#when i say i will never be normal about this story i mean it
Text
dearly beloved
sunday & gn!reader | wc: ~1.3k
Some birds were not meant to fly.
tags/warnings: SPOILERS FOR 2.2, implied/nongraphic animal death, childhood friends trope, kind of a character study, there is humor is you squint, romance is not the focus here
notes: the story quest had the gears turning and i have this to show for it! i honestly just wanted to yap. so. sunday's characterization is loose and i just had fun with this!
Sitting on the windowsill is a cage fashioned from wrought iron.
Inside Robin’s bedroom—the one you play in almost everyday—it’s a jarring new addition; the dull gray metalwork draws your eyes away from the scattered dolls and books resting upon the honey oak floors. Before your lips curl downwards, the shape inside of the cage catches your attention.
…A small bird chirps from inside.
“Robin!” you call out, hoping she’ll hear you from the hallway, “Since when did you get a pet bird? And is that a Charmony Dove?” She doesn’t come running in to answer, so you assume that she’s still held up with dinner. Making your way over, the little dove chirps at you.
It’s so pretty—and you would surely be scolded for gaping like a fish impolitely near any of the Oak Family—but Robin has never been a Judgey-Mc-Judger-Pants like all of those other stuffy adults.
“So adorable…” You decide to stick your hand between the bars so you can pet the animal. Though it’s beautiful, you’re sure you’d be able to hear its song much better if it could be let out for some fresh air.
An annoying voice decides to scare the ever-living shit out of you. “It is, right?”
“F-Fuck! Sunday, you scared me!” you say hotly, jabbing an accusing finger to his chest. “Where is Robin? She doesn’t take joy in my suffering!”
He tries not to smile at your “crass” language—whatever that means. “Mr. Gopher Wood wanted her to continue her lessons instead of playing with you,” Sunday straightens his posture, “She made me come to tell you, so…”
“Are you kicking me out?” You narrow your eyes at him. “Because if you are, I didn’t even wanna be here anyway! Robin is better than yo—”
He facepalms like you’ve seen your mother do. “No, I’m not. I don’t think I could make you leave if I tried. But weren’t you wondering about the dove?”
Your scowl drops into an awed smile, forgetting the whole reason why you were upset. The bird shifts from foot to foot (talon to talon?) on its perch, looking at you with eyes that look like sparkling amethysts. “Yes! When did you guys adopt one? I’ve never seen a Charmony Dove here before.”
Sunday frowns, a serious one, you note. It looks out of place on his face that still matches the chubbiness of yours, but he’s always been the one to talk you out of shenanigans in your ragtag group. He seems older right now, standing like he’s ready to lead an entire lineage while he can barely preen his feathers by himself.
“That’s because they normally don’t live here. Robin and m—Robin and I—found it outside in one of the gardens a week ago, sick and hurt,” he says, taking a spot at your side while you examine the bird with sympathy. “We decided to adopt it and nurse it back to health.”
“Poor thing…” It allows you to scratch under its neck, cooing affectionately under your touch. “At least it’s looking better. Robin must be so happy to have her own pet in her own room! Did she name it yet?”
Sunday frowns deeper, and he should really stop doing that, ‘cause he’ll get wrinkles. “No, she didn’t name it yet.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Robin… isn’t really happy about us adopting the dove.” Now that just doesn’t make sense! Robin loves animals, and you both once talked about adopting hundreds of them if you could. You’re about to open your mouth until Sunday adds on quickly, “She says birds are meant to fly in the sky.”
“I mean, she’s not wrong,” you survey the sturdy cage and how it dwarfs the inhabitant inside. “It looks like it’s in jail like Hanu from the cartoon.”
He flicks your forehead. “Be serious for once.”
“We’re eight!” you cry.
Sunday agrees to show you how to feed and hold the dove properly after you beg him, and the longer you hold fledgling life in your hands, the more cruel the cage seems. You don’t know if birds are meant to do this or that, but you know that their song is louder (and more annoying) when they chirp outside of your window.
Before you leave for the day, he also tells you that he and Robin plan to release the Charmony Dove when it fully recovers. A bittersweet notion that you think fits the siblings perfectly. If Robin is the sun that everyone’s eyes will be on, then Sunday must be the silent moon obscured by the curtain.
The moon lost its sun not long after. Robin’s departure from Penacony was also bittersweet, and you were left with one less friend. Not a week after she left, you found yourself in her empty bedroom, lonely. She did say that you were allowed inside anytime you wanted, and that you both would message everyday. Still, you missed her.
Something else is clearly missing too. The wrought iron cage that normally houses the Charmony Dove you’ve become familiar with is empty. You don’t think it could have escaped; the door to the enclosure is sealed with a solemn air. Sunday would naturally be taking care of the little thing, that much he told you, so where is it?
You get your answer after searching the winding halls for a short bit.
“...I didn’t mention this to you because I knew it would make you upset,” his brow is furrowed again, and you’d tease him for looking like an old man, but something is definitely wrong. “But the dove died a few days ago. It tried to fly, and when it did, it crashed.”
“That’s… what? I thought that you said it was healthy,” you supply, heart clenching.
“I’m sorry. It was, but I guess that some birds aren’t meant to fly.”
You don’t think you’re going to cry. “Why not? It looked perfectly healthy, so why shouldn’t it be able to fly like the others?”
Sunday laughs, “That’s a good question. It’s unfair, isn’t it? If we didn’t set it free, it’d be alive.” Somehow you get the feeling that Sunday isn’t feeling guilty, but instead something else. His eyes are set and intense, as if he’s not talking about a Charmony Dove, but something more than you can’t understand.
It is unfair. Birds are supposed to belong to the sky; that’s one of the first things you learn about them when you’re learning to speak your first words and take your first steps.
You feel heavy. “I’m glad it, um, passed when it was free, at least.” Maybe he’s acting a bit more down because of Robin leaving—which does make sense. You feel far away from him.
Sunday grabs your hand tentatively. “I wish there didn’t have to be an ‘at least’.”
You squeeze back. “Maybe one day, there doesn’t have to be… does Robin know?”
(You’re too naïve to notice the look of resolve aging his features by the day.)
Now he looks guilty—doing that thing where he shifts his weight from foot to foot, “I didn’t want to upset her either.”
