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chronussy-bc · 9 months

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Discussion: Does Creed Hate Women? (P1)

Particularly women with power and having a strong influence on others, those he feels can be his equal or superior in terms of both (either) physically and (or) mentally. After knowing about his past, i think this is quite a valid question, making his hatred towards Saya much more understandable. In the manga, Creed has come in contact with a few female characters: Saya, Echidna, Kyoko, Sephiria, Rinslet, Eve and Shiki (yeah Shiki is canonically a woman). However, I notice he shows dislike outwardly for only Sephiria and Saya.

Kyoko and Shiki are those he can easily manipulate into working for him. Shiki did find out about his real intention of exploiting taoists later for his dream of achieving immortality through nanomachines, but still she fought against Train and the sweepers to defend their hideout, just betraying him when she was already defeated. Kyoko is young, quickly swayed by Creed's inducing to do as she please. So Creed does not bother with both of them. Eve's case is also similar to Kyoko, but she is lucky Sven and Train got to her first.

Echidna is a volunteer. She doesn't even need to be manipulated to be with Creed. Through the final arc, we can see how Echidna actually has an opinion of her own and how she stands with it, even though she may not show. She is well aware of Creed's ambition, before most of the Apostles, and she does have fear of what he might become, besides all the power and the victory. Yet she stuck with him, staying by his side after he was beaten back to square one. It can be said that Creed never has to concern himself about her loyalty. She is willing to be a subordinate.

Rinslet is terrified of Creed. Like most people with common sense, tbh. She is not a coward, but one experience with him is enough for her to stay away as far as she can. She accepted Sephiria's offer because Sephiria manipulated her, goading her into it, not because she thought she could actually pull it off in the first place. Creed knows this as well, explaining why he could tell she came to the castle was a part of a plan. "Creed is interested in those who used to stand in his way." He is since most of them will not dare to face him again, if they are still alive. So there must be someone behind Rinslet that gurantees her safety, that must be why she still has the guts to follow him.

=> All of the characters mentioned above are not those Creed regards highly or feel threatened by. He may acknowledge their capability, but that's all.

However, Saya and Sephiria are different. Sephiria is undeniably powerful, both in terms of influence, conviction and strength. Saya initially got his attention due to her changing Train, but later on her skills and resolve as a sweeper were also a big factor when they came face to face. And the most important thing is, they do not fear Creed's true nature and they are not fooled by his mask. He cannot manipulate them or overpower them without "cheating".

Saya is a girl who is far more beyond what is on the outside:

Not wanting to be shaped and bothered by her past tragedy, Saya has learnt to enjoy what is good in life. She acts naive, not because she actually is, but because she wish to believe in the bright side of people. Kentaro Yabuki built her character really well through small details. A childhood filled with abuse from her parents and neglections from relatives, being passed from one orphanage to another...a person having gone through those things at such a young age cannot be gullible.

"I've been to many places, seen many people, but the only one I consider my friend is you, Train." This phrase is such a crucial one. Saya has never trusted anyone enough to consider them her friends. Never. In all her years of travelling and socialising. Her knowledge of the world is much broader than Train's, but still she cannot find anyone to confide in until he comes. She was mistreated by her flesh and blood, and the fear birthed from knowing even those who are supposed to be her family can do her wrong has deeply rooted inside her. She is just as doubtful as anyone in the story. However, as written, she does not let the past define her and her reality, her present. Train was an infamous cold-blooded assassin, but she tried to understand his heart to judge, and when she knew she could trust him, she trusted him with everything, even the past she had been hiding so well. If Train could be similiar to anyone, it would be her, not Creed (when I have times I'll say more about this).

It takes a lot of efforts and courage to be optimistic about a world that has been nothing but cruel, and Saya managed to do it. Her zealousness is probably something that adds to Creed's hatred. Bro is psycho and pessimistic all the time so it's understandabe *sigh*. Sometimes I experience it too, Creed. Sometimes.

Inevitably, Saya's mentality is by no means weak. She has an ideal to live by, be happy and be helpful, and she sticks to it to the very end. Creed always assumes she is an ordinary girl, so he never expects her to defend her belief with her life. Everyone ordinary would choose their lives when push comes to shore because they are selfish, that is what Creed stands by. However, Saya chose to save the children instead, and was able to break Kotetsu due to her determination to protect them. That was the moment Creed realized Saya could affect Train because of who she is, not of any witchcraft and he continued to deny this until the final battle when Train called him out.

Creed does not love life, and he does not want Train to find a way out of their shared misery either. It was to the point he had nearly become a god through the power of his hatred, and yet that power could not help him defeat a young girl who he deems so unsignificant, so low. Creed was aware that with Saya's skills, she might not have lost the fight had she prioritized herself; and that her saving the kids was not just a moment of heroism, it was a choice she was willing to take consequence for. The truth is she lives her life by what she believes, and not even the-man-who-can-become-god can bend her.

Creed could not dodge her reflecting bullets then, and still he cannot dodge them from Train's Hades. Saya's shots would always hit him.

Well, well,...Definitely added to the rose-scented, Train-stickered blacklist.

But if switched Saya's gender into a man, would Creed be that crazy? I doubt not. Later on, Train also has someone who is his friend, his partner, who he voluntarily travels with, and that is Sven. Being with Sven and then Eve is what finally forms Train into Train Heartnet, a free sweeper. Being with Saya makes him no longer Black Cat, making him realize he desires happiness instead of power. However, the thought of killing did not leave his mind. Man does away with some mafia's assassin right in volume 1 and only until vol.13, decides to capture Creed alive. Train is still not clear about his actual path even after Saya. He just knows he does not want to be controlled and going around, do bloody work his entire life. The experience he has with the gang enlightens him on what he should choose.

Does Creed know he still have the chance to change Train back? Yes. Does he know Sven plays a part in Train's resistence towards murdering? Also yes. He has attempted to repeat history, getting rid of Sven as he did Saya. However, this time he is much more relax, as if playing. The manner in which he talks to Sven is more casual, no accusing him of dark magic and stuff, no cursing either (he called Saya a b!tch). He deals with Sven leisurely, not losing his wit and went rabid like when he came for Saya.

IMO Creed's fear and hatred towards his mother must have affected his view on women strongly. Nothing could feel more painful than those pain inflicted in childhood, since it was when people were the most vulnerable. If both a man and a woman were at the same level of strength, I think outside Creed would be more likely to recognize the man's competence and look down on the woman's. No he is not misogynistic, it's kind of a trauma response. Inside he would feel more threatened by the woman than the man, but he would never admit it.

Yeah, that's about it for now. Gosh this is much longer than I expected so I guess Sephiria's part will be on another post.

Read pt.2

#black cat #creed diskenth #character study #discussion #trauma response #mangalore only #creed in the anime is just gay #saya minatsuki

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arsonchaoschild · 1 year

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mutuals and all

i'd like to cast upon you the utter horror that these presidential elections have been

we got through the first round which lets people pick the two candidates to end up in the second round and actually be voted into presidency

and like

the second round

we have him

who's an oligarch billionaire (in czech currency at least i can't be bothered to do the math) who was just tried for misusing eu donations among other things and then cleared of all charges all while running for president, his party has had the majority in parliament for years up until the last elections (where his party was just barely surpassed by a more conservative one), huge populist, has rolled out outdated surveys about queer people's rights (which never accounted for you being a queer person and had questions like "should gay people have equal rights" you get the picture). he's also overall insanely rude, avoids debates and decided to go into a classrooms to let kids ask him questions, got questions such as "name the planets of the solar system" not by not being able to remember all of them, but by including the sun and the moon and then he proceeded to be rude as hell to the kids and treat them like he treats journalists (not good). not to mention, used to be an active member of the state police during the communist era (denies it. the wikipedia article on state police uses his file as the example photo. honestly incredible). dude's not even czech either, he's from slovakia. he's mostly known in the outside world cause he was included in pandora papers. being this bad of a human being is near impressive but his marketing team somehow makes it all work.

the other one's this. lead NATO for a while, also entangled with state police but from my understanding it was much less horrendous, definitely right/center-right but honestly when the president's most important authority is over naming members of the national bank committee (most likely not the official translation again i can't be bothered) then fucking anyone's better than an oligarch billionaire looking to rule the country like its a company. also just much more pleasant to listen to, since he has common decency and can put together a cohesive sentence. also he's a general. he really wants you to know that he's a general. he replaced his first name, "mr" or "president" with general. everywhere. every bit of the campaign. opposition really wants you to think he'll send the country to war. the president does not have the power to do that. he also really wants you to know he won't be like the current president (which. fair. he sucks) for example by constantly stating that his health will be public knowledge (cause the current president had a whole thing where he's been slowly disintegrating over over the last 10 years and the people knowing nothing last year he nearly died it was a whole thing) but he didn't go as hard as the third biggest candidate who had a full medical checkup done and then put her results on her website and instagram. she was real active on instagram and real proud of the fact she'd always voted right wing. she's her own can of worms.

he's the obvious choice. people are always thirsting for him, this includes my friend's mom and would most definitely include my mom if she wasn't dead. i'm sorry but it's true. i've seen a random polish person on reddit post a picture of him saying he could "annect their polish body". he's really into flannels.

whatever the fuck this is. all that's left is fanfiction. we have copious amounts of fanfiction of this one specific pair of politicians already to the point i've had to block several people because of it cause it didn't seem like they were joking anymore. a lot of the fanfiction is written by slovaks too. so it's not at all a stretch that the fanfiction will come. i'm terrified. i'm purposefully posting this on main instead of my czech blog cause the people of čumblr have had enough already. we're oversaturated. i need to bang my fists on a new table. i've been sick with fever this past week and any amount of the election events may have been a fever dream. goodbye.

#orbitky #politics #rant #long post

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butch-reidentified · 2 years

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Also where would you draw the line on transition surgeries? I’m reading about a case of ftm facial masculinisation surgery and omg. I think at one point it becomes less about treating dysphoria and more of a cosmetic surgery addiction. Of course I don’t blame the people getting these procedures done on them, but there are plenty of unhealthy mindsets at play and to me it seems it would be better to forgo trans surgery altogether than allow anyone to get on that slippery slope.

I agree with this but I really don't have the emotional energy to respond to the multiple long asks you just sent, just gonna do this one since it's the one i read first. As I mentioned a couple times before, today is the Pulse anniversary and I am never myself on or around this date & the very last thing I need is to bicker with other feminists today. I'm sorry & I don't mean to be disrespectful but I'm not gonna respond to all these asks right now & can't guarantee I'll have that energy anytime soon.

The only thing I'm gonna say on this is that my personaly experience of chest dysphoria was very much the same before and after I learned that surgery for it existed & I've heard a few stories or transsexual males wanting or even trying to remove their own genitalia at a young age (like 12 or 13) and that was well before these surgeries were common knowledge. & after having my own mastectomy, I have not had any desire whatsoever to get further surgery and actually for some reason my insecurities about my nose completely vanished. It's been almost 2 years since my mastectomy and I have loved my nose the whole time, whereas I used to use masking during covid as an excuse to cover it bc I hated it so much. It was the only thing that therapy didn't fix from my body image issues, and also something that helps me see clearly that my sex dysphoria is absolutely nothing like body image issues.

With my dysphoria there's absolutely no image/appearance aspect to it at all. I don't give a shit what my chest LOOKS like, I cared that it PHYSICALLY felt like a prosthetic glued to my chest no matter how much therapy I did. My nose I just found fucking hideous and hated it being seen or photographed or anything. My bottom dysphoria is just this uncomfortable feeling that there's a dick n balls there, but there isn't 🤷 I'm not interested in surgery for that - it's way too risky and intensive.

I know TIMs who obviously have body dysmorphic disorder and a plastic surgery addiction, and definitely confuse that with dysphoria. But I think what this ask is overlooking is the fact that the feeling that led me to get surgery & the feeling that leads many others to get these surgeries isn't the same for everyone. I think there's a divide between people with sex dysphoria whose sex characteristics *physically* feel like the opposite sex & people who want to look like the opposite sex and have body dysmorphia. Unfortunately sometimes (often) there's overlap, but the venn diagram is not a circle.

