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duggardata · 3 years

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Anna and Mary Maxwell Might Be Attending [Bible] College. (Wow!)

Recently, an eagle–eyed Anon spotted the 2 Youngest Maxwell Girls, Anna (28) and Mary (25), in the absolute last place you'd ever expect—a college campus. It's all on Facebook... Anna and Mary appear in a photo posted by Appalachian Bible College to its official Facebook Page, along with caption: "The first day of classes. That's something to smile about!" (Permalink.)

Why Are We So Surprised By This?

Ordinarily, two young women attending college wouldn't be at all shocking, but the Maxwells are not ordinary. Anna and Mary's Parents, Steve + Teri Maxwell, are openly anti–college. Steve thinks that state–run education, including higher education, is "a godless, promiscuity–promoting, humanistic environment," and that it traps young people in debt. He is wary even of Christian colleges, since he believes they cause children to rebel. He’s proud of his sons' lack of higher education, and praised them for "avoid[ing] the influence and cost of college." Teri is, sadly, just as opposed to college—especially for women. Back in 1999, she wrote an article speculating that college may undermine a woman's ability to be a good and godly wife. Her article laments—

"As far as our daughters go, I wonder how many of us developed independent spirits during our college or working days. Has this made it more difficult for us to submit to our husbands in the meek and quiet way we would like?"

Finally... Anna and Mary's views on this topic seemed to be aligned with their parents, until now. According to Steve + Teri, all of the Maxwell Daughters had planned to be Stay–at–Home–Daughters until marriage. (See Also.) (And all 3 Daughters seemed to be doing so, since none had moved out.) What is more, in 2010, Anna described college as "silly," and said that she thought attending would expose her to unsavory influences, and possibly hold her back from her ultimate goal of "be[ing] a stay–at–home wife and mother."

So, yeah... This is quite a surprise! And, while neither Steve + Teri, nor Anna or Mary, has actually confirmed that they’re enrolled at Appalachian Bible College, their appearance on the Facebook Page is definitely suspicious!

Tell Me About Appalachian Bible College.

TL;DR If you just want to know how conservative and restrictive Appalachian Bible College is, skip down to “Student Life.”

Appalachian Bible College (ABC) is a tiny (~250 Students), insular bible college, located on 150 Acres in rural Mount Hope, West Virginia. (The Maxwell Family hails from Leavenworth, Kansas, which >800 Miles Away.) It self–describes as a “non–denominational and fundamental” institution, primarily associated with “Baptist and Bible churches.” Unlike many so–called “bible colleges,” ABC is nationally and regionally accredited. (Hurray!)

A lot, lot more information... After the jump.

Admissions—

ABC requires prospective students to submit an application; transcripts from high school or home school; ACT, SAT, or CLT test scores; and two reference letters, one from a pastor and one from another mentor, e.g., teacher or youth group leader. A high school diploma or GED is required, unless the student is homeschooled. In that case, a detailed homeschool transcript is needed, and standardized test scores are “especially important.”

As part of the application, prospective students must attest that they agree w/ the college’s Doctrinal Statement.

Academics—

ABC offers four degree programs—Bible Certificate (1 Year), Associate of Arts (A.A.) (2 Years), Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) (4 Years), and Master of Arts (M.A.). In addition, it runs an online program for degree–seeking or non–degree seeking students. (But, Anna and Mary were spotted on–campus, so they don’t seem to be in the online program!) Anna and Mary haven’t gone to college, so they almost certainly aren’t in the Master’s program. Let’s just look at the rest...

(Sidenote—Before we go on, just want to point out... All ABC graduates must, in addition to completing academic requirements, show that they are members of a church and that they possess good Christian character. If they don’t, they won’t give their diploma!)

Bible Certificate—ABC describes the one–year program as an “opportunit[y] for you to dig into Scripture and build your life on its unchanging truths.” The program has two tracks—Bible + General Education and Bible + Ministry. As the names suggest, both tracks’ core curriculum is the Bible and Bible study. Both also require three courses in ministry—Foundations of Ministry, Biblical Theology of Missions, and Personal Evangelism & Discipleship. Where they differ is is what else they require...

For the Bible + General Education Certificate, students must also take four ‘core’ classes—English Composition, Speech, Physical Education, Music, and “Success Seminar”—plus, an elective of their choice. (This curriculum also mirrors the first–year curriculum of ABC’s A.A. and B.A. Degree Programs, so students can easily continue their studies, should they decide to do so.)

For Bible + Ministry, ‘core’ classes are waived in favor of extra theology. Students take Principles of Biblical Interpretation, along with classes on Systematic Theology (2 Classes), the New Testament (Survey Class + 2 Classes), and the Old Testament (Survey Class + 2 Classes).

Associate’s Degree (A.A.)—ABC also offers a 2–Year A.A. Degree in Bible + Theology. (That’s the only major offered.) For this degree, the curriculum is a 50/50 split between General Education and Bible + Theology courses, plus a few ministry classes and electives. All students take the following courses—

General Education English Composition (2 Classes), Speech, Physical Education, Music, Biblical Worldview, and Ethical Issues in Ministry

Bible + Theology Principles of Biblical Interpretation, Survey of the Old Testament, Survey of the New Testament, Matthew to Acts, Genesis to Deuteronomy, Paul’s Letters (2 Classes), and Doctrine (2 Classes)

Ministry Theology of Missions, Foundations of Ministry, Evangelism & Discipleship, and Homiletics I (Males) / Bible Teaching (Females)

Additionally, students must take a history class, a science or sociology class, and an elective.

Bachelor’s Degree (B.A.)—Finally, ABC offers a 4–Year B.A. Dual Degree in Bible + Theology and in Ministry. Each student completes General Education classes. Beyond that, each student is also a “double major.” Everyone’s first major is Bible + Theology and everyone’s second major is ministry–focused—but, not everyone has the exact same Ministry Major. (More on that in a bit...) As far as curriculum, students must complete the General Education, Bible + Theology, and Ministry courses required for the Associate’s Degree, plus the following additional core classes—

General Education Health, Psychology, Sociology, Finance, 2 History Classes (History of Western Civilization and American Church History), and 1 Science Class (Earth Science or Biology)

Bible + Theology Joshua to Esther, Hebrews to Revelation, Isaiah to Malachi, Job to Song of Soloman, Doctrine (2 Additional Classes), and Bible Capstone

Ministry World Religion and Cults, and Homiletics II (Men) / Women’s Ministry (Women)

Finally, students must also pick a Ministry Major and complete its mandatory coursework. At ABC, there are seven ministry majors to pick from—some of which have concentrations. Here’s the list of Ministry Majors, with additional concentrations or sub–specialties listed in parentheses—

Biblical Counseling (Youth & Family or Women’s Ministries)

Camping Ministry

Elementary Education

Missions (Biblical Languages, Foreign Language / Spanish, International Studies, Nursing, or Teaching English)

Music (Pedagogy, Performance, or Worship)

Pastoral Ministry (Biblical Languages or Youth & Family Pastoring)

Interdisciplinary

The Pastor Ministry Major seems to be limited to male students.

Click the links to check out the coursework each Ministry Major requires.

Student Life—

So, yeah... ABC is not a progressive place. At all. They’re upfront about it, though, which is nice. Their Student Handbook is online, available for all to read. Here are some highlights... (All italics are mine, not in original.)

Discipline / Consequences—Students who break the rules face discipline in the form of “a verbal or written Carefrontation, a fine, a work assignment, a temporary room or dorm confinement, a social [or] ... campus restriction,” or “some other determination.” Egregious offenses may result in the student being “suspended ... , asked to withdraw from the college, or dismissed.”

Dress Code—There’s a detailed Dress Code, with different different activities requiring different standards of dress. Perhaps surprisingly, pants are allowed for female students for all but the fanciest standard of dress. (For that, they’ll have to wear skirts or dresses.) Here are a few of the rules...

“Earrings may be worn by females only,” and “all other body piercing is prohibited.”

ABC students are prohibited from getting new tattoos. If a student has an old tattoo, they may be required to cover it at all times if the Dean of Students deems it “offensive.”

Prohibited Activities—ABC says that, “in order to remain above reproach,” students are prohibited from the following “questionable activities”...

Consuming “alcohol as a beverage,” tobacco in any form (including e–cigarettes), or drugs for non–medicinal purposes. (Penalty for violating this rule is dismissal.)

Serving alcohol to others, even if done in the course of a student’s off–campus employment.

Gossiping, or engaging in “other forms of impure speech.”

Listening to, viewing, or reading “unwholesome” media or literature, or accessing websites “that do not promote godliness.” (See Prohibited Media and Prohibited Music.)

Attending “commercial movie theaters.”

Gambling.

Dancing.

Prohibited Media—Per the ABC Student Handbook, ABC students shall not consume “any media (including social media) that features vulgar or obscene language, sexual innuendo, nudity, immodest clothing, or ... a blatantly non–Christian message.” Additionally, students may not—

Watch movies rated PG–13, R, X, or NC–17, or shows rated TV–MA.

Play video games or use apps rated A, M, or RP.

... and, they’re strongly cautioned to avoid media that promotes “unbiblical definitions of love”; endorses “witchcraft or the occult”; mocks “law or law enforcement”; denigrates “marriage and the traditional family”; or contains “excessive violence.” Students are urged not to consume media made by people—e.g., actors, producers, directors—“known for their stand against Christian values.”

Prohibited Music—Students are banned from listening to music “that includes God–dishonoring language, anti–biblical messages ... , a prominent resurfacing beat, pulsating and driving or dance rhythms, or sensual overtones in the music itself or in the performance.” They’re specifically cautioned to avoid...

Rock—Because the “lyrics may be unacceptable” and “[t]he beat of the music may become the most prominent element.”

Country—Because the “lyrics may be unacceptable” and the underlying “music may be connected to a heavy rock beat.”

Folk—As “[e]xistentialism, humanism, or hedonism may be propagated through the lyrics.”

Jazz—Since syncopation may be “extensive[ly] use[d],” and “a sensual performance style may be employed.”

Contemporary Christian—Since “a sensual performance style may be employed,” “a beat may be overly prominent,” and the “lyrics may be theologically incorrect or existential in their emphasis.”

Relationships—

“The Bible restricts sexual activity to marriage between a man and a woman. Thus, fornication, adultery, incest, sexual abuse of a minor, homosexuality, indecent exposure, sexual harassment, and other such activities are forbidden.”

“[N]o display of affection through physical contact (including holding hands) on the part of non–married couples, on or off campus.”

Dating students are forbidden from sitting together in class or chapel.

No male–female pair, dating or not, may be alone together in anyone’s home or residence, on– or off–campus.

No male–female pair, dating or not, may socialize off–campus without a chaperone, unless they’ve been at ABC for at least 4 Semesters.

Divorced students “shall not be permitted to date other ... students.”

According to ABC’s Student Handbook, all these rules apply to all students, at all times, on– or off–campus.

All in all, it’s great if Anna and Mary are attending college, even if it’s a super–duper conservative one, like ABC clearly is. The fact that they’ve possibly left home and are out there, living on their own... Crazy to even think about, given Steve’s apparent iron grip on his household. It can only be good from them to venture out on their own, even if it’s just to a slightly less stifling place.

#mary maxwell #anna maxwell

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beepathan · 2 years

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Since we’re doing charisma house questions for the charisma house tumblr person, can you rank the characters from most problematic to least problematic and state why.

Also I hope you know that I am in no way threading it you to place Terra as least problematic and in no way will throw a fit if you say he is anything but an unproblematic queen 🔪

for the purposes of this ask i am going to be ignoring rikais music video, for hopefully obvious reasons to anyone who has seen it (as it would instantly place him in first)

so lets start off by figuring out what exactly we mean by problematic. is it which character would get cancelled on twitter the fastest? is it which characters charisma is most harmful to themself and those around them? is it just vibes? we need a definition to base our understanding of "problematic" around before we even start looking at the characters.

one dictionary definition of problematic is “unresolved or dubious”, so for the purposes of this analysis i am going to rank them based on their perceived controversial value; i.e., which character would spark the most controversy in an online fandom space. a vriska, if you will.

the least problematic charisma house is sarukawa. first of all, hes a short king, and second of all,his whole thing is really easy to figure out and work around. there isnt any sort of controversy i can imagine going on with him, other than maybe the fact that he might be in a gang and is furry-coded.

for our second least problematic member of the charisma house, i think im going to have to go with terra. what controversy would there even be? sure he inconveniences others for the sake of his own self love, but honestly all its really resulted in so far is being late to coffee, broken mirrors, and... a man jumping out of a window, property damage, displacing another member from his own living space... well, i never said he wouldnt still have some issues. but overall, terra just lives for himself, and i dont think thats going to get him called out. maybe an argument can be made for the moral implications of being straight up in love with your self, but im not getting into that

it shouldnt come as a surprise that i also dont think rikai is problematic... mostly. like i said before, were ignoring his music video for this post, so thats not where his controversy comes in. hes an advocate for order, justice, and safety, so obviously, overall this is pretty good, right? but he also enforces his ideals onto others without regard for their own beliefs, for example, the rikais morning track where he gets everyone up at 5am because he, personally, goes to sleep at 9pm and thats a healthy time to wake up for him. however, not everyone follows that same sleep schedule, so obviously it wouldnt be healthy for them to wake up at that particular time... and that can be applied to basically everything he does. i could definitely see some discourse about the validity of trying to force your lifestyle onto others, especially when you take into account the fact that rikai apologists would absolutely defend him by saying hes autistic (coded) so he cant help his obsession with order. hes a 25 year old neurodivergent minor, how could you say hes in the wrong?!

next up was close between amahiko and iori, and iori wins this one through plausible deniability and having no self esteem. like, hes obviously a masochist, and forcing everyone around you to sign a contract agreeing to use you for everything is clearly manipulative. but! dont forget, some people devote their lives to serving others to cope with the fact that they view themselves as less than human, and an empty shell devoid of anything that needs to be filled with the commands of others! so i could see controversy there, and honestly im so glad charisma house isnt huge here, because i did not enjoy imagining it.

like i just said, amahiko comes out ahead of iori because... i mean. come on... the controversy here is fairly obvious, and this is the website where people weep about kink at pride. absolutely no way amahiko is going to come out of here without a multitude of callout posts and dissertations about how anyone who likes him is problematic. his whole thing is sex! he calls everyone sexy! he stripped at the christmas party! he says thanks when people call him a perv! hes clearly a creep who needs to be contained, thank god terra trapped him in his room that one time... you see what i mean? like, there is absolutely nuance here, and i can get into that some other time, but i dont think the online world would take kindly to the minister of sexy affairs.

now whos in second place? who do we have left? its fumiya. i mean like, his whole thing is... i dont even know. i mean like, just look at him. he lies for fun, he steals, he made everyone ride off a cliff... but most importantly, hes a minor. i dont think i have to elaborate here

this may come as a shock, but ohse is the most problematic charisma house. how?! ray, how on earth is ohse problematic?! hes just a suicidal shut in! yeah, but you have to remember, im looking at their potential controversial value here, and ohse is absolutely ripe for discourse. hes guilt tripping everyone! is he even taking care of his lizard!? we dont need a character whos shtick is that they keep trying to kill themself in 2022! even if he doesnt mean to, his self deprecation is harmful to others! he has blue hair and pronouns!

well im tired now so the end

#asks #anon #im not 100% on some of these rankings but i didnt have time to make a chart or anything like i wanted to #like i wanted to be a bit more scientific about this but. its mainly just based on the vibes and some visions i had #maybe some other time i can do some math to make a more accurate ranking but for now. thisll do

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jj-babebank · 3 years

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Room 107 // chapter III // JJ Maybank (smut)

This story picks up where season 2 leaves us.

TW: May contain mentions of drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, sex and violence.

PREVIOUS CHAPTERS CAN BE FOUND HERE: one ; two

Chapter 3 - La Ganga

Samara’s hand was still resting on JJ’s knee as her eyes sultrily bored into his, waiting for his response. JJ’s head was spinning in a thousand different directions, trying to assess what exactly was going on. The main issue he had with this whole ordeal was that she didn’t in fact invite him over because she wanted him just as much as he wanted her. The sad truth, as JJ came to realise, was that this annoyingly attractive girl had simply overheard him boasting to his friends about the gold that they had found, and respectively lost, and now she wanted a piece of that instead. JJ sighed loudly. As much as he hated to admit that this was a bad idea, he pushed that thought very far to the side and tried to negotiate with the part of his brain that didn’t think logically, which in his case was the dominating one. What exactly could he lose here? The chances of them finding the Royal Merchant gold were extremely low, to the point where they were almost non-existent. This girl was voluntarily offering to help them find it, and she was also willingly to let them stay in her family’s hotel for free until further notice. How JJ saw this was extremely straight-forward and simple - Samara asks for part of the gold, Samara offers her help in return for the gold, JJ accepts said offer and lets her help, growing closer to her in the meantime, seducing her and eventually winning her over, so that even they don’t find the actual treasure, she realises that the real treasure was right there with her all along, at it wore worn down biker boots and went by the name of JJ Maybank. Yep, that sounded like a great plan, one of his best plans yet, if he did say so himself. He looked down at Samara’s hand still on his knee, a ball of excitement growing in his stomach just at the sight of it being there, then he looked up at her face, twisting the corners of his thin lips into a smirk. “You have yourself a deal, gorgeous,” he said, his confidence suddenly returning to his body. The old JJ senses were coming back headfirst and he was feeling great about it. Samara smiled in return, raising her glass for a toast, “To working together,” JJ clinked his glass with hers, sending her a wink, “To working with each other,” The pair sat in silence for a moment, JJ mostly admiring the girl sitting next to him, before she broke the silence, “Where did you say you were from, JJ?” “We never got to that part, actually,” he answered, glad that Samara was taking interest in him, “I’m from a place called the Outer Banks, more specifically Kildare. It’s in North Carolina, right by the coast.” He explained, painting an imaginary picture of what he was saying with his hands, "You know, prior to ending up here, which was a total coincidence by the way, the furthest I’d been from Kildare was Charleston. I, uh, I haven’t really been anywhere.” Samara was studying his face while he was talking. She had asked him a simple question and was expecting a simple answer, yet this boy could just seemingly not stop talking. She couldn’t decide whether it was annoying, or strangely endearing. She almost felt bad for having to shut him up to change the topic to what she had actually called him over for, “So tell me about this gold,” Lucky for her, JJ didn’t seem to mind her direct approach to the change of subject, instantly going into another story - the one that interested her the most. “Funny you ask,” he said enthusiastically, taking a rather big sip of his wine, “So as I said, I’m from the Outer Banks. Let me describe the OBX to you - it’s an odd place, you see, a place much like any other in the sense that it’s divided into rich and poor, however that divide is a suuuuper big deal to us. You’ve got the rich and elite bastards called the Kooks, and you’ve also got the not so lucky ones who work for them - the Pogues. Me and those guys you so kindly invited into your home, are, well, were Pogues. Except for Sarah, she was rich-rich.” There it was again - JJ getting completely side-tracked in his own thoughts, talking about irrelevant to the topic of conversation things.

