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#I don't think it's intentional in all the adaptations but I do think it's the underlying bias in media
jerejerejere · 2 days
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I absolutely love Lintu's analysis off kot kot!
(Thanks for giving a platform for additional thoughts ♡ i ended up typing so much that i thought i should also put this in a separate post 😅 i'm just curious what you all think!!)
Idk why it hit different when listening to the whole song but i almost ascended with the first couple of seconds it was so good. Even though i've heard it before. Maybe i was distracted then, who knows.
I'm so glad he teasered both elements of the song before the release because i would have died on impact with the kot kot part. Other than that i have nothing to add to lintu's thoughts - perfect. It's wild and chaotic but still somehow balanced and it doesn't feel like trolling but really sincere even in it's goofyness. The lovely moodyness! Totally!
The song adapts really well with every listen. You feel like you don't want to like it (as much as you do) but here you are replaying it a fifth time, a fifteenth time. Like a taste combination you're not sure you like so you have to go in a second time. And before you know it, you're hooked.
(I still don't love the kot-kot part but that's because i somehow just don't like the word, it's so dry idk.)
I love both parts - the rapping and the singing equally although i will say that i don't vibe with the autotune (it's autotune, right?) that much. (I want to hear your real voice Jere :') even if it's not 100% there yet) I love his voice so much. The high-pitched ''missä'' was a special treat 😫
I love the distorted metallic beats under the rap parts a *lot* lot.
Lintu's analysis of the lyrics is so interesting, i haven't thought of it that way - that this is not a song about the now but a projection into what the future could possibly look like.
Also interesting that the voice on the phone was both Finnish and English 👀 (a hint to friends in other countries and the distance they have?)
I really wish the song was longer. I had the same with ruoska, where it felt like the song was over as soon as you got really into it - blip! Over. (but maybe i'm just slow?) I also wish the 2 elements themselves lasted longer - there's no way you can get into them and really *enjoy* them before they end. And then i was like ... waidaminute! This is intentional! Time confetti! He doesn't get to enjoy his fame and/or private time long enough so neither do we get to live in these elements for too long. It leaves you a little rattled and disoriented. As someone else said - it's like edging 😅 it is! Without resolve. Because that would have been my other point - the song feels like working up to a really good climax but then - bok bok.. 😅😭 That sly little gremlin 😫💚
Also every time i caught myself thinking - hm, that's very commercial 😅 the song kicked the legs out from under me right away 😂 So good for him.
Which brings me to my next hard agree with Lintu - i soooo hope it's a concept album! I don't need to love every song but boy do i love when he experiments. I end up liking those later on mostly. So it's a delayed reward treat idk how to describe it better.
Lastly.
None of this, absolutely none of this, implied sexy poledancing. He just did that. 🙏🏽😫❤
So thank you Jere.
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bywandandsword · 6 months
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I'm listening to the Red Dragon audiobook, and the one thing I take issue with is that the narrator gives every other southerner an accent, but not Will Graham. None of the adaptations give him an accent. The man grew up poor in rural Louisiana and spent the first part of his career in New Orleans! He's gonna have some sort of accent!
He can be brilliant profiler that Hannibal is interested in or in love with and be a southerner with a southern accent, I promise!
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comicaurora · 4 months
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Nick Bostrom's "Fable of the Dragon Tyrant," which CGP Grey adapted into a video, left me feeling unsatisfied, and I got a certain unsettling vibe about the entire story.
I don't think it was the dragon's lack of agency, that just makes it an unusually traditional Western dragon.
You're a master at picking narratives apart to figure out why they don't satisfy. Do you have any insight, opinions, or cracktheories about why this story might be unsatisfying to some folks?
Probably because it's a very unsubtle metaphor casting the dragon as death, and death itself as a cruel, malevolent beast devouring and subjugating humanity for its own whims. This is very much intentional on the part of the writer. The paradigm of the story is that the dragon is huge, terrifying and incalculably cruel, and everyone lives their lives in the shadow of its terror or are just too deluded to recognize that it's COMING TO EAT THEM OH GOD
Intrinsic in this metaphorical structure is the idea that the dragon, aka death, is an artificial imposition on the natural order, and if we just got rid of the big ol' mean dragon, everybody would live forever and be fine. Accepting that the dragon exists is framed as a sign of desperation or even cowardice. This is an understandable read when facing a monster that only SEEMS timeless and inevitable (like LeGuin's thoughts comparing the current state of capitalism to the historical acceptance of the divine right of kings) but becomes bizarre when applied to something as legitimately factual as biological death. It's not even framed as unnatural death - the dragon specifically gets sent mostly old people. The metaphor is very explicitly about trying to frame death from old age as a big horrible dragon that everyone only thinks is unstoppable.
I get what they're going for here. The purpose of this story is to make the audience question if death is a true inevitability or if it can be fought, staved off, even defeated. But in the process, the story frames the systems of the world that have formed around death - doctors, pallative caregivers, will executors - as macabre gears in the machine dedicated to the genocidal cruelty of feeding the dragon.
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In the dragon tyrant framing, these people only exist to make the rest of the world more okay with flinging themselves down the gullet of the dragon and to streamline the process by which everybody dies. By casting death as the enemy, everybody whose jobs are based on the compassionate act of comforting and aiding people suffering from loss become reframed as collaborators with the incalculably evil enemy, and everyone who's ever accepted their own death becomes a loser. This is a deeply cruel way to frame people who dedicate their lives to helping people through one of the hardest and most tragic aspects of life.
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Damn, that's fucked up. Look at this eloquent idiot, explaining why we should be okay with letting a big dragon eat us because it's the natural order. Clearly he is wrong and it's not debasing at all to want to stay alive and not get eaten by a big dragon. This is a fallacy of false analogy: death is like being eaten by a big mean dragon. All his arguments look ridiculous when applied to getting eaten by a big mean dragon, therefore they must be ridiculous when applied to dying when your organs start failing because they've been running nonstop for nine decades and biological systems accumulate wear and tear like literally everything else in the universe.
Entropy increases; systems break down, from DNA to planetary orbits. Successfully shoot down the dragon and you'll end up outliving everything you thought was eternal, even the stars. The goal of immortality isn't really to personally witness the sun exploding, it's to have more good time. It's to make your twenties last into your sixties. It's to keep your back painless and your vision good for longer. We want to postpone the story's end as long as we can, and so we extrapolate "more time" into "I never want to die, I want to be young and healthy and hot forever" even though "forever" doesn't exist. To look to "forever" is to understand that your culture and language will drift, your home will eventually crumble out from under you, your shoreline will erode and change, your climate will transform, your tectonic plate will subduct or shatter, your moon's orbit will slow and tidally lock, and eventually your sun will start burning helium and cook your planet. You don't want "forever" to look like that, you want it to look like your twenties felt. But at that point you aren't fighting the Big Mean Dragon That Eats People, you're fighting the ocean and the biosphere and the earth and the stars, trying to hold them in place against entropy so your immortality can have an equally immortal world to enjoy it in. No, this argument doesn't want true immortality, it wants their twenties to last longer. But it can't admit that.
Back to the story. There's a condescending and spiteful tone in the narration. Death (being eaten by a big mean dragon) is OBVIOUSLY awful and we should all be fighting as hard as we can to make it stop happening. Even a child can see it.
