Blitzo look better. Octavia? Stolas needs some conflict, let's throw her dumb ass in (HOW DO YOU NOT KNOW STARS APPEAR AT NIGHT!? Your family's entire shtick is astrology!!). Stella? Oh she is just evil and stupid. Andrealphus? He is just evil, but actually smart! (actually no, he is also as dumb as a stump, but he speaks like he is not so I guess he is not supposed to be, but something did not pan out too well). Paimon. Boring shithead we saw a million times already and yet another shitty dad, because relationship issues and daddy issues are two things Viv apparently knows. A good video about it I have below:

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TL;DR this ship brings down SO MANY characters down the drain just to make these two look as good as possible. Where nothing is their fault and the most amount of conflict is them realizing how perfect they are for one another and convincing others of that fact I guess. And the worst part is that there has been hints of good writing for it in Season 1 at least in Ozzie's before this series decided to just quickly throw that into the garbage can.

Your best episode and you try to minimize impact it had as much as possible... I am so confused about this direction. Just... WHY!? Now for what I would prefer...

First what I think should have been done. I think this show should have leaned in more into Stolas being an Ars Goetia. An immortal, few hundred years old Ars Goetia. Because that already provides this story with a lot of possibly interesting conflict. Because this one fact would make Stolas all the more complicated as he would already be out of reach in terms of judging him by our own mortal standards. A creature that is few hundred years old that felt empty and bored over so much time of pure stagnancy that finds some semblance of joy and pleasure in the arms of an imp it would not even look at in any other way. A creature that because of it's immortality revels in such new experiences to feel a semblance of anything at all. Where it's purpose is lost to it and instead this demon takes joy in every bit of pleasurable experience that it can latch onto, but in doing so he hurts A LOT of people around him, like his own daughter and while he likes to say he cares for her he still inheritly still wants to feel alive as he is never allowed to.

That already gives Stolas on his own a lot of interesting conflict. He is still understandable in his pursuit of joy and happiness and excitement, but also showing the hedonism and pure selfishness in this pursuit. Where he throws all he has on the wind all for the sake of seeking something good for himself. Is it wrong? Is it correct? No idea. What do you think? That is the thing this series should do. ASK questions. Not answer them! Treat your audience like adults who can make up their own mind which is something this show simply doesn't do which infuriates me on a deep level.

And Blitzo. Lean in, into him being a greedy piece of garbage that gets his just comeuppance when he decides to latch himself onto this noble due to his own greed. Make it his faults that get him into this position and make him stay in it. And maybe if he does start to feel something for this demon as this other one may as well, maybe delve into WHY both of them are attracted to one another. As Blitzo could be attracted to power his position gives him and Stolas to the freedom he receives by being with Blitzo. Both of them loving more the ideas each one allows them to know instead of the people they really are and maybe have the conflict be about first them discovering those growing feelings, but then discovering what they are really pointed towards.

And there is no need to make Stella innocent either as she could be also another extreme adding to the misery, but not because of any inherited evil nature that wants her to hurt Stolas for LOLS, but instead is another victim of the immortality and status all Goetias have. Where it is almost impossible to not be on some level broken in mind.

And in this conflict it could be Octavia who is the anchor for both. A piece of normalcy as she did not live for so long and so is the most human piece in that place.

Some ideas here. And here is how I write it. Because me personally I choose to write it as Blitzo and Stolas both being attracted not to each other, but to what the other gives them. Stolas being forever frustrated about the position he never asked for giving him no freedom where he finds this one Imp that allows him to revel in his deepest and darkest desires and Blitzo being someone who deeply regrets his own decisions, but is too deep to pull out without losing all that he has gained and so pushes Stolas to be worse so he can keep profiting off of him.

Stella in this scenario is not a innocent soul either as in my version she is far more cold, distant and is obsessed with order and subjugation of others in order to elevate the status of her family which she actually cares about, but in a way that feels cruel and demanding. A contrast to Stolas who is a pure hedonist who while seeks joy and happiness where he doesn't have to be afraid is still a monster who's idea of happiness is indulging in most depraved acts without having to care for anyone.

And anchor there being Octavia who both of them care about, but is still hurt by both as both of them find it hard to look at the world in the way that is different from what they were taught and accepted through hundreds of years of their lives. Where many terrible events shaped their lives into those two extremes that have way of existing with one another without the risk of them both destroying one another as Stella wants Stolas gone for tarnishing their reputation and putting their family at risk while Stolas hates Stella for always pulling him with his leash he had to live with all his life. And Octavia through all of this has to find her own way to become someone better. Where she needs to find a path where she can possibly not lose either one and come out of this as someone better.

This is what I would prefer. A conflict where no side is really good, all of them are deeply flawed, complicated and very hard to pin as to which one is good or not. Where it is up to those in the audience as to what to think of this conflict. In another post here I made (like first one and this is second) I linked that fic so I will just say the name.

Song for the Quiet Bird. Stella/Moxxie ship fic. Yeah, I know. If you find it interesting check it out. And no. I do not say Stolitz should be written as I would want it to be. I just say this ship needs more nuance, more interesting characterization, more chemistry and interesting ideas. It needs to be less... cartoony than it is right now because so far it just feels like a dumb telenovela.

Okay... That was... a lot. I definitely did not cover everything I think of Stolitz. I have too much chaos in my head and I feel dizzy after typing all of this shait. Agree with me or not. It doesn't matter. If you read this that means you got very far into my incoherent rambling and I thank you for it no matter what you take from it.

I am just a human disaster with weird goddamn obsessions. Sorry for this being so chaotic. It's a reactionary piece of dumbassery from me. Maybe I will some day post something more coherent. If anyone cares. For now... Take care. Canon Stolitz is shit. At least for me. Disagree? Feel free to! Agreed? Sweet... Leave a comment if you have something to add to this... thing. I always enjoy that. If anyone gets this far.

#helluva boss #helluva boss criticism #helluva boss critical #helluva boss critique #stolitz #stolitz critical #helluva boss rewrite #This is so long #What am I doing with my life?#God above help me #Grant me strength for I am losing it at Warp Speed #Waste of time #Youtube

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rriavian · 6 months

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Christmas/Winter Themed Writing Prompts:

So @aisalynn and I were looking for a prompt list and ended up creating our own. We wanted to have a bit of enemies to lovers sharpness alongside some softer tropes. There are ones here that can be used platonically as well as romantically, so no real limit on the ship. Though I've mainly written for Corintheus I'm happy to give pretty much any pairing a go :)

Feel free to use any of these for your own writing inspiration if there's one that speaks to you!

Character A gets unexpectedly jealous by seeing B kissing someone else under the mistletoe.

Characters celebrating/observing an old seasonal/yuletide tradition that has almost been forgotten.

Characters A and B are rivals forced to cuddle for warmth

Exes forced to see each other at a holiday party because their friend group refused to choose between them.

Characters A and B have never gotten along but somehow end up paired together on a project for their companies season charity event.

Character A watches someone else give character B a gift and knows they could have chosen something better.

Character A runs into character B and sees that B is wearing A's favourite sweater that went missing a few weeks ago.

“If you try and make me sing Christmas carols I will kill you.”

Meet ugly where character A accidentally spills hot chocolate all over character B. Far from being apologetic A is just pissed about the loss of the whiskey they had poured into the drink.

Character A yanking character B closer by their scarf in the middle of an argument.

Post break-up character A gets dragged to a strip club by well-meaning friends and ends up there for the Christmas themed night. Character B wears mistletoe in...interesting places.

Character A and character B don't get along but somehow end up as each other’s secret Santa.

Character A and B are the only two people at an airport bar while they each wait for their separate delayed flights home for Christmas.

Characters A and B share a drunken New Years kiss. They mutually agree to forget about it. But then it keeps happening. Every. Single. Year.

Rival ice carving artists.

Jewellery shop owner character A keeps selling and processing returns for the Christmas proposal ring indecisive character B keeps buying. Final return after character B's failed proposal and break up.

Character A gets a Christmas present meant for character B and has to try and get it to them in time for Christmas.

Character A hates Christmas, character B decides it’s the perfect time of year to mess with them.

Character A keeps being set up with character C for family events and needs an excuse. They choose character B to be their fake partner, but they don’t tell them what they've done.

Character A is on a terrible sleigh ride date when the horse goes lame. Ends up helping character B, the sleigh driver with the horse, turns out not to be a bad night after all.

Character A is a sketch artist working over the holidays, character B is the next person to sit down in their chair.

Character A’s heating breaks in the middle of winter, character B is the engineer they call out to fix it.

Character A is trying to find a date in time for the holidays but they keep being cancelled on, character B seems oddly smug about it

Character A owns a bakery, character B is obsessed with everything they make—including the delicious winter treats they’re currently selling—but thinks A themselves is arrogant and intolerable (irritatingly hot though).

Instead of wrapping presents character A finds a dubious, but very creative, use for ribbons, character B falls victim but finds they’re into it.

Character A has taken to sucking on candy canes, character B is bothered by this but can’t tear their eyes away.

“You can’t hide under blankets forever just because it’s cold.” “Yes I can.” — character A then proceeds to drag character B out of their blanket den.

The season reminds character A of something/someone they’ve lost, character B comforts them in an unconventional way.

Character A wants to avoid a family reunion over the holidays, character B helps stage an ‘emergency’.

Characters A and B spend the holidays together for the first time as a couple, character C is a person in common they weren’t aware the other knew (up to you whether this is a good or a bad thing)

Character A is used to partners not being very accepting of their family/friends, character B meets them for the holidays and is the first to take it all in stride.

Character A is performing in *winter/Christmas themed media of your choice*, character B happens to be sat in the front row on opening night.

Character A is famous for writing a very catchy seasonal song that plays every year, only thing is they utterly despise hearing it now. Character B won’t stop humming it.

#Christmas/Winter prompts #writing prompts #send me an ask if you like any of these #might take a little while to finish but I'm excited to write some winter themed things #10 is actually an existing wip idea haha

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wh00pwh00p · 5 months

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@glupiypryanik THIS IS FOR YOU (n also a great excuse to info dump about my babies)

so i have technically 5 OC worlds (minus dnd characters), i say technically 5 because i post like 4 of them here??? the other one is mainly written so i dont have a lot of art of them. but i also have ideas for how id love to present these worlds in the future..... like making some into shows or comics (i probably wont ever do that bc time but one can dream)

im ganna cover them one world at a time from least to most info??? i think?? its a long one.... much longer than i thought.... (i might just keep adding as characters get more info n stuff)

Nova & Circus (doesn't have an actual name yet) :

Nova and circus are roommates n live in a world which is like a near future with lots of built up places heavily based on cities like Tokyo, Seoul, New York and LA in there too. very entertainment industry heavy. Nova is an Idol (i specifically draw from the aesthetics of J-pop idols and a little from K-pop idols) she is very busy all the time which leads to her being very tired when shes not doing work. she also very much enjoys her work and is relatively popular. Circus is a streamer but does like live radio type streams, he used to be a DJ and producer before he started his own thing and now he also helps produce some of Novas music. hes much better at doing his own thing and he doesnt work well with like strict schedules and such. do they have to live together? no, they both make more than enough to live separately and be pretty well off. are they living together because they are dating? maybe but dating is taken very seriously within the Idol scene and it could cause problems for both of them if they were dating, which they are definitely not doing (/s)

Heavens Finest :

oh Delilah. Heaven in this universe isn't somewhere for the dead but more so a place for angels, these angels have a normal working society where everyone is delegated jobs. Delilah was delegated the job of a guardian angel, guardian angels in this universe are the beings that give you a sense of safety, they are the beings that give you the impulse to look before crossing the road or to watch your step. Delilah is horrifically bad at this (partially on purpose). everyone Delilah is sent to keep safe dies within 2-3 business days because she's either gotten to work late or was far too preoccupied doing literally anything else than her job. however shes also the queen of weaponised incompetence, every time her boss threatens to move her to another sector she happily reminds them that she will screw up anything, anywhere, anytime and out of pure fear theyve had to keep her on. as Delilahs story continues her boss gives her an ultimatum: If the next person she guards dies within a week they will let her go. Delilah happily accepts however what she doesnt realise is that shes been assigned the stupidest yet seemingly invincible guy who just. wont. die. her story evolves from her passively letting people die to her straight up trying to kill this guy within a week.

Bp&I :

this universe is a pretty normal modern world filled with halloween monsters. Skeletons, ghosts, vampires, werewolves, think of any classic scary monster n they are here. the main groups (the biggest groups) are: werewolves, vampires, skeletons, witches, zombies, demons, ghosts, sirens and ogres. sometimes (like a 1/1000 chance) a monster can have a seconds supernatural ability, these can be anything from turning invisible to being able to speak to cats. this universe exists alongside our own, for some this is their afterlife and for others our universe is a source of food (especially for vampires and sirens). another big part of this universe are the Fighting Tournaments. every month has a tournament on the last week of the month. these tournaments consist of one race (eg: an entire vampire tournament, an entire ghost tournament so on so on) this is primarily to do with the fact that some races are less or more effected by other races (eg: ghosts cant really be touched by non ghosts unless the ghost puts energy into being a physical thing and this also effects them using objects and such or vampires are more vulnerable to things like fire but demons are immune). these tornaments give non ranked fighters the ability to enter the ranked places. once a year their is a 'Ranked only' tournament which takes place over most of the month where the top 10 from each race compete to take each others rank. Rank 0s are the highest ranks and essentially run the world. Bloodpact is a vampire who also has the supernatural ability of a necromancer, shes able to bring back people she has drank from to act as undead slaves. Bp holds the 3rd spot within the vampire ranks, shes known for having an energetic and deeply chaotic personality and fighting style. her main weapon is a harley quin-esque hammer. Ink could not be further from Bp if they tried. Bp essentially picked Ink of the street to be their mentor. Ink is a ghost with the ability to shapeshift and has always wanted to be a high rank fighter after waking up here after dying. Ink is extremely chill n mildly worried about Bps caffeine addiction.

tbt the best way i can describe these two is 'Autism n ADHD solidarity' Bp may be Inks mentor but i think ink is objectively more responsible. Bp does also have a manager to keep her (and now Ink) on track in their activities.

The Bastards :

the name sounds mean but trust me they deserve it.

this story takes place on a planet which is made up of a single planet which is mainly desert but has some very large interconnected cities and towns within large bubble like structures which create almost fake environments. they can produce different types of weather and grow crops within them. however people do live outside of these bubbles, in the desert areas. this is a modern fantasy-esque space setting (a lot ik) think like Coruscant from star wars mixed with the envoriment in the Darling in the Franxx enviroment. large pockets of perfect land and infrastructure held within localised stationary domes the capability to mimic different enviroments and weather.

this is a rough idea of what its probably laid out like:

the agriculture domes are the least populated, dominated by fields and farms. these farms are able to produce most types of vegetation and can produce enough food for the vast majority of the planet.

main cities and sub cities have very high population densities (like i said think coruscant) minor cities are like the usual cities we have (think new york and london) the towns are less dense more like large sub urbs.

the smallest domes are either villages or business quarters.

the small red cubes/rectangles are settlements outside of the domes, these houses may seem to be of lower quality than the ones in the dome but theyre just much older and built for the desert conditions.

there is one main intergalactic ship dock far from the main urban areas however some of the outer dome settlements have their own landing zones for their own ships or to get deliveries

talon lives outside of the domes, he and his dad run a ranch with a focus in raising and breeding the older more traditional native breeds.

Heartstopper lives in the main city in a relatively nice penthouse gifted to her by her parents before they disowned her

cat scratch lives in the main city in a dingy basement apartment in the....not so nice parts of the main city Cat Scratch, Talon and Heartstopper all despise each other.

(arrows pointing to someone is why they hate the person its pointing to, it was just far easier to put into a diagram.)

all three of them have become bounty hunters due to life circumstances and had a pretty bad kill on sight mentality towards each other however one day they are essentially arrested and given the choice to either go to jail for the rest of their lives or become a unit to fight more dangerous crime groups. as much as they all hate each other they all hated the idea of prison more.

now these characters are supposed to be bad people however i wanted to build them in a way that gave them stories which are just bad life circumstances or events and essentially what would happen if people neglect the fact that they are deeply effected by these things and continue to bottle it up and ignore it instead of... yk.... going to therapy. just keep this in mind as i explain them.

Cat Scratch was orphaned at a very young age, never stayed in one place for long and was always bouncing homes or families. all this contributed to them harbouring a pretty strong hatred towards the world, they blamed other people their entire life, never trusted anyone and became just very violent as an outcome. as previously mentioned they were bullied during school pretty heavily by talon n his group of goons TM which onl;y made this worse as she then had to physically fight these people. as they grew up they met new people, they met heartstopper (though she wasnt heartstopper then) and a guy who they both fell for. cat scratch believed they should have him and they did get him eventually even if it did destroy their friendship with heartstopper and required a few extra steps. this didnt last long however and eventually Cat Scratch had to make it by themselves... again. they turned to bounty hunting as it was profitable enough to keep them off the streets and... a good way to get some anger out...even if it was pretty violent.