Samara somehow found it entertaining and she wasn’t particularly bothered by it so she just let him speak, hoping that he’d eventually get to the point. “- so one day, it turned out that John B’s old man was dead, although he’d left behind all these clues and well, one thing lead to another, we found the gold, except we weren’t the only people looking for it, obviously,” Bingo, there it was - the gold. Samara knew this was her cue to focus, “- so when we were finally within touching distance of the gold and the cross - boom - we threw ourselves of the ship to dodge getting totally killed, and, well, here we are.” JJ wrapped up his story, leaning back into the couch and sighing contently with what he believed to be a great short summary of what had happened to him and his friends, finishing the rest of his wine. Samara frowned as she did the same, “Hold that thought,” she said, standing up and disappearing into the diner for a brief moment, before coming back with a bottle of the infamous whiskey from earlier, it had just enough contents to fill up one more glass each. JJ smirked at the sight of her when she sat back down next to him and she frowned dramatically, “What? I thought this called for something a bit stronger.” JJ didn’t protest as the pretty brunette refilled their wine glasses with the harder liquor, “I have a cousin up in Daytona,” she said as matter-of-factly, “He owns a motel in the Holly Hill area. We can crash up there while we head up north. We’ll leave first thing Thursday morning, before my aunt and cousin come back. I’ll make sure we have everything we need by then, we have just enough time.” “Why are we heading up north?” JJ looked puzzled, “And how many cousins with hotels do you have?” “Seeing as we know virtually nothing about where these people were heading, the most logical thing that we can do is go back to the Outer Banks and try finding out as much as we can from there. There must be someone who knows.” The more she spoke, the more it made sense to JJ. Ward would have made sure to erase all of his traces by now, Rafe would have tried his best to follow in his father’s footsteps, however there was one member of the Cameron family who was, for the lack of a better word, messy. And that was Wheezie Cameron, Sarah’s younger sister. JJ was sure that Ward would have changed all of their phone numbers, if they were even still allowed to have a phone, however the thought of Wheezie Cameron totally removing herself from social media was by far absurd to JJ. He was sure that they would be able to somehow trace her even without having to go all the way back to the OBX, but before they could do that, this was their only option. Samara had turned out smarter than he had made her out to be initially. She was cunning, generous and helpful, all traits that JJ never thought he’d find this attractive in a woman. Hell, up until now he’d never even looked for any traits in women beyond their physical appearance, yet here he was - a changed man. “You, miss,” he pointed at her with the hand he held his wine glass in, “Are a genius. Has anyone ever told you that?” Samara snickered, although she couldn’t help the slight blush that was painting itself across her tanned cheeks, “Don’t push your luck too much, JJ, we’ve only just met,” she tucked a piece of hair behind her ear, almost appearing shy for a split second. This didn’t go unnoticed by JJ and he took it as a green light to scoot a bit closer to her, to the point where their faces were inches apart. He couldn’t help but breathe her scent in, and boy did she smell alluring, her perfume heavy and somewhat oriental, at least that’s how JJ would describe it. It reminded him of all the times he’d served tables down on Figure Eight and rich Kook girls would walk past him, leaving behind a scent of expensive designer perfume. Samara almost reminded him of a rich Kook girl, she looked so well put together and so on top of her shit. Good thing they weren’t in the OBX anymore, otherwise his friends would grill him for breaking the one promise he had made to himself

long, long ago - never getting with a Kook. Except she wasn’t a Kook, they weren’t in the OBX and much to his dismay - him and her were hardly getting with each other. He realised that winning Samara over would take time, and lucky for him, he had all the time in the world. Finding Ward and the gold would take a while and he was up for an adventure, especially since it included this gorgeous young lady. He studied her some more. Her skin looked so soft, and so did her lips - so soft, so inviting. Her eyes were dark and mysterious, shaped like almonds, and the way she batted her luscious lashes almost made her seem like she was keeping a number of dark and dangerous secrets. JJ knew that deep down she saw something in him, too. She just needed the right push to admit it. A stray strand of her hair fell in her face and before she could react, JJ gently tucked it away behind her ear, taking his time when his fingers met her face. He let them linger there for a second before pulling his hand away. “Thanks,” was all that she could say. “Don’t mention it,” he said gently, “We’re gonna be partners after all, we’ve gotta help each other out, right?” Samara almost rolled her eyes at the sound of JJ referring to them as ‘partners’, but she withheld from it. Something about this boy was very endearing to her, in a lost puppy type of way, and she didn’t want to admit it, but she didn’t entirely dislike his company. Au contraire, it had been a while since she had had someone around. This didn’t seem all bad to her - she would go for a little adventure, make some friends, and if all goes to plan, she’ll come home with a bag full of gold. Hell, if she felt frisky enough she could even JJ the time of day once or twice - no strings attached, of course. He seemed keen enough, that much she knew. And she had never been with anyone in that way before, much to everyone’s disbelief. She wasn’t going to tell him that, of course, especially not now. Perhaps it was the alcohol speaking, but she suddenly found him so attractive. He was her usual type - seemed like the local bad boy back home, the one who didn’t abide by the rules and got himself in trouble more often than not - and only God knew just how much Samara liked the bad boys. His fingers, although rough and calloused, left the softest touch, and she was ashamed to admit she wished he’d left them there for a moment longer. She crossed her legs and sat up straighter, trying to regain her composure. She knew she’d had enough to drink. She couldn’t do this here, especially not tonight, not in her aunt’s hotel. She knew that if she didn’t call quits to the night now, things might get ugly and she didn’t want to lose her composure with JJ yet. “Shall we?” She said, trying her hardest to sound as confident and unfazed as she could, “Head to bed I mean,” She quickly added, mentally kicking herself for not clearing it up and potentially giving JJ the wrong idea. Judging by the growing smirk on the boy’s face she realised she’d just dug herself a hole. “I thought we’d only just met, Miss La Guardiana,” he winked, standing up and offering his hand to help her up. She accepted it and turned on her heel towards the stairs as soon as she was on her feet, sassily flipping her hair as she did so. JJ followed after her, smirk only growing as they walked up the stairs and into the hallway to their respective rooms. When they reached JJ’s room, they both stopped, Samara leaning against the wall. “Fill your friends in on our plan so far,” she said, “About heading up to Daytona, I mean. I’ll take care of everything else until then.” JJ raised an eyebrow, not entirely sure what she meant by ‘everything else’. She noticed his confusion and decided to clear it up, “I’ll sort out some clothes for all of you, food is on the house, we’ll also need some cash so…” she eyed JJ up and down, an idea forming in her head, “Perhaps you could be useful while we’re still here and work for it, I’m thinking… waiter?” JJ almost laughed, “Baby girl, you name it - I’ve probably done it. Back home, there isn’t a job I

haven’t worked, just to make enough to put food on the table. Besides, serving food and drinks is the least I could do to repay your kindness,” his eyes darkened as he took a step closer to Samara. His face was getting dangerously close to hers, never breaking eye contact, “It’ll be my pleasure to work for you, miss La Guardiana,” Samara held her ground, trying to keep her cool as much as she physically could. On the inside, she was on fire. “Likewise, mister Kildare,” she whispered, inching her body closer to JJ’s; she wanted to push his buttons as far as she could in the moment. They stood there in silence for a moment; they didn’t need to say anything - their eyes were doing all the talking. JJ couldn’t keep his eyes off Samara’s lips, though when he finally gave in and leaned forward, the girl took a sudden step backwards towards her room, leaving him breathless. “Make sure you wake all of your friends up early tomorrow,” she simply said, “You didn’t think you’d be the only one who’d have to work for a living around here did you? “ she faked a grimace, still stepping backwards towards her room, “Meet me tomorrow in the lobby at 8. We’ve got work to do,” she stopped in front of her door, pressing her key into the lock, “Oh, and JJ?” Her door clicked open, “I really enjoyed tonight. Looking forward to our next date. Goodnight,” with that, she was gone. Did she say date? JJ stood in the hallway for a moment before going into his room. He couldn’t hide the grin on his face even if he wanted to. Samara totally had a thing for him and he couldn’t wait to dive into this new adventure - the gold being the last thing on his mind, because maybe, just maybe, Samara wanted him just as much as he wanted her.

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thisisgonnafuxkinkillme · 3 years

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My Yellow (18+ EraserMight)

NSFW Aizawa Shouta x Yagi Toshinori

Warnings: Established relationship, nsfw

They’d been together for quite some time now, and even though both of them had been in relationships before, neither were bold enough to go all the way.

On one hand, Toshinori instantly turned pink at the thought of even mentioning sex to his boyfriend, and on the other, Aizawa would die if he ever made his lover uncomfortable.

So, neither of them said a word about what they truly wanted to do to each other.

Or, in Toshi’s case, what he wanted him to do to him.

But that was neither here nor there as long as they kept quiet.

The thing is, when you deprive yourself of what you want, tension rises.

A lot.

Toshinori came into work early, as usual. To his surprise, Aizawa was already in his seat, casually sitting comfortably with his legs spread wide open. It wasn’t a conscious choice, and he wouldn’t have ever sat in such a suggestive position if anyone else was around.

Another thing, though, was that Aizawa was never one to come into work early. Maybe he’d been working on something all night?

So when he saw Toshi come into the room and make eye contact with his groin, he instantly shot up and crossed his legs, typing aggressively. The ‘w’ key nearly flew off as Toshi took his seat next to him quietly.

Though Aizawa did his best to ignore him, he could hear how Toshi was breathing just a little harder than usual.

Of course, that could just be chalked up to his condition. So, that’s what Aizawa repeated to himself until the thoughts of him on his knees looking up at him went away.

A few nights later, Toshi was relaxing in the living room, drinking his nightly tea and staring out the window and into the darkened sky. All he was wearing was a pair of red flannel boxers.

“Hey, sunshine, whatcha-“ Aizawa gulped as he noticed what he was wearing.

Toshi turned around, blushing from hearing that cute little nickname. It was rare that Aizawa ever used honorifics, and even rarer that those honorifics would be so... adorable.

Aizawa took a few moments to eye his boyfriend, tracing even his scar with his eyes.

God, he’s so fucking hot. Even doing nothing, he’s just perfect. I wish I could-

Before he could stammer out a compliment, though, Toshi had already began talking about something totally benign.

Another opportunity lost.

It was Friday evening when Toshi finally snapped. He was lying in bed, assuming he was alone. He figured that Aizawa had taken the night shift, and was dealing with patrolling the neighborhood. So, he took this opportunity to relieve himself.

He scrolled through various porn sites, trying to find something, anything that’d interest him.

But none did.

So, he had to resort to the old fashioned way: just imagining.

Boring, I know.

But hey, what else can a horny guy do in desperate times like these?

So, he got to work. He pulled out the lube he stashed deep under his mattress, in a silly attempt to hide his libido from his boyfriend as if he were a teenager afraid of being scolded.

His thumbs locked onto his boxers, pulling them down just enough so his tool was accessible.

He spread his legs apart, saturating his cock with the lube. As it made contact, he flinched at the cold, but the warmth from his hands and body helped ease the momentary discomfort. He sighed as he wrapped his fingers around himself. Instantly, tension that had been building inside of him began to ease just a little.

When was the last time he’d had time for himself like this?

Once he and Aizawa moved in together, he never really had much alone time. He preferred going to bed early and being an early riser, while Aizawa was either working all day and sleeping all night, or working all night and sleeping all day.

Thus, whenever he had time off, Aizawa was always just a room away.

Not that he didn’t like being with him constantly, it’s just... he didn’t want to make things weird. He just wanted to keep this relationship full of love.

Toshi had been in a couple relationships. I mean, of course he has. He’s all might, after all.

But what made those different was that none were really centered around what mattered most to him: love.

Usually, it was just women who thought he was attractive, or wanted him for his money, or just wanted to be friends with benefits.

Well, that was another thing. Toshinori had never been intimate with a man before. Or even been in a relationship with one.

Frankly, the thought of actually doing it with him was sort of intimidating.

But still, he couldn’t stop thinking about how he’d look down at him, running his fingers through his hair as he bobbed on his cock.

He pumped slowly but steadily, not needing much to excite his neglected member. He was touch starved for so long that just pleasuring himself was nearly too much for him.

So, he kept it simple.

Meanwhile, Aizawa was on his laptop in the living room, which was one door away. He’d decided to teach today’s class virtually, and he was free from his patrol duties for the night.

This was far from usual for him. He enjoyed to keep busy, staying active and feeling productive sort of gave him a purpose. Funny, isn’t it? You’d think that Aizawa was a lazy man, but in fact, he loved his job, and often overworked himself into oblivion.

Class was over, and he was now totally free to hang out with his boyfriend. He allowed himself a little smirk at the thought of that.

The lanky man stood and stretched, sighing as his joints popped. He’d been sitting down for a little too long.

As he approached the bedroom door to greet Toshinori, he heard it.

It was Toshi’s voice.

Now, Aizawa barely recognized the sounds and mumbling as his lover’s. None were familiar to him. That being said, though, the little, muffled moans leaked with the essence of him.

He knew he shouldn’t listen, but...

fuck, it’s hot.

Toshi, from inside the bedroom, didn’t even notice Aizawa’s footsteps. All he cared about was the Aizawa in his mind that was endlessly praising him for being a good boy for him. How he’d gently suck him off as a reward for serving him so well.

Seeing as he was seemingly home alone, Toshinori had no issue letting himself go, embracing the lewd sounds that escaped him and echoed back into his ears from the walls. There were no neighbors to speak of, no thin walls. Just him, his hand, and his imagination.

Aizawa pressed his ear against the door, listening intently. He was getting hard just by imagining what Toshi could be doing in there.

God, it’d be great if he’d just whimper out my name...

He thought shamelessly. By now, lust had completely taken over any semblance of logic and reason he had left. All he wanted was to bust the door down and-

The door opened.

Toshi had just his boxers on, paired with wide blue eyes and a slightly parted lips.

Aizawa’s face morphed into the same expression when he realized what he’d just done.

“H-h...how... long have... oh,God...fuck...” Toshi whimpered. His face was pink before, but now was tinted a bright crimson.

“I...um...fuck...” Aizawa mumbled, rubbing his forehead and looking away.

Toshi took a shakey breath, gathering up every ounce of courage he had, pushing down the last of his embarrassment. He had to for what he was about to pull next.

He mumbled a “fuck it,” gently taking the shorter man’s face in his hands and placing a kiss on his lips. It was sweet, tender, and most of all, passionate.

Aizawa pulled away, grabbing one of Toshi’s wrists.

“You don’t have to,” he stated, looking up into his eyes.

“Neither do you,” replied the blond.

“I mean, do you want to?” He added shyly. His confidence was all used up by his first little stunt. Luckily, Aizawa could take it from here.

“Well, duh,” he smirked. Before he could even get to the bed, Toshi was already playing out his fantasy to the best he could.

He kneeled on the hardwood floor, looking up at the ravenette as he tugged at his waistband as if asking for permission.

Aizawa tossed a pillow at him.

“Not without putting this under your knees. You’ll get bruises,” he instructed, keeping his boyfriend’s much frailer state in mind.

The tiny caring action didn’t help to stop his bulge from returning.

So, he did as he was told, and positioned himself on top of the pillow. Truthfully, it was much more comfortable, and a lot less stress on his achey bones.

Aizawa watched as Toshi gently unbuttoned and unzipped his pants, pulling them down to reveal his now fully erect cock.

Aizawa never wore underwear anyways, but hell, it definitely worked out for him this time.

Toshi wasted no time in taking it into his mouth, trying frantically to remember all the things pornstars usually did.

Um, shit, do they usually do it like... this? Oh no, I’m going to mess this up... fuck...

He then tried to deepthroat him. Huge mistake.

Instantly, he pulled away, gagging and coughing.

“You alright down there?” Aizawa asked, placing a hand on his shoulder.

Toshi nodded, wiping his mouth.

“Just do what feels right. You’re doing good. Just don’t get caught up on what’s ‘correct’, alright?” Aizawa comforted. It was as if he knew exactly what Toshi was thinking about. He nodded, twirling one of his forelocks on a finger.

He gently took it back in, trying his best to push out any expectations he had for himself.

Now, he just wanted to have fun.

He took his time exploring every inch of his partner, dragging his tongue from the base all the way up to his tip, taking a moment to swirl and suckle once he got there. Aizawa was absolutely eating it up, smirking down at him and placing his hand against his head to gently encourage him.