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The story even helpfully adds a lengthy moral explanation at the end, in case you didn't understand that the dragon was the inevitability of death and we should dedicate all our resources to figuring out how to make a big rocket and shoot it.
"Nobody should ever die" is generally understood to be a childish dream with extremely obvious and unpleasant consequences that would turn its realization into an unending and waking nightmare, and once out of the confines of easy metaphor, the story tries to act like that wasn't what it was just saying. But its more realistic proposed substitute, "It would be great if people could live longer and have more healthy, youthful years in them," is probably the world's most uncontroversial statement. This story frames it like a bold revelation that the world will attempt to beat down and crush out of a misguided acceptance that Big Mean Dragon comes for us all. It's a morality fable whose conclusion is "I hope science improves the length and quality of our lives, potentially even to the point where we never have to die at all," which has been the number one goal of huge swaths of science since the invention of agriculture. This is not a bold or controversial take. It's just being written as though we're all looking at the naked emperor and pretending he's wearing pants.
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cy-cyborg · 7 months
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Writing disability: The Super-Crip Trope, and how to avoid falling into it's harmful elements
The "Magical disabled person" or as it's often called in disability circles, the "Super-Crip" is the name of a trope in which a disabled character has some kind of magic or special abilities, which is used to mitigate or erase the impact of their disability. While not a mandatory part of the trope, many super-crip characters are also stronger than their peers, specifically because of their disability's impact on their powers. So why is this trope so unpopular among many disabled people? There's a few reasons. The main one is because more often than not, Super-crips who are written by non-disabled people are often treated as an easy way out of actually having to deal with a character's disability, and a shortcut out of having to do the research into how a disabled character would deal with certain situations. When these writers encounter something they think their disabled character can't do, instead of actually talking to people with the same disability as their character and doing research, they just write that its not a problem because "magic powers go!"
In some cases, but not all, their powers all but erase their disability completely, at least from the perspective of it's relevance to the story. While, to my knowledge, this was never in the comics or movies, A good example of this is a "fan-theory" I've seen among non-disabled X-men fans who claim professor X could use his telepathy to walk, functionally bypassing his spinal injury (Or his leg injury, if we're going off some of the comics' timelines). This would functionally erase his disability, making it an example of both the super-crip trope and the miracle-cure trope.
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ID: An image of Professor X from X-men, a white bald man wearing a suit, sitting in a silver wheelchair, and another unknown man in a suit standing beside him, framed by a circular doorway, both their faces are partially obscured by shadow. /end ID]
Another reason this trope is disliked is because writer's often have good intentions when using this trope, but they actually end up undermining the points they were trying to make. Often, super-crips are portrayed as badasses in an attempt to show that "you can still be a hero/useful to the plot and be disabled", but the way they portray it usually implies that disabled people, as they exist in real life, aren't useful unless they have something that compensates for their disability or have impossible powers.
So should super-crips be avoided entirely? Some folks in the community think so, but personally, I don't agree. Despite all of what I've said so far, I think there are ways to write characters who technically fit the definition of a super-crip, without it being harmful. There's an argument to be made that "super-crip" specifically refers to harmful version of the trope, so not everyone will consider characters who aren't part of it, but I do, and I think it's important to discuss both the harm this trope can bring, and how this trope can be used in non-harmful ways. Humans (and creatures with human-level intelligence) are adaptable creatures, and in a world where magic exists and especially in worlds where its common, disabled people will find ways to use it to help themselves. but help is the key word there. So let's talk about some ways you can write super-crips, without it crossing the line into becoming harmful. The following are some things for you to consider about your character's disability, how their magic/powers interacts with it, how they interact with the world (and vice versa) and more:
Are your character's powers an aid or a cure?
The first, and one of the most important things to consider, is if your character's powers function like an aid or piece of assistive tech, or a cure? If you boil it down, is the magic helping them or "fixing" them? This can be a cure in the literal sense, as in giving an amputee the ability to shape-shift to get their limb back, or a functional cure, meaning the power essentially by-passes the disability, like the above mentioned professor-X fan-theory. It's not literally curing him, but it might as well be. In a world where this magic or super-powers exist, it's perfectly natural that a character might use the magic to lessen the impact of their disability, but it shouldn't erase it entirely. Give the magic a trade off, make it imperfect. You character can cummon a magic prosthetic, but there's a time limit on how long it lasts for, or their magic needs to recharge it. A wheelchair using mage might be able to engrave magic runes on their chair that allow them to pass over rough terrain, but only to a certain extent. It might allow them to go up-stairs, but it can only be used so many times per day (and make sure you show the times where they need to get up the stairs, but have run out of uses!) Things like that.
Is the power directly tied to their disability?
Is the power you're giving the character directly tied to their disability? There's 2 ways you could read this, and both should be considered. 1. The power is something you, as the author, gave to them specifically because it would help mitigate their disability (e.g. giving a character without arms telepathy so they can still pick things up/hold things because you couldn't figure out how they would be a badass swordsman without it) or 2. Does this character, in universe, have their power specifically because of their disability? e.g. Did our arm amputee develop telepathy through sheer-force of will because they really wanted to be a swordsman, and their determination manifested as telepathy/A god gave them the powers because they felt bad for them/a wizard taught them how to do it because they were inspired by the person's perseverance? If the answer to the first one was yes, perhaps reconsider and do more research. If the answer to the second one is yes, proceed with a lot of caution. Generally, if the powers originate from someone feeling sorry for your character, being inspired by them or anything to do with their determination and perseverance, I'd recommend changing that. However, if the powers came from your character having to adapt something to to their disability, that is really a case-by-case basis thing. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. your success with it will depend on the character, the setting and the specifics of how.
Is this power common, or is this character the only person in the cast/only person we see with this ability?
Is the power you're giving your disabled character rare, or even unique? It's fine to give your disabled characters powers that are common within the world, but if they're one of the only people who has that ability (or similar abilities), ESPECIALLY if it directly helps mitigate their disability, you might want to reconsider that choice. In a world where everyone can fly, it would be weird if your wheelchair user couldn't without an explanation. But if no one else in the story can fly except your wheelchair user, it starts looking more like you just gave them that power so you don't have to think about accessibility in your world. If you really must give your disabled character the rare/unique power, consider making another character with a similar disability but no/more common powers so you aren't just avoiding the issue, or making the power not related to/impact their disability directly (e.g. giving your leg amputee super-hearing.)
Does this power solve a wider access issue in your world, or does it just make it easier for your character alone?
As a general rule of thumb, if you are writing a story where you don't want accessibility issues to be a thing (e.g. a story set in a utopia), focus on fixing the environment, not the characters. Instead of giving your wheelchair user the ability to fly upstairs, give the buildings ramps and lifts. That way, its a solution for everyone with that disability, no matter their access to things like magic or technology. When talking about super-crips, this is especially important, doubly so if your character's power is rare! I made a (mostly joking) post ages ago about an idea for an earth-bender character in the Avatar universe, who gets fed up with republic city being inaccessible and starts earth-bending all the stairs into ramps. This solves the accessibility issue for them, but also makes their environment more accessible for others without bending to get around. Of course, not every disabled character will want to help/care to help others, but often when non-disabled people write disabled characters with powers, they kind of forget that their character won't be the only disabled person in this world. It often feels like they honestly think fixing things for their character means there's no problem anymore, and that's not the case.
Avoid, "I may have [insert disability here] but I can still do stuff because of my power!"
