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lilasamaaa · 22 days

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Wicked games | Max Verstappen x Leclerc!Reader

Genre | Fluff, some light angst.

Word count | 1.5K.

Warnings | Some sexual innuendos, reader playfully gaslighting Max.

Summary | You love Max, you really do. But there’s just something about your brother’s teammate… as a driver, of course.

Author's note | This piece was requested! Thanks to the lovely anon who came up with the idea, I had so much fun writing it! This is shorter than what I usually write, but I wanted to keep this one light and fun :)

"Babe? Max's voice comes from the living room. "Are you ready to go?"

This weekend, it's the iconic Monaco Grand Prix, and you're delighted not to have to take a flight and endure jet lag from the other side of the world for once. Not that you're complaining about having the privilege to travel so much, but you understand what flight attendants mean when they say that flying makes you age prematurely. Before the bustling week begins and paralyzes the entire city, you, your brother, and Max had agreed to go eat lunch at your favorite place before the boys had to attend their pre-race press conference.

"I'm almost done," you shout back, placing bobby pins in your bun, when you hear the footsteps of your boyfriend approaching until they reach the door.

"We're..." Max starts before his gaze lands on you. "Oh, no, baby. There's no way you're wearing that."

You arch an eyebrow, observing your boyfriend in the large mirror of the bathroom.

"What's wrong with my outfit?" you ask, tilting your head.

"You're not really going to wear that, are you? Not while holding my hand?" Max replies, starring at your white tennis skirt and red Ferrari polo while you let out a hearty laugh.

"I might be your girlfriend, Max Verstappen, but I'm a Ferrari fan first and foremost. You knew this when you first asked me out."

"Of course I know, baby, but there's a difference between supporting Ferrari and... walking around with their colors on the street. With me."

"Are you playing territorial right now?" you ask, putting both hands on his chest, struggling to suppress your laughter.

"If you're so set on wearing red, why don't you try something more... Discreet? Like the red dress I brought you from Miami?"

"I'm wearing the polo, Max. It'll make Charles happy. And Carlos too," you add, winking at your boyfriend before walking towards the living room.

"Huh? What's the connection with Carlos?" Max asks, following you. "Is Carlos invited to the restaurant?"

Ever since Max and you started dating, several years ago, this has been your favorite game. Never gets old. You just love mentioning the Scuderia and its drivers. It's not that he hates the team, no, after all, as Sebastian once said, everyone's a Ferrari fan. But while Max understands your attachment to the team in relation with your brothers, there's one thing he finds less understandable... Your fascination with the other driver.

"You didn't tell me Carlos was coming," Max says again, still following around while you put on your jewelry.

"I didn't think it was important," you shrug, smirking.

Let it be clear : you don't feel anything for Carlos. No attraction whatsoever. But ever since the Spaniard joined the team and became a close friend of Charles, your relationship naturally developed to the point where today, you genuinely consider Carlos as a member of your family. You've even met his own, spent holidays with them, and you've crashed at Carlos' place multiple times before. Sometimes, when you need someone to talk to and Charles and Max are too biased, too closely involved with you to provide good insight, you call Carlos. The same way the driver always comes to you when he's got girls troubles. Yes, the two of you share a beautiful, tight bond. And knowing there's no ambiguity between the two of you (Max knows it too, deep down), you love driving your boyfriend crazy by mentioning Carlos.

"What's the matter, Max?" you ask, turning around, smiling at him.

"Look, I don't say anything when you sleep on his couch, or when you spend hours on the phone with his sisters. It doesn't even bother me when you check his results, and I surely didn't say anything when you celebrated his victory in Australia while my car was giving me hell," Max continues, gesturing with his hands. "But isn't this a bit much?"

"What is?"

"You said we were going out... As a family? Like, your brother, you and me?"

"Carlos is family," you reply, playing dumb.

"You..." Max starts, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Okay, yeah. Whatever." your boyfriend says, throwing his hands in the air.

As Max and you arrive hand in hand in front of the restaurant where Charles and Carlos are waiting, you don't miss the look your brother gives you upon seeing you dressed in the red polo.

"You're fucking impossible," Charles mutters while kissing your cheek.

Once inside, as the four of you walk over to your table, you still see the opportunity to drive Max crazy by sitting across from Charles. Next to Carlos. Diagonally, your boyfriend watches you, eyebrows furrowed, a hint of annoyance in his eyes.

"Miami was so fun," you start, taking the menu.

"You and I must have a different definition of the word" Max says, rolling his eyes.

"Well, it's not so unpleasant to see someone else cross the finish line before you, for once," you reply teasingly.

"Like in Melbourne?" Max asks with an ironic smile.

"Like in Melbourne," you nod, winking at your boyfriend before turning your attention to the Spaniard. "You did so good, Carlos. I'll have you know that I was rooting for you from the start."

"Yeah," Charles interjects, rolling his eyes. "We know."

The table is engulfed in a heavy silence, and you enjoy yourself so much, your eyes sparkling mischievously.

"There's some tension in here, am I right?" Carlos asks after some time, looking at all three of you in turn.

"She's been bugging me about you all morning," Max replies, taking a sip of his coke. "She thinks it's funny."

"Why would you do that?" Carlos asks, looking at you, eyes wide. "You know he's going to push me off-track because of you, next time."

"You're better than them, that's all," you reply, eyes fixated on the menu in front of you. "They just can't admit it."

"Now, that's just nasty coming from my own sister," Charles says, laughing. "Take that back."

"Leave her to it," Max says to your brother, giving you a meaningful look. "She's decided to be bratty today. She knows it drives me crazy."

"We should all know less about each other," Carlos says before gesturing for the waiter to come over, while Charles tries to hide the red from his face with his menu.

The meal goes well, the false tensions easing over a succession of delicious dishes. But you're not done with your little game. Not yet. As the server clears your plates and refills your wine, you lean in towards Carlos.

"What dessert do you recommend? I'm in the mood for something sweet," you ask Carlos, fluttering your eyelashes innocently.

Across from you, your brother sighs, running a hand across his face, while Max stares at you in a way you know all too well. A look that tells you that once the two of you set foot back in your shared apartment, you're going to pay for your behavior. Big time. But for now, you don't care, leaning over Carlos' menu, your shoulders pressed together. The Spaniard is so innocent, so far from imagining that you're using him to lead your boyfriend exactly where you want him.

"Their crème brûlée is delicious," the driver replies mechanically, eyes still looming over the piece of paper.

"Crème brûlée it is, then," you reply, setting back in your chair. "I just love to make them crack," you finish, locking eyes with Max.

That's it. You're fucked. Max's usually clear eyes are dark with annoyance and desire. Feeling the heat in your lower belly, you lower your gaze, finding it hard to meet your boyfriend's eyes. You can't wait to get home, knowing that with the afternoon of interviews ahead of him, your boyfriend will have to suppress his desire until tonight, amplifying his frustration. After dessert, the four of you head to the cashier, where Max pays for everyone before leading you all outside.

Carlos gives you a quick hug before heading back to his car, promising to call you soon, knowing that the other two drivers will follow him in a few moments. Charles approaches you, and you throw yourself in his arms, pressing your nose against his neck.

"You've got to stop doing that," your brother mumbles playfully in your ear. "You're not the one who has to deal with his awful mood in the paddock afterward."

"He's just so easy to rile up," you say, as both of you let out a laugh.

Charles pinches your cheek before waving to Max and joining Carlos in his car. You find yourself facing Max and give him a radiant smile. Perfectly innocent.

"You're the worst," your boyfriend starts, crossing his arms against his chest.

"You just love me," you say, sticking out your tongue.

"I'm going to ruin you tonight," he concludes, pulling you towards him before kissing you passionately, his hands grazing your buttocks, barely covered by your short skirt. "Show you who's better than who."

"I can't wait," you mutter against his mouth, softly biting his lower lip before taking the keys from his car in the back pocket of his jeans.

"Can't wait," you repeat, watching your boyfriend walk away until he disappears into the backseat of Carlos' car.

#f1 #f1 2024 #f1 fanfic #f1 fic #f1 imagine #f1 x reader #formula 1 #carlos sainz #carlos sainz x reader #carlos sainz x you #charles leclerc #leclerc!reader #max verstappen #max verstappen x you #max verstappen x reader #lilasamaaa

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undiscovered-horizon · 7 months

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[Sanji and Zoro hardly get along, requring a lot of effort to keep things civil between them. But when it's revealed that they've both set their eyes on the same girl, their rivalry might just get out of hand.]

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If Sanji was a different man, maybe he'd feel a bit embarrassed about his little habit. Maybe he'd question whether intensely staring at his crewmate from afar is appropriate.

However, he is who he is, so Sanji just silently smokes his cigarette all the while watching you discuss something with Nami. You're telling her something that must have really moved you - there's a plethora of emotions on your face and your hands are all over the place gesturing. The cook chuckles to himself. You're cute when you're excited.

Then, something stings inside his chest. What does Sanji have to do to become your confidant? To be the person you run to whenever you need an ear to listen? His suave words and rivers of compliments have worked perfectly so far but it seems like he's come to some plateau. Lingering touches, less than ambiguous remarks, favors and gifts... And yet you're not any more inclined to throw yourself at him than you were a month ago.

"Don't bother, waiter." he hears a voice behind him.

Sanji almost chokes on the cigarette smoke. He wasn't expecting anyone to catch him red-handed, much less for that person to be Roronoa Zoro - the only one who would spill his little secret just to get under his skin.

But Zoro's willingness to get under the cook's skin goes a lot deeper, at least in Sanji's mind. He's not oblivious to the swordsman's prying eyes that follow you and the compliance with which he succumbs to your every whim, even if he tries to appear annoyed.

Sanji feels his skin burn as he watches you move around in a short skirt. As though he's under a curse or stared the Basilisk straight in the eye, he can't look away. You've asked Nami to cut the material down, not being a fan of the way you looked in a knee-length skirt. It wasn't bad, just a little awkward.

Now you're standing in front of Nami, turning around and walking in place so she can see if everything's the way you wanted. The ginger girl keeps grabbing the hem of the skirt, folding it upwards to see if the seams are right.

Then a few floorboards creak as someone else approaches the scene.

"What do you think, Zoro?" you ask in a thrilled voice. Maybe if Sanji made his presence known, you'd ask him too. Then he could gawk at you all he wanted, up close, under the guise of 'making judgment'.

"It's fine," he answers with apparent disinterest.

Zoro walks past you and Nami. Sanji closely watches him, sounding out whether the swordsman has noticed him and whether he's willing to tell on the cook. Then, to his horror, Zoro glances over his shoulder, returning his attention to you. He looks you up and down, a little too slow to be considered innocent. Zoro licks his lips.