“God, just like that, baby... fuck,” he mumbled. His voice warbled under the intense pleasure. It really sank in at this point that this was really happening, and that he wasn’t just lazily jacking himself off in his car in an empty parking lot like he usually did.

Toshi squeezed his balls, gently, but confidently. He smiled to himself when Aizawa bucked and whimpered in response.

“I-I’m close, Toshi...ahh... you... might wanna...ng...” he moaned, being cut off by Toshi pulling away with a small pop.

He continued to jack him off, looking up at him as he did so.

“Perfect.... oh... so perfect for me...” he murmured as he came.

Toshi’s cock throbbed at that praise. He lived for it.

Fuck, it was just like he’d always imagined it.

Better, even.

Aizawa took a moment to recover from his orgasm, his eyelids closed peacefully. Toshi gently received a tissue, cleaning his lover off carefully.

"oh, you...you don't need to do that," Aizawa said breathily, sitting up. Toshi was silent as he proceeded. He didn't care about what he 'needed' to do for him. It was what he wanted to do for him.

Knowing this, Aizawa didn't protest. Instead, he kept this extra tiny favor in mind, piled up high along all the other countless acts of care that Toshi always left in his life. He was going to make it up to him, somehow.

And he just had an idea of how.

As Toshi gently laid next to Aizawa on the bed, running his hand over his clothed chest, Aizawa scooted off of the bed and positioned himself in between his boyfriend's legs.

"Your turn," he smirked, unbuckling his pants. Toshi blushed, looking away shyly.

Now, unlike Toshinori, this was far from Aizawa's first rodeo. He'd had a couple boyfriends, and he knew his way around a cock.

So he knew how to make him go absolutely wild. And he did.

He achingly teased Toshi's tip, rolling his tounge over it over and over, all while looking up at him cockily.

Toshi couldn't hold back his lewd sounds as much as he wanted to. He covered his mouth, trying to trap the whimpers eminating from his chest, but to no avail.

Aizawa was fully aware of the fact that Toshi was putty in his hands.

Just as he began to reach orgasm, Aizawa pulled away. He whined from the loss of stimulation. Luckily for him, Aizawa was far from finished with him. He rushed off to his side of the bed, grabbing a small bottle of lube that he'd often used for himself (and secretly hoped he'd be able to use on him), popping it open.

Toshi flinched as he felt Aizawa slathering the slick liquid onto his opening.

"is...is it gonna be...okay?" He asked, his voice pitched up a little from his usual tone.

"It'll be alright. I'll be gentle with you," Aizawa assured gently while tracing his finger around his rim.

This was yet another part of himself that Toshi never explored before. Frankly, he was always scared of it.

But being so gently eased into it by the person he loved most made things just a little less terrifying.

Aizawa gently pressed his index finger into his enterence, easing it in slowly while carefully gauging Toshinori's reactions.

What Toshi didn't know was how terrified Aizawa was of doing this, too. He'd be horrifically guilt ridden if he even slightly made his boyfriend uncomfortable, God forbid being in actual pain. He'd simply die then and there.

But, Toshi never saw that part of him. As far as he, or anyone else, knew, Aizawa was always as chill as ice in lemonade on a summer day.

Toshi was tense. He always was, but that tension simply wouldn't do for this.

"Relax," ordered Aizawa.

"Ah, sorry..."

"Don't be. I know you're nervous. You're doing great," he encouraged.

Toshinori’s heart fluttered at such gentle praise.

And just like that, Aizawa had a digit inside of him, gently pumping it in and out, caressing him from the inside out.

After a small while, a second finger made its way inside.

And a third.

By now, Toshi was trying his best not to come apart. He bashfully covered his mouth to stifle the embarrasing sounds, all while Aizawa longed for him to let it all out.

However, that isn’t to say that Aizawa didn’t find his boyfriend’s shyness absolutely adorable.

While he was doing his best to make his boyfriend into a little mess, he himself was absolutely falling apart at how hot this was. His cock was absolutely rock hard and neglected. That wouldn’t be for too long, though.

“Toshi, do you think you’re ready?” he rasped as he took his fingers out of him.

“I...I’m scared,” he whimpered weakly. Aizawa quickly took him into his arms.

“If you don’t want to do this with me, please know that you do not have to. I want you to feel good,” he whispered gently. Toshinori was absolutely taken aback by his overwhelmingly gentle touch and caring tone of voice that his boyfriend rarely allowed anyone else to see.

“I want to, it’s just...I mean, you know...”

“I understand. Do you want to continue?”

Toshi nodded, squeezing Aizawa’s arm.

Aizawa instructed Toshi on everything: how to lay properly to be most comfortable, how to breathe, and how to relax his muscles for easier entry. He gave him a pillow to rest his head on, and did everything humanly possible to ensure that he would be comfortable before beginning.

Finally, the time came. Aizawa throughly lubed himself up, positioning himself at Toshi’s enterence.

“Let me know if anything hurts, or if you want me to stop, okay?” he ordered, his palm resting on the small of his lover’s back. Toshi nodded. With that affirmation, he slowly began to ease himself inside. Toshi winced at the burning and ache that came with his first time, but he was okay. He sighed as Aizawa layed comforting kisses along his back and neck.

“You’re taking me so well,” the ravenette whimpered. He struggled to not completely let in on his urges: just to let go and fuck him like he’d always dreamed.

For now, he just...couldn’t. Really, fantasies were one thing. But in real life, where someone could actually get hurt, it’s not as appealing.

Aizawa would much rather have this slow, gentle penetration than the rough stuff he’d planned any day if it meant that Toshi would be more comfortable.

And God, he was more than comfortable.

Once Aizawa’s full length was inside of him, the tip of his cock hit the absolute perfect spot, sending waves of pleasure through his body, radiating to the tip of his own cock.

“C-can you...mmph, could you start to move a little?” he whimpered. “Are you sure you’re ready?” Aizawa asked one last time.

Toshi nodded.

Aizawa never realized how...stressful this would really be. He knew what to do, and he’d definately been in this position more than once before, but he was paralyzed with the fear that he’d somehow break this fragile human being that he loved so dearly.

But he also knew that if he did nothing, that’d break him as well, just in a different way.

So, slowly and rhythmically, he began to hesitantly pump himself in and out.

Toshi was instantly a mess. He did his very best to confine his moans and whimpers to a nearby pillow, but despite his efforts, Aizawa was well aware of how he was effecting him.

Slowly, he picked up the pace, encouraged by those sounds of helpless pleasure.

“Let me hear you, sunshine,” Aizawa groaned sweetly. Obidiently, his boyfriend abandoned the pillow, allowing his lover to hear all the sounds he was determined mere moments ago to hide.

As a reward, Aizawa stroked Toshi’s neglected cock while still keeping up the pace he’d set.

“Ahh! Sho...If...ugh...if you keep that up, I’m gonna...”

“I know, go ahead. Let me see it.”

He didn’t need his permission. Good thing, too, because with one final thrust, his already leaking cock throbbed as he released across the sheets.

Soon after, Aizawa did the same, all while inside his boyfriend. Toshinori reveled in the warmth that entered his belly from the inside out, and the gentle words of praise that surrounded him that poured so easily out of Aizawa’s lips.

He gently pulled out. Toshi sighed at the loss of him, but took this opportunity to relax into the bed and allow the soft sheets to cradle his tired body.

And he really was tired. Exhausted, even.

This was another reason Aizawa was so hesitant to do anything with Toshinori. He didn’t want to overexert him like this.

He was so tired, in fact, that he didn’t even notice when Aizawa left. He scarcely had a chance to before he returned with a bottle of water and a warm washcloth.

“Drink this while I clean you up, sunshine,” he instructed. Toshi nodded, his peacefully closed eyes fluttering open. He shuddered as the cloth made contact with his skin.

“I wasn’t too hard on you, right?” asked Aizawa softly.

“Of course not. I would’ve imagined harder from you, if I’m being entirely honest.”

“Is that so?” He teased, smacking his ass playfully with a small giggle.

“Maybe next time. Maybe. I don’t want to hurt you,” he added. His serious tone was back as he caressed the now pink handprint.

“I’ll be fine, Sho. You know I’ve been through worse.”

“I’m aware. I just don’t want you to have to compare what you’ve been through to what I’m going to put you through.”

Toshi laughed.

“You must be kinkier than I thought, if that’s the case.”

#yagi toshinori #toshinori yagi #erasermight #aizawa x toshinori #erasermight smut #aizawa smut #Toshinori yagi smut #all might x aizawa #all might smut #eraser head x all might #yagi mha #my hero academia #small might smut #aizawa shouta #Aizawa shota #shoto aizawa #mha smut #bnha smut

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sugar-petals · 4 years

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BTS Scenario: Taking Care of Them When They Have a Cold

↳ ♡ NOTE ⇁ time for fluff. autumn season is coming, let me set the mood right here, we’re going cozy 🍂

warnings ⚠️ hurt/comfort, brief mention of sexual tension

⌈jimin⌋ ⇢ Jimin’s cold is unusually subtle. In terms of visible signs, it’d take some time to notice it for someone who doesn’t know him or doesn’t check just how heavy another person’s breath is going. But feedback? You will definitely get. Compared to how he’s pouting about it, which will melt your heart is what I’m saying, the symptoms are understated in comparison to the other members. Taehyung’s cough can shatter an entire neighborhood, Jimin sneezing is as graceful as a gazelle. Mind you, his nose is runny, and the slight fatigue of the first two days isn’t negligible, but the major thing to actively mend is more psychological than physical. In other words, his body does its thing, you don’t have to overextend yourself.

That’s what you have to figure out first to really take care of him properly. After laying him down and bringing both snacks and liquids, talking is what he needs rather than ten thousand types of medications and cool towels all over him. Jimin doesn’t want to see you become sick as well so you don’t sit up close, but at talking range, and you text a lot during the day while you work. He’s worried about not being able to practice and hopes the cold doesn’t show in his appearance. You assure him it takes five days at best and he is okay again and promise a lot of kisses. With that prospect, healing is even sweeter. And, you know the guy, Jimin misses seducing you, so.

⌈taehyung⌋ ⇢ Absolutely enjoys being babied ten times out of ten. Nothing better than you preparing a hot herbal bath. Rosemary, thyme, camomile. The steam spiraling off the water surface looks so relaxing in the candlelight, the classical music you put on sways him into a trance, he lays there for half an hour just motionless. He gets a little tray of coconut cookies on the bed stand, you play the guitar to him, you massage his feet before he sleeps… Which, and he hates admitting it, makes it nice to be sick. By all means not because of the fever, but the extra attentions, the hot chocolate for bed. Taehyung thinks about that twice and concludes something. He doesn’t want to get a cold just to receive this treatment. Not for his own health nor to worry or overwhelm you, he’s not gonna guilt-trip you into being a servant.

So, you agree for later: It’s good to treat him sporadically just because, whenever and wherever, cue Shakira. That Taehyung so enjoys a good healing and mending time and it just explodes when you both have a reason to, that’s rather something to expand to the whole relationship. Taehyung will do the exact spoiling for you, with a romantic twist the way you know him. It doesn’t need a sickness to resort to doing nice things for your partner. At the end of the day, the body will remember it and get sick again because it sees what it gets through being ill. That’s something to squarely avoid doing, a random gesture is good for its own sake, amen.

⌈yoongi⌋ ⇢ Grumpy, murmuring, disgruntled he can’t work without getting a headache, needs a lot of silence to recover so he curls up on his own with earphones in and fifty playlists on repeat. He’s like tch, only thing I need is tiger balm to whip me back into shape. Or… wait. Wait a second. A cup of steaming hot coffee with extra foam he will not reject. Or a plate of fried rice. Anything fried and super crispy, really. Yoongi likes those things, especially when prepared by you. Nothing is more honoring. Actually? I’ll change the initial statement. Yoongi does accept some help. You simply gotta find out his catnip I mean favorite dishes and either know the place to order it from or have some kitchen basics down. Nothing super fancy though, it doesn’t need a God’s Menu. The right seasoning does the trick already.

He wants it mega spicy, sweating out the cold is the way to go said Yoongi’s mom back in the day so he goes by that motto. Love starts in the stomach for felines. If another BTS member drops take-out at the door, even better, that uplifts him greatly. When he munches, that’s the most gratifying thing in the world. Yoongi wants you to eat with him by the bed so that means chili in the bedroom but screw it. All that food and you cranking up the heater distracts Yoongi from his cold and some head pats have him on his way to recovery. And, by the way. He’s kinda turned on by you cooking for him so… the frustration is real, you’re gonna fuck like rabbits once he’s okay again.

★ ⌈namjoon⌋ ⇢ The friendly giant will stay in denial about his cough for at least three days and walk around with way too much medicine in his system. He begs for someone to relieve him, mostly himself, but all those sky-high standards are in the way. Responsibility! Hard work and endurance! Solve it in your head! What is the spiritual reason for colds? How many pills keep you awake for an all-nighter to write an album in one go? What’s next on the schedule? So it goes on, you know the deal with Joonie. You have to kick that leader butt so he finally enters the healing cave under the sheets. Don’t kick too hard though, he doesn’t have Jimin-level cushions. He topples over into his sheets fast anyway, he’s that level of exhausted from his own suppression.

The story goes on, Namjoon feels extremely guilty for getting pampered and still ponders the reasons why he is ill rather than slowing down a minute and closing his laptop for a hot second. It gets a little awkward unless you figure out your secret weapon. What he feels better with is you reading him stories while he rests on the sofa. I’m not kidding. Or if you’re busy or he wants to be alone, audiobooks. That input is like a lullaby to Namjoon who gets knocked out by the soft whispering only to descend into 12 hours of sleep. Ah, he’s namjooning. Yep. His cold will force him into resting, but by the time he recovers, he is six books wiser and has had the pleasure of listening to your voice which he finds soothing. Thankful he is, anticipate an expensive present and flowers.

★ ⌈jungkook⌋ ⇢ Meal and fluid intake: Quantity explosion! Wow, wow, and wow again, the sheer amount that he can snack and turn into what seems even more muscle and more sweetness. Guinness World Record. He knows his system is currently resetting, he wants to hand it the building blocks, he knows the math. Yes, even sick Jungkook is the cutest foodie in the world. Yes, he will eat his veggies. He worries about not being able to work out so you at least help him stretch his legs ever so slightly in bed. He’s missing his boxing gloves like crazy, he wants to see the members in the practice room, he wants his milk. The latter is easy to get for him, and FaceTime comes in handy.

Namjoon does a little motivational speech, and Jungkook feels better almost instantly. Later on, you have to scold him — well, just a little bit — for getting up in all that enthusiasm to do some of his routine on the second day, but he already knows it’s not good for him to get his heart rate up like that. He patiently snuggles in a cocoon of duvets with only his eyes being visible. Until, finally, his red lil’ nose goes back to normal and his lungs feel a lot lighter. Jungkook really hates being dizzy, so it’s a weight off his hunky shoulders all right. Then, he can join you at the dinner table for a double portion of extra Parmesan Spaghetti, and you settle on the couch to bingewatch romantic animes and any Studio Ghibli movie in history.

★ ⌈jin⌋ ⇢ It simply can’t be helped, he even wants to make this funny. Humor really is a never-ending well, Jin is Spongebob’s long lost cousin if you go by his amount of meme talk. He calls himself Rudolph the Red-Nosed Jindeer, stuffs handkerchiefs into his nostrils, draws smileys on his knees with the cream usually meant for a dry philtrum (he now has very hydrated knees, how about that), does impossible contortions to find the right sleeping or reading position. Honestly, you don’t really have to take much care of him nor worry, Jin will cure himself through laughter. The power of positive emotion. Entertainment is nothing to provide for, he’s a one-man show after all. Jin is the least bored when he’s sick among the group, however! It needs someone else to exchange with, you know. No punchline without an audience. Listening is the best thing.

Sit, lean back, see what he has to say. The only thing you gotta actively do is stop him from choking on his own spit after a particularly dead-on joke. Maybe it’s introducing some room for serious time that helps Jin enter a different track. I can imagine that. Some talk about memories, talk about sorrows and issues. Jin is a complete man, but he still has plenty of ’em, demons don’t evade handsome people. And those need to be talked through in a silent minute. Jin also enjoys movie nights with a cup of tea in one hand and syrup in the other, that’s the go-to way to unwind. You can finally go all out and pour him his tea, bake for him, serve some self-made popcorn, extra sticky and sweet, oh yum.

★ ⌈hoseok⌋ ⇢ If Jimin and Hobi ever get colds at the same time, this will be the poutiest contest. They’re the most vocal about it in the group. Hoseok, and that will come to surprise you a little, becomes needy. Not at the beginning where he’s confused and emotional about what’s going on with him (someone who works this hard and needs a fully functioning body is thrown out of their lane even by the slightest symptom), but shortly after. You’ll come to understand how sensitive his body is, almost as perceptive as Jungkook’s actually. His body blows up with a strong fever, a hot man heating up even more is just an explosion of physics.

He needs handkerchiefs, he needs tons of water, he needs music to distract him a little, he needs a heating blanket for his feet once the fever is gone. Granted, every sick person depends on those things, but Hoseok is someone who calls out of the bedroom often because he ran out. He’s not afraid to ask for things unlike Namjoon who would refuse out of overt politeness. You certainly have a lot to do because his cold comes in strong so it’s important you enjoy taking care of him and don’t do it out of obligation. Quality time is what we’re talking about here. It’s not about you doing the things, it’s about the presence. That’s why Hoseok will use his money well and always order proper take-out that’s not just classic fast food, you don’t have to cook or anything.

related: putting bts to sleep after a hard day

#bts headcanons #bts scenarios #bts scenario #bts fluff #bts x reader #bts #bangtan #bts imagine #bts domestic au #bts hurt and comfort

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kenobihater · 4 years

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okay this is only part of their post but it's the part i take the most issue with. i screenshotted rather than reblogged because i don’t want this person catching flak for one stupid post. granted, the post irked me enough to write all this bullshit, but i’m not mad at this person in particular, moreso the overall direction that the disk horse is currently going in

i'm gonna break this down into points.