I think in most cases it would be better to forgo surgery altogether, yeah. I def agree with that. But there are extreme dysphoria cases where I have seen with my own eyes people whose lives have truly improved and dysphoria truly alleviated by it. They move past that transitioning stage, typically assimilate into the opposite sex group socially, and move on and live a very normal life. Unfortunately this isn't the majority of trans identifying people anymore, but they still exist. As I mention in my top surgery post, I spent years in therapy to address other, potentially related, issues and verify that I was ready and equipped to make the choice to have surgery. I didn't have any mental illnesses by the time I had surgery. Even my PTSD from Pulse, which is completely unrelated and came about after I was already considering surgery, was managed to below clinically diagnostic levels.

I think harm reduction is, as in most cases, simply the best approach. Banning things/encouraging abstinence only never works - drugs, sex, guns, etc. are all examples of this. There are many more too. I truly think a harm reduction approach to education on transition and trans surgeries would be WAY more beneficial and successful. And I think people would be far more likely to listen to that approach too.

#ask #mine #long post #text post #trans surgery #sex dysphoria #dysphoric radfem

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ragingstillness · 1 year

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Shadow and Bone spoilers - random thoughts from my notes (e2)

I love that this stolen painting of the fold is now our indicator that they're in the crow club.

Why doesn't Kaz tell anyone anything?

Blowing up the crow club is a scorched earth drama queen move and I approve.

"The barrel doesn't belong to kings it belongs to bastards" - ICONIC SHOWSTOPPING WE LOVE LOVE LOVE TO SEE IT

Quoted directly from my notes here: "Give me Ben you fuckers"

Why is Alina trying to seduce the Darkling in the tether?

"You're already dead" oof the foreshadowing

So cute Genya is looking for David and the Darkling is promising he'll find him. It's yet more evidence of how much he cares for all Grisha. He's rescuing them. Now that I think of it, how did Genya end up in a cage anyway? Was she back at the Darkling's encampment in Kribirsk and not on the skiff?

More Genya/David I love this song.

"Fear in a smaller glass is instinct" I am finally actually engaged in the crows' storyline

Nina's love for waffles continues.

Ballsy of the writers to tell us that Helnik had sex off-screen and refuse to show it to us.

Quoted directly from my notes here: "why does Hellgate look like a pair of boobs"

If the Shark Tooth in the side of Tamar's head isn't considered unusual why did everyone act like the bonding of the stag collar was some horrific thing. Not related to this scene just a thought I had, do you need a Durast for every implantation of an amplifier?

Why aren't they showing us Alina dreaming of the sea whip and the firebird? Seems odd after showing her dreaming of the stag and a simple dream flashback wouldn't take much of the runtime.

"You think the three are connected" is it somehow not common knowledge that Ilya created all three? Duh they're connected.

It's sweet that the Darkling knows the names and stories of everyone he ever rescued, really shows he cared.

Genuinely quite surprised that even Inej doesn't know the history with Pekka because in season one she seemed to.

"You're not just sunshine sunshine" lol

I'm kind of in love with Fruzsi but why have we literally never seen her before and why is she filling the role of Ivan or Fedyor? Also, finally we get to see a tidemaker, we've seen almost every other iteration.

The map that Alina had seemed to show the seawhip being in the sea but suddenly it's on an island?

Killing the seawhip was ridiculously easy. Also, the stag wasn't inherently violent, even when its territory was invaded, why was the seawhip violent?

Is it just me or is Nina chubbier this season? Maybe it's just the multiple layers and cloaks and bustle. I can't help but think that they took into consideration the criticism that Nina wasn't "truly" plus-size and this is how they dealt with it.

Inej's leather pants are everything.

I've been told that in the books Jesper is deeply and unrequitedly in love with Kaz but ngl I'm glad they didn't lean in on it and just had Wylan make one suspicious comment.

"My wraith" death, death for Pekka Rollins for a thousand years.

This Morgens character came out of nowhere and the show's acting like we're supposed to know him. And why is he wearing the Daredevil suit and dressing like one of the twelve from Junni Taisen?

Jesper remembering Wylan while lying on top of him is peak disaster bisexual behavior and I approve.

When are they ever going to run out of animal metaphors for Inej and the Crows? It's just constant all season.

Jesper stopping while being strangled to give Wylan a thumbs up is yet more peak disaster bisexual behavior.

I can't help but notice that Aleksander is spending a ton of time in these first episodes perilously close to the fireplace. Is he experiencing some sort of eternal chill/wasting sickness thing like Baghra does?

TW: SELF HARM MENTION

Ok what was he going to do with that hot poker? Burn the hole in his hand a little deeper? Like there's just nothing given as a reason besides the plot insisting that we need to learn about the tether. (I can't help but think of this from a self-harm angle)

Jessie's got some dance moves. It gives me Benedict Cumberbatch learning to Pop-Lock for Dr. Strange vibes.

"My Alina" - cute in fic where they're in a relationship, creepy in all other contexts including this one.

#shadow and bone #shadow and bone season two #shadow and bone spoilers #s&b #s&b season two #s&b spoilers

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eijie-cavies · 3 years

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Wen Kexing, Scorpion King and Gu-Xiang raised together in ghost valley.

This lovely user had produced a VERY interesting Au that I couldn't help myself but make a lil drabble/one shot on it. @naniya27 I hope you like it! I had fun playing around with Xi'er hahahah. (one shot under the cut)

Zhou Zishu didn't know if he should gape in surprise or tilt his head in confusion at the sight of Wen Kexing and a VERY familiar man clad in black conversing by their table. He had only stood up to order himself some more wine and all of the sudden there was an assassin sitting beside Wen Kexing, more so, this assassin wasn't even trying to kill him.

"Where have you been? I've been looking all over for you-" The man whined.

"I told you I will be "around" little brat, didn't A-Xiang inform you of my whereabouts?" Wen Kexing retorted, his carefree smile widened as he tilted his head back to drink his beverage as if this assassin was not in the least bit dangerous. "Da-ge, you know I would be busy, did you purposely send me away to have your little adventures?" The man pouted, POUTED, as though he was a little brother feigning hurt just to gain favor from his older brother.

'Have I missed something here?' Zhou Zishu internally blanched, approaching their table slowly.

When the man's eyes landed on to him all the traces of playfulness disappeared and a hard mask was set in place. The man straightened in his seat like a proper gentleman with his eyes cold and observant. Zhou Zishu internally shivered, The man looked every bit like he was once did back when he was still serving the prince.

"Ah! A-Xu, come come, you took too long" Wen Kexing whined pettily which gained a slightly shocked but nonetheless passive expression from his companion. "I was gone for 5 minutes Lao Wen-"

"Five minutes too long, a-xu don't deprived me of your beauty" His soulmate winked.

The scandalized look on the scorpion's face ALMOST made Zhou Zishu want to play along with his fan man's antics, but his mind was still too muddled to comprehend just WHY this man was even here.

"Lao Wen, i don't think you need me here if you got a companion?" Zhou Zishu challenged, the man's eyebrows twitched. Either from annoyance or anger he didn't know. "Ah, my bad, A-Xu this is Xie Wang, Xi-er say hello to my beautiful A-Xu" Again, Wen Kexing had that silly sparkling look in his eyes that quiet frankly Zishu decided he would never tire from. "Wen Gongzi, I was not aware you harbored stowaways in your journey" Zishu wanted to snort at that. as if he had not seen the way this "Xi-er" acted while he was not there.

"I know who he is Lao Wen, did not know the Ghost valley is familiar with the Scorpion" Zhou Zishu tilted his head, sitting down across from Wen Kexing. Xi-er looked ready to retort a smartass reply, probably something Wen Kexing had taught himself when the older man beat him to it.

"Ayiah, the ghost valley and Scorpions had always been allies A-Xu, is it not a common knowledge?" he asked.

Zishu only shrugged his shoulder. being an ex-assassin he could always read people based on their body language, and though the man in front of him was of similar occupation, Zishu could not help but chuckle at the way Xi-er's knee slowly moved to touch Wen Kexing's in a protective manner ,or how his jaw flexed slightly indicating that he was grinding his teeth behind his mouth, the piercing eyes never left him for a moment as if anticipating Zishu's attack at anytime. truth be told he looked about ready to drive Zishu away himself.

"Ah that reminds me, I seemed to have forgotten to buy some herbs too take back to the manor, eh A-xu i'll be back in a bit" He smiled warmly before standing up to leave. Zishu knows it's bullshit, Lao Wen would never run off to "buy" something not unless he asked for money first, so Zishu figured that this was his chance to get to know this person, whatever Lao Wen had in mind anyway.

"So...Leader Zhou, we meet again" Xi-'er smiled politely, though the ex assassin knew that that was FAR from a friendly one, more like a challenge. "Yes, after you abducted Chengling" he fired back, smile as taxing. Xie'er ,in a moment of weakness, groaned "Please, don't remind me, i already got an earful from Da'ge about that, I don't want to hear the same from you"

Zishu raised his eyebrow in surprise and confusion, okay so he was not hallucinating then. this scorpion DID call Lao Wen "Da ge"

"Pardon?" said Zishu.

"How was I supposed to know that Zhang boy was your ward and you were with Da ge anyway? he hadn't contacted me ever since he got out of the valley" he pouted...again. "Besides, I already said sorry to him" he reasoned again. Zishu smirked at that "So you said sorry to him and not me or Chengling?"

"Hell no, I don't even know you. and why are you even sticking to Da'ge anyway? this wasn't even in his plan" Xie'er rolled his eyes so far back he was sure it would pop out. The ex- assassin only laughed at that. No, Lao Wen did NOT anticipate their meeting nor did Zishu himself, but he'd be damned if he was the one sticking to Wen Kexing. that fan wielding man was the one who clung to him in the first place.

Just before he could retort Chengling arrived just in time to See Xi-er slightly leaned forward at the table as if he was about to attack Zishu. "Chengling" the swordsman started, but Chengling was fast to run to his side and position himself just behind Zhou Zishu. Xie'er was not pleased. "Little idiot, I thought you went off to buy more supplies for-"

"I was! but Shishu told me to come back here and that he would handle it himself"

'Lao Wen I swear to-'

"Shishu? hah, who are you calling shishu? my Da'ge would never let anyone call him that" Zi'er

"Your Da'ge, definetly did" Zishu almost could not contain his laugh at the scorpion King's scandalized and shocked expression. "This is ridiculous" the scorpion King stood up with al the gracehe could muster in anger "I'm going to find him and set this right" he harrumped, swishing his robes as he disappeared out the tavern.

Chengling, who was still slightly cowering behind him stuttered. "Sh-Shifu, wasn't tha-"

"Yes, don't worry i'll talk to your Shishu about this, come on. Let's go and finish getting those herbs before we go home"

____________________________________________________

"Lao Wen"

"Hmmn?" Wen Kexing hummed, stirring a pot of hot steamed vegetables with chicken soup simmering by the side. "Xie'er was...something" at the mention of his brother Kexing stopped for a second before continuing his minstrations. as if reading Zishu's mind on wanting a clearer explanation, Wen Kexing caved "I found him when I was still in ghost valley. he was one of the children who had been abducted and brought to us" the taller man swallowed hard, clearly struggling, though his face showed little emotion.

"He almost died, luckily I got to him in time and managed to save him, hiding him away was the hardest part. it took a while before he trusted me but once he did I found that I could not turn him away"

Zhou Zishu sighed, with a burst of bravery he walked over to his Zhiji and wrapped his hands around his waist, his head came to rest on Lao Wen's shoulder. "He lived with me for several years,and then Gu-xiang appeared. We barely managed to save her but when Xie'er promised ties with the Scorpion to the former Ghost valley chief he let her go, when I became chief I finally let him go back to his home where he can see his parents again" Wen Kexing stopped, longer this time. His hand shook as he removed the pots from the fire to prevent them from burning, he turned to Zhou Zishu, eyes full of guilt and sorrow.