The swordsman turns again, meeting Sanji's seething stare. A mocking half-grin enters Zoro's face. He bumps his shoulder into the cook's as he goes past him. They don't exchange any words but their strife couldn't be more clear.

"If you think you can talk me into giving up on her, you're more of an idiot than I thought," Sanji retorts. He's willing to physically fight Zoro if things come down to that. Then, should the universe bless him, you'd take care of his wounds with your tender touch.

Zoro snorts. "I'm just sayin' there's no way she'd go for you. You smell like dishrags and salivate over any girl with a pulse."

Sanji takes the cigarette out of his mouth. He chuckles, both out of anger and disbelief. "If you spent as much time with women as you do staring at your swords, maybe you'd learn that brooding and vaguely threatening stares are hardly attractive, moss-head."

"You don't know anything about her, new guy," Zoro drones out. His low tone sounds like a warning.

The swordsman's irritation is like music to Sanji's ears. A mischievous smile appears on his face. "I've spent enough nights with her to know what she likes."

Roronoa slightly raises his eyebrows. Sanji almost believes that he surprised Zoro but the expression of the dark, brown eyes is nothing if not malicious. "So that's where she is when she's not warming my bed?"

A tense silence falls between them. They stare at each other like goaded bulls, ready to gore their horns through the other man. Their crescendo almost comes to a violent climax when something distracts both of them:

Nami and you burst into wholehearted laughter, tears streaming down your faces. Shouts of 'No way!' are cut into syllables by chuckles.

Both Sanji and Zoro let out a lovesick sigh. Immediately, they turn to glare at their rival. There, as silence remains between them and their hearts are filled with your laughter, the two men take up the rivalry, knowing that they're equally too stubborn to give up until either of them wins.

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determinators · 4 months

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Yes, the 4channers were awful and they persist in misgendering me, while simultaneously complaining I don't post anymore, with zero self awareness.

4chan harassment alone isn't why I left. This is.

It's the transphobia.

I have been in the fandom since 2015. I have been arguing with transphobes in the fandom since 2015. I have been making write ups about why it's important not to misgender the - yes, fictional - characters since 2015, because of the complete lack of caring it communicates to real nonbinary people.

Last year, I wrote a post that got 7000 notes and is currently pinned to the Deltarune subreddit. I poured my heart out about what the nonbinary characters meant to me and why they were important.

It was argued over, I was mocked for it, I included personal details about my family situation and my difficulty coming out, I was mocked for it.

I wrote it because I believed it mattered. Because for eight years, the constant comment when mentioning the pronouns of these characters has been: Who cares?

At any point since 2015, Toby could have saved the transgender people in the fandom the trouble of having to "prove" the characters were nonbinary by saying something.

Last year, Legends of Localization comes out - thoroughly reviewed by Toby - and calls Frisk, Monster Kid, and Napstablook "ambiguous", designed to have an unclear gender.

You can see in the collage of screenshots how the transphobes in the fandom took that. One delightful individual was so triumphant over the victory, they put the statement in their Reddit subtitle.

So each time this individual posts to the Undertale subreddit, people will see this quote, carried around like a trophy with all the pride of a dog with a rotting pelt in its mouth. That's how much it meant to the transphobes in the fandom. They're delighted by having this quote to throw back in the faces of transgender fans.

Because who cares? The majority of the fandom isn't transgender, or on tumblr. It's easy for them not to care about transgender people.

You can block block block as many people as you want (I had thousands blocked here) but you can't curate your way out of transphobia. It isn't possible.

Because the majority of the fandom is on Reddit, or YouTube, or Twitter, and they, quite vocally, do not care about transgender people.

Some people may recall that I stopped posting to the Deltarune subreddit after the mods decided to filter all posts containing the word "nonbinary" without telling anyone.

The mods stopped filtering the word after I posted this and apologized, but the point was made: people in the greater fandom think the word "nonbinary" is a dangerous, impolite word, one that only invokes argument and therefore should not be used.

So I stopped posting on the Deltarune and Undertale subreddits. I never made YouTube or Twitter content. I set my blog to only allow people with Tumblr accounts to view it. I turned off all asks, anonymous or otherwise. I blocked thousands of people. It did not work. Transgender people can't curate (read: quarantine) our way out of transphobia.

Years of this, of transgender fans of the series getting attacked for trying to claim and fight for nonbinary representation in the series, and "ambiguous" is the language Toby signed off on.

If the characters are meant to be nonbinary representation, the last eight years has proven that this needs to be stated outright, or the onus of "proving" it falls on the vastly outnumbered transgender fans in the fandom - something that we have never been able to do without being profusely harassed for it until we shut our mouths.

If the characters were only ever meant to be ambiguous for the sake of "freedom of interpretation", then this should have been communicated with seriousness and respect to the transgender fans of the series years ago, not as a throwaway line in a translation book. (and to be clear, this is not at all the author's fault - Toby corrected and reviewed the language used)

This is why I left and why I'm never coming back, no matter what happens next. I have had enough of the transphobia in the fandom, and I have no way of fighting back anymore.

Transphobes in the fandom want the work and the passion of nonbinary people but won't even use a pronoun to show the basest level of respect and humanity for us.

I'm watching our rights being taken away day by day, and people like this just want me to keep producing my worthless little game theory posts.

Trans people don't owe you our "content" or our passion, particularly not when we produce it for free in the face of eight years of a deeply transphobic audience that we are expected to either beg for the most basic respect or to turn our heads down and hide away from so they can continue either hating us or pretending we don't exist or that that part of us doesn't matter.

"Who cares?"

When people ask this in response to talking about being nonbinary or respecting pronouns, they know transgender people care.

What they're saying is, who cares about transgender people?

For this reason, I'm requesting people not archive anything I've written, though I know I can't enforce this. That includes the Character Analysis and the "(Characters) are nonbinary why it matters" post, which I wrote in such profoundly naive good faith. For every "who cares" I have received over eight years of being transgender in this fandom.

If my identity as a nonbinary person doesn't matter, if nonbinary people don't exist, then neither does the content I made which they feel so entitled to, even while misgendering me.

I can't even think about this series without becoming angry and miserable anymore. That is the lasting, final impression the art has had on me. I can't think about it or the characters without remembering how little transgender people matter to most of the world. I've had to completely cut it out my life. There's no rage as potent as the helpless one. "Who cares?" I can't make people care.

You can't have the creations and art and "content" made by transgender people and our destruction at the same time. And maybe you can't prevent our destruction either, but you sure as hell can use a damn pronoun.

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ohcorny · 2 months

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hey corny. so i always see people recommending to outline their story before starting it, but could you talk a little bit more about what that means? what is an outline and how do you structure one? how long are the ones you write, depending on the project? do you focus on plot beats or feelings? how specific do you get? can u recommend any readings for learning more?

up front i don't have any resources for this, only experience. and outlines feel like one of those things where it's like... there are a million ways to do it and the way that works for me might not work for you. i have a friend who writes out all his ideas on index cards and that, for me, is insane. but he's also a better writer than me so who can say what is right or wrong.

anyway an outline is essentially a sketch but for a story. you go through the whole thing, start to finish, and figure out what goes where and what happens when. the idea is that this is the stage where you work out all the big picture stuff and make sure it all fits together, now, and not after you've drawn twenty pages and suddenly go "wait shit that doesn't work" and have to do it over. it is much easier to delete and rewrite a paragraph than to redraw several pages.

doing anything more, ie including dialogue or feelings, depends entirely on how useful that information is to you at that point in the process and whether the purpose of the outline is for your own guidance, or so somebody else can tell what you're trying to achieve.

this got really long with multiple examples

here is an excerpt from the original outline i used to pitch Hunger's Bite to publishers. this one had to be polished to a professional standard, because somebody else was going to read it and decide whether they wanted to give me thousands of dollars to tell this story. (also several of the details are no longer accurate. for instance it now takes place 9 years earlier lmao)

this paragraph represents the first eight pages of the book. the final book is 264 pages long, and the outline was 12 pages of paragraphs as dense as this one.

it establishes where we are, who's there, and what they're doing. i describe their conversation, but i don't commit to the dialogue. i will occasionally include snippets of literal dialogue, but usually only if it's Important Dialogue, or i just don't want to forget a good idea i had while outlining. it's not expected at this step.

an outline written as part of a pitch to a publisher should tell the whole story, with all the important details, and leave nothing ambiguous. they need to know the tone, shape, and the arcs. no secrets! all the spoilers. outlines for yourself should do this too, but outlines for others need to be as clear about your vision as possible. again, an outline like this exists for the purpose of getting you paid thousands of dollars. you should write it like that.

in comparison, here's an excerpt from the outline i wrote for revisions to my WIP prose novel, so i could show it to my agent (who already read the draft) to be like "do these changes sound good?" i'm not selling it to anyone yet, just making a guide so i can have a conversation about it. so it doesn't need to be neat, it just needs to be functional and clear. the first chapter was entirely new stuff. the second bit was just writing down what was already in the chapter that existed.

i have historically been very bad at outlining things when i don't think i "need" to, and only wrote this one after having written like 60k words of the book without any overall plan. i gave what i had to my agent for feedback and then sat down and figured out how i could apply it. it's made the whole revisions process significantly less daunting. now i have a checklist for things i need to do! this one was a paragraph or two for each chapter, with the ones that needed a lot of rewriting given a bit more detail.

lastly, here's a bit of the outline for the first roger crenshaw book. i was the only person who had to see this, and since the story was planned to be very short i didn't have to worry about a whole lot. as long as i knew what was supposed to go where, it would work. honestly it's not a whole lot different from the previous example.

this one was like five paragraphs and it did the job, and this story was like 15k words. you only need as much or as little as will actually help you on the page.

basically if you take nothing else from this, it's that there are multiple ways to write an outline, that it does not need to be perfect if you're doing it for yourself, and that it only needs what you think is important (unless it is for other people. then it should have everything). and also it's a good idea to do it earlier in the project than after you've written 60k words or drawn--jesus christ i got up to 12 chapters in never satisfied? it's amazing i didn't quit sooner

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feladi-fority · 5 months

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haven't posted in a while, but I completed Undertale Yellow a while ago and none of my friends have and I need to scream into the void about it SOMEWHERE! Spoilers abound

So, Flowey. He's really well written in this. In Undertale proper we don't get to see much of him and what we do see is really 1 note. He scares you, tries to manipulate people, and tries to hurt people for his own amusement. In Undertale Yellow though we get to see how immature and impatient he is. Whenever Clover does something Flowey doesn't approve of he lashes out even when doing so directly impedes his ability to manipulate Clover, such as killing Marlet at the end of the neutral route. Flowey is a terrible manipulator, putting in absolutely zero effort to understand Clover, instead blaming them for his own plan not working. He talks about how much he hates Clover and relishes in their death but Flowey has done nothing to understand Clover, instead just viewing them as a problem to brute-force a solution to. All of this is, of course, consistent with who Flowey was in Undertale but it's so much more textured with how much screen-time Flowey gets.