1) “i want him to take off his helmet because i want to see his face, but i feel like w/ this new information if we get that kind of scene it's going to HURT” - so far the only time din's helmet has been removed was during a traumatic experience. he did not want to take it off. it was scary for him. why the hell do you want it to come off when he's adamant that it stays on? bc that means likely the only way we're seeing his face is if it's taken off against his will. either that, or he abandons his creed in a crisis of faith, which would also be traumatic. so i agree that if the helmet comes off, the scene is going to hurt to watch. why do you want that??

2) “...that he's in a cult...” - the children of the watch don't fit the definition of a cult. instead of being a cult, they're a diaspora with a shared creed. their 'isolation' stems from safety measures taken in the wake of the purge - face coverings for safety, only one member of the covert can leave at a time, and literally living in the sewers to avoid detection. these are all valid actions, considering that the covert is slaughtered as soon as they’re discovered, and that din has been accosted for his armor twice in three episodes, way after the purge ended. if that's how the galaxy treats mandalorians, then you bet your ass that their secrecy is justified, unlike the secrecy found in cults.

the children of the watch are not exploitative, either, which is a hallmark of cults. they saved din during the clone wars, came to din's aid on nevarro, and were systematically killed for doing so. they knew this was a risk, but they did it anyways, because it was the right thing to do to protect the child.

cults are also closed to outsiders. now, i'm extrapolating from legends here, so bear with me. bo-katan said they followed the 'old ways' or something along those lines. the most well known mandalorian code of conduct was the resol'nare, or the 6 tenants. they were: wearing armor, speaking the language, defending oneself and family, raising your children as mandalorians, contributing to the clan's welfare, and aiding the mand'alor when called to. anyone who followed these tenants could claim to be a mandalorian. anyone. that's why i said they have a shared creed, not a shared race. anyone can become a mandalorian in legends, and if disney keeps that canon, then that's the exact opposite of being 'closed off'.

3)”... as if it were his choice when clearly it wasn't” - okay show me where he was forced into this ~evil cult~. show me where he has no agency. din was rescued and taken in as a child, yes, but he currently upholds and defends his belief system, and actively chooses on multiple occasions to stay true to his creed. even if he abandons the way later in the season (which I sincerely hope that he doesn't), he was never forced into his belief system - he was raised with it. i wasn't forced into christianity*, i was simply raised with it. did i eventually leave the faith? yeah, and my parents were chill. there's a big difference between being forced into it and raised with it.

4) “he was robbed of getting to show his face to another person and being lied to. that's a shock to him and he's going to have to deal with it in his own way” - hoo boy. HOO BOY. how was he """robbed""" of anything? if you're talking abt omera in s1, he made the decision to keep his helmet on himself (sidenote: omera was not disrespecting him by trying to take his helmet off ffs) and so how could he feel """robbed""" when he was the one to make that call?

onto the next part - what was he lied to about? the origins of the children of the watch? why tell din about their links to an organization that they don’t even resemble anymore?

the last part, the part about this being a shock to him, is likely correct. anyone would be shocked if someone told them they were actually a member of a cult. din being shocked doesn’t mean that bo-katan was right, though. bo-katan is a liar. even if you don't take into account her own past with death watch that she conveniently left out, she lied to din about taking the ship, rather than just stealing weapons. she did this for self serving reasons - she wanted information on the darksaber. at the end, she asks din to stay. who's to say she didn't tell him his clan was a cult to drive him away from his creed because she wanted to gain another grunt for her team? do i think that this is her angle? no, bc i don't think she or the writers are smart enough for that. but could it have been her motive for the cult comment? anything is possible, especially in light of the fact that she's left out her own involvement with death watch when telling din his clan was a cult.

that’s it. that’s all. shit, i def put way more effort into this post than i should have, but what’s done is done. i’m tired of people calling any old religion a cult just because they don’t like it. words have meanings, you can’t just say whatever the fuck you want and not get called out on it. sorry if this comes off as aggressive, but i’m fed up with this discourse, and this will be my only post on it.

*the mandalorians are not coded as christian, and here’s a post on why. i’m using this analogy because i was raised with a belief system like din was, not because the children of the watch resemble christianity.

#len speaks #lucky don't look #this isn't even close to the worst take i've seen. thankfully this one only had abt 60 notes #the worst one i ran into had over 800 #not sure if i should put this in the main tags?#don't really want to start shit #but i also have a desire to help change the discourse surrounding this chapter because it fucking sucks #fuck it #the mandalorian #mandalorian spoilers #anyways if you clown in the notes i'll just block you and move on with my life #len's meta

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gamelpar · 3 years

Text

A Second Chance

Red Team origin story.

Jerome never stopped fighting; he just chose to fight for something else.

Characters: Douglas-042, Jerome-092, Alice-130, unnamed Spartan-II trainees, Dr. Haley (mentioned), Chief Mendez (mentioned)

Warnings: a little angsty i guess, death (minor unnamed characters), guilt, sorrow, suffering, my writing at its finest

a fanfic for my lovely Red Team babies and anyone else in the Halo fandom who adores them as much as me. they truly do not have the amount of content they deserve.

edit: read it on ao3

______

A few years had gone since Jerome woke up in an unfamiliar bed in an unknown facility on a planet called Reach, and a woman---Dr. Halsey---had gathered him and a big bunch of other kids his age in a room and told them that they were to become the protectors of humanity and Earth and all her colonies. Him and 74 other candidates were to be trained to become soldiers of the UNSC.

He’d resisted. Others had as well. Some tried to escape. Jerome tried to escape many times despite knowing Mendez and the other DIs would always be waiting for him, always using more physical force and different tactics to throw him off from attempting again each time. He refused to be intimidated, though, and there were recurring instances where his violence towards the DIs that tried to stop him exceeded way past the limits that other trainees generally didn’t dare attempt to reach. He’d managed to even send a few to the infirmary with injuries that required immediate medical attention. He swore to himself that he would never stop fighting.

However, he eventually came to accept this new life, this new responsibility that was put on him. There were people---Dr. Halsey foremost---who held faith in him. Who believed he was capable of so much more, and what if he was? He didn’t stop fighting, no---he just chose to fight for something else, and in the last months he’d risen quickly among the top candidates.

In the absence of his real family back on Minister, he’d become close and forged a friendship with some of the other trainees, and eventually they became a team---something like family---most of them no longer remembered the family they’d originally come from. They became Red Team, with Jerome as team leader.

------

During a game of Capture the Flag, Jerome and his team faced off against another team in which a certain trainee, Douglas-042, was a member of.

During one of the rounds he’d advanced for Jerome but Jerome had evaded his blows and moves and beaten him, and advancing further Red Team ultimately won the game. The anger that he’d seen blazing in 042’s eyes was something he would never forget. The anger was familiar. He’d felt that same anger himself. It is still there, seething around inside him but he has control over it. Something that 042 yet had seemed to master.

Jerome had watched him sometime afterwards, and it quickly came clear that it was a serious issue of 042 that he struggled to fix and control, and was often berated by Mendez and the other DIs for it.

You have to learn how to control it, Jerome told him once during lunch, after Douglas’ and his team lost another game. It was the first words he said to him. You need to adapt sooner or later. Like I did.

-------

Jerome-092 remembered pain---unexplainable pain, and crying and screaming as his limbs thrashed around and he tried to move, tried to escape. And then nothing.

He woke up high on painkillers; mind fuzzy, body throbbing with pain, skin dry and cold, insides burning like a blazing fire. He couldn’t breathe. Soon there were doctors and nurses all around him.

Washout. That was what they had called him. You have been washed out of the program.

You failed.

They told him his body had rejected the augmentation procedures but that he was lucky. He survived.

Many others didn’t. Jerome was the only member of his team who’d survived. His friends---people he’d known as family---were dead. Their deaths, slow and painful.

Gone.

A knife twisted its way into his heart and he felt broken.

They told him the procedures had crippled him but that he was lucky.

There were others who’d been crippled in worse ways than he had. Those who barely looked human anymore. The knife twisted deeper and waves of guilt, sorrow, anger---emotions Jerome couldn’t distinguish---hit him on and on.

33 survivors fit for duty. 30 dead. 12 crippled, Jerome included, and it all left him with a great sense of failure, guilt of a survivor, a soul and body shattered and wasted.

He’d accepted the new turn of events of being raised and trained as a soldier. He never imagined that something inevitable would happen to render him unfit for that purpose after fully committing his life to it.

He went into rehabilitation and a few weeks went by which were spent performing different types of exercises, scheduled for several medical appointments, undergoing therapy sessions and more, all as part of a scheme created to help him recover from the failed augmentations.

One day Chief Mendez had come to speak to him, curious of how he was holding up. Jerome had told the Chief the truth but didn’t express the sense of guilt and failure he was constantly tortured by. The Chief had nodded in response and told him his rehabilitation was going well. So well, he told him that he would be given a second chance.

A second chance.

A second chance to become a soldier, a second chance to become a Spartan. Become what he had spent his life since he was six training for. Jerome could hardly believe it, mostly because he feared it was false hope. Mendez explained to him that his failed augmentations hadn’t crippled him as severely as it had for others, and that the progress of his rehabilitation had been shown promising enough for a second attempt.

A second chance; he’d do anything for that. If it meant that he had to be re-trained and suffer through re-augmentations, then so be it. He’d dishonor his dead and crippled comrades if he didn’t take it.

Mendez had also told him that he wouldn’t be the only one. There were others like him who would be given a second chance. Jerome felt a bit uneasy by that. It still felt like only days had gone since he’d lost his friends---his whole team, and their deaths were still fresh in his mind. But perhaps building up a new team would give him something else to occupy his mind with.

------

It was during his first day of the retraining in one of the facilities that he had been joined by another trainee. One like him, who’d failed the augmentations but been given a second chance.

Jerome immediately recognized Douglas-042.

His gait was still a little stiff from the failed procedures despite having been through rehabilitation like Jerome, and his skin was paler than ever. His jaw was clenched and Jerome suspected he was still in some pain; Jerome’s own bones still ached and his mind was a little dizzy sometimes.

“Hey,” he greeted him.

“Hey,” Douglas greeted back, his gruff voice carrying a sense of wariness of the current situation.

“Jerome-Zero-Nine-Two,” Jerome introduced himself. He didn’t know if Douglas recognized him; it had been a long time since their first interaction when Jerome had offered his advice. And the air was tense with uncertainty and uneasiness. Just something small and simple to tone it down, maybe.

“Douglas-Zero-Four-Two,” he replied curtly, scratching his neck. Jerome scratched his arms, the silence pressuring in on them.

They remained quiet for just a few minutes when another trainee joined them. Alice-130.

Jerome recognized her as one of the most capable and determined trainees he’d ever faced off against in training. 130 had quickly become known among the 75 of them as being one of the few who didn’t seem as traumatized by the sudden change in their lives like many others were.

Rather, she seemed to thrive on it. The hard and difficult training had been a series of seemingly impossible challenges for all of them, but 130 had been as determined as always to succeed, seemingly taking each lesson she was taught to the heart. Jerome held no doubt that out of the three of them, she’d been first to embrace the new path presented in her life while Jerome had whole-heartedly refused to accept it and Douglas had struggled with the grave differences his new life presented in contrast to his earlier.

She was driven by her yearning for action and lived for the combat and challenges she faced. Never one to be driven and blinded by anger.

He admired her for that.

They introduced themselves to her and she did the same, before things went quiet again. The air was still as tense as before.

“So…” Douglas tried but quickly trailed off. None of them really knew what to say or do. It was scary to believe that they’d been given a second chance when the program had labeled them as washouts.

But they had that in common. They were washouts, who failed the augmentations, who were given a second chance while wondering what had gone wrong, why they failed the first time, why they survived when so many others of them didn't. It wasn’t fair.

Life hardly ever was.

Jerome fiddled with his fingers on his arm. The three of them would supposedly become the new composition of Red Team, and he would again serve as team leader. He better get comfortable leading a team consisting of members he hardly knew.

“They gave us a second chance,” he began carefully, eyeing Alice and Douglas, attempting to draw out a response from either of them to better understand their take on the situation.

“Neither of us wouldn’t be here if that wasn’t the case,” Alice replied hesitantly, her strained voice betraying the hopeful excitement glimmering in her green eyes.

Jerome took a deep breath; at least he wasn’t alone in this.

This had to be a second chance.

He’d lost people he’d considered family and he missed them every day dearly. The knife was there again and twisted into his heart. There was pain and guilt. Douglas and Alice probably felt the same. They’d lost something as well. The three of them had been through the same events with similar losses. The three of them were the same.

It was a second chance.

“Yeah,” Douglas said warily after a moment, then quickly cleared his throat and spoke again, this time with more confidence and optimism. “It has to be.”

“Despite everything,” Alice continued, her voice a little stronger.

Jerome nodded. They hardly knew each other; they were still in pain but despite everything they have a second chance here. They should take it.

“A second chance,” Alice voiced his thoughts. “I’d take it.”

“Yeah, me too,” Douglas said in agreement and Jerome nodded his. A second chance.

Alice let out a breath and when she spoke next her voice didn’t sound as strained as before, her tone more that of confidence and determination. “Then let’s make sure we make it count.”

Make it count. A second chance to create something for what each of them had lost.

Don’t waste it.

Jerome no longer felt as wasted as he did before.

“Agreed,” Douglas replied, eyes shining now with the same determination and he rolled his shoulders a bit to loosen them up. “I’d say we better get started then, eh?”

Alice nodded at his proposal, challenge burning in her eyes.

Jerome looked at them. Each of them had suffered and lost much but it didn’t mean it was the end of things. They didn’t know each other well, but that would change.

It was a new beginning, maybe.

“Yes,” he said, loud and clear with confidence. A second chance for something new. “Let’s get started.”

#my writing #halo fanfic #halo #halo red team #jerome 092 #alice 130 #douglas 042 #these three needs more content #theres not enough and you know it #and i will help with that #i love my red team babies #another try with my writing holy hell #i think i did pretty well tho #if i get to say so myself #anyways enjoy!

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helloblobbyblobfish · 3 years

Text

Safety in coils

(Anîla refers to the mains humans as “kids”, but they all are in college, between 19 and 25.)

---

The 32 of July

New place, new diary! Hello, four diary, I will call you Helbert. I think it’s a common name for Americano males. Any way, I shall present myself to you to: I am a member of the proud race of naga, but I have yet to receive a proper name, having only 34 year old in human year. I am currently trying to live away from my tribe as a sign of maturity, however. I have decided that I would also record to myself what I am doing for my descendants to know what I did. I decided also, than, given the fact that I will pretend to be a human, I need to write in their tango, so that I would be prepared to speak with them.

I shall also name myself Anîla âbhoga, as respect for my elders, and because I lack creativiti. I should try to find myself a cave before looking for a house. In all accounts I read, we need to wear “clothes” when we takes our human forms, so I will steal them later on.

See you soon, Helbert!

---

2 of august

Hey, Helbert! You wouldn’t believe in the number of kids that went into the forest today. I could have eaten any of them without issue, they are so trusting! But that would end up alerting someone, and I don’t want hunters yet. Americannans; They don’t seem to realize the danger that exist, I was told of their ignorance; but it is really worrisome.

Trough, that mean that I have plenty of Americanans that can explain to me everything. I am even more persuasive that most of my clan, the reason as to why I was allowed to travel the sea unsupervised. As you serve as my “recording devices”, I think I am supposed to give you the description of the youth I have met. They all got to see my eyes and should not be worried about my half-snake appearance, but I will keep a human look next to them, as to not push their limits. I could not make them come back to me at a precise time, so I will put them back under. It would also make them less suspicious of my questions.

The first kid I found was running, and scared. I guess he was lost for a while, and got into trouble, because he had what he told me were call b-r-u-i-s-e-s. (I Made him spell it, I am learning English word I was not told existed. The excitation!) It’s brownish marks that indicate you were p-u-n-c-h-e-d. He also had a similar marks on one of his eyes, but it was black. Apparently, it is black or blue around the eyes, and as such, you call those bruises “black eyes”. He has yellow hairs, with dirt and twigs in them when I fond him, but I clean him. He had green eyes, if I saw correctly, before he saw mines. I though he was short, but all the humans I met were close to his height. He has 19 year, and is name is Noah.

A few minutes after I brought Noah at the edges of the forest, I fond another male, who is named Andrew Evans. He is really different in behavior and look. I did not tell you about the clothes! It is kind of important! Humans wear different “styles” of clothes depending of their ages, gender or role in the town hierarchical structure. Noah was wearing gray “S-w-e-a-t pants” and a red “H-o-o-d-y” with a green stripe. It was way too big on him, so I guess he and his family does not have a lot of money. He also screamed and tried to run when he saw me. Andrew Evans has black hairs that he “greased”, brown eyes, I am sure for those, I thought to ask. He is wearing blue “J-e-a-n-s” with holes he said he made himself. I guess there is a meaning, but I was asking basic questions, I will interrogate the kids more later on.

Andrew Evans also has a silver chains dangling on the side of his pants, a white “T-s-h-i-r-t” who he cover with a “Leather j-a-c-k-e-t”. He also had dangling “dog tags” around his neck, who reached lower than his “P-e-c-s”. They are by two, silvery, oval, and contain info. His “dog tags” were about his father, who got them in a war. Andrew Evans is proud of his dad and wear them. Ritualistic importance? He also tried to attack me with a knife when I met him. As punishment, I kept the “dog tags” I do not understand the meaning of some of the info, like the “AB” mark.

