#woah it got like. real meta at the end | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

stars-are-just-ghosts · 3 years

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Harrisco 11&17

You got it! (Sorry it took so long to get to this.)

* * * Cisco didn't even flinch this time as a screwdriver whipped past his workstation and stuck into the wall, Harry's following growl of frustration echoing directly after. Mostly because he was used to Harry throwing things by now, and he felt Harry's pain at the moment. They'd been trying to figure out the best way to stop a meta, Andrew Rue, who could manipulate his physical structure to pretty much become invisible. The guy was after Harry. Or more like Thawne, the other Harrison Wells, whatever. Barry'd had his ass handed to him twice now. And Cisco's actual ass was still sore from his own encounter. (Getting thrown off a second-story balcony and somehow how landing ass-first into the roof of a car was really the only good luck they'd had, now that he considered it.) "Screw it. Let's blow it up and call it a day." Harry's stern and frustrated voice did catch Cisco's attention this time. But that had more to do with what he said and not the fact he'd spoken. Cisco popped his head slightly above the level of his monitor and looked across the room to see Harry standing in front of the reflective net they were attempting (and thus far failing) to make work. "Harry," Cisco's voice was chastising, like speaking to a child. It made Harry's shoulders tense as he turned, hands still on his hips as he glared at Cisco through the rims of his glasses. "We are not blowing up the only thing we have that can potentially stop Invisi-man." "Stop it. Stop calling him that. It's a terrible name." The tall man dropped his hands and motioned to the net. "It's not working, Ramon. We can't calibrate it. His ability to shift spectrums is too advanced. We need to come up with a better idea." Cisco sighed heavily, if not a bit dramatically, and stood up stiffly, trying to ignore the ache that went through each thigh, cheek, and his lower back before moving around the console toward the brooding Harry and the not-working net. "Well, if you'd stop trying to tweak this thing manually and actually work on the equations like we agreed on-"

"You're the one who can't stand for more than ten minutes at a time, you can't work on the-"

"I can't sit for long, either, Harry." He crossed his arms, "You act like it's my fault my a-... that I got hurt." "Hurt." Harry said flatly, then reached up and pulled his glasses off. "You're lucky all that happened to you was a bruised ass. You could've been killed, all because-" Harry's suddenly cut-off tone had been frustrated with the hint of sarcasm they always used with one another, but there was something else in his eyes. The glare wasn't entirely frustrated. In fact, it verged more on worried? Huh. "No, it's not your fault. It's mine." Harry pushed past him, putting his glasses back on as he went, heading for the single door to the tiny lab. "Woah, wait, what?" Cisco blinked and dropped his arms, turning and quickly hurrying after the grumpy-cat scientist, grabbing him by the elbow just as he got into the hallway. "Why would you say it's your fault?" Harry didn't answer at first, standing still where Cisco had stopped him. Then he looked down at Cisco with the quietest, most tender expression he had ever seen the man turn toward him. "Rue is after me. Because he thinks I'm Thawne. How is this," he motioned to Cisco with his free hand, "Not my fault?"

"Is that the real reason you've been throwing stuff all day?" Cisco asked softly, a slow smile forming on his lips. "How many times have you reminded us that you're not Thawne? How many times have I had to remind you that you're not responsible for the chaos your face comes with?" He quipped lightly. Harry frowned heavily at him. "I'll keep doing it, by the way. I'll keep reminding you." "Why?" Harry demanded, that familiar rasp to his voice filling the space between them. Cisco chuckled a little, then just reached up and grabbed the back of Harry's head, pulling him down till their mouths met. He loved kissing Harry. Never tired of it. It had been addictive the first time, and would be for the millionth time. They'd only started their crazy relationship about four months ago, but damn if Cisco wasn't hooked. Harry was the yin to his yang. The peanut butter to his jelly. The criss to his cross. Couldn't have one without the other, not anymore. The fact that he got to see and feel all the soft, tender, gentle parts of Harry that no one else saw, down to his battered but honestly kind of beautiful heart, meant everything to Cisco. But that also meant living with all the angry, grumpy, self-loathing tendencies that were a very big part of Harry's psyche.

"I think the 'why' would be apparent to you by now. But I'll spell it out for you, again, if you want." Cisco held onto the bluer than blue gaze he'd also become addicted to. Harry's hands had molded to Cisco's sides sometime during the kiss, and hadn't moved. Harry shook his head slightly, though he seemed more at ease, soft humor sparkling in his gaze. "I love you, too, jackass." That made Cisco smile back, big and bright right before he kissed Harry again for good measure. Then they went back to the lab and got back to work, though sitting side by side this time, working on the equations in almost companionable silence. Harry, however, still held that air of agitation. Of worry. Cisco wanted to ease it away entirely.

Then an idea popped into his head. And he fought the urge to smile at himself.

With a quick click of his mouse and run-through of his fingers on the keyboard in front of him, he pinged a message to Harry's phone. It made the tall man freeze in place for a moment before sighing and rifling the phone out of his pocket.

'Did you just come out of the oven? Cause you're HOT.' Harry just stared at the message on his phone, blinked, then turned his whole seat to stare straight at Cisco who refused to look at him, fighting the urge to giggle like a maniac. Then he began typing again.

"Ramon, don't." Aaaand ping. The muscles in Harry's jaw strained and he visibly heaved a breath before looking down at his phone again.

'Are you a parking ticket? Because you've got FINE written all over you.'

Ping.

'Do you play soccer? Cause you're a keeper!'

Ping.

'Are you French? Cause Eiffel for you.'

Harry pressed something on his phone, then shut off the screen, nearly shoving it back into his pocket before turning to his console without a word and beginning to furiously type something.

Ping.

Wait... that wasn't Harry's phone. Cisco reached into his own pocket.

'If your ass isn't hurting anymore, I will gladly rectify that.'

Cisco blinked, swallowed, turning slightly wide eyes toward Harry, who was watching him, waiting patiently, face a complete blank.

"Are you being serious?" Cisco half-whispered. Harry just raised a brow. "I wish that sarcasm was available as a font, cause I can't tell if you're joking or not." Harry leaned forward, meeting Cisco nearly face to face, grabbing his phone out of his hands and setting it aside without breaking eye contact.

"I'm always serious, Ramon." He said easily. Cisco felt every inch of his skin light up at the words and proximity of Harry. And he inhaled sharply, turning away to bring the equations back up onto his monitor.

"Invisi-man is getting caught, RIGHT NOW!" he practically slammed his fingers into the keyboard. And Harry laughed. Hard.

Sometimes, Harry forgot that the metas here weren't his fault. That he couldn't protect everyone. And Cisco had no problem reminding him that he wasn't the one to blame.

Sometimes, Cisco could still learn a thing or two from Harry. Like there was something to be said for not having any subtlety.

They eventually managed to get the net to work.

Andrew Rue, aka Invisi-man, was down for the count by the end of the night. And Harry kept very good to his word about... eh-hem... things.

There would always be some sort of danger, some meta in the mix who had it out for one of them. But as Cisco relaxed happily naked in Harry's decidedly wonderful arms in the bed they shared, he had a feeling it was this crazy relationship that would keep him going through all of it.

"Hey Harry," Cisco smiled a little, resting his head a little more comfortably on Harry's shoulder as the taller man slid his fingers up and down Cisco's spine in the dark.

"Mm?"

"If you were a TransFormer, you'd be Optimus Fine."

Harry sighed, loud and obnoxious, making Cisco's head rise and fall where it lay. He couldn't help it, he started giggling like a monster. And Harry tightened both arms around him.

"No more cheesy ass pick-up lines, Ramon. You already got me. And I'm not going anywhere."

Damn straight.

As the quiet settled in around them, however, Cisco kept coming up with cheesy one-liners. He kept them to himself. And as the weeks went on, he continued to torture Harry with them. The tall man took it in stride with endless humor in his eyes and a decidedly sarcastic exchange. And every now and then, Harry would remind Cisco that he loved him, despite Cisco's 'utterly incomprehensible ability to annoy the ever-loving shit out of him.'

It made Cisco want to invent a sarcastic font, for no other reason than to keep it going every day. Part of him knew Harry would hate it. But the rest of him knew Harry would never pass up the chance to see Cisco smile or laugh. And that would be worth every glare, every clench of Harry's jaw, every opportunity Harry would take to make Cisco beyond flustered.

Because Cisco loved that jackass right back.

He had a very wonderful feeling that he always would.

#harrisco #harry wells #cisco ramon #writing prompt #enjoy #cisco is a nerd #harry has way too much patience #or does he?

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fbfh · 4 years

Text

fangirl’s paradise - leo x reader

genre/vibe: romance, adventure, slice of life

word count: 2.8k

pronouns/perspective: first person present, no pronouns (I think), gn reader

au: soulmate kind of?? also traveling to other dimensions/multiverse

pairing: Leo x fic writer!reader

requested: nah

warnings: you think someone broke into your house for a minute, you feel like you’re going crazy for a minute, questionable pop culture/internet references, you get really embarrased about stuff you’ve written, you say fuck a lot, tiddy as an explative

summary: all you wanted to do was write some leo one shots for your blog, but finding out he’s your soulmate is good too

reccomended songs: havana - camila cabello, where do we go from here - amelie obc

a/n: got really meta and self indulgent with this bad boy, probs gonna do a part 2 at some point, cause this got really long and I started to get tired lol. For clarity, you’re from the riordanverse, but ended up in a world where it’s fictional. also some memories were erased.

requests r open xo

All I wanted to do was dance embarrassingly and sing along to the same playlist I’d been listening to for the past three days in terrible accents while I wait for my ramen to finish cooking. That’s it. I really don’t think that’s too much to ask for. Plus, I’ve been home alone all day, so it’s really not too much to ask for. I flip over the waistband of my sweatpants while shimmying my way to the kitchen.

“Half of my heart is in havana oh nana,” I sing along off key, in a pseudo growly voice that makes me giggle. I’m going to turn the corner, make myself some ramen, then finish the episode of love island I’ve been watching. Except that’s not what happens.

“He got tha-” I cut myself off with a scream, seeing a stranger in the hall way. He looks up. I scream more, way more, and choke out, “JFK’s left fucking tiddy!”, because this dude is either the best freaking cosplayer ever, or those tiktok reality shifting tutorials actually worked at some point.

He looks too natural, too organic. The level of detail and strategic imperfection is beyond conscious choice. There’s no way he’s a cosplayer that broke into my house. Also, that would be a super weird crime.

Either way, I’m standing in front of a dude who looks exactly like Leo Valdez.

It feels… fake.

I didn’t really notice I’m covering my mouth with my hand to stop my hysterical scream laughs, but I’m able to get it under control after a second.

He’s looking at me, eyes wide, examining me, probably wondering why I’m acting so erratically. Or why I just spat out such strange bullshit. In my defense, I’ve been watching chaotic tiktok compilations inbetween updating my blog for like, two days straight. Three other people round the corner. I don’t know what I expected, and it shouldn’t have been a surprise at this point, but I’m sure I’m looking no other than at Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, and Piper Mclean.

“Jesus fucking christ, fuck me with a chainsaw!” I spit, retreating into the kitchen, reminding myself that while they are my favorite characters - and again, somehow real and in front of me? - they’re still technically intruders. I grab the nearest kitchen implement, a pair of red kitchen scissors I’d used to hack open the ramen packet, and point it at them.

“Woah,” Piper says, “it’s okay, we’re not going to hurt you.” I count to four and breathe in, setting the scissors back down within arms reach. Hold for seven, exhale for eight. I repeated the process again, watching Annabeth whispering to Leo.

I can feel the initial freak out subsiding. I’m starting to calm down a little.

“We’re not going to hurt you,” Piper repeats. Well duh, they’re the good guys. A spike of pure what the fuck shoots through me, as I realize I’m already adapting to the fact that fictional fucking characters are standing in my kitchen. Leo’s ignoring Annabeth, and still staring at me, searching my eyes for... something.

Piper’s brow furrows. I call past Piper to Annabeth.

“Yeah, hi op, what the fuck?” They all have a silent conversation for a minute, and I continue, “Anyone want to tell my why the fuck fic-”

“We can tell you what’s going on, but it’s going to sound crazy.” Piper starts.

“After the past five minutes, probably not.” I glance past her shoulder, Leo’s still examining me. I look away, overwhelmed almost immediately. About 30% of my brain is just an endless loop of ‘ohmygodohmygodohmygod he’s real??? Like,,,, r e a l real????? Aj;dlfkajskdla ohmygod he’s looking at me what the fuck richard’, 20% was still trying to calm down from freaking out so much earlier, so I was at about half brain power for the conversation ahead.

“Okay, wait. Let me get this straight.” they stare at me in silence. We’re standing in the hallway outside the kitchen, and I feel like a complete disaster trying to process what they’re telling me and not look like a total idiot.

“So, Calypso went missing, and Leo got Aphrodite to activate his soulmate link so he can find her and it led you here?” I’m already smiling. There’s no chance, I can’t get my hopes up.

Piper continues, “Which means it might not be Calypso.”

“Unless you’re wearing a really good disguise or something,” Leo says. I’m pretty sure that’s the first time he’s spoken to me. I let out a breathy laugh and look away from him. If I try to look at him my brain goes haywire. Scenes from stuff I’ve written about him on my tumblr flash in my mind, and it makes me feel like I’m about to explode.

“Yeah, the reason we know is-”

“The gods are real, monsters are after you, et cetera et cetera. Yeah.” They seem a little surprised that I’m more concerned with the soulmate part than the mythology part, but I’ve been reading these books since middle school. We been knew.

Piper keeps looking between Leo and me with a weird look on her face. God, Piper, don’t get my hopes up. A knowing look passes over her face and she looks around the room again.

“Gods, where did he go…” She gets up and leaves the room. No one says anything. Between right then and when she gets back should have been in a ‘top ten most devastating anime uncomfortable silences’ compilation. She enters again a few seconds later, a tall hot guy behind her. He has red flowers in his hair and isn’t wearing a shirt for some reason. He looks between me and Leo.

“I see… interesting.” he turns to me and says, “Can you tell me anything… personal about him?” My face flushes. I turn to Piper.

“Sorry, but who the fuck?”

“I mean the only noncanon stuff I know is what I came up with for like, writing and stuff but that doesn’t count-” I sputter.

“Eros.” she replies, “My mom sent him along to help find the right person.”

“Normally I’d be able to tell instantly, but my powers don’t seem to work here very well.” his voice is like honey, and it seems like he’s heavily implying something no matter what he says.

“Yeah, go on hermosa,” Leo says, smirking, “take a whack at it.” His voice sounds so much more… real than I could have imagined. If I could verbally keysmash, I would have then and there.

“Hmm… why don’t you try anyway. What kind of lover is he?” the room erupts into protests. They don’t want to hear personal stuff about their friend, I don’t want to talk about cripplingly embarrassing smut headcanons in front of the character they’re about, and he probably doesn’t want me taking a wild guess at his bedroom habits. Eros turns to Percy, Annabeth, and Piper.

“You two, out. You, leave but stay close.” They leave the room hastily.

“Since I’m the god of sexual desire, I know what gets people going. I’ll be able to tell if you’re right or not. ” Eros says. I risk a glance at Leo, who I have a feeling has been staring at me a lot. He leans forward, playful intrigue all over him. How is he not dying inside??

“Ah ah,” Eros says to Leo, “you too.” Leo obliges, and heads up the stairs.

“H- okay, uh… he acts like a top, but he’s really kind of a bottom,” I choke out, trying to remember details from past posts, and Eros nods in approval, encouraging me to keep going, “he’s really-” my voice falters, and I hide my head in my hands, “he’s really vocal, like really vocal… uh…”

“Oh yes, I can tell.” Eros says, and I laugh slightly. “What else?”

“More? God okay… uh… he really likes hickeys, and-” I choke on my words, still unsure of how I got in this situation.

“He holds hands a lot in… the bedroom? God…” I trail off.

“The next morning, he kind of… he just sort of stares at you while you get dressed and stuff. I don’t know anyone else who does that.”

Eros studies me for a second. My heart is beating so hard. How long does it take to say yes or no? I’m uncomfortably aware of the distracting adrenaline in my arms and chest and head.

“Interesting,” he says, then stands up and leaves the room.

What the fuck, is he not going to tell me anything?

I’m listening as closely as I can, and I’m pretty sure I hear Eros say five out of five. I got everything right or everything wrong. Nailed it or failed it.

Piper speeds past me a second later and races up the stairs. After a few seconds she comes back down. She nods toward the staircase.

“You should go talk to him.” a knowing smile is playing at the corner of her mouth, and I can’t stop one from starting on mine. I run up the stairs, and see him, kneeling on my bed, reading what’s on my laptop.

Oh god, no.

He stands up. He’s staring at me so intensely, I look away immediately. I start sputtering out a panicked apology and sit down on my bed, moving to shut the lid of my laptop.

“Uh… I just listen to a song or something that makes me think of you,” my voice gets really tiny at that last part, “and stuff starts to pop into my head. I just keep replaying it, and uncovering more details so I can wr- wait,” I start to look up at him, but can’t bring myself to meet his eyes. I stare intensely at the pattern on my quilt instead. “Did you say remember?” He lets out a breathy laugh, and I can hear the smile in his voice.

“-of course I never thought you were going to read any of that, or…” His hand is on top of mine, my hand and voice freezing at the same time.

“How… did you remember all this?” my fears are being squashed. He doesn’t sound mad, or grossed out, or judgemental. He sounds… impressed.

“Yeah, I mean, I’m only starting to get back bits and pieces, but you remember… everything.”

“Wait wait…” I mutter, completely dazed, “so it wasn’t… it was all real?” I feel him nodding behind me, and he makes a noise of agreement.

“It was genius, really… as soon as I felt like I was remembering something, I’d forget it.” His other hand rests on my shoulder, palm flat against my back. “Only you would think to write it like that…”

“So… it all happened?” I breathe, my face heating up as I think of the titles marked with a little asterisk.

“Yeah,” I bite my lip, feeling his breath over my skin. It’s quiet for a second. The mattress shifts and I can feel him leaning closer to me, feel the heat coming off his body. His lips are dangerously close to my ear.

“Want something else to write about?”

Oh my fucking god.

I nod before I finish registering what he said. His free hand moves to my cheek, tilting my face towards him, and my skin explodes with sparks where he touches me.

Our lips brush.

We both freeze.