Additionally, I find the implications of what I can only describe as Flowey's Blackspace. During the meta-Flowey fight his attacks are monstrous versions of himself, many of which are killed as part of his attacks. He pulls out his own pedals, cries to attack, and kills images of himself. Then there's the section where you walk through piles of Flowey corpses which call for help. The dialogue the later corpses give is ambiguous, but lines like "this must be it" in the context of the rest takes on a dark implication. Flowey seems to hate himself and view himself as a monster who deserves to be cut-down (he has that in common with his dad lol). Maybe then Flowey's plan to destroy the world via collecting the souls is ultimately self destructive, a way to go down with the world, and rid himself of the possibility of coming back, a true completion through obliteration.

Now I need to talk about Marlet. She's fucking great. She has this deep sense of maturity to her character which was really cool to see. It isn't all that clear in the pacifist route as there we mainly see her inability to get things done and her self-hate, but on the more violent routes we see her constantly trying to empathize and resolve conflict with Clover by understanding them. I think it's incredibly note-worthy that Marlet is the only character who recognizes Clover as a child who shouldn't be capable of committing such violence, and the implications of that fact. Marlet doesn't let her emotions stop her from understanding people and doing the right thing, and I really like how that was executed.

I loved the themes of this game. I expected the game to tackle similar themes to Undertale, either just recreate theme entirely or at least tackle something similar to Undertale's very meta exploration about what it means to care about things. Instead this game goes for an old classic, the cycle of violence, and I think it executes it very well!

Throughout the game characters interact with this theme in different ways. Clover (on the vengeance route specifically), and Ceroba parallel each-other in this way. Ceroba objectifies humans due to her position as a monster separated from humanity and growing up with an adversarial relationship to them. Chujin finds it extremely easy to hate humanity for a slight against him and enacts violence on humanity due to perceiving them as inherently evil due to historical mistreatment by humans and personal experience. This violence horrifies him in the end, but still in his attempt to get vengeance he perpetuates the cycle, projecting his hate towards humanity onto Ceroba who goes onto hurt more people because of it. Clover on the vengeance route is in a similar position, objectifying monsters due to being a human separate from them and learning of slights against humanity by them. Clover finds out monsters killed 5 humans (either all children, or some of them children) and is able to easily objectify them for it due to their position. Clover enacts disproportionate violence in reaction to the violence monsters committed against humanity in reaction to the violence humanity enacted against monsters by sealing them underground. Asgore remarks at the end of the vengeance route that Clover's actions will result in many more deaths on both side's parts, and he's right, Clover provided more reason for another Chujin to come about and enact more violence on humanity which in turn would provoke a response. Violence creates violence creates violence.

Flowey, under this framing, becomes an embodiment of the cycle. The game cleverly uses the power of resetting as the mechanical manifestation of this cycle. Flowey continues to reset events over and over and over letting Clover get killed over and over and over, just as the cycle of violence repeats, so to does the game itself. The game resets, new runs provide new content, certain events are enshrined in this game's concept of fate. The fate here is just that things cannot change with more violent inputs, Flowey can never get what he wants because he's incapable of doing what Marlet could do. Flowey can't change fate because he's what's locking it in place, he's the logic of violence that forces the world to over and over again punish characters and kill them, but Marlet through her empathy and compassion at least tries to break the cycle, she tries to get Clover to stop hurting people and break this repeated cycle of violence, and she does the same for Ceroba and Chujin to less success. How fitting then that Flowey kills Marlet in the neutral route.

Pacifist Clover is the parallel to Marlet. They face the cycle of violence and chose to understand and help others despite it. The vision for breaking the cycle that Undertale Yellow provides is empathy and compassion, choosing to not give into anger at horrible things done to you as to not perpetuate that being done to more people in the future. It's a really well-executed theme, I love this game.

#undertale #undertale yellow #ut yellow

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lady-phasma · 18 days

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This specific use of the 180 Degree Rule has been nagging me since the last trailer came out. The 180 Degree Rule refers to how the camera frames the subjects in a scene so that they are "switched" when the camera moves. This is less disorienting to viewers than if the subjects stayed on the same side of the frame every time (see example below). It's a small trick, but it is noticeable when it isn't used. Logic tells us they should stay on the same side of the frame but it really doesn't work. If you are interested in understanding this further there is a great sequence in Satoshi Kon's Paprika (2006) that explains it better than I have ever seen anywhere else.

Daemon's War

The exchange between Rhaenyra and Jace in episode 10 conveys so much meaning in so few words. I'm not going to discuss Rhaenyra's desires in this post or if they conflict with Daemon's. That would need its own post all to itself.

Jacaerys: Where is Daemon? Rhaenyra: I don't know. Gone to madness. Gone to plot his war.

Daemon and his motivations are revealed so concisely. There is certainly foreshadowing here, but I appreciate that Rhaenyra knows him so well and has no expectations of him (at this point) beyond what she has seen in the past.

Daemon makes bold assumptions and is arrogant enough to think his way is the best way. When he lists Meleys in their assets there is no doubt in his mind that Rhaenys will side with them in the war. But why does he assume this? What isn't being said is intriguing.

We have Syrax, Caraxes, and Meleys. Your sons have Vermax, Arrax, and Tyraxes. Baela has Moondancer. There are also unclaimed dragons. Seasmoke still resides on Driftmark. Vermithor and Silverwing dwell on the Dragonmont, still riderless. Then there are the three wild dragons, all of whom nest here.

Then, at some point in season two, we see Daemon presumably stop Rhaenys by grabbing her arm.

This man is manipulative and good at it. Rhaenys is not pleased with him touching her. With no context at all, we only have a few words and body language to interpret. I can't wait to see if I'm correct about this when this episode airs. There is a threat or ultimatum here. Daemon's posture is so self-assured, hand resting on Dark Sister as if whatever he is saying has only one response: agreement.

Correct 180 (from trailer):

Might be helpful to cover one while watching the other.

Incorrect 180 (my edit):

What made this 180 rule from the trailer stick in my mind is how tight the frame is on Rhaenys for her reaction shot. A medium shot on Daemon cuts to a medium close up on her in order to show her facial expression. We can't interpret too much from trailer editing as it is specifically designed to manipulate and distract viewers in a different way from the final product. However, we are given Daemon's dialogue for this particular shot: "We are going to King's Landing." But what next? Why show her disdain, frustration, irritation? Is there an "or else" or some other technique to coerce her and House Velaryon?

Rhaenyra's words are relevant here as well as in the foreshadowing of the upcoming war. Daemon is not asking permission. His hostility, animosity, and wounded ego combine to make him rash. Another example of the applicability of the title The Rouge Prince. This isn't an argument that his character is made more complex by this foreshadowing, but that he has rarely, if ever, hidden his motives. His motivations are always clear even if they shift from selfish to selfless (which is only evident a handful of times). He is morally ambiguous to viewers because much of the time he seems to be amoral. He can stomach things that others cannot. He believes the end justifies the means. I think it will be fascinating to see how the showrunners, writers, and Matt can navigate someone becoming a villain without making him completely one dimensional. He is irredeemable and many of his fans love him for precisely that. He doesn't want to be redeemed. He wants to be in control.

I started writing this last night and today this amazing gifset comes across my dash so I had to link it.

#film studies #film studies nerd #house of the dragon #hotd #hotd season 2 #hotd spoilers #hotd s2 #matt smith #eve best #daemon targaryen #rhaenys targaryen #no one asked #forgot my last gif had to come back and add it oops

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joys-of-everyday · 10 months

Text

The two SQQs: SY and SJ

Completely different people? The same person? Reincarnations of one another? Foils?

Aiyah, don't you love it when there's enough content to get juicy analysis but just enough ambiguity for wild theories? There's a surprisingly large spread of onions opinions on this topic which is fun to read though.

It has been pointed out by a number of people that SY and SJ are very different from each other (some interesting bits of analysis: 1, 2, funny: 3). Equally noted are their similarities (nice post here 4), and others have picked out things which hint in that direction, such as the fact SY seemingly isn't possessing the body, and has SJ's memories in his brain (5). Of course the system could very much be operating on different terms to the rest of the world, but it's consideration worthy because a subtroupe of the 'reincarnate into the villain' troupe is 'the transmigrater was actually the same person all along'. Even without going into the nitty gritties of how transmigration works, they are connected by their shared body and name - here's a great post on how SQQ describes his own feelings through og!SQQ (6).

Now then *cackles* *rubs hands*

The Lack of Self

SJ is a former slave who does everything in his power to survive and excel. SY is fairly well-off and has a dangerous lack of self-preservation.

SJ is ambitious without end. SY is a wastes his life on webnovels.

SJ is acerbic and stand-offish. SY is softer and friendlier.

They are different people!

An onion opinion I see a lot are 'they're obviously different people so they can't be reincarnations of one another'. Firstly, like bro, do you know how reincarnation works? If I reincarnate into a slug, don't try to tell me that the slug and I have the same personality. Jokes aside, this naturally begs the question: 'what constitutes our soul?', or adjacent: 'what within us is permeant?'.

Some would argue nothing. (And this is a highly radical statement if you think about it.) This is subtle (I won't pretend to understand it fully), but for example what does it mean to be 'selfless'. To do selfless acts? To be compelled to do selfless acts? But what compels me to do selfless acts? An innate 'selflessness' within me? If right now I can decide to stop doing selfless acts, that means I am no longer 'selfless'. So that innate 'selflessness' isn't in fact permanent, so can it really be something I own? On the contrary, if I can't just decide to stop the compulsion to be 'selfless', can that compulsion really be called 'me', since I am not in control of it?

Even without going so far, it's clear that our experiences have a deep impact on who we are. Take Bingge and Bingmei. They are different people, yet they are the same. Their divergence started at age twelve. Now at age twelve, a human is still rather squishy. Some studies suggest (the Best Source is Wikipedia Obviously) that human personality shows most active development between the ages of 20-40 (note Bingge was in the Abyss between ages 17-22).

Fundamental characteristics vs outcomes

Okay, 'they could be the same and still different' isn't particularly useful, but something that could be argued with SJ and SY is that they have the same personality seeds, expressed differently. 4 does this (see above), adding a few points.