It’s silent save for the shuffle of your feet as he leads you out of the room and outside into the familiar gardens. They’re beautiful, filled with freesias, roses, begonias, and even a few unkempt weeds growing in the little abandoned corners. You’d go as far as to call it your paradise.
The reason you’re here reveals itself: a stone marking a mound of dirt that is plainly a makeshift grave. “Is this…?”
Sunday nods, halo dipping in tandem with his head. “It is. Just like the cage, it also needed a place to rest. This time I, um, fashioned it,” he pauses, “But one day, like you said, hopefully there needn’t be an at least. I want to make a world where there isn’t one.”
That sounds bittersweet, you think, plucking a weed from the otherwise flawless grass and placing it on the pillow of earth.
(You just hope that the boy beside you doesn’t lean too far in either direction.)
taglist: @flower-yi, @moineauz, @nomazee
#—stellaronhvnters.#・ nouveau livre ˎˊ˗#sunday x reader#hsr x reader#honkai star rail x reader#sunday hsr x reader#hsr sunday x reader#sunday x you#sunday x y/n#star rail x reader#sunday angst#hsr angst#honkai star rail x you#hsr x you#sunday x gn!reader
102 notes
·
View notes
Note
Re: villain stans, I really do think you're conflating two groups of people and I feel the need to point it out because the art of haterism deserves pinpoint precision. The thing is that I would consider myself, broadly speaking, a villain stan and I also can't stand the people you're complaining about in that post because I think they've missed the point entirely. They've ruined the entire villain-loving ecosystem. I can't even facetiously say "they've never done anything wrong, ever, in their entire life" about characters that may as well be called Murders McWarCrimes, and whose death or comeuppance I am eagerly awaiting alongside everyone else in the fandom, because some of these idiots actually mean it when they say things like that -- and usually about some of the blandest, most disappointing villains I've seen in a long time. It's like passionately defending the storytelling equivalent of a slightly offensive shade of beige.
Look, some of us see the "time to boo and hiss" signs the narrative is putting up, but I'm not looking to experience every story like it's a children's pantomime. Maybe sometimes I want a wrestling match instead. I know the heel is going to lose. That's their job. It's what they're for. But if imagining that they might win is outside the realm of possibility... well, it's probably not a very good story. The stakes are not compelling. There's a reason that I would describe, say, c1 Briarwoods as delicious and c3 Delilah as overstaying her welcome. A good antagonist is a vital part of the story ecosystem and I enjoy seeing that role played well.
But I don't get to relish in characters being terrible people who do terrible things anymore, because now villain fandom is always overrun by people who read one Wikipedia article on moral relativism and want to have debates about what if Murder McWarCrimes is good actually? No! No, they are not! And if they were, that would be stupid and boring!
And so I reach across the metaphorical aisle to you that we may share in one of the hater's greatest delights: the knowledge that no one likes those idiots, and everyone wishes they would just shut up, even the people they think are on their side.
Hey anon,
I will admit usually when I get a long ask telling me I am conflating things I roll my eyes and wait for someone to say "i am feeling uncomfortable when we are not about me" but, the truth is, I very much was, and you are correct to the point that I think we are fully in agreement.
To be clear: I am pro people enjoying themselves in, as you say, the wrestling fan enjoying the heel way! I agree - a good story needs a villain who feels like a genuine threat. I can appreciate a villain for what they are and enjoy them very much as a character! I am personally unlikely in most cases to root for them but people who look at the story, analyze it, and say "this will be a fun guy to care about, even though I know the victory's probably going to the heroes, and I will be normal and not terribly resentful" are entirely valid and my post is not about them (except to say carry on as you were). It sounds like you're in this latter category and so: carry on as you were, you guys are great.
But I am definitely conflating two flavors of annoying villain stan:
the first is, as you very eloquently put it, the Person Who Read One Wikipedia Article About Moral Relativism and ooooooh what if Mr. Murder McWarcrimes was sufficiently sad about bad things in his life such that the murder and war crimes are correct actually.
The second is the person who does understand that they are looking at a villain who is a bad person but seems actively confused that like, a largely hopeful or heroic narrative will probably not end with Mr. Murder McWarcrimes stabbing everyone to death and then evil laughing against a red lightning-filled sky and seems mad that people are like "actually I like Kit the Heroic Hero". Actual Play D&D is not a place where you'll find these people because a TPK is technically possible regardless of the existing themes! But like...for example, I have to imagine theatergoers in 1983 who weren't idiots did not walk into Return of the Jedi like "oh man I think Darth Vader's gonna win the whole thing and he'll blow up everyone and institute more Space Fascism over the nuked out husk of Endor." Like, as you say, the villain needs to have some bite to be worth my time, but deep in my heart, there are stories where I know that victory is assured by the nature of the plot and it's much more about how it will be assured and what sacrifices will be made, and so it's weird when someone seems to be existing in a denial that that's the story and is like NO Mr. Murder McWarCrimes is NOT going to get a comeuppance and everyone is going to DIE at his hand.
#answered#Anonymous#anyway ty anon#i did have to kill one of my darlings (dunking again on otohan's lack of personality) in my response here but. needs must
34 notes
·
View notes
Note
I’m honest to god baffled that fantasy shows like Steven Universe, Amphibia, Star Vs The Forces Of Evil, and Gravity Falls have an abundance of memorable human characters with memorable locations that make you want to live in that human community while The Owl House BARELY has any of that.
Camila, Jacob, and Masha are probably the only human side characters that are memorable and have a impact on the story, and Gravesfield is too forgettable and full of not so good people (which even then is questionable considering Luz’s antics) that it makes it hard to want to live there.
It’s almost as if TOH is desperate to want people to want to live in the demon realm and forget about appreciating Earth and being human, which ends up making it even more immature compared to other shows that at least TRY to express how important it is to appreciate your human side and it makes the main human characters much more likable cause they know being human is just as important.
If Luz doesn’t bother to appreciate her human world more, why should I care about her?
This isn't a bug; It's a feature.
(Before I begin, just as a reminder: Fuck JK Rowling. I hate how much I have to praise Harry Potter for this.)