Flood gates open. Countless vivid images and feelings and scenarios flash across my mind. It was like watching a movie connecting every fic I’ve written. I gasp-laugh a little, and he does the same. It seems like the visions or whatever that he’s seeing are a lot more intense than mine. His eyes flutter open and he looks at me stronger, more intensely, more passionately than he had before. He lets out a soft, breathy laugh, and presses his lips to mine. Everywhere he touches feels carbonated, and I’m trying not to smile too much. I don’t think I’ve ever been more in the moment than right this second. He pulls me closer, tilting his head and deepening the kiss. I didn’t know a kiss could be deeper than it had been a few seconds ago. His mouth moves feverishly against mine. My arms move up on instinct, one hand playing with his hair, the other tracing the collar of his shirt. He shifts his weight, and one hand on my waist, lowers me back onto my bed. His left hand intertwines with my right, and I smile, remembering what I had told Eros earlier.

“Estrella,” He groans into my mouth, our teeth scraping as we smile in spite of ourselves, and I get the sense the nickname was an ‘as you wish’ type of thing, from the Princess Bride. It feels like he’s saying I love you. My heart speeds up as he nuzzles into my neck, pressing kisses and little bites into my skin. I think about the nickname I always thought would suit him, the one I kept writing down over and over. Now or never.

“Sparky…” I smile, hiding my face in his hair. He freezes for a second, then lets out that breathy laugh again, his face in my neck. His lips graze my collarbone, and he starts to say something, but the door opens suddenly, and we jump apart. It doesn’t help much though, because he’s still hovering over me on all fours and we both look very flushed. And I’m pretty sure the start of a hickey is forming on my neck.

“Right,” she replies, “we gotta get going, the door is closing soon, so come down stairs as soon as you’re… free.”

“Sorry!” Annabeth yells, averting her eyes. Leo and I stumble over each other’s flustered responses.

“-looks bad but nothing… happened… we d- we didn’t like, do anything...” I trail off.

The door closes.

“I’m coming with you guys?” I breathe. He looks over at me, that unflappable sense of playfulness present as ever.

Leo sits back, scratching the back of his neck.

“Yeah, we should get back soon. Everyone else will be worried once they remember.” My heart plummets. I didn’t know you could go from feeling so incredibly euphoric to beyond miserable in about five seconds. I open my mouth to choke out a response, but before I can, he stands up and stretches a little.

“Do you wanna change before we go?” The question has such a normal tone to it, it’s a little bizarre after all the unusual things that have happened today. The bad feeling and tears at the corners of my eyes start to recede.

“Of course you are. If you think I’m losing you again this soon you’re crazier than I am.” I let out a relieved laugh, and stand up. I look down at my monster foot slippers and sweatpants.

“You know where to find me,” he winks before closing the door on his way out.

“Yeah, I should probably change.” He pulls me close to him, one hand comes up to the back of my neck, the other on my hip. He starts swaying us back and forth, dancing around my room.

“Well, if you need any help…” I laugh, and shove him away playfully.

I take a second to catch my breath. Oh my god. Thoughts are still racing in the back of my mind, but I don’t pay attention. I don’t have time to worry about what’s real and what’s not, I need to find the perfect demigod adventure outfit. I throw open my closet, start shuffling through dresser drawers, digging through my shoes. I don’t remember having one or two of the pieces, but after a minute, I find exactly what I’m looking for. It’s the exact outfit I’d always imagined myself in if I ever went to camp half blood. I search through my accessories, grab a bag, and hastily fill it with anything I think I’ll probably need. I turn back to my laptop, and change my blog description to on hiatus. I check my hair, flattening out the back from before, and determine I’m ready to go.

I walk down the stairs, and everyone’s watching me. I feel like it’s prom or something, which sounds silly since I’ve got on ripped jeans and a backpack instead of a dress and clutch. Leo’s watching me with that look, the one that makes his eyes all sparkly, and he meets me at the bottom of the stairs. He puts his arm around my shoulder.

“Ready to go home, Estrella?”

I have never been more ready for anything.

#Leo Valdez #leo x reader #leo valdez x reader #heroes of olympus #heroes of olympus x reader #leo valdez imagine #heroes of olympus imagine

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watchtower-feed · 4 years

Text

Three Dates

Notes: This was supposed to be a request for headcanons on dating Diana Prince/WonderWoman but it turned into a fic! So I’m just going to use this as a prologue for the actual headcanon list. (Sorry, anon. You’re going to have wait a lil longer). Words: 1,293

It all started because of a bad day. You just got fired. You just got dumped. And you find out your apartment building was being used as a front for meta-trafficking. In Metropolis!

So you were also being abducted and thinking, ‘The nerve of these criminals these days! In this city! Seriously!’

Of course, Superman saved the day. Even better, he had reinforcements with him. Superman descended like a god but Wonder Woman! She smashed through the walls like a force of nature not to be reckoned with.

You and the other abductees cheer as they beat up the thugs. Some of them have also started using their powers to fight back and free each other.

You’re rubbing your sore wrists when you notice one of the thugs near you aiming a rifle at Wonder Woman. You suddenly start to think if she’s bullet-proof but can’t remember. So you throw your body against the man while wailing like an animal to distract him, and it worked!

It wasn’t a great image but it surely got the right attention. The thug punches you in the gut but Wonder Woman crushes the rifle with her foot before he could grab it. Then he kicks him in the shin before turning to you.

“You could have used your powers instead of your body,” she says.

You laugh sheepishly, “About that… I don’t have any.”

After telling Wonder Woman your tale of being mistaken as a meta because they thought you could talk to animals, “-- it was a lost dog and I just asked it to take me to his owner and it did!”, she laughed with so much sincerity and amusement that she called Superman over to hear your story as well.

Wonder Woman wanted to take you home so you explain that you are technically home.

“She should go back with us to the Hall of Justice.”

“What? Batman would kill us!”

After a minute of shaming Superman for the Justice League owning such a big property and infrastructure and they won’t even let helpless civilians make use of it, you’re leaping over with buildings with Wonder Woman carrying you in her arms.

“One. Night.”

Batman’s reply was quick and assertive, not wanting to get roped into another one of Wonder Woman’s monologues about American greed and capitalism.

She grins cheekily and stays with you at the Hall. You spend the night together exploring its many rooms. Your favorite was the Justice League Commissary where they kept all of the food.

You stayed at the tower for three days, much to Batman’s annoyance and against your initial will. But Wonder Woman promised to help you find a job and a new place to live before you could leave.

That’s how you found yourself working at the Daily Planet, interning under her good friend Clark Kent, and having a secret lunch date with Wonder Woman on the roof.

“So how come you and Superman don’t wear a mask?” you ask with your mouth half-full.

“Because--” she replies with her mouth full, following your actions. Bits of the sandwich spills from her mouth and lands on your mat. You stare at it before you laugh together. “The others wear their masks to hide their real identities. But this,” she points to her tiara, “This is mine.”

“You’re really an Amazon princess from a secret island in the Atlantic?”

Wonder Woman nods and swallows first, “I am. I’ve lived there my whole life and I’m only now exploring the world of men.”

You wince, “How is it?”

“It’s edible,” she comments as she chews. You laugh and shake your head.

“So you don’t have a civilian identity? Where you pretend to be one of us? I thought all superheroes do that. Especially the alien ones.”

“They do,” she replies curtly. “What’s with the questions? We’re supposed to be eating.” She takes the sandwich she was eating and props it in front of your mouth. You try to take a bite but she tries to shove everything in your mouth. “You look adorable like that.”

Before you could finish chewing and swallowing, your lunch date’s communicator is flashing red lights of danger. She brushes the crumbs off her skirt and stands up.

“Be careful!” you call out as she nears the edge of the building.

Wonder Woman gives you a long steady gaze before she smiles. “I will. And I will see you tonight.”

You watch her leap from one building to another before you start tidying up. Then you stop, “Wait. Tonight?”

You stay at the office long after it was time to clock out. You were all practically forced to stay overtime to make sure the papers cover the sea monster clean up of the Justice League along the West Coast.

When you get home from work, Wonder Woman is already in your little apartment, wearing your clothes, yoga pants and a long sweater.

“I hope you don’t mind. Mine are still wet from the seawater.”

Your clothes are nothing special but on Wonder Woman, they look high-end and classy. “Keep them. Please. I’m begging you.”

Her eyes widen in surprise and then a dreamy look veils over her face as she looks at the clothes. “Thank you.”

You watch her for a moment before you finally notice the set up in your small living room slash dining area slash kitchen. “Woah. Is this a date or something?” you joke as the candlelight flickers over the decorated little table.

“Only our third,” she responds as she takes off your coat and escorts you to your seat.

“Third?” you ask in exclamation.

“Yes.” Wonder Woman looks at you by tipping the side of her head, “Or do you not count the lunch date we had at your work?”

You stare at her as she sits across from you and unveils the deliciously-looking food on the table. You quickly shake your head to keep your focus. “It’s not that-- It’s-- When was the first one?”

“At the Hall, the Commissary,” she replies with her mouth half-full. Wonder Woman is eating directly over her plate in order to avoid spilling anything on your floor.

A lightbulb clicks in your head, “Oh! Because we ate together.”

“Yes.”

You laugh a little, slightly disappointed. Why? Are you upset because it’s not actually a date-date?

“Why do you look upset?”

Wonder Woman’s question wakes you from your thoughts and you try to dismiss her worries by smiling and eating the food. And it’s more delicious than it looks. But Wonder Woman is still concerned. She reaches out and holds your hand.

“I was told that two people who have romantic feelings for each other go on dates, and that a date is usually ‘eating out’. Was I wrong in assuming you have feelings for me?”

You choke on your food and almost cough on Wonder Woman’s face. You cover your mouth and stand up to spit the food into the sink.

“Is there something wrong with the food?”

“No--” you quickly answer as you rush back to her. “Nothing’s wrong with the food, and no you’re not wro--”

Before you could let yourself finish, you kiss Wonder Woman and she kisses back. You wrap your arms around her shoulders as she hugs your waist. She tastes like the sun and the beach, and you laugh.

Wonder Woman smiles and keeps kissing your face. She loves hearing your laughter and watching the corners of your mouth reach your ears with glee.

After all the fighting, the world-catastrophes, and her apparent disconnect to this world-- your world, it’s the simple moments like these she craves. Ever since your rescue, Wonder Woman found herself relaxed and grounded whenever she’s with you. You make her feel human.

✧ Watchtower Masterlist ✧

#Wonder Woman #Diana Prince #DC imagines #Wonder Woman imagine #Diana Prince imagine #Wonder Woman fanfiction #Diana Prince fanfiction #Wonder Woman x reader #Diana Prince x reader #DC fanfiction #DC reader insert #watchtower-feed #acropen #lexyartem

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mrsmess · 3 years

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Faves and fails of SPN (season 15, finally):

Favorite episodes (in chronological order):

15:4 Atomic Monsters - Demon!Sam flashbacks! Dean in a beard! Some old fashioned banter! Meatman! Beaverdale! Love how Sam starts arguing w the parents in the parking lot - Me too, Sam, me too. Loving the self-aware monster. I know Becky is problematique™, but I dig her, so, all kinds of fuck Chuck. He must die, and when he does this is the episode I’ll think about.

15:6 Golden Time - Badass protection spells. Dean in a robe and a hot dog pyjamas. Cas going by Clarence. Jogging Sam. Eileen! God I ship her and Sam, and I’d like to take this opportunity to remind you that I don’t ship him w anyone. Liking this ep a lot, every little side plot. Nice. And Eileen is back and I know it won’t last but like, that was awesome.

15:10 The Heroes’ Journey - Pretty neat intro. Monster on monster violence to the sound of Clair the Lune. Oh, and excellent casting of Garth’s kids. Regular people trouble... Awesome! Brilliant! This is the kind of meta storylines this show should deal in, exclusively. Oh my Garth! Explosives! Why isn’t every episode like this?

15:11 The Gamblers - Oh, is this another lucky coin episode? In that case yes please! More inconsequential bullshit kindly! Loving Sam staying in touch w Eileen. Hey guys, remember when you did the gambling thing w your years? And the rabbit’s foot? Good times. Will this be an equally good time? I hope so. A god! Excellent. ”Lady, I’m Tolstoy.” Yeah ya are, and i’m dead. The guys and Fortuna bashing god. And I'm equally delighted and distraught over the lore that god created man, man imagined gods and god decided to create the other gods to play into man’s ideas, or as a distraction.

15:13 Destiny’s Child - Omg the intro! Savage garden! I’m dead. Jack w the sandwich, why is that so funny? Cas is a gem this episode! ”’Sexually intimate’?” Lol. That’s what you get for trying to speak plainly, Cas! Hunter Corp. I’m dead, again. Keep the different Deans and Sams coming! I’m digging this! Why would they send ‘em to Rio? They could be your buffy-bots!

15:14 Last Holiday - Weird people popping up in the hq is awesome. And Dean’s immediate instinct to yell for Sam reminds me of me calling mr mess for everything! ”Shouldnt you be in the woods? Nymfing?” Monster radar? Oh, oh this is excellent. So mrs Butters is capable of murder when home and family are threatened, good for her. They better not kill her. I can accept them returning her to the wild. Yes! Did I call it or did I call it? Good Supernatural, good boy! And Dean making a cake for Jack! My heart.

Fail episodes (in chronological order):

15:2 Raising Hell - Rowena! Instant win. Ketch. Instant lose. Ketch undressing Rowena with his eyes = rating plummeting. Jeez. A bit dangerous even joking about the GoT finale, don’t you think? Rowena and Ketch full on flirting... this is hell, I'm being punished.

15:3 The Rupture - Don’t call him god! His name is Sucky-Chucky. The shock of Cas! “You’ve been playing us the whole time!” This is how it works Cas, where have you been? They're always solving problems like Jason Mendoza. In-Dean-angry-voice: “Anytime I had a problem and I threw a Molotov cocktail, boom! Right away, I had a different problem.” Rowena! And Sam! No!

15:5 Proverbs 17:3 - Listen, spn, it’s your last season and if you like just wanna stop writing and casting women completely rn i won't stop you or hold it against you (also why are these ladies identical?). We’ve had a terrible run but lets just let bygones be bygones.

15:8 Our father, who aren’t in heaven - Gosh, having Eileen in the show is painful, I’m just constantly expecting a piano to fall on her head. *Ugh* Sucky-yucky-Chucky. But hey, at least everybody else looks better alongside him. Case and point: I never rly cared that much for Donatello, but it’s great to see him, and Michael’s back, sure is nice to see him too.

15:9 The trap - Ugh. Main plot shit and Sucky-yucky-fucking-Chucky. Fail. Although the flashforward to jan 6th 2021 was a hoot (but probably not meant like one, huh?) Dean’s monologue in purgatory though... gosh. This show would be nothing w/o Jensen Ackles. Omg the kiss! Nice. However, the show at this point has lost the ability to offer any sort of pleasure. Because like Sam, we know which way this will go. They used to have some hedonism working for the characters but now they don’t even have that.

15:20 Carry on - You know what? I’m not gonna make this post longer than it already is talking about the last episode of Supernatural, that has been done better by people w real grievances w the show. The kindest thing you can say about the finale is that it just as well could’ve been jammed into a few extra minutes added to the previous episode.

Mediocre mentions:

Drag me away (from you) - what is this ugly cell interface? The opposite of product placement. Yay! Retro episode! And they got the same actor to play Dean, neato! Dean admitting he had a hard time handling hunting, that always gets me. Woah! That scream effect without reverb was kinda startling. And the camera zooming in on the little porcelain clown even though Sam is nowhere n- oh shit. This was an interesting episode

Inherit the earth - Goooood I hate Chucky. Barefoot Sam is okay though. Digging this soundtrack too. Very un-Supernatural. Nice to meet ya Betty, but I wouldn’t pull up a chair if I were you. Always a fan of the shiteating grin. Jack, stripping god of his power, that’s so hot. And again: kudos to the soundtrack! The Youngbloods and then Jackson freakin’ Browne! And you know, it’s clichéd and kinda vacant, but also kinda nice. I’m cool with the story ending like this. Why did they have to do another one? Supernatural has never known when to quit, and this is the very real backside of this.

Honorable mentions:

I don’t know who this Ardat chick is but killing Ketch puts her instantly in my win column.

Winchester-dumb, new household term.

”Feels like were taking a big, probably stupid risk. Feels good.” That made me feel good too.

I’m vastly enjoying this dark-art hippie couple in Unity and Jack’s interaction w them.

Cas launching straight into his dramatic I-will-not-let-you-end-your-own-life-speech when Sam casually mentions he’d like to talk to death in Unity, that angel has seen some things, and he has learned.

Those are some pretty pretty death effects on Jack in Despair/The Truth.

Obviously Misha Collins

Things that makes you go hmm:

Which of the clowns is this supposed to be in Back and to the Future? Because the one from season 2 was a monster, right? So he would’ve gone to purgatory. You know what? I’m not an expert. I try to not pay too much attention ’cause it makes me funny in the head. But just, y’know, a general objection.

Here’s my deal w death as a looming threat in this show: it holds no weight. And even if it did it has been painted as the ultimate relief, unless you go to hell, these characters know for a fact that there’s a potentially blissful afterlife, so their attitude towards death should be, what? More pragmatic, I think. And it’s partly why Ackles is wasted on this show; That man can deliver a death monologue like it’s nobody’s business, too bad all those words have been rendered meaningless after 15 seasons of this shit!

Summing up:

So, I did not go into or leave this season happy, I knew how it would end and I was sad for everyone the show screwed over (more than it already had). Which really meant that I always had to force myself to watch another episode, knowing what was coming. But I had to see it through. I did, so I’ll give myself a pat on the back and get to work on my own personal selection of episodes that will henceforth represent spn to me. A selection I’ll enjoy all the way through. All in all I think the most frustrating thing about the show is how it insists on taking itself so freakin’ seriously. It has always done horror *and* humor best and this whole heaven and hell aspect has never sat right w me, and in any case they should’ve leaned more on “supernatural” narrative tropes (if you will) getting out of their plot problems, gambled some more and thought a bit more outside genre conventions *especially* in their main arcs, they opened up so many opportunities that they never even used. They could’ve been more like Buffy, or Doctor Who. That said, I’ll always get that spn-itch, and when I do, I’ll be happy to have seen all the episodes so I’ll know which ones to avoid.

#supernatural #spn meta #favorite episodes #no this is not a supernatural blog #random fandom #no longer a rewatch #done w season 15 #and finally free

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dogcopter · 4 years

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Dogcopter Appearance Masterlist

thank you to resources SU Wiki Dogcopter and Dogcopter/Gallery, and Steven Says wiki transcript searcher

This is just a list of Dogcopter appearances in SU, not analysis. One or two may surprise you!

Dogcopter episode appearances

Lars and the Cool Kids

Lion 2

Some people say ‘You can't teach an old dog new tricks’... Unless you're Dogcopter 3, in 3D! This February, the fur hits the fan!