It appear Andrew Evans was looking for Noah, so I showed him the way to civilisation. And then, I heard cries of “Andrew”, because I presume someone went after Andrew Evans. Perhaps they do know the forests are places you get lost in, but none of the kids seemed prepared to meeting me. Are americanos forest really without nagas? How?

Any how, the third kid has a darker skin color that the other two, but it is not as dark as the skin color of the humans who live in India. He had brown hair who looked that fluffy spikes, and I had a hard time flattening, blue eyes, and was wearing another “T-shirt”. They cover only part of their arm, fascinating choice, in my opinion. He also had “Jeans”, but his were gray, and without holes. He wondered where I was coming from as he never saw me, and did not believe me when I said I was a newcomer. To worry about. I simply calmed him and told him where to find Andrew Evans. I was not sure what to ask of him. Except his name, it’s Leo

I ended falling on a fourth and final kid by complete accident, nearly an hour later, despite him apparently entering with Leo. This kid was looking at least a head taller than the rest. His name is Chris. He stated he “was” 24, witch I think is a bit old to call a human, a kid, but I have to look more into it. He is as pale as Noah and Andrews Evans. His hairs are the fabled red, and his eyes remind me of hazels. He also wears a “Leather jacket”, who he kept closed, because he wears nothing underneath, and blue “Jeans”, who should be burned given the numbers of oil stains who covered them, and also massive holes, with is knees basically being in the open. I had to tell him to change clothes, or he would be hurt if he fall. He wasn’t taking me seriously, so I put him under my gaze at this moment.

Over all, it was an excellent day to start seeing what kids human act and look like. I will go into town tomorrow to meet adults.

---

3 august

Well, wouldn’t you know, Elbert, I was using phrasing of a sentence and idoms who sound old, for someone in his thirties. One day interacting in the town, and I already got a reputation as an “old-timer”. Who could have guess? Most people are wonderful, in any case. I also bumped into Andrew Evans, Leo and Chris. They were with another kid in their age range, Steve. He is taller than Leo, but smaller than Andrew. Oh, yes. Evans is a family name rather than a composite surname. My bad.

Leo was still suspicious of me, and I wasn’t able to talk with them. He said something about “stranger danger”. I wonder if he is more afraid of other humans than what is living outside his town. What are humans doing between themselves? It would appear our knowledge of their society is dated. I need to get alone with him if I want to examine their behaviour properly. Instead I met a few adults and discreetly made their door open to me. I did take a trip to the house seller, but I will need papers and money for one. It’s more difficult than we expected when I left my home forest. There is also that man named John Miller. He seems to think I am weak because he can’t see muscle. Probably an hunter. I need to keep an eye on him too.

Wait, there are footstep sounding close. I come back once I saw who is it, and why they are here. What if they already know?

It was Noah! Unlike the others, he still wears the same clothes than yesterday. Truly poor. And because he already saw my eyes, he is so easy to put under. Actually, he is sitting right next to me, and when I took my hybrid form, he was all too happy to snuggle in. Good human. So, because he is really easy to interact with, and he told me he just often goes into the forest when he is “overwhelmed”, he will be my number one source of information! So, I will ask some questions, and note the answers into you, Ebert!

So, Noah Miller! Turn out he is the son of John Miller, who isn’t a hunter, but a construction worker. Noah seem to be hiding something about him, but I don’t want to push. Noah seems nice, I don’t want to destroy his intelligence or his being. So, I will wait till he wants to tell me for further explanations. He also doesn’t want to tell me where do those “bruises” and cuts come from. I am a bit worried for his safety. Does he try to get into fights to prove himself to his father?

Human kids his age like to play something call “video games”. I need to come to his house to play, however. Well, after I ended up asking question, we will play fetch. I heard pets like that, and I might keep Noah around, I really like him. His outfit is one he picked because he wants to cover “them”; Okay. Apparently, “cool” outfits for him show muscle, leather jackets always work, Jewellery show wealth, seem like the meanings are the same as we naga knew, just a bit differently. Jewelry

Yes, I asked Noah to correct mistakes he saw. It’s useful for my human guise. Also, Andrew is the popular kid who has a bright future. That mean he can get away with selfishness and violence, in this society. I can’t believe it. Well, as a subject and potential pet, I should give Noah a good life, so the research is put on hold the time I get the other kids to respect him.

---

6 August

Hey, Albert. Been a few days, but I had to make Andrew, Chris, Steve and especially Leo way more pliant that they were. But today, they will all come to this forest with additional clothes they think would fit Noah and make him looks “cool”, so that he joins their “friend” group. It looks a bit more like a hierarchy in itself, but I will make sure they treat each other better. Win-Win for everyone! I hope I use those expression correctly. Anyway, Noah too got more contacts with me. He seems to really trust me “more than anyone” he says, but he still won’t tell me where his injuries come from. I am a bit disappointed. Seem like he made some strong barriers about it, if I force the answers from him, it would hurt his brain, a lot.

Leo has arrived. I had to get to his parents first, to be alone with him, but heh. I have a bed in their basement now. Leo was really distrustful. Now, he is a bit over-zealous to obeying me, but I don’t see any other psychological impact. I do keep an eye on him for his safety. He also is the one closer in size to Noah, so I expect his clothes to be most of the ones Noah come home with. Leo also make delicious chicken wings.

Now, Steve has arrived. Coming back to my few notes, I forgot to describe him. He has black hair, brown eyes, and the first time he saw me alone I was shirtless and that made him red, for some reason. But he doesn’t want to talk about it. He is 23. He is the drag-along man of his group, and easily scared. It amuses me to make loud noises behind his back. He jumps every single time! Today, he is wearing a sleeveless black cloth he calls “top”, and blue “shorts”. He really doesn’t know how to visit the forest.

Andrew and Noah arrived together. Andrew is surprisingly the one who brought the more clothes. When I asked, he stated he bought them. He is ironically the one who took the most the rings in my eyes, even more than Noah, who I found easy to put under. And I remind you I am strong in charm by naga standard. Andrew is also missing his dog tags. Apparently, you put “blood type” and height on it. I shall ask for their size and weight once I start the experience again.

Well, Chris is finally here. He at least wears something without “sexual innuendos” for once. I’ll admit I don’t understand them. Also, except Steve, they all have a weird combo with leather jackets and ties, to welcome Noah into the group. Really odd-looking, even fir me, and the fact that I wear “professionals” clothes all the time makes people talk. Noah, of course, is wearing a hoody and “baggy” pants. I’ll tell you how it went.

Really well!!! Now, Noah has a collection of “gym” clothes, rings, chains… the perfect “streetwear”, as Chris said. The boys are all very happy playing with the ball I gave them. And they all are super happy when I tap their head to signify that they are good boys. I’m so happy they stopped using gel, I can play with their hairs. But play time is over. I’m going back to studying them and their interactions, so they aren’t aware I was ever in their lives for now. I want to see them act normally.

Wait, why is Andrew berating them all. I understood he was mean to people outside his group, but he is controlling of the people in it? Chris is obeying him without question and making subtle threat for the others three to follow? Noah is afraid??! Leo is just done with this and complaint but does not act? Steve is not shivering like Noah, but I think he is afraid too. How could I miss that, and how can I let this happen in front of my eyes? I’ll be right back, Albert!

---

So, they have been some changes in the group dynamics of the boys. Now, Leo is the leader one. He also asks for my opinion on things and agree that I am smarter and wiser than him, and as such, my decisions are absolute and override his. Andrew is really happy to be led. He takes more easily to my suggestions than the others, so he is “living the dream”, as the “omega” of his group. I don’t know what that mean, he declared himself one. In his opinion, Leo is an “alpha” and the rest are “beta”. Andrew also wanted to classify Chris as the second-in-command, but I preferred Noah, because I have to admit at being biased, but Noah doesn’t want to lead, and Leo will be a great leader under my guidance, and he wanted to be the “top dog”.

Chris is really the one who got the best changes, though. He was really afraid of what to do without someone who use him as a muscled henchman, so now, he can suck up all type of information. His “G.P.A” will improve, thanks to that. We might have a “smart one”, after a trip to the library. And the, there is Steve. I don’t know what to do with Steve. Steve never showed much personality. When I asked him how he would describe himself, he said “gaie”, which mean cheerful in French, is I remember correctly. Didn’t appear that happy for me… Well, now, he is being nicknamed “the cheerleader” by his friends. They will not question the changes, but I think I will have to drop by their parent’s house later.

Well, I’m glad to see they all are having fun. Leo started a “soccer game”. Look interesting. Steve is cheering for them because they are an odd number. He seems decided to compliment Chris on his muscle, for some reason. Well, he also commented a few times about mine. Maybe he just put a lot of attention in physical health. I’m going to watch.

August 8

At the teaching place the boys are going (I though in English it was called school, but the refer to it as college), Noah is now one of the centres of attention, as a new friend of Andrew and thanks to his new look. Steve convinced him to wear “guyshadow”. Didn’t expect it to work well with the dark lines under Noah’s eyes (named “eye’s bag”, this language relies on such obvious terms, it’s worrying me. Are humans worried about being incomprehensible? It’s probably not the only human one to be this on the nose, but the only one I’m good at.), but now, he has a lot of weird attention from females and a few males, including Steve. I don’t understand why is external looks and money so much more important that what’s inside for humans.

Wait, I hear sobs. Why is Noah in pain?

HIS FATHER WAS VIOLENT TOWARDS HIM!!! THE FIEND! HE DESERVED BEING REDUCED TO A HUSK BY ME! SO GLAD HE IS NOW OUT OF NOAH AND MISS. MILLER’S LIFE!! Now, I heard a mother without a husband faces hardship in this “tolerant” society humans call America, so I will make sure the remaining Millers in town are wall-loved. I think I will move my human place from Leo’s house, he is okay, and go to live with Noah and his mom Susan.

---

August 10

Albert, while I was playing with Noah, he called me Dad. Apparently, it means he sees me as a major role model, and it’s a sign of a deep bond, said Susan. She seemed ready to laugh, and also a bit awkward, when she said that to me. Well, I’m glad he thinks so highly of me! I also think highly of my pet. Now, he is completely open to any change in personality or look I ask of him. I have a little doll I can dress and make talk as I want. He is a cowboy, a pre-re-education Andrew, a hunter, a servant. I asked of my sister she send me some jewelry, and now, he has wonderful gold hoops in his ear, and a silver chain with an emerald that he show to no one, but whose touch remind me of how good he is while looking at me... Truly, I am enjoying this study.

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Author’s note (how do you make italics on Tumblr?): So, this is a story I wrote in Summer 2020 for a contest about supernatural on a hypno-site. I planned to make a one-shot, then I liked the characters too much and started making an universe for them. If you have questions on them, I probably have some answers. It feature no pron, so I though. You know what, I should publish my own stuff on Tumblr. Hope you people enjoy

#male hypnosis #naga #no sex #sfw #hypnosis #tw: abuse #?#personality change #safety in coils #forgot tu put the series tag oh my god

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hawklanthebard · 3 years

Text

Fractured Diamond Chapter Two

"Wakey, wakey, Diamond-boy~."

The first thing Mondo heard as he came to slowly and painfully. A singsong tone from a gruff voice he swore he'd heard once before.

Mondo was never the fastest Diamond in the gang. Always slept in, always arrived late at meetings, always slow with clever comebacks when criticized by other members, and worst of all always drove too slow. It was no wonder why he'd mostly get left behind after a heist, not that he'd expect anyone to slow down for him. It's every man for himself out here, and if Mondo were to one day cover for his brother's role as the leader, he'd have to learn how to carry his own weight. Otherwise, how would he be expected to carry the gang? Even if he'd have to find his way out of jail.

Getting arrested was probably the most shameful thing to happen to a gang member. It's bound to happen at some point to any criminal, but to a Diamond, its weakness unfolded. Diamonds are strong, everyone knows that. Nothing can ever break a diamond, except perhaps another one, a reason why infighting was strictly prohibited within the gang. Diamonds are stronger when they're packed together, but each one is made to be strong itself. No chips, no cracks, not even a chink. A weak link can break the chain, as they say. Mondo was a prime example of that. It was one thing to fall behind and get yourself arrested, it was another thing entirely to fall behind and get captured by a rival gang.

"I said, wake up!"

The voice burst between the cracks of Mondo's returning consciousness and struck him square in the stomach. Literally. With what felt like an iron fist.

Before light could pierce through his vision, shapes began to form and dance around his head. His throbbing head. It hurt like hell, and he was certain there was a pretty good-sized bruise on his temple. Although he couldn't for the life of him remember how he got it, either the ground or blunt force. Probably a side effect of his injury. He recoiled in pain, hoping to find at least some sliver of comfort after coming to, only to find he was standing uncomfortably upright. Most of his body weight seemed to be supported by his arms above him. He moved them and was met with what unmistakenly sounded like a chain rattling. He'd figured he was probably cuffed if it weren't for the obvious splintered rope eating at his wrists. Mondo realized his shoes were missing when the icy concrete under his feet surged through his body, but at least he was able to release the tension from his sore arms, finally able to comprehend his condition. Hanging by the wrists on a meat hook, maybe? Mondo recalled something like this happening in a horror movie he and Daiya used to watch on Halloween, only the victim wasn't hung by their wrists. Mondo was slightly grateful his captives weren't that fucked. Slightly.

As if his eyelids were anchored by boulders, Mondo was finally able to get a view of his surroundings and see the silhouetted owner of the gruff voice who brought him back from unconsciousness. The Diamond tried to speak but his throat was stuck together as if it was pasted with glue and shards of broken glass in some psychotic kid's art project. Only a hoarse groan escaped through his teeth.

"Ugh..."

"Well, looky here, boys. Sleeping Beauty awakens." the voice taunted. "Oof. That's quite a bump ya got there, boy." Mondo's face twisted in pain as a pair of fingers flicked his throbbing temple, earning a sea of gruff chuckles from the other men in the room.

Mondo swallowed, somehow managed to utter a noise through his hoarse, weighted throat as if he was speaking with a chest full of sand. "Hha...hoo ah...yuh..."

The man mockingly cupped a hand over his ear, grinning at the miserable boy. "Hm? A little louder, champ. I'm hard of hearing. 'Old man', as you said."

Mondo didn't try to figure out what the man meant by that. He didn't have the energy. He tried to swallow but to no avail. His tongue couldn't even produce saliva at the moment to help his parched throat. "W...wuhh..."

" 'Wuh'? 'Wuh', what, boy?" The man pretended to mull it over. "Wah...wah... Oh! Water? You want water, boy?"

Mondo licked his lips and let out a tiny hoarse cough as if to confirm the man's "guess". The man turned to the group behind him. "The boy's thirsty. Give him some water."

Another muscular man holding a plastic bottle approached Mondo with the same sick grin as the first man and unceremoniously poured the water over Mondo's head. His body slightly jolted at the sudden action as if naturally trying to get away from the cold liquid. Of course, no prevail, much to the men's amusement. Mondo's pompadour draped over his face, the water sticking no matter how many times he may shake it.

"Aww, you ruined his pretty locks." said the first man in mock sympathy. "So sorry, boy. Must've taken hours to do." He reached in his back pocket and pulled out a canteen. "Alright, here ya go, boy."

The man pressed the nozzle over Mondo's lips, who greedily began chugging. It was then when he was immediately struck with a foul taste on his tongue, and he spat out the beverage onto the floor, followed by the remaining contents of his stomach. He coughed and gagged, feeling much worse than before. The men laughed again.

"I guess some "men" just can't hold their liquor." the first man chortled.

"Fug yoo..." a whisper crawled from Mondo's throat. Even he didn't hear it, but sure enough, it met with the ears of the other men.

"What was that, boy?" the first man towered over Mondo, who scowled through his eyebrows and mangled hair.

"Fuck...you..." the Diamond hissed as if his voice was poisonous. A stupid thing to say in his position, but Mondo was prepared to die for it.

The man snatched a fistful of Mondo's wet bangs and forced his head back to meet eyes. Mondo heard a small metallic sound, followed by something sharp being pressed against his throat. It didn't take long to decipher what it was.

Before the man could do or say anything else, another male voice thundered from the lit doorway.

"He's awake, I take it?"

The first man's eyes widened before turning toward the new man. "Y-yessir." A superior, Mondo thought.

Sure enough, his suspicion was correct in a way Mondo could not be proud of himself for. The men parted, making a small path for their boss to enter. From the towering heads, Mondo was able to see the man in full form. A taller, brawny man with short black hair and piercing blue eyes as if they were made from hell flame. He was shirtless and wore bandages around his abdomen like the Diamonds and other gangs, but his shoulders were draped in a grey trenchcoat, and he was covered in tattoos. The vice leader of The Deadly Grey Reapers. Mondo remembered seeing a bigger man, the real leader, who always accompanied this one. For some reason, he was nowhere in sight.

"Good." the man approached Mondo slowly, making sure each step added more and more growing intimidation, if not to Mondo then to his subordinates. They all lowered their heads and stared at their feet. Mondo internally scoffed. How pathetic. To have to intimidate your members in order to control them. Daiya never had an issue with insubordination, and it wasn't because he was soft or weak as other gangs believed. Daiya treated his members as if he was one of them, and he was. He served them, not the other way around. 'A true leader walks among his people, not above.', Mondo remembered his brother saying. If he were here, he'd talk some sense into these so-called "men".

The grey-clad man finally reached Mondo, towering over him as if the Diamond was a mere insect that needed to be squashed. "Mondo Owada. Do you remember me?"