By this, I mean give your character other ways to address issues relating to their disability than just their powers. One funny example I remember reading in a writing group I was a part of was this author who was bragging about how their paralysed character could still drive a car because they had electrokinisis (the ability to telepathically control electronics). Aside from the fact that wouldn't work on all cars - including the one their character drove, since not all cars have electronic components controlling their acceleration and brakes, the way they described it was extremely complex, and overall not worth the effort when the real-life solution, hand controls, was much, much easier and the setting allowed for easy access to that kind of tech. When I pointed this out to them, they said they had no idea hand controls were a thing, and they had no idea that real disabled people could drive. They thankfully changed it, but there's 2 things to take from this: 1, double check that disabled people can do the things you assume they can't, your magic solution might very well not be needed, and 2. variety is important regardless. No one device, or in this case, magic power, should act as a one-size-fits-all solution. IRL disabled people have lots of tools to help us, I have 2 sets of prosthetics for different tasks, a wheelchair, a grabby claw (for reaching things on high shelves when using my short legs and wheelchair) and hand controls in my car (or at least I used to but we won't get into that lol). My prosthetics won't "fix" all my problems, I need other tools too. keep this in mind when it comes to magic too - it shouldn't be the only thing at your character's disposal.
There's nothing to compensate for.
Remember, don't treat your character's disability as something they need to make up for (especially if they "make up for it" using their powers). Your disabled character is allowed to make mistakes, they're allowed to have flaws both related and unrelated to their disability, they're allowed to not be good at some things, and they don't always have to be the best at whatever their roll in the plot is. In most stories, they should be on par with the other characters, or at least in the same ball-park, but as I mentioned before, a lot of stories don't let disabled characters fail. In order to justify them even being present, they are often made out to be the undeniable best, almost to mary-sue levels of perfection and super-crips especially fall into this issue a lot. They can be good at things, but balance it out, like with any other character.
You don't have to use all of these points, but they are still worth at least considering. For example, Toph fails all of these points except the first three. Despite that, she's still one of my favorite disabled characters in media, even if she's not perfect, and I'm not alone in thinking that. I've seen lots of other disabled people say the same about her. Which of these points you should use will depend on your story, character, setting and tone. As I've mentioned a few times now, the key is striking a balance. At the end of the day though, these are only general pieces of advice and a lot more factors go into making a character like this work. only disabled people will be able to tell you if you've pulled it off, and that's where beta-readers and disabled sensitivity readers come in!
Also, remember, these kinds of tropes don't just apply to the more common/well-known disabilities like amputations and wheelchair users, that's just what I have experience with! Be sure to research any disabilities your character has to ensure you are not falling into these tropes.
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starhoppin · 7 months
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pick a picture; how do you capture people's attention
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pile 1 -> pile 2 -> pile 3
disclaimer; this is a general reading! these messages may not fit everyone. please take what resonates and leave the rest.
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「 pile one」
king of wands, the magician (cb: the moon), queen of cups
based on the court + major arcana cards, you have a very powerful aura/energy surrounding you. i'm hearing "naturally charismatic." you're the type of person that people turn to stare at when you walk into a room - all eyes are naturally drawn to you. people are attracted to your confidence; it makes you magnetic. you're self-assured and patient - others wonder how you're so successful. "you keep your cards close to your chest." you don't broadcast your desires to the world which helps you with your manifestations. you have strong boundaries, and there are parts of you that you keep hidden from the world - this draws people in since they're curious to learn more about you. you also have a healthy self-esteem which people admire. you're calm and collected - queen vibes. you draw people's attention because you're poised. i'm specifically getting the image of the queen in princess diaries (the one played by julie andrews). people look to you for guidance and strength.
[songs that may resonate] look what you made me do - taylor swift, la vie en rose - michael buble, wow - post malone
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「 pile two」
the moon (cb: the hanged man, three of cups), nine of wands (cb: ace of cups), the emperor (cb: eight of cups)
you're mysterious to a lot of people. you draw attention due to your ability to adapt to any social situation. i'm hearing "enigma." at first, you may come off a bit guarded; however, when you're surrounded by friends and family, you're a lot more open. this paradox naturally draws people's attention. nonetheless, others view you as influential. you draw attention because you're the type of person who comes into someone's life and completely flips it upside down. even with a brief interaction, you have a way of changing people. you capture people's attention because of your connection to the divine. others can sense this about you. people feel like they can open up to you - you see them for who they truly are. you may often be used as a messenger for the divine. remember how i said that you have the ability to change people's lives? this is how. you have a gift of conveying what message a person needs to hear in the way it needs to be said. people are naturally drawn to you because of this gift. you capture people's attention because of your resiliency. you're not afraid to walk away from something that is no longer serving you. you know when to let go. you're independent. you don't tolerate or entertain low-vibrational people or situations.
[songs that may resonate] stories - paden, waiting games - trella, you were good to me - jeremy zucker, chelsea cutler.
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「 pile three」
the world (cb: two of cups, four of cups), queen of cups, the empress
people are drawn to you because you have a good head on your shoulders. people think your independence is attractive. you may have a lot of suitors since you don't entertain just anyone; you're selective when it comes to romantic relationships. you're very discerning when it comes to people who approach you (romantic or otherwise) with negative intentions. you can spot them from a mile away. your aura/energy captures people's attention. you exude a calm and compassionate energy - you're approachable. others may even describe you as bubbly. i'm hearing the sound of laughter? like a really bright laugh that's infectious. so either you have a laugh like that or people tend to laugh a lot around you. where you go, happiness and abundance tend to follow which draws people's attention. with your energy and your intellect, you're naturally magnetic. i'm getting ethereal/royal vibes. "what you see is what you get." you're very transparent. you're not the type to be nice to someone's face and then talk behind their back, you're just genuinely nice. people may think that this comes easy, but you make a conscious effort to be this way. there's an air of humility surrounding you that people are drawn to. they know they can trust you.
[songs that may resonate] paper rings - taylor swift, i dare you - bea miller, i was in heaven - chelsea cutler
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tarot deck used in this reading: cirque du tarot
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bonny-kookoo · 2 months
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Hey, I found Sweet Tooth and absolutely loved it.
I wanted to ask you if you'd write an intermediate scenario or something before she's warmed up to Yoongi, where she throws a tantrum and hurts herself, and they go to the doctor, where she overhears someone advising Jimin that it's totally normal to let go of a problematic hybrid or pet especially if your partner doesn't like them, and there are shelters that take them in?
And with her heightened Cat hearing it freaks her out into shutting her tantrums down long term - but jimin is oblivious to her fear because things are going so well with Yoongi?
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"So, just for protocol, how exactly did it happen?" A nurse asks, while you're being treated in another room, door slightly opened just in case she's needed at any point.
"She.. her living situation changed quite drastically. And she has trouble adapting." Jimin admits to her gently, tone soft to not be heard by you. "My partner and her.. don't get along very well. And she sometimes acts a bit out, which causes accidents like this." He further details, sighing. "They were fighting over something, and my partner accidentally closed the door on her tail as she went out. It was absolutely not intentional!"
"Hm, yeah, it's sometimes hard for hybrids to adapt. You also have another hybrid?" She asks, reading your medical info on the computer screen while she taps away some more info.
"Yes, my partner's. A canine hybrid." He informs her, and she nod.