Heartstopper had a pretty good upbringing, her family was upper class and were relatively wealthy and yes maybe she had to fight for attention sometimes between her and her multiple siblings but it was never bad. she always had a knack for lying though, just little white lies here and there and pocketing a couple small things here and there (only a stick of gum or a lipstick here and there). she grew up got a good education, great grades and eventually a good job with even better money and met new people. she met cat scratch and a guy they both fell for. heartstopper knew they both had the same feeling but he obviously chose her and she hoped that cat scratch understood that. a little bit later and they were engaged and happy. only what was supposed to be the happiest day of her life became the beginning of the end. he never turned up. not only did he never turn up but no less than a week later sensitive private images, videos, messages were suddenly not so private. the emails to her work, the lies within these emails lined with sensitive content were the final straw. her family had turned their backs on her, her job had let her go and frankly she had nothing else. these things were her life. she had no money, no life and no aspirations so she said fuck it and became a bounty hunter... a much less violent one but a snake in long grass type. if lies were so easily spread about her, then why not everyone else.

Talon would tell you he had a normal upbringing, he didnt. hid mother left when he was very young and has only ever lived with his dad on their ranch. talons dad isnt exactly a good person, pretty horrible honestly, a notorious bigot but talon didnt see that at the end of the day he was his dad and that was all he had. par a few animals and his bird, rogue, obviously. talon knew he was different. not really because of his physical appearance, horns n tails were rather common at his school but inwardly he was conscious about something. it annoyed him when he saw people who were seemingly comfortable in their skin and cat scratch was one of them. it annoyed him that they would walk around as if they had nothing to lose, how theyd look at others with disgust as if they felt like they were above others. one day he and his friends, admittedly, got a little too rough. turned out this cat has much sharper claws than they thought. the next thing talon was aware of was lightning like pain stemming from his spine and the fact that it ceased as soon as he screamed in pain as if they realised he was awake and stopped. after the pain he realised he couldnt notice anything else, he couldnt see anything else. later hed be told his eyesight was unrecoverable and that his previously tan complexion and brunette hair were now stark white and his horns and spines a silver colour. as shit as it is to loose your eyes you get used to it, you find other means of navigating, for talon it was rogue. like a guide bird if you will. she even helped with using firearms, some things were off the table but if he could set up a place to camp out rogue helped with aiming and guiding him on where to shoot through sound or touch. as talon grew up he learned to ignore the feeling that he was different, as his dad grew old he took on more responsibilities around the ranch and just didnt have time to think about it anymore. money got tight a couple times and talon decided he needed to pick up a side hustle... a bounty hunter would probably make just enough.

as the story of the bastards develops they learn to trust and understand each other. they learn that at the end of the day theres not much they can do except to strive to be better.

key story moments include cat scratch almost dying due to their own reckless behaviour and having to trust the other members to not let them die and thank them for helping when they could have let them die on the mission, heartstopper fully breaking down on a mission and admits that she barely knows who she is anymore after the others confront her on her lying and manipulation of other people leading to her having to revaluate her life and open up to those around her and talon finally finds out why hes always felt different after meeting cyrus and falling pretty horrifically in love with him over the course of a short stay during a mission and having to recon with the fact that this could destroy everything hes ever known and being backed by the others in accepting himself and what he wants.

these guys are little shits but they get better n i love them, they are definitely the most in depth characters i have along with being the most depressing but i enjoy playing with the nature vs nurture aspect of terrible people yk and how some of them can get better if they only had good friends and/or therapy (dont worry i will send these idiots to therapy once theyve finished their main stories)

if you got this far heres a pic of one of my cats :3

#my silly lil guys #original character #oc #my ocs

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kanerallels · 1 year

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501st Follower Celebration!

Ladies and gentlemen, friends, enemies, and assorted others, welcome to my 501st Follower Celebration! I have been planning this one for a while, and I'm VERY excited

The rules for this celebration are pretty simple: pick a number between one (1) and one hundred (100), and I'll tell you about the corresponding au on my list, possibly with a little snippet of what I would write, if I haven't written it. If I have, you get a link to the fic and some background lore (and maybe a snippet. It really depends)

I'll be honest with you guys-- this is like the garage sale of follower celebrations. You never really know what you're gonna get, which is exciting!

But if you prefer knowing, I'll have a little cheat sheet (not super detailed, but you'll be able to find your likes and avoid your dislikes there if you want) below the cut, where I will also be tagging some of my mutuals!

Remember-- any number between 1 and one hundred!! You can also send multiple numbers if you want-- no more than five, I'd say. Thanks for following me, guys, I'm lucky to have you!

(disclaimer: these probably won't get published until after Jacen Syndulla Week, which runs from the 18th to the 24th of June. But after that, they'll start showing up!)

The cheat sheet goes as follows:

1-10 are the Classics. They're some of the first aus I've ever come up with, some of the first I ever posted, and I love them very much. A good example of this would be the Camping Au

11-30 are Modern Aus, which are pretty mundane but I always have fun making Kanera meet in new ways. They're also pretty much always crossovers, because I can do whatever I want. A good example of this would be the Locksmith/Fencing Au

31-40 are my Chenford Aus. They're always centered around Chenford, and the characters from the Rookie first and foremost, although I DEFINITELY cameoed some other characters in there, too

41-50 is Marvel and Misc. Fandom AUs, and largely consists of my Kastle stuff. If you ask exactly the right one, you'll get the most ridiculous crossover I've ever written, and I'm very proud of it

51-70 are the In Universe Star Wars aus, and while most of them are mainly Star Wars characters, there are a couple that are centered around non-Star Wars characters. How Kaz Brekker Saved The Galaxy is a good example of that

71-80 are what I like to call my Feral Gremlin Mode Aus. Aka, if you send them to me I will go Feral Gremlin Mode and possibly write an entire one-shot because I finally have an excuse to write them

81-100 are the Aus Based Off Of Other Pieces of Media! Generally they're inspired by movies, tv shows, or books I've read/watched that remind me of Kanera or the Ghost crew, and then translated so it fits them! A good example of this would be my Batman Au!

For the record: most of these are SWR aus, unless they're marked otherwise, but most aus will have Star Wars characters in it at some point!

Taglist here: @accidental-spice @laughingphoenixleader @thirteenmyspacegirl @heckin-music-dork @singswan-springswan @lucilliantpearl @strige-art @seleneisrising @backgroundagent3 @oldmanwithashield @ladywren7 @firefoxtessa @day-to-day-thots @auroramagpie @opalknight @seleneisrising @cassie-fanfics

#501st follower celebration #501 followers celebration #star wars rebels #swr #kanan jarrus #hera syndulla #chopper swr #garazeb orrelios #sabine wren #ezra bridger #jacen syndulla #tim bradford #lucy chen #frank castle #karen page #send them in!! i am most excited for this celebration #kanera #chenford #kastle

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tiffanylamps · 2 years

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Han Joo Won loves a love triangle, Part I

Let's talk about Han Joo Won, his jealousy and his weird attempts at creating love triangles.

[Excuse this post and all its flaws: it was written during a stupid, stupid English heatwave... otherwise known as satan's asscrack. No, this tiny cold island shouldn't be 33C at 9am. ]

Also, I must add that I barely got my English GCSE at school. So, to all those English majors or people with a higher qualification in English Literature (etc), I have no horse in this race. I am not pretending to know what I am talking about... Just indulge me, please.

We all know that Han Joo Won is a silly, silly man. He is pompous and proud, blunt and rude, emotional and caring; he picks fights, gets dissed, and then needs 5-10 business days to think of a comeback.

He also doesn't like close emotional relationships. He believes relationships should be on a transactional (give and take) basis; no emotions, no complication, just favours and debts that get paid off. Han Joo Won has also canonically never had a romantic relationship.

Joo Won clearly has some emotional issues that stem from childhood trauma. He struggles with making genuine, long-lasting connections (mainly because he doesn't want them) and doesn't seem to understand the value of creating bonds. He's a very lonely person, who doesn't know that they're lonely. He reminds me quite a lot of Mr Darcy from Pride and Prejudice. Both share some character traits and act as "misunderstood antagonists" in their own stories, only to become one of the protagonist's greatest allies (and romantic interest). [they're both totally autistic/have asd but whatevs]

[This is written about Mr Darcy. But if someone told me it was a summary of Joo Won, I would totally believe it]

Obviously, the basic plots of Pride and Prejudice and Beyond Evil do differ: one is about the sociopolitical inequalities of regency England's marriage system and how that conflicts with love, and the other is about the importance of found family and love in a corrupt society, overcoming trauma and that no one is above the law. However, they do share similar themes:

Reputation

Class

Family

Preconceived assumptions

Love

Integrity

Han Joo Won and Mr Darcy are (at first) both hard to get along with. Their arrogance and snobby attitudes rub people up the wrong way, and they are often excused for their behaviour because of the family's class and financial status. Where these two characters differ the most is the lens through which they are explored. By this, I mean that Mr Darcy is explored through Elizabeth's pov, and only when her perspective of him changes so does the audience's. Whereas Joo Won has his own pov, he is one of the main narrators of his story. Our perspective of him only chances once he is willing to show his other facets (because Dong Sik forces him to).

[HJW and MD are both misunderstood, socially inept rain-soaked kitty cats, who do use/would use the word ardently when describing their feelings]

[Quick note: Dong Sik is so Elizabeth Bennet. Crazy pretty, comes from a family of "lower" economic class, is from a loving family, charismatic with a sharp tongue, witty, sarcastic, has a love of the ridiculous, stubborn, and has a bit of a temper. Come on, this quote said by Elizabeth could easily have been said by Dong Sik: “There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me.” Pride and Prejudice, chapter 31]

Another similarity between Han Joo Won and Mr Darcy is that at one point or another, they find themselves in a short-lived love triangle. The biggest difference is that Mr Darcy did not choose to be in a love triangle, Han Joo Won did.

[Joo Won has his own hand flex scene]

When Han Joo Won arrives in Manyang, he is there with a purpose and that purpose is to catch his murder suspect: Lee Dong Sik. There is some stalking history but that's another point for another time. Han Joo Won seems to be taken aback by how much Dong Sik's community love him: he has a large friendship circle and is respected and supported. From very early on, Joo Won seems to be interested in the idea that Dong Sik has a girlfriend. Which could speak on Joo Won's societal beliefs. Perhaps, he's been brought up to believe that a man in his forties should or at the very least, would, have a girlfriend or wife. Perhaps, he believes that Dong Sik would have a wife- maybe it helps Joo Won add more detail to his murder suspect's MO. Or perhaps, it's because Joo Won needs Dong Sik to be interested and involved with women because if he wasn't then... maybe he's interested in men, maybe he'll be interested in Joo Won, maybe he'll find Joo Won attractive, what if Joo Won reciprocated those feelings, what if-

It's easier for Joo Won if Dong Sik is straight.

Beyond Evil uses the rule of three when exploring Joo Won's jealousy. [Definition: "The rule (or power) of three is an age-old writing technique that implies that things that come in threes are inherently more satisfying and effective to readers." - www.andbeyond.com]

So, who's the first person Joo Won believes Dong Sik is interested in? Kang Min Jeong.

I'm not even sure if this suspicion lasts for an entire episode. But Joo Won is so bitchy about it, so princess, that Ji Hoon had to sit him down and say you're being really obvious, calm down, damnnnn she's like his daughter. So, once that "potential love interest/rival" is ruled out, Joo Won moves quickly on. The second rule of the three, the next suspect: Oh Ji Hwa

Now, this is where Joo Won's jealously really shines through. It's text, it's obvious, it's right there for everyone to see. Episode 5 is where this jealously is most prevalent for the audience to see. [quick context filler] At the beginning of the episode, Joo Won wanted to know who Dong Sik is protecting. They have a big UST row over it and Joo Won left with all this information and not context (cause he's too silly to connect the dots). At the police station, the Mayang police gang protect Joo Won against the harassment of the reporter... and he... well... He asks: “Why do you care about me? You barely know anything about me." That's some of the sad shit right there. It just highlights Joo Won's complete lack of understanding of how feelings (like attraction, affection, love) work. He doesn’t understand that they aren’t something earnt, they aren’t given with permission, you cannot control how someone feels about you. It ALSO shows Joo Won's panic of "oh, now I owe these people". The conversation that follows is (I think) one of the most important in the show because it outlines one of the fundamental factors of Dong Sik's and Joo Won’s dynamic. Dong Sik tells Joo Won that “we'' protect our own here, even if we are mad at each other. The people of Manjang band together to eliminate any external threats. And WHAT HAPPENS THROUGHOUT THE STORY??

DS & JW band together to protect a disabled boy against the weather

When bringing Kang Jin Mook to justice

They (reluctantly at first) unite to find out who kills KJM

They start their own task force to investigate who killed the Chief

They band together to find out who killed Lee Yu Yeon

They band together to arrest Joo Won’s father

Whenever there is an outside threat to their community, their safety, their happiness, and their relationship, these two always band together to protect and fight off the threat. No matter the sacrifice, they will protect each other and anyone else who deserves it. That is so beautiful. They are at their best when they are a unit. But anyway, within the context of the scene, Dong Sik is really saying: “I’m still mad at you for the shit you’ve been pulling recently. But don't you see that we are all just normal people? I'm not who you think I am. So, just stop the charade and be a part of our community."

But at this point in the story, episode 5, Joo Won doesn't trust Dong Sik but he is interested in him. What he also doesn't realise is that after the whole "don't be mean to HJW. He's an idiot but he's our idiot" scene, Dong Sik alongside everyone else. He has just protected Joo Won, adding him to the list he recited at the beginning of the episode.

Then... plot happens and they go beat people up together because they're bonding... it's also because Joo Won cares for Dong Sik AND it's because Dong Sik protected him, and Joo Won has paid back the debt.

[from the moment I saw this bit, I thought it was an erection joke and I've got smh at myself sometimes]

But what happens afterwards is what is most telling.

Whilst the officers are processing the charges, Lee Chang Jin makes everyone aware that he and Ji Hwa used to be married. In a thinly-veiled attempt to make others feel sorry that he’s no longer with “his love”, Dong Sik gets angry on her behalf. Ji Hwa is one of Dong Sik’s closest friends, they have always had a platonic relationship, and they love each other dearly. Dong Sik doesn’t like his friend’s shitty ex-husband spurting lies.

So, he kicks the desk.

Joo Won’s reaction? A small amount of confusion mixed with surprise and a sad sigh as he looks away.

What does this look like to Joo Won? He thinks Dong Sik is jealous. He thinks the guy he likes is jealous of (if this were a normal het drama, Dong Sik and Ji Hwa would have been a couple and Joo Won and Jae Yi would have ended up together) Lee Chang Jin’s history with Ji Hwa. Perhaps, his feelings got hurt so he wants to push the “straight” man he likes away, in order to protect himself. Concealing. Concealing. Concealing.

So, what does he actually do?

Gets jealous and pisses Dong Sik off by being a jealous brat.

As we enter the following scene with jwds, the shot we see is of Joo Won sitting up straight with his arms crossed in front of himself. He seems to be annoyed and deep in thought. This could be because of a video of him beating people up is online, it could be because he knows his father knows, it could be because he’s worried he’ll get into trouble. But what is the first thing out of his mouth?

Are you jealous?

What a wonderful example of projecting. Dong Sik isn’t the jealous one. We know he isn’t because there hasn’t been a point in the show (for the 5 episodes, which are roughly an hour long each) that a romantic relationship (past or present) between Dong Sik and Ji Hwa has been mentioned. Instead, we have seen their friendship. The concept of jealousy comes directly from Joo Won and you can see how hurt/tired Dong Sik is once Joo Won accuses him of being jealous of his friend… his female friend’s ex-husband.

We’re at the halfway point of the episode, up until this point Dong Sik has been trying to pull Joo Won in by protecting him and just being nice. He finally thinks they’ve gotten somewhere and the brat says this?

All of this "Dong Sik having feelings for Ji Hwa" nonsense is best summed up Ji Hwa's reaction:

This is probably meant to be a funny line to help diffuse the tension for the audience. A “we know it's getting pretty gay in here but don’t worry, we’ve acknowledged it, it’s not like that, pls don't run away conservative audiences…” But in reality: She directs these two lines to Joo Won. Not her best friend, who is older and should know better than to let little upsets get between himself and his partner. No, she directs it to Joo Won. Almost as if she can see through him, all the way down to his silly jealousy. His reaction is so interesting to me because he immediately gets up and tries to leave; which could be seen as heterosexual disgust (the suggestion that he might “fall” for a man) but it's already been established that he’s the one who is jealous. So, is it disgust or is it concealment? [Also, I know when he gets up, in the world of television, he has to stay facing the camera, so we can see his face as he leaves. But the character of Joo Won always chooses to leave the interrogation room by squeezing behind Dong Sik (getting in his personal space again), instead of just walking to his right. That is rather amusing to me]

In episode 6, Joo Won brings up Ji Hwa one last time to determine Dong Sik's feelings. The reaction he gets is a sigh. By this point, Joo Won has finally gotten his head around the fact that Ji Hwa and Dong Sik aren't romantically interested in one another. Joo Won had ruled Ji Hwa out as a romantic interest/rival. This leads him to his next suspect: Park Jung Je. The last part of the rule of three.