"But...it was too late, his parents had been killed and with no one to take the title Xi'er had to assume the role and had to band together the scorpions that we know today. He was only 17 that time A-Xu, it took years before he could properly get a hold of the others and most of the time I wasn't even there to help him. I still had Gu-Xiang to raise and it wasn't time for me to emerge from the valley. He had to come to me multiple times-"

Wen Kexing faltered. Zishu figure that was enough, he didn't think Lao Wen would actually tell him that much. The shorter man steadily turned his soulmate to face him, his eyes soft and understanding as he slowly leaned in, just enough to let Lao Wen back out if he so wanted. but the other man stayed in place. He finally rest his forehead against Lao Wen's. in an instant, his partner loosened up, hand began to encircle around his waist as Zishu moved closer, feeling their noses touch.

"Lao Wen, you did great"

At that high praise and implication, Wen Kexing could not help but to shed tears of relief and gratefulness. Zishu understood, Zishu accepted. and most of all Zhou Zishu stayed.

Bonus: Timeline.

Wen Kexing was around 7 or 8 when he was brought in to Ghost valley. so let's say he was 7.

Xie'er came to ghost valley when he was 8 years old making Wen Kexing 15.

Gu-xiang came to valley when she was 7 making Wen Kexing 18 and Xi'er 11.

Wen Kexing was 20 when he took over, Xie'er now 17 years old and given free reign over the scorpions and Gu xiang 9.

Finally current drama:

Wen Kexing - 28

Xie Wang- 21

Gu-Xiang - 17

(These aren't the real ages btw XD just estmation. i had big brain moment trying to sort out the timeline hahaha)

#word of honor #shan he ling #wen kexing #zhou zishu #zhang chengling #xie wang #xie er #gu xiang #wenzhou #Wen kexing is a good dad TvT

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roguerogerss · 4 years

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A Long Day of Saving Your Ass

(gif isn’t mine, creds to the owner!)

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Avenger!Reader

Plot: “Hi darlin! If you’re still taking requests could you do a Bucky x reader where she gets her ass saved from literal death by Bucky during a mission and she refuses to leave his side on the way back or at the tower? And he gives her a back/foot massage to make her nerves calm down aaand they may or may not share a kiss bc they like each other? I hope that makes sense, tysm! 💞” - requested by anon

W/C: 2.3k

Warnings: mentions of fights/blood/kinda ptsd but not really? she’s pretty much just really shaken up and Bucky’s cute and protective as hell about it. also kinda sexual themes towards the end, no smut or anything though it’s all fluff!

(A/N: first of all, thank you so much for all of the love on my last fic, it really really does mean the world and that was just totally insane. okay, so, this request only came in yesterday, but I was so in love with the concept and had this wave of ideas for what I could write, and so here it is! thank you so much for this one, bby! as always, requests are open for any marvel boy you want, plus any of the stranger things boys. i do smut too hehe. any feedback is so welcome and appreciated, it really helps! please like and reblog!)

————

The quinjet was ready to take off, engine on, Steve behind the wheel. But Y/N wasn't there yet. They'd been holding off on leaving, giving her time to get out and the opportunity to do it without help, but Bucky had been antsy since he'd gotten on the vehicle and realised that she wasn't there.

It wasn't exactly a secret that he liked her, in a way that he hadn't really liked anyone in over seventy years. He'd never admitted it to anyone, not even to himself out loud, but you have to have a certain level of intelligence and basic sight to join the Avengers in the first place, and it wasn't hard to figure out.

Y/N was oblivious to it, rolling her eyes whenever Natasha teased her about 'Bucky's little crush', never taking it seriously. If she'd known that they were really serious about it, she wouldn't have hesitated to make a move. She was inherently forward, had no sense of shame whatsoever, it was common knowledge that she would've said something, at the very least.

"Hey, Y/N, where are you right now?" Bucky spoke into the intercoms, earning wide eyed glances from the rest of the team. They knew that she hated being rushed, hated being babied even more, and the fact that Bucky was doing both was probably about to blow up in all of their faces.

There were obvious sounds of struggle on her end as she answered back with a grunt, "South side, got ten guys on my case. Think I can handle it, though."

"We're ready to leave, Y/N." Bucky grunted, leaning forward in his seat and chewing at his lip. He was met back with a crash and a strangled groan from the assassin, making him shoot up and towards the exit of the ship.

"Bucky, where are you going? She'll kill you if you try to help her-" Tony was standing now, too, worried about his teammate, but figuring that she'd find some way out. Bucky shook his head and pressed the button to open the escape hatch.

"She's going to die if I don't help her, Stark. Keep the engine running, we'll be back in a second." And he was gone with that. Steve closed the hatch, radioing to Bucky to 'keep in touch' as he did so.

Bucky pulled his machine gun from the holster on his back, shooting two guards that were stationed at the front entrance of the Hydra base that they'd sneakily infiltrated, managing to only cause a few minor scenes. He was inside and backed against a wall, scoping out his route to the south side of the building, without wasting a second.

His feet pounded on the metal stairs as he made his way down to where they'd been earlier, where he knew that Y/N still was, and he looked around himself cautiously, gears in his arm turning.

He could hear the fight before he could see it, and he could tell from the noises that Y/N wasn't doing so well. A lot of crashing, thuds, groans mostly from her. The sight wasn't exactly easy to look at either, she was covered in blood, slumped against a wall and kicking her legs wildly while one of the agents held a gun to her temple.

Bucky knew that he had to act fast, and so he shot the agent with the gun without giving away his position, and then proceeded to open fire on the rest of them, trusting in the fact that Y/N knew how to dodge a bullet.

When he was sure that the agents were dead, each one of them crumpled in heaps on the floor, he slung his gun back over his shoulder and ran for Y/N, who let out a relieved sigh upon seeing Bucky. "Oh my God, Buck." She whispered. She wasn't sure what she meant by the words, what she wanted to convey in them, but he seemed to pick up just fine as he wrapped his arms around her shaking and compacted body.

"You're okay, I've got you." He rested his head on top of hers for a second, breathing heavy, just allowing himself to enjoy how it felt to have his body draped over hers. "We've gotta go, okay?"

"I can't run." She said assertively, knowing that there was no way that she'd be able to get up and run like hell, like Bucky seemingly wanted her to. He nodded once, gave her an apologetic smile, and then scooped her up into his arms without another word.

She scrambled to grip onto his black jacket, a gasp leaving her mouth as he picked her up from the floor, flesh arm supporting the backs of her knees and the metal one around her shoulders. He chuckled at her reaction, the way that she white-knuckled the leather of his combat jacket. "Don't worry, I'm not gonna drop you."

"How do you expect me to believe that?" She croaked, trying her hardest to be her usual, sardonic self, but failing miserably as she realised just how fast and hard her heart was beating.

"Because I just saved you from at least ten guys who wanted to kill you within a minute, I'm not dropping you." Bucky replied as he ascended the stairs and she buried her face in his chest, the smell of his cologne relaxing her. He allowed a soft smile to cross his face, bringing his metal hand to her head and almost rocking her like an infant or a small child who had a nightmare.

For Tony saying that she hated being 'babied', she seemed to enjoy it when it was coming from Bucky.

They were back at the ship within a few minutes. Steve had taken off, and Bucky had gone to sit in the back of the ship on his own. Or at least, he'd wanted to sit in the back of the ship on his own, but Y/N was so shaken up and had looked at him like she was a lost puppy when he'd tried to leave her alone, and so he smiled and told her to come with him.

Everyone else had looked between themselves, grinning like mad. "He really likes her." Steve commented and Natasha nodded.

"She really likes him, I'm well aware of that fact." She said.

"I've never seen The Winter Soldier so caring. And, was that - sorry if this seems outlandish - a smile? On Bucky Barnes' face? Surely not." Tony pitched in, leaning back in his chair while his friends laughed.

Meanwhile, Y/N was curled up in a chair, chewing at her fingernails and dabbing at her bloody face with a wet cloth that Bruce had given her the second that she'd gotten on the ship. Bucky watched her, his heart breaking at the way that her hands shook as she brought them to her face, at the way that her entire body shook.

"Hey." He placed a tender and soothing hand on her back, rubbing gentle circles there. "It's okay, you're safe now."

She gave him a wobbly smile that didn't quite reach her eyes and placed her hand over his, allowing him to interlock their fingers. "Yeah. Safe now."

————

She still hadn't left his side, apart from briefly so that she could take a shower. He'd offered to come back to her room with her when she'd hovered around the lounge while everyone else had already dispersed, reminding her that no one was going to hurt her.

She was laying on her bed, hair wet and wearing nothing but a big shirt, while Bucky sat awkwardly on the edge of it, twisting the sheets between his fingers. "You don't have to sit there, you know. I have a sofa, or you can sit back."

Bucky shook his head and looked round at her, she was still visibly shaking, eyes darting around to show just how on edge she was. "It's fine, darlin'. M'fine." His voice was more ragged than he'd expected it to be. "I'm just here to make sure that you're okay."

"Well," She held her arms out, "Come here, that'd make me feel okay." It was a bold move, one that told of her feelings towards Bucky, but she didn't mind much, figuring that he probably wouldn't decline her.

He chuckled, shaking his head at her, but still, kicked his boots off and lay down next to her, allowing her to wrap her arms tightly around his torso and press her cheek over his heart. "Hey, you're okay, sweetheart." He stroked her hair. "There's nothing to be on edge about, yeah? I've got you."

"Yeah. Yeah, I know. Sorry, I don't know why I'm so freaked out." Her breathing was picking back up again, so Bucky shushed her and pressed a soft kiss to the top of her head, something that drove the butterflies in her stomach wild.

"It's okay, baby." The nickname just added to the way that her stomach fluttered, and she swallowed hard to try to forget about it. "Hey, how about I do something that'll relax you, yeah?"

"And what would that be, Barnes?" She smirked mischievously and he laughed at her.

"Lay on your stomach." He removed his arm from around her shoulders, and she looked at him with one eyebrow raised, obviously thinking that he was implying something way more forward than what he was actually implying. "Woah, no, no, no. I give good back massages, metal arm and all."

She laughed, throwing her head back into the pillows at the headboard of her bed. "Oh my God, Bucky. I hate you so much." She breathed out, flipping over so that she was laying on her stomach, back exposed to him.

"Can I pull your shirt up, or?" Bucky whispered, running his hands up and down the back of her t-shirt, and she nodded.

His breath hitched in his throat and he found himself struggling to think straight when he lifted the hem of her large shirt, to show that she was only wearing a pair of black panties underneath. She didn't seem to mind, so he didn't mention it, even though his breathing was hindered as he trailed his hands from the small of her back to her shoulders, thumbs rubbing circles as he did so.

She sighed and could've sworn that her eyes rolled back into her head as she relaxed into his touch, one hand cold and the other warm. She understood what he meant when he said that he was good at giving back massages.

"Feel okay?" He asked softly, swallowing hard. She nodded again.

"My God, Bucky, feels fucking amazing." She moaned, and he hated himself when his stomach flipped upon hearing her. "You're so good at that."

He had to stop when she said that, hands still on her shoulders but unmoving, just sitting still. He couldn't think about anything else other than sex when she was moaning like that, something that he wanted to punch himself for. It was such a tender moment, she was scared and so vulnerable, and all that was going through his brain were those thoughts.

"You okay?" She asked, and when he didn't answer she flipped back over, sitting in front of him. He looked like he'd seen a ghost as his tongue darted out to lick over his bottom lip. She reached a hand out, caressing his cheek gently to bring him back to reality. "Bucky?"

"Can I kiss you?" The words were leaving his mouth before he even knew what to do with them, what they meant and how she'd react. As soon as he realised what he'd said, he had his face in his hands, shaking his head. "Shit, sorry."

"No. No, Bucky, don't apologise. Look at me." She wrapped her fingers around his wrist, prying his hands away from his face. "Yes. Of course you can kiss me."

He furrowed his eyebrows, wondering if what she'd just said was real. She was looking into his eyes so intently, staring at the light blue rings around his pupils, realising how pretty they really were now that she was this close. "Kiss me." She whispered, and Bucky took no hesitation in complying to what she was asking of him.