Steven: Whoah, I can see why this is your favorite film franchise. Connie: That's right! In a world where humanity is pushed to the brink, it turns out that the one who is most human, is a dog! Copter. Steven: and did you see where that missile came out of? Connie: Heh, yeah. I just hope it stays faithful to the book.

Amethyst: Oh, that's easy! Who needs to go see movies when you’ve got magic?

Steven: I'm sorry! I ruined everything, didn't I? I don't know why you hang out with me. I mess stuff up all the time. Connie: I don't know why you hang out with me! I'm so much more less interesting than you! And obviously you have some sort of magical destiny. Why would you even care about something like Dogcopter? Steven: Why?! Because it's Dogcopter! He's a dog, and a helicopter, and a cop! He shoots missiles out of his butt, and he's gonna save the world! Dogcopter is very cool and important to me. Connie: Well, I'm no Dogcopter.

Keep Beach City Weird

Dogcopter 3 SUX April 23, 2014

I saw Dogcopter 3 in 3D tonight and all I have to say is WOOF!

First of all, it’s a huge mistake to turn the last Dogcopter book into THREE movies. Yes, the last book is over 900 pages, but there’s not enough story! And the 3D was completely unnecessary. If I wanted to see butt missiles flying at my face, I’d feed a dog some bottle rockets and put on a pair of safety goggles.

Dogcopter is supposed to be an uncompromising look at the military-industrial-pet complex, not “fun”! Fun is the worst.

Also, if you live in the Delmarva area - do not see it at the Beach City Cineplex. The parking lot is a mess! Probably from a bunch of angry Dogcopter fans rioting. Ugh, I’m going to see this 3 more times to make sure I hate it.

Tags: dogcopter 3 in 3D keep beach city weird kbcw

Lion 3

Dogcopter: I win. Steven: Oh, what? That was a good move! Dogcopter: Thanks. Steven: Dogcopter. How do you do it? Dogcopter: How do I do what? Steven: I mean, what's your secret? How'd you get so talented? Dogcopter: Don't focus so much on talent, Steven. Making art is all about communication. A piece of art is a conversation. Every choice you make, is a statement.

Continued under cut

Dogcopter: Don't worry about labels, or conforming to a standard. Just be true to yourself, and people will appreciate your honesty. Steven: Woah. Thanks for the advice. Dogcopter: And take a deep breath. Steven: What?

suworkbook wrote a brilliant piece of meta around this dream

Steven: Here again? I don't know what this place is but it feels... familiar. Why can't I breathe? Wait a minute... Lion! Lion, my face is not your bed! What's going on with you?

Chille Tid

Steven: Whoa. Dogcopter! Mr. Copter! Sir! I'm one of your biggest fans, can I please have your autograph? Dogcopter: (meows) Steven: Mr. Copter, please! Steven: Hey wait! Where are you going?! Steven: I hope the rumors about Dogcopter in the tabloids aren't true. Steven: Huh? Oh! Hey, Pearl! Steven: Wait! Don't eat me! Steven: Oh, man! Thanks for the upgrade, Pearl! Now I can catch up with Dog— Steven: Woah, Amethyst? Steven: Hmm... This is... getting really weird. Lapis: This is weird. Steven: Hey, that sounds a lot like— Lapis: Steven! Steven: Lapis Lazuli! Lapis: Steven, what are you doing in here?

Keep Beach City Weird

KEEP BEACH CITY SPOILER FREE January 04 2016

Hey weirdos! For the past few months, I’ve done something unprecedented - I’ve stayed off the internet.

It was hard but I had to do because I’ve been trying to stay SPOILER FREE for the movie event of the new millennium! This December was the revival of one of the most famous sci-fi franchises in the world. Yep, you know what I’m talking about: DOGCOPTER.

So for three months, I sequestered myself from all internet communications. I handed over my laptop and my phone to my little bro, Peedee, and ordered him to bury them in an undisclosed location in the deserts of New Mexico.

I think he just put them in the walk-in freezer at the fry shop.

I won’t lie, it was hard. But I calmed my nerves by reacquainting myself with the “Young Adult Conspiracy” section at my local library. And instead of getting in arguments with internet trolls, I got in real life arguments! With my dad!

And after months of avoiding and spoilers or teasers or trailers, I was in line for Dogcopter 4, and then some dummy walking out of the theater TOTALLY SPOILED EVERYTHING and was like, “I can’t believe that Dogcopter’s parents are actually cats.”

Ug! I hope you’ve seen the movie because that’s pretty much the big ending. Dogcopter dies defending the planet but then he comes back to life because he’s actually part cat and cats have 9 lives. Anyway, the movie was pretty much ruined. So now I’m back. Spoilers are the worst.

Tags: Keep Beach City Weird Dogcopter

Fun fact if you invert this poster and adjust the contrast a bit, some odd diagram in the back appears:

Steven’s Birthday

Amethyst: What are you doing? Steven: Well uh...What are YOU doing? Greg: What are YOU doing to your body? Amethyst: Woah, woah, woah, have you been stretching yourself out all day? Steven: No! I was just... slouching. Greg: Why are you doing this? It... really isn't like you. Steven: Because, Dad, I can't stay a kid forever, when Connie grows up and becomes president what is that gonna make me? First Boy!? Amethyst: Steven, you can't just keep stretching forever. If you hold it too long, you could really hurt yourself. Steven: Yeah well, I'm half human so maybe it works different for me, we'll just have to wait and see, right? Greg: Steven...

Connie: That one's... "Canis helicopterus". Steven: Uh-uh, "Helicopterus"? Connie: Yeah, Dogcopter, get it? Now you make one up! Steven: Okay, um, That one's, uh, snake constellation. Connie: That's... pretty good. Are you okay? It looks like you're gonna throw up. Steven: Oh yeah, everything's fine! Connie: Okay... that's good. You know, to be honest, I was a little worried before. This might sound silly, but I'm really glad that I'm going to get to grow up with you. Connie: ...Steven? Steven! What's going on? What happened? Connie: We were just talking then all of a sudden- Pearl: He turned back into a baby?! Connie: YES!

Keep Beach City Safe

DOGCOPTER 4: ALL DOGS GO TO WAR Jan 5 2016

Dogcopter 4 has finally been released! All Dogs Go to War!

I’ve been dying to see this movie for age, but I never had the time. I’ve been so busy with my blog and picking the perfect present for Steven. I’ve watched all the other Dogcopter Movies, but I haven’t had time to watch this one. But now I have a little free time to do something. After I watch it I won’t spoil it for the rest of you. I’m gonna be a Smart Spoiler and drop hints in my post for you guess. Only those who have watched it will notice the clues. Yep, watching it 9 times.

#Dogcopter 4 #Steven's Birthday Present #Dogcopter Movies #Smart Spoiler

Same Old World

Lapis: So, what does happen in Empire City? Steven: Well, let's see. If you lived here, you could get a cool apartment, and be a single Gem taking on the big city. You'll have a fun job at a local coffee shop and come home to a wacky roommate... Lapis: I have no idea what you're talking about. Steven: Awww.

Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service

Steven: I'll take care of this! Kiki: Steven, be careful! Steven: Don't worry about me! Anything is possible when you have... rockets for bones! Kiki: Steven, that was so brave! Steven: Well, it's cheddar than nothing.

Steven: Oh, hey, Dogcopter. Dogcopter: (meows) Steven: See ya, dream Kiki! Kiki: Oh, okay. See you, dream Steven! Steven: Dream Steven!

Little Homeschool

Steven: Sadie's been touring with The Suspects, promoting their new album, and Connie has been getting a head start on college prep. She's two years away from applying, but she says it doesn't hurt to start early. Steven: And speaking of higher education, Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl and I have been cooking up a dream of our own! Cherry Quartz: I have no idea who you're talking about.

Snow Day

Amethyst: Guess what we've got lined up tonight. "Pupcopter's Sky-High Adventure"! Pearl: Sheet masks with cute animal faces! Garnet: And, most importantly, pizza. Steven: Uh, guys, I've been a vegetarian for, like, a month, and "Pupcopter" is for 6-year-olds, and I have my own skin care routine. Anyways, it's cool. I already ate. Amethyst: Oh well. We'll just watch the movie with Cat Steven. Garnet: My bad. I was sure we were in the pepperoni timeline.

In Dreams

Dogcopter: (flies away) Stefan: Noooo!

Together Forever

Lion: (roars) Connie: Huh? Steven: Hey, Connie! How you doin'? Connie: Steven? What are you doing here? Steven: You're gonna have a fifteen-minute break in...two minutes, right? Connie: Whoa! Spot on. Steven: Connie, let's go for a walk. I'm sure you could use some fresh air. Connie: I would love to! But um... Steven: No, no, no! Don't worry! We'll go with Lion, and I promise you'll be back in fifteen minutes! Connie: Okay! Let's do this!

Growing Pains

Drew: I know you're eager to chase the mail truck, Dogcopter. But the mail truck is a decoy. Good boys chase the blue car. Be a good boy, Dogcopter. Drew: Nice work, DC! Now get the bomb off the bridge! We're almost out of time! Drew: Dogcopter! No! Drew: Dogcopter, I can't lose you. Drew: Is this... what I think it is?

Announcer: Dogcopter 6: Till Death Do We Bark: I Now Pronounce You Man And Woof! Steven: Everyone's getting married but me! Ugh! I feel like poop.

#dogcopter #steven universe #steven universe meta #copter lore #rose is lion 2020 #kbcs lore #long post

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monkey-network · 5 years

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Good Stuff ~ Stray Thoughts: The Last Problem {MLP}

Excuse me. I’m generally gonna cry throughout this episode

Ah, a time skip. And it’s better than- “Nope Nope. No SU bashing this time” Okay.

Spike, you look handsome, and you got a chin.

Twilight, you look naturally tall!

HUGS!

Good on you, Gallus. You got a fitting job.

*Holding in laughter* L-luster?

We bully people who don’t wanna make friends

Wow, she’s more arrogant than Twilight was. The indoctrination process is gonna be harder than we thought.

My little po~~ny, the emptiness is gonna feel so bad.

Woah, did the Student Six fight a fucking dinosaur?

OLDER FLURRY HEART!

Oh shit, this whole episode is meta

She’s right, I’d go on a killing spree if anything happened to my manga collection

Sound the horns. Lyrabon is canon!

You mean Drift Away?

Damn, AJ. That’s pretty blunt.

Fluttershy happy makes me happy

*sniff* I’m getting High School graduation vibes.

Right in the feelios

Real talk, the Mane Six are the greatest team of characters in cartoon history and seeing them go through this makes it all the more painful.

Twilight, you can fly.

Heh, rekt

Shit labeling, AJ

Stop Murphying the plot!

Wooloos!

Celestia. Luna. Glad you can read the room.

Capper and Tempest. The cameos are all here!

Oh, this gonna go ba~~~~dly.

Heh, self rekt

Ah, chaos. A equestrian tradition

PINKIE IS A MMMMMOMMY!

RARITY IS A QUEEN!

APPLEDASH AND FLUTTERCORD IS CANON!

So wait. Grown alicorns are different than regular ponies?

Haha, laughing at children is fun

They made a book of gifs. I’m serious.

Where’d the book go?

Seriously, who’s raising the sun and moon now?!

BIG WING HUG!

Final song time, bitches. *sniff*

Cheese hitched Pinkie. That. Is fucking sweet.

Sunburst, that beard!

YONNAAAAAAAAAAA! SHE’S JUST AS GREAT GROWN UP!

Oh no, Angel got kids!

They’re each a color of the rainbow. Oh my god, this is hyphy!

Great song. *claps hard* GREAT SONG

My heart sank on that final note.

This was a story the whole TIIIIIIIIIIIME! *UGLY CRIES* YAAAS BITCH!

Well. It’s over. And yet, it’ll never fade away. Because good friendships is something that can stand the test of time. Even in the end, the memories will always be there. Always worth coming back to, always there to remind you of why it was good. This show was honestly like a friend to me, thick and thin, and I feel a bit at ease saying goodbye, because this episode showed me how....

MY LITTLE PONY: Friendship is Magic, Forever

#mlp #friendship is magic #my little pony #mlp season 9 #the last problem #cartoons #thoughts

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crowleycrawley · 4 years

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OKAY Y’ALL

buckle up cause this is gonna be a LONG POST!!! tma meta about the avatars and being CONNECTED in the apocalypse under the cut!!! SPOILERS FOR MAG 163-166 AHEAD

okay SO. first up, we have the tower. so the tower obviously is in London, watching every single person’s suffering, and in that tower is ELIAS himself (ngl it’s totally lord of the rings vibes...). so this tower sees all, and that means (as Not-Sasha says) it’s painful for things that don’t want to be seen, and the fact that things in the BURIED even know its there even if they can’t see it is just. VERY interesting, because why would the eye want to know all that? and furthermore, if jon is technically connected to the eye, and he can reach down into the buried, pick out individual people, and tell their stories then why can’t he see melanie and georgie?? for melanie it’s very likely cause of her non tether to the beholding, but for georgie?? she isn’t even technically an avatar, so he should have no problem seeing her, but he CAN’T. wack...

moving on!! so the first place they get to once they leave the cabin is the SLAUGHTER. the slaughter is very messed up here!! but first and foremost i would like to direct your attention to jon calling the slaughter victims “meat”. it’s VERY similar to the flesh, and he even goes so far as to call what they’re walking into a meat grinder. the meat grinder was the entire salesa statement (mag 115) which was ABSOLUTELY flesh!! PLUS that statement even starts out with salesa talking about a slaughter artifact he sold to the institute (which isn’t really related but Y’ALL they’re just so connected)!! plus. helicopter?? falling from a HEIGHT??? vast!!!??? okay NEXT connection we have “scorched earth” which is ABSOLUTELY desolation. like this whole battlefield situation?? completely desolation!! everything is on fire, chaos, that’s what that entity covets. and NEXT in that same statement we have the BURIED!! where the mud drags charlie down so the barbed wire wraps around him!! folks we are getting SO MANY ENTITIES!!! and then we are back to the flesh again, between ishaan “contorting himself to fit” and the “pig faced enemies” that’s directly flesh related!! plus!! plus!!! in the tank he’s basically BURNING!!! FOLKS THE DESOLATION IS BACK!!!!! and then!!!!! the field hospital!!!!!! “piles of festering gauze” like excuse me as if this all wasn’t bad enough Y’ALL GOT CORRUPTION TOO!!! yikes!!!!!! then we have MORE flesh with that weird creepy doctor dude who has way too many limbs AND we have a bit of lonely with hasana!! no one listens to her, everyone thinks she’s invisible basically, and she got no idea what she doin!! THEN we have corruption again with that gas stuff!!! it sounds almost EXACTLY like mag 157 (where dekker goes to the town in Germany and hmm. amhearst....) also LAST point i didn’t specify it anywhere in particular but the enemy is super hunt like!! with the whole ‘the enemy are monsters and are coming for me’ mentality!!

OKAY NEXT EPISODE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

first up we have FLESH!!! “far from the din and compacted flesh of the city” like oof!!! then we got the MAYPOLE with the “mildewed strips of colored cloth hanging limply from it like shreds of ragged skin” like!!!!!!!! LIKE!!!!!!!!!! y’all!! firstly the COLORS are very much reminiscent of the stranger with the circus (cause bright colors!! celebration!!) and obvs the ragged skin is pretty flesh oriented i think... moving on to the BASE of the flag pole it’s “ashen and charred” like hello!!! desolation WHO!!! next up still on desolation is the burning of the corruption like damn... still on desolation baby!! THEN we have the whole bones thing which like BACK TO FLESH!! and then EXCUSE ME STRANGER EVERYWHERE like these masks!! the coats!!! who knows who’s under that!!!!! and then of course we got just a DASH of spiral with the whole inspection thing, like oof!!! especially w/ the whole “those who are unblemished suffer most” like. oof. the whole ‘you have to be infected because there’s no way you’re just an outsider coming here seeking refuge’ is so spiral!! that little DASH of madness, that little smidge of ‘there’s no way they’re not infected’ that’s just SO spiral!! then we have both slaughter AND desolation rolled into one with the “purifying fire” and the brutal murder of innocents!! like big yikes!!! plus then we have MORE stranger with the whole questioning when you got there and how deep your roots go thing, which is another big oof and plus!!! the only real difference between full on stranger and this place is that the residents think they know each other and will stand together instead of fighting like the people on the merry go round! and then. THEN. we got the maypole watching everyone. sound FAMILIAR Y’ALL!! the BEHOLDING makes a special appearance!!! then we got MORE spiral with the whole “the deception is pitiable, and yet deep down every villager knows the mold has marked them deeper than any of the others, and carries it as their most secret shame” line like DAMN!!! that’s literally the spiral bc the spiral is 100% dealing with deception!! and then we are BACK to flesh with the whole razor deal (which was a big oof like ew) and the whole idea that there’s an end to the corruption!! after that we have the whole witch hunt for mrs kim which is very HUNT centric!!! and then just to round it all out we have MORE corruption (obvs) with MORE flesh when the bones get hit and jillian explodes!!

STATEMENT ENDS.

NEXT EPISODE!!! okay this one was sort of brutal to try to decipher because wow!! lots of words and very little punctuation, but here we go!!! so first up we have the faces, which is obvs very stranger, but we also have “all the tattered stolen souls who sense of me is swollen and distended into nothing” which sounds actually very much corruption!! THEN we have the MUSIC and the DANCING!!! so the music is VERY much like the slaughter ritual on the boat (mag 105) and the dancing is also JUST like that, so on the whole so far this looks very tied to slaughter!! then we dive into “eggshell thin reality” which is SUPER spiral like doubting reality, thinking you’re going crazy, etc. then this whole next part is VERY hunt with the whole chase and all, and the tiring of the chase and the stealing of the faces!!! plus the merry go round itself honestly screams spiral i mean between not being able to get off at the same spot twice and the whole “curling path [...] twisted, wound, and spinning”.... SPIRAL..... then there’s a dash of vast with leaping off the ride, and another smidge of slaughter with the blood on your hands. THEN we have the whole description about wanting to be a “who”, which is SUPER similar to what michael talked about with the whole identity thing, which either says something about the spiral or says something about him!!! then there is MORE corruption with “The rotten, ragged rush of fetid fingernails that dig and push and reach around the edges of your face” and WOW what a vibe check.... oof. then there’s some flesh with the animal skin comparison, and a DASH of what looks like end in there with the dream references!! and to top it all off we’ve got a DASH more hunt at the end with the faceless things back on the chase!!

