LN 5 and Maomao
Finished 5. Read the prologue to 6. That was a fascinating read and actually pretty sad.
Maomao and Jinshi finally get intimate but neither of them enjoyed it. Comes from Jinshi trying to force the relationship along and I won't talk about that, there's a great post here somewhere of someone else discussing Jinshi's side of things. I wanna talk about Maomao.
If Jinshi has a warped view of relationships, then Maomao is just as bad, of not worse. She talks about how she's incapable of love but I think that's 1) not entirely true and 2) hugely affected by the environment she grew up in.
(BTW if you relate to Maomao as aro/ace that's awesome and I'm not taking that away from you. This is just my interpretation of things).
Maomao has been born and raised in an environment where relationships are a commodity. There's little emotion involved besides the base desires. Without even bringing up her parents, Maomao's sisters have been essential in her viewing relationships this way. Pairin taught her, against her will, how to use sex as a tool and as part of power play. Meimei taught her the best relationships are the ones that give you money and a secure future. And Joka taught her men are duplicitous and will always find a way to hurt or betray you in the end. None of this thinking exactly engenders love in a romantic sense.
So you can probably imagine what this kind of environment does to a young woman's thinking. Maomao is a pragmatic realist and has not a single romantic bone to her body. But she still very much cares.
When presented with 2 young girls in desperate circumstances, the most she can do is make sure they understand the severity of their decision to sell themselves to Verdigris House. When Chou-u starts running around town, she warns him of the dangers of rape and abduction. And when Jinshi comes to her door and says he wants company, she offers him Verdigris services.
And that's the problem. Jinshi wanting her specifically is not something she's currently emotionally equipped to deal with. The definition she's been given of love is that it's a very bad and dangerous thing. So she handles her love for Jinshi in the only way she currently knows how: as a child of the pleasure district, born and raised.
And I'm very sure she loves him. When Jinshi is being himself, without the posturing and machismo, she likes being with him very much. She likes touching him and she likes taking care of him. She just can't really express that yet in a healthy way. Relationships and love are still viewed by the lens of the pleasure district.
So when cornered and pinned down (literally) she turns to the only tactics she knows. The ones her sisters taught her. As a courtesan.
So yes, they got physical, they got intimate. But neither of them particularly liked it. Jinshi is left feeling shamed and Maomao is unsatisfied. Dealing with things the courtesan way is not enough for her anymore. And Jinshi dealing with things the way a person of authority would isn't cutting it. They're not master and servant anymore, not customer and courtesan.
So, in conclusion to this rather long ramble that I am writing half asleep and on only one cup of coffee: these stupid kids need to start communicating.
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For some reason I can't stop thinking about the way Bad spoke today about the christmas classes. He was mostly reffering to them as "the task that cucurucho gave me" but while it was a part of the task, he started that project way before. He started it with Pomme just so everyone would have fun with their kids, not for that reward. Even if it's probably not that deep, it fits his character so well -
It's nothing big. It's just a task that he somehow did in one day. Why does he look so tired? It doesn't have anything to do with sitting by the mooses for hours. He is fine and the quest was done
Anyway, that stream was a fever dream. I loved it LMAO
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For the Spotify Top 100 ficlet prompt: 55, One Piece, whatever you're feeling!
Por la boca vive el pez- Fito & Fitipaldis
(It's my absolute favourite rock ballad in the world, the singer is basically playing around with the popular saying 'por la boca muere el pez', meaning 'the fish dies because of its mouth', meaning 'liars usually rattle themselves out', and he's using that to say how he cannot live anymore while denying his feelings).
“I apologize”.
Mihawk’s words throw Shanks out of a loop. He closes the door of his cabin, his other hand lightly squeezing Mihawk’s shoulder as he tries to search his face. The penumbra elongates the swordsman’s gesture, making him seem… sad? Embarrassed? In the lonely light of the only couple of candles lit up on Shanks’ desk.
“...My behavior was unfitting”, Mihawk continues. Shanks blinks, a total loss of words. “I’ll understand if you—”.
“What are you going on about?”, Shanks cuts him off, heart pounding in his chest as his mind automatically jumps to every single instance throughout the evening in which Mihawk has been uncharacteristically handsy. How Shanks moved Mihawk’s legs to let people use the stairs of the ship they were drinking on and Mihawk just kind of. Left his legs on Shanks’ lap. How he gently took Shanks’ hand and put it again on his knee, every time Shanks thought that he was getting tired of him idly running his fingers on it.
Mihawk, ever so helpful, gives a non committal shrug.
Shanks takes a breath.
“Look”, he says, directing Mihawk to sit on his bed: “I took you out because you usually do not get this drunk, not because—”, he strips him of his coat, then kneels to take out his boots and hopes that not looking at him helps him say something that makes more or less sense, “they’ve done wilder shit— hey, I’ve done wilder shit, it’s just. You usually do not get this drunk”.
Because that’s the thing. His mind keeps circling back to Mihawk touching him —to things like that little displeased noise he made every time Shanks moved his hand away— but the reality is that the swordsman has been pretty out of it throughout their entire meeting. Hell, he already seemed a little weirded out in the morning, when he’s shown up to their customary duel.