Acerbic. Neither SJ nor SY are really people people. SJ’s love language seems to be blatantly insulting people (poor YQY). SY’s interactions with PIDW and Airplane bro need not be explained (they’re hilarious) (and also, SY was an internet troll). But SJ’s acerbic attitude pushes people away from him when he needs them most, while SY’s snarky wit is a joke to whoever has the honour of witnessing it. SJ is perceived as a violent and hateful person (‘I’ll kill you’ he says to at least two people he ends up saving the lives of – Shi Wu and LQG). SY, having grown up in a much less violent society and having much less violent ways of expressing this stinginess (calling for the castration of a fictional character vs. saying you want you co-worker dead), is perceived as far more lovable.

Difficulties with communication. Both SJ and SY are infamously bad at expressing themselves. This gets both of them in trouble. But SY’s difficulties in communication primarily arise around his feelings and his sexuality. He doesn’t have the same distrust of others as SJ, arising in SJ from his many childhood traumas. So while SY manages to create a disaster with LBH, he manages to maintain amicable (if hilariously frustrated) relationships with everyone around him. SJ? A lot of his difficulties with communication come from his strained relationship with his past. He is unable to admit weakness. He cannot ask for help. Ruins everything.

Empathy, but in a funny way. SJ is a funny one. He goes out of his way to save people with no gain on his behalf on several occasions and yet he continuously tries to tell you he’s evil. Then there’s SQQ, who justifies letting a bunch of teenagers die by being like ‘oh they’re book characters’ but then clearly feels uncomfortable about it as soon as it starts to happen. Both of them have this weird way of internally dismissing the fact that they do – in fact – care about people. The stark difference between them is that SJ is much more comfortable with murder and violence, although that’s very much explainable by his background.

Anyway, I could go on (their insanely unreliable internal monologues, their negative self-perception, how they both pretend to be people they aren't...) but the point is that the same personality traits, nurtured in different environments, can produce very different results. On one hand, this is a narrative choice - SY and SJ's parallels are precisely what makes them good foils of each other. But also, these connections are what allows the various reincarnation/SY=SJ with memory loss theories to float. (Then again, different people can have similar personality traits.)

The influence of roles

‘Qingqiu’ is the title of the Qing Jing Peak Lord as much as a name, to SJ as well as SY. So what does it mean to 'be Shen Qingqiu'? (parallel question, I like Doctor Who, what does it mean to 'be the Doctor'?).

Both of them are actors. In their own way, they are acting Shen Qingqiu – the (emotionally constipated) scholar, aloof and restrained. This isn’t like a… bad thing, inherently. We all have different 'faces' for different social situations – people act differently towards say, their boss or teacher, as opposed to their close friends. There's a tendency to view this as 'acting' as opposed to an illusive 'true self'. While there's definitely scales to how authentic you are being (you might feel like you're 'acting' far more around say a coworker as opposed to a close friend), but you could also argue that bundled together, this so-called 'acting' is precisely what makes you you. In acting Shen Qingqiu, both Shen Yuan and Shen Jiu become Shen Qingqiu.

The Influence of Body

Slightly more on the side of metaphysical bs, the body is the bridge between your consciousness and your body. Since we don’t do a lot of body hopping, we don’t often appreciate just how much your body influences your perception of reality and the way reality works around you. (Apparently the bacteria in your gut can influence your moods. Like, isn't that crazy?)

SY is in SQQs body. At least after the Lingxi caves, he is comfortable in that body. He experiences the strengths and limitations of SJ’s physical reality. On a wider scale, he experiences (at least for the first few months) how the people around SJ interact with him. Very literally, he is in SJ’s boots. How could that not rub off on him?

It’s quite interesting that all the peak lords thought ‘oh he lost his memories, that’s why he’s like this’ and just accepted that. Their mannerisms were similar enough for that to be plausible. That might be a sign that they're somehow connected on the level of souls, or it might be something that's written into SJ's body.

(Theory that the mushroom body was 3-4/10 similar to SJ okay bc he used SJ’s blood, but also cuz SY sees himself in the mirror so often that he’s unconsciously accepted it as his own face, the way your internal image of yourself changes as you grow old.)

Same People From Parallel Universes

A sister onion opinion to 'they're different people so they can't be reincarnations of one another' is 'they're different people so they can't be the same person' (I know, the question is funny). Mirror universe in Star Trek anyone? It's the evil twin troupe right?

Conclusion

Shen Yuan and Shen Jiu are pretty different! They also have some interesting similarities. Experiences make you what you are. How much of what you are? ...well that is up for debate.

And of course, for the purposes of writing fanfic, 100% endorse going crazy on the theories. I love Shen siblings. I love SY=SJ for angst purposes. I love SY and SJ ripping each other to shreds. I love SY and SJ making each other better.

#svsss #svsss meta #shen qingqiu #shen yuan #shen jiu #original shen qingqiu #scum villian self saving system

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breelandwalker · 7 months

Note

So you have recommendations for where to research signs of baneful magic having been performed on you or your home? Or do you have a list of signs to look out for just in case?

This is an excellent question (sorry it took me so long to get to it, this month has been BONKS) and it provides a good opportunity to talk about ambiguity and alarm systems.

Most sources that talk about how to detect signs of baneful magic will usually talk about random illnesses, accidents, bad luck, general misfortune, that sort of thing. And while it's true that these CAN be signs of baneful magic being directed your way, it's hardly a foolproof system, as these are also things that can and do happen without any magical interference. Plus, it creates kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you view any misfortune as a sign of being "cursed," then you tend to start looking for more signs and take note of every little thing that goes wrong, including things that you might normally brush off.

The only real way to know for sure that you've been cursed is to literally watch someone perform a baneful spell directed at you. Everything else is the magical equivalent of hearsay and guesswork. (Yes, even if someone TELLS you they've cursed you, since there's also a neat little trick that involves telling someone to expect the worst and then letting them suffer with the anxiety and pessimism, believing that doom is on the way, while you do next to nothing apart from encouraging the assumption. Bit of Headology for you there.) And even THEN, it's not a sure thing, since spells don't work 100% of the time.

In my experience, the best plan is to be proactive and to look to mundane examples for inspiration on how to structure magical solutions. If you want to know whether someone or something has intruded on your space, what do you do? You set up physical indicators and install some kind of security, right? If you want to know whether deer are getting into your garden, you put up a fence high enough to be a deterrent, you check the beds for prints and nibbled produce, and if you want to go the extra mile, you set up a trail cam. So do the same with your magical protections and your list of personal omens.

Add a layer to your home/personal protections that reflects, diverts, or nullifies spells sent your way that are unwanted, disruptive, or harmful. This might take the form of a defensive mirror jar or a ward that burns away or entangles those undesirable spells. It can be something you add to existing magical protections or a separate spell dedicated to the purpose, whatever works best for your needs.

In addition to this, add an entry to your list of personal omens that is specifically for Disruptive Incoming Magic. Make the sign something you're not likely to see on the regular so that you can immediately recognize it when and if it turns up. In all likelihood, you'll never need it because the possibility of actually being cursed is SO much lower than social media would have you think, but it's nice to have the failsafe.

(I fully recommend creating a list of personal omens to any witch who wants to look for signs btw. Make a list with easy-to-spot examples and clear meanings that takes natural occurrences into account. It's a great way to simplify things and not drive yourself to distraction wondering whether that spider on your floor is a Sign of Something or...just a random spider.)

So now you've got your prevention in place and you have an indicator to let you know if something does show up. It's still not foolproof, but it certainly helps.

In the meantime, just remember that witches experience accidents and illness and runs of bad luck with the same relative frequency as anyone else. The fact that something bad / a series of bad things has happened is not necessarily an indicator of the presence of baneful magic. Sometimes Shit Just Happens.

But when in doubt, you can always do a quick cleansing of your space and reinforce your protections to clear away anything unwanted that might be in the space. If nothing else, it's due diligence and it will probably make you feel better.

Hope this helps!

#elaric #witchcraft #witchblr #witch community #Advice for Beginner Witches #omens #witch tips #baneful magic #protection magic #Bree answers your inquiries

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balanceoflightanddark · 11 months

Note

"Azula overturned Zuko's banishment, not because he really cares about him, it's just in case Aang survived her lightningblast and she'd sadistically frame Zuko as a scapegoat and save her own ass from Ozai's wrath!"

So, a lightningblast is not an instant-kill move? If it still is, then this plan can only work if Azula had supernatural clairvoyance, precognition, ESP, and/or is a Jedi. Which I recall none of these things being revealed.

Zuko completely spilled the beans about Azula making the blast and that Aang survived. Two episodes later, at the boiling rock, oh look! Azula is perfectly fine!

Ah yes. The blackmail. People just loooove to frame Azula's whole "giving Zuko the credit for killing the Avatar" maneuver as some master plan that Tzeentch would be proud of in order to bring her brother to ruin. Thing is, she had no way of knowing that Aang would have any chance of survival.

Something that she herself brought up before:

See? She genuinely believed the Avatar was dead and that Zuko had nothing to worry about. The whole myth about bringing Zuko back just to use him for blackmail doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Even with the common misconception that Azula is power-hungry, why bring back and restore somebody's status when she could've just used the Dai Li back in the Earth Kingdom?

Bringing Zuko back honestly did more damage to her chances for the throne in the long run if that's what she was after...and to her as well.

Did Azula blackmail Zuko? Yes. But you also have to remember that she figured out that Zuko was withholding information from her. Here's a post by my dear friend @akiizayoi4869 which goes into detail, but the short gist of it was that both siblings are equally guilty of hurting each other with this mess. And trying to pin the blame squarely on Azula is an attempt to make Zuko look better than he actually was.

But to the second point. It is true that we didn't see what Ozai did when Zuko threw her under the bus (a rather dick move of him I might add since he didn't really gain anything from it). Thing is, I don't think Ozai would've hurt Azula if he still had some use for her. He'd probably scare the hell out of her and give her an ultimatum of killing Zuko or killing the Avatar to get back into his good graces. Since she failed in both, that could factor in his decision to abandon her during Sozin's Comet since she wasn't needed anymore.

Honestly, that potential scene is a huge missed opportunity. One, it actually gives Ozai more development and elaborates on the relationship between him and Azula. Two, it helps paint Azula in a more sympathetic light and clears up some of the ambiguity around her actions. And three, establish that between the two, Ozai is the more heinous one if he threatens to do the same thing to Azula that he did to Zuko. It certainly would give this line a bit more weight:

Thing is...Book 3 had a LOT of writing problems and shortchanging characters when it came to development. We didn't really get any time with anyone from the Royal Family not named Zuko outside of "The Beach" to humanize them too much. Some of the story decisions such as Azula's breakdown do feel a bit rushed. And we also missed out on storylines which could've developed her a bit more, like the arranged marriage subplot. So while her getting a scene like I mentioned would make a lot of sense in terms of character development, I'm not really surprised given what we've seen from Book 3.