Of course, he did. It was only a few hours ago that night, longer depending on how long he was knocked out. A typical heist near the shopping district, followed by a classic case of wrong place wrong time, which in turn turned into a turf war. Maybe a few steps were missing, but those were the only ones that mattered right now. In the end, the Diamonds were victorious and made haste before the cops showed up. What happened afterward Mondo could take a few guesses.

He said nothing, furrowed eyes fixed on the man as if his looks could speak for him.

The grey man cocked a brow. He didn't smile. "What, they finally cut out your tongue?" he said unhumorously "It's disrespectful to stay silent when asked a question, boy. I took the effort to remember your repulsive name. Didn't your brother ever teach you to respect your elders? Oh wait, that's just not his style, is it?"

Mondo's brows arched deeper against his violet eyes. Still, he chose to be silent, although the need to smack talk the older man for disrespecting his brother was clawing its way through the back of Mondo's throat.

The man shifted the toothpick sticking out between his lips -Mondo had always thought about shoving that toothpick down the man's throat every time he sideglanced Daiya- to the other side of his mouth as he glanced down at the young biker's feet.

"Why is he all wet? And why is there vomit on my floor?" the boss asked coldly, barely turning his head to imply he was speaking to his subordinates. The men glued their eyes to their feet, making only subtle glances at each other, almost urging one of them to speak up before things got messy. Finally, the man that Mondo woke up to opened his mouth.

"H...he said he was...thirsty, boss." the man's voice quivered as something wet splashed onto the ground below him "S-so, we gave him some..."

The grey man glanced over at the empty plastic bottle and flask near the mens' feet. He let out an exasperated sigh with an almost disappointed tone. "I thought I told you not to harm him."

The first man gulped. "U-um, w-we didn't-"

"Do you think I'm fuckin' stupid?!" the grey man shot a glare over his sticking-up jacket collar with eyes like icicles shooting across the room and into the other man's chest. He was forced to look at his boss this time.

"Wh-wha-!"

"When I said not to harm him, did you think you could draw a loophole or somethin'? That I wouldn't notice if you did anything at all other than subdue him as I told you to? You thought you could get away with it?"

A shadow cast over the first man's sweating form. "Uh, w-well, boss, ah...h-he gave me and the boys a...rough time back there, a-an' w-we-I-I thought that m-maybe we could h-have some fun w-wi-"

KRRSK

Silence swept across the room. Mondo would've thought he'd gone deaf from the sickening crack if it wasn't for the sound of droplets falling from the grey man's knuckles and forming a puddle onto the concrete floor. The same color that stained the wall before him with the limp form of the first man. The back of his skull had been cracked open like a melon and blood poured from his face onto his lap. He was dead.

'One hit...he killed him in one hit...' Mondo thought. If he anything left in his stomach, he would've made a new mess over his old. Instead, all he could do was stare with unbelieved eyes and parted lips. He'd seen bloodshed many times, but not like this.

The other men barely flinched, which only deepened Mondo's growing fear. Was this a common occurrence?

The grey man flicked his hand, spraying the remaining wet beads from his knuckles before wiping them with a cloth he pulled from his pocket. Two other men made haste to drag the bloody corpse from the room, others followed behind, leaving only Mondo and the grey man alone.

"That give you a pretty good idea about how this works, boy?" he shoved the bloody rag back in his pocket, "I imagine this is your first time with a real gang, so I decided to give you an illustration. That, and I just hate wiseguys."

Mondo knew he had to look at the man in the eyes to avoid severe punishment, but he couldn't tear his vision away from the red stain on the wall. The longer he stared, the more he realized gruesome details like teeth and pieces of broken skull with dark hair still attached scattered across the floor. When Mondo was finally able to find his voice, he spoke as steady as he could.

"What do you want from me?"

"Glad to see we're on the same page. Maybe there's hope for you after all." The grey man began pacing back and forth, "It isn't about what I want from you, more what I want from your brother. He's done me a great pain this evening. I want to deliver the same onto him."

Mondo raised his brow, eyes fixed on the man as to assure himself he heard him correctly. "Pain? In what, the heist? It was a simple robbery. Just in and out the plaza. It didn't have shit to do with you, but you guys decided to turn it into a turf war, and we kicked your asses. None of us were stupid enough to stick around when the cops showed up. And here you are, taking it out on me like a pussy. If you want that shitty plaza in the middle of nowhere just barely off the highway, be my fucking guest, just leave me out of it."

A pair of boots stopped dead in their tracks. Mondo was facing the grey man's back, the aura darkened around the room as the man spoke in a voice like molten gravel.

"You think this is about that stupid plaza?" the man's knuckles turned white against the faded crimson. "Do you remember my brother?"

His brother? Was that the man Mondo remembered seeing with him all the time? The true leader of the Grey Reapers? That's his brother?

"Isn't he the leader here?" Mondo asked unsurely.

The grey man turned back towards him, eyes shadowed over his face. "He was," he said in a harsh whisper, making sure to put extra poison into that last word.

" 'Was'?" Mondo didn't really need to ask what he meant by that, he could figure it out quickly, but he had to be sure.

"He was killed. After the cops showed up, and you hightailed, the rest of us Reapers stayed behind and fought. We could've scattered like you cowards, but my brother wasn't having it, and we put up a pretty good fight. But one cop aimed his gun at me, and my brother jumped in the way. Bullet went right through his head. I still remember the cop's face."

Mondo's face widened, almost sympathetic. He knew he'd heard gunshots and the sound of battle behind him, later drowned by his bike engine. It wasn't a sound he was unfamiliar with, it was an adventure like he was living in one of those action movies. The thrill of gunshots behind him, police sirens, thugs shouting. It's almost euphoric. But it never occurred to him the danger, death, and loss, the true bloodshed that came with it. With being in a gang.

"But...why me? What does this have to do with me?" Mondo asked

"Your brother needs a lesson. A message." the grey man glanced over at the red stain "An illustration. Everything happens for a reason, I believe. My brother died so I could live and become the leader. Your brother left you behind so I could punish him through you. The pain and helplessness I felt that evening, your brother will never understand until he feels it for himself." He towered over Mondo with intense eyes.

"So, what are you gonna do, kill me?" The biker tried to ask with masked bravery, but he wasn't sure if it came off like that. He heard another metallic sound, the same one he heard before.

"It would send your brother a message." the grey man said pressing the pocket knife against Mondo's throat "But I'm not going to give you what you want, a quick death. Like I said, I want to give your brother an illustration. Do to you on the outside what he did to me on the inside."

"You're wasting your time. He'll come back for me." 'He always does.', Mondo thought the last to himself in shame. How weak he really was.

"I have no doubt he will. But when he does, he won't find his brother. He'll only find a broken kid who shares the same blood."

"You...you won't break me. I'm-"

"-A Diamond? No one can break a diamond, is that right? But I can see right through you. You're not a diamond, not a real one. You're just a shiny piece of glass. And glass can break just as easily as bones. For instance,"

Pow!

Mondo yelped in pain with a sharp gasp as something hard rammed into his abdomen with a sickening crack. His knees buckled beneath him as his wrists once again were forced to support his body weight. Mondo could only take in short breaths, he was sure a rib was cracked. Horror crossed his mind when he remembered how easily that other man died from one punch. He was holding back.

"See? A real Diamond wouldn't crumble like that." the grey man said. Mondo winced as he grabbed a handful of his hair, hoisting his head up to meet eye contact. "You're going to break, Mondo Owada. You're going to be cracked. And what happens to a diamond when it cracks?"

Another blow landed on Mondo's midsection, this time definitely breaking a few more ribs. Mondo could only let out a small whimper as he bit his lip, fighting back the urge to cry.

"It becomes worthless."

#danganronpa #danganronpa fanfiction #mondo owada #mondo oowada

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livlepretre · 3 years

Note

I was just catching up with your blog, and I saw your klonnie post. It just got me thinking about how literally anyone in the narrative would have been more logical to pair Klaus up with than Caroline. I’ve read all your posts regarding why Klaroline does not make sense. 100% agree. I feel like Caroline is just who they went with because committing to a real Klaus love story would have taken way more time than the show had, and Caroline was the one who had the least commitments elsewhere in the narrative. I mean, there are plenty of plot heavy episodes where Caroline just disappears for no reason, and it’s obvious that the writers just didn’t have anywhere to logically put her. I honestly believed during my first watch through that Klaroline was just Klaus trying to put Tyler in his place. He never interacted with her before the episode where Tyler challenges his authority and refuses to bite Caroline, and then after that episode, he was being ooc and fake charming with her. I just thought Klaus was trying to get her to sleep with him so he could show Tyler that he was the one in charge and could take anything he had. Color me surprised when that was never the case.

Anyway, this all got me thinking about what individual arcs Caroline got, and I can’t really think of one after her becoming a vampire and getting tortured by her dad. After that, the show kind of played “pass the Caroline.” She would get passed around during episodes where she was either tagging along with Stefan, Tyler, or Klaus. Obviously it’s okay for your characters to be in scenes with each other, but the problem is you could take Caroline out of the season 4 sire-bound breaking storyline or the delena ft. sad Stefan storyline and nothing would really change. She is really on par with Jeremy and Matt in which she could just leave for a while and make a reappearance later like nothing happened; however, unlike Jeremy and Matt, she isn’t treated this way in the narrative. Caroline is made out to be more important than she is. I didn’t realize how long this ask would be, but if you could change the story structure of TVD to fix this, how would you do it? Would you have written Caroline to have more individual storylines or would you have decreased her role? Maybe it’s just me and you would keep her the same. Idk. Either way, I’m very interested in your opinion. Especially because Caroline is the more utilized and loved character throughout this fandom and fanfiction, and I don’t know why.

first of all “catching up with your blog” what kajfklajdfklajdf

sorry it’s taken me a few days to reply, I’ve been mulling this over and it’s been kind of a long week so I’ve had to gather the bandwidth to answer

I agree with your analysis about why the show chose Caroline as Klaus’s love interest... I’ve always said that it was just so painfully obvious that they wanted to give Klaus a love interest from amongst the heroines (which: rude, he already had a love interest, it was Stefan) because he was interesting and hot. And I always assumed they picked Caroline because 1) Elena already had too many love interests even though she and Klaus had history and wicked chemistry so this still to me remains the obvious choice 2) Bonnie would have actually had moral problems with Klaus (but would still have been a great choice because then we could explore those morality issues with Klaus) and 3) they wanted to do another “bad boy” romance without actually digging into the fact that Klaus had crossed lines for us as an audience that were SUPER hard to come back from, namely: MURDERING MAIN CAST MEMBER JENNA. (I would argue that this is different for us as an audience than Vicki’s death because Vicki died at the beginning of the show; our emotional investment in Jenna was significantly higher after 2 full seasons with her.) So, Caroline becomes the path of least resistance because Klaus has no serious, personal history with her, and she’s not as prone toward actually making moral judgment calls as Bonnie is-- for example, she’s shown to be significantly more flexible about murder and mayhem than Bonnie is.

I’ve never thought about the fact that it was partially just that the writers didn’t have any great ideas for Caroline’s personal storyline though, and that really brings up 2 huge questions: 1) DID they assign her the Klaus romance because they didn’t know what else to do with her? and 2) did that romance storyline actually deprive her of other (better) storylines?

This got me thinking about Caroline’s storylines in a broader sense, and her place within the narrative structure. I think of TVD as having 3 types of main characters:

A-level characters-- Elena, Stefan, and Damon are the only A-levels, as they appear in every single episode and the plot falls apart without them

B-level characters-- Bonnie, Caroline, and then later Klaus would all fit in here-- characters that are in most episodes, and have their own independent side plots that are ongoing, sometimes for long periods of time -- we know they’re B-level and not A-level because sometimes they disappear for a few episodes-- in other words, they’re not essential every episode like the A-levels

C-level characters-- the rest of the main cast-- Tyler, Matt, Jeremy, Jenna, Katherine, Rebekah, etc-- these characters sometimes have ongoing plotlines (the werewolf plot, the Hunter plot, the serial killer plot, etc) but they’re literally dispensable to the overall plot-- the writers feel comfortable having them come and go as necessary, and we often experience them through the perceptions of the higher-leveled characters--they tend to actually be the object of higher level plots as well-- Damon kills Jeremy to move his plot along with Elena; Matt scheming against Caroline’s vampirism is actually part of Caro’s plot; Katherine is mostly a narrative tool to use with the main 3; Jenna’s death isn’t even about her at the end of the day from a narrative perspective but about Elena, etc.

So when thinking of the basic structure in this sense, that issue you brought up where Caroline doesn’t have enough of her own storylines really comes to light. Part of that I think is that functionally, she has less to offer-- Bonnie is a great counter point, because she often has her own storylines, and she serves a super strong narrative purpose of 1) witch and 2) the moral center on the show-- like, usually the only one who doesn’t forget what’s right and what’s wrong from a basic human perspective. Klaus also has his function as villain, though he gets derailed by the show not killing him off when it was time.

Caroline meanwhile... the show probably took her as far as they could with her being human, and turning her into a vampire in season 2 was incredibly strong and compelling storytelling. It brought Caroline into the main fold of schemers, it gave her agency, and it put all of her problems with her family and friends and self-esteem under a microscope lens. Season 2 is Caroline’s strongest season because it offers her the most development and gives her both a functional role as baby vampire-- working for Katherine, working with the gang, trying to keep the big secret from her mother-- as well as a satisfying emotional arc. The issue is that she just doesn’t have a ton of places to go as a character once the issues with her parents are resolved midway through season 3 and a lot of her self-esteem issues had actually been tackled... The only other storyline I can think of that was HERS was her mother’s death, but I never finished that arc and never got to no humanity!Caroline anyway, so I don’t have much to say on that topic. I will say that the show REALLY drove Caroline’s storyline into the dirt when they turned Elena into a vampire-- having two baby vamps on the show was WAY too many. We’d already gone through this with Care, but also, Elena is an A-level character-- anything she goes through necessarily usurps the power from any similar story the writers could have told about Caroline.

So. The Klauroline romance. (Apparently I’ve been mispelling this ship for a decade but honestly you can’t expect me to stop now.) I think they gave Caroline to Klaus (rather than giving Klaus to Caroline) as a love interest for the reasons stated above, but it really did limit her character; I’ve gone over my problems with it ad nauseam here on this blog. The whole thing just spun Caroline around in circles forever-- I remember dreading that this ship would be canon but the show just kept spinning the Klaus/Caroline/Tyler wheels for two seasons without ever really progressing anything or changing anything, just always always always spinning in place, with Tyler disappearing to make room for the other ship but the writers also not actually committing to anything... It really does get in the way of Caroline’s character development.

So, how to fix?

Well, first off, I think Caroline (and Bonnie, and Klaus, and everyone else) should stay in their lanes as B or C level characters-- the show didn’t have enough stories to give every single one of them main character status, and that’s okay.

But if Caroline is a B-level character, she still needs her own stories and subplots interwoven throughout the show.

The obvious thing that comes to mind is something I’ve said many times-- Fix Klauroline so that it actually makes sense and doesn’t break character-- give them a subplot where they have to work together and learn to rely on each other or see each other differently than how they expect-- literally TVD is amazing with tight, action packed episodes-- it would have taken ONE episode to establish this, and then have the relationship progress as a subplot-- not as Caroline’s main plot-- give her other things to work on with the team and let the Klaus thing develop alongside it.

Other things: the issues with her parents probably could have been extended to be season 3, honestly, with her facing her vampirism more in season 2-- or she could have gone off the deep end earlier, or she could have wound up in trouble with the council, or she could have taken a more active role in trying to kill Klaus other than just “bait” which would have been great because then she would have had to face her feelings about it directly, or she could have been the one to investigate the vampire lab at Whitmore and maybe end up briefly imprisoned or whatever-- I personally think Elena should have only been a vampire for one season, which would have made Elena actually face her moral crisis, but also opened up the space in the show for Caroline to get the young vampire storylines the way that Bonnie gets the witch storylines.

The show gets into this weird habit at some point of forgetting that it’s really about the main three and not supposed to be a HUGE equal ensemble show-- if you look back at the promotional materials, it was originally always the three of the main triangle, but by seasons 5 & 6 there’re these photos with like all dozen cast members... equalizing things didn’t actually help Caroline’s or Bonnie’s or anyone else’s storylines because it stripped down the time we spent with the main story and it meant adding a lot of frustrating swimming in circles for the others (how many times was Bonnie dead? I can’t keep track anymore)

Sorry this is so rambly, I hope it made sense! I have a lot of feelings about Caroline-- I really loved her and the handling of her storylines from season 3 on has never sat well with me.

(As for why Caroline is the fan favorite, I do have a theory: she actually tells us what she’s thinking and feeling, so it’s easier to connect with her. Elena meanwhile rarely ever explicitly states her emotions, instead tending to brood and force us to work through what her silences mean, and Bonnie tends to bottle until she explodes--which is still easier to empathize with than Elena, because at least Bonnie eventually tells us. Meanwhile, Caroline gets upset, or she gets drunk, or she has long conversations where she spills her heart out to Stefan or Elena or Bonnie or anyone... so it’s easy to jump on board with her. That’s my theory at least.)

#anonymous #tvd meta

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snowwhitelass · 4 years

Text

When President Donald Trump canceled a visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery near Paris in 2018, he blamed rain for the last-minute decision, saying that “the helicopter couldn’t fly” and that the Secret Service wouldn’t drive him there. Neither claim was true.

Trump rejected the idea of the visit because he feared his hair would become disheveled in the rain, and because he did not believe it important to honor American war dead, according to four people with firsthand knowledge of the discussion that day. In a conversation with senior staff members on the morning of the scheduled visit, Trump said, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.” In a separate conversation on the same trip, Trump referred to the more than 1,800 marines who lost their lives at Belleau Wood as “suckers” for getting killed.