I'm going to leave this there for now. I will write a part II at some point but don't expect it any time soon. This feels a little disorganised but we all know what I'm getting at. Thanks for reading.

Ta ta for now!

#beyond evil #jtbc beyond evil #beyond evil analysis #beyond evil meta commentary #jwds #han juwon #lee dongsik #joo won wants the romcom drama. so he created it himself. i respect that #i bet he read too much romantic literature growing up #he wants side burns and waist coats and VERY tight trousers #he wants to walk across his estate and have a yearly income that will mean he is a handsome suitor #although no one has been handsome enough to tempt him... until...

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sketching-shark · 1 year

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Do you think its funny that the fandom treats the Monk kinda the same way he treated Wukong, he kinda deserve it but can we at least something different about him (like I don't see anyone make bug jokes or about all the poetry)

AUGH well anon as I've said before I'm well aware that the internet is were nuance goes to die & while yes I know fandom is a place were people often just want to have fun & not think to hard, I do find it funny but also increasingly frustrating how even though fandom often purports itself as a place of massive diversity more and more it seems to be structured around creating an Official Version of characters' personalities & relationships rather than trying out many different things, or even considering the implications of the source material.

Now of course it has to be acknowledged that a lot of this is often due to what's in the canon work itself (like Wu Cheng'en himself seems to have deliberately written Tang Sanzang in large part as a caricature of fussy Confucian scholars), but in addition I feel like the popular understanding of a character as one extreme or another goes double for stories where the only easy access that an audience may have to it is from translated works or from cartoony retellings. Speaking for myself for example it's been pretty wild having gotten into Journey to the West before Monkie Kid came out & now it often seems like the lego show version of the story (well that and the sarcastic youtube retelling) is the only version of Xiyouji that people in the western internet audience primarily know/care about. But I'm coming from a position where I had the time & access to both read through the entirety of the Anthony C. Yu English translation (which as per usual I need to remind people you can access for free in PDF format on multiple posts on this hellsite) as well as was able to access some of the scant few scholarly works in English about the story. And that's just not something that a lot of people know about or have access to.

As such, it's pretty understandable why many people wouldn't know about all the poetry because well that's never even been brought up in the versions of Journey to the West that they've encountered, or wouldn't make bug jokes because there's little mention of Tang Sanzang having been Golden Cicada in any retelling that they've seen, or if it is it's just presented like fun trivia rather than one of the primary reasons why Tang Sanzang was even chosen to be on the journey in the first place (or what the religious significance of the cicada was in China). Add everything that can easily get lost in translation to the further simplification that cartoony retellings demand, and you can see why many people's understanding of the Tang monk would just be "whiny idiot who's constantly getting himself kidnapped, falling off his dragon horse, & torturing the monkey," especially since between Sun Wukong and Tang Sanzang the monk is by far the more static character (although a lot of Chinese retellings add scenes of him actually recognizing he was wrong & apologizing to the monkey in a reversal of the simplification trend afeawsdf).

Plus, well, I mean it's not like a cartoon is going to include all those scenes of Tang Sanzang tied up & sobbing his eyes out because he's literally in a gore-bespattered cave surrounded by yaoguai who plan to eat him, and they're especially not going to include the times when he's sexually assaulted. In a different approach than usual these things and the resulting trauma could be presented as explanations (but not excuses) for Tang Sanzang's ongoing hostility towards Sun Wukong (who lest we forget is the first yaoguai to try to kill him), but doing that well takes a level of nuance and care that's vanishingly rare in both big budget & fanon retellings of Xiyouji. Hell, in retrospect it's not even handled that well in Xiyouji itself, as if memory serves correctly the kidnappings & near death/consumption are mainly just framed as things that the monk needs to endure to get to the next stage in the journey, and Sun Wukong even makes fun of Tang Sanzang after he was molested by a female yaoguai for an entire night.

So YEAH I often do wish that Tang Sanzang was treated with more nuance (like I would LOVE to see a retelling of Xiyouji where he's more of an intelligent rule-breaker like the historical Xuanzang), but between how he was written in canon & the tendencies towards tropes & simplification in both big-budget retellings and fanon tendencies you can see how he would end up Journey to the West's Most Hate-able Character.

#anon answered #xiyouji #journey to the west #jttw #tang sanzang #daily reminder that the journey would have been pretty traumatizing for everyone involved #like geez the pilgrims all had a lot of things happen to them even before they got together #and in many ways them bouncing off each other under their circumstances kind of made it worse before it got better

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p1a9u3 · 15 days

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PeepHole Ch.1: Moving Day

Masterpost Ch.1 - Ch.2 Pairing: Dylan Matthews x Fem Oc

Rating: 18+ (mdni)

Genre: Neighbors/Strangers to Lovers, Smut, Angst, Fluff, Slow-burn

Summary: Moving isn't as exciting as Amoya thought, plus she may have pissed off her new neighbor.

Words: 3.2k

Warnings: (This story takes place in 2024) Mental illness (anxiety, ocd), Violent intrusive thoughts, Language, Age gap (5years), Using phone while driving

Status: Unedited

Author note: This is the first fic that I've ever posted, I've written before but I've never finished anything and published it so don't tear me to shreds, please. I chose to make an oc instead of just writing as a reader mainly because I made a whole character in my head before I wrote this so I decided to just make her an oc, if you would like a post going more into this oc of mine feel free to ask (I might post it anyway because I like her), there is no smut in this chapter btw. Please give me feedback and suggestions, constructive criticism, etc. Don't be a bitch about it though...please. I'm thinking of making this a series POSSIBLY, but I procrastinate a lot so that may never happen. To my fellow troublemakers hopefully, I do Dylan justice and my writing is at least a little bit accurate to his personality. Still, to be fair I'm a fairly new troublemaker having only found out about this man a few weeks ago, so if something isn't accurate please correct me...politely. He's become my new hyper fixation so when I saw there aren't really any fics about him I decided I should make my own so here we are. Anyway with that being said Enjoy <3. Update: Dylan is barely in this chapter

Monday, February 26, 2024 Time: 8:30AM Moving out was less relieving than you thought it would be. Having been by your mother's side for almost all your life, you'd gotten comfortable always having someone around.

'You can't live with your parents forever'

People would remind you whenever the topic of anyone's living situation would be brought up. Being twenty-seven and still living with your mother wasn't something you wanted to keep telling people, no one would take you seriously. Though your mother never pushed for you to move out, never mentioned it actually. You think you know why. You never say anything though, so you deal with the slight embarrassment, and ignore the judgmental stares you get whenever someone brings it up.

'They don't know our relationship'

More excuses you make up to justify your obstinance; and to mask the anxiety you're feeling as finish up packing your U-Haul. You had finished packing your stuff from your shared apartment and were now finishing the few boxes you had in storage. Now in the elevator mustering up the strength to carry the last two boxes back down to the truck. Grabbing the lock you had left on the floor, you place it on top of one of the boxes and stack the box onto the second one, bending down and lifting with a soft grunt. Long strides carrying you to the elevator, you push the down button with your foot. The doors open soon after, you step inside setting the boxes down as you push the bottom floor and wait. Pushing off the wall as the doors open you pick up the boxes once again, you quickly load them up into the U-Haul before grabbing the padlock from on top of the box, and then heading to the front desk of the storage building.

"Here, the unit is clean and empty." You smile at the woman as she takes the lock and keys with a thank you.

Turning on your heels you walk back to your U-Haul giving everything a once-over before locking it all up, now turning your attention to the hitch attached to the back of the Truck where your precious car is hitched too. It was a black and cherry red 1993 Nissan 240SX with a red interior, you had seen it while driving with your mom past a repair shop when you were 25, back then it had no windshield or wheels. You won't lie and say you fixed it yourself but you did invest all the money you had at that time to fix it up and color it how you wanted; you still would say it was worth it. Checking the hitch and chains attached to the bottom of the car making sure everything was set and ready.

"Everything looks good?" Your mother said making you jump

"Yah! A warning ma, please! And yes everything looks good, I packed up the last two boxes and returned the keys and lock to the front desk while you were in the bathroom." You let out a breath calming your heart from the scare you just had, your mom snickering next to you. You turn to her rolling your eyes playfully as you walk to the front of the truck, your mom following behind you.

"Good, let's get on the road." Your mom hops into the passenger seat and rolls down the window. "I wanna get home by Wednesday."

You climb into the driver's seat, buckling your seatbelt then checking your mirrors. You two had agreed on driving to your new apartment, taking turns every 5 hours, once you got there she'd help you unload and unpack on Tuesday, and your mom would then fly back to New Orleans on Wednesday. The more you think about it the more you feel yourself panic a bit.

"Okay."

Time: 9:00AM Starting the car, you let out a breath putting the car in drive and pulling out of the parking lot of the storage building. You could tell your mom was trying to keep herself calm by the way she would rub her right thigh with her right hand, it was a nervous tick she passed down to you. Unfortunately, you were just as nervous, so you decided to turn on the playlist you and your mom made while eating the night before, mixes of all kinds of genres put into one playlist to keep you both entertained during the drive. Pulling off the main road and merging onto the freeway, you glance over to your mom to see her smiling wide looking back at you. She has that look in her eyes, you know it well.

"Its happening ma." You smile back at your mom then look back to the road

Your mother places her hand on your thigh, letting out a long sigh and a soft squeeze before returning it back to her own lap. You see her wipe a single tear from your peripheral; you don't acknowledge it. She'll start bawling the second you tell her not to cry. So you pretend not to see it and start singing along to Erykah Badu, your mom turns the music up a bit and starts singing along too. You smile to yourself as you glance out your side window, watching as familiar buildings pass by in a blur, You think you'll miss this place. No, you know you will, but a part of you is kinda excited, relieved almost. You've silently always longed to live on your own, but another part of you calls you selfish for even wanting that until now

'How could want to leave your mother'

You know it's normal to want to move out of your parent's home, every grown adult has to move out at some point, and twenty-seven is a perfectly normal age to do so, You wanted to move when you were twenty-four. Hell, some people live with their parents till they are far in their thirties.

'But you know your mother may need you right'

All your brothers have moved out, they are doing good on their own, and you're the only one left. It was only a matter of time; you tell yourself. Your mom will be fine, she's dating a new man who treats her great and takes care of her. Hell he tried to hire a moving crew to move all your stuff, but you wanted to do it yourself and your mom wasn't going to let you drive almost halfway across the country by yourself.

'you could've found a place closer to her you know'

Phoenix, Arizona. You chose Phenix simply because it was affordable for you and close to LA, your mom agreed it was a good choice. There is work in LA, California is just so expensive, so you chose the next best thing. The apartment is nice from what you saw as well, one bedroom, two baths with a study. It was perfect for you.

Time: 11:23AM The drive was going well so far, your mother eating a bag of chips she packed along with all the other snacks and drinks. You were eating a Honeybun, one of your favorite snacks, and drinking water. Your mom had turned off the music and started watching YouTube with mostly commentary so you could listen and drive, Right now a video was playing talking about some ice cream drama in North Dakota. Author note: if you watched this video featuring Dylan is in Trouble, I know it's technically in the future but I don't care, this is all fake anyway. You found it interesting and kinda funny, laughing every now and then when your mom would pause to add her opinion. About two-thirds of the way into the video you glance down at the screen, there are two guys now instead of one, and one of them is wearing glasses, you glance back down looking at the title of the video 'Insane Local Ice Cream Shop Drama (w/ Dylan Is In Trouble)' You made a mental note of the second guy's name for later, his voice was nice you told yourself, he was also fine as fuck. You leaned your seat back as far as it would go, which wasn't very far, getting comfortable. You still have two more hours left to drive.

Time: 12:35PM Your mom had fallen asleep about ten minutes ago, YouTube was still playing, The next video had been the same guy as before. You looked down for a second, looking at the title of the video that had been playing for about fifteen minutes. 'Guessing Finales After ONE Episode (ft. Dylan Is In Trouble)' You smile to yourself a bit recognizing the name at the end of the title, you let the video play just listening to the guy talk for ten more minutes. You caught yourself smiling again when you recognized the second guy's voice as he joined in for the rest of the video, you took a sip of your water glancing down at the video, seeing him pop on screen whenever he had something to say

"he's funny." You mutter to yourself quietly, thinking out loud.

The video had ended and your lips fell back into their original position, as an ad played before the next queued-up video, you looked down at your GPS. 1322 miles to go; you let out a sigh.

'200 miles closer to leaving you mom'

She was helping you unpack, so you technically wouldn't be leaving her really. If anything she was leaving you since she had to fly back home. You prop your left elbow on the open window, your left hand holding the steering wheel, and your right hand comes down to your thigh, rubbing small circles back and forth.

'What happens if Devon goes back home'

Your oldest brother Devon was working at a mental facility. He was on his medication and was doing good, he managed to get a job there and has been making decent money. He was doing fine, He is doing fine.

'What if he stops taking his medication again.'

They will keep tabs on him, they know his habits, his symptoms, He is fine.

'Has another episode and gets out'

That wouldn't happen. He's fine

'He'll be there when mom gets back'

No.

"Hes gonna ki-'

-beep! beep! beep!-

Time: 2:00PM Your mom's alarm goes off, making you jump a bit. Reaching over to turn it off, your mom moans a bit as she wakes up from her short nap, stretching her arms a bit as she yawns.

"Jeste li spremni za promjenu." she yawns out, going for a sip of her water ( translation: Are you ready to switch)

Your mother's Croatian tends to slip when she's just woken up, or delirious. You nod your head looking at the next exit sign to find a gas station, spotting a Love's off the side of the freeway. Slipping off the freeway you pull up to the gas station before parking next to a pump.

"Bathroom?" You look over at your mom, she nods, unbuckling her seatbelt and hopping out of the truck, you do the same.

You both enter opposing stalls to relieve yourselves of all the water you had been drinking, washing your hands after. Your mother heads back to the truck to pump the gas as you browse the aisles for any extra snacks, spotting a honeybun you instinctively grab one, then two, and head to the cashier. You place your honeybuns on the counter and then look up at the cashier who seems to be invested in something on her phone, she wasn't wearing headphones phone volume at maybe thirty percent, you could hear what she was watching. You recognize the voice, the cashier finally looks up from her phone quickly apologizing for not paying attention.

"Oh I'm so sorry, will this be all" She quickly rings up the two honeybuns.

"No you're fine, that'll be it actually." You dismissively wave your hand pulling out your wallet to pay.

Looking down you notice her phone, she had put it on the counter, and the video on it had been paused but on the screen was that guy again, though it seemed to be a video of his own this time. You pull out some cash and hand it to the young woman behind the counter, she takes the cash, counts it, and then goes to get your change.

"No, it's fine, keep the change" Flashing a smile then grabbing your honeybuns you take another glance at the women's screen before it turns off from being left alone for too long.

Opening the passenger seat door, you climb into the seat buckling yourself in. Pulling out of the gas station your mom pulls off back onto the freeway continuing your journey. You pull out the bag you had brought for little activities, pulling out your book of choice. You had splurged at a Barnes and Noble a few weeks before you began packing, picking up a bunch of books you had either heard good things about or had been wanting to read. Red Rising was one of the books, it was also the one you were currently holding.

"I'm gonna put my headphones on, so you can listen to whatever you want." You tell your mom as you put your headphones on and pull out your phone.

You had gotten the book on Audible a while back and wanted to read and listen at the same time. Pressing play you turn to the first chapter and begin reading as the narrator spoke. Your mom seemed to have put music on, you could feel the bass as she turned up the volume and began singing along.

Time: 10:56PM Hours had passed, it was your turn now with two hours left till your next switch. Your mother was knocked out, lightly snoring as you drove in silence, you had stopped reading once you had switched. You also decide to put off reading it until you were moved in, the book had grabbed your attention, so much so, that you wanted to be able to focus on it solely; so you chose to wait. You had a couple hundred miles left to go and things were sinking in more as you drove silently. Your mind doing its usual thing, making you worry about things that most likely won't happen, even if it did, you know it wouldn't be your fault. You couldn't help but think maybe it would be though, it was a dumb thought but you couldn't help it

'What was that guys name again'

Your brain blanked for a second, random but ok, your brain goes back to the YouTube video your mom had been watching, that cashier was watching him as well. Dylan is in Trouble, you wonder what kind of videos he makes, most likely commentary. You pull your phone out glancing down and go to YouTube, you use the voice to text and hold your phone up to your mouth.