There is a LOT to say about TOH wanting to be the Harry Potter for a new generation. The concept that all of humanity is worthless so you should escape into our other side of reality is a big thing there too. Part of why Harry Potter, and ESPECIALLY Hogwarts, means so much to people that they literally can't give it up is because of the escapist fantasy involved with it. The story made one believe anyone could be whisked away to a fantasy realm where they were important. Where they could face the bullies and win. Where they could be so much more than reality made them feel.
The Isles is pretty clearly meant to feel similar. It's the ONLY explanation for why Belos' tyranny isn't actually present besides to make being an apprentice to Eda even cooler than it normally would be. The Coven System could be inspired by a lot of things, like D&D, but it's hard to deny that Harry Potter is the easiest example, especially with The First Day reinforcing that even the school is divided up by these covens. There is ZERO bigotry, of literally any sort, even magical preference, because that would make the Isles unappealing. It wouldn't be somewhere anyone would want to escape to because the world would be too much like our own.
This is further reinforced by how Harry Potter has the Dursleys while TOH has just implied repression of Luz... Except that it DOES have more, doesn't it?
This is part of why I think TOH fails in this regard. Why we don't see a lot of TOH OCs, or Hexside OCs, minus future kids which is just mashing the canon characters together. It's too insincere and too modern a work in order to actually be the escapist fiction it wants to be. Again: There are MAJOR storytelling concessions to make it more attractive as escapist fiction but it won't commit.
This is why we have Camila as our main representative of humanity. The 'trope' is to make her awful. The worst person imaginable. The Dursleys fit that after all. But modern writing trends are too self aware for that sort of thing. They need to try and twist tropes to look clever (I would date the start of this somewhere around Frozen) or else they look silly and are to be thrown away. So instead of the evil home life to run away from like in Harry Potter, where that gives Harry permission to only care about the new world he's entering, even if it's just a secret society, we instead have Camila. The saint. The one who is first wronged by Luz and never really gets made up to by Luz because, well, that goes against the fact that Luz is clearly meant to, even by the end of S1, want to choose the Isles over humanity EVERY TIME. Why she starts an entirely new life there without even thinking about things like, I dunno, how the fuck do I keep dating this witch when I go home. Amity and her never do have a real conversation about the promise because that's inconvenient to the escapist fantasy.
This attempt at being 'clever' over being sincere is also why Hogwarts is a much more magical, literally and figuratively, setting than the ENTIRE ISLES. There is magic and secrets and interesting discoveries at literally every turn at this one school. Meanwhile, TOH wants to be able to make modern social commentary despite the fantasy land its in, and also wants to be taken more seriously than fantasy often is, so it needs to be grounded and mundane and mostly like our own world because otherwise they might actually have to make a world that's interesting. It fits into modern writing trends that give Twitter easy fodder to talk about THEMES, regardless of how well those are actually tackled, but get in the way of being escapist. Of creating a world that you'd actively beg to live in.
This is actually something I'll give modern isekai and is a large part of why it's so popular: It is extremely escapist. Even the more serious ones still make the main character be the biggest badass ever and the 'dark' elements actually conform just to make him a bigger badass. To give him more than he already would have by genre convention. They do that mostly through sincerity of concepts. By going "This is what we're doing, this is what we're giving the audience, FUCKING GO."
TOH never has that unity of purpose.
BUT
This lack of unity of purpose also meant that while PLENTY of anime are bigger, more popular and more influential than TOH, as far as western media goes, it was a strength. Like I said, it leans into current trends with writing. It is unique, even amongst anime, for having an explicitly LGBTQIA+ main character, adding to the escapism for those specific groups. All while packaged as a kids show for those who don't like kids shows, much like how Avatar for many is anime for those who don't like anime.
Now this is where I might talk about the other shows you brought up, especially Amphibia but, well... None of them are going for such pure escapism. Bare minimum, their main influences aren't pure escapism. They're more rooted in old isekai or just straight aren't influenced by isekai or Harry Potter. They're genuinely more complex about the relationship between the worlds because for their stories, both worlds actually matter. Neither is meant to be entirely abandoned like TOH wants to abandon the human realm.
There is a reason why Luz ends the series only learning about magic after all despite claiming to live in both realms because she has no interest in the human realm. There's a reason the villain is pro-human realm. It's all meant to point to not just wanting to run away but encouraging it. That's not even always a bad thing. I've written porn for god's sake, the last thing I can criticize is the desire for escapist fiction. It has its place.
TOH would fill that place better if it would just be honest about what it was. I'm still glad it comforts those who need it to be their escape though. See you next tale.
======+++++======
I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!
I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past.
I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead.
If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.
A Twitter you can follow too
And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.
28 notes
·
View notes
Note
Yeah I had my doubts about Deku from the moment Uraraka was like "I've been pondering what Toga said, the things that made her who she is today, her actions against society but also the way society let her down to begin with, our role as heroes, if the way we're handling this is really the correct way just because we call her a villain" and all Deku could say to her was "yeah, when the plot shoved an image of Shigaraki crying as a child in my mind I suddenly realized that the person who has been pointing out the obvious flaws in our society from day on might be a victim if I pretend he's still a crying child"
I'm not saying that Uraraka is the best or anything but she's really coming in clutch by... doing the bare minimum, especially compared to other characters
Uraraka did the best out of any of the saving 'trio'!!!! (quartet if we want to count Shoji???) Even from the very start, when Toga ambushed Uraraka during the PLF War Arc, Uraraka is the only one to feel unforced, natural sympathy for Toga. She had no family ties or blood connection to Toga; she wasn't given a psychic vision of an innocent and hurt child; their clash wasn't demanded by fate; and she wasn't put on the other side of an 'Issue' like Quirk Counseling. Uraraka really just took a good look at Toga, noticed she was crying, and that started her journey in questioning the dynamics between Hero and Villain.
None of those connections are bad per se, but they do create an obligation Heroes have towards the Villain and gives them an incentive to help. Shouto needs to help Dabi because they're brothers; Shoji needed to stop the heteromorphs because their group reputation is at stake; and Deku had the convoluted AFOFA business. Uraraka had no incentive. She did not need to even think about Toga after their encounter, but she did! She went out of her way to do so.