His lips were on hers, and they were so gentle and soft, gliding against hers effortlessly. He pulled her closer to him with a hand on her back, the other cupping her cheek lovingly. His tongue had soon slipped between her lips, earning a soft little whine from her, as his tongue met hers and they worked out how to move them together in harmony.

She eventually pulled back, breathless, and simply grinned at him before laying back and pulling him with her. They resumed their earlier position, her arms wrapped firmly around his waist, his arm around her shoulders, her head on his chest while his hand stroked her hair. "Relaxed?" He laughed and she smiled and nodded.

"I'll get goin', it's late and you look tired, princess." Another nickname, another flourish from the butterflies in the pit of her stomach. Just as Bucky was getting up to leave, she grabbed onto his shirt and pulled him back to her, snuggling back up to his chest.

"Stay. Please."

#bucky barnes #marvel #sebastian stan #bucky barnes x reader #captain america #fanfic #sebastian stan x reader #steve rogers #mcu fic #natasha romanoff #rogue writes #this is: probably really bad because i rushed it because i had so many ideas okay anyway #rogue does marvel

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stillness-in-green · 3 years

Text

Part 2 of the response to this ask:

Part 1 was about where I think Geten’s story is going, and if I think it’s likely that Dabi will kill him; it dealt mainly with how those characters are set up in canon. Part 2 is far more about the fandom, and the assumptions people make that lead them to theories like the one above--specifically, the assumption that the League was always planning on bailing on the PLF. Hit the jump below with me and I'll go over why I think the common arguments for that are misguided at best, and willfully misreading the text at worst.

WARNING: Contains some generalizations about parts of the fandom that I have mostly taken steps to avoid seeing on my dash, so some of my characterizations may be out of date. I’ve tried to desalinate this post as much as possible, but as an unapologetic fan of the MLA and of Spinner (who I do not bring up incidentally), this is a topic I feel particularly strongly about. Apologies, but I Have Seen Things.

DISCLAIMER: I like Geten better than Dabi. I don't think he's better developed; I don't think he's a better character--I just like him better. This is largely down to the fact that I find the MLA fascinating from a worldbuilding perspective and its members compelling personally, whereas I’m less interested in Dabi personally than I am the Todoroki Drama on the whole, and have been tired of Fanon Dabi for approximately 83 years. I’ll also be the first to admit that my take on Dabi is pretty mercenary--hardly the irredeemable psychopath the Hero Stans on Twitter see, but nothing close to Secretly Soft Big Brother Touya, either. If that’s not your bag, you may want to skip this one.

So, here's a bullet point list of the reasons I have personally seen on why the League was always planning to turn on the MLA:

Dabi and Toga mention "getting started early," and Shigaraki mentions a plan, suggesting that the League had a plan in place independent of the one they arranged as the PLF.

Shigaraki says he won't forgive the Liberation Army for messing with peoples' feelings, so he would never really mean it when he forges an alliance with them.

The MLA is quirk supremacist, like Endeavor, so Dabi would never work with them.

Dabi is just using Skeptic against Skeptic's will; it’s not a willing partnership.

Mr. Compress rejects the PLF moniker for Shigaraki, ergo Mr. Compress didn’t genuinely associate Shigaraki and the League with the PLF.

Toga hated Curious, so she wouldn't want to work with the MLA either.

Twice would never forgive them for what they did to Giran.

[Error: argument about Spinner's opinion on the PLF not found.]

So, let's go over those, shall we? Note that a lot of what I'm going to lay out below isn't conclusive. What I want to establish is simply that the canonical evidence isn't conclusive, certainly not as much so as the people who support this view espouse.

|| Dabi and Toga mention "getting started early," and Shigaraki mentions a plan, suggesting that the League had a plan in place independent of the one they arranged as the PLF.

In responses to my recent Overhaul post, I defended Viz’s official translation as an accurate rendering of the dialogue in question. In general, I feel like Caleb Cook is pretty reliable in his translations, if sometimes kind of stiff or dry in localization. However, there are times he makes assumptions about lines--as indeed a translator for a currently-running series will sometimes have to--and sometimes, those assumptions don’t pan out. This is one of those times.

Dabi's line, "Shall we get started early?" is based on an assumption Cook made about a line that doesn't have an actual subject. In the original dialogue--Hayame ni hajimaru ka--there is no “we,” not even in the form of some implicit collective in Dabi’s grammatical inflection, nor is there a question of "should." All Dabi’s doing is musing that the start (again, there’s no subject, and so no indication of the start of what, or the start as initiated by who) is happening early.

Toga's line communicates much the same, save that she does specify that the schedule/plan/arrangement is happening earlier than expected--which is totally true, since her line is in response to Dabi observing that Machia moving must mean Shigaraki's awake, and Shigaraki was supposed to be down for another month.

Shigaraki's line, like Dabi's, lacks a subject to describe what exactly is supposed to start as soon as Shigaraki wakes. He's saying something that would, in a more stilted way, be, "I wake up and then it's the start, right?"

None of these lines suggest that the characters are necessarily talking about any plan other than the one the PLF laid out. Yes, it looks somewhat damning that Shigaraki's first action (after getting himself a cape, anyway) is to have Machia bring him the League, but heck, maybe that was always the plan. Just because Shigaraki wants to rejoin his comrades doesn't mean the rest of the PLF didn't already have machinations that they were supposed to set into motion the moment Machia left. After all, the plan as Hawks understood it did involve simultaneous attacks on major cities--maybe the League was going to be spearheading one of those attacks. Further, Shigaraki knew something was wrong from the moment he regained consciousness, and we don’t know how that knowledge affected the call he made. Hell, maybe the original plan was for the League to be brought to meet him somewhere in a chartered limo; we don’t know.

It's telling that this idea that the League had a Secret Plan to screw over the MLA rarely seems to account for Mr. Compress and Spinner being confused over the suddenness of events. The response to questions about this seems to be that the "villain trio" knew about it, so the ignorance of the rest of the League can just be handwaved--the important members knew, and that's enough. This is ungenerous towards both Twice and Mr. Compress, but I have got particularly little time for Spinner, the narrator of MVA and guy who decided to devote his all to Shigaraki, being disrespected in this fashion. More on that later.

|| Shigaraki says he won't forgive the Liberation Army for messing with peoples' feelings, so he would never really mean it when he forges an alliance with them.

Shigaraki does say he won't forgive the MLA, but consider what he did to the MLA and its leader. He destroyed most of their stronghold, killed scores of them, is directly responsible for Re-Destro losing his legs, and saw that vaunted descendant of Destro about six inches shy of full forehead-on-the-ground dogeza. The League Shigaraki commands killed a great many more of them, including one of their inner circle. He commandeered the Liberation Army, its resources, and its grand cause. I think it’s safe to say he’s more than responded in kind!

I'm not saying Shigaraki feels for the MLA the same way he does about the League, far from it, but I do think he's practical enough after two hundred chapters of character development not to throw them away out of spite. In Chapter 246, he tells Ujiko explicitly, "When someone offers me something, I take it," and, "I'm done taking the heroes lightly. I'll use everything I've got to obliterate the dregs All Might left behind." From a purely practical standpoint, if he intends to throw everything he has at the heroes, he has no reason to throw the MLA under the bus, and 116,000 reasons to keep them around. I'm altogether sure that, so long as they stood to be useful to his plans, he would have kept them around.

|| The MLA is quirk supremacist, like Endeavor, so Dabi would never work with them. + || Dabi is just using Skeptic against Skeptic's will; it’s not a willing partnership.

I hadn’t seen the second point in the wild, but I suppose it must be how the “The League will betray the MLA” theorists are getting around Dabi and Skeptic’s clear collaboration and how that collaboration totally scuttles the first point, huh? Hilarious.

Anyway, setting aside the fact that Dabi showed up to the one planning session we were shown when even Geten didn’t, there’s evidence in the canon that Dabi was working with Skeptic since even before the raid. Consider that Dabi’s video was filmed at the villa (the wall paneling and the style of the couch both match) and ask yourself where the camera he used came from. Once the filming was complete, where was the video stored such that Skeptic could access it from his laptop? If Dabi’d had it on an SD card and Skeptic was seeing it for the first time, why didn’t Spinner, Compress and Toga watch it alongside him? Surely Skeptic would need to watch it through at least once to know when to splice in the footage of Jin’s death for maximum dramatic impact? On that note, by far the most telling piece of evidence is this: if Dabi wasn't already working with Skeptic, then why was he wearing one of Skeptic's body cameras during his confrontation with Hawks?

Further, Skeptic's protest when he’s pulled onto Machia isn't that he doesn’t want to be with the League; it’s that he doesn’t want to leave Re-Destro behind. Once he's resigned that it's going to happen, though, he's cocky about his talents and complimentary of Dabi's big reveal, even if he is exasperated about the League's antics. It's ambiguous, I admit, but given that Dabi's wearing his cameras, he had to have known Dabi had a reason for them--and given that he is both abrasive and mouthy, I can’t imagine he wouldn’t have demanded to know what that reason was.

Hell, Dabi even thanks Skeptic for his editing work, which is more direct positive approval than he's ever shown anyone in the League (give or take the high-five with Twice, which, genuine or not, he would have known he was doing on camera). That much-vaunted panel of Spinner telling Toga to come back to the League? Dabi's grinning, which in isolation you could read as a certain rueful affection, but with the full context of the chapter, it becomes apparent that Dabi is grinning at Skeptic's laptop, seconds after telling Skeptic to "hurry up." Skeptic is, at that moment, probably gearing up the video to project nationwide, and Dabi’s more focused on that than he is Toga’s crisis, even when Compress directly appeals to him for aid. He tells Compress he doesn’t care, the same way he told Hawks he doesn't give a damn about the League.

Let me be clear here: I'm inclined to take Dabi at his word. I think Dabi hangs around the League because, for all that he says one man's conviction can shake the world, he also knows his own limits, and the League offers safety in numbers and an avenue to pursue his revenge. Maybe he finds them acceptable enough company, maybe he even does like them a bit despite himself, but I think any affection he might have for them is entirely incidental to his views on their usefulness. In the same way, while he's willing to bail on the MLA when the heroes attack, I don't think it was his plan to do so, especially not given his apparent immediate regard for Skeptic, as seen in the deleted scene here. Sure, he dislikes Geten, but ultimately, Geten is a stupid kid too tied up in his care for Re-Destro--who's now worshipping the ground Shigaraki walks on--to really be getting in Dabi's way.

Maybe if the MLA really were as quirk supremacist as Geten makes them out to be, Dabi would be actively looking for a way to see ‘em burn, but as I’ve said countless times before, Geten is not a reliable narrator vis a vis the MLA's doctrine. Now, obviously I don't expect Dabi to give them an unearned benefit of the doubt,(1) not after what he heard Geten say, but if Dabi has been working with Skeptic, it doesn't take a genius to realize that while Anthropomorph is a perfectly good quirk, it is categorically not what primarily defines Skeptic’s "worth" in the MLA societal microcosm.

Nothing that Skeptic does reflects the way Geten talks about "elevating one's ability" or "sheer strength" in the way that HeroAca fandom tends to understand as referring to flashy and offensive quirks. And yet, Skeptic is a ranked advisor warranting an introductory panel with RD's inner circle and Geten is not. Perhaps, just perhaps, this might have led Dabi to reevaluating his initial assessment just slightly?

|| Mr. Compress rejects the PLF moniker for Shigaraki, ergo Mr. Compress didn’t genuinely associate Shigaraki and the League with the PLF.

So, this one's pretty wild, because, in the same chapter that had people crowing about Mr. Compress's dialogue, Mr. Compress's actions show the exact opposite of the conclusion this theory would demand. Specifically, if it was always the League's plan to ditch the MLA, Mr. Compress would have darted right past Skeptic, ignoring the man's cries for help. He doesn't--he picks Skeptic up on the way past and (at least in the volume corrections) deposits him safe with Dabi in Spinner's scarf. Of course, Skeptic still stands to be useful, but if one acknowledges that Skeptic's usefulness is reason enough not to abandon him, then what exactly is the argument for leaving 116,000 perfectly useful warm bodies behind?