"You know, it's a totally reasonable thing to think about moving one out." She suggests to jimin, who's face starts to become a little confused and irritated. "Giving her past history, she's a bit problematic, so her behavior is quite natural. There's tons of good places for hybrids like her though- since it's generally recommended to keep hybrids of both her category and behavioral issues in stable families as a single hybrid."
"Thats.. no, she's just.." jimin stammers, having never even thought about it once. But how are you feeling right now? Is he really doing the right thing, or is he just being selfish by hoping you'll adapt at some point?
And will you really adapt, or just admit defeat?
"I'll write down some numbers, alright? It's your choice to make." She suggests gently. He can sense that she really only has your best interest in mind. "This down here is Dr. Kim Taehyung, he's an expert in hybrid behavioral therapy. He might even take her in himself!" She suggests, before giving jimin the note. "Think about it."
He doesn't have to. He could never give you away like that.
Back home, something's definitely wrong though, ecer since that incident. You're quiet, detached, don't even interact with Jungkook anymore- the poor canine hybrid having tried everything from your favorite snacks to a collection of his personal favorite plushies. Nothing seems to get a reaction out of you anymore.
And what's the oddest, is how you just.. listen to whatever yoongi tells you to do.
Wash the dishes? You'll do it, quietly. You'll even dry them and put them away to your best abilities.
Make your bed? You even do laundry if he tells you to, even though you struggle to memorize all the different settings and programs.
Set the table? You'll just do it, robotically, not even a roll of your eyes.
One might think yoongi would enjoy this new, quiet side of you- but he doesn't. The guilt about accidentally hurting you that day still eats him alive, the sound of your painful cries still haunting him in his sleep.
Jimin, however, doesn't seem to realize the secerity of the situation. He tries to reassure his partner by saying that you'll just need some time, that hospitals just spook you, and that you maybe just want to be a good girl for once.
But Jungkook especially, is concerned. This isn't like you, and it's not a normal change of mind either. No one just flips around like a switch over night like that.
"I'll go to work now, yeah?" Jungkook tells you- but you just nod, no protest coming from you. Jungkook's ears droop down, tail limp behind him as he throws Yoongi a helpless look, before he leaves for work, leaving you and the oldest human alone in the house.
"Alright, I'm done with this." He says, and you look at him at that, fearful.
He hates it. Why are you scared of him?
"I promise you, I didn't mean to hurt you that day." Yoongi runs a hand through his hair, before he sits down on the couch next to you, with respectful distance. "I'm sorry. I really am."
"Its fine." You just state, but he shakes his head.
"Its not fine. Nothing is fine at all." He denies. "Is there anything else that happened? Something bothering you?" He asks, but you just shake your head. "If you don't want to talk to me, then talk to Jimi-"
"He wants to give me away." You say, pulling up your legs to yourself.
"...what?" Yoongi asks in disbelief. Jimin loves you- he'd never give you away- he'd probably much rather admit defeat in this relationship than give you up.
"The nurse and him.. talked about stuff." You mumble into your knees. "He got like.. she wrote down some numbers for him. One of them a doctor.. for behavior problems and stuff.." you explain, tail wrapping around yourself in comfort. "Because it's alright to give up shitty hybrids like me. You know." You shrug. "Cause I'm supposed to be alone."
"Thats bullshit." Yoongi declines, crossing his arms. "Everything about this. He'd never give you away, and neither are you shitty or supposed to be alone." He denies, getting up to get his phone- accidentally digging in the pockets of the wrong coat, fingers finding a note instead.
Three numbers. One of them labeled 'Dr. Kim Taehyung'
..are you possibly telling the truth? Does jimin really want to go this far just to save his relationship with him? He knows he should probably feel flattered. But he doesn't.
Not one bit.
"Its probably the best." You say from the couch still, looking over the backrest of it, ears down low. He's never seen you this.. insecure before. Vulnerable. "Then you'll all be happy. And maybe I can get fixed." You shrug, when Yoongi walks closer, hand on your head making you look up.
"There's nothing wrong with you." He denies, note clenched in his fist as he just crumples it up. "And you're not going to be alone." He says, walking upstairs into his office.
And you swear, just for a second, his eyes seemed to sparkle a little from unshed tears bubbling up.
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shinjisdone · 10 months
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How I Imagine TWST Could Be If There Was A Female!MC - Staff Edition
part 2 of this I suppose
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TW: Reader is female, period mentioned, bullying mentioned
Crowley, as mentioned, is a bit indifferent but puzzled at the new female student.
Not to offend, but you sure you crawled out of the coffin? You didn't throw out the original Student and replaced their body with yours, right?
He is half-joking by the way.
Well, it is what it is, and him being such a GRACIOUS AND GENEROUS PERSON will OF COURSE do all that he can to make you feel welcome and part of NRC!
Spoiler alert: he does so half-assed.
Will bring you any sort of thing you need and will offer both pants and skirts in all kinds of lengths for your uniform - long, short, frilly, straight, etc. As long as they fit with the jacket.
Since you came here with uh, NOTHING, he will also make sure that Sam stocks all kinds of things. While many things that are worn/needed are kinda basic/gender-neutral, he doesn't think of eeeeverything.
At the same time he kinda...paves you your own personal hell with good intentions. Introduces you to others like a good headmaster does while also underlining how VERY MUCH INDEED A GIRL YOU ARE. DING-DING-DING A YOUNG WOMAN IS GOING TO BE HERE FOR THE REST OF UUUUHHH WHENEVER I'LL BOTHER TO LOOK FOR HER HOME PLEASE BE NICE TO HER, OK?
When you might feel sick and report it to the headmaster he will of course, understand. Yet just as you are about to excuse yourself he GASPS and very genuinely and worriedly asks while whispering 'are you on your period...?'
Whether or not that is the case he will continue to reassure that that it is not something to be ashamed about AS THE ONLY GIRL HERE and he'll make sure you'll be fine.
Unironically would give you a wink, thumbs up and pats himself on the back for how GENEROUS HE IS HAH.
Would give you self-made help book: 'The Time I Got Transported Into A Magic All-Boys-Academy As The Only Magicless Girl'.
Crewel is uuuuuhhhh...
He eyes you up and down before asigning you to a pot. A pup is a pup and well-trained, diligent and especially, open-minded pups can learn anything.
Potionology especially can be learned by you, a magicless student! It requires understanding of ingredients and their magical attributes as well as magic itself a bit, but that's something you can learn!
He does not care if you are female or not. Students are meant to obey and he will not treat you any differently. Be well-behaved and listen - learn from this new environment and succeed.
He is a bit more strict with you since potionology does not require any magical skills (as far as I know). You can learn, you can adapt. Just be a good pup!
If you're doing awful, then he will be STRICT AS HELL. It's just that he truthfully believes you can learn and do better!
If you're doing good and maybe even improved, he'll be sure to praise you. Good pup! Very, very, well done!
Then he goes back to his strict self.
If he sees you being treated wrongly by others during HIS CLASS because you are a girl - he won't allow it. Will chastise the other student, ESPECIALLY IF YOU TEAMED UP, and will tell them of their awful behavior. Such things deserve punishment.
If you ever do better after such a situation, be sure Crewel will praise you loudly in a away to indirectly shove it into the student's face and let them know - 'This one did it despite being a girl and you thinking that is a reason to bully someone. No, you foolish Fido. You all are equal, inexperienced puppies.'