#azula #princess azula #azula meta #azula deserved better #zuko #zuko meta #fire siblings #ozai #ozai's a+ parenting #atla #atla meta #anon ask #anon answered #ask me anything

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buttersmama · 1 year

Text

Failed confessions

Huening kai x male! reader

Summary: idol!Kai and staff!Reader get to know each other then, their friendship leads to a confession

Tw: alcohol (drunk huening), that's it i think tell me if y'all find anything note worthy.

Wc: 12k+ 💀

Y'all the ending is messed up and ambiguous (take it however you want) also a bit rushed since i had to complete it and post it today itself.

Hope you like it! My writing has changed a bit me thinks.

A deflated huening Kai emerged from the recording studio. Shoulders slumped, and head held down, deep in thoughts of how to improve, he sat down on the couch situated just outside the studio.

The area was deserted, no sound except for occasional chewing, unexpectedly a hand rested upon his head.

"Something wrong huening-ssi?" Y/n. One of the staff members Kai remembered.

"Ah no- maybe? It's just that I can't get this line in from the title track"

"Is that so? Look I don't know much bout the topic but I heard yeonjun was having trouble with it too, so don't worry you'll get it; for now how about we share this fried chicken I brought? Hmm?"

"Thank you so much l/n-ssi"

"No problem," he said ruffling huening's hair a bit.

Y/n entered the recording area and to no one's surprise, he saw the whole of TXT except taehyun sitting on the couch or talking to some of the other staff members.

Yeonjun was the first one to notice y/n's arrival, smiling he got up to greet them and give him a firm hug.

"Have you eaten?" Yeonjun asked.

Y/n stroked his nonexistent bread before replying.

"Yes I have, but what is it that you need? Hmm?" laughed y/n.

"Yah! Hyung is supposed to say 'no I have not' so we can go get something to eat also, even if you've eaten, you're coming with me," yeonjun said, grabbing y/n forcefully.

"June, you go ahead I'll meet you in the parking lot 'kay?"

"Just hurry up!"

Y/n jogged back up seeing only the maknae sitting there alone.

"Huening-ie you need something? Yeonjun and I are going to get something to eat, He is quite hungry. I'll bring you anything you want or maybe you can come with us if you want of course" y/n rambled picking up his phone, yeonjun's coat, and mask.

"Ah not now I'm going to record after soobin hyung finishes, but can you bring fried chicken? I really liked it when I tried it yesterday" he said giving a small smile.

"Of course, huening-ie" y/n said messing up Kai's dark locs before heading out.

Y/n peacefully rested at his house for once when he got a call from an unknown number. He begrudgingly picked up the call already tired, it was past 11 for god's sake!

"Hello?" Y/n said as soon as the line connected.

"Ah! Hyung, it's huening Kai, I got your number from yeonjun hyung, and I was wondering if you could accompany me to the studio.. producer called and wanted to finish with some final touches tonight, and I didn't want to trouble any other staff members so would you.." huening went silent not completing his sentence, not that it mattered.

Y/n didn't know why but despite being so tired, he said yes to the young boy.

"hello~" huening picked up y/n's call.

"Huening-ah, I'm outside your dorm come down kay?"

"Yes hyung" huening replied cutting off the line when y/n and his car came into the view.

Huening-ie happily sat down in the passenger seat thanking his hyung for coming on such short notice at almost midnight.

He didn't know why but he felt this certain type of excitement and curiosity that night with y/n. Maybe it was the cold night air or the clear sky or maybe y/n's company.

Maybe.

"Hyung, what will you do while I'm busy? You'll probably get bored- you should go home and get some sleep I'll ask soobin hyung to pick me up-" huening Kai babbled panicked, thinking y/n would get mad or won't ever talk to him because he had made y/n come with him so late; waking him up from his probably peaceful sleep.

"Huening-ah, I'm already here aren't I? Why would I let you call soobin and make him wake up so late? I'll wait for you to finish then we'll head back. Don't worry hyung will be here when you return" y/n eased away all of Kai's worries.

Huening feels warm, so so warm, he wonders if it's because of his hyung or the heater placed on the floor. He hopes it's the latter.

But he's scared.

Kai steps out of the room, he sees y/n sitting with his legs crossed on his phone playing a game. His heart almost stops when y/n unexpectedly looks directly into his eyes.

"Huening-ah! Done?" He asks, switching off the phone. He didn't know but it seemed like his voice was stuck in his throat denying any thoughts to voice out.

Still, he stuttered out a 'yes'.

Y/n ignored the stuttering and got up to pass all of Kai's belongings to him. Ruffling his hair once again y/n heads down to leave, seeing the little penguin not following him, he stops looking back at him.

"Huening-ah! Tired or what? Let's get you home, then get some rest 'kay? I'll be waiting in the car, don't be late or I'll leave you here

-just kidding" y/n teased.

"Hyung wait for me!" Kai's words echoed back to him in the almost empty building.

"Huening-ie,"

"Yes, Hyung?"

"Hungry?"

"Very much"

"Wanna get something to eat?"

"Yes please!"

Y/n parked his car in a very risky area all because of food and the boy with him.

"Huening-ie let's come back quick! I hope my car doesn't get towed" y/n let out his thoughts, and heard the boy laugh.

"Sorry hyung but yes we should hurry up!" He(Kai) said pulling the other.

"Hyung, you come to this place often?" Kai asks looking around the let lit cozy restaurant-type place.

"Yes, all the time. I think yeonjun was the one who brought me here, he said the ramen here is top-notch. Wanna try it?" Y/n asks looking him in the eye.

Though there were no malicious intents or anything bad about the way he looked at huening, but for some reason, huening couldn't hold eye contact. He almost immediately turned away which worried the older.

"Something wrong? You don't want the ramen? We can always order something else, huening" urges a worried y/n.

"It's not that hyung, I want to try the ramen, let's get it," he said forging a smile.

Y/n wasn't satisfied with the answer but he knew pressing the matter won't do any good so he stayed silent and complied.

"Alright let's go"

"Hyung we should do this often! But now I'm all sleepy" Kai said forcing down a yawn.

"I know right? I'll make sure we'd get here at least once a week- oh but will it be okay for you to eat out every week? Since you're an idol right? I don't want anything bad for you huening-ie, let's do this every 2 weeks" y/n said in the most serious tone ever then nodding his head as if he was agreeing with himself.

Huening Kai burst out in a laugh, clutching his sides.

"Yah! Why are you laughing?" Y/n asked getting all pouty.

"It's just that seeing you say all this with a serious face cracked me up" huening answers between his laughs.

"Yah!-"

Huening Kai who sat in his hyung's car wondered why even though the night had stretched out so much already, he didn't want it to end. He liked y/n's company, Kai thinks.

So then why in the world was Kai feeling this certain warmth with this inconvenient buzz (of bees) in his chest whenever his hyung would meet his eye or whenever he would ruffle his hair, or call out to him.

He truly wonders whether he likes y/n's company or y/n himself.

Even thinking about this scared him. He's not allowed to like y/n. Heck, he's not even allowed to like anybody, all because he's an idol. He's scared but he isn't going to do anything he tells himself.

As long as he has y/n's company with him, he doesn't need anything more. Him being there would suffice, Kai isn't going to be selfish and ruin everything.

"Huening-ie, we reached; don't you wanna get home?" y/n asked in a soft tone, hand yet again resting over the latter's hair.

"Reached already?"

"mhmm seems like our huening-ie was so lost in thoughts he spaced out, hmm?" Y/n said shaking the youngest's head playfully.

"Kai-ah, it's already so late go take yourself home or do you want hyung to drop you off till your dorm?"

"Ah, I'll go alone! I don't want to bother hyung anymore, you get home and get some rest, I won't hold you off any longer." Kai babbled shyly.

"Okay. Get home safe kai-ah" y/n said, clicking the button to unlock the passenger seat's lock.

Just as y/n stepped inside his apartment, his phone lit up. A message was displayed on it from huening Kai.

Huening kai

Hyung did you reach home?

3:01 a.m.

Y/n

Yes huening, but get some sleep now we don't want you feeling drowsy tomorrow do we?

3:01 a.m.

Huening kai

Yes

Good night hyung!

3:02 a.m.

Y/n

Good night Kai :)

3:02 a.m.

"Hi hyung!" Huening greeted y/n who was helping his team to decide what colors would suit the photo shoot that would be held in an hour.

"Hello, huening, here for the shoot right?" Y/n took a break from the discussion and let the other staff members continue.

Y/n saw the boy was not ready yet, given they just arrived.

"Go get ready then, I want to see how you all will look dressed up, given you always look good," y/n said pressing a hand to his head.

"yes hyung! But i want it to be a surprise- wait! Have you already seen the costumes? If not then it'll be a surprise if yes then it'll be no fun" he said slightly dejected at the idea.

"I have not, I was busy with the background and moving things from here to there, so I'm hyped to see it! The stylists will do a great job as always, I hope so"

"Huening-ie! Stylist noona is calling for you, let's go!" Yeonjun said waving his hand to get y/n and huening Kai's attention.

"Oh look June is calling for you, go! Hyung is right here" y/n said smiling at Kai.

"Hello huening" y/n said into the phone. Huening kai had called up y/n once again. These days huening would always be on his phone either talking to someone or chatting with 'someone' looking all giggly and smiley.

"Hyung! As you know taehyun's birthday is in a few days, so the group has given me the duty to go and make an appointment and pick up the cake tomorrow evening. I'll get bored alone so you have to come with me" huening said excitedly.

"Huening-ie, i told you I'm gonna be busy a few days just yesterday, but since you're asking so nicely, I'll come with you, just send me time and address or should I pick you up?"

"Pick me up! Then we'll go together"

"Okay" y/n gave a smile to the latter even though Kai wouldn't be able to see it.

"it's quite cold in here" huening said as the couple entered the pretty looking cake shop. The AC was on full blast in there with faux cardboard based cakes placed as showpieces by the glass door.

"Don't worry we'll leave soon enough after giving order" y/n replied giving the masked boy a side hug, while rubbing his bicep to heat them up.

"R-right" huening's hear beat stuttered from such a delicate and seemingly innocent action. Oh, how was his act going to continue if y/n would pull such tricks on him.