And the resolution was on point! It actually solved Toga's problem. Toga feared that she wasn't seen as human, that her blood drinking will never be accepted, that no one will ever return her affections because they're unnatural. So here's Uraraka saying that, no, she is human, she will give blood, she accepts Toga's method of affections. Through Uraraka's journey, it's consistent - she said at the beginning she didn't know what was normal for Toga, that she didn't realize Toga was a person.
Her origin of smiles fitted with Toga's smiling too - Ochako wanted to be a hero because she wanted people to be happy; she became Toga's hero when she made Toga happy by accepting that happiness can look different to Toga, due to her quirk and background and it doesn't necessarily mean it's evil.
She even later says that 'all the signs were there from the beginning' but she didn't noticed them, so she acknowledge her role in all this!
I mean, I still have issues with how quirk counseling and abuse wasn't addressed. And Uraraka did actually wait until the last minute to address Toga - she only started to tell Toga she wanted to talk about love when Toga was in danger of warping away from her. It is the bare minimum. But the primary issue of 'Toga wasn't seen as human' was indeed addressed with 'Uraraka said her smile was cute (human)'. It worked.
Meanwhile, Deku's saving of Tenko is a mess. At first it seemed like Tenko's problem was 'my family and people on the streets were bystanders to my pain, what the fuck. why did no one help me," and the story made hints towards having civilians be more pro-active and stop relying on Heroes so much; but then nvm. That gripe Tenko had is never addressed by Deku. The Walk apparently never happened and never left a scar on Tenko's psyche. No problem there!
Instead, Tenko's problem became 'I think I'm evil because I was born with Decay, who could validate my existence the way I am, wow I'm full of self-loathing and all my anger is actually me projecting it out.' and Deku was able to swoop in to solve part of the problem by, true, validating Tenko's existence by holding his hands, but never actually saying anything about Decay or the accident or anger. Guess Tenko just has to live with the fact that maybe he is evil, but it's nice of Deku to still accept him. But then it doesn't matter anyways because AFO was behind everything.
Just. Deku-Shigaraki/Tenko storyline was so long and so convoluted and so bizarre and never felt sincere. And so we ended up with 'I just saved The Crying Child but now I will pummel the body the Crying Child inhabits without care for what happens afterwards because AFO took it over and I'm over the saving thing and so if Tenko/Shigaraki dies because I smashed his body to pieces, well, he was unforgivable anyways. see ya."
33 notes
·
View notes
Note
Do you think there is any way of fixing what happened in the next chapter? I don't think Horikoshi is a great writer but I don't understand how could he have flumbled so bad when the set up he wrote himself made obvious what should happen. Everybody knows that a big motif was to save the villains and then that's not what happens with the MC and main antagonist? That is kind of like insulting levels of misdirection. I'm foolishly hoping that the next chapters fixes it somehow.
I've been trying to think circles around it, because I do agree with those bloggers who say that it's WILDLY OOC for Deku and it makes them suspect it's a fakeout.
Unfortunately, I only see plausible options with this set-up along the following lines:
Tomura "awakens" the missing Overhaul reconstruction component and rebuilds himself and goes to fix his dying villain buddies. -> Great. It delivers on Tomura's goal to be a hero of the villains and maybe he can turn a new leaf with a healing quirk to try to start fixing the damage he caused. It's sort of an answer to Tomura's arc, but Deku's arc is still destroyed, because he still killed the guy for all he knows and never in any way engaged with his complaints about society. Nothing changed except AFO is dead.
Deku punched TomurAFO with Vestige Magic BS he unlocked offscreen with the exact amount of force to reconstruct Tenko's body out, save the crying boy and give him a second life -> obviously total asspull, but fandom will be happy because who is not a fan of a cute crying child, and "look we told you that Deku is the greatest". Imho, this kind of solution would basically ruin Tomura's development, disregard his progress with the LoV, and would not be good for Deku if he decided that the "crying child" gets to live and told Tomura that he's unforgivable and he needs to die because he never engaged with his villain, only with a ghost of a past that normally doesn't exist anymore and is not a feasible solution to save other people like Tenko this way.
Tomura transferred OFA back to Deku and his vestige as Tenko will live inside Deku so "he'll be a hero" -> I see people getting excited with this, but the vestiges don't "live" there with his "oba-chan". Being a ghost, being trapped inside someone else, never be able to make a decision for themselves is not a life. I don't see it as a good ending for a character who didn't experience much freedom in his entire life. I also think Deku should be rid of the vestiges - it's not healthy to have them yap in his head. If you want this kind of ending, might as well write that Tenko got to join Mon, Mom, Hana etc in heaven and is living there happily in the afterlife.
Deku has brought along Eri's horn and it being in the blast zone of OFA - AFO collision it's fractional rewind turned into a mass rewind effect and he did this in purpose and knew it was gonna work out this way and was totally gonna save everyone with it, including Tomura. And their "farewell scene" was just a clumsily written misdirect. -> OK. Got MHA trending. Editors happy.
Basically Option 1, but AFO being defeated is not the end of the fight, because the Alien Parasite that infected his mom and is the source of all quirks takes form and then the LoV come in to help defeat it. Everyone loses their quirks, no more quirk society. Tomura and Spinner start a gaming youtube channel. Deku becomes a cop.
I mean, I can sit here, come up with these wild, wild BS scenarios that "undo" Tomura's death. But I don't really see a way that salvages both Tomura's and Deku's arc and makes them both deliver on the promise of their arc. Like linkspooky wrote - Deku's entire journey is what would have mattered. Him engaging with villain stories, especially with Tomura's story, trying to empathize, trying to change the root cause. But it feels like in the end, precious little changed compared to the All Might era.
I feel like both Ochako and the Todoroki family confronted Toga and Toya more at both levels - not just at the level of the cute kid whose life went off the rails, but also at the level of the person they grew into: Ochako by offering blood to Toga and the Todorokis by wanting Toya back in his current damaged form and willing to go through hell with him (unlike Toga's folks, who immediately disowned their child). But Deku only embraced crying Tenko. He really didn't offer anything to grown-up Tomura and that's where the problem lies for me.
25 notes
·
View notes
Text
Very well said Long John. I 100% agree with you. Recently I have been thinking alot about how society doesn't seem to value non oral communication as much as oral communication even though some disabled people can't speak at all or find speaking very difficult.