AND NOW we have the whole not-sasha conversation!! this whole thing was a VIBE tbh and honestly like!!!! go off!!!!!! but this is one of the first times it becomes clear jon can sense just about ANYTHING which getting back to the original point is kinda weird because he can sense this crazy avatar THING but not (note, only TWO) of his friends?? weird... then we have the whole “she can’t touch us” argument, and the fact that not-sasha is so pissed about being nobody but being seen!!! like THAT is important and it’s probably going to be EXTRA important for the lonely, bc how can you be lonely if you know you’re being watched?? wouldn’t that technically mess up the whole idea of being ALONE??? and then of course the way the ceaseless watcher SMITES not-sasha like wOAH who knew it could do THAT??? wack!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OKAY WORM TIME. so being perfectly honest here when i first read the episode title i really thought it was about jane prentiss again and i got so excited... so that’s the FIRST connection is WORMS and corruption like yes worms burrow n stuff but they are literally the first monster in the series that is actually a serious threat!!! WORM!!! okay next up we have WEB with sam’s whole lamenting the fact that he doesn’t have choices like wow!!! web has arrived at last!!!!!!! then we YET AGAIN have a dash of flesh tossed in with the whole arms and legs thing and the contortions!!! yikes!! then the beholding is out there vibing again and reminding him “he had eyes”, and there’s a LITTLE bit of vast with all this talking about the sky n stuff (but not super important cause the vast is sorta the opposite of the buried)... then there’s a bit of light mentioned (desolation making a comeback!) and the dark and cold is there too (wooo dark arrives)!!! there’s also a LOT of lonely in this episode because everyone has their own tunnel (until sam meets richard) which is very interesting bc honestly that seems like a lot of tunnels and sorta begs the question just how many people there are there?? then there’s MORE darkness and the whole thing about the fear of never seeing the pinprick of light again which honestly seems like lonely again (losing hope and losing the gaze of the eye), but then there’s some SOLID slaughter action going on when richard and sam meet!! THEN lastly, rounding the episode off, there’s a dash of corruption with richard’s mouldering body and a smidge of flesh as sam has to contort himself to see the light again.

and then!!! last quick mention!!!!! annabelle!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! why can’t jon see her???? this is more like. web don’t want him to, or maybe the BEHOLDING doesn’t want him to, but why not??? all very strange..........

anyway tysm for reading!!

#the magnus archives #tma #tma meta #tma spoilers #i am not tagging all these characters #tma entities #did i actually just write almost 2000 words on this?? yes. yes i did

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icharchivist · 5 years

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So your meta of Lavi is a masterpiece and it helped me put into words a lot of stuff. I kinda wanted to talk about Allen though, one thing you mentionned is that Allen is really positive/optimist and want to save everybody, and while some of his 'light' probably comes from Mana's mask because so far it seems Allen's idea of Mana was of a really kind and positive and cheerful person. I wonder how much of his optimism/positiveness and desire to strive for the best for everybody come from -part 1

part 2-himself ? And I suddenly remembered DGM reverse, and woah, most exorcists backstories so far are really horrible, but they all had normal-happy memories mixed in (that doesn’t make up for the horibleness of other stuff and I’m not downplaying their stories nor am I interested in comparing who had it worse), Lenalee had her family before most got killed by Akuma and she was ripped away from Komui to be psychologically tortured and abused by the black order and it quite obviously distressed

part 3- her, her life so war was happy until akuma and the B.O ruined it. I dunno for Lavi but most panels of him as a child are cheerful and cute af, and he became a bookman for his desire to know about history and know more than most people, then increasedly got sick of humanity and their wars and their stupidity. Kanda’s backstory is the stuff of nightmares and OW, but he had Alma with him from the beggining and his friendship/love/I don’t think he quite knew with Alma meant a lot for him

part 4- etc etc. Allen’s backstory in reverse ? Kinda the opposite. Red didn’t have anything happy, no happy memories, no people that loved him, nothing. He barely had shelter (one that didn’t quite block out the chilling cold), and had to work to the bone for and while he had food, it wasn’t something he took for granted, because if Cosimo or somebody else felt like it they’d say lies to the ringmaster that Red slacked off and the Ringmaster would get pissed at Red, ‘put him in his place’part 5 (I think it’s 5)-and make him starve that day as punishment. And he was under constant threat of violence from pretty much anybody. The best reaction/treatment he could hope for at the time was being ignored (and all his human rights with it), and had to face disgust/physical violence/insults/slurs from all others. Red kinda accepted that nobody’d ever love him (though he admitted he longued for love once he witnessed it), but that didn’t matter because he hated other people right back

part 6- and the first time he received warmth/got treated as a human was from Allen the dog, then from Mana himself (who Red thought the worst of at the beggining), then had fluffy and happy memories and moments during two years after his miserable and hellish life (people probably treated him normally once Mana got him a glove to cover his Innocence Arm). The thing that differentiate him from others is that most others experienced at least some warmth before getting disillusioned/cynical

avant-derniere part-most experienced some warmth before discovering that no, humanity/life suck (for Kanda it happened at the same time)(that’s even how the earl bait most into making Akuma, they experience happiness and love then get crushed when the source of hapiness gp away), but for Allen/Red ? He was utterly done with life and didn’t remember any instances of a good memory/life and didn’t even know what positivity felt like ? And then he got to experience that life doesn’t suck THAT much.

final part- then he got to experience that life doesn’t suck THAT MUCH. that’s why witnessing/enduring fucked up shit won’t faze him in his goal, fucked up shit was the norm before this weird magical thing called love came. (aside from his duty to atone to what he did to Mana) He didn’t get the transformation from hopeful to cynical. it was the other way around. He went back to save Tykki in the ark once the Noah problem was taken care of, because in Allen’s worldview, Allen himself and his -

the true final part- Allen himself and his friends doesn’t qualify as 'white/light’ in his worldview. Tykki is a sadistical homicidal bastard ? He does have human friends and people he care for anyway, so if he’s not a threat/able to kill exorcists anymore he might as well save him. And that’s why he didn’t judge Suman for being a traitor. Or maybe I’m just sprouting useless pretentious bullshit and am mistaken,sorry, idk, enlighten me.

Heyaaa!! first thank you so much for the compliment it means a lot to me ❤ but huge shout out to the anon who helped put it all in words like that.

Second, I think you’re completely spot on on everything you mention.

(Before jumping in the whole thing while i agree with all you say, i’ll just mention that one of the Guidebook, the Grey Arc one, mentions that Lavi joined the Bookmen at 6yo, and almost gets killed by a stray bullet when he was 7yo (the guidebook mentions he clang to Bookman’s hair when he was healing him, leading Bookman to say it’s Lavi’s fault they’re falling off now). So by all account despite this incident Lavi had a happy upbringing with Bookman, or well as much as the heartless Bookman training had to offer).

For Allen, yes, all you say is very true and it’s honestly super interesting to me? Allen’s life before Mana was hell. Hell, hadn’t Allen-the-dog died because he was beaten up anyway? The only happiness he had with that Dog was taken away by him likely by his abusers. Before Mana, he lived through hell. He was 7 when he met Mana and they were together only 3 years. That’s only 3 years of real happiness. And if anything we get from Cross’s memories chapter, is that it took Allen a long, long time to get over it (and while there’s camaradery between them, Cross’s teaching traumatized Allen to this day so. Poor guy went through a lot).

Mana seems to be the only window of time in which Allen was happy, and he doesn’t have anything else in his early memories that allow him to cling to that. tbh that’s also why the changes of names matter a lot with Allen. from “Red” because it was the color of his arm, something people insulted him for, it was either an insult he got too used to to correct since he didn’t have a name anyway, or seeing himself as nothing else than what made his monstruosity to others. To “Allen”, the name of the dog. Of the first being who showed him love and affection and who died unfairly. To then take on the “Walker” last name after he turned Mana as an Akuma, likely in a way to remind himself of him, to “Keep Walking” but also to remember everytime he hears his name of what he has done to Mana and his duty toward him.

And you’re entierely right: Allen’s story was one of cynism and suffering who eventually ended up getting better thanks to Mana, and Mana’s loss and the guilt of turning him into an Akuma from Allen in the mindset of constantly trying to take it over his shoulders.

It’s obviously not meant to disregard the others backstories, like you say- but it’s interesting bc even Kanda who had the most horrible early years in life had Alma, and Alma balanced out the horrors he had to go through, and he had him from the start. And the scientists were actually kind to the kids outsides of the experiments. (not excusing any of the shits they pulled the kids through- but it sure does contrasts with Allen’s past that had people abuse him for no reason).

Mana is the catalyst of Allen’s storyline in many ways: for being the first being who showed him kindness and changed his viewpoint of life, to then the grief of losing him shaping Allen’s future guilt that isolates him from others.

Had Allen not been able to create an Akuma for Mana, it’s to wonder how “selfless” he would have become. While I think that him wanting to smile, be cheerful, be kind, comes mainly for being raised by Mana- His selflessness, his self-sacrificing attitude, his way to distance himself emotionally from others all come from the fact he “betrayed Mana” by making him go through the Akuma making process. If Allen could have remained kind and sweet growing up, a lot of his worst habits may not have existed has the guilt from the Akuma not happened.

I think it would be the nuance of what Allen evolved into due to Mana’s raising him, and what Allen evolved into due to the grief of losing Mana and therefore forcing himself to wear his mask.

Had Mana not existed at all in Allen’s life, I don’t doubt he would have turned into a bitter person until someone showed love and care for him. Imo, Allen was someone who was starved for affection but was in an unsafe environment for it to happen, and he grew cynical. The only fact he cared this much about a dog being kind to him shows that he was already fundamentally a kind soul that was just unable to express himself and only bitterness remained. What Allen needed was someone kind to encourage this side of him. (and like you mention, Allen does agrees he longued for love, just didn’t know what it was beforehand)

I think Mana made Allen feel safe to be “gentle”. He showed him how being kind and cheerful could help himself and others. Like a parent teaches his child to evolve in life in a way. Allen was only 7 after all, he was still young enough to learn, to be shaped by his experience.

“Mana’s mask”, that fake smile though, comes from Mana’s teaching pushed to the extreme after Allen’s guilt over Mana pushed him to push people away.

So yes, you’re right: Allen’s journey was of cynism to cheerfulness. To determination to carry on. I think he had the potential to cheerfulness all along but just needed someone to push him in the right direction, and Mana was that push (but for that we need a little more “casual times between Mana and Allen between Allen’s 7 and 10 years old”). But the guilt and trauma of the Akuma!Mana incident pushed Allen to do this to the extreme, often at the detriment of his own feelings.

I believe his willingness to see the best for everyone comes from the Akuma!Mana incident as well. It is hard to believe that finding One Gentle Person after years of being abused would change Allen’s view this much. But i think seeing something like gentle and sweet Mana being turned into a weapon of Mass destruction, and then see this repeat itself with others people, knowing that Akuma were people just as desperate than he was, people who loved so hard, that they called onto a soul who hadn’t asked for it to be turned into weapon: would have Allen see that there must be something good into anyone. That if an Akuma, a weapon of mass destruction, could be just a suffering soul being chained into life because they were loved too much, then what about anyone else?

I think understanding the Akuma the way Allen does have him reconsider the way he sees everyone else. That everyone has their chains that bind them to the world. That some of those Chains are heavy and can turn people into assholes to stand it, to stand this life they were chained into. But there’s still a soul behind the chains and Allen wants to believe in it. I believe it’s a way also to hold on to the last memories he has of Mana, to keep it as a positive figure in his mind, rather than an already twisted creature. And that’s why the humanity and salvation of the akuma is so important to Allen to start with.

By humanizing the Akuma to that extends, Allen can push his compassion to anyone else. So imo, i don’t think it would have happened had the Akuma!Mana incident not happened. It’s likely it is that bad in canon as well because of his eye only: perhaps if he only ever saw Mana, he would have developped differently, but seeing all those Akuma’s souls made it impossible for Allen to ignore it. The moment he sees a soul, he sees a story there; he sees a person who was loved too much and was chained back into life to commit horrors. And from that point on, I think that compassion just become a reflex.

So as such it makes sense Allen extends that to anyone else. Suman becoming a fallen told a story about why he became this way, of his relationship with the Innocence, of his suffering with it. Meeting the Light part of Tyki first had Allen sees all sides of him, and know that Tyki was duty bound to the Noah as well, and that people cared for him. And if Allen didn’t extend this compassion to Tyki per se, he would have had to the people who loved Tyki because he knows what loss feels like and he doesn’t want anyone to go through this.

I find it harder to word than i expected welp but yes, i agree with all you say, and y e there’s just. a lot to Allen. and imo his whole viewpoint comes from he sees Akuma to start with. Mana was his greatest influence in general.

allen breaks my heart ;;-;;

Take care!

#ichafantalks dgm #ichameta dgm #wouhouu #seikyoko #ichareply #dgm meta

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janiedean · 6 years

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I'm honestly surprised someone as pro-good guys as you ships Reylo. Not in a judgy way but it just seems like the type of ship that wouldn't be your thing

(this is also for the other anon who wanted to know why I would ship it from like two days ago sorry guys I couldn’t handle TWO wanks in one night)

tldr: that’s because reylo is... not really not my thing? I mean, first I’ll go and refer you to go on my tagged kylo ren posts for more extensive meta about why and how I don’t think kylo is a villain *and* that he’s pretty much built for being redeemed. other than that, given that you have at least read the redemption post:

premise: I had absolutely zero interest in reylo before tlj, like zero, couldn’t care less;

but like the thing is, I never really felt that kylo was a villain - tbh I always was like ‘kid you’re waaaaaay over your head quit with the anakin worship and take a vacation somewhere without the force’ but in tfa I... really didn’t feel his character either way and tbh he’s still not my kind of character in general - I mean he has traits in common with other ppl I like in other fandoms but he’s technically not the kind of character I go crazy about, and tbh I couldn’t even be angry that he killed han because it was obvious it was going to haunt him and han was willing to go to his death for him, so... whatever, I go like, see you next episode;

except that then tlj happened and tbh I thought he was written immensely better/fleshed out way more and like, guys, being very real: watching tlj the only impression of kylo ren that I could have was ‘christ this guy has issues, needs help right the fuck now and possibly for someone to drag him out of the damned cult he’s found himself in CHRIST GET SNOKE AWAY FROM HIM’ and honest I argued about it before but the guy has all the abuse victim cred in spades and while he’s not what tumblr would call A Good Victim he’s also obviously in desperate need of someone to show him some basic decency and tell him nice things without judging him first and like guys honestly I can’t hate someone like that especially when I know they’ve been basically manipulated into a situation because of an extremely fragile psychological state;

and like... the thing is: rey does.. just that? I mean, rey’s the person who a) shows him some basic empathy after she realizes there’s more to him than she had thought, b) believes him for that matter, c) doesn’t want him to be darth vader 2.0 or whatever he thought he couldn’t live up to with his parents, d) shows him some shred of decency, e) tells him there’s someone who gives a shit about *ben solo* and not darth vader or skywalker 2.0 and like.... that’s... a very... surprisingly wholesome thing? I mean guys let’s be real I’m into sw like woah because sw is about redemption and seeing good in mostly everyone (not the snokes or palpatines but you feel me) and that’s just... following that reasoning? as I argued before, kylo is obviously being set up for redemption, there’s no way the last living skywalker who also has been set up as the one sympathetic villain (I mean guys whatever but phasma and hux are Not It) gets at the end of ix without going back to the light;

tbh I went down hard on the reylo trashcan when tlj went like OH HEY HERE YOU HAVE ENDLESS REDEMPTIVE HC POTENTIALS FOR YOU, because in tfa it wasn’t so obvious to me but in tlj it was pretty much obvious and.. honestly guys, it’s my typical enemies to lovers thing. they started literally fighting, they got to know each other and gotten better through it and learned from each other, she saw potential good in him and went herself to get him from snoke like guys......, he killed his abuser so that she wouldn’t die, they had that synchronized fight which honestly guys for someone into that kinda dynamic was gold, and thing is, at the end of it it couldn’t happen this round because he couldn’t get out of his toxic spiral for her but has to realize it for himself, but... do you think that if she had told him ‘hey let’s go back to your mom’s’ and he said yes it wouldn’t have ended very differently?

and on top of that honestly that pseudo-proposal was horribly heartbreaking because it was obvious he was projecting the shit out of him on her and when he told her she was nothing but not to him he was basically going like I DON’T WANT TO BE NOTHING TO YOU, and like.... guys, I like hc and redemptive stories and identity arcs and anti-heteronormative role reversals, why wouldn’t I be into that? it’s exactly my thing X°D

and like thing is, I’m not crazy into it mostly because I really like rey but not the way I like idk a brienne or a leia or an éowyn and I think kylo’s a v. good character and I don’t hate him but how do i put it, he’s no han to me XD I’m not passionate about the single characters ENOUGH to be THAT crazy into it but as a ship it absolutely fits all my usual tropes so... why wouldn’t I be into it? I’ve always been down with redemptive stuff and hc and enemies to lovers, the fact that I’m a lightsider doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate a good redemption from the dark when I see it ;)

#reylo #ch: kylo ren #ch: rey (sw)#ch: ben solo #otp: you're not alone; neither are you #sw wank #i guess #Anonymous #ask post

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krixwell-liveblogs · 6 years

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Blind reactions to Deltarune chapter 1

Alright, so last night, I played through Deltarune chapter 1.

For those not in the know, this is a free teaser for the sequel to Undertale, which takes around 3-5 hours to complete. It’s meant for those who have “finished Undertale”, so if you haven’t either finished Undertale or, like me, watched enough playthroughs of the game that you’ve practically finished it by proxy, you should probably skip the rest of this post. Same goes if you haven’t played Deltarune yourself. Go do that.

Liveblogging Worm isn’t my first time sharing my reactions to things as I went along. It kinda comes naturally for me to do that. So a few minutes into Deltarune (in the classroom scene), I decided to share some thoughts I’d had up until that point. But the problem was, I couldn’t go into the #deltarune_spoilers channel on Loreweaver’s server to talk about it, or I’d get spoiled myself. So, I opened a NotePad document and began typing my thoughts there for later sharing. And then I continued doing that until I finished the game.

And hey, I have a liveblog, why not use it for this too? So, below the readmore, if you’re interested, here are my thoughts on Deltarune.

Warning: It’s long. Also, spoilers for Deltarune (duh), Undertale, Kingdom Hearts II and vaguely Homestuck, Wander Over Yonder and Over the Garden Wall.

It's kind of hilarious how the game goes "nah, you don't get to decide who you are", and then gives the character a name that works as a shortened version of my legal name.

Kris looks like an older Frisk, but doesn't share the name. Are they separate? But why would Toriel be raising them then?

The narration is far less filled with FUN than the narration in Undertale, giving Kris a depressing feel. The shaded eyes and the mirror narration "It's only you." (in contrast to Undertale's) "It's you!" reinforce this. I wonder if it has to do with Chara's presence in Undertale and the narrator!Chara theory.