Sometimes he hated y/n, he hated the way their closeness wouldn't bother him at all, he hated himself for catching feelings. He thought if he'd just ignore them for a while they'd go away, but he was always proven wrong :(

Y/n entered their travel van filled with noises, such as- yeonjun being annoyed by huening because he was referring to yeonjun as a ‘noona’. Even though their blue hour era was over Kai didn’t let this joke of his die down.

Seeing y/n enter, yeonjun complained about this to his hyung- his saviour!

“Hyung! Look this brat is making fun of me!” He whined like a child.

Y/n looked over at Kai who just shrugged and said ‘it is what it is’ the older contained a laugh at Kai’s reply and patted a deflated yeonjun.

Huening watched the two, silent. He wanted to be close with y/n just like yeonjun was, he wasn’t jealous, right?

“What are you thinking about? Hmm. You look like you’re ready to kill someone” y/n said patting the young maknae.

“Dark Kai has returned” taehyun commented on the situation. To which beomgyu and soobin cackled. Soobin throwing himself on beomgyu laughing along with him.

Soon enough, their designated driver arrived and y/n had to say goodbye to the group for that day.

A random day, y/n thought it was. Nothing exciting or worth noting happened. Until when late at night when he gets a call from huening Kai.

Thinking it would just be a normal call- normal conversation, he picked it up.

“Hyunggg” huening Kai slurred his words. Concern clouded y/n’s mind immediately, thinking why and where the young boy would be. But just to make sure, he asked the most obvious question.

“Huening, are you drunk?” Kai’s heart hurt when his hyung didn’t address him like he always did, but nevertheless answered.

“Yes! How can you tell?!” Huening giggled as of y/n had uttered the most hilarious joke.

“It’s not that difficult to tell whe-" y/n was cut off mid talking buy kai.

“Hyungie, I want to meet you right now can you come?” Huening said getting all red just from the question alone.

“Alright tell me where you are? I’ll be there” y/n said already picking up some water on his way down to his car.

“That’s what I like about you so much hyung! You always assure me saying you’ll be there with me! You’re so likeable hyungg” kai said words being mixed up with small hiccups.

Y/n ignored the rambling on the call and set out navigating his way with the help of gps.

“Y/N HYUNG!” Kai yelled accidentally and laughed at himself, he was clearly out of it y/n noticed. Huening Kai reeked of alcohol. Y/n wondered why.

The older closed up the gap between them and attempted to take him to the car so he could take him home. Kai sensing y/n, immediately pressed up against him, hands by his chest and head lolled up on y/n’s shoulder.

Y/n made no attempt to move huening, instead he just stood in his place for a second, sighing and then, finally decided to peel off the latter away.

“Huening-ah let’s go home” said the only sober person present. Y/n took one of huening’s arm and put it around his shoulder and kept one of his(y/n’s) had at Kai’s waist to keep him steady.

The walk to his car was utterly slow. By the time they both reached it, huening Kai hurriedly detached himself from y/n’s grasp and cupped his hyung's face between his own fingers.

“Hyung, I have something to tell you” he said eyes big and round. Y/n placed his own hands right above huening’s before continuing.

“Kai-ah, whatever it is we can talk about it later when you’re sober, I don’t think you’re in the right mind right now.” Y/n said attempting to remove his hands from his face.

“No, hyung! It has to be now!” Kai said looking down at the floor in turmoil. Y/n gave up on arguing, he knew argument with a drunk man would lead him nowhere, so he said yes and got ready to listen.

“Alright go ahead, I’m right here” y/n said. Huening’s heart beat faster as if it would burst out because of it.

“Hyung..i-I like you, as in like like you, since the day we got to know a little more that night! I really like being with you hyung! an-and you make me so so happy, I just hope you feel the same for me because honestly I did all this drinking for some courage to confess, I even tried to forget them!

But then they wouldn’t just go away so I thought and thought about it day and night, and now here I am confessing to my hyung” huening Kai poured out all of his thoughts that had been on his mind and layed there as an open book for his hyung to read.

Y/n had been silent even after huening finished his 'confession'. This got huening worried. His stomach started coiling in fear. He couldn’t wait anymore!

“Hyung please answer me!” He pleaded, leaving y/n’s face and opting to hold onto y/n’s hands instead.

“Huening Kai, I..”

#yellow layouts #txt #tomorrow by together #txt post #txt x male reader #txt x reader #male reader #txt yeonjun #txt beomgyu #choi soobin #txt huening kai #txt huening kai x reader #txt huening #txt kai #txt huening kai x male reader #yello #drunk confessions #male reader tag

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wutheringmights · 8 months

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<shakily rolling into your inbox> Would you gift us with chapter commentary, please?

Your wish is my command:

Framing the past section around headlines was not my original plan. I wanted to do a repeating refrain of "This is how the war ended," but when it came time to actually write it, I was bored with it. Yeah, kinda thought about it too hard. So I went back to the drawing board.

I also considered framing the chapter around the passing seasons, but that seemed too boring. I wanted something with a bit more pizazz.

Plus, one of my favorite genres of fan work is in-universe media like newspapers and magazine covers. This is a pretty weak attempt at it, but at least I threw my hat into the ring.

I've been trying for a while now to imply that the original HW storyline is what was spread as propaganda to the people of Hyrule, but this is the first time I made it really, really clear.

So the engineer being assigned to the coast is a reference to how the DLC that features Toon Link is the one where there's suddenly an ocean. Very smooth of me lol

This chapter ended up being a bit of a dumping ground for all of the relationships I was ignoring in favor of writing about the brothers, ironically because I too was too consumed with the engineer and the child to write about anything else, which in turn really drove home how all-consuming their presence was for Link

The fun thing about Midna's scene is that her and Link going on nightly walks together was one of the very first ideas I had for CTB by virtue of it being inherited from when I thought I was going to write a romcom. Incredible that it took half a million words to finally get to it.

My favorite part of the past is the bit where Link writes all of the letters to the engineer. It's just a lot of fun to sit there and figure out what kind of bullshit he would spout to kinda apologize but not really. It was even more fun to punch him back down with Lincoln's brutal response. Just rereading it, I feel like you can tell I was having a blast.

I also had a lot of fun finding ways to show symptoms of Link's alcoholism getting worse without him realizing it. The constant headaches, the nausea, the shakey hands, the sensory sensitivity-- him experiencing all of this and going so deep into denial that he can't understand why his body is reacting that way.

It's been so long since I've managed to give Toto some screen time that I kinda forgot how much I like his character? He's just a guy, but I like that he's just a guy. But I don't think I made it too clear in the chapter that in their friend group, they were the least friends with each other. Link was closer to Anders, and Toto to Uri. They're being driven together by virtue of being the only ones left, moreso than I initially conveyed.

And, of course, I got to talk about Uri again. Again, Uri is always so interesting to handle because he is a character who we will never see in person and Link is too traumatized by the death of to think about in detail. Even now, Uri feels like a mystery. All we know about him is how Link feels about him.

And finally, Zelda. The thing about Zelda is that I feel like her goals are really transparent, but I always get comments from people who want there to be this moment where everything about her is spelled out. And, despite the fact that she monologues about her feelings here, I don't think this is exactly what everyone was hoping for. The more I read it over, I can see how she probably just got more confusing.

Also, I know I need to stop writing monologues. But have you considered that the monologues are sexy?

I feel like I should say something about how Zelda's relationship with Hylia, but it really speaks for itself. I will say that as much as I like how BOTW is so ambiguous with Hylia, I am a little bit more fascinated with the idea that "your god is real and they specifically hate you." Like, how are you supposed to cope with that? We should all be thankful Zelda isn't more fucked up than she is.

I should also say something about her thoughts on the engineer... so first, my goal with that relationship was always for it to be toxic from both ends, with the engineer trying to use her while she uses him-- which gets even more complicated when you consider all the ways Zelda echoes Link. Like Link, she sees parts of herself in the engineer. Unlike him, she wants to save be saved, so she in turn saves him. Link hates himself so much that he has to drag everyone else down with him.

In the era of everyone wanting Zelda to no longer be a damsel in distress, it's kind fun to give her the traditional goal of being saved by someone else, to then twist it around. She is begging to be rescued, but she won't fix anything herself.

This idea really goes against the popular depictions of HW Zelda, which is why I have iterated before that this Zelda is not Artemis. She's her own thing.

There was going to be more about how the war ended, but I decided to keep it for next chapter because (you guessed it) the word count got too long.

On to the present--

Congrats to everyone who said they wanted to see more of Spirit and Warriors talking shop. You really won with this chapter.

That being said, I always think that I never write what people want when they want it. Like I will write a chapter with a lot of action, so everyone says they want more action next. But then I follow it up with a chapter of people just talking, so I get a lot of people requesting more of that. But then, it's back to heavy action.

All that's to say that I feel bad that there wasn't more character drama this chapter

Also, I feel really bad for not including either Hyrule or Wind in this chapter. Those two are the characters people ask me to write more about the most. But unfortunately, the thing about juggling a large cast of characters is that some times you have to sit down and get a few of those characters out of the way for a bit so that we can focus on other things.

I don't want to make it sound like I was targeting those two on purpose. They just had the best excuse for not going on the Nephus mission.

Speaking of which, I feel terrible for constantly finding ways to leave Lana and Linkle out of the action-- and that's after I've talked so much about adding more women into the story to balance out the default nine dudes LU requires me to add. But again, there are so many characters that I have to find ways to leave some of them behind. And again, it was really easy to give them an excuse to not be in the main action. But It's probably a bad thing that they are easily excused. I should work on that.

And I know I can write scenes with a shit ton of characters talking together. I've done it plenty of times in CTB and other ensemble stories before it. But it's a lot of work, and when I need to focus on more important plot points, the last thing I want to juggle is balancing every scene so that everyone has something to do.

Sorry to belabor that point. Sometimes, I get really annoyed with how big the cast it when it's not even my fault.

It is my fault. I just want to complain.

I appreciate everyone who has their own version of Spirit going on more legendary adventures while he is wearing his OSHA mandated work uniform. I know the Heroes of Hyrule are not unionized, but I at least would like to make sure he is properly dressed with an adventure.

That being said, his Castle Guard uniform was partially inspired by the uniform for the Free Planets Alliance in the original Legend of the Galactic Heroes:

That is not a great photo, but I was envisioning something like this-- "this" being a more modern cut with clear nautical influences (cause the Castle Guard was probably originally a navy)

Also the crest on Spirit's uniform is Tetra's pirate emblem. Do not get be started about how I fucked up the crest of the New Hyrulean royal family back in chapter 6 and how I have been looking for some band-aid to place over that mistake so that it would look like I did it on purpose

I didn't expect the scene where Spirit talks to Four to be so polarizing. I didn't even think it was a significant moment when I wrote it. Yet I've seen a huge gambit of reactions, from people calling Spirit cruel or others saying that the moment was sweet. That being said, I am living for this. If there is one thing I want right now, it is for everyone's opinion on Spirit to be split.