"Dylan is in trouble"

You press search, going back and forth between looking at your phone and watching the road. You look down to find his channel, press his icon, and scroll through some of his videos. Movie commentary is what you mostly see, occasionally you'd spot something different, you decided you'd dive into his channel later when you weren't driving.

Time: 5:00AM You were in the driver's seat, you had let your mom sleep more after she had been driving for about three hours. She was up now though, you could tell things were starting to catch up to her again. She was fidgeting a lot more now, well so were you, she looked very tense. She helped you find this apartment, but you assume she wants to see the neighborhood for herself, in person, wants to see how good the security is and what the neighbors are like. It's only natural, she's a mother and her only daughter is moving twenty hours away from her. You look down at your phone, your GPS says you are pulling up now, you look around the area, it was very nice, wasn't too far from the city. You spot the complex to the left, it was pretty big with multiple sections with apartments, you were building three, kind of in the middle of everything. You pull into the complex parking in front of the leasing office to speak to your landlord and to get your keys, your mom comes with you of course, sizing everything up.

"Hi welcome to Arts District Apartments, it's Amaya correct, my name is George?" An old-looking man stands from his desk, his hand reaching out to shake yours

"Thank you, George, it's Amoya actually" You reach out and shake his hand with a smile.

You two talk a bit about the complex and its rules etc. Your mom chimed in every now and then to ask her questions. Before you know it you're unloading the truck into your new apartment, you're realizing now that you didn't have as much stuff as you thought. The last thing you had left was your bed, you and your mom had been doing well with just the two of you, but after you two had gotten the mattress inside your mother's back began to bother her. Now you had your bed frame, you told your mom to relax for now and that you could get the frame up yourself. Partial lie, you previously took apart the bed frame and so there were mainly long pieces that weren't too heavy except the backboard, that thing was heavy as fuck, luckily you had a dolly at the storage building to help you carry it out, but now you have to carry it to the elevator and down the hall. You managed to get it down from the truck, and from there you lifted it and sped walked to the elevator, almost dropping the bed frame on your foot as you set it down to push the button. The doors had closed on you twice as you tried to pick the frame back up and lift it into the elevator, but alas you made it, now on the third floor and outside the elevator. You took pride in your body, you considered yourself strong, regularly went to the gym, and you would say your legs were the strongest part of your body, with that being said, you tried to make as little noise as possible since it was still early in the morning, you lost your footing. You were almost there, your door being right in front of you; but you fell. Landing on the door behind you hitting your head with a very loud thud.

"Bumbo." You whisper yelled at yourself in Jamaican as you set the frame down and leaned off of the door. (translation: Fuck)

Holding the frame upright you walk around it reaching for your door, the frame slipping from your fingers and falling against your neighbor's door again. You prayed that your new neighbor was either a very deep sleeper or wasn't home right now, though maybe you didn't pray hard enough. You lift the bed frame from your neighbor's door, getting your phone to get your mom to hold the door open for you so you can slide it the rest of the way inside. Stopping, you hear the door behind you click open. Your bed frame blocked your view of whoever had stepped out, but you could hear him.

Ch.1 - Ch.2

Updated Author note: Hopefully this was an enjoyable first chapter or part. The apartment is just a random apartment complex I saw on Zillow, everything in this is all fictional besides the YouTube videos and things that are obviously real. Anyway, I have decided to make this a series, I've gone into too much detail on little things like Amoya's intrusive thoughts and all that, and it'd be a waste to shorten and delete half of what I put and speed through everything, Amoya's intrusive thoughts and anxiety is a trait I added from myself, so you'll notice a lot of internal thinking and scenarios she makes up in her head. Hopefully, the idea is as cool as what I thought of in my head. If this does well, I will upload the other chapters one after the other, If it does bad I'll just delete everything, but please be patient I procrastinate a lot and I want the writing to be good. Please be honest and let me know how you all feel about this, if you like the writing, the main character, the pacing, the storyline, length, anything, and everything, I need criticism but don't be a bitch about it.

#Dylan is in trouble #dylan matthews #Dylan is in trouble fanfic #Dylan Matthews fanfic #fluff #angst #neighbors au #slow burn

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dreamtydraw · 1 year

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please talk to us about your ocs 💕💗💕💗💕

I am currently praying this post dosen't get eatean by tumblr because this is the third time i'm writting it ╭( ๐_๐)╮

First of all i want to thanks you guys for genuinly asking because i really didn't tought it would interest ppl as i am never sure, so once again, thanks you for asking ♡

Euhm euhm....

☆SYMBOLISM OF MY OUR LIFE MC☆

Nda : english is not my first language so i excuse myself in advance for possible typos.

Second nda : because this post is already long enough, Valentin is getting a separated post about her design.

Before starting the analysis there are informations that needs to be given first! When creating my mc I only had a summary of the game: for example, didn't know who Lizzie would be but chose my me to look similar to her by accident, making them looks even more like siblings.

Cerise name was chosen because I wanted her to have a name/appearance fruit inspired, choosing the French translation of Cherry as her name and a mandarine based design. Her last name ( fourth ) comes from the fact that every time I replayed the game I updated her last name to make it easier to differentiated my saves, the fourth run being my favorite. She doesn't have any specific ethnicity and her color palette was chosen to fit in the summer aesthetic, but also an autumn palette aesthetic.

The autumn colors are more present during stressful periods (end of high school, start of step 4) mainly because of the start of adulthood and leaving sunset bird.

Patterns usually associated with Cerise are fruits patern, dots, and ribbons. Cerise also has a very visible scar on her face (the backstory of the scar here) this scar is in the middle of her forehead, it's massive and one of the first features of her you can see, this is im portant for her character.

Now last important info before going on analysis step by step : Cerise was written as a nonverbal autistic child, this and other little details of mannerisms make her a very closeted person. Her character evolve with time, but through the shaping of it, her looks change too.

In step 1 Cerise only had her scar for a year now. She's scared of interacting with people and her prominent feature drowns too much attention into her, so she does what every 8 year old kid think is best; hide it.

Cerise's face is always covered with her hair. It's messy and nonpractical but showing her bareface is too much for her, the idea of people looking at her is just too scary for her.

She usually wears shift dresses because the loose fabric is comfortable and feels right.

She also wear platform sandal, she likes to feel tall and be the same height as her big sister.

The dominant color of her childhood clothes is green, white, and blue. Those color are chosen because little cerise likes her town, she likes the sky, the hill and the ocean.

As time passed by, Cerise now having a friend ( no siloh did not pass the friendship test, Cove is her first friend ), she feels less self conscious about her face. As she grew up she felt less scared and gained bit of self confidence.

But growing up means, Cerise entered middle school, and here started her complicated relathionship with school. Between the terrible stress of work being very hard for her and everyone not being little kid anymore, many thing changed and so did she.

In step 2, influenced by all the people around her, Cerise wants to look pretty and tries to put more effort into her appearance. As she never cut her hair they are very long so she starts by that: trying different hairstyles, her most common one is the side braid ponytail. She's still scared but she's not a kid anymore, Cerise is now able to go out her face not covered.

Now older she was allowed get her ears pierced and so she did.

Growing up she chose yellow as her favorite color because "it has a positive vibe" but secretly it was also because it reminded her of her sister.

Her wardrobe was filled with pretty clothe, ribbons, pretty cutted shirt and flowers patern. Although she intended to wear pretty clothes the types stayed the same : practical shorts and shirt.

She tries to be more feminine with little details like nail polish, hair accessories to look nice.

At the age of 13 years old, Cerise started having a noticeable chest and she hated it. Every clothes she felt too revealing was never wore again, everything that brang attention to her body was hided: tank top got banned from her wardrobe.

Fun fact : she ended up getting a sport shirt because it reminded her of Derek

Middle school is a period of self reflexion, and questioning herself that what she did. Moving to high school her anxiety didn't left but self confidence started to rise now that she felt pretty trough the help of accessories . She felt comfortable in her appearance but still worried of people's opinion, still unsure of what to feel about her body.

Summer 2016 or like they named it... The year of the incident... After 18 years of keeping her extremely long hair, Cerise's cut her hair short to try a new look. Out of highschool, she was worried and lost about herself and her possible future, this new hairstyle marked the start of a new search of self. ( cove discovered it when he came back from his mom and was quite in shock )

This last vacation of her tern year's was bittersweet and she spent it terrified of what the future may hold. Not a kid but not an adult, everything was scary and it reflected into her color scheme who gained more dull and earthy tones.

Her love for accessories grew with her and she started wearing rings, chockers but mainly a lot of bracelet, lot of which she shared with other.

Her love for yellow shifted to green, she tried to feel more adult to feel less scared about the future

Her discomfort with showing skin got mixed with her liking of wearing layered clothes. Her wardrobe got filled with long skirts and overalls dresses.

Her habit of wearing nail polish stayed but instead of the funky color she settled for the same dark green.

Fun facts : she traded one of her rings with one of Baxter's.

She has as multiple friendship bracelet handmade that she shares with Cove.

At the end of Summer, Cerise still scared of what the futur could bring, took the scariest but best decision of her life : moving out of Sunset bird.

Cerise took a year gap after high school and went traveling abroad. She did it to face her biggest fears and focus on herself. It was the decision that shifted her life like she needed. The experience helped her a lot and she grew up to become who she always dreamed of to be. She was not scared of people anymore, she found who she wanted to be and was happy with herself. She went back to appreciate what she used to like : bright color, feminine and comfy clothes, accessories, the ocean, the hills, her home town. Her scar didn't meant anything to her anymore, she liked who she was regardless of exterior opinion.

Inspired by internet fashion, Cerise developed an interest for cottage core and many other soft aesthetic .

She has 3 piercing each ear but often wear just two set of earrings.

She went back into liking yellow as one of her favorite color, but kept green along side of it.

She still wear green nail polish .

Her favorites clothes are long summer dresses.

She feels comfortable to show some skin after a long time of self hatred, now embracing any type of clothes regardless of if it's brings attention to her.

She dosen't wear her accessories as much as she used to but still hold an important love toward it.

Cerise became Cerise and accepted her likes and dislikes to become the best version of herself when it comes to her appearance.

END OF THE POST

If you read that much i thanks you for it ! Hope you'll have a nice day and here, a little Cerise to end this post

#doodle #my oc #original character #Olba #our life beginnings & always #Our life mc #dreamty's ramble #character design

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weirdthoughtsandideas · 9 months

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(This was written several hours ago, as I fell back asleep after writing it)

Holy shit my soy luna dream last night??

Uh so. It’s 6:42 AM when I write this. Posting it later today. But just woke up from a Soy Luna dream.

It was like a special, like Bia un munda al revéz except this was not an alternative reality but instead like… still their reality. But it was supposed to be this ”special episode” of SL. Anyway.

Right now I feel like I am forgetting more and more, the dream is about to slip away from me so I need to be fast.

It mainly took place at a mix of Jam and Roller and this restaurant where everyone sat at a giant long table. I was there as myself, I think, but I didn’t interact with anyone. I was just like ”The Camera” or just a witness to it all, but I walked around like myself.

So ok… there was this girl there who looked like Daniela. But she wasn’t Daniela, she was a method actress who constantly switched who she was pretending to be. But she went around pretending to be different characters.

So much happened, there was a lot of kinda funny conversations… however I just right now only have fragments of it because my brain is starting to delete the dream :( But I recall Ámbar, Delfi and Jazmin standing around the order disk at J&R talking to the method actress who was mimicking some character. Then we all sat at the long restaurant table, I sat next to Jim and Yam and they also had some conversation with the actress.

Then it’s cut to this ?? Museum? It’s a long corridor with a bunch of paintings and stuff. Luna and Nina stand in front of everyone else talking. They are wearing their school uniforms and Nina says ”right. No smiling in here.”

We then cut back to Jam and Roller when the method actor starts to mimick I think Simón? But then it’s cut to a bench where she sits with Simón and pretends to be Nina. At the same time Nina and Luna sit on another bench, inside this museum, and Nina says the exact things to Luna as the method actress says to Simón. What she says I have absolutely no memory of but the point is that the actress is good at pretending to be Nina, and Simón is like ”wow you are really good! You’re gonna nail this audition!”

While this happens, Ámbar stands with black headphones in the museum. It’s unclear if she is eavesdropping or spying on them or what. Suddenly a mom with her son bumps into Ámbar, and then she excuses herself. Ámbar gets teary eyed watching them walk away because she gets reminded of her own mother :(

Then it’s suddenly in a street in the city I live in. Ámbar walks up to Antonio from Violetta and she says ”So, good news: We can have the wedding there. But we are not allowed to smile”

Which begs the question: The scene with Nina and Luna where Nina says they can’t smile, was that a random fragment of the wedding in the future? Who is getting married? Luna and Nina in their school uniforms???

I have no idea who was marrying who but I got the feeling it was Luna who was marrying someone. The dream’s final scene was everyone sitting down at the long restaurant table again and they all start to sing happy birthday. Except it wasn’t ”happy birthday” they sang, they instead sang ”happy delusion to you”. Who they sang it to, is again unclear. Might I add they sang this song in english and they spoke presumably spanish in the rest of the dream and I could understand it.

Then I woke up. So. Yeah, happy delusion to everyone.

#soy luna

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aemonds-sapphire · 1 year

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Hi!!! I'm so sorry if I just kinda jump out of the blue but I couldn't resist join the "discussion in your aks...

You know I think that fan art wise helaena and aemond are quite cute. Some artist are so talented but helaena in my opinion deserve and should definitely be alone. She went trought so much and mainly for the hand of men leave my poor girl alone. Most fans def use her as self insert or are into incest idk 🥴

For the Alys discourse I'm gonna be so honest with you I have absolutely no idea. I Emma I rceentrly reread the books (gift for Xmas so it's very recent) and a lot of person forgot that one book is like a book in their universe and everthing is basically a rumor (I will not trust mushroom with a cup of tea so why would I trust a whole story??) and the other are just paragraphs that talk about some events??

Hotd aemond is so dutiful and golden child and he lust for Revenge of his eye so fans are like "he would never go for a bastard strong!!" saying that she's or this bitch of a witch or a poor victim. The reality is that we don't know!! We have no idea it's up our preference / writer choice.

Sure I tought alys bewitching him was a valid idea because why would he save only her??? But also I mean if she's a witch she can be useful?? And maybe they just fall in love in the process??? At the beginning both of them had reason to help each other so idk. I use to not be a big fan of their relationship because I will admit when deep in hyperfixations I get jealous and I need a few days to remind myself they are fictional 😭 also It doesn't help reading angst fic with the cheating trope and her as the other woman BUT the moment I saw people hating her for non valid reason and just using her as an excuse for being sexists and mysoginist ughhh alys defender for life.

I will wait to see how the writer will do in season 2. Making her bewitching him after him being already victim of abuse would def a bad choice but also for how they written season 1 i really can't see this show aemodn juts fall in love it's so weird I'm so confused 😭🥴

One last thing I swear I'm so sorry but saying that aemond is a rapist/used her as prize....AND USING THE WHOREHOUSE EXAMPLE???

I have no idea whta kinda of show all this antis are watching truly.

So sorry for this long message expecially cuz a lot of things are already been stated I hope I didn't bother you too much.

Your blog is very lovely and you seems a very nice person. and it's a pleasure see when you post! Happy holidays❤️❤️❤️❤️,

Cordelia🤍🪐

Hi, Cordelia 😊 thank you so much for your input! Loved reading through all of it 🤭 happy holidays!

I’ve run into absolutely amazing Helaemond art! There’s no question fan artists are talented. I don’t mind shippers as long as they don’t insert themselves into other ship spaces and try acting holier than thou. At the end of the day, none of this is real and we’re just here to have a good time 😁

If they go with “she bewitched him” but just figuratively speaking then I’m fine with that. But if they pull that love potion bs then… 😅 also, why bother fleshing Aemond out if you’re just going to turn him into a cliché antagonist…… I hope they don’t go this route tbh.

Mushroom is the absolute worst out of all the narrators. He gives accounts of events that happened in King’s Landing when he was in Dragonstone LOL he thinks he’s Gossip Girl or something

Fire & Blood is to be read a history book, meaning we only know about the great battles and major events, but everything in between can be embellished and made up by those writing about it. Some people are taking that what happens in the book is canon and others are taking what happens in the show as canon… both are wrong approaches… they’re just different versions. This is not like ASOIAF…

#ask.thee

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lightlycareless · 1 year

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Chapter 33 - thoughts.

Hello everyone!! I'm here... again... after disappearing for like 2 weeks lol.