He looks up at Mihawk’s somber face, and squeezes his thigh even though the other doesn’t look at him.
“What’s going on?”.
It cannot be the marines, and thinking about the possibility of a rival making Mihawk this sad makes Shanks internally laugh. That leaves the prospect of Mihawk being in this state by something Shanks adjacent, but he cannot think of anything the swordsman wouldn’t tell him upfront, Mihawk’s tongue being at times as sharp as Yoru.
Well, nothing realistic, anyway.
“At this point you’ve got to know that you can tell me about whatever’s going on, and that I won’t use it against you”, Shanks says, because it bears to be said, apparently. “Except if it’s about how you’re bad at fighting with knives. But I already know that”, he teases with a smile.
Mihawk huffs, and it almost sounds like a snort, and if Shanks pays attention, he can almost see a corner of the swordsman’s lips pulling up. His chest feels warm.
Warmer, still, when Mihawk’s eyes drop to his lips.
He closes his mouth. His heart is beating out of rhythm, impossibly loud in his ears in the silence of the room. Half of Mihawk’s face is obscured, the light of the candles a tenuous glint on his golden iris, stuck on Shanks’ lips. Does Mihawk feel the warmth of his cheek, when he cups it? Does he blame it on the alcohol?
The spell is broken when a wave makes Shanks’ tense position tip, hands scrambling for support on Mihawk’s thighs, straw hat tipped back and hanging on his back and— he grabs the other’s hand without a second thought, pulling it back to his cheek where the swordsman left it first.
“...This is okay”, Shanks mutters, because it apparently also needs to be said. It tips Mihawk’s surprise into something close to fondness, if Shanks is reading him well.
The swordsman kisses his grin away.
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Im sorry, I lied, we aren't watching Netflix tonight. Let me tell you my ideas for an Amulet by Kazu Kibuishi rewrite
Lemme start with wasted character potential #1, mother herself, Karen.
The reason
It is not common at all in fantasy books for parents to participate in their children's adventures. For obvious reasons, really: parents would not allow their kids to be put in any danger, thus it is easier for them to not appear in the story at all, or even be the thing that the kids are chasing after in the first place.
That last one is exactly what happens in book 1, Karen is kidnapped and the kids need to save her. But unlike other stories, where "saving mom" is the end goal, Emily and Navin end up saving Karen in book 2 out of 9. And not only that, Karen insists on staying with her children in Alleida until they finish what they started.
Let me explain why this is so important, aside from the general subversion of the genere: Amulet, at its core, is a tale of grief. A family rattled by the tragic and horrific death of a father. The three of them are broken, in many different ways, but they insist on staying together no matter what.
If the topic was tackled properly, this could have been a story that explored all the different facets of grief and how a family tries to overcome its hurt. How you can rebuild yourself up from what may appear as the bottom of a well if you reach out for those who love you for support. How you don't need to suffer alone.
With Karen, this could have been especially interesting. If Kazu hadn't based his story on the idea of "kids parenting their parents", an interesting point could've been made. After all, Karen shouldn't rely on her kids to provide her emotional support at such a young age. She could, however, learn to open up about her pain to make them understand that they are not alone, while she also makes her own connections to the world around her.
So. How exactly would I do that?
Focus a little bit on Karen's past. Make her have a personality and purpose outside of "Mom"
Give Karen her own storyline and character arc paralel yet separate from her kids
Focus on Karen's own grief and loss, how she has carried the burden of her guilt for so many years, yet put on a front of strength for the sake of her kids.
The Idea
Just as Emily is "The Stonekeeper" and Navin is "The Recistence's Leader", Karen should also have a role. Personally, I decided to give her that of "The Messenger".
Karen, in the books, has been characterized in a way I can only describe as stereotypically "motherly": she's caring, understanding, and tries to offer support whenever she can. She might not be very open in the begining, but once she talks with a character a bit more she has been shown to become more trusting. These ideas are not expanded upon any more, so we dob't really get much information about her character aside from that.
I, personally, chose to take that idea and reshape it into Karen being the more "friendly/comunicative" of the group. Although yes, Navin is shown to be more charismatic, there is something to be said about friendship that is formed due to a building up of trust over time.
As a result, I have come up with the following concept:
Karens journey is one in which she learns to rely on other friends for help, that she doesn't need to carry her burdens and face the world on her own while putting on a mask for her children.
On the other hand, Karen also learns that her children are growing up, and they will need to know that they are not alone either. It is her job as their mother to teach this to them.
And in my opinion, the best way this could be potrayed was if Karen started writing to those she met on this journey. Sharing their experiences with those they left behind, communicating the situation in far away nations to others. Being the conection between locations.
And so, in the end, when the battle is about to start, she writes one last message to those old friends, asking for support in the conflict, thinking that she will recieve no answer. Only to be then met the following evening with entire towns worth of troops waiting to help.
Because Karen may not have powerful magic. Or the knowledge to pilot entire ships. But she does have the written word and the ability of forming conections. And that power, sometimes, is as strong as an entire army.
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