Be very afraid of Trein.
This guy does not c a r e who you are. A student of NRC is supposed to be diligent, punctual, listening, obeying, studious, tidy, neat, AND DON'T YOU EVER FORGET TO-
The list goes on and on.
There is the slight chance that Trein will be a bit...less strict when he takes into account that you are new to everything. You aren't familiar with either the history of magic nor the social status and affects it can have (hooh boy, you do know how much it affects-)
After classes he might take you to the side and ask how much you actually know of...magic, besides not being able to cast any. He will offer extra classes and books from the library to catch up. After that he BETTER be seeing you there often with a book in your hand. Will often check on you.
He doesn't mean any harm but he is very certain you need extra lessons to even be on the same level as the locals here. So he expects you to be extra hard-working!
After some time, the thought of you being so much left behind crosses his mind and he wants to speak after class with you again. This time about a different topic.
"Are you perhaps...being intentionally wronged in this school?"
He does not like to use the word 'bullied'. While he knows it does exist he'd rather not make any assumptions, especially because he thinks it's because you are the only female here.
It depends on you what is the truth.
In general he does take you being a young woman in an all-boys-academy as a fact and in the back of his mind while he teaches you. You and your studies might be affected due to this. Will often ask about you and how you are doing. He will take everything as truth, even if you lie since he expects you to be mature enough to do the right thing.
Though you seem to be around good and righteous young men, so he likes to believe you are doing well.
Might take Ace and Deuce to the side and tell them to look after you. Just a bit.
Ace will be like, 'yeah, yeah, don't worry, she's fine with us. Hah, in fact she'd be totally lost without us!'
Deuce is bobbing his head up and down, starry-eyed, 'yes, yes, yes, Professor! We'll do our best, she is safe with us. I SWEAR AS A FUTURE HONOR STUDENT-'
Vargas at the beginning pushes you as much as the others because how else could you spellcast?
Oh. You can't either way?
Hm.
After getting over that fact, Vargas takes your situation very seriously. If it is requested, Vargas will make sure to prepare sport uniforms you are comfortable with as well ask you if you are also comfortable with training with the other boys (it is nice to be asked but then again, what is he supposed to do if you say no? Give you private lessons after dark?).
He will internally let out a big 'phew!' if you say you do not mind training with them or training with a few close ones (the 1st year squad or anyone else you trust).
Is very understanding if you cannot partake due to your period. Will be sure to discreetly excuse you and ask a student you trust to escort you back to your dorm.
Will also bring in your own strength and capability into play. You may not be able to cast any magic, but that is not the only reason to grind!
Will often look over to you and how you're doing during lessons. Will immediately intervene if he sees any bullying or harrassment. That's not sporting or fair!
Will give a big thumbs up at any improvements or when you or others stand up for you. That's the spirit!
Sam is the one adult you know he always got your back.
The others are perfectly nice but Sam does not criticize, chastise or push you to your limits! Though he is part of the staff you feel like you can talk the most open with him.
Always asks about your day. Oh, it went well? Here, have this trinket as a memory keepsake. Oh, it was awful? Aw, shucks, take this treat, it'll cost ya...
That's usually how your conversations go.
Whatever you need, he got it for you. Makes sure he always has feminine products or anything else you might need in stock and will give you them behind the counter if you want to keep the exchange a secret and not so open to public.
Though he treats you like his other customers (kinda ripping you off), he does give you a few things for sale or free when you had a bad day due to you being the only girl here.
Tell him any secret! They are safe with him (for a price jk).
After all, there might be a few things you cannot or wouldn't want to tell your friends and Sam keeps his mouth shut whenever. So don't worry!
Grim is a little pain in the neck no matter who you are.
As mentioned, he doesn't really get why it's suuuuch a biiig deaaaal that you are here. So what if you're a giiirrrll? You're his minion either way and you ARE going to help him.
Once he gets that others pick on you, he'll get defensive. That is HIS minion and she's doing a great job no matter if magicless or not, no matter if girlie or not! Y'all better shut up before he burns you to a crisp.
Will defend you but since he's just some...monster cat no one takes him seriously. He tries though and does end up setting someone's hair on fire...which only brings you more trouble, so there's that.
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spookberry · 3 months
Text
Its been a while so I cant point to a bunch of specific example outside of like, Hera, Athena, and Hephaestus. But okay, one thing that always bothers me about the Percy Jackson worldbuilding is the fact that its fundamental premise is just "what if the greek gods and their stories were real" so there's nothing you can do about how deeply and unrelentingly sexist the ancient greeks were without just breaking your own premise. Like your options are take them at their word to fulfill the premise or say "nah all of them were wrong I have new lore". So I don't exactly blame Riordon for cherrypicking which myths he was gonna edit.
Its just a little wacky to me though that because of it's status as an adaption(to some degree) people don't really critically analyze the intent behind the source material on the gods. Their context from a meta perspective is often overlooked in the grand scheme of the story. Which I understand, the intrigue is on the demigods afterall, not the gods themselves.
However I just cannot stop myself from thinking about it. Like the fact that a big part of why the greeks respected Athena was because she was born "purely of man" and her birth was umblemished via coming from an icky woman. Shes the perfect woman because she lacks ties to womanhood. Shes the ideal Pick Me girl.
The story of Hephaestus's birth is sucky for him, but personally I think more on Hera. To me its always been fairly clear that the intended message you are meant to get out of that story is literally "no matter what, women are worse then men. Even at the one thing theyre meant to be good at." How dare a woman think she could ever be better than a man at something even if she is a Goddess of this thing.
Hera does bad things in her mythos I wont deny that and youre not meant to like her in Percy Jackson either which is fine. We can have complicated and annoyingly meddlesome girlbosss goddess for the sake of plot. Nonetheless I often find myself feeling sad about how she has been dragged through the mud for centuries because people dont dare to think more critically on why the men telling her stories spoke on her the way they did.
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fuckyeahisawthat · 2 months
Note
thank you so much for that excellent chani post. i've seen some annoying takes on twitter about how not making her totally devoted and subservient to paul makes her 'unlikeable' and i'm like. buddy. i think that speaks more to how you see women. than anything about her. this chani is very dynamic and interesting to me.
i'll be honest and say i've not read the books. this is me speaking from what i've seen of summaries, but i think giving her a real cause to fight for yet also genuinely loving paul gives her an interesting struggle, and also plays into how the portrayal of the fremen (seems to me to be) more diverse and nuanced. as in, the fremen themselves seem to have more of a push-and-pull to them. the clarification of how different fremen believe differently (the south being more fundamentalist) is a very important thing to include in a movie where you can run into the danger of saying that all adherents to a foreign, islam-adjacent (in coding) religion are all fundamentalists. that can (in less nuanced hands) be a pretty irresponsible thing. so showing that there's also more secular/pragmatic/less dogmatic sectors of the culture seems a pretty good counterweight.
so yeah. this is how i processed it as a movie-goer. and having chani represent that aspect (believing in people over prophecy, action over religion) and having stilgar as the humanized face of the southern peoples (showing that yknow, regardless of being fundamenist beliefs, theyre still PEOPLE with the capacity for love, friendship, honor) makes total logical sense. you're not just "telling" us that there's different aspects to fremen culture, you're SHOWING us by showing different characters who represent those aspects, without demonizing either or turning either into a one-note stereotype.