Allot of things happened, between my birthday, surprise visits, me getting sick, me getting sick again, and con's... yeah, I was quite busy (and good thing I postponed the next update lol am I jinxing myself tho?) but I didn't forget writing them notes!!!

I'm sorry it took a while for me to post them, but they're finally here! They're quite short since there isn't much for me to expand on this chapter :> (which you can find over here.... hehe) but I still hope you find them interesting!

Per usual, this post has spoilers so I recommend reading the chapter first, unless you want to get spoilers with no context lol. Also, this is briefly, (mainly not) proofread so I apologize for any mistakes 😭

Now, without any further ado, here are the notes!

As some chapters in the past, I had some issues figuring out what I wanted for an introduction.

I already knew what points I wanted to cover, but there are moments where I have issues connecting those points, so after a while thinking about it, I finally decided to go with the one thing I had talked about in the past, but never really show, that being: Y/N’s letters to Hinata!

Now, it goes without saying that these letters had to be treated carefully since Y/N is meant to be locked away from the world and all that stuff. So, there wasn’t much to be written in that sense, Y/N wouldn’t go ahead to literally write down all of the things she had gone through while on the estate.

Of course, that soon changed when she began to feel some kind of cathartic release while writing them, as well as a feigned sensation that she was actually speaking to Hinata.

Going back to those letters after I was done writing them was bittersweet. After knowing all that happened all I could think of is “NO, THAT’S NOT TRUE AT ALL!!” 😭😭😭 (on the fabricated ones right) and the way that Y/N was trying so hard to act as if she was living a normal life, like she was contacting her sister as she always did because they couldn’t meet due to her job… ☹ It’s nothing but a lie, a longing for a happy life, in a happy marriage, maybe where Naoya wasn’t her husband but instead anyone else lol.

Ugh, he’s a terrible, poor excuse for a human being. I’m excited for next chapter 😊

Anyways, I added a few details I thought would fit Y/N’s personality, how she would normally “text”, for example, kaomoji’s. It might be a bit… redundant I guess, but it’s the small things that help remind me she’s just 18, super young and already having gone through all this. (Also the first letter made me think that maybe I’m being too serious/dramatic with certain conversations, you know? Like chill, that’s your sister you’re talking/writing to lol)

My favorite letter would have to be the “I hate Naoya” one, inspired by a segment found in the Twilight saga, specifically on New Moon, right after Edward leaves Bella and there’s just chapters that only October, November, that kind of stuff. At one point I was tempted to upload a chapter that only said “I hate Naoya” over and over again and call it a day 😂 (I would’ve posted the rest of the chapter immediately after, but damn … I just might do that later on)

When doing the final editing on the ao3 page, just to check how the chapter was going to look published, I was very surprised to see that segment wasn’t very long… I ended up extending a few “I hate Naoya’s” just because, but I still wasn’t satisfied, considering it was one whole page on my google doc, but I think it still got the point across lol.

From there, the other thing that I wanted to show (and the one that seems to have yall divided 🤭) is Naoaki! And how their dynamic has changed. The staff and Ranta have stated that the two (mostly Naoaki tho) had become a bit bolder with their interactions, and I wanted to show just what they were doing for them to come to that conclusion—cause we’ve seen how they be acting inside closed doors AMIRITE? AAHHAHA

This part was particularly… well, I don’t know if hard is the right word, but I was heavily debating whether to write it in or not because, (I think I stated this before) I don’t want to cross certain lines with the two just yet. This is a Naoya/Reader fic at the end of the day, and reader being with someone else that’s not of the main pairing is…. Well, idk how to say it, a trope that if not handled carefully might sour the story for me lol.

Ahhh, I still want the harem experience though 😂 I can’t seem to understand myself. We’ll see.

My initial notes portrayed Naoaki to be a bit more insistent on the… you know, implications given throughout the whole the grape feeding thing. I supposed it made sense he’d want something more since the two had been going at it for a while, however, I do not think he would’ve been that adamant after her initial rejection.

Sure, he’s been a bit more comfortable with her as days went by and there’s many things that already happened between the two to build a stronger trust, but this specific desire might be a bit too much in this context, so he respected her decision and stopped insisting.

Also, let’s be real, Y/N has too much in her mind to go through with it. She might think of it, cause she’s human at the end of the day and who doesn’t like being doted by a nice, kind and handsome person???, but all that Naoya has done to her is still taking a toll on her.

I haven’t explored much about this topic, but most sexual acts disgust her at this point—it brings her back to the moments she was absolutely miserable with him. So yeah, at least for now, we can rest knowing Naoaki and Y/N are occupied thinking of other things (for now, for now mwahahah)

From there, Mariya’s secret makes its return. It’s here that I realized this is probably the most Mariya has spoken of her relationship with anyone outside her parents (More on that later) thus… it’s only natural that someone would overhear of it eventually.

All things considered, perhaps Hitomi being the one to hear about this wasn’t as bad as literally anyone else, but it’s the emotional value of their connection that worries her!! Hitomi is very… strict when it comes to following the rules, looking up to Mariya as a role model because of such thing—she wishes to have her work ethic, her determination… And Mariya knows that. It’s why she feared telling anyone from her close coworkers to begin with.

Haruko would be somewhat ok with her having a relationship with a fellow employee, after overcoming her surprise of course, since she never, ever, imagined Mariya would break the rules lol. At the end, I imagine both sisters would be very supportive of her, just… not right away.

I find it funny how Hitomi was quick to become suspicious of Mariya as soon as Tatsuro was mentioned. It’s not the first time she’s heard her talk of a man, but rather… her use a tone that would be comparable to excitement. Now THAT’S suspicious.

But she’s unable to confront her since there really isn’t evidence of anything, it’s all in her mind right now. Also, Mariya isn’t known for being a so… yeah, still, very funny indeed. What do you think? Think she’s going to find out who Tatsuro is to Mariya? Or will that remain a secret 👀? (I don’t want Hitomi to know… I fear the reaction she’ll have :’) I actually wanted to develop more that whole scenario in this chapter, but it was getting a bit too long so I decided to postpone it ahaha)

Moving to something happier, Hitomi preparing Y/N a gift because she’s super thankful of her sweets?! Ajkajkgajkjga Her and her sister really couldn’t get any sweeter…. I want them to be happy, just go with Hinata and leave all this shit behind. 😭

Aw man, now I want to write something with all of them together, explore what kind of dynamics they would have and all that. (Well, I do have some pending one-shots… so who knows?)

Honestly these scenes are just excuses for me to live my slice-of-life, fluff fantasy in this nightmare I have written lol.

Now lastly, but not least… the mystery that plagued the last chapter… what the hell was Naoya doing the moment he briefly left Y/N on the record store? We only see him shove something in his pocket, but what is it?

Well, now it’s finally revealed… the thing he was hiding in his pocket was… a receipt! For the things that eventually got delivered to her :> Guess Naoya did pay attention to what Y/N was saying after all, although there’s another motive behind those gifts that will be revealed in the future. Oof, excited for what’s to come.

Y/N’s reaction regarding the discs was something I was the one thing I knew had to be in the chapter, if anything, all was written around that particular detail, there’s no doubt about that.

The way her reaction happened was the only way I envisioned it going down honestly 😂 blatant anger seemed to be… a bit too on the nose I guess, but if you think about it horror sometimes starts from there— So yeah, I couldn’t see her reacting any other way: Naoya has been nothing but piece of trash since they got married, and suddenly he cares for her and what she has to say? Naaahhhh.

It felt like a mockery to her, a way for him to taint whatever good memories she had of her family, so yeah. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sad that she’s unable to react any other way 😣 wishing she wouldn’t have to get emotionally exhausted all the time, but in a place where she’s constantly attacked by everyone around her, and without the appropriate guidance to deal with her emotions, a completely different environment to the one she grew in… yeah, Y/N’s doing the best she can I guess.

Y/N’s decision (or more like approval via Mariya) regarding the relocation of the discs is one we’ll see further developed immediately in the next chapter, how it will affect her relationship with Naoya, as well as what he was doing during these days they didn’t speak to one another!

I’m really excited to post the next chapter, it’s one that I’ve been literally dreaming about!! I just hope I’ll be able to deliver. Agajkgvjkagja!!!!

Anyways, these are the notes I have for this chapter! They’re quite short, since it was straightforward and settled down some points that will affect the future of the story and I don’t think there is much for me to say outside what inspired me, but if there’s something I missed out on please let me know! I’ll do the best of my ability to respond ❤️

As always, thank you so much for coming back for another update! I’m eternally grateful for all of your support 😭❤️ I hope you have a wonderful week, take care, and hope to see you soon!!!

#thought series: first it hurts—

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bosslevelagency · 5 months

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What Is Guerrilla Marketing? 11 Examples to Inspire Your Brand

The word “guerrilla,” in its written form, looks pretty intense. It conjures images of rebellion and conflict. Put it next to the term “marketing,” which makes many people ask, “Huh?”

But guerrilla marketing isn‘t some sort of combative form of communication. In fact, it’s actually a very unconventional form of marketing in that it raises brand awareness among large audiences without interrupting them.

What is guerrilla marketing?

Guerrilla Marketing Examples to Inspire Your Brand

Guerrilla Marketing Tips From Experts

What is guerrilla marketing?

The term itself was created in the early 1980s by the late business writer Jay Conrad Levinson, who wrote several books about guerrilla tactics in several professional areas.

Of course, marketing at that time looked very different. While guerrilla marketing is still used today, the ever-growing digital landscape is changing what it looks like.

Roots of Combat

When we hear the term “guerrilla marketing,” it’s hard not to think of guerrilla warfare — which makes sense since that’s where this marketing style got its name.

In the context of battle, guerrilla tactics depend mainly on the element of surprise. Think: “Ambushes, sabotage, raids,” according to Creative Guerrilla Marketing.

But how does that translate into the work we do every day? In marketing, guerrilla techniques mostly play on the element of surprise.

It sets out to create highly unconventional campaigns that catch people unexpectedly during their day-to-day routines.

Budget-Friendly

What marketers enjoy about guerrilla marketing is its relatively low-cost nature. The actual investment here is a creative, intellectual one. Its implementation, however, doesn’t have to be expensive.

Michael Brenner summarizes it nicely in his article on “guerrilla content,” he frames this marketing style in the same context as repurposing your existing content, like taking specific report segments and expanding each into a blog post.

It’s an investment of time but not money, per se.

In a way, guerrilla marketing works by repurposing your audience’s current environment. Evaluate it and determine which segments can be repurposed to include your brand.

Types of Guerrilla Marketing

As niche as it might seem, there are a few sub-categories of guerrilla marketing, as outlined by the firm ALT TERRAIN:

Outdoor guerrilla marketing adds something to preexisting urban environments, like putting something removable onto a statue or putting temporary artwork on sidewalks and streets.

Indoor guerilla marketing. Like outdoor guerrilla marketing, it occurs in indoor locations like train stations, shops, and university campus buildings.

Event ambush guerilla marketing. This tactic engages the audience of an in-person event — like a concert or a sporting game — to promote a product or service noticeably, usually without permission from the event sponsors.

Experiential guerilla marketing. This includes all of the above but is executed in a way that requires the public to interact with the brand.

Without context, guerrilla marketing can be a little confusing, so let’s see how it’s been executed by a few other brands.

Guerrilla Marketing Examples to Inspire Your Brand

1. UNICEF’s Dirty Water Vending Machines

I’m as guilty as anyone of wasting money on bottled water. I have no excuse. I have a reusable one. My workplace offers filtered water from a machine, not a traditional cooler, yet it remains a bad habit.

This guerrilla marketing campaign from the relief organization UNICEF resonated with me. It posed the question, “What if those bottles of water you waste money on were filled with dirty water?”

It reminded the privileged masses that in too many parts of the world, entire populations have no access to clean drinking water.

So, instead of frivolously spending that money on bottled water, UNICEF suggested putting it toward efforts to bring clean drinking water to these areas.

It created makeshift vending machines that sold dirty bottled water, with each button labeled as a disease caused by a lack of clean drinking water.

The big takeaway: Guerrilla marketing works in the not-for-profit sector, too. And while scary, saddening images are often an impactful way of communicating your mission.

There’s a way to convey it by creating something less in-your-face and interactive for the public.

2. BBC’s Dracula Billboard

When I think of Count Dracula, I conjure the penultimate villain synonymous with everything that goes bump at night. The BBC wanted to capitalize on this feeling to promote their show Dracula.

By day, their billboard was designed to be minimalistic, with red text on a white background with a few bloody stakes. However, like its subject, the billboard changed completely every time night fell.

The stakes were strategically placed to cast a shadow of Dracula himself.

The installation was featured in Adweek and had some viral success for its creativity and skillful implementation.

The big takeaway: Think outside the box for your advertising materials. In this case, light and shadow were enough to convey the message and capture attention.

3. Burger King’s Moldy Whopper

In the history of fast food, who’d have thought that a rotten burger would be the face of a widespread ad?

Not many people — which is probably why Burger King thought it’d be a good idea to release a time-lapse video of their Whopper burger decaying for 35 days.

Many people complain about how near-perfect burgers and cereal look in ads, so Burger King did the exact opposite to show how successful they were at removing artificial preservatives from the Whopper sandwich in European countries and the United States.

The images show the mold growing over the burger, from the buns to the freshly sliced tomatoes, lettuce, and onions to the juicy beef patty.

In the ad, there’s a reference to the number of days that have passed since the burger was made. And underneath, a statement read, “The beauty of no artificial preservatives.”

While it may seem very gross, the target audience did appreciate the ad’s message, and some even admitted that they’d choose the Whopper burger over others.

The big takeaway: Don’t be afraid to go to the extreme when marketing your products. It just might have the effect you want. Be cautious — but don’t be afraid.

4. Airbnb’s ‘Night At’ Campaign

If you were jealous of Beyonce and Jay-Z’s shooting their “Apesh*t” music video in the Louvre and want to experience it, get in here. Quickly.

To demonstrate its appreciation for art and its dedication to providing positive, unmatched experiences, Airbnb offered customers a chance to experience a night at the Musee du Louvre (yes, you read that right. Free.).

For its experiential marketing campaign titled “Night At,” Airbnb transformed the glass pyramid in the Louvre Museum into an enthralling bedroom where guests can spend the night surrounded by the world’s most cherished (and expensive) artworks, including the famed Mona Lisa.

In doing this, Airbnb bridged the gap between art and hospitality, creating lifelong customers of art aficionados who experienced this.

But Airbnb didn’t stop at the Louvre. It transformed other iconic locations into homes for a night, including the Shark Aquarium, the Paris catacombs (for Halloween Night), Dracula’s Castle in Transylvania, and the Great Barrier Reef.

The goal is to offer people the chance to immerse themselves in places with cultural, emotional, or historical significance — something Airbnb has achieved to the max.

The big takeaway: Connect with your audience emotionally by offering experiences that capitalize on their desires and interests.

5. Paper Tree x Rock Paper Reality Campaign

Rock Paper Reality (RPR), an immersive content and design firm, collaborated with Adobe Aero and Google’s Geospatial Creator to create an augmented reality (AR) experience for the Paper Tree origami store in Japantown, San Francisco.

Visitors in the area would scan a QR code, allowing them to view large, 3D origami sculptures integrated into the world around them through their device screens.

Beside each sculpture was a list of materials people could purchase in the Paper Tree store to recreate the model.

This increased business for the origami store and showed how companies can use Adobe and Google tech to make 3D experiences more accessible to their customers.

The big takeaway: If you cannot create an elaborate marketing campaign in the real world due to budget issues (or any other inconvenience), you can make it into a 3D digital experience that your target audience will love.

6. Budweiser’s Reunited With Buds Campaign

The spread of COVID-19 made 2020 a challenging year for everyone, including brands like Budweiser that aim to bring people together for a good time.

So, to celebrate the reopening of bars, Budweiser launched their Reunited with Buds campaign, which focused on uniting people after a challenging year.

In the ad, Budweiser’s adorable Labrador retriever puppy and its famous Clydesdale horses each make long journeys to meet up, presumably after spending the past several weeks social distancing.

With the spirited song “Don’t Stop Me Now” by Queen playing in the background, the Reunited with Buds ad celebrated the excitement that comes with family, friends, and colleagues being able to grab a drink at the closest bar again.

In addition to accurately portraying the excitement of reopening, Budweiser displayed its product positively through balanced storytelling and nostalgic music.

The big takeaway: It’s okay to get a little sentimental and fill your campaign with elements that invoke powerful (and feel-good) emotions in your audience.

7. KFC Crocs

I’ve got two questions: Do you love KFC’s world-famous fried chicken? Now, do you like Crocs?

Suppose your answer is yes to both questions. In that case, you’ll understand the genius behind KFC’s decision to partner with Crocs, the pioneers of arguably the most comfortable shoes that exist right now (that’s just my opinion, though).