I hear of parents being disappointed about never been able to hear thier child say "I love you mummy" but it's just as good to see or hear the child tell their mum that they love them with alternative means of communication such as signing, typing, writing or saying it through an ACC device.
I also recently saw a video online when a speech therapist told a young boy to say his name. He said it through his ACC device. The speech therapist told him to say his name with his mouth and made him say his name five times in order to receive a sticker. This Video gave me some food for thought. Would it be that bad of a thing if that boy grew up and used an ACC device instead of his voice as a fully grown man? I personally don't think so. The boy should be allowed to communicate in the method that he is most comfortable and people need to accept that some people communicate differently.
I also hear stories from the Deaf community about Deaf/deaf children being born to hearing families and being denied access to sign language. Spoken language is not very efficient for Deaf/deaf people as lip reading is very difficult and hearing devices don't restore normal hearing. Signing is much more efficient and allows Deaf/deaf children to communicate. I have been learning Auslan (Australian Sign Language) for some time now and it is fun to learn. I recommend learning the sign language that is used mostly in your country.
These are a few examples of how society doesn't value alternative forms of communication as much as oral communication. There are more examples on which I would like to talk about in the future. I believe society needs to change their perception on alternative forms of communication and accept that some people communicate in different ways.
Image Description:
Long John is a long furby with dark blue ears. He is knitted and his head is yellow at the top and white at the bottom of it. He has a red 3D printed faceplate with holes for his eyes and beak and for his light sensor. His body starts off dark blue than goes dark green than a lighter green than yellow than orange than a brighter orange than lastly Red with a streak of purple. His head is made from a 1998 furby with white eyelids and purple eyes. His feet are light green with red thread separating the toes. He also has a red spot on the green part of his body. Long John is using an ACC device which looks like a tablet to say "Alternative forms of communication are just as valid as spoken forms of communication." He is on a lounge. End Description.
#ACC#sign language#auslan#disabled#disability#deaf#actuallyautistic#autistic#autism#autismacceptance#furby#long furby
18 notes
·
View notes
Text
hello i am thinking thoughts abt crimson rivers
this is gonna be another essay nobody asked for but this time i'm thinking about crimson rivers specifically + fanfiction wips in general and the ways in which they actively preserve forms of storytelling that are slowly being lost to the meat-grinder of capitalism (buckle up this is gonna be a long one)
okay so this thought started to form the other day when i was talking to my sister about how i think crimson rivers is so cool because it's so much truer to like...the actual message behind the hunger games when compared to the movies. like, the movies essentially became everything the original hunger games critiqued--flattening the characters to focus on a contrived love triangle, obsessed with the spectacle of celebrity, prioritizing financial gain over everything, white-washing characters, and just overall taking the bite out of most of the radical messages behind the story. cause like...let's be honest, it's hard for a hollywood blockbuster to truly threaten the system that creates it.
in comparison, crimson rivers isn't driven by profit. it's being created out of a love for writing + storytelling, and also (at least, based on the impression i've gotten) from a desire to share stories about a diverse cast of characters, unpacking varying forms of trauma + oppression in the process and overall turning a critical eye on entrenched power structures that reflect those in real life, thereby encouraging readers to remain both aware + critical of the systemic oppression surrounding them. and that's just...so much truer to what the hunger games was about.
ANYWAY so i was pondering all that and then i was like y'know it's also such a cool and unique experience to read a story that is currently being written. Like. throughout history, it was much more common for storytelling to be this...journey, where you'd get a magazine or a newspaper or turn on the radio or the tv and there'd be a new installment or episode or chapter or whatever every week (or two weeks, or month, etc etc etc), y'know? like, it used to be so much more common to pick up a story that hadn't been finished yet, and to follow along with the writers as they crafted the story, and to get to experience the process of storytelling with them. even going back before film and radio and written word, think about like. the experience of sitting around a campfire and telling stories or just like oral storytelling traditions. like i have not by any means studied the entire history of storytelling worldwide, but if we think back to our oldest forms of sharing stories, it was about telling and re-telling and tweaking and changing and stories were these fluid things that evolved as they were shared amongst people and communities. and that's!! so!! cool!!
and nowadays i feel like a lot of that tradition has been lost. with the advancement of late stage capitalism--with the advent of streaming services, of entire tv show seasons posted all at once, of books churned out at a rapid pace by these mega-huge corporate publishing houses, it's like more and more there's this expectation created where stories are products for consumption. like. as an audience, we are so used to demanding an entire finished product all at once--we don't want to wait anymore, we don't want to pick up something unfinished, we want it fast and we want it now and it's a product we're buying--we're consumers and we're paying for it and we want to consume it all at once, alone, and then go on to find the next product for consumption. and we are all getting caught in this spiral where media and stories and everything is just....a product. it's not a journey; it's about what's going to make the most money. and that creates this like...cultural deterioration where we're losing so much depth and diversity in our storytelling because all these publishing houses and tv studios and hollywood producers care about is what's going to be palatable to the broadest audience, what's going to make them the most money. and it sucks!! it's soulless and mind-numbing and it fucking sucks.
and when thinking about all that i am just...really amazed by how unique fanfiction is as a form of storytelling. like. it is so unusual these days to find stories that are completely separate from any form of profit, from any sort of product-consumption economy. and because fanfiction isn't concerned with profit, there aren't the same pitfalls with trying to market to the broadest possible audience and in the process censoring and flattening stories to remove the most radical and meaningful messages. in so many ways, fanfiction actively pushes back against consumer culture by fighting to make space for stories that would otherwise go unheard.
and along with that, fanfiction continues to preserve this experience of storytelling as a journey, where you can follow a writer as they tell their story and you can oftentimes even talk to the writer and like build community and just....it's so cool!! and it's so human!!! like i know that there is community surrounding books and finished stories and people will get together and talk about stories they've read but there is something so unique and beautiful about finding community in a story that isn't finished....like i think reading a story that is being written lends itself to finding community in a way that finished works don't, because there's this broad room for imagination. the story's not done, so anything is possible!! and it's not done, so of course you want to find other people to talk about it with!! and it's not done, so it becomes a little piece of your life, and it grows along with you as you read each new chapter. there is something so beautiful and so incredibly human about that.