Kris has a brother...?

Asriel's around? Well, then. Alternate universe alarm bells are ringing.

We could be following Chara, but the world seems to have monsters and humans living together, Toriel isn't a queen, and many characters in and after the driving cutscene shouldn't have been born yet when Chara was around.

Alphys as a school teacher is fun. I immediately went to her when she asked me to pick a partner, just to see what she'd say - I love that she's watching anime in class.

Decided to go for Monster Kid first, in case I couldn't check out everyone before making my choice. But apparently he's partnered already, so I guess there is no choice. I'm guessing the snake is the one who hasn't got a partner yet.

...Snowy, you're incorrigible.

Wait, so Temmie is partnered with an egg. That leaves an even number of other candidates. So I guess we're not going to find anyone to partner with. I suppose that fits the tone we're going for with the narration.

Blue bird guy is a jerk.

His name is Berdly? ...sure.

I like the reindeer.

Jockington. These names! And apparently the cat is named Catti. Not to be confused with Catty, whom I'm pretty sure I saw in the driving cutscene. Or did I only see her parents? I definitely saw Bratty, at least, so Catty shouldn't be in school. And the personalities don't match.

That's an origin story, alright. I suppose that means we've already got an implied ouroboros in this game, since Jockington was a hula hoop rather than a jumping rope.

Noelle is a good name for the reindeer. I'm not surprised to see Berdly objecting to the trio idea.

...hello there, important character. Susie?

So I suppose we're teaming up with the intimidating goth.

Poor Alphys is terrified of Susie. Susie honestly seems kind of chill at first glance, but there's gotta be a reason why she intimidates Alphys especially much.

Okay, who's eating chalk? I noticed the green chalk was missing from Kris' house, and now the school's chalk is gone for the third time. Did someone let a Homestuck character or two loose in this world?

So we're babysitting Susie on the chalk quest.

The classmates don't seem confident in Kris' survival. Apparently Susie has a reputation for beating people up.

"You SUZ, you LOSE!" Okay, Snowy, I'll give you that one. :p

What did Susie just do? Eat something? She doesn't seem to want me to have seen it.

Yeah, Susie doesn't seem so bad. So, secret, you say?

...bad timing to add that, huh. Also, quiet people piss you off? Hypocrite.

OH! That was the chalk! I was kidding when I said someone was eating it, but of course, this is Toby Fox. Which this electric guitar music is also reminding me of.

Whoops. Looks like she's gone full "well, why not make this worse so the punishment is worth it" mode.

"I would rather not lose my face, thank you very much."

All bark and no face-bite?

"If you hadn't gotten it by now, your choices don't matter." That's definitely meant in a meta sense. It's starting to become a theme. I suppose Deltarune isn't particularly branching, unless this changing is going to be a point.

Is "blurry yellow object" any way to talk about your teacher, Kris?

I like Susie's reactions to you trying to go the wrong way.

I don't think this is supposed to happen when you open a closet.

This is not a closet anymore, Susie.

"kind of big" YA THINK

Yeah, the closet's definitely broken, in some fashion. So where is this taking us? Narnia? The world of Undertale?

Aaand the door's closed.

And here goes the floor. Time to let gravity do its thing?

Can't have an Undertale game without falling into another world, eh? So, where's Susie? And is it just me or did Kris just get a new wardrobe? Yeah, that's definitely some kind of armor.

Oh hey, save point. I wonder if we're getting filled with anything. Dread, maybe. Everything's blue, even the save point...

"At times you see it flickering. The light only you can see. By second nature, you reach out and..." So Kris, whether they're Frisk or not, is familiar with the save points, and knows that others can't see them. Interesting.

Hang on, did I just overwrite a Kris save with a Krixwell save? I *knew* it wouldn't completely discard those answers from the start. (That's why I answered the same things when I restarted to get my headphones working.)

Hmm. Eyeballs on stalks that start swinging when you walk past them? I like the sounds they make.

Something just moved off-screen in the top right. Also, there's something flowing out of holes here. Oil?

Huh. An eye symbol. Reminds me of Madoka Magica.

Another one, in case you missed the first one... Am I supposed to go down this water(?)fall?

Yep. No return. Not that there's anything to return to.

Sleeping gray oozes...

Is this what's left of the underground after the pacifist ending? Except that doesn't explain the relation between Frisk, Asriel and Kris. I suppose it's possible that Frisk is the brother and took on the name Asriel as a tribute, but that honestly just seems rude. Besides, Toby would catch all sorts of flak if he were to gender Frisk now.

Pfft, those eyes and the oil hole look like a silly face. So, this *looks like* the first real choice of the story. Not that "real choice" necessarily means much - it's not like Undertale actually branched much. Most proper choices in Undertale were fake, still leading to the same outcome.

Hmm. If only one of these leads onward to the rest of the story, it's probably the silly face route. So I should probably go downwards if I want to not miss anything.

Yep. Dead end, with something shining in the oil hole.

...a Glowshard. Alright, let's see what its info says.

Woah, new menu! Earlier, in the house, I discovered that the menu was the same as in Undertale, but now that I'm in the closet, there's a new interface. Interesting.

The Glowshard's use is unknown. Alright.

Cell phone's not working and makes beautiful sounds to show that.

Apparently along with the armor, Kris wound up with a "wood blade". I wonder if that's actually the pencil they had earlier. I say this while sitting here with a shortsword-sized pencil next to me.

"Body contains a human SOUL." That's ominous. The fact that the game is specifying that makes it sound like it might change.

While Kris is wearing something that looks like armor, it doesn't show up on the equip screen as such.

They seem to have lost their 2 money.

Silly face path time!

Should I be concerned about that eyeball-stalk having a red outline? I probably should.

Interesting. Going into "combat" against the hostile stalks gave more things outlines, and the SOUL became visible. I wonder if getting hit would send me into a mini dodging game like when Undyne chases you in Undertale.

I should probably note that while I've watched many playthroughs of Undertale, I've never actually played it, apart from a browser version of the Sans fight. So if this contains bullet hells scaled after the end of Undertale at the very start, I'm kind of screwed.

"A power shines within you, breaking through the darkness." Determination? Hope? No, hope is HP. I suppose it could just be the ability to save, which is a side effect of determination. Even if Kris hasn't exactly seemed like the determined type so far.

Oh, right, restored HP. Maybe that was hope after all.

"Eye Puzzle". Alright, let's puzzle this out.

Without having read the sign, just looking at the iconography, I'm guessing the dots mean which eyes are affected by each light, and you have to close all of them to proceed.

"In this land, only eyes blinded by darkness can see the way..." Yeah, definitely sounds like I need to close them.

Rightmost eye and middle eye. Easy as p-eye. YOU'RE NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN MAKE BAD PUNS SNOWY

I just saw the black thing again, at the right edge, moving real fast. Looked almost like an Enderman from Minecraft at a glance.

There it is again. I'm about to catch up with it, aren't I. Did it come down the other waterfall?

Oh cod, did I just kill one of the sleeping oozes?

Oh! It's Susie! Hi.

How did Kris get you into this? You're the one who ate the chalk so we had to get more, you're the one who pushed on into the closet.

Susie's outfit looks like she fell out of Kingdom Hearts. Maybe that's what's going on. Maybe Kris is Frisk's nobody, who's been living in a fake world.

Ooh, someone waving, you say?

Apparently they've got hostility in spades.

This looks like a ghost town. Like, literally, a town for ghosts, with the curved houses and all.

Well, at least it's a ghost town in the figurative sense. That castle is intriguing. Not to mention the geyser.

"Why the hell is there a castle inside a supply closet?" Ahaha

"Welcome, heroes...!" is off-center and it's bugging me.

A masked stranger introducing himself as the Prince of this Kingdom. In yellow. I don't trust this at all. Flowey, is that you?

The Kingdom of Darkness. Alright. Is this connected to the Underground in any way?

The stranger knows our names and called us heroes. He's been expecting us.

Heroes of Light? I don't know, I don't think I'd peg either of them as having that aspect.

Foretold by time and space... look, the Homestuck jokes write themselves and I think Toby Fox knows that.

Hopes and dreams, light and dark, balance of the world being threatened... fairly basic plot beats in and of themselves. Fair enough. Three heroes, including the Prince, supposed to restore the balance... The thing is, I still don't trust the Prince to be telling the truth, or at least, the full truth, and I think a lot of the plot is left in the inaccuracies. I'm watching you, Prince.

"Delta warriors" sounds like something you'll try to make a thing but not really succeed at making a thing.

"Please, won't you accept this destiny?" "Uhh... Nah." Ahaha, I love it.

The Prince seems genuinely distraught at Susie's refusal.

Pfffft, bye Prince! Oh my cod, is that you, Sans?

Okay, no, this isn't Sans. And he sounds like he's an antagonist, talking about the heroes "running away". He mentions his dad, whom I'm guessing is the supposed main antagonist for now.

"I'm... the bad guy." I'm not hearing an elaborate and catchy song to explain that, so your point is invalid.

"We both know you'll go EAST!" Yeah, because there's no other exit that we didn't come from.

Lancer, huh. As if the Son of the Month thing didn't make it clear that you're not the main antagonist. So, hey, depending on the exact role of his dad, would Lancer perhaps also count as "a Prince from the Dark" for the prophecy?

Alright, new fighting UI. This ought to be interesting. It looks kind of early-Final-Fantasy-esque?

(Act -> Check) Ohh, Lancer was the spade guy. Pfft, he's just got a burning bike, not a motorcycle.

So Susie's also found herself with a new weapon.

He claims his bike's running out of fuel, but the check established it doesn't actually run on fuel...

So what's the real reason he's forfeiting-- oh, dinnertime. Fair enough. Enjoy!

Ralsei. I think I've seen fanart of you. I like how you have a heart on your shirt - a human heart - to contrast with Lancer's spade. I don't trust it, but I like it.

So why don't you have any subjects, Ralsei? Why have you had to wait alone your whole life?

"Ralsei, the lonely prince, is now your ally." Hey... Ralsei is an anagram of Asriel...

"The power of fluffy boys shines through you." Ahahaha

Ooh, training dummy. White outline, which I suppose indicates you can fight it but it's not hostile like the ones with red outlines.

This big door looks familiar.

Ralsei explicitly asks me to do a pacifist run. Interesting.

These red trees look weird.

I like how it gave me a little thing telling me the name of the track that was starting to play. The Field of Hopes and Dreams, huh? It's pretty sweet, too. Meanwhile, Lancer left a message about upcoming enemies. Should be fun.

"If you're reading this, I guess you're dead." I think you got that backwards, dude.

Hi there, Lancer. I thought it was dinnertime?

Hah, the group term for the diamond-based Rudinns is "necklace". Nice.

So if you do the thing that lets you spare an enemy, you can also have your partner spare the enemy on the same turn. Good to know.

RIP Topchef's cake.

Maze of Death? Sounds pleasant.

I see Susie's not doing a pacifist run. Hey, what if she's the true main antagonist by the end of all this?

Pfft, poor Lancer has no sense of direction, apparently.

Hehe, the White Ribbon enhances Kris's cuteness. I wonder if that has mechanical consequences.

Apparently only Kris can seal the dark fountain, and Susie is stuck with us.

Oh my cod the fanfare gag is hilarious

Whoops. Susie killed the C.Round because I took the time to *Check it. Does that mean I'm no longer on a pacifist route?

Violet tormentor. Good title.

"The power of mean girls shines within you." Oh my cod, Kris, you can't just ask people why they're violet!

*haggles the tutorial seller down to 1 dark dollar, buys, and then just turns around* Nah.

This shop guy looks like someone mixed together the Beldam, Mad-Eye Moody, an old cat and the goggles from Splinter Cell.

Seam, pronounced "Shawm"? Not a bad name for someone who looks to be part doll.

Lightners, Darkners... Apparently the Lightners were godlike. Are the Lightners the monsters, and the Darkners their "shadows"? Ralsei being the shadow of Asriel?

The Darkners were "locked away and left behind". Sounds familiar.

King seeking revenge...

Historically, there were four kings, in the "Card Castle". No points for guessing how the kings were themed, or who Lancer's dad is. Or who Ralsei's dad was, for that matter.

So does that make Lancer the Jack of Spades?

A strange knight, description in red, appeared and locked three of the kings away. Again, no points for guessing which one wasn't locked away. So does this knight work for the King of Spades, or vice versa? Are there Aces in all of this?

Oh, alright, so the King of Spades put the Knight and his son, Lancer, into power. That suggests the King works for the Knight rather than vice versa. Possibly not willingly.

"Haven't seen this much chaos since... Ha ha ha... Well, you don't need to know about THAT." Since what? Since just before the Lightners left for the surface? Since some plant absorbed nearly every Lightner's soul for a while?

Bought the Amber Card and a couple more Dark Candies.

Alright, let's go see what bullshit the desperate tutorial salesman has for us.

Ah, yes, because this group of suspicious individuals don't look ready to ambush us.

ROUXLS KAARD. The surname is obviously a reference to cards, but everything else about this name screams "anagram". DARK SOUL ARX? AR DARXOULS? SOUR KLAXARD?

I love how there are tutorial guys for Ralsei and Susie, and the way they barely know what they're talking about. Is the last one for Kris? ...yep.

Oh, nice, Kris Master and Ralsei point out the thing I found out earlier about sparing on the same turn.

So there are two paths that both seem to keep going. One with a puzzle, and one with an encounter. I saw the puzzle and went back to the encounter... Hm. Let's try the puzzle too.

Ahh, it's something you're not meant to be able to do unless you've been to a later section of the game. So either you'll be able to go back here later, or you're supposed to use meta knowledge from a previous playthrough. Then again, I kind of suspect what the order is anyway. If I'm right, I won't go on through, because I'm not supposed to see this yet, but I want to try it out.

Alright, looks like it's not the standard order of the suits. Fair enough, that'd be too easy. Even if the input is a puzzle in itself.

I have to do the encounter again?

Well, I made a few mistakes this time, so Susie killed one of the Rudinns.

"When you step into the light, you'll return to where you were before." I don't think it's talking about home. Avoid the glowing tiles, got it.

Hm. Easier said than done. Right, I should probably run.

Can I switch to the lane that's fading before the light fades in on the lane I'm on? ...yes! Puzzle solved.

Apparently the effect of the light only applies to Kris.

Is that a bucket, Lancer? Ew.

Oh great, it's literally to put bodily fluids in. Toby knows exactly what he's doing here.

Oh cod, he's asking for an official name. Ralsei, don't you dare say Delta Warriors.

"Blue person"... how did I not notice that Kris is still blue?

Alright, so I get descriptions of the papers. Definitely not going for the neat paper, which is obviously Ralsei. So my choices are to let Susie name the team, or to let Lancer name it. Great.

Let's see what Susie's got.

Ahaha, he's not allowed to say it. Classy, Susie.

THE $!$! SQUAD

Cool, I'm down with that. Better than Delta Warriors. Well, not really, but still.

Tier-TWO swear words. What's tier one? Darn, heck, etc?

Collective dad? Does he think we're siblings?

No, Ralsei, we can not consider a different name.

(Lancer to Ralsei) "Yeah! How about I be in the Squad and YOU be the bad guy?" That's an interesting idea you've got there, Lancer.

I kinda trust Ralsei a bit more at this point, because he seems a lot like the non-evil iteration of Asriel, but I'm still not entirely sure. That could easily be a front.

"The power of The $!? Squad shines within you." Ahahaha

So the Great Board is inhabited by chess people. I suppose maybe the Knight is from there? Or maybe that's just what Toby wants me to think. Now where have I heard a story about chess pieces and cards and a takeover from within before...

So what's this extremely dangerous thing? A card shredder?

Oh, a C.Round. Maybe we can keep Susie from killing this one.

Ah, fuck, it got promoted. Nice legs.

Hah, K.Round. As in King Round. Not sure what the C stood for.

That was a fun little fight. And now it seems it's time to explain to Susie that violence isn't always the best option.

Ahh, great. Switching sides because she's bad at heroing. Honestly, though, it really does suit her better.

Alright, now I'm in a forest, and there's a door with colorful flames. Interesting.

The door is for fast travel. Got it.

"We managed to fix this thingamajig up for you." Oh yeah, that's right, I found an empty doorframe earlier.

Oh jeez, they've practiced an alternating dia-monologue.

"Dark Jack Lancer"? Guess I was right about his card, then.

Ahaha, the Dark $!? Squad! And it's Lancer who says it, too. Susie, you're a bad influence.

So there's a Rudinn asking me to help with a gift for a friend named Clover (I think I have an idea which suit she's aligned to). Sports, cute boys and trees? Well, I've got one of those things.

Salsa stump. Well, at least they're getting along.

I got a scarf that's apparently sharp enough to use as a weapon. Nice.

Oh hey, a puzzle based on the same input method as the post-game puzzle from before. I know how this works, so this shouldn't be too hard, what with the password being stated.

...yeah, that only requires clubs and a heart, that's super easy.

I like Bloxer.

Alright, so there's a dead end down here with two seemingly unreachable buttons in sight. Looks like a path-building puzzle.

There's a symbol puzzle meant to teach you how to mix the lower and higher suits. I managed to find the answer in two tries, before talking to any of the hint... beings.

...who were apparently one three-headed being. I may have just triggered a fight by not talking to them when I came back into the room after checking whether the answer was the same to the symbol puzzle I just passed in the room with Bloxer.

Oh! This is Clover. Hey, Clover, would you like a gift? I've got a cute boy here.

Let's talk about boys.

"Herselves". Cute.

Alright, bake sale time. We've got diamonds, hearts, and spades (run by The Dark $!? Squad), but no clubs. Why not?

The Choco Diamond and the Hearts Donut each heal ??hp. The Choco Diamond sounds like it'll work better if given to certain characters. Maybe it heals more if the target is diamonds-aligned. Same going for the Hearts Donut on hearts-aligned characters. I should buy another Hearts Donut and test that on Kris and Ralsei.

Sure, I'll donate to the noble cause of kicking my ass too.

Did they just... do that so they could buy a Hearts Donut?

So to the west we have another fast travel door, and to the north there's... a martial arts dojo?

Oh, the smith! I just saw in the inventory that the Broken Cake is a key item that needs to be fixed by a master blacksmith. Guess it's time to do that.

Ahahaha the squeaky hammer sounds! And the cake was "fixed beyond recognition". I love this.

A topcake... can I wear it like a top hat? Is it armor?

Ah, no, but it is a 160 hp full party heal, single use. Good to keep in store, just like the butterscotch-cinnamon pie.

"(This cardboard stand is actually just a fake cardboard stand of a cardboard stand.)" Pfft. Glad we got that cleared up.