Thank you! I'm not someone who was a long-term fan of the books before the movie came out (I tried reading Dune as a teenager when I was reading a lot of classic sci-fi but found it too boring) but I did read Dune and Dune Messiah after the first movie came out, both because I wanted to know what happened next and because I wanted to have an opinion on how the movies worked as adaptations.
(book and movie spoilers below and also I basically ended up writing a whole essay in response to this)
My single biggest frustration with the book is that after they arrive at Sietch Tabr and Jessica drinks the Water of Life and becomes Reverend Mother...the book up and skips two years of the story and when we next see Paul he's already got Fremen followers who are ready to die for him and he's in an established relationship with Chani. Oh I was SO MAD when I got to this part. I was like FRANK. FRANK!!!! Did you seriously just skip two years of the most interesting part of your own story???
The thing is, even though I know that Frank Herbert's intention was to write a critique of the idea that oppressed people need an enlightened external (white) savior to liberate them...if you don't provide an alternate explanation for what's happening then you end up falling into some Orientalist tropes anyway. And because, in the book, we don't see the process of how your average background fedaykin comes to trust Paul as a military and political leader, there is nothing in the text to counter the idea that the Fremen are a bunch of unquestioning religious fanatics easily swayed to do violence by belief in a prophecy.
My second biggest frustration with the book is that we're given no reason at all why Chani would fall in love with Paul. While she has some memorable scenes, she doesn't have a lot to do as a character in the book, and she's missing from a whole chunk of the end...because she's in the south...because she and Paul have a baby, Leto II, who's then killed off-page when the sardaukar attack the south. (I'm honestly really glad they cut this from the film, because it never seemed to be given the narrative weight it deserved in the book.)
So you can imagine how happy I was when the Villeneuve movies figured out how to address both these frustrations by tying them together. The fedaykin don't just blindly accept Paul because of some prophecy. They come to trust him because he proves himself as a fighter, and because he starts out from a place of genuine solidarity and humility--which it is possible for him to do because he has no structural power over them at that point. And Chani falls in love with him for the same reason, in that heady environment of fighting side by side for a political cause, and maybe for the first time in a while starting to believe that you can win.
I think the Villeneuve movies improve a lot on what's in the book in terms of how the Fremen are portrayed...when we're with the fedaykin and/or Chani and Stilgar. There we see political debates and discussion and the fact that not all the Fremen think the same way. And we also see little humanizing moments of folks just hanging out, celebrating after a victory in battle and just shooting the shit and being friends.
I do wish the movie had extended this to more parts of Fremen society. If there's one thing I could have added, it would be seeing more of daily life in Sietch Tabr. It makes sense that when we're seeing things from Jessica's POV, she is more distant from and suspicious of the Fremen, seeing them as a force to be manipulated, but I wish we had even one or two scenes of people just being people in the sietch. It felt kind of weirdly empty and not particularly lived-in as a place, and I think they could've easily countered this, with scenes from Chani, Stilgar or Paul's POV, and that would have made it hit even harder when the sietch is attacked.
If there were two things I could have added, I wanted more exploration of the people of the south. Why are they more fundamentalist than the Fremen who live in the north? (We get one line about how "nothing can survive [in the south] without faith" but I wanted more than that.) While I think the movie did a fantastic job of humanizing and differentiating the Fremen we see around Paul, when we get to the south it does backslide a little into "undifferentiated mass of fanatics." Surely the people of the south also have some diversity of political views.
I think there are some interesting threads they could have pulled on in terms of how proximity to direct colonial violence shapes people's ideology. Sietch Tabr is one of the closest Fremen communities to Arrakeen, the seat of colonial control. They have probably had to mount some kind of armed resistance for generations just to keep from being wiped out. I can see that producing skepticism of the prophecy ("well I can't sit around waiting for a messiah but I do have this rocket launcher") as well as resentment at the idea of someone swooping in and taking credit for a struggle that you've put your life on the line for, and probably a lot of people you know have died for. There seem to be some generational differences, too, where young people of Chani's generation put less stock in the prophecy, while the true believers are mostly older. I can see faith in the prophecy coming out of despair--when you've been fighting for decades with no change, maybe you draw the conclusion that only an outside power coming to your aid will make a difference. While the people of the south are still under colonial rule, maybe being generally outside the reach of direct Harkonnen violence (the Harkonnens don't even know they're there) makes the concepts of both oppression and liberation feel more abstract and more receptive to being filled in with Bene Gesserit mysticism. It seems absurd to want more from a movie that's nearly three hours long already...but I wanted more of this.
Still, I do think they managed to improve on a lot of things that frustrated me or are simply dated about the book, while keeping the political thriller/war drama/epic tragedy elements that I think are the heart of the story, and in some cases drawing them out more clearly and effectively than the book did. The best kind of book-to-film adaptation imo is one that has a strong point of view in terms of what the story is About, on a large-scale thematic level, and is not afraid to change individual elements of canon in service of telling that story the most effective way possible in a cinematic medium. While there are always things I want more of, I feel like Denis Villeneuve really, really understood the assignment in terms of the overarching themes of the the story and he delivered so fucking well.
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ghostieyanyan · 7 months
Note
If you don’t mind, which yandere twst boys do you see being most likely to exploit a mentally exhausted prefect to kidnap them?
To clarify, I think it can be argued that the prefect would be absolutely done with NRC after six life-or-death situations due to the overblots on top of being forced to adapt to education system of another world and putting up with the quality of students at NRC. You can’t tell me that a school full of villains would treat the only magicless student well. That just screams prime opportunity to manipulate the prefect into leaving NRC to go somewhere “safer” with one of the boys.
Once again, I’m just curious about your thoughts so don’t feel pressured to respond!
yes yes yes!!!
poor perfect tired to the bone from crowly and the other students. if only there was a knight and shining armor that can come and save them.
No longer an accidentally post! But I mean it did help me finish it lol
~Mental-Exhausted!Mc~
Yan!Riddle x mc
Yan!Leona x mc
Yan!Jamil x mc
Yan!Lilia x mc
Warnings: yandere, kidnapping, drug use (shrink potion), abusive behavior, chains, collar, gag, parenthood (gender-neutual), gritting teeth(?) (I know some people hate it so ill put it in here), not a lot of proof-reads,
~~~~~
Riddle
yes, riddle was the first overblot (technically) and after his overblot, he felt awful about how he behaved. he was supposed to look after Heartslaybu but he ended up becoming his mother. he hated himself for that.
So now, not only is he taking better care of his dorm, with the help of his dorm. but whenever he sees you, he tries his best to check up on you.
How are you? Do you need help with any school assignments? etc.
they all had sweet intents at first but over time, you started to look drain.. like the life was sucked right out of you. when he asked ace and deuce, they confirmed that you were just tired of all the overblots and being crowley's lap dog. if only he knew how to help you...
at first he asked, trey and cater about how he should help you. they were mature enough to know, right?
cater, being cater, teased him on "having a crush on the perfect" or how he phrased it "oooohhh you are down bad!! lol" whatever that means...
Trey said that maybe ask the perfect if they do need help. but Riddle knows the perfect, they'll say they're fine even when they're not..
riddle felt lost and swallowed his pride as he dials his mother's number.
his mother was furious with the fact that riddle was facing an issue he cant fix himself but what she said about perfect shocked him.