Did you guys enjoy me trying to write about how machinery works? Honestly, I could have probably cut all that, but I did so much work establishing the mechanics behind the ganons in previous chapters that I felt like I had to go through with it.

My original plan was for Warriors's plan to involve taking Philo hostage from the start, but I changed it because writing a kidnapping scene would have been too much work. It still really bugs me. The way the chapter is written now feels really cheap, but again. I didn't feel like I had enough space.

I also ran into the fun problem of wanting to show the nuances of Philo and Icarius's relationship when one can't speak and the other would not speak Hylian. Legend saved my ass a bit with this one, but I don't know if all of the little details got through.

Speaking of which, I should talking the House of Nephus

So obviously, I wanted the House of Nephus to reflect the original brothers dynamic. The idea is that they are what Warriors, Spirit, and Time/Mask would turn into if both Spirit and Mask stayed.

Except, in practice, I had to give them their own distinct personalities so that they wouldn't be boring as fuck

Icarius and Philo got away with getting small but really effective changes. They both still feel like reflections of Spirit and Time respectively

But Nephus.... so my original personality for him was someone as jaded and mean as Warriors is at his worst. But he felt too much like Zelda or Impa. So I went back to the drawing board to find some character angle that would be really interesting and effective for how little screen time he will ultimately get.

My inspiration came from the Virginia Woolf seminar I was in when I first started working on CTB. I was thinking a lot about rich, British assholes; very specifically about the kind who are self-prescribed intellectuals who fetishize non-white cultures while maintaining the superiority of Western imperialism.

So with that in hand, I got rid jadedness and turned Nephus into a guy dripping with charisma but is unaware of how terrible of a person he is. And as a reflection of Warriors, he works thematically.

But you can make the argument that this is not the story for this kind of a character, especially when I have already gone through such lengths to clarify that Hyrule is an imperialist nation that echoes America. You can see me poking fun at it in some of the dialogue during this scene, but still.

(And it gets worse when you look at the subtext of how light vs dark magic is treated between Hyrule and Faovaria).

So, yeah. I deserve some criticism for this one. I know it. But I didn't change it because I just liked how immediately interesting Nephus was. I couldn't think of an alternative that would have been as effective as this affable evil. Sorry about that.

Another idea I had was that Nephus was going to be the Faovarian equivalent of the Hero of Hyrule, and he would even have his own dual blades of dark and light magic to prove it. I ended up not doing this because it was too heavy handed.

I originally was going to keep the swords, and I even realized that if I had planned things out a bit better, the dark magic sword could have been Ghirahim. I decided that it would have been too out of left field to have worked, but man. I have regretted since day 1 that I cut Ghirahim from the story. I'm sorry, Ghirahim.

And then I didn't even include the swords. Motherfucker.

That actually was a genuine mistake on my part, because the point of the swords would have been to give Nephus's speech on his religion more credence. We as the audience know that the goddesses exist. And yet... why does there seem to be more to the gods of this universe? Are Hylia and the Golden Three really just oracles? If Nephus has these cool swords, what other powers and weapons does Faovaria have within its borders? You know, just world building stuff.

I came up with too much story for the House of Nephus than what I will ultimately have space to include in CTB. I'll try to strategic so that you won't be annoyed with the lack of answers from some of the questions you probably have.

As important as Nephus is, he's ultimately not the main antagonist of the story. If I was willing to write 20 more chapters, I could do a lot more with him, Philo, and Icarius; but I would like to see the end of CTB someday lol

Originally, only Time, Spirit, and Midna were going to go with Warriors to meet Nephus. There was definitely going to be this bit where Spirit and Warriors were going to be like "oh fuck, he's hot" as Nephus flirted with them. Meanwhile, Time (a married man) would be sitting there like "really??? both of you have horrible taste??"

I am also realizing I forgot to write a moment where Warriors is horrified to realize that Nephus was going to make Philo sit there in pain instead of rushing him to a doctor. Fucking hell.

Also, that Nephus's spirit feels normal to Spirit is important. Not on a plot level, but thematically. Just hang on to that thought next time you think about the whole spirit sensing thing.

I always knew that CTB was going to evolve into a Triforce quest story. There's no way I could write about a guy who's supposed to be this brutal strategist and not let him realize he has an easy solve to everything. But I also didn't want this to be easy or feel cheap. It's why I went through all that effort to establish that getting those pieces would involving going up against the Royal Family and the Knights of Hyrule. It's going to be hard, and it will involve all the fighting and manipulating you expect CTB to have. It'll also involve moral dilemmas.

After all, we've been talking about the moral dilemmas presented by the Triforce since at least chapter 6 (remember when I said that there was so much set-up in that chapter for stuff that was for far later in the story? Hello, pay off!)

All that's to say that I am worried that people don't like this direction. I have gotten a few comments about how excited people are for Warriors's plan, but only time will tell if this ruined the story for some people.

And I know I worry a lot about ruining CTB. That's not a problem that's going to be solved any time soon, so let me have this one.

Finally, the chapter was going to go until Time's talk with Warriors. Decided to move it to next chapter because, you guessed it, space.

#oh my god i wrote a lot here sorry about that lol #now i have no fun tidbits to leave in the tags #actually my fun tidbit is that day of posting i deleted this tiny moment where spirit referred to four as 'you guys' and then had to clarif #he wasn't talking to everyone. hard cut but it was nestled in between some really pointless and bad dialogue.#me rambling #lu ctb #ask #linked universe #anonymous #junietuesday #ctb spoilers #ctb director's commentary

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edwad · 18 days

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so like, what exactly is it you think marx gets wrong about capitalism? intentionally or not, you give people the impression that think the guy’s analysis is irredeemably flawed, so how about actually listing some of those flaws and why they’re flaws. and please don’t say he misreads ricardo or sismondi or whatever, i’m not asking what’s wrong with the CoPE but what is wrong with his actual analysis of capitalism itself

well my whole point is that, to the extent that the analysis of capitalism grows directly out of his engagement with the political economists (which is the entire point of the CoPE in being able to ground political economy as a theoretical field which reflects the moments and movements of capital), these things can't be disconnected. that might seem frustrating to you, but you can really only cleave them apart by forfeiting the entire purpose of the project, which i don't think is a sacrifice anybody should want to make unless they just have a goofy reading of marx as a mere economist or wherever.

downstream of this though, i think he gets himself into all kinds of trouble with internally inconsistent things and ambiguities which i am not the first to point out. heinrich and others have already done plenty to demonstrate the deficiencies in the exposition of the theory of value, the trpf, etc. beyond that i think we can say that the positing of capital at its ideal average generally means assuming a fully totalized system, which runs up against the very dynamics he's trying to outline in their totalization. this gap between the two levels exists throughout the text and he makes arguments on the basis of each of these which flatly contradict one another (and not in a fancy "dialectical" sense, but as in a bad logical contradiction to be avoided by any semi-clear thinker). this happens when he tries to theorize capital outlays/compositions in firms of different countries, trading against each other, so that he has multiple accounts of how the difference between the two emerges which can account for something like inequality in international trade etc and form the basis of theories of imperialism and unequal exchange etc. the nice thing about making every possible argument is that sometimes we can find one that works and simply choose the marx we like most, but that doesn't necessarily salvage the text as a whole or its theoretical trajectory. i think his analysis of rent, credit, the state, etc would all need to be completely redone in the light of some of these changes (and probably should've been redone regardless lmao, but it's an earlier manuscript he didn't get to revisit properly).

arguably heinrich is right about the improper ordering of the development of the categories themselves, so that there's no reason for credit to fall where it does as if it is system-logically posterior to the dynamics of the profit-rate (marx has a clever reasoning for this but i don't think it holds up). part of the problem is that basically all of v3 is a mess and the theoretical gaps between v2 and v3 are glaring. the internal difficulties of v1, even as it was constantly reworked, don't necessarily help.

anyway, pretty much everything i've just said is just me repeating myself for the zillionth time, so im not sure where the impression comes from that i can't say anything specific about what marx gets wrong. i think ive actually spent a lot of time talking about these things for years, long before i ever even started on this relatively new project surrounding the nonexistence of the CoPE's object. if anything, by simply taking heinrich's work for granted i have been standing in some relation to claims about marx's wrongness on certain issues (you can't claim he's ambivalent about his categories while simultaneously maintaining that he's also perfectly correct about everything!) so ive been talking about some of these things for about 7 years now.

the point is, i think marx has lots of issues and that he's wrong about plenty. i wouldn't be able to catalogue all of my disagreements with him here, but if you're interested in hearing more about my marx opinions in depth, i recommend joining my capital group for the new translation in the fall! im sure i'll get into a lot of it there.

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sweetingseva · 9 months

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I had this need to re-read a certain part of TBONA, the part where Eva dreams about the handsome stranger. When I did, it just got me thinking about what the guy said and I felt the need to try figure out who he was.

His description...

His back was to a post, hair tousled and dark brown. Evangeline’s steps faltered. From a distance, she’d thought Jacks had been cast in shadow, but now it was clear the young man at the end of the dock was not Jacks. “You’re a difficult one to track down.” The young man turned from the lake, and when she saw his face, her breath caught in her chest. She thought at first that he looked familiar, but it might just have been that he was incredibly handsome, clean-cut jaw, dark eyebrows over hypnotic eyes, and a charming smile that made her heart take an excited little tumble.

Now his description makes one think about this carefully. We can forget about Eva thinking this is Jacks because I doubt that is all too important. At most this character is of similar build and height of him. An important thing is that he knows Jacks though, so I'm guessing that he's definitely someone of Jacks' past.

This handsome stranger has dark brown hair. Which certain family that knows Jacks well has dark brown hair, the Valors. Now, we have all thrown away the possibility of Apollo being Lysander Valor but what if his importance comes in another form and that being the handsome stranger from Eva's dream. (I like how I'm just coming up with ideas while going along)

Lysander Valor's power is something "that involved memories", we all know that. But, since his powers are so ambiguous, it could also include him managing to force entry into someones dreams. (Now I don't remember if any other character has managed to do this, like Jacks and Lala, I feel like Lala has but I really don't remember much)

It's highly possible that it isn't Lysander since we don't have much of a description other than the fact that the handsome stranger has dark brown hair but it is a possibility.

Now for what he says...