anyway, i think this all applies to anyone following any wip, but crimson rivers is just so cool to me because i think the popularity it's gotten (aside from showing that zar is just an amazing + talented writer) really illuminates that as humans, we have a desire for this form of storytelling. we want stories as journeys, we want stories that are about finding and sharing community, we want stories that challenge us and engage our imaginations and reflect the pieces of ourselves that we don't see reflected in mainstream media. and i just....idk!! it's so cool!! it's so human!! i'm emotional about it!!
in conclusion @zeppazariel thank u for creating a story that is also a journey and providing a space for community and also writing something that has made me reflect on the cultural storytelling zeitgeist at large this essay has been unknowingly sponsored by u
#crimson rivers#the brainrot strikes once again#when i say i will never be normal about this story i mean it#and i also mean it that all these points apply to any fanfiction writer!! and any wip!!#fanfiction is just genuinely really cool guys#being part of a community that actively resists the capitalist agenda for storytelling...yeah <3#txt#ranting and raving
72 notes
·
View notes
Text
every time i see someone call tron 'cyberpunk', i lose ten years off my lifespan
#note to self literally never read letterboxd reviews of movies i like i cant do it anymore kdjfgkdssd#say you saw the movie and the plot and visuals went right over your head without saying it#like. in what world is tron dystopic?? cyberpunk in itself is an offshoot of dystopian fiction. tron is not about an imagined future#tron is about an imagined PRESENT. thinking about our PRESENT relationship with technology in relation to the times each film was released#tron is in equal measures hopeful and critical about technology. that is NOT cyberpunk#the only CyberPunk that matters in tron is the Tron2.0 character of the same name#i will admit that tron's plot is cyberpunk derived but its. idk man its not the same thing#thematically its different. visually i think tron shares developmental artists with blade runner where the cyberpunk visual stereotype was#- established#but blade runner is more pure cyberpunk thematically than tron is. does that make any sense#and. and. listen to me. i am number one retrofuture fan. i love syd mead. i love moebius. but listen. just because they worked on tron -#- does NOT mean tron is thematically OR visually retrofuturistic either!! the visuals match the time it was made!! thats not retrofuturism!#thats normal scifi based on the every day!!!#tron is a sandbox and at the end of the day anyone can do whatever they want its all just for fun#at the same time. the entire story of tron is being severely misrepresented when labelled as cyberpunk. and it makes me sad#these are very shallow thoughts i just miss literary thematic analysis sometimes. my film studies classes cannot come soon enough#rex speaks
35 notes
·
View notes
Note
your sokka is SO sokka and i say this as someone who holds him so dear ur writing of him is amazing. tbh im sooo fussy with his portrayal but its pretty nailed. like so many fics (esp zukka and zuko centric and ESPECIALLY ones where hakoda like adopts zuko) he's constantly pushed to the side in favour of zukos issues and zukos problems when in reality sokka is very hurt himself and has suffered a lot. man i GET taob sokka i really do bc people seem to think he was a lil mean but nobody seems to realise when you're in sokkas position it would've read like everyone was against you. all the swt men, including his dad who snapped at him, and even katara and aang and suki tell him to give zuko a chance and the fact that they were trusting someone who had hurt all of them so much- because yes WE know zuko wouldn't have killed them, but the gaang didn't. not when they were being chased and terrorised, and when sokka had his trust betrayed in the prison, he had absolutely every right to hate zuko, esp when it felt like everyone who he thought would understand his feelings, including his own dad who had been hiding his relationship with zuko from him, seems against him. his conversation with hakoda was probably my favourite scene in taob just bc he was allowed to feel like that without being treated by the narrative as someone just being mean to poor little zuko. he gets to be a sourpuss and angry and jealous at zuko for feeling like hed been replaced by his own dad. all of the water tribe men get this treatment like they're not written as bad people for being wary or disliking zuko initially (even chena despite being enemy no.1 at the start). his convo with hakoda was so important bc it stressed the detail that yes zuko has suffered and deserves to be cared for but SOKKA is his son, his actual child who is so hard on himself for things out of his control and who has hurt so much and deserves just as much as zuko does. sokka is just a baby my boy. he's not the main character but he's just as complex and intricate as zuko, not just in taob but also for the times we have seen him in tams there's been keen detail to his emotion and how he's feeling pointed out
me rn
#BESTIEEEEEEEEE YOU GET IT <333#like ik the atla fandom including unfortunately some taob locals are generally AWFUL with sokka when zuko is involved#but it really was only a handful of taob readers esp in the grand scheme and i do want to clarify that#but now we're on the same page. OH MY GOD WHEN I SAY I WANTED TO PHYSICALLY FIGHT SOME PEOPLE#JUST THE SHAMELESS FAVOURITISM??? THE EXPECTATION THAT I TREAT A CHARACTER AS SOMETHING NOT-HUMAN BC THEY HAPPEN TO BE MEAN TO THEIR FAVE??#like idc if zuko means a lot to you!! idc if it's sad seeing people be mean to him bc you relate to him so much!!#id be a terrible writer if i treated the other characters as planets in zuko's orbit. THEY dont know they're in his story#and sokka is a fucking sixteen year old. like come on i get mad when people do the same with chena being a dick to zuko#but at least he's a grown man. sokka is a TEENAGER. even if he was being irrational that would be completely fair#bc teenagers ARE FAMOUSLOY IRRATIONAL!?!?!?! GO OUTSIDE??!?!?!!?#anyway. im so normal about this topic and hold noooo grudges not any haha#remembering when someone commeted saying me personally as a real life person i was insidious and evil for insinuating#that adopted children arent worth as much as biological children and i should NEVER adopt bc im clearly the Worst#when that is not only an insane thing to say to a stranger on the internet but also. not what happened#hakoda never adopted zuko. that's a joke made in fandom. jokes are when people say untrue things for comedic affect#adoption is an actual official process of willingly and actively bringing a child into your family#NOT taking some teenage symbol of your culture's oppression as a prisoner and unwillingly growing attached#and now he's someone you're fond of and feel protective over as is natural of an adult towards a hurting child#but your actual son feels replaced and it's especially cutting bc of aforementioned symbol of your culture's oppression#and also this specific kid was a dick to him. like as a pretty notable part of his character he was a dick to him#so you reassure him bc that is your actual real life son. yeah?#are we on the same page? are we good? please i dont know how much more i can take-#taob asks#ask
42 notes
·
View notes
Text
It is only first month of 2024, and I've already lost not one but two subjects of nightmares, paranoia and reoccurring emotional torture. I really wish there was another way to get rid of these besides having extremely painful conversations.. but at least these scars are closing, one by one