But let's set aside Compress rescuing Skeptic and focus on the actual point, because that point in itself is still flawed. Mr. Compress's thoughts on the PLF in the specific talk bubble in question are somewhat ambiguous. It's another case of the Viz translation making a couple of assumptions that are just that--assumptions.

Compress's words in the Japanese are as follows:

Chōjō Kaihō Sensen.… Viran rengo no Shigaraki Tomura ga…

Viz then renders the line like so:

The Paranormal Liberation Front's… No, the League of Villain's Shigaraki…

Note that in the Japanese, the possessive no is only included once, to indicate Shigaraki's association with the League. Further, the original doesn't indicate any negation in Compress's thoughts. Yes, he could be rejecting the PLF association for Shigaraki, but he could as easily be narrowing his scope to Shigaraki as the figure he represents to the League, rather than the figure he represents to the PLF--not rejecting wholesale, but rather becoming more specific. Compress might also be thinking first of the PLF as a general organization, then narrowing down to Shigaraki specifically.

Rather than reading this line as an indication that Compress regards the PLF as temporary, I was heartened by the fact that Compress thought about the PLF at all! If the League really had been planning to discard them this entire time, then there's no reason for Compress to have ever taken the Front seriously enough to have thought about them in that moment of crisis. You can carry this back further, too. In Chapter 258, when Twice is asking Hawks for help, he says that Spinner and Compress have been in meetings for days. Coupled with Compress's first thought about the entity that will carry out Harima's desired reformation being the Liberation Front (or possibly "the Liberation Front's Shigaraki"), this indicates to me that Compress was taking it seriously, not just gorging himself on sushi on the MLA's dime.

Indeed, back in Ujiko's lab, when it was just Shigaraki talking about his backstory and his dreams of destruction, Compress looks the opposite of impressed; we know from his narration in 294 that he liked the League because they didn't place any importance on one another’s pasts. Yet, at some point, his view shifted to believing that fulfilling his ancestor's ambition, his bloodline’s duty, really might be back on the table. We as readers don't quite know when that shift happened, but given, again, his initial mental invocation of the PLF, I think we can assume that it's tied to that alliance, those resources. And sure, when the moment of crisis happens and he's really defining who and what Shigaraki is to him, and where his values and priorities lie, it's with the League and Shigaraki as the leader of the League. But that doesn't mean he never had his hopes for the PLF at all, or was partaking in plans to ditch them.

Also too, this is a man who was lamenting the loss of their partnership with Overhaul, a man who personally maimed him, on top of killing a comrade. You're telling me the guy who shrugged off his animosity towards Overhaul would willingly allow the League to plot sabotage against even wealthier collaborators against whom he has even less reason to hold a grudge? Come on, guys.

|| Toga hated Curious, so she wouldn't want to work with the MLA either.

This one's easy: Toga pretty explicitly hated Curious, but she's even more explicit that she likes the MLA because she thinks the world they want to create is wonderful. She says this verbatim at the end of 225, after Curious has spent the entire chapter hounding her with explosions and intrusive questions. What turns her animosity on Curious is not some reveal that the MLA's world would be terrible after all, but Curious calling Toga's "normal" miserable and tragic. Essentially, she doesn't object to the world the MLA wants to bring about; she objects to being turned into a martyr for that world, especially when that martyrdom requires that the things that make Toga happy be characterized as horrific misfortunes.

Toga doesn't like Curious; she kills Curious. And then she comes into a position of leadership, and we don't know a lot about how that position takes her, but she seems delighted to be walking out onto the stage to be announced as such, and she makes active contributions to the discussion of the PLF's plans in Chapter 245. We are, again, given no indication that her lethal response to Curious means that she's planning to ditch the MLA on the whole.

Incidentally, Curious asserts what she does about Toga only in the context of the world as it stands. The world's rejection of Toga's normal, and the extremes that rejection drove Toga to, are what Curious considers tragic and miserable, not Toga's fascination with blood in and of itself. She clearly believes that, in the world the MLA envisions, Toga's life would not be so miserable because she would never have been oppressed to the degree that she snapped. And frankly, Curious isn't wrong. The only reason she is a villain in that scene is that she's willing to murder Toga to project that tragedy to the world. If she'd been willing to sit down and have a civil interview with Toga to print it in a relevant magazine, she would have been fine.

|| Twice would never forgive them for what they did to Giran.

You know, this is a totally fair point. It is, however, somewhat complicated by the fact that Giran himself never left the PLF. Now, there’s almost certainly something to be said about Giran’s whole information broker shtick being terminally compromised by his capture, his maiming, his client list being hacked, etc. He had a bunch of identifying items strewn all over the country that were covered in the national news, items that people who associated with him closely certainly would have recognized. Maybe he’s laying low for a while?

I don’t know why Giran was still around by the time of the raid. I can theorize about his pragmatism or what have you, but the canon really doesn’t give us anything to go on. Still, if he really hated the MLA all that much, as he would be totally justified in doing, it’s pretty bizarre that Horikoshi showed him twice in PLF crowd scenes post-Deika looking nothing worse than kind of confused and uneasy. Heck, you’d think he would at least have merited a better seat in the crowd for the big merger announcement.

Giran aside, the fact that Twice never does hit it off with anyone in his regiment is, I think, telling. If there’s anyone in the League that intentionally kept himself at a distance from the MLA because of hard feelings, it’s likely Twice. After all, if he had befriended anyone, he presumably wouldn’t have needed to go to Hawks for tutoring almost an entire month after Deika. That said, the fact that Twice does go running to Hawks for tutoring shows that he’s at least doing his best to act in accordance with what he thinks Shigaraki and the rest want. That doesn’t preclude the League having a secret plan that he’s either in on and playing along with, or hasn’t been told about because he might not be able to stop himself from vocalizing about it. Still, while absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, obviously absence of evidence is not evidence of presence. So, lacking any sign that the rest of the League is planning treachery, I’m not inclined to assume Twice’s lack of forgiveness is indicative of anything other than his own feelings.

|| [Error: argument about Spinner's opinion on the PLF not found.]

:: INCOMING SALT WARNING :: INCOMING SALT WARNING ::

This is the one that really gets to me. I have never seen an argument that the League is planning to betray the PLF that convincingly explains the fact that Spinner, to all available evidence, threw himself wholeheartedly into trying to make the PLF succeed. To be more precise, I have seen one explanation, and that explanation is that the plan to ditch the MLA was a secret that only Shigaraki, Dabi and sometimes Toga knew about, and to reiterate, that is bullshit.

In my experience, this is an explanation proposed by people who care about Spinner only insofar as he can be a Soft Gaymer Boyfriend or score them rhetorical points, but have little to no interest in his ongoing--and, indeed, increasing--importance to the League generally and Shigaraki’s arc specifically. The dude who talked about how Twice’s home was the League, who got through to Toga while still respecting her choice when no one else could, the guy who recognized the hollowness within Shigaraki but also bonded with him over video games, the man who Mr. Compress said was Shigaraki’s most devoted follower(2)--this man did not do all of that for people in this fandom to say, “Oh, well, the others probably just kept it a secret from him because they thought he’d be bad at lying.”

Really? “Bad at lying?” And that’s an adequate justification, is it, for Shigaraki letting Spinner toil for months under false pretenses? For lying to the man who adores him the most? Of course it isn’t, but the people who theorize this don’t really care about Spinner’s adoration for Shigaraki, or the fact that Shigaraki rewarding Spinner’s feelings by allowing him to dedicate himself unstintingly to something Shigaraki was planning to discard from the beginning would be a blatant abuse of Spinner’s trust.

I have never seen anyone try to argue that Spinner was in on a plan to betray the MLA all along. That’s because it’s patently obvious that Spinner--forthright, direct Spinner, who named the merged organization with Re-Destro, spends all his time in meetings, has a direct exchange with Re-Destro about the state of their plans, and is probably the reason RD started wearing polka dots--went all-in on the PLF. But for the people who propose the “the League was always going to bail” theory, Spinner and his labors are an afterthought.

Spinner is not an afterthought. Where Mr. Compress has been captured, Toga could hypothetically be peeled away from the League via Uraraka, and Dabi almost certainly will be peeled away via the Todoroki plot, Spinner’s driving motivation at this point is Shigaraki himself. He connected to Shigaraki’s nihilism, his hatred, but also his humanity--the humanity in Shigaraki Tomura, not in Shimura Tenko. His empathy didn’t spring from contrived psychic glimpses of crying 5-year-olds, but from long months of observation, doubt, and gradually deepening wonder. He’s the only person currently with Shigaraki that I can see caring enough about Shigaraki’s welfare that he might sacrifice his own goals and desires to help Deku save him.

Spinner is not an afterthought, and I refuse to build or entertain theories that treat him that way. So as to his opinions on the MLA? Despite having his own reasons to be leery of them based on how shabbily Trumpet treated him, he was obviously trying to make the Paranormal Liberation Front succeed, which means he must have believed that Shigaraki wanted it to succeed. Therefore, unless you’re prepared to assert that Shigaraki (and everyone else who was in on it!) was cruel enough to lie to Spinner about something he was devoting so much time and energy to, the inescapable conclusion is that Shigaraki also wanted the Front to succeed.

(Note: After letting a friend pre-read this, I have been informed that there is, in fact, one explanation offered for Spinner knowing the League was going to abandon the PLF but working his ass off on the venture anyway, and that explanation is, “Something something wants to prove himself because low self-esteem.” This is so ridiculous I can’t even bring myself to edit this post accordingly. Low self-esteem! Because nothing would alleviate Spinner's low self-esteem like toiling for months over something that holds no worth to the people he actually cares about, right? Right?? Bah. Humbug!)

And but so, to wrap all that up: I fundamentally disagree that the League viewed the Paranormal Liberation Front as a temporary arrangement, at least to the extent that they were actively planning to betray their newfound--new won--allies. The fact that I don't think the League intended to discard the MLA out of hand does, thus, influence my opinion that, whatever Geten's fate will be, I'm pretty sure it's not going to be, "He gets murdered in a way that resembles nothing so much as a sick revenge fantasy dozens of chapters after the last point when such a death would have been remotely tonally appropriate."

Thanks for the ask, anon! Sorry about-- *waves at all of this*

-------------------------------

(1) Not that Mr. “Burns Random Delinquents Alive For Not Measuring Up To His Standards For Villainy” has any moral standing to criticize others for how they determine the value of peoples’ lives, mind.

(2) Other translations for the verb in Mr. Compress’s Japanese line of, “You are the one who ____s Shigaraki the most,” include yearn for, long for, pine for, miss, love dearly, adore, idolize, and revere. “Most devoted follower” is accurate enough, but considerably less homo than some of the things we could have gotten there.

#bnha #stillness answers #paranormal liberation front #league of villains #stillness has salt #spinner defense squad

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haikyuu-scenarios-box · 4 years

Note

Hi. I'm the anon who asked about au's. I'm just shy, so don't take offense my apology! You're great and friendly! I'd like a scenario request though! I've been into vampires since the Halloween season, and wanted to request one. A little late, but I guess any time is a good time, haha. I'd like it to be with Tsukishima being vampire and spending the night at his crushes house, and he ends up feeding on her in her sleep? You can do what you like with this idea! I'm very interested to see it!

A/N: omfggg i went so so overboard with this,, im just so damn weak for vampire!tsukishima. TW: blood obviously. Also, keep in mind that this request involves a character coming into the reader’s bedroom to p much prey on her while she’s asleep. There’s nothing sexual involved, but if you suspect that that type of scene may trigger you, then I suggest you either don’t read this or read at your own discretion. Ok?? ok,..,, you’ve been warned and you’re on your own now. Word count: 1,870 (lmao my bad)

UNDER THE CUT.

____________

His fingers were akin to glass; their delicacy threatened with a shatter as they brushed against the daisies. Traces of pollen were dusted along his palms, petals of ivory stroking the length of his legs. Sparse grass had buried itself into the folds that rested within his clothes, lightly pricking his skin.