Hello, hungry hungry caterpillar.

Nice disguise, Lancer.

Oh, please tell me I get a choice of "the most evil thing I can imagine" here.

Oh fuck, this is even better.

Look, I know the duck face is "garbage", but I can't just NOT pick that one.

Tank body sounds good.

I'm torn between the sneaker shoes and the attractive wheels... I think I'll go with the sneakers. Wheels just make too much sense for the tank body.

Lancer: "Are you sure you're not evil?" Ralsei: "Er, no, I suppose we just have a knack for it." ...

Damn. The bird thing killed me and now I have to make my beautiful thrashing machine all over again.

"The darker it gets, the more you can see." That's familiar. Like the eye puzzle early on. What does it mean, thematically? That you have to see the darkness to truly understand the world?

I was right about the Hearts Donut. It heals Kris by 20 hp, but Ralsei by 50.

Alright, so a Rudinn just confirmed that Susie is considered a Lightner. Does that extend to Kris too?

The save point here names the room as "Before Maze". Way to spoil it, dude.

These villains are so ridiculously ineffectual. But how long is the Papyrus section of this game going to last? I didn't buy for a second that Lancer was even close to being the main antagonist, and now we've long since established the bigger threats (the King and the Knight).

Well, the maze was something. Ooh, machine time!

Aw, I didn't get to fight it. Fair enough.

Susie says our design sucked, so does that mean they've come up with another one?

Ralsei points out that Susie needs him and Kris to return home, but I don't think she WANTS to go home anymore.

Alright, defeat means friendship, huh? Bring it on.

Hah, trying to convince them not to fight is working on Lancer.

Ahahaha, Lancer blocked the pacification with his bike and the bike got tired.

Lancer, join OUR team! That way you can be a team with Susie even though she's joining back up with us! And then when Ralsei turns out to be evil, you can take his place as Prince from the Dark.

Pfft, poor Ralsei being tasked with making the track jackets.

Oh cod, no thanks, put those eyes back where they came from, Lancer, or so help me.

Lancer's Stool Forme is very useful.

Susie is SO into Lancer at this point.

I kinda like and kinda hate how Lancer just floats outside the path instead of following the rest of the party Earthbound-style.

It does seem like Kris is counted as a Lightner. I'm not sure how to feel about the whole "Darkners can't feel fulfilled unless they're helping Lightners" thing, though.

So this is very much the calm before the storm, where our protagonists are happy and content with being friends. What's going to shake this up?

Oh hey, it's Card Castle. Neat.

Lancer doesn't want us fighting people inside the castle. Is it for our sake, or for the sake of the people in there?

See ya, Lancer.

Well then. We've been captured.

So where's Susie?

Ate some moss and “mossed out” my HP. Nice. :P

Took me some time to realize that I had to continue talking to Ralsei to proceed.

Pfft. Classy, Susie.

I like the thing about thinking about what Susie's doing now to segue into a section where we semi-control her.

...alright, where we're tricked into thinking we can control her.

Especially the purple one, eh? Is that because she's especially dangerous, or because you care especially about her?

"It's fine, actually." Is it, Susie? "You don't have to say anything." This is becoming a trend for you. Making your conclusions and telling people not to bother saying things.

Lancer, you may want to explain yourself quickly, regardless of Susie's demands that you shut up. Your face is in danger.

He's attacking, but he's doing the Toriel thing where the attacks fan out. I wonder if there's a path in this game where you cause Lancer to accidentally kill Susie rather than let Susie kill Lancer. If things are going to get to that point.

These spades are better at dodging the heart than Toriel's flames were.

He's visibly trembling more with each attack.

Good, Susie. Good. Now put down the axe and listen to Lancer.

What, a lengthy elevator scene with no proper elevator music?

Susie is the best character in this thing, so far.

Card Castle, first floor. Time to pay attention to the order of the suits' rooms, I think.

"You are unbanned from free ham sandwich day" ahahaha

IT WORKED.

Alright, so diamonds first.

Club Sandwich, can be divided into three to heal the entire team. Cute.

So there's a disembodied voice that has trapped us in a room. "Thoust FOOLS!"

Oh hey, it's Rouxls Kaard, "thou're greatest adversary". Clearly also an adversary of grammar.

Shit, that puzzle looks really fucking hard, man.

So does the Royal Flush (bathroom) count as the spades room for the sake of the post-game puzzle?

Well, the third floor is clearly the Hearts floor, since there are Hathy here.

I just told Susie to flirt and it's beautiful.

Oh cod, it's so awkward that there's no need to even spare.

Well, that was definitely the Hearts room. Diamond, maybe Spades, then Hearts.

Clubs door, and now another room like the one we met Rouxls in. Time for another "puzzle"?

Hah! It's not even a different super easy puzzle, it's just a longer version of the earlier one!

I like the Clubs room.

Alright, there's the Spades room, so the Royal Flush doesn't count. Diamonds, Hearts, Clubs, Spades.

Oh my cod, Rouxls is a shopkeeper.

"decidedesteth"

Oh for the love of cod. He's got a K.Round too. :P

Ralsei thinks the crown looks different... is it a Q.Round?

Ahh. Rouxls is controlling it using the crown. Or so he claims.

Hah, tossing Ralsei at it. I like this plan.

Throne room. Time to meet the king?

What happened here? Lancer said he was going ahead to talk to the king. Did they end up fighting?

Hi, Lancer.

Wait, Lancer's dad was the Knight, not the King. Right? Or are the Knight and the King the same thing at this point, since the fourth king put the Knight in charge? Right, that's how it worked. So we're now seeing the talk Lancer was going to do.

Pfft. I like how the Knight/King is like "Oh, Lancer..."

What was that about "They care not for you", Mr. "I'll drop my son off the edge to let him splatter"?

I did not get a choice in whether to kneel or not. The characters made that choice on their own.

OOH, NICE BACKSTAB!

Ah, see, this is a guy I can believe when he claims to be the bad guy. Even if I'm still not fully sold on the idea that he's necessarily the final boss.

"Lightbringer"? "Your very existence goes against our own"? Interesting...

By the Knight's will... so this ISN'T the Knight?

Is Ralsei the Knight?

"You, that left us in the shadows, stripped of meaning..." Yeah, I think I was onto something earlier.

Ralsei probably isn't the Knight. His interactions with the King wouldn't make much sense that way.

The King seems to be indicating that he's worshipping the Knight instead of the Lightners.

The Knight made the second fountain? Maybe even the first?

The shadows of the fountains are creating a new world... for the Darkners...

I'm taking it that this is a survival fight, like Sans. I just need to let this guy exposit for a while.

Ahh, so it's not so much that it's making a literal new world as that it's darkening the existing world. An apocalypse which he believes to be in favor of the Darkners.

"Enough talk"? Was I wrong?

The King seems to be getting less confident.

And he ended the battle.

His... cape just flew away?

So he's asking for a peaceful solution now. Alright, sure.

I don't like the sound effects here. They sound too much like someone's about to get killed. Maybe the cape flew off to tell the Knight about the King's failure/betrayal?

Honestly, the King just seems to be dying without anyone actually hurting him.

Nice, yes, good work healing him, Ralsei. Let's just hope he wasn't faking it just to get that heal.

...yep.

"You can't even say?" Nice echo of what Susie said at the start.

"Let me tell you a secret." We're echoing the whole scene, huh? But somehow, I don't think "All bark and no face-bite" applies to the King.

Susie FTW.

"But THEY might." Who's "they"? Kris? And maybe Ralsei? Or are we bringing in other characters?

*crazy glue voice* get him

"Now I'M the dad!!!" Uh, Lancer, I don't think that's how it works.

And now we're getting Ralsei contemplating whether kindness is always the solution after all, since his healing the king almost fucked everything. Nice. Character growth all around.

Wait, Ralsei, why are you staying behind? I thought you claimed we needed you too to stop the fountain?

Nice try, Susie. I know you want to talk to Lancer.

See? Lancer sees right through you.

Hiya, Asriel! What's up?

Not gonna explain that, huh?

So, uh, did Kris's soul just leave their body to fuse with the fountain?

Aaand we're in the supply closet. Alright.

Wait, no, this is an unused classroom.

...menu's back to the Undertale style.

Let's try calling home.

Alright, so some time has passed. It's after school. Don't think going to tell Alphys you couldn't find the chalk is going to work, Susie.

Toriel is sweet. Though it's a little sad that the word "friend" makes her give Kris a free pass, because it implies she's surprised that they've gained one.

Playing cards and chess... Legos... Fuck, this is lending some serious credence to the dream idea, much in the same way a lot of things in Over The Garden Wall reflect what's seen in episode 9. But like there, I'd say this was probably a certain degree of real.

The room we ended up in is to the right of the supply closet.

Sure, go back there tomorrow... if you can.

The supply closet is locked now.

Hey, I found Asriel's/Frisk's/the brother's locker. And Kris's.

Ooh, Toriel's classroom!

The clock has been updated to 10 PM in Toriel's classroom, but in Alphys', it still says 2 PM.

I can visit the Librarby, neat.

So is the game over now, or will we be seeing the return to the Dark Kingdom?

Hah, found Toby. I'm aware that this is only supposed to be a teaser, so I guess it'll deliver on the promise that you'll be able to go into the computer lab in the full game.

Books written by Undertale characters, nice.

UNDYNE

Wait, Asgore's kid? Kris is Asgore's kid?? Or, wait, wasn't it Undyne who couldn't tell Asgore and Toriel apart? No, that was Papyrus. So this raises the whole alternate universe question again. Who the fuck is Kris?

Undyne claims not to know who Alphys is.

...who's the mayor?

I found a door to a bunker or something that makes spooky sounds. This feels like plot.

Gerson's dead, among a couple others who may or may not be characters we know.

At least Gerson being dead rules out this happening before Undertale, in the same timeline.

Burgerpants!

So Azzy's in college.

"Things happened" in Kris's family before Asriel left. Asgore and Toriel separating?

SANS

Sans is new in town, and has never met Kris. Kris, say hello to your future stepfather.

And he wants Kris to hang out with Papyrus. I'm all for this.

(I'm also all for finding a save point so I can go to bed.)

Asgore x Alphys???

So Alphys watches a Simpsons knockoff and has an imaginary cat named MewMew. The alternate universe theory intensifies.

Apparently Asgore runs a flower shop.

Aww, that hug was adorable.

Containers containing flowers instead of souls...

Time for bed.

Umm. Kris. You, uh. Kinda need that soul.

So, uh, the Chara option is still available...

Well then! That was Deltarune chapter 1. I'm gonna write a wrap-up tomorrow, because it's way too late now and I need to go to bed in real life. Good night!

...Alright, hello again! It's been about 17.5 hours since I finished Deltarune chapter 1, and in that time, I've been thinking a bit. I think I've come up with a decent theory about what's going on with the world of the Lightners in relation to Undertale:

I don't think this is post-pacifist. I think this is post-genocide.

"Oh, but many of the characters you kill on the genocide route are alive, and monsters seem to live on the surface!"

Here's the thing: At the end of the genocide route, you meet Chara, who talks about wanting to "erase this pointless world and move on to the next". The choice they give you is fake, both options end in you, the player, being killed, ending the game. What I'm suggesting is that Chara did just that: Erased the world and moved on to the next. That "next" world is the world of Deltarune.

Chara isn't entirely physical, so they need a vessel, like Frisk was in Undertale. That's why they're taking control of Kris, and throwing out Kris's soul (hey, look who managed to guess that their soul would leave their body, even if I didn't guess how). I'm not sure whether Chara was already partially possessing Kris at the beginning and just decided it was time to get rid of that annoying soul right at the end. The soul being the culmination of one's being and the center of emotion... Identity and emotion seemed to be fairly low in Kris from the start - maybe Chara had to weaken the soul before they could toss it out and take proper control?

There's also the player to deal with, though. Chara knows we're here - you can tell from the way they glance at the fourth wall after taking control - so I wonder if they'll let us continue controlling their vessel, Kris. Then again, in Undertale, Chara seemed to consider that a good thing, but what if the player continues to steer Kris towards pacifism?

Meanwhile, the world of the Darkners is still largely a mystery. They seem to be a remnant of the Underground's essence in some way, but who knows if monsters ever lived underground in this world?

A lot about the Dark Kingdom adventure in chapter 1 mirrors Undertale. In fact it very much feels like discount Undertale. (Which I suppose is fair considering this game does in fact cost 100% less than Undertale.) I wonder if any of it was Chara's work, whether Kris knew it or not?

This chapter of the game is deceptively simple, but there really is a lot to think about here.

All in all... The game wasn't quite as good as Undertale, though it had its share of funny and/or heartfelt moments, and it did good stuff with the characters of Susie and Lancer. I like the introduction of a party system due to its effect on character dynamics, and the battle graphics were a huge step up.

I suppose I shouldn't expect Deltarune chapter 1 to hold up to the whole of Undertale. The full version has a hell of a lot to live up to, but I'm optimistic about it. I think it can at least get close. And with Chara getting visibly involved, I have a feeling things are only going to get more interesting from here.

In conclusion: Fuck Berdly.

17 notes · View notes

sometimesrosy · 6 years

Note

Can you give a timeline of when you think bellarke’s feelings for each other began? btw I love ur meta posts :)

thanks! :)

I worked on this all day. It took a long time. I should remember it the next time someone asks me for this and just point them back to this.

Season 1

first meeting: WOAH who’s that? Hot. (mutual)

early drop ship: antagonist but strangely drawn to each other. they need each other or need to find a way around the other. (the wrist band. take it off. you’ll have to kill me. she makes him smile. and she needs him to follow her.)

Earth Skills: falling in the pit: he DIDN’T drop her. They are both surprised by this. A recognition that he is NOT the bad guy he seems. On both sides. I think it throws bellamy more than it does clarke.

Earth Kills: She kills Atom. She realizes he is softer than he seems. He realizes she is tougher than she seems. New respect. They begin to work together.

Murphy’s Law: He builds a wall with fear. She doubts but sees it’s working. She goes off half cocked to blame Murphy, when he told her not to and it causes disaster. She begins to respect him as a leader who understands things.

Twilight’s Last Gleaming: They are working separately for the same ends (to save Charlotte) Until she GIVES him power. Instead of fighting against each other to run the delinquents, they do it together. IT WORKS. Team Bellarke begins.

“Can you wish upon this kind of shooting star?”: first intimacy. She expects him not to understand. He does. Beginning of tentative friendship.

Work together to… well… torture Lincoln *sigh*: He tries to protect her from it, she refuses. She doesn’t need to be protected. She’s taking responsibility for their action. He tries to lessen the burden the way she did with Atom.

Day Trip: She seeks him out to partner with. Says it’s because she doesn’t like him. But she can be honest with him and depend on him to back her up. Hmm. Clarke tells Finn she trusts Bellamy and is surprised by this. (this might be out of order.) They work together well and this is its own intimacy. Find guns. He is thrown by the intimacy and realizes he is physically attracted to her. They flirt. He runs off. They save each other from Dax. He is vulnerable and tells her he is a monster. She tells him he can’t leave and she needs him, which makes him look at her in hope, “We ALL need you,” which makes him look away in disappointment (the moment Rosy stared shipping it. I said ‘wait what? he cares if she needs him? let me watch that 10 billion times.’) Power couple enters camp to save the day. Clarke intercedes with Jaha to save and praise Bellamy. He can’t believe it. Clarke truly likes Bellamy. Bellamy’s crush on Clarke begins.

Unity Days: honest to god flirting. Clarke is putting out genuine signals to Bellamy like any girl who is into a guy. At this point I think it is mostly physical for her. She wants to have fun and he’s hot and she likes him. He sends her away (this is a pattern with him. when there is a potential for romance with her he backs off.) She turns to Bellamy to back her up with Finn’s plan. She has drawn her alliance in the sand here. She trusts and depends upon Bellamy, not Finn. Bellamy does not disappoint her.

I can’t separate it here. They work together a lot. Trust each other. Argue over how to do things. Confide in each other. Support each other. They are becoming real friends here. I think when he sleeps with Raven there is a measure of jealousy that Clarke went with Finn, but he’s not going to admit that. He is not acknowledging his feelings for her at this point. Brushes them off as nothing but a crush.

When Clarke closes the dropship door on Bellamy, she is terrified and desperate that she might lose him, to the extent that her canon love interest who is trying to get her back sees her distress and goes after his prime competition to SAVE him for HER. Which is worse, because now she has to close the door on both the boy she loves and the man she has come to depend on the most. Yes I called Finn a boy and Bellamy a man. Do you disagree?

super long. seasons 2, 3 and 4 after the jump

Season 2

Clarke awakens and fixates on Bellamy and Finn. Always a pair in her concern. Her love interest and her….??? If they had been in the mountain, I doubt she would have struggled to get out. Pairing of Finn and Bellamy in her mind is a subconscious thing. Bellamy is becoming someone LIKE a love interest, without being one.

Bellamy takes Finn’s lead on rescuing Clarke. He doesn’t HAVE to admit his feelings for her, because Finn will obsessively go after her for him. He lets him and takes the back seat. He choses Mel and his people over Clarke and sends Finn after Clarke. Because he does. Not. have feelings for her.

Reunion hug: startling everyone. Clarke runs into his arms. Pure joy and relief for them both. They do not know how they feel about each other. It does not matter. They are just feeling it. It’s a lot.

Campfire: Bellamy stares first and Octavia and then at Clarke, realizing for the first time there’s someone OTHER than O who he wants to see again. Then they absolve each other of their sins. It had to be done. Mutual support. On an emotional level. After this there is lots of teamwork.

“I can’t lose you too”: Bellamy is shocked that she linked him and Finn. I don’t know if Clarke noticed that she did it. But she did. She needs him. Followed closely by “Love is a weakness”–”I was being weak.” Seems to him that Clarke doesn’t care anymore. But it’s really a subconscious (I think) realization that she loves Bellamy and losing him would be too painful, so she pushes him away and refuses to feel. Bellamy then shuts off all feelings for her and focuses on his quest to save his people. (princess/knight trope)

“It just makes sense.”: princess/knight trope from Bellamy’s perspective. Devoted love, but “platonic.” From here on until Camp Jaha, Bellamy’s feelings for Clarke are barely even a thing in season 2. He puts it aside.

Bellamy finally radios: Before she hears his voice, she is despairing, feels hopeless, and is afraid she sentenced him to death. Once she hears his voice she has a new plan. Keep Bellamy alive by distracting MW with an army.

TonDC bombing: Clarke goes to Lxa to save TonDC, but Lxa uses her concern for Bellamy to get her to agree to sacrifice the coalition leaders and town. She had other reasons, but it was Bellamy’s protection that decided her.