Belleau Wood is a consequential battle in American history, and the ground on which it was fought is venerated by the Marine Corps. America and its allies stopped the German advance toward Paris there in the spring of 1918. But Trump, on that same trip, asked aides, “Who were the good guys in this war?” He also said that he didn’t understand why the United States would intervene on the side of the Allies.

Trump’s understanding of concepts such as patriotism, service, and sacrifice has interested me since he expressed contempt for the war record of the late Senator John McCain, who spent more than five years as a prisoner of the North Vietnamese. “He’s not a war hero,” Trump said in 2015 while running for the Republican nomination for president. “I like people who weren’t captured.”

There was no precedent in American politics for the expression of this sort of contempt, but the performatively patriotic Trump did no damage to his candidacy by attacking McCain in this manner. Nor did he set his campaign back by attacking the parents of Humayun Khan, an Army captain who was killed in Iraq in 2004.

Trump remained fixated on McCain, one of the few prominent Republicans to continue criticizing him after he won the nomination. When McCain died, in August 2018, Trump told his senior staff, according to three sources with direct knowledge of this event, “We’re not going to support that loser’s funeral,” and he became furious, according to witnesses, when he saw flags lowered to half-staff. “What the fuck are we doing that for? Guy was a fucking loser,” the president told aides. Trump was not invited to McCain’s funeral. (These sources, and others quoted in this article, spoke on condition of anonymity. The White House did not return earlier calls for comment, but Alyssa Farah, a White House spokesperson, emailed me this statement shortly after this story was posted: “This report is false. President Trump holds the military in the highest regard. He’s demonstrated his commitment to them at every turn: delivering on his promise to give our troops a much needed pay raise, increasing military spending, signing critical veterans reforms, and supporting military spouses. This has no basis in fact.”)

Trump’s understanding of heroism has not evolved since he became president. According to sources with knowledge of the president’s views, he seems to genuinely not understand why Americans treat former prisoners of war with respect. Nor does he understand why pilots who are shot down in combat are honored by the military. On at least two occasions since becoming president, according to three sources with direct knowledge of his views, Trump referred to former President George H. W. Bush as a “loser” for being shot down by the Japanese as a Navy pilot in World War II. (Bush escaped capture, but eight other men shot down during the same mission were caught, tortured, and executed by Japanese soldiers.)

When lashing out at critics, Trump often reaches for illogical and corrosive insults, and members of the Bush family have publicly opposed him. But his cynicism about service and heroism extends even to the World War I dead buried outside Paris—people who were killed more than a quarter century before he was born. Trump finds the notion of military service difficult to understand, and the idea of volunteering to serve especially incomprehensible. (The president did not serve in the military; he received a medical deferment from the draft during the Vietnam War because of the alleged presence of bone spurs in his feet. In the 1990s, Trump said his efforts to avoid contracting sexually transmitted diseases constituted his “personal Vietnam.”)

On Memorial Day 2017, Trump visited Arlington National Cemetery, a short drive from the White House. He was accompanied on this visit by John Kelly, who was then the secretary of homeland security, and who would, a short time later, be named the White House chief of staff. The two men were set to visit Section 60, the 14-acre area of the cemetery that is the burial ground for those killed in America’s most recent wars. Kelly’s son Robert is buried in Section 60. A first lieutenant in the Marine Corps, Robert Kelly was killed in 2010 in Afghanistan. He was 29. Trump was meant, on this visit, to join John Kelly in paying respects at his son’s grave, and to comfort the families of other fallen service members. But according to sources with knowledge of this visit, Trump, while standing by Robert Kelly’s grave, turned directly to his father and said, “I don’t get it. What was in it for them?” Kelly (who declined to comment for this story) initially believed, people close to him said, that Trump was making a ham-handed reference to the selflessness of America’s all-volunteer force. But later he came to realize that Trump simply does not understand non-transactional life choices.

“He can’t fathom the idea of doing something for someone other than himself,” one of Kelly’s friends, a retired four-star general, told me. “He just thinks that anyone who does anything when there’s no direct personal gain to be had is a sucker. There’s no money in serving the nation.” Kelly’s friend went on to say, “Trump can’t imagine anyone else’s pain. That’s why he would say this to the father of a fallen marine on Memorial Day in the cemetery where he’s buried.”

I’ve asked numerous general officers over the past year for their analysis of Trump’s seeming contempt for military service. They offer a number of explanations. Some of his cynicism is rooted in frustration, they say. Trump, unlike previous presidents, tends to believe that the military, like other departments of the federal government, is beholden only to him, and not the Constitution. Many senior officers have expressed worry about Trump’s understanding of the rules governing the use of the armed forces. This issue came to a head in early June, during demonstrations in Washington, D.C., in response to police killings of Black people. James Mattis, the retired Marine general and former secretary of defense, lambasted Trump at the time for ordering law-enforcement officers to forcibly clear protesters from Lafayette Square, and for using soldiers as props: “When I joined the military, some 50 years ago, I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution,” Mattis wrote. “Never did I dream that troops taking that same oath would be ordered under any circumstance to violate the Constitutional rights of their fellow citizens—much less to provide a bizarre photo op for the elected commander-in-chief, with military leadership standing alongside.”

Another explanation is more quotidian, and aligns with a broader understanding of Trump’s material-focused worldview. The president believes that nothing is worth doing without the promise of monetary payback, and that talented people who don’t pursue riches are “losers.” (According to eyewitnesses, after a White House briefing given by the then-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joe Dunford, Trump turned to aides and said, “That guy is smart. Why did he join the military?”)

Yet another, related, explanation concerns what appears to be Trump’s pathological fear of appearing to look like a “sucker” himself. His capacious definition of sucker includes those who lose their lives in service to their country, as well as those who are taken prisoner, or are wounded in battle. “He has a lot of fear,” one officer with firsthand knowledge of Trump’s views said. “He doesn’t see the heroism in fighting.” Several observers told me that Trump is deeply anxious about dying or being disfigured, and this worry manifests itself as disgust for those who have suffered. Trump recently claimed that he has received the bodies of slain service members “many, many” times, but in fact he has traveled to Dover Air Force Base, the transfer point for the remains of fallen service members, only four times since becoming president. In another incident, Trump falsely claimed that he had called “virtually all” of the families of service members who had died during his term, then began rush-shipping condolence letters when families said the president was not telling the truth.

Trump has been, for the duration of his presidency, fixated on staging military parades, but only of a certain sort. In a 2018 White House planning meeting for such an event, Trump asked his staff not to include wounded veterans, on grounds that spectators would feel uncomfortable in the presence of amputees. “Nobody wants to see that,” he said.

#politics #donald trump #mary trump #us military #us elections 2020 #vote blue 2020 #biden harris 2020

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kakukoto · 3 years

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Ace of Hearts

♥ Chapter 2 ♥

[Previous]

A/N: Yep, I'm the noob who've never posted my works on Tumblr before, imagine my surprise at finding so many AIB fics floating around! So after attempting to satiate my Chishiya cravings, I realized my infatuations know no bounds and decided to feed myself instead.

Pairing: Chishiya x OC

Warnings: Angst, swearing, descriptions of violence, gore and sexual references will be present throughout this story.

Two weeks passed before she came across the same young man who talked to her on her first night. Arisu, he told her. The way his voice cracked belied the same kindness he offered her. It must have had something to do with his change of partners, she surmised. After all, not many managed to survive here, and surviving with someone important to you, that was an even tougher feat.

She supposed that Chishiya’s advice did carry weight; it was cruel but necessary to forego any pity for others. After all, how selfless can one be in the face of death? However, it was not within her nature to abandon her humanity. Rina had been this way since young, always the impartial mediator among her friends, choosing to understand rather than pass judgements carelessly. People gravitated towards her empathy, yet a fair share would take advantage of her compassion whenever it served their needs, a particularly common occurrence especially here in Borderland.

In games, she quickly became the person that newcomers go to, for she remained the only one that actually gave a damn to their incessant questions. Arisu helped too, sometimes, but she could see the weight of his life on his shoulders. It was not easy attaching herself to these strangers. Once they exchanged names, their lives meant something, and it hurt her every time someone she befriended died. She would’ve continued her altruistic acts had it not been Usagi’s firm disapproval.

“You are really strong, you know?” Now, facing the river that divided Tokyo, the young man divulged his thoughts.

She was surprised by Arisu’s admission. Of all the adjectives she would use to describe herself, strong was definitely not one of them.

“You still manage to stay you after everything that we’ve been through.” The man looked at her in half admiration and half pity. “Your heart is strong.”

Usagi gave them a side glance as the building across the shore lit up. “Which is why you need to guard it even more. People here are twisted and will do anything to live. Expose even a tiniest weakness and they will aim for the kill.” The breeze was a welcoming change from the suffocating city skylines. “Speaking of which, I guess we found the place.”

They remained silent for a while, taking in the first breath of relief ever since they entered this world. She still had many questions, and finding the safe haven that Arisu had been talking about felt like a small step towards understanding the situation. Briefly, her childhood friend crossed her mind. Despite their tense parting, she still wished that he was here with her. Arisu and Usagi had been nothing of accommodating towards her, something she could not say about Chishiya from their short reunion. However no matter the person he is now, he remained as someone she knew from the real world. The attachment could not be erased so easily, especially so when in this world where they were all starved of human connection. Although he may not look and act the same way anymore, she still felt the same familiarity from him. No matter, she would look for him once she gets to the beach.

With that thought in mind, she felt a blossoming pain at the back of her head before she slipped into unconsciousness.

…

When she woke, she found herself bounded and surrounded by strangely dressed people who claimed to be the team running the Beach. The guy who introduced himself as Hatter was the craziest of them all. He gave them a grand walkthrough of his beliefs and the rules of the place. The three of them slowly realised that the Beach was far from a safe haven; it was beginning to feel like a dictatorial hell residing in abyss itself.

To make matters worse, they were compelled to become members here, giving Hatter ownership of the cards they own. Rina watched in horror as he waved her three cards at her. “Ara ara my dear, my guys told me they found three heart cards in your pocket. THREE. I have to be honest, I would never peg you as a hearts player, but we do need someone of your caliber to help us conquer the most cumbersome suit of all.”

When she was first introduced to the game mechanics, she was made aware what the different suits represented. Many players felt the Hearts suit was the cruelest, messing with their emotions and mind. She concurred to that point, especially since her first Hearts game left her as the sole survivor, shouldering the deaths of the other players. She emerged scarred and hysterical, more so than any other games, until she met Arisu and Usagi. The two had helped her hold on to her sense of self and will to live.

When she cleared her head and thought back to the games with much agony, she discovered that there was in fact a strategy to them, similar to other suits. Though the probability of winning was much lower given that it required other players to be on board with her plan as well. What the game bet on was the mental state of the players by clouding their minds with fear and trust issues. In other words, it was a psychological test, something she excelled at in her profession. She supposed Hatter was right when he called her out on it.

Once the rules were explained to them, they were each brought to their rooms with the garments fitting to their sizes already in the closet. She hesitantly grabbed a plain black bikini, and layered it with a white, bell sleeved cover up that barely reached mid thigh. The material was a little see through, and too short for her liking, but she supposed it was better than nothing.

Arisu and Usagi headed straight out to assess the situation, but she stayed behind in her room, hoping for a little peace after the morning spectacle. By the time she woke up, her room was dark save for the luminescent numbers displayed on the little electronic clock at her bedside. Her body was still heavy, muscles aching from overuse during the various games. As much as she hated being chained down, she had to admit that this was the best sleep she got since she came to this world. The hotel bed was comfortable, and her friends were alive. “Oh fuck…” Rina suddenly remembered her promise to meet the other two in dinner. Quickly, she ran her fingers through her hair and begrudgingly left the room. She didn’t want her friends to worry about her.

The lights in the hallway blinded her momentarily, and when her eyes adjusted to it, she noticed a figure in front of her. Said man had a rifle resting on his shoulders, his face donned with multiple piercings as empty eyes bored down to hers.

“Yo new girl, let’s go.”

Instinctively, she stepped back. “W-w-who are you?”

“Hm?” The man turned to her, tongue running across his lips dangerously. She could feel his eyes rake through her body, a smirk making its way across his features. “Why don’t you guess, since you’re so good at playing with people’s hearts?”

Memories of the leopard printed shirt crossed her mind. “It was luck, nothing more”, she murmured. “Anyway, you didn’t answer my question.”

Her reply only seemed to fuel the man’s advances. “Let’s do a little exchange then. I’ll tell you my name, if you can scream it to me in a more pleasurable position, how about that?” The cool surface of metal briefly brushed against her cheek as he invaded her personal space. “You’ll be happier with me than that old man Hatter.”

The man looked every bit deranged as Hatter, and she had to bite her tongue for self preservation. From his very suggestive statement, she deduced that there must be some bad blood among the higher ups. He did not seem like he answered to number one, especially with the disdain colouring his tone.

As she processed his words, said man stepped even closer, his face a mere inch from hers. She could feel his breath upon her cheeks, the faint smell of cigarettes wafting through the air. Just as she prepared herself to run back into her room, someone grabbed her arm and pulled her back, away from the unwelcoming approaches.

“Careful Niragi, you know Hatter doesn’t take it well when someone steals from him.”

A grey jacket appeared in her field of vision. Her shoulders relaxed at the sight of the man that she vowed to find, though it brought to her mind more questions. What was he doing here?

“Who died and make you his bitch?” As quickly as he commented, the gunman pointed his rifle up at Chishiya’s chin. Her childhood friend however, did not look fazed by that.

“Just stating facts. Oh right, the games are starting soon. I wonder what will Hatter say if she didn’t participate in the initiation test because she was held back?”

The tension in the corridor was palpable. Niragi considered the shorter man’s reasoning before he pulled back, leaving the two of them. Once the walking danger was out of sight, Rina turned to her friend in relief. He still looked the same as the last time they met, calm but calculating.

“You’re here.” She wanted to give him a hug but hesitated, remembering his indifference to physical contact that night.

Chishiya gave her a half smile as he let go of her. His eyes scanned her form, just like Niragi did earlier, but if he had any comments on her choice of dressing he did not voice it out. She followed him, knowing that he was going to bring her to some initiation test. The questions were bubbling in her mind, but she was hesitant to ask him knowing that he would brush them off again. Not knowing what to say, she awkwardly rubbed her thumbs together. Surprisingly, it was Chishiya who broke the silence.

“Hatter wants you to join the executive committee, that’s why you have to do the initiation test.” He held the evaluator door open as she stepped in, a simple action that she would normally pass on had it not contradict to his behaviour. Acts like this reminded her of the Chishiya she once knew. “It’s just another game, but someone from the committee will be there as well to gauge you.”

“I thought he’s only interested in Arisu?”

“Hatter likes to keep the strongest, most intelligent players close. Everyone has their own strengths, and yours seem valuable enough to him.”

To him. The way he worded his sentence was not lost on her. Perhaps in his mind she was of little value, Rina concluded. The thought of it saddened her, although she could not deny that his intelligence was a force to be reckoned with even when they were young.

“What if I don’t want to join the committee? My visa doesn’t expire for another two days, and I would much rather not put my life on the line unless necessary.” It was uncomfortable being labelled this way, and she most definitely did not want to be forced to play with others’ emotions just because she had an affinity to the game.

“You’ll soon find out that what Hatter wants, he always gets.” His next words were uttered much quieter. “You shouldn’t have came here.”

“Well, Arisu thought this place would hold answers to our existence here, and I figured it is a good place to start…”

“And are you satisfied with the answers you found so far?” The expression on his face mocking her.

“No but I found you, haven’t I?” She gave him a weak smile.

“I see you didn’t heed my advice at all.” A sigh escaped his lips.

The elevator doors opened, this time the sounds of chattering could be heard across the hallway. Once she stepped out, Chishiya let go of the elevator door he was holding and briskly walked towards the noise.

“Chi wait-” The man stopped and walked back to her, this time his expression serious.

He whispered, making it clear that he wanted to keep their conversation clandestine. “Listen, I know you love to bond with strangers over sob stories, but do not ever reveal that you know me in the real world. If anyone asks, we are not friends. You only saw me once, in your first game here. Do I make myself clear?”

She was not used to his commanding tone. He was always so lenient towards her when they were younger, deferring to her decisions without much protest. This was a side of him that she was unfamiliar with, sending goosebumps to her skin and something else, lurking in her stomach. She could only nod at his demand.

Pleased with her acknowledgement, he turned away, not before adding another request.

“When we are not alone, call me by my name and nothing else.”

With that said, he disappeared in the crowd.

#alice in borderland #imawa no kuni no arisu #chishiya #chishiya shuntaro #ace of hearts #fanfiction #chishiya x oc #かくこと

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godsporncollection · 4 years

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Saturday GC Sessions Summary

Topics, quotes, and summaries of the talks given in the Saturday sessions of the fall 2020 General Conference (with occasional commentary in parenthesis)

*This is (mostly) written from a TBM pov, so I’ve glossed over many... unsavory things. That said, if you’re gonna quote this, definitely proofread it first because I occasionally switch to exmo pov.

Sunday Sessions (long version)

Sunday Sessions (shorter version)

Russel M Nelson

Hopeful, holy bullshit/look at all the spiritually awesome stuff we're doing/gonna do. (idk, there didn't really seem to be much of a talk there)

David A Bednar

Tests in school are as important as the tests of us living on earth.

"Prove, examine, and try."

"If ye are prepared, ye shall not fear."

Susan and I looked over our food storage and learned that we did well in most areas, but found some expired things we were afraid would unleash another global pandemic.

Remember, when loved ones die, and you don't know why, god does. It's a lesson in faith.

Scott D Whiting

How to be more like christ.

Wife and I were in Japan, hiking up a mountain; it was hard because altitude.

One step at a time is how we become more like christ.

Honesty is important, honesty with ourselves.