Discarding the vivid memory, Tsukishima recalled that he hadn’t seen the cottage by the meadow in over a century.

To Tsukishima, those memories resembled scratched segments of dusty videocassettes. He remembered that he had a brother named Akiteru, a seamstress for a mother and a labourer for a father. Their faces, however, were permanently forgotten. It didn’t bother Tsukishima, though - he preferred it over death. If it weren’t for Yamaguchi turning him, he would have died following the pillage.

Prior to meeting her, Tsukishima never kept track of time since he had all of eternity to live. In the past year, he’d grown attached enough to maintain his relationship with her, but not attached enough to risk getting his head severed from his body. Tsukishima planned to cut her out of his life soon.

‘Look at you all zoned out,’ she teased, ‘I didn’t take you for an art critic.’

‘You want a critique?’ Tsukishima sneered, ‘this painting’s really ugly.’

‘It’s not ugly!’ she exclaimed, ‘Ojiisan gave it to me. He bought it from an artist in Nagiso long ago.’

‘Well, he had awful taste,’ he knew that that wasn’t his real opinion. What else was he supposed to say, though? That the painting of a cottage by a meadow reminded him of his first home? That he was alive before her grandfather was?

Of course not.

‘You have a lot of nerve saying that…’ she poked the bridge of Tsukishima’s glasses, ‘… when you’re the one who’s wearing those. Get nicer frames.’

‘I’m sorry I like to see,’ he sarcastically said with a smirk, ‘is this how you treat your guests?’

‘You’re the one who said my painting’s ugly,’ she shrugged, collapsing on the couch. ‘I think ojiisan said he met a vampire when he visited Nagiso.’

‘Don’t be stupid,’ Tsukishima sneered, joining her, ‘there’s barely any in Japan.’

‘Yes there is,’ she asserted, ‘they used to live savagely centuries ago, but they’ve integrated into human society.’

Tsukishima was almost taken aback. She was right - creatures of his kind still existed and they integrated well. Too well, to the point where they were widely considered to be an extinct being.

‘Let me guess, your ojiisan told you that,’ Tsukishima masked his surprise with a taunting tone, ‘do vampires also disappear in mirrors and wear black cloaks?’

She crossed her arms as she stuck her tongue out childishly, ‘Make fun of me all you want, but he said that he knew what he saw. A young woman in an alleyway,’ she shuddered, her spine graced by a shiver, ‘her fangs buried deeply within a mangled cat, slurping up all its blood.’

‘How scary,’ Tsukishima mocked, pretending as though he hadn’t done such a thing. He was repulsed at the idea of feeding on animals, but centuries ago, there were times where he found himself desperate. All he fed on nowadays were suicide victims beneath a nearby cliff and from blood banks. Yamaguchi did the same.

‘Whatever,’ she stood up, stretching her arms out with a yawn, ‘don’t come crying to me if you ever do come across a vampire.’

‘Because in that situation, I’d definitely come to you,’ Tsukishima sarcastically remarked, ‘I’d feel safe with your wooden stake and silver.’

‘You realise I can make you sleep on the couch instead of the guest bedroom, right?’

____________

Every attempt he made to quiet his mind had failed; it descended, further, further and further into an obsession with the possibility that a long blade would soon sever his head.

Tsukishima was never aware that she possessed any knowledge about his kind. Vampires became less of a reality and more of an old tale. Not many knew that they ate human food, drank human drinks - the only difference was that it was all tasteless and that his nutrition could only be obtained from fresh blood. Put simply, human foods were a useless filler.

Although she didn’t mention it, Tsukishima believed it was likely that she was aware of that fact. As his pupils fixated themselves to the ceiling, a year was suddenly no longer a fleeting moment to him. A year’s worth of a close relationship with a human was a long time. Especially when the human belongs to the minority that believed that vampires still lived amongst them.

Yamaguchi had warned him of this, urging him to recall when hiring vampire hunters was common practise, when suspected vampires (and any human who sheltered a vampire) were burned at the stake, begging for any form of mercy.

Tsukishima began packing away the belongings he brought with him to her home, concluding that her memory of him had to turn into a mirage, just like the faces of his family. As he made his way out the guest bedroom, he realised how he loathed how fond he grew of her. Tsukishima wanted to fully remember the arch of her brows, the lashes that curved away from her waterline, the wit of her tongue, the outline of her lips.

He passed by her bedroom, knowing that he couldn’t rely on his memories. Eventually, the centuries to come would led them to disintegrate into ashes, where they will never arise again - memories bore no similarity to a phoenix.

Turning around, Tsukishima quietly placed his duffle bag on the floor and carefully opened the door. He was unsure as to whether he could remember her once he left - but he was confident that he wouldn’t forget the flavour her blood carried.

Her body had already been lulled into a deep state of sleep - after all, Tsukishima possessed heightened senses and could hear her slow and rhythmic breathing.

The emotional attachment Tsukishima held towards her was constantly denied by him, until he envisioned his pillow beside hers. He falsely hoped to share that blanket with her for the nights to come, perhaps even bicker over blanket-stealing the following morning. Maybe she snored sometimes and he could tease her about it. Would they wake up at the same time, or would he wake up first?

Tsukishima didn’t want those thoughts to exist anymore. He wanted them to burn with intense fury and relief; identical to the burning of suspected vampires centuries ago.

She was already asleep on her side, her body facing the wall. Kneeling beside the double bed, Tsukishima warily placed a hand on her shoulder. The thumb of his other hand rested along the angle of her jaw, gently pushing her head further away from her neck. For a couple of seconds, Tsukishima merely stared at the skin he was about to pierce. She’ll keep him in mind while the marks scab over and bruise, but after that, she will forget about him; because he’ll be long gone by then.

The longer his fangs grew, the more reluctant he became to bite into her. This wasn’t going to be the first time that Tsukishima fed on someone alive - there was a time when he was forced to do so. He knew his neck anatomy quite well, he wasn’t an idiot who recklessly bit into people and accidentally killed them.

Tsukishima’s felt the tip of his fangs touch her neck. This situation lacked any similarity to his past feedings on sleeping humans, for it was completely unrelated to survival. Rather, it was a feeble to cure his illness of melancholy; the fever that forced him to breathe the air that, to him, resembled the very salts of the ocean. Every inhale filled his lungs with blue hellfire.

That was what drove him to finally abandon his loyalty to cautiousness.

Tsukishima haphazardly sink his fangs into her neck, memorising the intensity of the iron. He knew that if he were to suddenly pull his head away in that moment, he’d rip her neck wide open. But he had to bite down with that much force. He had to remember her.

As hot, thick scarlet slid down Tsukishima’s throat, he began to actually consider the consequences. With the mark, she’d easily have the power to report him. Although the probability of anyone believing her was slim, his actions were still creating the possibility of his death. For a mere second, Tsukishima even pictured himself turning her.

Once a low yelp was heard by Tsukishima’s hypersensitive ears, he rid his mind of those disorganised thoughts. He was sure that his absence of self-control had awakened her, yet he began to question whether he really was scared of getting killed. Tsukishima’s lived for centuries. He’d seen it all.

With that realisation, Tsukishima strengthened his grip and pushed her head even further away from her neck. He noted that as his gulps turned longer and deeper, her whimpers grew louder and her knuckles curled themselves into the sheets.

When he finally pulled away, he watched her reluctantly place her fingers on the wound, smearing the bloody marks in the process. Tsukishima’s lips were still warm, a crimson trail slowly dripping down his chin.

Tsukishima sat up, retracting his fangs back into his gums. He headed towards the door, wiping away the blood with the back of his hand. He forced the turmoil within his chest to be replaced with apathy, since he already knew the facial expression that will rest upon her face once she turned around - forehead wrinkled, eyebrows knitted, lip corners pulled downwards - sheer terror.

‘You…’ she trailed off, her voice uncertain, ‘… if you wanted to bite me that bad, you could have just asked.’

For the first time since Yamaguchi turned him, Tsukishima was the one stunned by a human. His eyelids drew themselves back slightly, his mouth agape with an intense confusion. Tsukishima didn’t want to look at her - he had no desire for her to see the breach of his facade.

‘I already knew.’

After a long pause, Tsukishima snapped. ‘And you didn’t tell me,’ The apathy within his chest started to dissipate, an immeasurable confusion and fury settling in. ‘Instead, you decided to have a casual conversation with me about my kind.’

‘Kei,’ she said, ‘turn around and look me in the eye,’ she’d never used his first name before. He never did, either, although he always wished their relationship would reach a point where he could.

Tsukishima obliged with her command. ‘You think I’m a fool, do you?’ his skin almost sizzled against his bones, overwhelmed by every form of hurt he’d experienced throughout the centuries. ‘All this time, you acted like you’re oblivious to what I am and spoke to me as though I’m a human.’

Mainly, it was the hurt that was buried within the sense of imminent loss.

‘Well, I’m not a human,’ Tsukishima revealed his fangs once more, clenching his teeth in anger, ‘and that means that I’ll kill you right now.’

‘You won’t,’ she said, her smile soft enough to be mistaken for a smirk. She was smug about the fact that her suspicion was true, though - this was Tsukishima’s crush, after all.

She slowly stepped closer to him until she was able to firmly press her chest against his. Tenderly placing an open palm against Tsukishima’s cheek, the pad of her thumb gently stroked his cheekbone; an attempt to induce tranquillity within him. Once her gentle gesture ceased, she hooked an index finger underneath the fabric of her shirt, pulling it away from her neck to expose the bare skin of her shoulder.

‘Drink.’

#tsukishima kei #tsukishima kei x reader #haikyuu #haikyuu x reader #haikyuu imagines #haikyuu fanfiction #haikyuu scenarios #scenario #writing #female reader #vampire!haikyuu #haikyuu au #tw: blood #vampire au #vampire!tsukishima kei

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lilac-city-skylines · 4 years

Note

you're like my favorite tdc blog and I've submitted several asks to you (you've answered them all I think, thank you!!) but I honestly just love you and your blog so I think I'll go off anon now :) I've noticed for years, in the scene where Kira and Jen are waking up and cuddling after the garthim attacked the podling village, that Kira has these brown spots on her legs. What do you think they are? Natural pigmentation? Scars? 💗

Ah, those! Those marks have been in my head for a while now, actually, which is why it’s taken so long to get to this ask (I’m sorry)

BUT! I think now I have gathered enough evidence to show what I think those are. I don’t think those are natural marks at all. Why? Well, we have one example of a naked gelfling.

Taking a look at the lighting on his leg, we can see that there are no natural marks or pigmentation anywhere on his body. Since we’ve yet to see any other naked gelfling - this is what we have to go on.

“But Lilac,” I hear you beginning to say from the other side of the screen. “That’s both a male and probably from a different clan! How can we be sure that there’s nothing in Kira’s heritage that would suggest this?”

“Well,” I begin, setting up my overthought, somewhat pretentious, explanation.

While Jen is male and displays traits of a different clan, he’s still a gelfling. When it comes to a species, yes we’re talking gelfling puppet genetics, they tend to display the same traits over time. Think about cats. While cats can vary in size, shape, and color, they all look like cats. Gelfling can vary in size and shape and color, but they all generally share the same traits of skin patterns.

The only other gelfling we’ve seen with “discoloration” of any kind is these goth boys. Even then, I can’t pick out any brown or brown-red earth tones. Lots of blue and white and yellow and some green, but that kind of tone on Kira’s legs? Cant’ seem to find it.

And while the different clans display different skin tones and colors, none of them display a patterned skin mark.

Now, onto the marks themselves.

These are repetitive marks that go down her legs in a repeated, near-perfect pattern. Since the only other gelfling leg we have is absent of these marks, evidence would point to the idea that these aren’t natural.

HOWEVER! One naked gelfling leg does not a case make. So, I decided to look into human birthmarks. Since the gelfling are narratively stand-ins for humans and, in both their biology and reproductive habits, seem to be very close to mammals and humans.