"well.. maybe if this perfect isn't as perfect as their title, maybe they don't belong in Night Raven College!"
with that... the call ended.
now that he wasn't being held by his mother's strings, he saw red...! no one talks about his perfect like that! but.. she has a point.. (which makes him more frustrated) if perfect is miserable here... maybe they shouldn't be attending NRC. but where would they go...?
when he thought about that, he realized he didn't really want to be away from you... you mean too much to him.
so later that day, he requested you to join him in his room, he need to talk to you. you agreed cause why would you be cautious with someone you trust, plus you were too tired to worry about how strange the request was. he gave you tea and asked if you were okay.. you said yes, just stressed with some classes and drank you tea. it tasted... off.
you feel yourself shrinking.. you were shrinking!
you looked at riddle and he was just smiling at you! he picked you up and placed you into a tea pot.
"it'll be okay, my dear. once i graduate and get us a nice home, we'll live our happy lives away from this stress and... toxic poison. But for now, you'll have to behave. i love you, my dear"
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~~~~~
Leona
Whether you noticed him or not, Leona watches you run back and forth, from hallway to hallway. Kinda like a mouse running around for food but also staying hidden. Sometimes your running around helps him sleep or just ease him to a zen.
He'd normally wouldn't bat an eye because you're just a lap dog for that crow. But after time has past. He watched as you get slower, more exhausted. like you're pushing to prove something. It ercked him more than he would like. It hit too close to home for him.
When he finally was able to approach you on the matter, you looked like your soul was taken from you. Something within just snapped. He had enough of this. He made the call and suddenly, savanaclaw students came to your side and dragged you to leona's room. If you try to resist, Leona lucky told them to not hurt you too badly. But accidents happens. With their rough handling, you blacked out.
You wake up with a pretty collar around your neck and a chain attach to it? You look around and this is not your ramshackle room. You tried to sit up for a better look and get quick pulled down by the chain collar. It nearly broke your neck! But Leona would say you're being dramatic.
"Quick moving, im trying to sleep.."
You looked and saw Leona. He was laying on your chest and his legs were holding your legs down. He was like a strange weighted blanket. He wasn't in his school uniform but looks like he's in home attire?
"Where are we, leona..?"
You said, scared cause your literally in the hands of a lion that could kill you really quick..
He ears twitched and he looked up at you, bored. But he let out a smirk.
"Were home~"
It took you a minute to process what he said... home? Apparently your confused was evident on your face and leona let out a long sigh. He moved or above you, pining you down.
"Were at Sunset Savanna palace and WE are both gonna be staying here until I can trust you'll be a good obedient herbivore and stay by my side."
You were lost for words and unconsciously started to struggle under leona. Trying to push him off, kicking your legs, he got really annoyed when you accidentally pinched his tail with the bed and your foot.
His retaliation was to slam you down, knocking the wind out of your lungs. As you were gasping for air, he bit you really hard on your throat. You let out a silent scream. You thought you were going to die. This was your last moment of life.
Leona eventually let's go but quickly replacing his fangs with his hand.
"You WILL be obedient... do I make myself clear.."
That wasn't a question.. it was a demand.
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~~~~~
Jamil
Jamil hardly noticed you.. PERIOD.
He's busy not only taking care of scarabia but also their housewarden. While his housewarden takes the credit.. he hated it. And the fact his housewarden is so happy go lucky to him too. Makes his blood boil!!
Jamil truly believed that no one would feel his pain, his struggles.. because everyone sees Kalim "success" before anything!
You and Jamil were in the housewarden meeting, well on the outside of the office during the meeting. Jamil had to be there because Kalim and you were there for Crowley...
You both had a quick moment until you asked him hows he been? He lends his head back against the wall and sighs. You laugh at his actions.
"I get that, hehe"
His eye twitched.
"Do you now..?"
"Heh.. I really do. I'm here for Crowley, even tho he's the Headmage. He's like a spoiled brat with responsibility... and HE knowing more about this world, and the work he does for it, more than I do. But nooo... he still gives it to me!"
Jamil stares at you as you vent about your stress and struggles in NRC. He honestly thought that your life is harder than his! How on the seven do you-?
The doors to the office opens and you and jamil both stand up. The other housewardens walked off and kalim ran to jamil, like a parent picking up their kid in kindergarten.
Jamil sighs, seeing kalim's face makes him exhausting... he quickly looks at you, not turning his head to not make it obvious. You were walking into Crowley's office as he hands you a big stack of papers. He practically saw the light in your eyes fade... he HAS to do something.. but what?
A few days past and he just watched you get more exhausted. The more he watches you the more his feelings for you grows. And the more he watched you get degraded the more he wants to set the world on fire for you..
You couldn't hold a conversation as long as you use to now! What is Crowley making you do?
His hand balled into fist. Then he get an idea.. he's always wanted to do this but never thought about it, there will be come changes to the plan with you in it but it could work!
It was in the evening and he stopped by the Ramshackle dorm. With shaking hands he knocked. He can't believe he's gonna do it.
You answer and he quick took out a cloth from his pocket and covered your mouth. Your struggles were pointless with his strength and your muffled screams wasn't going to be heard by anyone since you practically lived in the middle of nowhere. You went limp and he smile grew.
You woke up, chained, gaged, and blindfolded. You didn't know where you were you were so scared.. but you hear foot steps...
"Good morning, my little desert flower~ im sorry I had to contain you like this, I can't risk anymore seeing you. But once we leave the Isle of Sages, ill let you see."
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~~~~~
Lilia
Lilia has been watching you since that first day you came here. How much chaos your presence cause, not including Grims presence, was amazing.
He'd be lying if he said he didn't feel something for you after that first day.
Whenever you're doing anything, he watches. And if hes busy, he has his bats watch you instead. They'll report any and everything about you. Including the dark circles appear under your eyes.
To say he was a little pissed... was an understandment. How dare the Crow hurt someone he cared for..
Lilia had half a mind to just get rid of Crowley with a big display of his remand.. but his kids will be scar so probably not.
He'd would think about if for a bit and told himself, why not just take you to live in Briar Valley? You could live there and he'd support you and care for you. You have a caring personal type with how much you take care of those first years.
You'll make a perfect parent...
Lilia stopped by Ramshackle dorm for a "surprised visit". You thought his strange behavior was just lilia being a strange guy? Meanwhile lilia felt like he was young again when he's with you. He felt shy and anxious. He was all fidgety and not making 100% eye contact with you.
Oh by the seven, you stir something within him and its not unwelcomed.
"Lilia? I don't mean to be rude but.. umm... why are you here..? You kinda came at a bad time.. Crowley has some paper work he wants me to fill out for him.."
Lilia fidgeting stop and if you had his super hear, you'd hear him grit his teeth for a moment.
He flips around suddenly and gets a unsettling smile.
"I came because I just remembered a old story and I wanted to tell someone before it slips my mind!"
You stared at Lilia but nodded for him to continue.
"Do you remember when I told you about the story of the Thorn Fairy? And how she put a curse on this cute little human~?"
With every word he spoke, he got closer to you.. you tried to make some distance but it quickly was put to a halt when lilia grabbed your arm.
"L-ilia.. You're hurting me.."
You tried to pull away but nothing can compete with Lilia's strength.
"Did I also tell you that with skill and focus, a powerful mage, can change the effect of such a powerful spell~?"
You're particularly trembling at this point. He got up really close to you and he shows you a small sewing needle.