The entire time she’s working with L she is talking about Bellamy, about protecting him, about how he’s trustworthy, how he’ll do it, about how much faith she has in him.

“You care about him,” L asks her. She denies it. It’s a weakness to care. When L cared, her enemies killed her. Clarke is aware of this. L described Costia as special. She cannot show to L that Bellamy is special. (she fails at this.)

When L kisses her, Clarke says she is not ready for anything with anybody. Please note there is no one else trying to kiss her. I maintain that she is already thinking of Bellamy as that possible “anybody” that she’s not ready for. Further linking Bellamy in that rejection/potential LI is the EXACT next scene. Next line even. “Bellamy did it.” Bellamy’s signal flare goes up. He got rid of the veil. The army can march.

Clarke and Bellamy meet under the mountain: This is a remarkable reunion in that it seems to be a reversal of the previous reunion where Clarke ran to Bellamy and jumped into his arms. This time they don’t touch. She does, however, hug Monty and Jasper and Bellamy hugs Octavia. Something has changed. I think it goes back to what she told L. She now sees Bellamy as a romantic interest, but she is NOT READY FOR THAT. So she holds back and keeps it all business, just as he is since being told it was worth the risk.

The Lever: This was HUGE for Clarke. She had to do it but she struggled with the immensity of it. He does it with her, harkening back to season 1 and their partnership where they shared the burden. She values him SO much because of this.

Camp Jaha departure: She says good bye to Bellamy. He’s heartbroken. He wanted her to stay but he understood why she left. She kisses him here, and almost looks like she would stay but tears herself away from him. Her goodbye to him is different than the one to Monty. It is saying goodbye to a romanic potential that she’s not ready for. It is not platonic. He’s still platonic though. She leaves. And while we don’t see it, believe that she spends the entire 3 months alone thinking about him and what he did for her and how much she cared for him. I believe she is in love with him here and knows it but is entirely unready for it. He has no clue.

Season 3

Wanheda 1 and 2. Bellamy still has no clue that he is in love with Clarke but he is also a bit obsessed with her. “a bit.”

He disguises himself and runs across enemy lines to find her. He forgets his surroundings when he sees her. She calls him (I think) “Bell” and seems amazed that he would come to her. She is already in love with him. She gives up fighting so Roan will spare him. (Roan clocks this whole interaction. Roan begins to ship it. Confirmed. Ask Zach.)

Dumbass Bellamy is bleeding out trying to follow them. “–Can’t lose Clarke!!! We can’t lose Clarke!” despair. Shocking everyone who sees him so distraught. Dumbass still doesn’t know he’s in love with her.

Bellamy leaves MW to go save Clarke at the summit. Finds out MW and Gina are gone. Clarke looks like the enemy. Stays with the enemy. Does not come home with him. BETRAYAL. Dumbass still does not realize that these feelings he has for her are love. Plus, doubly heartbroken, Gina and Clarke both gone to the grounders. CLARKE at the summit is horrified to see him. Refuses to show her feelings to him in front of Azgeda, Lxa and the coalition, all of whom are barely allies and closer to enemies. Love is a weakness. They kill people you love to control you. She can also barely even show emotion to her mother here. She’s deep in a mental breakdown here.

Hakeldama: Clarke still believes Bellamy is her hero. He wouldn’t. He’ll fix it. He’ll work with her. He isn’t. He won’t. We finally get Bellamy to call Clarke to task for what she did to HIM specifically. They finally express emotions they have been restraining for months. And only with each other. Bellamy sees her crying and kneels in front of her taking her hand and BOOM, finally catches up to the dumbass. HE’S IN LOVE WITH HER! OH! Crap. That’s terrifying. Slaps the handcuffs on her, breaking her heart, because she thinks he hates her. When really he’s just terrified. She shocklashes him and runs.

Clarke turns to Lxa because she’s heartbroken and Lxa loves her. Bellamy turns to Pike because screw you softer emotions and screw you grounders! Screw all of you. Clearly Clarke and Bellamy are done.

Nevermore: No, you’re wrong. Clarke and Bellamy are not done. Team’s back together. Mutual handwrapping is an intimacy that says they still care. Clarke begins her campaign to win back Bellamy’s friendship and care. Which she never lost but he’s so angry. Demons, the team is back. Partnership reclaimed.

The Beach: She won’t leave him even though he tells her to buzz off. He forgives her. They hug and find their home in each other again. The hug allows him to cry. It allows her to smile. Then they drink poison with an actual vow, “together.” In some circles that’s a commitment ceremony.

The scene when Clarke is looking at the Polis tower, and then looks at Bellamy passing in front of the rover and he is haloed by the lights is, I think, a visual bit of storytelling which says Clarke has let go of L and is moving onto the future, which is with Bellamy. There were other signs of her processing her grief, but I think this wasn’t just for us, but was her thinking about the past and then letting go.

When she tells him that she trusts him, I think it goes a long way to him feeling like she values him. Which maybe he didn’t think before.

He returns that when he tells her that he believes her about the flame and not only doesn’t he argue with her but he feeds her the chip.

Oh also the hand holding when the flame goes in. She reaches out for him and he is there only for emotional support because she’s afraid.

Season 4

The beginning of season 4 starts with them very much together and intimate and partnered, with everything from her thanking him for keeping her alive to his threats to echo when she has Clarke to leaving Polis together. However, the reminder of her love for L reinforces his belief that although he loves Clarke, she does not love him. She does though. She loved them both.

Their partnership is super tight in the early s4. They are very together. Bellamy is sure he loves her, but he still thinks it’s the princess/knight thing. It’s not. She returns it and moves closer and closer to him, up until the list scene where she nuzzles his hand and he…. can’t take it. Or doesn’t think she loves him and is just physical or gets scared or I don’t know what, but he runs away. She feels sad and rejected by him again, and although she thought he loved her too, she now thinks he doesn’t feel that way for her. Boo. Both move away from love.

But I think he was jealous and pissed off when she went to Niylah. Because he treats her WAY different after that. Oh I think she was jealous when she saw him talking to Luna, though, too. hm.

At this point we are now in full on mutual pining. He loves her and thinks she doesn’t love him back (witness Niylah and Lxa.) She loves him and thinks he doesn’t feel like that about her (witness he keeps turning her down.)

Clarke did not intend to almost confess her feelings for him on the beach. But she was feeling so much, longing so much they just slipped out.

He ALMOST got it, but not quite. Started to confess his feelings for her, and I don’t think he was intending to tell her he loved her, that’s too hard for him, but he was going to say something and it might have been about how special SHE was. but no.

On science island, we have Clarke full on pining for a love like Memori, with that soft empty bed. I think she’s thinking about Bellamy.

In Arkadia, Jasper convinces Bellamy to want something for himself, and he goes with Bree, Clarke’s lookalike. Whether they did it or not, he turned to a substitute for Clarke. Because it was as close as he could get because he couldn’t have her.

When she kidnaps, imprisons and points a gun at him, he is full on furious at her. I don’t think he even thinks of his emotions. Just fury. Betrayal.

She thinks it’s over. Why bother? He hates her.

Then he realizes in the rover that when she didn’t pull the gun on him, it wasn’t a sign that she didn’t value him, but a sign that she valued him over EVERYONE. I think he finally connects that Clarke actually loves him back, and all of a sudden his anger evaporates and he’s smiling at her. It’s totally dumb and comes out of nowhere. It’s because he realizes she LOVES HIM TOO. She doesn’t realize yet that it’s mutual.

But they are all of a sudden a team again.

When he hugs her because she missed her phone call, Clarke already thinks she’s dying. She sinks into him and grabs onto him, holding onto him because she’s decided she doesn’t want to let him go.

When they’re flirting with oxymorons and cold sweat, I think we get HER moment where she realizes he returns her feelings. For one second there’s a light of joy in her face and then she remembers that she’s dying and she doesn’t want him to hurt when she does and she doesn’t get to keep him and she’s sad.

He doesn’t want her to tell him goodbye because he knows what it means and he can’t bear it and he also doesn’t want her confession because it means the same thing but he stops and listens because he loves her.

They go to fix the dish. They get separated. When she tells him to “hurry,” that is essentially her saying she doesn’t want to give up trying and she’s going to try to live and it is the opposite of “may we meet again” because it essentially means may we not part at all.

And here’s Bellamy where his heart breaks.

And here’s Clarke where she’s been holding onto his memory for 6 years to keep from losing her mind. Because it’s a love letter she’s sending him every day for 2199 days.

And here’s where my heart breaks.

Screw you JR.

30 more days.

#the 100 #bellarke #bellarke development #timeline #enemies to partners to friends #princess/knight #conflict and recovery #mutual pining #come on s5 don't fail us

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dimples-of-discontent · 6 years

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Reporting in from Paleyfest

I have returned from Paleyfest (and some drinks with friends afterwards so sorry for the delay)! It was a great experience - the crowd was psyched and it was all super fun. I’m glad you all got the livestream so you can enjoy the whole panel too. I’m actually pretty surprised that there wasn’t some kind of announcement made, either about possible Season 14 (although Singer alluded to it with “maybe we’ll go there next season” it’s not a confirmation and he could just be assuming) or about Wayward. It seemed like with this much PR going on there would be something substantial to promote BUT the crossover ep itself is a big deal and a long time in the making so I guess it was the occasion.

Speaking of the crossover episode, I’m going to break the rules (or the very polite request that they gave us) to not spoil it for anyone else. @tinkdw asked me to and I’m guessing there are other people out there who’d like to know some the details in advance. (I’m also not a member of the press or anything or else I’d have more qualms about making public stuff they asked to keep on the DL since it would be job-related.)

SO - I am putting my thoughts on the episode below a cut. If you read on, know that I will spoil the whole plot and also give you my initial analysis of it from the perspective I usually have (Destiel-positive, endgame-positive). And if you’d rather not spoil, just scroll on.

@elizabethrobertajones @naruhearts @sactownbrowns3 @amwritingmeta @postmodernmulticoloredcloak @mittensmorgul @amyoatmeal and any other meta writers (who I forgot b/c it’s 4:30am to my body clock) I’m alerting you to the existence of this post in case you want the episode details ahead of time BUT in your position I probably wouldn’t so don’t feel in any way bad if you don’t want to read now. (I’ll reblog once it airs.)

***SPOILERS BELOW THE CUT LIKE WOAH***

I loved this episode!! It was a ton of fun. It was slapstick and silly but did some heavy lifting too. Honestly, it worked the way a lot of our favorite crack episodes did and alluded to at least one of them explicitly (”Changing Channels,” obvs, and I think there may have been more subtle references to others).

I’m too tired to do a full meta analysis but here’s a kind of bullet recap, first of the most plot-based elements:

The plot turns on the fact that the Scooby Doo world, suddenly, ends up functioning like the world Sam and Dean inhabit. The boys enter the cartoon assuming all usual cartoon rules would apply (and Dean’s ready to have a rollicking good time with them) only to discover that the first murder in the haunted house is real. Ghosts are real. Death is real. Sam wants to tell the Scooby gang about it from the get-go but Dean wants to protect them and preserve their innocence.

It’s already obviously about childhood, and losing it, but Dean makes it explicit by talking about how much he loved Scooby Doo because no matter where their dad had dragged them it would always be on. They were his friends and constant companions. He is really being thrown into the best part of his childhood....and you can see why it would be the best because it’s probably his fantasy and deepest wish that the ghosts, demons, etc. of the world he inhabits would turn out just to be bad guys in masks, death wouldn’t be real, etc. It’s Dean safe place in childhood because it takes his actual life (ghost hunting) and makes it safe and even fun. Dean wants to keep his safe place safe and is shocked and horrified when the rules of his universe invade.

It’s Sam who wants to tell them the truth about monsters from the word “go” even before it’s been revealed that death can come to Scooby Doo. (Dean laments, heartbreakingly, that it doesn’t matter if he dies...what’s important is that they make sure Scooby doesn’t die because clearly he’s such an innocent creature.) Sam, who did not have his childhood cut as abruptly short as Dean and who did not have to seek solace in a cartoon world because Dean helped him make a safe space in the real world, doesn’t see the point of lying about ghosts being real. Dean, who worked to keep Sam safe from this knowledge for YEARS of his own stunted childhood by acting as a parent, does want to keep the gang in the dark because he wants them to retain their innocence. It’s a huge lampshade to the different experiences Sam and Dean had as children and as sons.

They do eventually have to tell the Scooby gang and, wonderfully, it induces an existential crisis in them. Watching Daphne question the existence of God based on what she has inferred about the afterlife is amazing. It is not what I expected. Dean brings them back from the brink by reminding them of all the good work they had done before.

I’m going to tell the ending now and then double back to some other observations: the phantom they are chasing is the ghost of a small boy who is being manipulated, through a cursed object (a pocket knife given to him by his beloved father before he died), by an unscrupulous man (the real estate agent who we met in the beginning) who unleashes the boy’s anger on whoever he chooses for his own purpose...to scare people off of property he wants to buy. This way, the villain of a typical Scooby episode actually becomes the villain of this SPN episode...the evil real estate developer.

Before heading back to their world, where they burn the pocket knife and free the ghost, Dean convinces Sam and Cas to lie to the Scooby gang and tell them that they were right initially--ghosts aren’t real. He goes so far as to stage the unmasking of the cartoon villain (the one from the original Scooby episode) and helps them to explanations involving wires, cornstarch blood, etc. Sam is grumpy about it but does it anyway. It’s crucial to Dean that they leave the Scooby gang as they found them and not saddle them with the world the Winchesters live in.

Let me just reiterate...the ghost that has been terrorizing them is frightened little boy. Who kept a pocket knife (much like the one we see being used to carve the Winchester’s initials into the Impala) as a token of his dead father. His father is symbolized and memorialized by a weapon. The weapon is the object the little boy is tied to and that another man--a bad man--can use to manipulate him into hurting others because “I just get so angry sometimes.” To be free, the knife (weapon, father’s legacy) has to be burned. There are closeups on a very sad Dean while this happens (some sad Sam and Cas too).

It is blindingly obvious that the little boy, who is wreaking havoc on the cartoon safe space of his childhood, represents Dean. To stop the destruction Dean has to let something go (he starts the episode referencing Elsa and EXPLICITLY SAYING THIS LINE I CAN’T EVEN). Something that is keeping him angry. Something that is tied to his father. Something that can be used to manipulate him, employed as a weapon to hurt other innocent people (Mark of Cain/Demon Dean plot lines). Dean is full of anger and of self-loathing and it’s coming from the same source. That source is toxic masculinity. Let it go, Dean. Let it go.

Is it also tied to issues of sexuality? I think so. I’ll reflect a little bit below, but I wanted to do the whole plot-based analysis first.

And now the less plot-based stuff:

Ok, so can the ghost represent repressed sexuality/a different form of masculinity? SO MUCH YES. Point one: Cas is the only one who stops to take a look at the ghost and is thisclose to seeing through it’s big ol’scary disguise and finding a vulnerable child. He stops and squints at it, Cas-style, and says “I’ve never seen a ghost wear such a ridiculous costume. Unless...” and then he reaches out to it, starting to push aside the veil only to be pulled away. Now if that isn’t metaphorically precisely what Cas did, and does, for Dean and his performing facade I will buy a hat so that I can eat it.

Point two, there is a scene where the ghost is chasing everyone through a series of doors on either side of a hallway (you know the scene...they run across the hallway, doors open and shut on either side, feet flying everywhere). They successfully shut the ghost in a closet with iron chains, though it’s close to breaking out. Daphne presses her body up against the door to hold it. Dean checks her out very obviously in a way that is both superfluous to and inconsistent with the plot. This means that the silhouette of a conventionally sexy woman is QUITE LITERALLY holding the closet door closed on the ghost. Metaphorically, it shows how Dean is able to use his attraction to conventionally sexy women to hold back what’s haunting him...attraction to men, ideas about a certain type of masculinity. Does it work? BIG FAT NO. The ghost breaks out anyway. (<Puts on professor cap> Have you guys read “The Beast in the Closet”? It’s by Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick and is about "intense male homosocial desire as at once the most compulsory and the most prohibited of social bonds.” It’s about Henry James’s work but I think you would all dig it. <Takes off professor cap.>)

I wanted to start with that because I can tell that people are going to be very upset about Dean’s excessive flirtation with/pursuit of Daphne. And, yeah, I almost injured my eyes by rolling them so hard at some of the things he says. BUT THAT’S THE POINT. What he’s saying is a child’s idea of how a grown man would act with a woman he likes. And it bears a great deal of similarity to how Dean does act sometimes. We call it performing!Dean and wonder to what extent Dean is conscious of his performing. Given this episode I’d say..maybe .not that conscious? I feel like the overstated heterosexual dudebroness was done specifically to give us an over-exaggerated literal cartoon version of heterosexual Dean to compare to regular Dean so that anyone who doesn’t know Dean performs in his own life will have a lens through which to see it.

Also, Daphne is his childhood crush. OF COURSE he’s going to act like a moron around her. If I encountered [insert childhood TV crush here...for me it was Kevin from “The Wonder Years” for whatever reason] I’d act dumb as fuck! But you have to remember that she represents innocence for him...it’s established that all the Scoobies do (heh - puns!). Even if he’s kissing her hand or putting an arm around her or whatever there is no danger there, just like there’s no danger in the ghosts. Sexuality to Dean isn’t scary in Scooby Doo because it’s simple: it’s just a girl he likes. Except, just like how the ghosts are also dangerous, the love plot isn’t going to be that simple or that straightforward (heh - straight). You see where I’m going. Dean would rather be in a universe ghosts weren’t real because it’s safer and easier and kind of a fantasy land but they ARE real and he will have to deal with them; Dean would also rather be in a world where he was a suave, irresistible ladies’ man because it’s safer and easier and a kind of fantasy....but he’s not. Jensen even said so in his interview. Granted, Jensen’s comment may have just meant that Dean’s not suave like he thinks. But the actual episode draws a parallel that’s pretty damn clear.

Another reason to not worry: Daphne is zero interest in Dean at all. She has negative interest in Dean. Her lack of interest in Dean has created a void that is sucking all the air out of the room. She may not even know that Dean is hitting on her. She is so focused on Fred that no one else exists for her as a romantic interest. They are so obviously a pair, even though they are never shown to be together as a couple explicitly. <Stares directly into the camera like I’m on The Office.> Can Dean not see that? Is he blind? Well, he does see it, but he thinks Daphne is “settling” for Fred who represents a kind of masculinity that makes him uncomfortable (more in a sec). In point of fact, no one is romantically interested in Dean in this episode...unlike Sam who gets a lot of appreciation (and an eventual kiss) from Velma.