“I can see why Jacks likes you. You’re a bit like her, you know?” “Like who?” Evangeline asked. The Handsome Stranger rubbed his jaw. “He wouldn’t be happy if he knew I said this, but if you’re not careful, you’ll end up like her as well.” “Like who?” Evangeline repeated. “His first fox.”

He first says that she's a bit like the first fox. I'm guessing he means features. This could pertain to her being the first fox reincarnate. If she has physical features like her, it could give us answers to why Jacks treats Eva differently to how he treated Tella. It's possible that Eva's nickname came directly from Jacks based on how there are hints of similarity between Eva and the first fox. Jacks treated Tella very horribly, often being rough and rash with her. Often kissing her without any care to her possibly dying from it (I think that with Legend's blood in her system she's safe but, otherwise, she was dying). With Eva he tries to put distance but keeps feeling a push towards her yet never tries to kiss her, does that not make you think? He cares too much for her to die, he saved her from death as well. But he's acting as he did with the Fox when he had the archer curse, not necessarily running away just for Eva to run after him but hes trying to keep away from her emotionally which is even harder... I think their saving grace from their doom could have been Apollo

The handsome stranger warned Eva, this was a warning so she felt compelled to find out what happened to the fox once and for all. Maybe he was trying to hint that the story curse could be involved and that she would be taken with death just like the first fox (which she was). Yes, Jacks had the stones and went back in time to rectify her death but that wasn't enough because something worse than death is losing track of what you have done and who you have become and Eva had memories from the past year taken away.

It was definitely a warning for her, there are many ways to interpret it as well so who genuinely knows what it means. Stephanie put this character in for a reason, maybe I went round in circles but I have a feeling that he is Lysander and he was warning Eva to be careful.

Hello, thank you so much for your theory! ☺️

As you have said, the Handsome Stranger was indeed warning Evangeline from to Jacks to save her life because he had noticed that Jacks wasn't acting like himself and it wasn't smart to get cozy with him.

His mention of the First Fox plays a huge role in all this and gives sense to the theory that Evangeline is the first Fox reincarnated. Jacks's relationship with Evangeline didn't start off romantic. They annoyed each other. But still their relationship changed when they started having repressed feelings for each other. Because of that, Jacks keeps his distance to keep her safe from him.

If he doesn't, she'll die.

The Handsome Stranger told her that her death would destroy him, and I'm sure he doesn't want to see his friend get heartbroken all over again.

However, the Handsome Stranger does have an identity we already know. Evangeline confirmed it to be Chaos.

From TBONA pg. 315 and 369:

With all of the info we got from Jacks, it's safe to say that because Chaos went after Vengeance, life in the Magnificent North would be changed forever because of his new transformation as a vampire. Half of the reason. Evangeline recognizes Chaos in that scene with his mother, too 😊

#ouabh #once upon a broken heart #ouabh spoilers #tbona #the ballad of never after #tbona spoilers #acftl #a curse for true love #evangeline fox #jacks #prince of hearts #jacks x evangeline #evajacks #chaos #castor valor #prince castor #stephanie garber

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theabyssgazesalsointoyou · 8 months

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i don't think i've posted about this before so here is my completely nonsensical theory/overanalysis on The Play

let's take a look at the squipped characters' lines in the play, shall we? starting with mr. reyes. "You needy, pathetic, self-centered students. You think I wanted to teach high school drama? In New Jersey? My Squip says I can go all the way to Broadway. I just have to make sure you don’t ruin my big night."

lot to unpack here. could be true that mr. reyes does indeed think this but we've seen him interact in a very friendly manner with the students before- asking about the jake-madeline scandal, (in the broadway version) hanging out with the students, overall just being nice to the Popular Kids even if they objecticely suck at acting. in some productions he even hugs christine when she shows disappointment about the play being changed. personally i think it's unlikely he thinks of his students as 'needy, pathetic, self-centered'- whether he hates teaching drama in middleborough or wants to go to broadway we can't know for sure, but still.

next up, jake. "I was already pretty boss before / now I'm totally boss and then some more / I'm living the upgrade / God, I love me!"

now. you already know how unhealthily obsessed i am with jake and how much of his character i fleshed out in my head with close to zero canon basis lol. i'll try my best to stay within canon here- after play rehearsal jake admitted to christine that "When I saw you die in the play last year... That was like the saddest I’d felt in a long time. It was like everything in my life, all the pressure I feel to be the best, at everything, all the time... Suddenly felt so small." basically he's saying that he's been pressured to be perfect at everything his entire life but implying christine's acting made that pain feel small in comparison because y'know, flirting tactics. he's got some self-esteem issues, he did not think he was 'pretty boss before', fight me. wouldn't be a stretch to say that he doesn't really love himself either, then.

alright, mr. reyes and jake's lines are a little bit ambiguous. but brooke and chloe make it very clear they're being controlled by their squips. "I just want you to know, I’m not mad you broke my heart and slept with my best friend." "And I’m not mad you dated my best friend and wouldn’t sleep with me."

really? the brooke who was crying at the halloween party because she thought jeremy cheated on her and ignored chloe's call the next day isn't mad? the chloe who did oh you know, all of do you wanna fucking hang wasn't mad or jealous jeremy was dating her best friend? bullshit. this is why i have mixed feelings on the changed lines in the broadway production- while it adds depth to the girls' characters instead of just reducing them to their relationship with boys it completely throws off my entire theory that nothing the squipped people say during The Play is true. (tbh which is likely the case & i'm overanalyzing all this but whatever it's just a fun little theory i have)

because see- in the first draft of the script christine's lines are "I hate play rehearsal / so says my voice that comes from within / I am perfect sans rehearsal / because I don't need to practice to win"

we've already established play rehearsal is christine's coping mechanism and an escape for feeling lost in life as well as a metaphor for her not being able to find her true identity. what do you mean she thinks she's 'perfect sans rehearsal' and 'doesn't need to practice to win'. that goes against her entire character. even the finalized changed lyrics where she admits "You are the person I want to be with every day / And this is something that I've been afraid to say / You're the guy I am so kinda into / The guy I am totally into / This feeling is new / Jeremy, I love you" are... debatable. christine had previously shown little to no romantic interest in jeremy, even turning him down at the halloween party that she needed to find herself before dating someone. she did agree to go out with him in the end but that was most likely because she thought highly of his actions during the play and because she got to know him better. and even if we presume she did have feelings for jeremy all along, the line 'this feeling is new' still wouldn't make sense. most importantly jeremy himself says 'that's not christine'. he recognizes her being controlled by her squip, she doesn't really mean what she's saying.

so. basically what i'm saying is my theory is that what the characters say while squipped during the play are all contradictory to what they actually feel, because the squip's goal is to manipulate jeremy by making it seem like everyone's happy with the squips when they all have their own problems in reality. the implication is that the squip is supposed to be the solution to all those problems but as we know through jeremy and rich that isn't exactly the case. especially not during The Play, aka its epic villain moment.

that's about it thanks for coming to my ted talk

#bmc #be more chill #squip squad

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most-canon-non-canon-ship-poll · 11 months

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they're toxic + mike is gay and in denial

Why Mileven is shit - a submission-based essay, part 1/3

Mileven - a currently canon het ship from the Stranger Things fandom between Michael (Mike) Wheeler and Jane (Eleven) Ives/Hopper/Byers/IDK

12 years old girl raised in a lab is thrown in a relationship with the first boy she ever meets. They constantly fight, lie to each other and develop a unhealthy co-dependent bond. The boy has a close ambiguous relationship with his male best friend which leads a good part of the fandom thinking that he is actually gay. People who stan this ship constantly throw homophobic slurs to this male best friend and some even argue that they hope he dies of AIDS next season

Where do I even begin. I do not care what anyone says the chemistry is not there. Another cog in the Should Have Never Been Written As A Couple machine. What made them cute in earlier seasons was their platonic dynamic and Mike's kindhearted nature to help her. It is hilarious this is apparently their "flagship" and "main" couple when they have the least amount of chemistry and the poorest written out of the others. They are not their best selves together, not only hurting themselves, but the people around them. Mostly Will, which is clear as day in Season 4. At the end of Season 4 I am so to the nth tired of the same shit different shovel with them. I am probably too gay to see The Vision fans of them see, but I do have eyes and it looks to me like they've been slowly crumbling. There is no foundation for their relationship they were barley friends a week before Mike kissed her and then she vanished for a year. They maybe had a little bit of interaction between closing the Gate and Snow Ball. Kissed again. Then spent all summer making out and ditching their friends until El comically broke up with him. Their relationship is exhausting to watch. The drama eats up too much screen time. I am tired of watching them hurting themselves staying together. There is no meaningful conversations since maybe Season 2. In Season 4 what could have been one ended poorly and the other interrupted comically. They've dragged out the Mike saying "I love you" story line, seemingly concluding it while El was being strangled in a Mind Scape trying to save Max who was also in said Mind Scape being slowly to tortured to death. Said confession prompted by using Will's own veiled confession disguised as El's an episode earlier. Plus Will using his own words to encourage Mike to help her. He did to help her, but that was painful to watch there was so much going on! Then they expect me to believe they're better than ever afterwards when there is nothing to indicate that? I need them to break up please free them. Free me. I am over it bro.

My propaganda is *drum roll*. Season 4. That's it. I am putting faith in the other haters to submit something coherent. I do not have the energy unfortunately. It is shit now, but would be even more shit if they finish the show endgame. I do not care about them. I want focus on the supernatural plot!! I want focus on characters and conversations that don't revolve around or circle to their relationship! I don't want to see another character to become a mouth peice for Opening Their Eyes and What Really Matters and they'll "Work out." I am exhausted of third parties putting more effort into Mileven than Mike and El themselves. I want them to be their own people because they come off miserable together. They both vocalize their pain and no one that ships them cares! I have never in my years of watching shows have seen such a terrible,boring and annoying couple championed as much as Mileven. Every other canon couple in the show is miles better, yet are over shadowed. They are holding together by Elmer's glue and popsicle sticks. Them being boyfriend and girlfriend means nothing to me when the chemistry is not there. Final propaganda- Most of the more vocal fans are homophobic and go out of their way to harass others.

Two incredibly written characters that have so much potential outside of a relationship. seriously their relationship is absolutely erasing all and any personality that the show gave them separately. That and they're just incredibly toxic, el literally met mike almost first thing after living in a lab her entire life, she has no reason to start a romantic relationship, especially at that age. mike is also super insecure, and using el's love towards him to ease said insecurities. incredibly unhealthy on both sides how this became the main ship of the show absolutely BAFFLES the fuck out of me

#propaganda #why [ship name] is shit #the (s)hit list #not a poll #anti milkvan #anti mileven #byler #kinda?#idk y'all will like it

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