You can ask others how they view you, but god is a better person to ask, with his perfect view of us.

REPENT! to be the best version of ourselves. Change your heart and mind to be like christ.

Choose one attribute to focus on at a time. Constantly ask god for help, but don't be selfish.

"Be the tide that raises all boats in the harbor."

Recognize that desired attribute in others. Put in a lot of effort.

Caution- don't feel guilty, unworthy, or unloved; that is not what life is about.

You are good enough and loved, but that doesn't mean you're a perfect version of yourself.

Michelle D Craig

Story of Elijah for allegory of struggling to see how god is in your life.

Wait and trust in god. Pray for the lord to open your eyes. Understand how god sees you.

Ask yourself: what am I doing that I should stop and what should I be doing?

Stop looking at your phone. I think it's a good time to multitask, but the spirit told me to stop and the next day, while in line at the grocery store, I looked at the people around me instead. I saw old man and struck up a conversation with him based on what was in his cart (cat food). He said it was his birthday so I wished him a happy birthday. This guy needed me to see him.

A story of a friend who separated from her husband and hoped nobody would talk to her at church. A young woman kept looking back at her and came up to her after sacrament meeting. The young woman told her she loved her and they became friends and it helped her because she felt noticed and cared about.

Ask god to help you see others and act to affirm their lives. This is how we identify our own purpose.

Quentin L Cook

Righteousness. Female followers of brigham young found career opportunites in Utah and friends in the native americans. (Gave a whole bullshit Utah thanksgiving story, complete with rewriting history so white people can feel better about themselves for feeding the natives). There is unity in respect. Historically, we have not been perfect, but that is the goal. We don't need to have all the blessings of god to be righteous. Love god and fellow man to live in eternal peace and happiness with god. "Historical record" in 1 nephi shows there were no happier people because of righteousness. But then that society was destroyed so much that mormon asked how they would avoid punishment. We live in that latter time, not unity. Our challenge is to lift and bless society as a whole. Demonstrated by ethnic harmony and an all inclusive doctrine. Unity and diversity are not opposites. All races and colors are children of god. Laws written in god's chosen land (US) were written by imperfect men, but inspired by god for equal treatment of all men. Remember that we were onced very opressed because we wanted to share jesus' love. If you are not united, you are not god's children. Gosple culture is greater than regional cultures. We honor pioneers because of their struggles.

Ronald A Rasband

Supplying the world with temples is a holy duty.

Sacred ordinaces lead to exaltation.

"Temples rise above the ways of the world. Every temple... stand as testaments to our faith and eternal life and the joy of spending it with our families and heavenly father. They increase understanding of the godhead and the everlasting gospel and commitment to live and teach truth and our willingness to follow the example of jesus."

I learned an important lesson while visiting my father in law as he was dying; that temple recommends are important, even while dying.

The worthiness interview "is not about do's and dont's. It is about finding your worthiness and to testify of your devotion to the gospel teachings."

(I stopped paying attention for a while.)

Hunter said his biggest desire was to have every member hold a temple recommend.

Come get yo rec's! "Whether you have access to a temple or not, it is still important to remain and prove your worthiness."

(I'm really struggling to pay attention to this guy and holy shit he stressed "be patient" while I was typing that.)

Dallin H Oaks

"The lord's teachings are for eternity and for all of god's children."

My examples will be US-centric, but I'm sure that the issues the US face are universal, right?

Destrucitve behavior in political statements are not good.

Remember that JC said to love your enemies. Contention is of the devil, not JC. It isn't easy. Seek and ye shall find the strength to love.

Follow the laws of man.

Nobody can make us angry, it is our choice to be angry.

(Reference to The King and I-) learn about other people's culture.

Don't participate in rioting.

Wait, he's supporting the first ammendement- oh, the stress here is on the word "peaceful". We must do better to end racism. But remember to be peaceful! No violence. Anarchy is evil. Lincoln said "there is no greivance that is a fit object of redress by mob law". It undermines individual rights, not protects.

The US was started by diverse people! We're inherintly diverse! Here's a diverse (british) example!

AFTERNOON SESSION

D Todd Christofferson

There's a 2030 sustainable development agreement thingy. It's got 17 goals including- no poverty, no hunger, quality education, gender equality, clean water and sanitation, and decent work. It is interesting and important.

More important is a sustainable society.

Two biblical examples: 1. The city of enoch. They were of one heart and one mind. 2. The 1st generations of nephites an lamanites. No envies nor strifes. No murders or lying. No happier people than them. Love thy neighbor. Every man seeking the interests of his neighbor. Virtues uphold these societies.

Then they became exceedingly wicked and millions died in wars amongst themselves.

"When people turn from a sense of accountability to god and begin to trust instead in the arm of flesh (?)", disaster lurks.

A good life is more important than a long life.

I'm so fucking blessed, so this really isn't a good topic for me, but here we are.

The light of christ is what uneducated people call a consience.

"When one has no higher god than himself, and seeks no greater good than satisfying his own appetites and preferences, the effects will be manifest in due course. A society, for example, in which individual consent is the only constraint on sexual activity is a society in decay. Adultery, promiscuity, elective abortion and out of wedlock births are but some of the bitter fruit that grow out of the immorality sanctioned by the sexual revolution." This leads to poverty and fatherless families, sometimes in multiple generations, and deficient education and mental destruction.

"Our joyous message is that there is a better way through god... (the core truths of this message are) god lives, he is the heavenly father of our spirits, that as a manifestation of his love, he's given us commandments that lead to a fullnes of joy with him, that JC is the son of god and our redeemer, that he suffered and died to atone for sins on condition of our repentance, that he rose from the dead, bringing to pass the resurrection of human kind, and that we will all stand before him to be judged."

Steven J Lund

My son had cancer. It was hard. He was in lots of pain, but still wanted to go to church even when his mom suggested he stay home. He knew he inspired others when they saw him there, representing the savior by willingly suffering to serve.

All youth programs are there to help them be more like JC.

They are surrounded by things that keep helping them do that, but they're still making mistakes, so parents and leaders need to step up (potterheads grab your wands).

Gerrit W Gong

Family of 10 is hated by neighbors, nobody likes them until their house burns down. Then they were showed kindness, hope, and understanding by their neighbors helping them.

"Our 2020 bicentenniel proclamation begins with the profoundly inclusive promise that god loves his children in every nation of the world. Each of us in every nation... god promises covenants, and invites us to come partake of his abundant joy and goodness. God's love for all people is affirmed throughout scripture that love encompasses the abrahamic covenent, gathering his scattered children, and his plan of happiness. In the house of faith, there are to be no strangers, no foreigners, no rich and poor, no outside others. As fellow citizens with the saints, we're invited to help the world for the better, from inside out; one person, one family, one neighborhood at a time. This happens when we share the gospel."

Church materials are available in many regions and languages. We're gonna focus on that for a while. (And I stopped paying attention again. This dude is boring af. And I have a high threshold for boring right now)

Talking about how members do charity work.

W Christopher Waddell

Some kid said it was the greatest day of his life to meet this guy who talks to the profit a couple of times a week. The story is given with the obvious topic of "we thank thee oh god for a prophet".

Prophets tell us to prepare for crisis.

We understand your struggles and want to express that there are better days ahead. Church leaders can help you.

The lord loves effort.

Have stores of food and money, but don't go to extremes in your efforts to establish those things.

We have a brochure on finances with quotes from people about how god will provide.

Remember Joseph in Egypt.

"All things are spiritual to the lord and not at any time has he given us a law which is temporal."

Manage your finances and have food storage.

Matthew S Holland

The feeling of Alma remembering his sins are as painful as passing a kidney stone (?!).

Repentance will bring us relief.

We have no idea how bad our suffering will be if we don't repent.

"Medical science, professional counseling or legal rectification can help alleviate such suffering but note, all good gifts including these, come from the savior. Regardless [of] the causes of our worst hurt or heartaches, the ultimate source of relief is the same: JC. He alone holds the full power and healing balm to correct every mistake, right every wrong, adjust every imperfection, mend every wound, and deliver every delayed blessing."

When you feel like nobody could understand your suffering, remember that jesus can.

"Suffering in righteousness helps qualify your for, rather than distinguishes you from, god's elect."

William K Jackson

An Indian dude didn't want to turn his back on his culture in order to convert with the rest of his family. But JC was able to open his eyes to a different viewpoint.

Our original culture is the culture of Adam and Enoch. It is the greatest of all cultures. There is no "us v them" mentality in the greatest of all cultures.

"We believe that we are responsible and accountable for ourselves, each other, the church, and our world. Faith in JC is the first principle of our culture, and obedience to his teachings and commandments is the outcome.”

“It is a culture of covenants and ordinances, high moral standards, sacrifice, forgiveness, repentance, and caring for the temple of our bodies. It is a culture of the preisthood, the authority to act in god's name, the power of god to bless his children. It edifies and enables individuals to be better people, leaders, mothers, fathers, and companions- and it sanctifies the home. In the culture of christ, women are elevated to their proper and eternal status. They are not subservient to men, as in many cultures in today's world, but full and equal partners here and in the world to come.”

“The family is the basic unit of eternity. The perfection of the family is worth any sacrifice" because, as has been taught, "no other success can compensate for failure in the home."

This culture is concerned with things of lasting worth.

It is inclusive, not exclusive.

"Because this culture results from the application of our savior's teachings, it helps provide a healing balm of which our world (cue crying) is in such desperate need. What a blessing it is to be a part of this grand and (voice wavering) *noble* way of life. The church is hardly a western society or an american cultural phenomenon. it is an international church, as it was always meant to be. New members from around the world bring richness, diversity, and excitement into our ever-growing family!" (hallelujah!)

Indian dude joined the church, of course.

"What a marvelous heritage (quiet sob) we all share!"

Dieter F Uchtdorf

Because of a threat from the US military, the SLC temple was buried during constrution. When the threat had passed, they excavated it and found that many stones in the foundation had cracked and were replaced. "Finally, the saints could sing How Firm a Foundation and know their holy temple was built on a foundation that would last for generations.”

“This story can teach us how god uses adversity to bring about his purposes." Which is an appropriate topic these days.

We mourn with those who have lost loved ones to covid.

"My message today is that even though this pandemic is not what we wanted or expected, god has prepared his children and his church for this time."

We will do more than survive, we will move forward and we will be better as a result.

We are like seeds that must be buried before they can sprout. "The love of god and blessing of the restored gospel of JC will bring something unimaginable to spring forth."

Hardships strengthen our character.

"What we learn from biblical examples? 1. The righteous are not given a free pass that allows them to avoid the valleys of shadow... 2. Our heavenly father knows that we suffer, and because we are his children, he will not abandon us..."

"Our best days are ahead of us, not behind us. This is why god gives us modern revelation."

(I stopped paying attention during an aviation allegory.)

Stories of new/potential converts going to appointments early because of excitement. "Our missionaries are busier than ever."

WOMEN'S SESSION

Sharon Eubank

Story of a kid rewarded with his favorite pie for doing chores. He was selfish when his sister asked if she and her friend could have some because they didn't earn it, but changed his mind later. This showed that he was willing to change and show kindness to those who didn't deserve it.

"By union of feeling, we obtain power with god."

I don't like this world. It sucks and I want to make it better and sometimes I feel powerless, but I have done lots of soul searching and have three suggestions.

1. Have mercy. Jacob 2:17, but replace the word "substance" with the word "mercy". We need more mercy in our ministering. "If you would have god have mercy on you, have mercy on each other."

2. Make your boat swing. Rowing definition: "swing" is when all are rowing in such perfect unison that not a single action is out of sync. Somehow, individuality is crucial to this; clones couldn't do it. "Differences can be turned to advantage instead of disadvantage." This makes you go fast and they won because of that.

3. Clear away the bad as fast as the good can grow. Jacob 5: good tree is planted in good ground but was corrupted. A servant asks that the tree be given another chance and then the tree grows good fruit. JC is like the owner of the vinyard, and gives us mercy, if we can give it to each other.

"I believe the change we seek in ourselves and in the groups we belong to will come less by activism and more by actively trying every day to understand one another" because we're building zion.

As women, we have broad influence to remove prejudice and build unity. "I offer this invitation: be part of a collective force that changes the world for good." We're supposed to help others. "The women of this church have the potential to change society."

Rebecca M Craven

(I... I can't focus on this woman long enough to piece together what the fuck she's saying. Sorry.)

I think the overall topic is changing yourself to atone/repent.

Cristina B Franco

This year has given us many surprises that have left us broken.

Personal story about getting a piano. One of the delivery guys slipped and broke it. The delivery guys went back to arrange the delivery of a new piano, but her husband asked if it could just be repaired instead. The manager said "the wood is broken, and once the wood is broken, it can never sound the same."

We are like the broken piano, feeling broken and that we'll never be the same again. "However, as we come unto JC by exercising faith in him, repenting, and making and keeping covenants, our brokenness, whatever it's cause, can be healed [by the savior's healing power to make us better than we were.]." Faith in god heals us.

Story of Alma where god promised to ease their burdens.

(Really long quote from Alma that she doesn't source).

The savior is a refuge from the storm.

(Is there a rule that women can't have more than 20% original content in their talks? What is with all the quotes from other people, with barely anything to make them relate to each other?)

THAT'S MY HIGH SCHOOL CHOIR TEACHER DIRECTING THE SEPT 2014 CHOIR!!!

Bonnie H Cordon

JC is the light and the life of the world; the light that shines in the darkness.

Shit's been hard these last few months, but we see you praying and working hard to seek out JC.

Video

Gloomy shit and then "inspiring/soothing" pics of JC, then those same gloomy people are shown being happy while doing normal, everyday stuff. Lots of black people to show diversity and even a deaf woman signing in a video chat on her phone. (It's driving me crazy that i can't remember the song that's playing.) Then back to a pic of JC.

Henry B Eyring

"Every day we are approaching closer to the glorious moment when the savior JC will come to earth again."

"As the beloved daughters of heavenly father, and as the daughters of the lord JC in his kingdom, you will play a crucial part in the grand times ahead."

Prepare to live as the people in the city of enoch did.

Another unsourced quote of "what will happen in this last dispensation of the fulness of times": (was that wording really necessary?) dark skies, earthquakes, etc, but chosen people will be fine. They'll all be gathered into one place (that we could... maybee.... do something to? jk. unless...?).

Women will be at the heart of creating that society.

Quotes about the importance of women and the relief society.

Quotes about how pure and faithful the city of Enoch was.

"My experience has taught me that heavenly father's daughters have a gift to allay contention and to promote righteousness with their love of god and with the love of god they engender in those they serve." (fuck you)

Seeing a household without a preisthood member gave me glimpse of zion because the women were supportive and loving.

Why is it Oaks again?

"In the world, ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, i have overcome the world."

Today, "we are also troubled on every side, and we also need that same message not to despair, but to be of good cheer."

JC knows your wants and fears.

"Be of good cheer."

Opposition is essential (anyone know of that musical 'my turn on earth' or am i just old? I've got 'opposition' stuck in my head).

Shit sucks right now. Covid and election shit, the election shit is bad "the most severe many of the oldest of us can ever remember." People are dealing with "the many adversities of mortality: poverty, racism, sickness, job loss, wayward children, bad/no marriages, and the effects of sin" but "be of good cheer." (broken record much?)

Poor JS had lots of adversities! But he still managed to "maintain his native cheery temperament and the love and loyalty of his people." The pioneers had it hard, too, but they still "were of hope and good cheer."

(If I heard this right) The orignal missionaries were sent out for up to 7 years.

The presidency loves you and cares about you and we pray for you (y'all should look up 'ill pray for you' by Jaron Lowenstein, btw. i promise it's hilarious).

"There is boundless power in the doctrine of the restored gospel of JC. Our unshakeable faith in that doctrine guides our steps and gives us joy. It enlightens our minds and gives strength and confidence to our actions. This guidance and enlightenment and power are promised gifts we have recieved from our heavenly father. By understanding and conforming our lives to that doctrine, including the divine gift of repentance, we can be of good cheer as we keep ourselves on the path of eternal destiny, reunion, and exaltation with our loving heavenly parents." (sidenote- I typed that quote really fast with very few mistakes and I'm very proud of myself. I'm sure I've never typed that fast and correctly in my life.)

Russel M Nelson

Shit's been hard and different than normal.

We greive with the women who have experienced loss.

Social media is evil for young women, but "many of you have found ways to encourage others and share our savior's light."

The future gonna be lit, yo.

"If ye are prepared, ye shall not fear."

"Moroni prepared his people in three essential ways:”

“1. He helped them create areas where they would be safe; places of security, he called them.” "Create a home that is a place of security."

“2. He prepared the minds of the people to be faithful unto the lord.” "Each time we have the faith to be obedient to god's laws, even when popular opinions belittle us, or each time we resist entertainment or ideaologies that celebrate covenant breaking, we are exercising our faith, which in turn increases our faith." "Life without god is a life filled with fear. Life with god is a life filled with peace."

“3. He never stopped preparing his people; physically or spiritually." "The adversary never stops attacking, so we can never stop preparing. The more self-reliant we are, temporally, emotionally, and spiritually, the more prepared we are to thwart satan's relentless assualts."

"We have so much to look forward to. The lord placed you here, now, because he knew you had the capacity to negotiate the complexities of the latter part of these latter days. He knew you would grasp the grandeur of his work and be eager to help bring it to pass. I am not saying that the days ahead will be easy, but I promise you that the future will be glorious for those who are prepared, and those who continue to prepare to be instruments in the lord's hands."

"Embrace the future with faith."

#exmo #ex-mormon #apostake #exmormon #mine #ex mormon #exchristian #ex christian #excult #cult stuff #exlds #ex lds #former mormon #ex religious #agnostic #gc october 2020 #gc summary

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