In 2020, KFC and Crocs released limited edition Clogs featuring a realistic Kentucky Fried Chicken pattern and the recognizable red-striped bucket.

The two Clog versions — the heeled and the regular — came with detachable drumstick-shaped Jibbitz charms attached to the top.

Beauty icon Me Love Me A Lot (MLMA) debuted the heeled version of these KFC x Crocs clogs at New York Fashion Week, one of the world’s most significant fashion events.

This garnered a lot of attention, which led to the limited edition Clogs selling out in less than an hour after the official release.

For every pair sold, KFC donated $3 to the KFC Foundation’s Reach Educational Grant Program, which helps KFC employees get college scholarships.

The big takeaway: To get as many eyes as possible on your campaign, launch it at a big event. You can also incentivize people to buy your product by making donations or doing some charity work that you love.

Or you can do both, like KFC and Crocs.

8. McDonald’s Quarter Pounder Fan Club

For nearly five decades, McDonald’s Quarter Pounder burger has been a fan favorite. In 2020, McDonald’s decided to capitalize on the Quarter Pounder’s popularity in Sweden to generate more buzz for it.

And it did so by setting up a Quarter Pounder Fan Club — a secret club for Quarter Pounder enthusiasts.

Not only did this club have limited membership slots, but the people who were accepted were given a special club card and access to Quarter Pounder-related perks, such as a candle pack, mittens, calendars, T-shirts, stickers, and pins.

This campaign motivated members of the fan club to share their experiences and love for the Quarter Pounder on social media platforms.

This piqued the interest of those who haven’t tried the iconic burger (or any McDonald’s menu item), and the giant fast-food chain got more customers through the campaign.

The big takeaway: Create a sense of exclusivity and make your customer feel special by creating a fan club or group of some kind. Then, offer them incentives to draw more attention to your campaign.

9. Samsung’s Capture The Night Campaign

To promote the launch of the new Galaxy S23, Samsung launched its Capture The Night campaign, which served to bridge the gap between creativity and technology.

Originally titled “Captura la noche” for its Argentine users, Samsung showed how much love and appreciation its users had for music as a way of life, as an intimate language, and as a coping mechanism.

Samsung created a web platform where its users can upload their night photos taken with Samsung Galaxy S23’s unparalleled night camera. This platform analyzes the photos and uses AI algorithms to define the style of music for each photo.

Not only can Samsung users figure out the kind of music they’d like to listen to, but they can use the platform’s suggestions to create original songs of their own, just like Agusto Schuster did.

The big takeaway: Figure out something your target audience loves and find a way to give it to them through your campaign.

10. Google Pixel Fold campaign

Foldable devices have been all the rage for nearly a decade, so when Google Pixel launched the Pixel Fold, it knew it had to go above and beyond to highlight its amazing features.

Working with Anomaly, an innovative marketing agency, Google Pixel launched a campaign with 3D anamorphic DOOH.

Anomaly used larger-than-life 3D illusion billboards and animation to showcase the foldable phone’s sleek design and highlight its immersive display features, among other things.

There is also footage of the displays that’ll be shared across social media to garner more attention.

The big takeaway: Figure out some innovative, novel ways to use regular marketing channels, such as billboards, video commercials, and social media.

11. SPAR Dress To Impress the AI Campaign

When it comes to guerrilla marketing, nothing beats interactivity. SPAR Slovenia knew this when it partnered with advertising agency AV Studio to set up an interactive city light right at the entrance of Interspar stores.

When a customer stands in front of the city light, the machine learning algorithm will scan their clothing style and use that to determine the customer’s musical tastes.

The process takes less than ten seconds and is safe as the system doesn’t store users’ photos. It only scans a customer’s clothing and plays music that matches their style, including rock, pop, and hipster music. The city light also recommends songs that customers might enjoy.

The big takeaway: Think about the things your audience might just pass by every day — and make those things do something unexpected and interactive.

Guerrilla Marketing Tips From Experts

Here are some tips to help you run a successful guerilla marketing campaign:

1. Know your target audience.

Since you know the product you‘re promoting, you likely have a good idea of the kind of people you want to target with your guerilla marketing tactics.

However, because of the spontaneity, creativity, and sometimes interactive nature of guerilla marketing campaigns, you’ll need to develop a deeper understanding of your target audience.

Guerilla marketing isn‘t just about reaching people but about forming a connection with a segment of your target market that has the same interests, needs, and values as the brand you’re promoting.

To do this, study your audience and figure out:

Where they hang out (online and offline).

What they like and dislike.

What they care about.

How they communicate.

What their routine looks like.

What can surprise them?

How they spend their leisure time.

Knowing this information can help you choose an appropriate location, craft a message that resonates, and pick out the right online promotion channels for your campaign.

“The secret sauce is really getting to know your audience like the back of your hand,” says Sudwir Khatwani, the director of The Money Mongers.

Khatwani explains, “It’s about chatting with them, understanding their quirks, and figuring out what really gets them excited. When you nail this, you can whip up a campaign that feels like a heart-to-heart chat rather than a sales pitch.”

That‘s what Red Bull did with their Stratos Jump campaign. It was a huge success because the brand understood and tapped into its audience’s interest in adventure and extreme sports.

That’s why they sponsored Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner’s groundbreaking freefall from Earth’s stratosphere, generating worldwide attention and increasing brand awareness.

2. Be creative and original.

The beauty of guerilla marketing is in its idiosyncrasy. It’s a marketing tactic that requires you to think outside the box for a way to embrace the element of surprise and create something relevant yet unexpected.

With guerilla marketing, the last thing you want to be is a copycat.

So the onus is on you to either come up with something that’s never been done before or put a unique spin on an existing concept — while ensuring that your idea aligns perfectly with your brand identity and values.

Adebayo Samson, the founder, and CEO of Academicful, believes that ambient marketing is the way to express your authenticity and creativity.

Ambient marketing involves integrating your messaging seamlessly into the environment in which your target audience interacts.

“It’s about becoming a part of their world, whether through strategically placed visuals, memorable experiences, or interactive elements,” Samson explains.

Samson says, “This approach ensures that your marketing efforts feel natural and unobtrusive, capturing potential customers’ attention without being intrusive or disruptive.”

Location does make all the difference with guerilla marketing. Jon Morgan, the CEO of Venture Smarter, knows this all too well.

“One memorable guerrilla marketing campaign involved a travel agency placing life-sized cardboard cutouts of exotic animals in unexpected urban locations. This sparked intriguing conversations, ultimately driving more people to their travel packages,” Morgan says.

This campaign’s goal was to encourage people to explore new destinations and experience wildlife in their natural habitats. It worked.

As Morgan says, “The key is to evoke emotions and make people stop and think.”

3. Test your idea before executing it.

The main goal of a guerilla marketing campaign is to wow your target audience. But if you execute your unconventional campaign without testing it first, you might end up doing the exact opposite.

No matter how genius your guerilla marketing idea feels, Tom Golubovich, the head of marketing at Ninja Transfers, advises that you test it on a focus group first.

“Guerilla marketing is unique and awesome, but it’s always a good idea to understand and respect the limits of your target market so as not to cause an opposite effect,” Golubovich says.

“Pick a small group of people to test your ideas beforehand, ask them for their thoughts, opinions, and feedback, and make your decisions accordingly,” he explains.

Testing your idea on a small group of people helps you predict how your larger audience will react to your campaign and the results you’ll get from it.

4. Promote your guerilla marketing campaign online.

After executing your guerilla marketing campaign, what happens next?

Some marketers choose to sit back and watch results pour in.

But a much more productive approach to take is the one that Jas Banwait Gill, the growth manager at SwagMagic, advises — which is to amplify the impact of your campaign through online marketing.

“Once the show is over, maintaining momentum is crucial. Keep the buzz going by hyping the success of your guerilla marketing campaign across your brand’s online channels. This extends the life of your campaign and keeps your audience engaged and excited about your brand,” Gill says.

Gill’s right. The presence of an offline guerilla marketing campaign shouldn’t mean the absence of an online campaign.

Instead, both your online and offline campaigns should work in tandem to increase awareness and generate qualified leads for your brand.

You can use different online channels, such as social media, email, blogs, podcasts, and PR, to promote your campaign, amplify user-generated content, and share testimonials and behind-the-scenes content.

You can even create a hashtag for your campaign and use it across all your marketing strategies, including content marketing, influencer marketing, and paid advertising.

5. Don’t focus on going viral.

Who wouldn’t love their marketing campaign to go viral? I sure would!

However, don’t let the prospect of virality make you take your eyes off the goal you want to achieve — providing value and getting more customers for your brand.

Going viral simply means that your campaign will reach many people; it doesn’t guarantee that it will reach the right people. So, while the guerilla marketing campaigns outlined above went viral, this shouldn’t be what you pursue.

Focus first on adding value to your target audience. If you go viral in the process, that‘s great. But if you don’t, you‘ll still get good results because you’re targeting the people that matter.

6. Analyze and learn from the results of your campaign.

When your guerilla marketing campaign is over, you need to analyze your results and see what you did right (and what you didn’t).

Jon Morgan, the CEO of Venture Smarter, proposes that you measure the success of your guerrilla marketing campaign using both quantitative and qualitative metrics.

“Track engagement, website traffic, social media mentions, and sales, but also pay attention to the conversations and brand sentiment it generates. These insights will help you fine-tune your strategy for future campaigns,” Morgan says.

You can also collect feedback from your target audience, partners, and stakeholders. Through this feedback, identify what worked well and what could be improved.

Document the entire process and note some best practices to adhere to for future reference. This ensures that you don’t struggle too much when you run another campaign in the future.

Guerrillas in the Wild

Starting to make a little more sense?

Hopefully, you’ll be inspired by these examples, especially if you’re promoting a smaller brand. Don‘t be afraid to crowdsource the content for these campaigns.

After all, creative approaches to your work help maintain guerrilla marketing’s budget-friendly, inbound nature.

Remember: Catch people where they are, and insert your brand there. Don’t interrupt, but invite them to participate.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in July 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

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imagine-being-straight · 4 years

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A Message to the TOH Fandom

I’m tired.

I feel like everyone in the fandom can agree that the TOH fandom overall has white favoritism. If you actively deny that we have a problem with white favoritism or are offended that I said this, look at yourself and other people who have been talking about this issue. Really look at yourself and ask why you are offended by what I said. Now back to the TOH fandom’s problem with white favoritism. It’s a huge problem and I don’t think people have realized how bad it’s gotten.

Luz and Amity

Do both of them have amazing content created about them? Yes, but if you look a bit closer to the contents of their contents you’ll see a clear disparity between the two. Luz is more likely to be in Lumity art (which itself isn't a problem), but the problem lies in that she is only there for Amity. Is there still content with her alone and highlighting her character? Of course there is, but for every content that exists for Luz solely, there are at least two others for Amity. Don’t get me wrong I love Amity as much as the next person, but she still is a side character. The Owl House focuses on Eda, King, and Luz mainly. They are the main characters.

When I first joined the TOH fandom, I noticed a lot of Amity focused content. A lot more so than I expected since she is a side character. I understand that a factor in her popularity is her crush on Luz and we’re all really excited for confirmed gay characters, but it doesn’t explain how popular she is. She appears in roughly half of season one’s episodes (I know she technically appears in 11 episodes, but some of her appearances are so minor you can easily forget they happened) compared to Luz being in all 18 episodes. Yes Luz isn’t always the focus of these episodes, but she still changes and develops as a character through most of them.

The reason I’m bringing all of this up is that Amity is white and Luz is a POC. Characters of color in the past have been overlooked and underappreciated in the past, not just in this fandom, but it still happens a lot here. Whether it’s conscious or not, we all have been affected by white favoritism and it is our responsibility to recognize it and change. The Owl House brings more than just gay representation: it brings an Afro-Latina Bisexual protaganist with two major side characters, Willow and Gus, being a mixed Asian-Black character and a Black character. You still think I’m full of shit saying there’s white favoritism in the TOH fandom? Well I’m just getting started here.

Willow, Gus, and Boscha

Boscha herself is an interesting character and I think people see a lot of potential for her character, but the problem is that she overshadows a lot of other characters who are much more important and relevant. Willow is a good example of someone who has been constantly overshadowed by Boscha. Most content I see of Willow is usually Boschlow content (I’m not approving or condemning Boschlow here, this is me just stating some facts) and it’s so unfair to Willow as a character. Willow is more than just Luz’s friend or a quiet girl and more people need to realize that. If you can analyze Boscha’s character in the three episodes she is in, you can do the same thing to Willow, who has been in 14 episodes (three more than Amity). There is no excuse for the lack of Willow content and the abundance of Boscha content.

The same thing can be applied to Gus. Sure he doesn’t get very much screen time, but it is still loads more than Boscha. I have seen barely any content about Gus and the few times I do, he is usually with a group and not alone. No one talks about him and I cannot express how underrated he truly is. If you want some funny content with him, play around with his interest in humans and how he has totally misinterpreted things we know as facts. If you want Gus angst, then write about how young he is and how he could be feeling inadequate despite being smart enough to skip two grades. Amity is seen by the fandom as a whole as being extremely smart, but the fact that Gus skipped two grades, a feat Amity has not done herself, truly showcases how smart Gus really is. It’s not that hard to make Gus content and everyone is just sleeping on him.

The fandom loves to attach itself to Boscha, who may I remind you is white. Willow and Gus, who have way more plot relevance and screen time, are constantly pushed aside for more and more Boscha content. Willow and Gus are beautifully written in the show, but most people overlook it for Boscha, who in the show has been fairly one note so far. If your only argument is that you want to show the background characters some love, then where is the Skara content? Skara has just as much screen time as Boscha, but I’ve seen very little content about her. I guarantee if Boscha was a POC she would have the same level of content as Skara, but since she is white she overshadows literally every other POC supporting character, including those who have had more screen time than her. Don’t even get me started on the Detention Track kids and Emira/Viney. This post is already long enough and I don’t need to make it any longer.

Camilia and Alador/Odelia Blight

Right here is the clearest example of the white favoritism of the TOH fandom. Alador and Odalia Blight have gotten so much content about them and we still haven’t seen their faces. You can easily find so much analysis on them and how their parenting must affect the Blight siblings. You can find so much content about them and we know literally nothing about them other than the fact that they’re abusive. I know Alador is set up to be less abusive than Odalia, but it doesn’t change the fact that he is still abusive to his kids. Whether he approved what was going on or not doesn’t matter because he was still complacent with what was happening.

Now let’s look at Camilia and all her content- oh wait there is basically none for her. All the Camilia content is basically nothing other than CamilEda content (again I’m not trying to bash or approve CamilEda, I’m just trying to state some facts). Camilia did make a mistake in setting Luz to the camp, but that does not make her a bad mother. People need to remember one bad action does not make a bad person. I think Dana herself said that Luz and Camilia do love each other, but they do have their differences, which makes things hard sometimes. Camilia truly does care about Luz and tries her best to do what‘s best for Luz and more people need to recognize it. There is so much untapped potential with Camilia’s character, like how she will react to Luz not coming home or what she will do to try to get Luz back. What if she sees all of the recordings Luz has made for her? How will she react? These are all things we can make content on, yet I see so many people sleeping on it.

Now when you compare how the fandom treats both Camilia and the Blight parents, there’s a clear bias in favor for the Blight parents. The Blight parents are given more attention and content despite having less actual screen time and being actual pieces of garbage. Camilia is shoved to the side despite there being plenty to analyze about her and her relationship with Luz. Camilia is also a good person, which is clearly different to the Blight parents. It’s never been a matter of which parent/child relationship is better because they’re both written very well, but rather the fact that Camilia gets shoved aside every time we talk about parent/child relationships. I mean when you look at it, Camilia and Luz’s relationship with each other is literally the Blight family’s dynamic, except the opposite. The only difference between the two families is that one has POCs and the other is white. And to no one’s surprise, the white family gets more attention and analysis than the POC’s family.

Statistics

If you’re still not convinced here's some cold hard evidence that white characters are more favored than POC characters. I’m going to be using AO3’s (archiveofourown) data on how many works a character is tagged in.

On AO3 at around 6:35 PM EST Oct 3, 2020, The Owl House had 1921 works. As we can see Luz is number one (as she should), Willow is number three, and Gus is number four. They’re ranked fairly high (which was a surprise to me), but when you look at how many works they’re actually in, the white favoritism becomes clear. Amity is tagged in around 1480 works and Willow and Gus each are in 730 and 610 respectively. Willow and Gus are in half the works Amity is. Somehow Willow appears in half the works Amity does even though Willow appears more than Amity in the show. Boscha also has 360 works with her in it, half of what Gus and Willow’s works despite being a very minor character who has appeared only a few times. What's worse is that Edric and Emira are literally 200 to 60 works away from Willow and Gus respectively. Edric and Emira, two white characters who have appeared in literally three episodes, but are tagged in nearly the same number of works as two main POC-supporting characters. Now maybe you’re like “Oh the Blight siblings are only so popular because of Lumity, this data is skewed” so the next picture is of all the characters with all of the romantic relationship tags excluded.