As for Fred, Dean begins by really hating him (so much that Sam remarks on it) and when pressed about why he attributes it to Fred’s self-confidence despite things like his “stupid ascot.” Dean comes to like and admire Fred and, ultimately, have the confidence to wear an ascot himself BECAUSE HE LIKES IT. It didn’t make Fred less of a man. It doesn’t make Dean less of a man to wear it with his plaid shirt. Fred helps Dean along the way to some self-acceptance. It’s nice. Fred is there to serve as a contrast to Dean’s overblown notions of what is “masculine” and offer another form of masculinity that is, manifestly, still appealing to the ladies.

Now, remember the Scooby Doo universe doesn’t have sex in it. It’s a cartoon. And they bend those rules only the tiniest bit here. All of Dean’s advances and even his jokes are PG. That innocence on the part of the Scoobies is played for laughs, Daphne remarking that Dean is silly for not knowing that “boys and girls don’t sleep in the same room” for example, but it’s also integral to the plot. (There are some other jokes too and, for a glorious second, I thought that they were legitimately going to reveal that Daphne and Velma were a thing but sadly not.) No one would want to ruin the Scooby universe by telling them about sex...not even Dean. Again, it contains a child’s conception of relationships.

I’m imagining some people will also be upset about how the episode treats Cas. I was especially stung that, right at the outset, Dean says flat-out that “Cas is basically a talking dog.” I made a noise of indignation that made people look at me. BUT let’s also remember how much Dean loves that talking dog. He’d die for him. He wants to protect him at any cost. He doesn’t want to spoil his innocence. So, yeah, that’s not a nice thing to say but it’s also not the whole story. Cas is grouped with Scooby and Shaggy the whole time and he bonds with them, SMILING (ALERT ALERT CARTOON CASTIEL KNOWS HOW TO SMILE) AND LAUGHING when he has to leave. He thanks them for showing him the importance of humor even in dangerous times. I think it’s a good lesson for Cas and his real affection for them reminds me of what a soft character he is inside, wanting to get a cat or save monkeys or keep bees. That’s been missing from Cas lately (even though I do LOVE bamf!Cas) so maybe this will help him recall it.

I want to say again that Cas is the one who can see through the ghost and its “ridiculous costume.”

Interestingly, both his entrances (his first appearance after Fred and Dean take off to drag race; when he reunites with the boys in the haunted house) frame him as a scary villain. The first is from behind and you just see the coat billowing out (though this did remind me of the girl running the drag race in “Grease” which...lol); the second he’s silhouetted in a window, approaching it in the rain, and is then covered with a sheet before he’s “unmasked” by Dean and discovered to be a friend. This is...pretty much Castiel’s character progression always. Looks like a threat but is discovered not to be.

Once they get back to their regular world Dean makes a remark about how that was the most fun he’s ever had “including that time with the Cartwright twins.” Cas studies him and asks “What did you do with the Cartwright twins?”. There’s a long beat in which Dean looks shifty and grins and shakes his head and turns away. Sam says “I don’t think I want to know.” Cas says nothing. Cas does want to know. This is new and part of a general progression that @amwritingmeta wrote a great analysis of where Cas is becoming able to think something like Forget that sacred oath...I must know what Dean did with those twins.

There was probably more, you guys, but it’s super late for my poor body clock. Please feel free to pass this on to anyone you think would like it but bear in mind that a) there are MASSIVE SPOILERS, b) this is just my interpretation of the episode, and c) I only saw it live once so my details may be wrong.

I thought this as a fantastic episode the more I think about it and I’m SO EXCITED for all of you to get to see it too so I can hear your thoughts!! <3

#13x16 #13x16 meta #SPOILERS #dean is bi #doubles and mirrors #villains as exposition #things that look like other things #toxic masculinity ruins the party again #brother feels #parental unit dean #maybe more tags to add later not sure #paleyfest 2018 #my meta #long post for ts #spoilers for ts

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manifestoonmoralmanlove · 6 years

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Jealousy Rant

Hello you Rotten Folks,

Due to real life stuff I have been posting less frequently but in particular that long-form stuff. So have this big olde rant on jealousy in BL I may or may not edit more, and may or may not make into audio.

Triggers: for discussion on abusive behavior including physical violence, stalking, controlling behavior, and sexual assault.

Why jealousy is a bad trope:

1.) It’s toxic

2.) It’s non-conflict

3.) It doesn’t actually deal with the roots of jealousy

Are you a fan of Fap’s furious fujoshi fumes, but want a meta-analysis of the genre as a whole instead of specific titles?

Oh no it seems literally no one is asking for that…no one except Faps and FUCK YOU I DO WHAT I WANT HAHA!

So that brings me to “Trouble with Tropes” or heh heh TROUPLES!

Anybody who’s ANY fan of romance has had to stare into the unrelenting green eyes of this trouple. I speak of no other than Jealousy. While I think some of what I’m going to say will resonate with how jealousy is used in fiction on a whole, I’m going to focus on how it’s used in BL…which I feel is a very potent and distilled version of it. Also heaven forbid I read about anything beyond nasty gay tonguings.

What better place to start than What IS jealousy?

Jealousy can cover a variety of topics but in the case of romance here I will be talking specifically about romantic and sexual jealousy.

Dictionary.com states that - feeling or showing suspicion of someone's unfaithfulness in a relationship.

Seems to be the one best suited for a romance but I’d argue that the definition that suits BL’s brand of jealousy is more like

fiercely protective or vigilant of one's rights or possessions.

Why do I say this?

Well because sometimes they literally say their partner is a possession. And even if not outright stated, it is heavily implied in the script.

(examples: Cute Devil + lamb project + Radical blood monster + Others)

There’s also the fact that very rarely is infidelity even considered a legitimate thing that would occur. As I said, the jealousy in BL is very, very POTENT and therefore has escalated beyond a suspicion of COULD BE UNFAITHFUL to a PERSON IS MY PROPERTY AND MY PROPERTY IS NOT ALLOWED TO INTERACT WITH OTHER HUMANS!

Getting real

Before I start ripping through this topic like a repressed teenage boy rips through a heavily populated street in Grand theft Auto… allow me to say that jealousy is a valid emotion to experience. When I rip on this trope it is not my intention to invalidate people who do struggle with jealousy in their relationships. However if you experience an emotion it doesn’t give you carte blanche to behave in any way you please. It’s the same as regular old anger. It’s normal to be angry if a partner forgets to let the dog out so the dog pees on the rug. However beating the shit out of that partner is NOT the right way to handle the forgetfulness or your own anger. Same with jealousy, it’s not unusual to get jealous of someone close to their partner. However that person responding to that with physically removing them, and screaming threats at them is SUPER NOT OKAY! Yet that is not uncommon in BL.

One must also maintain an acceptable amount of jealousy in order to maintain a healthy relationship. It’s not wrong to feel really angry or sad when you’re jealous…but if you get these feelings ALL THE TIME and due to things that are not a threat to your relationship, then that’s something to manage rather than something to blame on your partner. Capice?

TOXIC

The main problem is that the jealousy that is common in BL is HELLA TOXIC! Jealousy is regularly tied to deeper issues of personal insecurity yet the fact there is any kind of insecurity is very rarely mentioned in the text or even subtext of the story. Instead of this becoming a problem that one has to deal with on a personal level, it becomes a problem of the other having to obtain unrealistic standards. Sometimes the source of the jealousy is not a feasible such as a TODDLER NEPHEW or the fact that strangers GLANCE AT THEM when in public and sometimes the source of the jealousy isn’t even human. I have seen characters throw jealousy tantrums over pets, work (school or career orientated), and even the vague concept of a SPORT! So if you’re trying to avoid jealousy in a BL make sure you don’t go to school, don’t have a job, don’t own pets, don’t have family, don’t go out in public, and DEAR GOD don’t have hobbies either! Woah faps those things aren’t humans so it’s not like romantic or sexual jealousy. That’s a fair point…but the thing is the romantic/sexual jealousy functions the exact same way in those non-sexual/romantic scenarios. HOW COULD THAT BE???? Well the jealousy that we see here is in part about being left out when a partner does other things but is in large part about dominance. You got no other man to posture against? Well then just posture at a child, a puppy, or at a basketball why not?

Not only does jealousy crop up to unreasonable situations, an unreasonable amount of time (I’d estimate it occurs in 80% of BL mangas) but the way it’s handled is usually problematic as well.

The most common response I’ve seen to jealousy is the seme grabbing the uke by the wrist, dragging him away from the source of jealousy, pinning him to a wall, explaining that the source of jealousy is bad for the uke or that the uke is behaving poorly/stupidly by simply interacting with the source of jealousy, and they a fit of forceful jealousy induced make-outs or sex occurs that range from consensual to downright very non-consensual. Sometimes the uke will protest this treatment or the characterization of the jealousy fodder but this is pointless because it doesn’t become a conversation. It is simply about the seme controlling the uke and asserting his dominance.

Stalking is also extremely common if there is suspected jealousy. Troubling jealousy behavior can range from as tame as going through someone’s phone without permission to drugging, kidnapping, and nearly killing a partner for one of these trespasses.

HEY HEY HEY NOW! You man-hater! Ukes can be super creepy jealous too! …but ukes are men too… THAT’S NOT THE POINT! You’re acting as if only dominant partners experience jealousy!

No, no, no, you’re right. Ukes get jealous too and sometimes to the same batty degree. Yet, as a whole, uke jealousy tends to be less common and less destructive than jealousy of the seme variety. The most common situation where an uke gets jealous of what a seme is doing is, the uke is pushed into a corner to admit he’s jealous. The seme will reassure the uke he’s misunderstood and they make up. On one hand you can argue that this is a much healthier way to settle a jealousy problem. On another hand you may view this as something of a double standard.

If the uke’s jealous…it’s the uke’s fault and it’s nothing to worry about. If the seme’s jealous...it’s the uke’s fault and it’s deadly serious.

This double standard even extends into how we view violent reactions for either side. If a seme hits an uke for a trespass it will usually be framed as serious and scary. If the uke hits the seme for a trespass it will usually be framed as a silly, and harmless outburst of tsundereness.

…Yes that’s right, the patriarchal set up of the seme/uke dynamic doesn’t just take a shit on ukes….though 9 times out of 10 it’s the ukes that do get the short end of the stick here.

Okay but let’s get the root of the problem…why is jealousy used?

If you’re a person who is not a bitter feminist killjoy who says aggravating SJW shit like, “TOXIC MONOGOMY CULTURE OPRRESSES MY GENDER NEUTRAL GENITLES” you may argue that jealousy is romantic. I personally don’t think it is, but you’re fully allowed to view jealousy, as a concept, as a touching display of vulnerability and investment in a relationship.

However if you’re a cynical over-thinking fujoshi brimming with resentment to the genre you’ve mistakeningly dedicated your free time to, you may say the frequent use of jealousy is simply because it’s EASY WRITING!

It’s handy throw-away drama you can use in an established relationship that won’t have deeper ramifications for the relationship even if it’s on-going. You can solve this pretty easily at any given point or decide to reintroduce it despite it previously being wrapped up. You can use this almost TOTALLY regardless of either of the characters’ personalities or back stories. It’s good for a quick antagonist, or to tantalize fans with a different flavor of sexual tension. This is usually dependent on the gender of the jealousy fodder.

Ugh I’ve heard you use the term ~jealousy fodder~ like a billion times. Why do you call it that?

Because these characters rarely have anything going for them besides the fact they’re the conflict du-jour. You’d be hard pressed to learn an interest of the fodder’s outside of “TRYING TO BANG PROTAG!” and they rarely do anything else in the story besides create this shallow drama. Sometimes the jealousy drama is totally auxiliary to the main conflict of the story to boot. If you’re lucky and ONLY if you’re lucky the fodder will be shuffled into another couple. Sometimes you won’t even see this jealousy used in a love triangle way. It’s usually pretty obvious from the beginning that the protag is going to choose even if the other option is an objectively better person and choice for them.

In my years of reading BL I have only encountered 2 instances of a character being jealous and the other character ACTUALLY cheats on him. (Zetsuai Bronze and Totally Captivated.) Now people have different standards of what “cheating” is. Some goes so far as to say that “Thinking about cheating” is CHEATING. Even by that (pretty ridged standard) I would still say only the above.

Despite this low, low number, I see jealousy used in manga 80% of the time. Are you picking up what I’m putting down here? A breach of actual trust is not actually going to happen…99.99% of the time. Oh but what if the jealousy is something a character has to work through to feel less anxious? Excellent idea! I’ve seen that approach FUCKING ONCE! (Café Latte Rhapsody) So if there is no actual threat of trust breaching and it’s not something either of them has to work through on a mental or emotional level….WHAT KIND OF CONFLICT IS THAT?

NON-FUCKING-CONFLICT IS WHAT!

I’d be much more entertained by staring into my own fucking bellybutton….but faps obviously you would since you navel-gaze as if you have a gemstone there. IF I BELIEVE HARD ENOUGH I’LL BECOME I CRYSTAL GEM OKAY!?!?!?!?

Eh-hem!

But you will see jealousy commonly used in one instance of actually plot important drama. And that is the ever, important, cementing of a couple’s relationship. I call the use of jealousy in this instance:

TOY TRUCK CONSUMATION

Da fuck is that? Toy truck consummation is a character will only realize he truly cares romantically for someone because he experiences jealousy. He didn’t want that toy truck until somebody else was going to play with it. Thankfully I don’t see this often outside of high school settings. A grown-ass man who is that fucking blind to his own feelings and childish enough to throw a tantrum out of it, can fuck RIGHT OFF! ….Though honestly teenagers behaving that way is still deeply shitty.

This is not an auspicious beginning to a loving relationship, if it’s formulated over single-mindedly hating a 3rd party, a 3rd party that is typically on good-terms with the target of affection. So, a relationship we’re supposed to root for is predicated on a dude swooping in and ripping a valued person away from them for entirely selfish reasons. I wouldn’t consider it dreamy if a seme threw an uke’s beloved play station 4 out the window because it holds the ukes attention sometimes. I consider it even less dreamy when it’s something even more valued like yanno a friend. (Though of course this can happen from the uke to the seme as well.) While sometimes, this individual is romantically interested in one of our leads…I’d say a good half the time if not more…they’re not at all.

“Why are you losing your mind over someone, you’re not dating, hanging out with their friend? Even if the friend very obviously has 0 romantic or sexual interest in them? Is it because you’re an anal fungus that causes people to shit their pants for no reason? It’s probably because you’re a parasitic ass mushroom that makes people poop uncontrollably”

This, also, is pretty damn lazy. Writing someone coming to grips with a difficult emotion is hard in itself. Writers will usually use 3rd parties to help bounce information back to a struggling individual to help give them insight. And that can be used in this case as well! Interacting with another couple, talking to someone who’s an out LGBTQ person, or even just a friend or relative that can relate! However all of that is harder to pull off as melodramatically as a petty fuck-lord gut-punching a jealousy fodder out of the blue. Hoo boy sonny! We should have a parade in his honor cause golly isn’t that the way to handle your problems!

But what if the jealousy fodder was really after them?

Then I would say the story may feature the trope….

Irrational jealousy magiced into rational jealousy!

What I mean is that there is a dominant that appears to be irrationally jealous. There is no indication in the text the jealousy fodder is not on the up and up and the dominant is not privy to classified documents that make him secretly suspicious. However turns out the harmless friend, acquaintance, co-worker, boss, mail man etc is actually a heartless rapist just trying to lower the submissive’s guard.

This trope makes me foam at the mouth because not only is it cheap, cliché, and annoying but it justifies abusive behavior. It states that No matter what crazy shit that lunatic boyfriend of yours spouts he’s fucking infallible. If he tells you that the atmosphere has become poisonous to you and the only breathable air is in his testicles, you better clamp down on that cocktail wiener like a pit-bull because any damn self-serving nonsense he spews must be followed to the fucking letter. Why? Because he is a mind-reader, a genius, and a clairvoyant with flawless judgment by nature of being born a DOMINANT MAN! TA-DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!

May I just add this is not a trope specific to BL but a trope that makes me want to drink into a stupor each time I see it.

Well if you’re so fucking relationship savy, how would you handle jealousy in stories huh!?

…By actually tackling the causes of jealousy which are very rarely acknowledged in BL. As far as I can tell there are 3 major roots of jealousy.

1.) Insecurity – I am not a good enough partner so my significant other is going to drop me as soon as they find somebody better.

2.) Distrust – My partner does not respect our monogamous agreement and will sleep with other people if they can get away with it.

3.) Missing out - I feel left out if my partner is doing something without me.

I have seen all three roots play a role in fictional jealousy outbursts and they’re usually tied intimately together. However the 1st two are the keys here.

Mistrust is an interesting situation because 99% of the time the mistrust is not that the partner will sleep around given the chance. However the mistrust is shown as more of a, “I cannot trust my partner to avoid situations where they’ll be sexually assaulted.”

While this is framed as a jealousy issue at times, I don’t think it should. Why? If a character is sexually assaulted it is NOT the victims fault. But haha welcome to the 50 foot deep pit of backwards sexual politics that is BL. YOU’RE WELCOME!

Insecurity plays a large role in BL jealousy…but I have only seen it addressed directly as a failing of personal confidence once. (Café Latte Rhapsody)

Most of the time characters that are subtextualy highly insecure are portrayed as powerful and that their jealousy tantrums is just ~how strong men act~ rather than ~they obviously hate themselves and fear their partner would find someone better.~

I’ll be quite frank, a lot of the time…they’re correct the uke could do a lot better than the jerkass seme they’re saddled with. However, instead of changing their negative behavior for the better they just control the uke’s every movements which is yanno not doing the uke OR the seme any favors. Sometimes this functions realistically in a story like in Space Between where Riki is an unwilling sex slave and Iason keeps him under his thumb. However the majority of them treat this like a normal and healthy relationship…but

Wouldn’t it be better if one is not constantly wracked with fear over their partner leaving them?

Wouldn’t it be better if the other can have friends and leave the house?

I’m not saying the two can’t struggle with issues of jealousy…but I mean…can’t we treat jealousy like something they work on together instead of just,

“I can’t believe you talked to them! I DIDN’T MEAN TO!”

That sound clip? Just play it on loop

“WELP LET’S HAVE THIS SAME EXACT PISSING CONTEST FOR THE 90TH FUCKING TIME! IT’S NOT GOING TO BE DIFFERENT NEXT TIME BECAUSE WE’RE NOT GOING TO TREAT IT LIKE ADULTS WOULD!”

So the problem with jealousy as a trope in romance and BL fiction is thus:

1.) It’s toxic, doesn’t treat it as toxic, and sometimes justifies the toxicity.

2.) It’s pathetic, cliché, non-conflict

3.) It doesn’t really even understand what jealousy is.

#trouples #trouble with tropes #rant #my rant #jealousy

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