#/vent#personal#and this time was like.. opposite of the previous one#previous one absolutely wrecked me with very ugly insight and basically made all puzzle pieces fall together#this one was just pain and crying and having my worst suspicions about other person AND self faced and confirmed#but again it got solved#I really want the power to move on without having a closure.#I hope I will be strong enough for it one day.#I just need to think..#I think I really should avoid other depressed/traumatised people until something can be done with how I react at perceived threats#(which is eternity because hell I know when I will be able to afford therapy. probably never with how my life situation is going)#as jarring as being close only with 'healthy' people would be I just can't make things worse for both me and them#until I can change my default response from aggression into avoidance I'll just stay away from anyone with depression#I say very terrible things when I feel threatened and it is way too easy to make me feel threatened. it is THE easiest thing in the world.#I won't survive without close friends anyhow but there is category of people that can't recover from these words normally#I mean I am ALSO this 'category'. I also hurt from awful words thrown at me for MONTHS don't I#it is very hard to be aware of my glaring flaws when everyone that points them out is outright malicious and wants me bullied off the Earth#and then everyone who does think I deserve my human rights either doesn't see my flaws or doesn't mention them#so at least discussing it without outright intention to harm me was helpful for a change#maybe one day I'll have a friend that can be open if I've hurt them a lot so I can work on it but that's another story I guess
9 notes
·
View notes
Text
fun fact about me: i'm insecure about so many random things that i've never flipped anyone off in my 22 years of life because i think my middle finger looks awkward and ugly by itself
#and like i say: brf slt#i felt like this especially when i would have been likely to do it semi-regularly like in middle school. but like i was thinking about this#the other day and i did it in front of a mirror just to check and it looked as bad as i remember like it's just not for me#i have a story abour middle fingers though or just about what one would call the finger#when i was in what an american would call the 5th grade (i can never do when i was x years old because it's not an accurate representation#of the class i was in since i skipped a grade and the grade is what matters more to me. when i was 9 and my friends were 10 i was saying)#we would always play this game called girls catch guys or guys catch girls where the girls would run after the guys and like tap them on#the shoulder and then they would go to prison and they would line up and another guy could set them free by like touching one of the#prisoners it was a very fun game except it's way more fun to be like the ones getting caught than to be the ones catching and we would#ALWAYS play girls catching guys and it was very unfair we would be like okay in the morning we do guys catching girls in the afternoon#girls catching guys so it's fair like normal system but the guys NEVER wanted to do it (and we would always give in because like we still#wanted to play ig and idk guys. female socialization) they never wanted to be the ones doing the catching it was so unfair because we also#didn't like it as much and we did it all the time?#and i remember this one morning we were fighting about this we had literally all agreed that it was fair this way but they didn't want to#do it and my second best male friend flipped me and my best (female) friend off and (very#important detail) he did it with both of his hands so like two middle fingers and i don't know why because i'm not even sure that that's a#thing but one middle finger meant fuck you and two middle fingers meant go fuck yourself and to us that was very different? and i remember#my friend and i we like knew what it meant but for some reason we were like. he did do the one finger before doing the two does this mean#he...loves us because it literally means he wants to have sex with us#but what's funny is we never talked to him again after that and i don't even know why that was our last straw because i remember i#genuinely liked him before that like i said he was my second best male friend! so like maybe sixth best friend overall that's not bad#and he's not the only guy friend who flipped us off that year like it was so random to stop talking to him after that😭#like he was an actual enemy we really did not like him we talked about him in letters we'd give each other using a nickname etc#and what's even funnier is in our last year of middle schoold FOUR YEARS AFTER THIS a friend of a friend told him he should become friends#with well my friend and he was like hm i don't think so have you seen who she hangs out with? marianne *last name* like why do YOU hate#me😭 it was so funny like wdym it was mutual this whole time. i had literally moved on by then i didn't even care about hating him#anymore like wow...i think he's the only person i hated who actually hated me back
3 notes
·
View notes
Text
every time i think about tenrose my heart goes 💗❤️🔥💓💘💗❤️🔥💓 and my head simply 💥😻🌈😽🤧✨😘🔥🚀🥰😍 and my stomach be like 🦋🪄🦋⭐️🦋✨🦋🦋🫧✨
#(butterflies pewpew round and round)#tenrose#tentoorose#truly the greatest love story ever told#i will never be normal about them neverrrrrr#btw when i say tenrose i mean tenrose AND tentoorose i obvs can't not include them it's just that i prefer tenrose as a ship name okay !!!!#tentoo#tenth doctor#rose tyler#doctor who
40 notes
·
View notes
Text
Tales of Suspense (1959) #95
#I was shocked to see that Sharon was on such the same page as Steve#saying that she’s been seeing him in her dreams#meaning that like him she’s taking them to be fated to be together#she’d said before that she felt that they were linked together#but that came across differently to me because it was said in the heat of the moment in a battle#so this in its calmer context was still surprising to me#then declaring ‘There can never be anyone else for me- except you!’#is soo much#it’s not exactly clear if she’s aware that he thinks she’s another woman reborn#which is where his intensity is coming from#her intensity seems to be coming from heavily romanticizing the picture of Steve that Peggy painted for her in her stories#and growing up with that as her image of her dream guy#I like that because Steve and Sharon are both so dedicated to their work#going out like a normal couple would is a big deal for both of them#the fact that Steve wanted to /marry/ Sharon and live the rest of their lives together before he’s even learned her name#or spent enough time with her where they’d actually have to talk about the fact that he doesn’t know her name#is of course insane#I actually believe Sharon when she says the reason she can’t is because of her work and not because she doesn’t want to#and I actually really like that conflict and the fact that he doesn’t then pressure her to quit#despite the emphasis in his language in prior stories that she’s a woman#like saying how dare enemies of Shield attack a ‘defenseless girl’ of that the other men of Shield will help her when her mission goes awry#which inherently delegitimizes her#and oh my gosh- this man can make /anything/ about Bucky#anyway- when he gets all excited about spending the rest of his life with Sharon- this man is having some kind of episode#marvel#steve rogers#sharon carter#my posts#comic panels
3 notes
·
View notes
Text
.