The data shows that the fandom favors the white characters so drastically that there is no excuse or other explanation for it. Lumity being popular doesn’t explain why Amity is still the third most written-about character, even with the Lumity tag being blocked. Quantity of episode appearances doesn't explain why Willow has less content about her because Willow appears in three more episodes than Amity does. The only explanation is white favoritism because the most popular characters are all white (with the exception of Luz, but that’s because she is the main character). Before you tell me “Oh it's because they’re more interesting or they have more potential” actually look and analyze the POC characters because they’re amazingly well written if you actually sit down and analyze them.

Why Calling Out White Favoritism Matters

Now you may be asking: why should I care? Well you should care because the fandom as a whole is literally favoring white characters over POC characters, which is low key racist. It makes people care less about POC characters and actual people which can lead to some internalized racism if not caught early enough. The Owl House tries very hard to highlight their POC characters and actively ignoring or dismissing them is disrespecting the show itself.

I feel like I should make it clear that I’m not shaming anyone who’s favorite character just happens to be white. What I’m doing here is being critical of whether or not a person likes a character because they are white (whether that decision is conscious or not). There is a clear difference between “Oh X is my favorite character, but I recognize the other characters are good in their own ways.” and “Oh I love X and only X. I will only use the other characters to further X’s character and completely ignore everyone else’s complexity”. Please take some time and think about why you like a character and see if you unconsciously love them because they are white. No one is immune to it and even I had to realize I was unconsciously favoring white characters while writing something The Owl House related.

The sad part about all of this is that it needs to be said that racism is bad. It needs to be said that white favoritism is extremely toxic and we should make sure we don’t actively take part or be complacent in it. I know for a fact that other POC have seen this white favoritism, but are too numb to say anything about this because they feel like their voices won’t change anything. The few people who have spoken out haven't been listened too. The fact that I had to step up and make this just to try to get people to listen and I might not even make a difference is so sad to me. The fact that I’m young makes me not numb to the white favoritism. The fact that I dealt with, for the first time, racism at the age of 14, which is extremely late for a POC. The fact that the only reason I can be mad about this is because I dealt with racism so late that I have energy to speak out against this and not be numb to this all. I hate that all of this exists and we all let this happen. We all let this problem fester and now it is now our responsibility to get our priorities straight and change. If we let this problem grow and grow, then in a few years this fandom will be a shell of what it once was.

“We can do this together.” -Luz Noceda

#the owl house #toh #lumity #luz noceda #gus porter #willow park #camilia noceda #amity blight #boscha #edric blight #emira blight #alador blight #odalia blight

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just-some-gt-trash · 2 years

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Safe in royal hands

I really hope you don't mind these are all being posted in the wrong day-

But! Day 14 of @sanders-spring Royality

Cw: Persecution, slight body horror(?

AN: Patton is a smart boy bc I say so, also part of this was written while watching the new Batman so there's a part it turns sort of darker? Not that dark but it has a more serious tone? Idrk if you can notice it or if it's just me lol

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It was already dark outside when the royal family finished eating dinner. The queen excused herself back to the main room to prepare for bed, the king and prince Remy went back to the studio to make sure everything was perfect for the coronation, and prince Roman… well he had better things to do.

At least sneaking some food to the secret room where he was hiding an alien was something Roman considered as better things to do.

It wasn't Romans fault that his parents forgot to properly close off this part of the castle, or that he was riding around the forest when Patton’s ship crashed… Okay that may have been Roman’ fault because he wasn't supposed to go out on his own, but his brother was busy! He couldn't wait until Remy wanted to go horse riding with him!

Well it didn't matter now, Roman had a fugitive alien hidden in the castle. He was also helping Patton fix his ship, which could shrink down to portable size so getting it into the castle wasn't a problem.

Roman pushed the wood planks on the floor and wall. He smiled as he saw a hand helping him from the inside. Roman went into the room once the space was big enough.

Patton didn’t think twice before hugging Roman, “you’re back!”

Roman chuckled and hugged back as well as he could, “just like every night.”

Patton pulled apart, “sorry… I still keep thinking you’re going to get tired of me.”

“And I’ll keep reminding you I won’t” Roman left the bag full of food on the floor and fixed the planks to close the entrance.

Patton chirped and his ears moved. He turned around and covered them, ashamed. “I-I think I’m actually making progress with the ship now, thanks to the pieces you gave me.”

Roman picked up the food and walked over to the table with Patton’s work, “how long until it’s ready?"

“Not much,” Patton sat down. “I have to reload the system and make sure the size changing still works, but it takes too much energy and I’m not sure if there’s anything I could use on Earth to fuel it.”

Roman sat next to him, “what fuel do you usually use? Do you know what it’s made of?”

Patton looked through his hologram screen for his notes, “uh… I think it’s a mix of old metals and elements the planet gifts you”

“I could get you the metal but, “Roman raised an eyebrow. “Elements the planet gifts you?”

Patton nodded, “you know. The whole ‘don’t take stuff from the planet unless it’s a gift,’ humans don’t do that?”

“Well technically our planet is alive, but we don’t usually treat it like a living being. We just take what we need from it.”

Paton blinked, “that’s horrible! How do you even know when you’re taking too much? You don’t communicate with your planet?”

Roman shook his head, “we don’t.”

Patton hummed and looked around, “I wonder if I could do it…” He stood up and walked over to the small hole on the wall that served as a window, and source of light since Roman couldn’t light a candle for him.

“But you can’t go out, remember? It’s too hot for you and someone could see you.”

Patton went back to the tabe and moved his device closer to Roman. “Not if we go at night, Logan taught me how to track the temperature of a planet to make sure future explorations would be safe.” He swiped through the screen to show Roman the data. “The coldest time of an Earth year is coming in just a couple of hours, and it’s expected lowest peak based on our location is in a couple of days.”

Roman couldn’t really understand what Patton was showing him, but he still listened… mainly because of how hot Patton looked while explaining these stuff. “The kingdom doesn’t get very cold in the winter, it doesn’t even snow. I don’t want you to hurt yourself.”

“It’s not cold enough for someone the average human size, but it’s a tolerable temperature for olxak size,” Patton picked his ship up. “We just need a way to activate the full reduction progress without changing the ship’s size”

“Wait, wait, wait.” Roman was very confused now, “olxak size? Wasn’t it just your ship the one that shrinks?”

Patton paused for a moment, “oh. I never told you right? Yeah uhm… I’m supposed to fit in there, the size changing system is to blend with the planet’s species and avoid danger.”

Okay, that wasn’t something Roman expected about Patton species. Just imagining a tiny Patton all cute and… yeah stop it now it’s not the moment. “Haven’t you been shrinking the pieces? You can’t do the same with you?”

“Eh, it’s not that simple.” Patton grabbed a metal disk, around the size of a large plate. “This shrinks the pieces down, but it’s not big enough to shrink something my size… nor safe for living beings. Usually I would change with the ship but-”

“We can’t grow it in here, and taking you out at this size would be dangerous,” Roman interrupted him.

Paton nodded, “exactly. The ship has a ray for the same system, but I need to access it from the outside and I don’t know how.”

Roman sighed and placed his hand on Patton’s shoulder, pulling him to sit down. “I’m sure you’ll figure it out, but you need a break.”

“But if I don’t get out of here in the next bimester-”

“The way to your planet will close, I know.” Roman cut him off, “and if you don’t eat something you won’t have enough brain fuel”

Patton snorted, “that’s not a real thing. If one of my brains shuts down the other two work to turn it back on.”

“And what do they use for that?”

“...Energy… okay! You have a fair point.”

Roman chuckled and started unpacking the food, “I asked the chefs to keep the soup out so it wouldn’t be as hot as last time. And I got some fruit and water for you.”

Patton took the food and felt it, chirping with curiosity. “It should do, I just have to eat slowly, “ he smiled. “You don’t have to do so much for me.”

“I promised I would get you back home didn’t I? That includes not letting you starve to death”

Patton giggled and his ears moved again. They were never this fluttery before… only with Roman, good thing he didn’t know what it meant.

Roman watched Patton as he took the spoon and scooped up a bit of soup, noticing the nervousness on his face. “Go ahead, you know I don't mind.”

“Yeah… but you were very frightened the first time, it’s hard to forget.”

“I know and I’m sorry. It was unexpected, maybe a little bit scary but I’m used to it now.” Roman nodded, “but I could cover my eyes if you want.”

Patton smiled softly, “if you’re sure it’s okay.” He took a deep breath and opened his second mouth. It was located where a human’s chin would be, and it looked like he was pulling his head back.

Roman felt awkward just staring at Patton… he understood it was normal for him but he still needed more time to really don’t mind it. He didn't want to be rude though.

They ate and hung out, and would have continued if Roman didn't have to go back. Someone could go into his room any time and notice he was missing after all.

It took a lot of work, and a somewhat successful try of communicating with Logan for Paton to figure out how to shrink himself back to normal. Just in time for the coldest day of the year.

Roman had Patton’s ship and a bunch of old armor in a bag, Patton himself firmly secured in his hand. Getting out of the castle without being noticed wasn’t a problem, Roman was an expert at it. The problem was that their little trip coincided with the town’s festival… which Roman needed to attend as their prince, plus, his family would be there looking for him. They had to be very careful blending in the crowd to get to the forest.

Patton wasn’t used to being handheld, it wasn’t an unpleasant feeling, but it was weird. Roman insisted he could get hurt in the bag, so traveling by hand it was. However, Patton hadn’t considered Roman’s body heat for his calculations. It felt nice being this close to Roman, but he knew it would hurt him to stay like that for too long. Patton just hoped Roman got his way out of town as soon as possible.

Roman kept some of his old clothes for situations where he had to blend in town, like this one. The cape he was wearing had enough mends to cover his identity, plus the hood made a very large shadow on his face. Just a little more, he could see the end of the crowd!

And a hand grabbed his cape.

Roman tried to pull back, but froze as he saw who stopped him. “Mom and dad have been looking for you”

The older prince pulled his brother away from the crowd so they wouldn’t be interrupted. “What were you thinking? Sneaking out on a day like this?”

“I know Remy, we have to be there for our people and all, but I’m helping a friend. This is the only day we could do anything!”

Remy raised an eyebrow, “a friend? Another servant from the castle?”

Roman rolled his eyes, tightening his grip around Patton instinctively. “I have friends outside the castle, you know?”

“Really? Then you won’t mind ifI meet this friend of yours right?” Remy crossed his arms.

Roman felt silent. What would Remy do if he saw Patton? Roman had been hiding him from everyone at the castle, mostly for Patton’s safety. What would the kingdom do to an aien?! He had no way of knowing! “What if I say no?”

‘Then you’ll come with me to the festival.”

That was the exact response Roman didn’t want to hear. He looked around, Remy had pulled them far enough from the town’s people, he could make a run for it. “I’m sorry Rem, but this is too important.”

Next thing he knew, Roman was running like he had never run in his life. He hoped it left Remy too shocked to react in time to stop him

Patton clenched onto Roman's shirt, they were running now? Oh this was bad… please, he just wanted to get to the forest.

Remy ran behind his brother, struggling to open his coat and get his wand out. He didn't want to use magic with his brother, but their parents would kill him if he didn't get him back to the festival. Remy had to be the example, a responsible older brother.

Roman knew he had to lose Remy, it wouldn't take much longer for him to be stopped. Just a little longer, he just had to keep running.

Remy was finally able to get a good grip on his wand. Aiming at Roman was the hard part, his brother knew how to avoid magic, and he was very good at doing it.

“We can do it Patt,” Roman whispered. He was trying to reassure both of them to be honest, just a little-

An energy surrounded his body and made him stop. Shit.

Remy finally stopped to take a breath, “damn. Since when are you this good at running?”

“Remy let me go!”

“I can't!” Remy walked closer to his brother, “what could be more important than your ceremony? You’ve been waiting years to be able to use magic and now you run away?” He stood in front of him, “this is not the Roman I know.”

Roman just glared, “maybe you don't know me well enough. What's the point of magic if the favorite prince is going to rule?”

Remy rolled his eyes, “you already knew you weren't going to rule. Is this really about that? It's not my fault that I was born first."

“If you really want to think is about that then fine, call me childish or something but let me go.”

Remy fell silent. “I don't want to force you to walk back there, are you really going to force me to?”

Patton could feel swet starting to roll down his face, he tugged on Roman's shirt. “We have to hurry…”

Roman looked down instinctively, he needed to fight Remy’s magic, but how?

Remy looked down, noticing Roman's hand. “What are you hiding?” He moved the wand around making Roman float in the air and let go of the bag, and Patton.

Patton yelped as he fell to the floor, it took him a lomento to realize what was happening. He looked up until he met Remy’s face and started pushing himself back instinctively.

“What the?” Remy crouched down and reached forward to grab Patton.

Roman could only watch, he had to do something! “Don't hurt him!”

The energy around Roman changed color to match him, and the wand on Remy’s hand was snatched by it. The wand floated towards Roman, who had gained control over his body again. He grabbed it and threw Remy away with a quick movement.

Remy was too shocked to react in time, the magic pushed him all the way to a wall. This left him too weak to do anything.

Roman watched the wand as it changed to match him as well, “woah.” He took the bag and made Patton float back to his hand before he started running again.

Patton could barely even ask what was going on, “I didn't know you could do magic!”

“I couldn't,” Roman kept running until he was sure they got lost in the forest. “It's a royal family thing, I’m old enough for my ceremony but I never expected Remy’s wand to work for me.”

Patton looked around, trying to spot a tree that would be willing to cooperate. “And what kind of stuff can you do now?”

Roman shrugged, “I have no idea. I’m supposed to be trained so I can help my people, but I think I could figure this out on my own.”

Patton gestured for Roman to let him down next to an apple tree.

Roman did and sat next to him, “are you sure you know how to do this?”

“I am, but I hope it works with your planet.” Patton placed his hands on the trunk of the tree, a soft glow started coming out of them. The light expanded to the whole tree and some apples and leaves started falling down.

Roman was amazed by this, and by how all the apples seemed to avoid falling on top of them.

Patton smiled and took his hands away, “thank you.” He stood up and looked over at Roman, “now these are stuff the planet gifts to us.”

Roman smiled and picked Patton up, “that was amazing. I wish we actually asked before taking stuff from the Earth.” He looked up, they were able to see the stars between the tree branches.

“It’s a very nice experience, you connect with nature. Olaxs know a lot about technology, but we never forget where we came from” Patton looked up as well, but not at the stars, at Roman. The star and moonlight really brought out his facial features… he looked beautiful.

Roman looked back at Patton and blushed slightly, “well, maybe you could teach me.” He instinctively petted Patton’s head with his thumb.

Patton leaned on the touch, “we can definitely try.” He giggled softly and his ears flapped rapidly.

Roman stayed silent as he pet and looked at Patton for a while, “I’ve uh, been meaning to ask you. Why do your ears move? Does it mean something? I don't really want to be rude but they’ve done it a couple of times since we met.”

Patton felt his ears flapping even more, he covered them ashamed. “Well n-no you're not rude they uh… I guess it’s an involuntary response, like when you humans get ll red I think.”

“Oh,” Roman’s blush darkened.

“Y-yeah… like that.” Patton chuckled awkwardly, “I mean if my human knowledge is correct then I guess it means I want to mate with you. If not then for us it means some sort of feelings are being generated in us but it’s not quite there yet, like one of the first stages of uh falling in love with someone, others always told me I’m supposed to understand what it means when it happens to me but then you came and you do anything and I feel this that I don't have an explanation for a-and-”

Roman placed his finger on Patton’s mouth, “sorry sorry. I just uh, I get what you mean Patt.”

Patton nodded and gently pushed the finger away, “I think ranting is another side effect…”

Roman chuckled, “that might just be you. My brain kind of takes all my words away and I become the clumsiest person ever… and maybe I should put you down before you fall…”

Patton smiled a bit and stood up, “I have the perfect spot to be then.” He walked through Roman’s arm all the way to his shoulder, then used the hem of his shirt as support to stand in front of his face.

Roman almost had a heart attack once Patton started moving like that, “h-hi…”

“Hey,” Patton glanced briefly at Roman's lips… he couldn't, could he?

Roman noticed and chuckled, “just kiss me already.”

Patton felt like he could take off at any moment with how fast his ears flapped, “y-y-you’re sure?”

Roman left a gentle kiss on Patton’s head, “I mean, maybe we should try it once you're back to my size.”

“Yeah…” Patton felt very hot, but it wasn't a bad heat like before. He didn't know how, but it felt like the coldest day he’s ever experienced, like a bunch of leaves were being blowed all around his body. He couldn't take it any longer and pressed himself against Roman’s under lip.