There are a few kinds of very common human birthmarks:

Macular Stains (angel kisses/stork bites) these are most common in babies and often go away after a few years and are most noticeable when a child is crying. They are almost always on the face or neck area, so that doesn’t match up at all with what we see on Kira’s legs.

Next is hemangiomas. These are birthmarks that often occur on the face of an infant within the first few weeks of life. They are big and usually red and typically appear on the face, neck, chest, or back. Once again, not a match with our gelfling queen.

Next on the list of common birthmarks would be port-wine stains. These are typically larger birthmarks that occur almost anywhere on the body and look like wine has been stained on the skin - hence the name. While these can occur on the legs, where Kira’s marks are, there is no way those are port-wine stains

Next would be the café-au-lait spots. These are a lot like port-wine stains, just with a different color. These are closer in color but, when it comes to shape and repetition, there is also no way this could possibly be our answer.

Now, we’ve gone over more common birthmarks, but does there exist any that could be one shape repeated in a pattern over the body? Something that would hold shape and form and repeat in a pattern over a place in the body?

No. That isn’t a thing for mammals with skin like a human. So with the combined evidence of naked Jen and what we know about human birthmarks - Kira doesn’t have a birthmark. This leaves the questions though:

What are they?

Remember what Kira said to Jen after the Garthim attacked that podling village? When he was throwing the shard and telling Kira that he believed her village was attacked because of him?

“The Garthim have always come.”

And, even earlier in the film, we see Kira during the dreamfast, hiding form and identifying the Garthim as they hunt podlings. She’s seen them before, has an intimate knowledge of how to hide from them, and knows that they look specifically for podlings. “They capture the podlings” was her exact phrasing.

What do we know about the Garthim? Well, the show let us know that the Garthim are a rather sad combination of Grunak and Arathim, made to be perfect soldiers. For the Skeksis this means they need to be fearless, obedient, and as close to indestructible as possible. These guys were created to be a weapon against the rebellion gelfling - they were created to be the instrumental blow that destroys the rebellion, which we know they did.

Let’s take a look at the Garthim:

We can already identify some key things here: they have purple eyes which signals their close relationship with the corrupted crystal and the Darkening, they have a hard exterior shell like a crab, and even have one crab-looking claw. They also display one hand for grabbing, what looks like a blade or sharpened edge to their claw (which could be pretty handy to slashing through any gelfling that is frankly stupid enough to get in its way), as well as many legs that lend them to quick and somewhat precise movement. They clearly have a hardened exterior, since they can bust through podling walls and Aughra’s windows without even flinching, and it takes a landstrider literally stabbing it through with a hardened hoof to slow it down.

I mentioned earlier that Kira knows how to hide from them, as shown in the dreamfast. While we don’t have an exact age for her, we know that she’s scrappy and clearly has had brushes with danger in her childhood. Can we honestly believe that Ydra and the other podlings were able to sit her down and carefully teach her over dinner? Truly? That’s not at all a realistic idea. They most likely taught her not to walk into a patch of gobbles and how to communicate with different creatures, but in her dreamfast Kira doesn’t make any special note of any kind of education like Jen did. So Kira most likely got her knowledge from a combination of talking to the podlings and learning through her own experience. I’m sure Ydra or one of her other podling cousins would have told her not to wander into a gobble patch and not lay down in a Nebrie mouth, clearly, the forest has a lot of natural predators that small creatures need to have a decent knowledge of how to avoid. So Kira most likely learned through a combination of listening to Ydra and through personal experience.

Back to the Garthim. These are very literal creatures. They don’t act outside what they are told to do and have absolutely no free will of their own. When Kira was hiding from them in her dreamfast, she was just crouching behind a rock. If the Garthim wanted to grab her and take her to the Skeksis, they very easily could have. Why didn’t they? Because that wasn’t their command. They were commanded to get more podlings, more slaves, but nothing was telling them to look for any surviving gelfling. To them, she was just as worthless as a nebrie or a landstrider, she wasn’t the target.

We also know that she is very fiercely protective and driven for those she loves. One does not get ¾ of their essence drained, chuck the last hope of the planet across and room, and then get stabbed in the back for just anyone. So it’s entirely possible that Kira had, at least at one point in her life, got on the wrong side of a Garthim claw in an effort to protect a loved one. How could this be?

Let’s take a look at the Garthim again - but pay attention to their more crabby claw:

Kinda looks like this …

That, my friends, is the coconut crab. It has the strongest pinch in the known world. You can bet that getting snagged by one of those would be absolutely horrid.

Gelfling are small and Garthim, by comparison, are huge. Imagine being small, maybe a child or pre-teen, and getting the long side of your leg caught between those suckers. Maybe even both of your legs. That’s fixing for a painful and crummy conjuncture.

“Lilac! Are you trying to say that Kira probably has lifelong scars from trying to save a podling that she was very close to and, in her struggle against the Garthim, broke her skin in a way that scarred her legs horribly?”

Yes, That is exactly what I’m saying.

TLDR: I think those are scars from the Garthim on her legs and I spent a good 3 hours of my life collecting photos and evidence for this argument. Never let anyone question my dedication to this fandom ever again.

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arethereanyoriginalusernames · 4 years

Text

Laughing Jack: When the joke gets old

A Creepypasta analysis and critique

Requested by @eclecticcoyote

//////

Disclaimer and Warning. This post will contain mentions of death and gore. Anyone sensitive to this subject matter may want to skip over this. Also, I will be writing this from the perspective that anyone reading this has already read the following stories: Laughing Jack, The Origin of Laughing Jack, and Mr. Widemouth. If you have not, I advise you read them first. The stories can all be found online. Finally, keep in mind that this post is opinion based. You are not obligated to agree with me, and this post should not be taken as an invitation to start conflicts over. Debate is fine, as long as you remain civil to everyone involved. Thank you.

//////////

Like most things involving creativity, writing a good story involves going through a learning curve. We will all make clunkers, and we can always be better. Even stories that you may adore may very well be disliked by their creator. Such is the case for Laughing Jack.

Laughing Jack (a name I'll replace with LJ for brevity's sake) has become a fan favorite since his conception, which an impressively large fanbase behind him. It might seem odd that the creator would go on to say that the LJ's titular Creepypasta stories weren't that good. Well, at least until you consider that the stories, in spite of their popularity, weren't actually that good.

To explain what I mean, let's look at both LJ stories individually, then at the character of LJ himself.

___

Let's start with Laughing Jack, the story that started it all.

If I were to name any positives about this story, it would be its concept. The idea of having this dangerous "imaginary friend " endanger the life of a mother and child, and having the be in the POV of the mother sounds like a decent idea on paper. However, what works in theory doesn't always work in execution.

The most dire problem this story has is a problem that drags down both LJ pastas, and is a fairly common issue in Creepypastas: unnecessary death and gore.

In this story, it's not enough that LJ kills the son, James, and the pet dog. Oh no, he has to go the extra mile and go over the top, pulling out organs, etc. I've seen some people even argue that the deaths were completely unnecessary, and I agree with that to some extent.

Unnecessary gore is something you'll usually find in lower quality Creepypastas. While I can't say for certain, if I had to guess, I think people use this in an attempt to scare people by disgusting them, or to show how powerful their monster is. The issue is that over the top gore can unfortunately become borderline cartoonish, and it can make the story unrealistic to the point where nobody's going to buy it.

The gore and death are especially unnecessary in this story. While you could argue that the death of the dog was meant to build some kind of suspense by letting us know what LJ was capable of, why did we need the death scenes we got? I understand that LJ, being a clown monster thing, will probably integrate circus related things into his kills, which could make for some "unique" deaths. But why does he need to kill people in such gruesome ways?

The gore also kills any ambiguity the story could have had. The mother is convicted for the death of her child, but what if the story itself made it seem possible that she could have actually done it? Was it really the gay nightmare clown, or is she actually insane? Wouldn't that be more interesting? But no, it's obviously the evil clown, and ambiguity can go fuck itself.

/////////

The Origin of Laughing Jack is so much worse in this regard.

Again, the concept of an innocent imaginary friend becoming corrupted sounds like a good idea, but the execution fucks over any potential it could have had.

The gore issue is even worse, as almost half the story is comprised of Issac murdering innocent people in terrible ways. Of course we couldn't just have one kill, and explain that he's a serial killer. Oh no, we need a drawn out scene of every. Single. Victim. Being. Killed. And I swear to the coffee overloards, the death scenes actually become boring. By the time LJ was killing Isaac, the scene dragged on and on. It was like if you were forced to watch the same scene in a movie again and again.

Once again, there's no need for the gruesome actions here. There's no reason for why Isaac has to kill people in such a way, much less LJ. Seriously, answer me this. Why couldn't Isaac just strangle someone, poison them, stab them, or bonk them on the head really hard? I mean, Isaac is given little to no motivation for what he does, so I really don't see why he couldn't. Oh, it wouldn't make it scary? We need the gore to be scared?

Bull. Fucking. Shit.

Unnecessary gore is Creepypasta's version of jump scares in horror movies. You don't need it. If you don't believe me, let's talk about the character of LJ himself, and why he doesn't need to be this over the top when it comes to kills.

////////

Once again, the concept of LJ himself is a good one. An evil imaginary friend as an antagonist could make for a unique, creepy story. Unfortunately, LJ is turned into just another Jeff the Killer, a bland monster that just kills you.

You know what story does something similar to LJ, but better? Mr. Widemouth. Like LJ, Widemouth is an evil imaginary friend that kills children. But here's why Widemouth works;

Widemouth does not kill the children himself. Rather, he tries to trick and manipulate them into killing themselves. He tries to convince the protagonist to jump to their death, and potentially hurt themselves by playing with knives.

He's also a more believable imaginary friend. Remember how LJ looks like a fucking nightmare clown with razor sharp teeth and claws? What child is going to want to trust him or be around him? And while Widemouth has a... wide mouth, he looks like a furby. He's small, furry, and you could probably pick him up and yeet him if you wanted to.

Finally, you know how in LJ's stories, we apparently needed these long, drawn out death scenes?

Widemouth's tale still sends shivers up my spine to this day. At the end of the story, the protagonist, older and no longer a child, visits Widemouth's house (they had moved to another house a few years ago with their family). While wondering around, they find a path near the house that they've never seen before. Following it, they come across a graveyard. The protagonist notices the dates on the tombstones.

Everyone buried there was a child.

When they return to the house, they glance up at the uppermost window of the house. They spot Widemouth staring out at them, who then smiles, and waves at them, a knife clutched in his paw.

Nothing is outright stated. Nothing has to be. We don't need any more information. We don't need to be shown or told anything. We have a clear idea of what the story is implying.

Compare that to Laughing Jack. The gore feels like it's there in a desperate attempt to make itself look scary, like a child covering their Halloween costume with fake blood to impress their friends.

It doesn't help that LJ's motivations don't line up with the things he does. His supposed origin story tries to make it seem that his friend Isaac being a murderer was what twisted him, but does LJ have to murder people in such gruesome fashion? Does he need to murder at all?

Here's a suggestion. Since Isaac basically left LJ trapped in a box for years, upon being released, LJ could simply kidnap children, bringing them to his "Wonderland ", where they all can "play forever and ever". He could murder, sure, but perhaps it could be limited to anyone who gets in his way, or tries to save "his friends ". What is his Wonderland? What happens to the children there? That's up to the reader's imagination...

/////

Now, I realize that LJ's pastas have more issues in them than just the gore. My friend Coyote, who's pretty knowledgeable on history, would have a field day if I asked him to find every historical inaccuracy in the Origin of Laughing Jack. Nonetheless, the issue I talked about here is an issue that not only extends to many Creepypastas, but also stories outside of Creepypasta. This desperate attempt to seem edgy and interesting by throwing in something cheap that will get a reaction. Weather it be jumpscares in horror movies, contrived misunderstandings in romance stories, over dramatic and tragic deaths in adventure stories, this writing technique is cheap and not nearly as effective as one might think.

Laughing Jack and his stories are examples of instances where something such as gore is just turned into an expected staple. However, much like how a joke becomes less funny the more you hear it, frequent attempts to be edgy and shocking can reveal how lackluster your story really is.