#ramblings of an arrow#had a FUN realization about why Astarion's story in BG3 means a lot to me and like also really fucks me up(in a good way)#and I am having a normal one in this chillis tonight#processing emotions on main tonight#simply there's some Astarion dialog that only happens if you choose some really awful dialog options#where he says something along the lines of 'I didn't know how to say no'#or 'I didn't think I could say no'#or something like that#and I justttt#they wrote it really well#how they dealt with his specific kind of trauma#and it fucks me up man#because hahahaha mood#it's... it's honestly so fucking cathartic to watch Astarion kill Cazador#like that whole scene is so tragic and awful but so cathartic b/c it's done so well and it feels so real#how he just starts sobbing right afterwards#and like it doesn't feel triumphant it just feels desperate#and how Astarion's whole motivation throughout the game is how scared he is of Cazador#and how when he kills Cazador it isn't like badass or cool or anything#it's this desperate awful terrified stabbing him until he's absolutely sure that Cazador is gone and will never get up again#like you can argue that it's overkill but honestly no that's fear and desperation right there#the desperate need to be free and know that they can never ever touch you again to know that you won't constantly be haunted by them#for the rest of your life#like fuck man I Get It#I fucking get it
6 notes
·
View notes
Note
Me right now.
Icha are you okay
DMKJFDMLFKLMDFFD THANKS SWEETHEART YOUR SUPPORT ALWAYS MEANS THE WORLD TO ME
i'm not okay at all, imagine your OTP in a fandom has one of them say, pointblank, that he wants to have the other guy's children (yknow, for a book he’s writing), and then he smiles at the camera when the guy is just what was that because "yknow, for Fanservice". This is the world i've been living in since yesterday and i feel like death.
I've summed up the situation in little more details here (as in, why especially the fact this character is doing it AGAIN because it's like what, the 3rd? 4th time? he hits on the guy and then says it's a joke, or is it? and it's driving me insane that he keeps doing that), and the exact explanation on the child thing here (the full thread being all the more insane here)
But yeah also because of the one panel with the child my entire TL has errupted with conversation about how did the child even happen in this fantasy and so i've seen m/p/reg stuff. quite a few. And i have to live with the fact that it's canon that did this to us.
tl;dr local writer who loves to lie about everything to spice things up realizes messing with that one guy is so much fun that no matter how possibly reserved he is he will go completely off the wall insane just to tease that guy no matter how weird that is. And he uses how the guy react to his ideas as inspirations for his books. That's the world i live in. That's the ship i decided to stay on this hill to die for.
I'm being so normal right now.
So yeah, i'm not okay by any stretch and i want Gentaro to pay me emotional compensation.
#The thing is that i'm esp talking about the batshit things but like at the same time. man.#MAN!!!#like sorry i'll never be over that one scene where Gentaro had a mental breakdown#and Dice just dropped everything to defend him because it's his friend and he'll do anything for him#and you can FEEL Gentaro going oh. ooooooh. oh okay.#or the fact one of the song (Stella) is a story Gentaro made up#where he meets Dice and it gives him purpose and 'Take me away with you messiah' okay?#like wow you're smitten as fuck aren't you#like sometimes it's played completely seriously so it means when it's played for laughs like that i'm just whore????#i'm so so normal#anyway in the first post i linked Gentaro also had a whole fantasy about being#'reincarnated star crossed lovers with Dice so i can't be apart from him'#and it was before the panic attack incident they barely knew each other at this point#oh right and in the manga he has ANOTHEr fantasy where he gets to hold Dice's hand lovingly#saying that he can only find their possible fate if they're together and it's just#and Dice hears him out and he's just 'im not sure i got everything but did you make me lose at the casino?'#'... yes?' 'That's the worst how could you do that to me!!!' like sweetie did you not pick up the hand holding part#so anyway it's dumb and dumber: the relationship#moron loving moron#i can't believe they keep doing this to me after all these years#ichareply#nechrollomicon#ichafantalks hpm
14 notes
·
View notes
Text
DMing is hard. I acknowledge this. Weaving a story with words for long periods of time means you’re gonna say something silly sometimes when your brain blips. And it’s not your fault that it’s so silly that your players share it around turning it into an inside joke, immortalizing your brain fart moment forever.
My DM was narrating a scene between our tiefling rogue and the NPC she was romancing. He was trying to set the mood for their first kiss, up on a tower overlooking the city, looking into each others eyes. They’d just been on a romantic date, there was a bottle of wine between them. And this was their moment.
The NPC leaned in to kiss the rogue and the kiss was, according to our DM, “long and normal.”
The entire session went off the rails. We became ungovernable creatures of hilarity. How long is normal?
We are informed normal is six seconds and we devolve even further into chaotic paroxysm of laughter. The DM desperately tried to rein us in but for the rest of the session everything took a long and normal amount of time.
My betrothed and I would kiss each other while counting to six in our heads then declare afterward, “Ah yes! Long and normal!”
I accidentally told my school team about it, reasoning that they’d at least never meet the DM who lives out of state. They’d say we needed the scene to be the long and normal length, or hold a pose for a long and normal time.
At the end of the year I invited them to my house for a celebratory meal and was surprised when my DM joined the DnD video call early. My teammates looked at him, expressions slowly spreading into evil grins. “Long and normal!” They greeted him.
He turned a look upon me of utter betrayal while I hustled them out of my house.
“It’s been a year!” He cried at the unfairness.
“Maybe it’ll phase out by next year,” I told him.
#and then I wrote it all here to memorialize it forever#ramblies#ffs foibles#funny story#dnd#dnd story#writing#story
6K notes
·
View notes
Last Seen Blogs
mstrbter
Untitled
knappmarcussen62
The Journaling of Bojsen 342
itsjeankirschtein
How Honest?
squadleaderchase
Uselessly Attractive
farhamsiddiqui-blog
Farham Siddiqui