That definitely caught Roman by surprise, he didn't want to move and get Patton covered with saliva. It definitely felt weird but… it was the best kiss Roman had ever gotten.

Patton pulled apart and smiled brightly. Even if he couldn't get back to his planet in time, it already felt like he was home.

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cjsinkythoughts · 3 years

Text

FATWS One Shot #7 - Revels

Word Count: 2921

Warnings: Cursing, That’s All, it’s a Really Tame One Shot

Setting/Characters: Party Scene in Avengers: Age of Ultron; Lots of Characters so I’m Not Gonna Name Them All

A/N: I know…it’s very late. I wanted to have it out on Friday, but I dunno, guys. My motivation as of late has been very low. I finally decided to just sit down and write tonight. So here it finally is!

This one is pretty mild compared to others. There’s a few feeling things in here, but it’s mainly just the reader hanging out with the team. The ending’s written a bit weird, but I didn’t know what to cut it off because the writers did a nice job of making the Mjolnir scene flow into the scene with Ultron’s appearance, but I didn’t want to write the whole fight with Ultron, I just wanted the lifting scene.

Listen here, though! Prepare yourselves to be conflicted even more with Steve! I made it a lot more…touchy than I was planning on. Don’t come at me! It needs to be done! This’ll be one of the last ones focused on Steve like that though. The next one is reader and Wanda bonding and then after that I don’t have any more planned for AoU, so we’ll be going to Civil War, which is where reader meets Bucky officially. So Bucky’s coming soon!

I’m gonna update my WIP List and - maybe - my One Shot list and post those later, along with a poll because I dunno which series I wanna start on next.

Thank you all so much for your patience, understanding, and support! As always, not beta’d, so please excuse the mistakes, all are mine! Be kind to yourselves and others! Enjoy and stay tuned!

FATWS Series Masterlist

cjsinkythoughts Masterlist

*******

Buzz. Buzz. Buzz.

You set your bag down and looked at your phone, vibrating from where you just left it on the counter. You looked at the time and squinted. Seven. You supposed it wasn’t too late, but you weren’t expecting any calls.

Tired, your feet dragged as you moved across the room to get your phone. You were helping Fury set up the Helicarrier again while still remaining “dead” to everyone. It was the last thing you were doing before joining the Avengers full time. You were a bit hesitant to be in the spotlight after all these years, but after much pressuring from your team, especially a certain blonde, you finally caved. It was time for a change anyways. It might even be good for you.

Speaking of blondes, Bubba flashed across your screen, a picture of him with some scruff that you took one day in spite of his protests because you’d never seen him with a beard before lighting up behind the contact name.

You answered it, rubbing your eyes with the heel of your hands as you did so. “Hi, bubs. What’s-”

“Where are you? I miss you. Are you coming soon?”

You chuckled at his whines, an eyebrow raising as you processed his words. “Whaddya mean? I’m at my place. Where am I supposed to be?”

“Honey!” You giggled at his groan, finding it amusing how childish he could be at times. “The party? Tonight? Remember? You promised you’d come. I don’t wanna be here without you.”

“Oh shit,” you hiss out. “That’s tonight?” Moving across the kitchen to check your calendar, you scrunch up your face when you see ‘Avenger’s Tower 6 pm’ written in the square. “It’s Saturday. Aw, Stevie. I totally forgot.”

“Oh. So…are you - are you not coming, then?”

Frowning at his fallen tone, you shake your head. “I’ll be there. Just…give me a bit.”

“No, no. It’s okay. You sound tired. You don’t have to-”

“I’m on my way, Steve. I did promise after all. I’m an hour out.”

You could hear his surprise in his voice. “An hour? You’re not in D.C.?”

“I’m a little bit upstate. Just in a safehouse while I help Fury work on something.”

He let out a contemplative hum from the other side of the line. “That secret project you still won’t tell me anything about?”

A smile appeared across your lips as you walked to the bedroom to change into something a little more appropriate, settling for a comfortable romper instead of dealing with a dress. “You know I can’t, bubs. You haven’t told anyone, right?”

“No ma’am.”

You giggle softly. “Alright. Thank you. You’ll find out soon, probably. It’s almost done. Promise.”

“Then you’ll come live here? With me - the team, I mean? I miss you. The team missed you. On the raid.”

“Oh yeah. How was it?”

“Get here and I’ll tell you.”

You laughed, shaking your head. “I’m coming, I’m coming. See you then, bubba.”

“Okay, honey. See ya then.”

*****************

It was nearly nine when you got to the Tower, but any party thrown by Stark didn’t end until at least ten, so you knew you were fine. Just…fashionably late. A concept you knew Tony understood and you wouldn’t hesitate to remind him if he brought it up.

You were pleasantly surprised by how tame the party was. Sure there were a hundred people you doubted even Tony knew, but no flashing lights, the music wasn’t blaring, and no one was grinding on anyone. Everyone was just talking, drinking, and having a good time.

“Hey! There you are! Capsicle said he called you, but that was hours ago!”

Speak of the devil. You grinned and let Tony pull you into a hug before taking the drink he offered. “Yeah, well, I had a few things to do today.”

His eyebrow quirked up. “A few things, huh? Anything I should know about?”

“Nope!” You popped your lips and gave him a smirk. “Not everything’s about you, Mr. Stark.”

“Yeah, well, we missed you this week. Fun raid.” He looked you up and down and nodded, gesturing to your outfit. “Alright, you know what? I accept this. This is okay. Not what I had in mind, but you pull it off.”

You laughed, shoving his shoulder playfully. “It’s comfortable, okay? Where’s Steve?”

The billionaire rolled his eyes and gave you a look. “Don’t worry your pretty little head. He’s over playing pool with Wilson. C’mon! I wanna get you drunk and complain about my perfect, heroic, billionaire life to my favorite teammate!”

“I just need to tell him I’m here.” You snicker. “And don’t let anyone here you say that. I don’t want my rep to become Tony’s favorite.”

He chuckled with you and gave you another squeeze. “Alright, alright. Come find me later, though. I do have something I need to show you.”

You shook your head, already knowing where the conversation was heading. “Tony! No! I don’t need a suit! Thank you, I appreciate it, but I’m really okay. I like fighting in sweatpants.”

“Fine!” He huffed out. “But at least let me show you some designs I came up with. I put a lot of hard work into them, you know.”

Tapping his chest, you nodded. “I’m sure you did. I’ll come find you and you can show me, but that’s it.”

He smirked, drawing an ‘x’ over his heart with his finger. “Cross my heart.”

“I’m serious, Tony!” You point at him as he started walking away. He just blew a kiss towards you, making you laugh and roll your eyes again.

Turning, you scanned the room for the pool table where, supposedly, Steve was playing with Sam, who you had no idea was gonna be here. You’d been helping him out with the whole James - Bucky, you reminded yourself - Barnes thing during your free time. No such luck yet. The man was literally a ghost, even for you.

You couldn’t stop the smile on your lips when you finally caught sight of him, his brown leather jacket hugging his shoulders a grin on his face as Sam talked to him about something. Quickly making your way over, your arms wrapped around that ridiculously tiny waist, crossing over his stomach. You felt him tense at the sudden contact, before he relaxed at a kiss to the nape of his neck and spun around.

The beam he gave you made your heart flip, his muscled arms winding around your neck. “Y/N! You made it!”

His boyish excitement made you laugh. “I told you I’d come. Hi, Sam.”

Sam nodded and waved. “What’s good, Y/N?”

“Who’s winning?” Slipping out of Steve’s hold, you leaned over the table to study the games process.

“We just started a new one.” Steve informed you. “Wanna join?”

You raised an eyebrow at him. “You sure you wanna be embarrassed in front of all these nice people?”

“Oooh!” Sam winced. “Smack! Alright. Put your money where your mouth is, Y/L/N. Ten bucks says I win.”

“You’re on, Wilson.”

A few more drinks, a couple games, and thirty extra bucks later, Tony called you over impatiently. Steve gave you a questioning look as you heated up, Tony waving his arms dramatically and shouting your name. God, he’s so embarrassing.

“He wants me to look at suit designs.”

Steve frowned at your explanation. “I thought you told him no?”

You chuckled. “I did. I’ll be right back, bubs.” After kissing his cheek, you head over to Tony. From there, you end up bouncing around from teammate to teammate, laughing and joking around with them.

Until Steve dragged you back with him again. “Excuse me.” He interrupted you, Clint, and Natasha’s chatter, grabbing your elbow and taking the drink you had in your hand. “I’m stealing you.”

“C’mon, man! It’s called sharing!”

Natasha laughed and nodded in agreement with Clint’s statement. “Everyone’s gotta have a turn, Rogers.”

Steve hummed, walking backwards and pulling you as you giggled in amusement. “You just had your turn, Romanoff.”

“Sorry guys.” You shrugged when the two looked at you incredulously. “Captain’s orders.”

“Damn right.” Steve nodded firmly.

“Watch your language!” Clint shouted with a pointed finger.

You raised an amused eyebrow at Steve’s groan. “Your language? They do know that you have, quite possibly, the worst mouth on the planet, right?”

He sighed, pulling you to the side of the room and wrapping his arms around your waist. “It’s something that happened on the mission. Which you would know if you were there.”

“Steven.”

He blinked innocently at you. “What?” At your pointed look, he let out a sigh, dropping his forehead to your shoulder. “Did I do something wrong? Is that why you’re avoiding me?”

“Who said I’m avoiding you?”

“C’mon, honey.” He lifted his head, his eyebrows furrowed together. “Don’t hurt me even more. I know you have.”

You shook your head, lips turning down and hand raising to cup his cheek. “Stevie, I’m not. I promise. I’ve just…I’ve just been busy.”

He pouted. “With Fury?”

Giving him a weird look you shook your head. “No. I mean, yes, but I’ve also been helping Sam out with your friend while you help the team with the rest of the HYDRA bases. You know that. What’s going on with you?”

“I’m sorry.” He sighed, ducking his head to your shoulder again. “I’ve just missed you.”

“I know, bubba. I’ve missed you too.”

The real truth was you had been avoiding him. Not on purpose. Kinda. You just felt something different around him. Something you’d never dealt with before. And you didn’t want to deal with it now, so you haven’t been. It was why you were so hesitant about becoming a full time Avenger. Well, that and the fact that you’d been in the shadows for a decade and you weren’t sure how well you’d do in the light.

“Where’s Sam?”

“He had to head home. Long drive. His excuse, not mine.”

You gasped in offense. “And he didn’t even say bye?! Rude!”

Steve chuckled, his nose brushing against the skin of your throat, breath tickling your collarbone. “I’m sure he’ll call you in the morning or something. Apologize for leaving so abruptly.”

You hummed, swallowing the lump that suddenly appeared in your throat. “Tell me about the language thing. What happened?”

He groaned, but straightened and told you about him accidentally scolding Tony, before he proceeded to tell you about the rest of the mission, including the Maximoff twins.

“Why is it that war always seems to breed more war?” You asked with a sigh.

“They’re just kids trying to do what’s right.”

“We all start out that way, don’t we?” You shook your head. Kids. they shouldn’t be fighting in a war. They shouldn’t have to deal with that. “It’s just a shame.” Your voice is muffled by his shirt after you pressed against his chest.

“Yeah.” He sighed out. “Wanna go get a drink?”

Pulling back from him and looking around, you noted that most guests had already gone and it was dwindling down to just the Avengers and a couple allies. “Yeah. Wanna sit down too. I’m kinda tired.”

“Alright, honey. Let’s go sit down.”

It wasn’t even half an hour later when you were all sitting around the middle of the room, everyone else having gone, but Dr. Helen Cho, Rhodey, Maria, and the team. You were in the same boat as Helen, who was basically passed out on an armchair. You’re legs thrown over Steve’s lap, stretched out to let your feet rest on Thor’s thigh, who was on the chair on the other side of the captain. You were hugging Steve’s arm, your head resting against his shoulder, a small smile of content across your features as you listened to the team banter and tease.

You started laughing at Clint’s comments towards Thor’s hammer while spinning the drumstick he had for whatever reason. “Ah, whosoever be he worthy shall haveth the power! Whatever, man! It’s a trick!”

You and Steve exchanged amused grins as Thor challenged Clint, who stood up with no hesitation and headed to the hammer.

“This is gonna be good.” You chirped, taking the bottle Steve handed you as the archer stopped in front of where it was placed on the table.

Clint stuck his tongue out at you, before turning back to Thor and gripping the handle. He tugged for a moment, grunting, before laughing in slight embarrassment. Chuckling, you snuggled closer to Steve’s side, your eyes feeling heavy. He turned his head to nose your temple and kiss your cheek.

“Oh brother.” You giggled, sitting up with interest as Tony stood up and unbuttoned his suit jacket.

“Alright, so if I lift it, I-I then rule Asgard?” Tony asked in clarification, slipping his hand through the strap.

“Yes, of course.” Thor confirmed with an amused smirk, shooting you a wink when you nudged his knee with your foot.

Tony braced himself, setting his foot on the table. “I will be reinstituting prima nocta.”

You rolled your eyes, scoffing. “Oh God, Tony.” Steve squeezed your knee with a slight chuckle as the billionaire tried lifting it to no avail. You gave him a weird look, watching him leave the room, before turning to Steve. “What’s he-?”

“Alright! Let’s try this again!”

Another fit of laughter left you and the team when Tony strutted back in with his Iron Man glove on. And when that didn’t work, Rhodey joined him with his War Machine glove.

Your eyes were watering and you tried holding in your laughter, but you couldn’t help it, pressing your face into Steve’s arm to muffle the sounds. You felt his shoulders shake with silent chuckles, which didn’t help your own.

When Bruce went up, an awkward silence filled the air after he tried Hulking out, but then you started laughing again.

“Your turn, bubba.” You nudged the blonde, who gave you a look, before shrugging and patting your thigh.

“You gotta get off then, honey.”

You rolled your eyes but swung your legs off him, letting him stand up. He rolled his sleeves up, stepping up to Mjolnir, a few encouragements from the team, before pulling on the hammer. You thought you saw it shake a little, but Steve yanked some more and it didn’t move, so you figured you were imagining it.

Steve sighed and let go, putting his hands up in surrender with a grin like the good sport he was. Thor laughed. “Nothing.”

You shrugged at the super soldier who plopped back down besides you as the others tried getting Natasha to go up. “You tried.”

He raised an eyebrow, crossing his arms and leaning back. “Well if Romanoff isn’t going…your turn.”

“Wh-what?” Your eyes went wide.

“I did it.” He gestured to the hammer. “Now you gotta.”

“Hold on, hold on. We didn’t agree on th-”

“Honey.” He gave you a little pout, cocking his head to the hammer. “C’mon. Just a tug.”

You narrowed your eyes, but your lips turned up and you straightened off the couch. “This is peer pressure. Captain America, everyone.” He chuckled as you stepped over to Mjolnir. “It’s not gonna work.”

Tony snorted. “Not with that attitude.”

“C’mon, Tones. If none of you could.”

The billionaire shrugged with a grin. “Never know if you don’t try.”

You deadpanned at him, gripping the handle and trying, in vain, to pull it. You didn’t put nearly as much effort as everyone else. “Wow. Look at that. What a surprise.”

“What was that?! You barely touched it!”

Giving a shrug, you started back to your seat. “I’m guessing if you’re worthy or whatever, it wouldn’t take that much to lift it.” You fell onto the couch, your head landing in Steve’s lap as you looked upside down at Thor and pointed at him. “But I do have a question for you.” The god looked at you in interest, gesturing for you to continue. “What does worthy mean? Like, what makes a person worthy to lift it? You couldn’t lift it a while back - I know, I read the files. SHIELD agent, remember?” You added when you saw him open his mouth to question you.

You blinked at him curiously, tilting your head, watching as his brow furrowed. Tony cackled and clapped at the silence in answer. “Oooh! She got you! All difference to the Man Who Wouldn’t Be King, but it’s rigged. And the lack of response to Y/N’s question just makes it more obvious.”

“That’s not what I meant-”

“You bet your ass.”

You rolled your eyes, letting it go as Maria teased Steve about Clint’s foul language. “Did you tell everyone about that?” Tony ignored Steve’s question and continued to ride on Thor and his hammer.

“Why are they trying to make sense of it?” You questioned, highly entertained, but also very tired, turning to press against Steve’s stomach.

“It’s Tony. I couldn’t tell you. C’mere.” Steve shifted you so that you were sitting up, but he was holding you more comfortably. “Try getting some sleep.”

You hummed and nodded against him, but a high pitched whine made you wince and stand up, Steve unconsciously standing a bit in front of you. A suit of Tony’s, damaged with wires hanging down and oil leaking out or places that didn’t have metal keeping them in, came in and you inwardly sighed at the bad feeling tugging at your gut.

So much for sleep.

***********

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