I apologize for wasting your time

-Spooky S Skeletons

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tarashima · 5 years

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Hiya :D I was hoping if I could ask you a question, if that's okay? Ever since episode 58 came out, I've seen a lot of debates about whether or not Yusaku has Stockholm syndrome towards Revolver. I've done a lot of research on the subject, and from what the series shows, Yusaku doesn’t seem to have the syndrome at all, towards Revolver, Dr. Kogami, or any of the Knights of Hanoi. But I’m seeing the term being misused a lot. So, I want to ask: What are your thoughts on the matter?

Thank you for asking this, anon, and I‘m sorry for the late reply. I feel like this response/post is a bit overdue since I know there a lot of fans out there concerned about the misuse and application of the term.

Because canonically, Yuusaku doesn’t, and has never, suffered from Stockholm syndrome.

To truly answer your question, anon, we’ll have to first analyze Yuusaku to see if he meets the criterion to develop the syndrome and then continue by figuring out if he displays the symptoms in the series.

Now, this is going to be pretty picture heavy and long, so bear with me. Also, this will contain spoilers.

All through season 1, Yuusaku is hunting for the truth behind the Lost Incident. He did at one point make the connection between it and the Knights of Hanoi, due to its other name, the Hanoi Project, hence why he hunts them as intensively as he does. He wants revenge and he won’t get it until the ones responsible pay for their crime.

Early on in the series, he states that the Knights of Hanoi are the only ones he hates. Does that mean he also hates Revolver?

Yes, he does. Revolver is just another piece to use in the search after the truth. However, Yuusaku never makes the guess that the leader of Hanoi is the same person as the mastermind of the Hanoi Project. Yuusaku is heavily driven by logic and never makes hasty assumptions but rather conclusions and only when he’s absolutely sure.

But we all know Yuusaku’s perspective shifted when he learned Revolver was his special person, as well as the one who made the anonymous report to uncover the incident. Shifted in the sense of learning where Ryouken came from, hence turning part of his mission into no longer being about crushing Revolver as a part of Hanoi but dragging him away from it. That’s important to remember.

Now, let’s move on to Stockholm syndrome.

The most common description of the term that most people uses, and the very basic one, is “a hostage developing sympathy for their captor”. Which isn’t entirely correct; it’s closer to the truth to instead say that the victims start to identify with their captors, especially when they to cope with the fact that they’re captured, feeling like their old life were empty and meaningless, or to sum it all up in one sentence; a psychological alliance as a survival strategy during captivity.

What everyone agrees on, however, is that it’s generally considered as a highly irrational condition, so no further argument is needed on that point. But just like any other psychological term, there is way more to it than just that.

And when it comes to Yuusaku, we don’t have to continue before it already falls apart.

Let’s go back to episode 58 that started this whole debate in the first place:

VRAINS tells us it was eight-year-old Ryouken.

The show has so far not shown us how exactly the kidnapping happened, other than it was child Ryouken luring Yuusaku away, a method not uncommon to use when luring away others into captivity, and it’s clear that Dr. Kougami used it to his advantage.

Here’s the thing, though, and what most people may have missed or forgotten about; Ryouken luring Yuusaku away doesn’t make him the most responsible for Yuusaku’s captivity. The ones to blame entirely are the adults involved, and, most specifically, Dr. Kougami.

“But Ryouken is equally guilty since he was a part of it!”

Yes and no. Ryouken’s guilt complex has its origin from this since he did lure away Yuusaku (if he lured away the others is still unknown, but so far, it doesn’t seem like he lured away Spectre and/or Takeru). But Ryouken also confessed that he didn’t understand what was going on, which shouldn’t be too surprising due to being as young as he was. And putting such heavy blame solely on a child is questionable on too many levels.

Yuusaku himself has stated himself as well that Ryouken was, indeed, too young to be blamed for the Lost Incident.

In this specific case, the roles as kidnapper and captor aren’t shared by the same person, or even on equal grounds since that would mean Ryouken was just as involved in the project as Dr. Kougami himself, or even Vyra, Dr. Genome, and Faust. But he wasn’t due to his age, and it’s even implied that he was left in the dark, which would be more than understandable.

It’s worth mentioning as well that Dr. Kougami did admit guilt over dragging Ryouken into the mix to begin with, implying even further that he wasn’t involved more than the show suggests.

This is what we, the audience, get to know. But Yuusaku is aware of this as well, at least in a matter of it being a different person guilty for locking him away. In other words, Yuusaku never developed sympathy or psychological alliance with his captors; he makes a difference between captor and kidnapper just like the show portrays it. Furthermore, he thought for ten years that Ryouken was imprisoned as well:

Based on all this, it’s not too far-fetched to assume that Dr. Kougami took Yuusaku away when Ryouken wasn’t in the same vicinity. Otherwise, he should’ve known that Ryouken was in cahoots with Dr. Kougami.

All Yuusaku’s hatred towards Hanoi is because of them imprisoning him, something a hostage with Stockholm syndrome doesn’t feel since the lack of hatred and negative feelings is the main factor for the condition developing in the first place. Wikipedia uses a quote from the psychologist Thomas Strentz: “The victim’s need to survive is stronger than their impulse to hate the person who has created the dilemma.” Nothing we see in the show indicates that that was the case with Yuusaku. He was a tortured, starved child who just wanted it all to end so he could go home, never once showing any sympathy as a way of coping or attempts to lessen the experience.

Now that I’ve taken apart the basics of Stockholm syndrome that most people are used to, let’s move on to see if Yuusaku actually shows the symptoms or not:

“One criterion is how the victim refuses to cooperate with authorities and rather let their captor be left unpunished, and Yuusaku hasn’t reported Ryouken for the Lost Incident or any other crimes, despite knowing all the details.”

While that is true, it’s also obvious Yuusaku is in no position to do so. Not only because of reasons stated earlier but also:

Yuusaku has obtained all knowledge through illegal means (he is a hacker, after all), and while Yuusaku isn’t afraid of his identity being revealed, it doesn’t mean he’s willing to give it away. SOL knows that Playmaker has the information, and they’ll do all they can and even more to uncover the identity of the insufferable duelist that causes them so much trouble. And Yuusaku hasn’t shown any signs of allowing that to happen.

SOL Technologies covered up the Lost Incident, so the public, as well as the authorities, wouldn’t know about it. And they will most likely continue to do so in the future.

Yuusaku hasn’t shown any hint of trust towards authorities in the first place; he’s taken matters into his own hands instead, as well as stated that he keeps to his own justice rather than anyone else’s.

One can absolutely argue that the possibility of Yuusaku leaving an anonymous tip exists, but with all of these points stated, can he really? Would he really?

It’s not even about Ryouken specifically, because Ryouken isn’t the only person responsible. This is about the Lost Incident, SOL Technologies, and the Knights of Hanoi combined. A person with Stockholm syndrome refuses any sort of assistance from authorities, but that’s not the case here since no authorities have been actively involved from what we’ve seen in the show, not even after Vyra escaped.

“But he did report Vyra?”

He did, but because of the Another case and her being responsible for the computer virus, not because of her involvement in the Lost Incident, which he had no knowledge about at the time.

Also, it wasn’t as much as reporting the crime as it was calling an ambulance due to her unconsciousness/presumably death, and it’s doubtful he and Kusanagi actually stayed long enough to explain the situation, or even stayed at all until the ambulance arrived since that would’ve raised the question what they were doing there in the first place. The evidence of Vyra’s actions was right there in her apartment.

To be fair, though, the Knights do live on a boat at the moment, and while it hasn’t been outright stated, it’s easy to guess that it is probably to hide from authorities. The police, however, hasn’t shown signs of prioritizing catching them.

The only ones that have indeed shown signs of catching the Knights of Hanoi so far, has been SOL Technologies, which isn’t too surprising with all the havoc they caused back in season 1, havoc that most people in the VRAINS-verse know about as well. So, if SOL is the only ones prioritizing catching Hanoi, and Yuusaku doesn’t have any reason to work with them because of the LI and their plans about the Ignis, is it really only about Ryouken personally then? Looking at the bigger picture, SOL is the bigger enemy here, especially from what we’ve seen so far in season 2.

“But Yuusaku is clearly projecting an image of young Ryouken that doesn’t exist anymore on present Ryouken.”

Actually, he doesn’t. Yuusaku is well aware of who Ryouken is in the present and what ten years did to his special person. If he wasn’t, he would’ve treated Ryouken as a saviour in every regard of the word and brush off his crimes without a second thought, but that’s not what he does. While he is reluctant about fighting Ryouken at the end of season 1, he also knows it has to be done and doesn’t hesitate when it’s clear there’s no other way. Like I mentioned earlier, Yuusaku is a logical thinker and he can put his feelings aside to do what must be done. That determination is obvious all through that final duel, a determination that wouldn’t exist if Yuusaku had been projecting.

Yuusaku wants to save Ryouken, true, but that doesn’t mean he’s siding with him. They clash and argue constantly about the Ignis. Yuusaku wouldn’t be capable of doing that if he truly had Stockholm syndrome. Every time they’ve clashed, Yuusaku has tried to change Ryouken’s point of view, making him fail to fit the criterion of how the victim starts to side with their captor. While their current truce means they work for a shared goal, it doesn’t mean Yuusaku is willing to put their differences aside permanently.

It’s also worth remembering that Yuusaku has stated that he still isn’t saved from the Lost Incident.

Realising that Ryouken was his voice of hope didn’t change that. He wasn’t saved because he was given strength to continue endure those hellish days, all he knows/feels is that he can be saved, and that’s a huge difference.

Yuusaku also clearly doesn’t believe Ryouken is capable of saving him unless he walks away from the path towards self-destruction, but that doesn’t mean he’ll never be able to. Is it blind trust? Definitely not. It’s a belief in a brighter future for them both. Otherwise, Yuusaku wouldn’t spend so much energy on trying to talk sense into Ryouken over and over again.

Yuusaku wants to save his special person, but that doesn’t mean he’ll let Ryouken succeed with his goals. As much as Ryouken wants a rematch for the sake of pride as well as closure, Yuusaku wants to be the one to personally stop Ryouken just to make sure he won’t continue down the path towards self-destruction.

“It’s problematic that Yuusaku doesn’t view Ryouken as the threat he is!”

It would be if Yuusaku was, in fact, doing that, and he’s never really given any sign of seeing Ryouken as a threat towards himself. But just because Yuusaku doesn’t perceive Ryouken as a threat for him, it doesn’t mean he believes Ryouken doesn’t pose a threat overall. Yuusaku won’t accept Ryouken falling back into his old ways and will stop him if it comes to that. But as the show has progressed, it’s getting clearer and clearer that Ryouken’s improving (i.e. being less of a threat overall), an improvement that definitely comes from lack of influence from Dr. Kougami since Ryouken now operates differently from season 1. Again, it’s not blind trust from Yuusaku’s side, it’s a choice of believing in Ryouken’s improvement, which isn’t the same.

The only thing now that I haven’t dealt with that Wikipedia mentions is the criterion “no previous hostage-captor relationship”, but I won’t be doing that since it’s so self-explanatory that there’s no point. Yuusaku didn’t develop sympathy for Dr. Kougami or any member of the Knights of Hanoi, and he had already met Ryouken as a child and a voice before the shift in his perspective happened. It falls flat right away on its own.

So with all this said, it’s clear that Yuusaku fails to meet any of the criterions necessary for developing Stockholm syndrome and he doesn’t display any of the symptoms mentioned, making the label heavily misplaced.

If it hasn’t been clear, this is not meant as a criticism against headcanons; people are free to play around however they see fit. It’s the misuse and misapplication of the term that is problematic, as well as it being treated as canon rather than fanon/headcanon. Carelessly labelling anything as Stockholm syndrome without fully understanding what it is should be avoided, because such labelling could trivialize the experience of those who may have actually developed the syndrome.

Thank you for staying with me to the end, I appreciate it :)

#Anonymous #vrains #ygo vrains #vrains spoiler #playmaker #fujiki yuusaku #revolver #kougami ryouken

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