"I promise, it won't be too long. Just long enough for everyone to stop looking for you~"
{I didn’t give Lilia an art piece because I drew something similar already}
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mhsdatgo · 3 months
Text
Hotd writers choosing to adapt Mushroom's records out of everything they had in hand is the worst decision they could've ever come up with btw.
It's been stated time and time again that while F&B is purely built on records and gossip and morphed retelling of events out of bias and propaganda, Mushroom is the LEAST reliable of all the sources. He's a fool at Rhaenyra's court, his job is make people gasp and laugh, not retell historical events.
We're talking about the same guy who said that he had a penis large enough to match the size of his head, mind you. Also, he's obsessed with little girls giving BJs to Targaryen men somewhere in Flea Bottom. It's happened twice according to him.
The writers' reasoning for this choice is basically that F&B was written by Maesters and Septons, who were all greedy men, apart from being Green supporters. So anything they say is false, anything they say is written with sexist intent. Writer's intention was to do the exact opposite.
Then tell me, for the love of God, tell me, why is every woman apart from Rhaenyra, who is clearly whitewashed and I can go into heavy detail about that, basically shunned?
The Maesters claim Alicent left Viserys' body to rot and swell for days preparing and LEADING Rhaenyra's usurpation. She's the leader of the Greens, she and she alone. Not Otto. The Green Council answers only to her orders, they are loyal to HER.
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I've seen people argue that since Alicent is what Maesters view as an "ideal" woman, then they would try anything to paint her in the best light possible. While I agree that this may be true, I don't think this is the case. In history books, even in real life, women are rarely painted as leaders or important figures.
For Queen Alicent to be written as THE face of the Greens, you know this mama wasn't playing around.
Now, how is this:
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In ANY WAY, even comparable to THIS?:
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At the end of ep.8 and quite literally the entirety of ep.9, Alicent is shown as a lost woman who doesn't even seem to know what she's doing, pushed by Viserys' last words about prophecy rather than SHEER DESIRE to get her hands dirty for her children's safety (which by the way will always be superior imo). The Green Council conspires behind her back, and on top of it all, she's yelled at by one of her own men and is made to take it like a beaten dog.
Moreover, we had Helaena's ROAST (yes it was a roast, my Queen inherited cunty lines from her cunty mother) against Aegon and her coronation, the latter being addressed as something quite wholesome, if you ask me. Alicent places her own crown upon her daughter's head and calls her "my Queen" after kissing her cheeks and kneeling. Afterwards, her and Alicent are literally written to be the only ones who could get through Aegon II's thick skull when he wanted to start the war right then and there as a result of Rhaenyra crowning herself on Dragonstone.
You hear me??? Aegon sat down and fucking listened to the two women in his life. Not the Council, them. These two were dogwalking him, the KING, on the daily, how is that sexist writing on the Maesters' part????
Yet these things are nowhere to be seen in Ryan Condal and Sara Hess' "progressive" show. We got beaten dog Alicent and Helaena being nothing but a walking spoiler machine other than yet another instrument to paint Aegon as the big bad wolf and usurper. Not a single scene of them counseling Aegon.
Baela and Rhaena have nearly no lines or scenes that don't show them in the presence of the Strongs. They are seemingly okay with anything Rhae throws their way because it's Rhae. The one and only scene about Baela openly speaking to her grandma about her wish to fight for Rhaenyra was deleted.
Meanwhile, Rhaenyra is stripped of her rage and thirst for vengeance, and instead made to negotiate for peace while in the books she was the one pushing to go to war first.
Can you tell me, again, how the fanfiction that is Hotd supposed to prove that they want to be "progressive" in contrast to the Maesters' "sexist" work, when literally all they do is whitewash Rhaenyra and sideline any woman who isn't her?
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unreadpoppy · 4 months
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Halsin bear related headcanons
So, bears are a special interest of mine which means I have too much knowledge about this animal than what is allowed and I just...needed to make these involving my favorite druid's preferred wild shape. This is part romantic headcanons, part general hcs and part me using this man as an excuse to talk about bears.
As I said in another post, bears have an extremely accurate sense of smell, and they will leave their mark on their territory by rubbing their backs on trees to leave their scent. With that in mind, I can picture some days where Halsin is constantly hugging Tav, holding their hand, just being in physical contact with them, to sort of leave his smell on them. 
Maybe he would do that after noticing how Tav was smelling of others. 
On the topic of smells, bears are attracted by smell, so on days that the group is low on supplies, he wildshapes and scavenges for all sorts of fruits and plants, especially the more sweet ones. 
Also, Halsin sniffing Tav’s hair, especially after a good bath, and saying that it smells nice. 
Many species of bears are omnivourous, I think especially black bears, so Halsin will eat just about anything. If it looks fresh and edible, he will eat it. 
It also means that, during the weeks/months leading up to winter, he is going to be eating a LOT. 
Bears are not true hibernators and for Halsin, that could translate to him just sleeping more during winter time. 
Also, if it’s a particularly cold night, he’s wildshaping into a polar bear and enveloping his partner(s) in a tight and very warm hugs. I say polar bear in specific because they have the fur that is more adapted to handle cold weathers and because polar bear moms will often cuddle with their cubs because their (cubs) fur is still not developed enough to handle the weather, and picturing Halsin in bear form doing that is just so cute. 
Black bears in particular are great climbers and I can see Halsin picking up that as well. On a particular night, where the sky is clear, Halsin would transform into a bear, get his partner on his back, climb up the tallest tree around and then show them the stars and the moon. 
Also, getting a bit into more animalistic things, Halsin would be a very vocal guy, like grunting and growling when he's upset.
When confronted by someone who could be a threat, he'd use his already large size to his favor and try to intimidate the person away. Puffing up his chest, holding his head higher, just showing he's the bigger guy and he's not to be messed around with.
Getting particularly into more…naughty territory, I want to talk about courtship. On the more tame side, if Halsin has his eyes on someone, he’d follow them around more, get them to be comfortable around him. He’d be more playful, like being more outspoken of his intentions and flirting more, but just like real bears, he'd wait until his partner initiated it. 
I don't see Halsin as a possessive man overall, BUT, in specific situations, I can see this side of him coming out, because of bear instintcs. Male bears can get more aggresive towards other males during mating season, and I can see that affexting him.
Maybe he's courting someone and another person gets a bit too close (and his partner makes it clear they're not liking it), Halsin's gonna get into protective mode and scare the guy away.
The last two points are a bit more sexual, so I put them under the cut.
Also, after seeing a video and reading a couple of articles on it, yeah I can see Halsin being into primal play. 
His partner gets a good head start before he wildshapes into a bear and runs after them. Fun fact, bears can run up to 35-40 mph, so I can see him also like, stopping from time to time to prolong the hunt even longer. If his partner in a druid who can wild shape into a bear, I think it’d be even more interesting because the speed of both would be equal. 
Remember how I said he's a vocal guy? Yeah, he's going to be groaning, and moaning and grunting a lot during sex.
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fictober-event · 2 years
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Fictober 2022
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The prompts for 2022
Here is the list for October this year. Write something short (or long) and tag it with #fictober22 in the first five tags. Let’s see your creativity!
"I chose you."
"Nobody warned you about me?"
"That was not my intention."
"How would that even work?"
"No, anything but that."
"Adaptable, I like that."
"Check that again, are you sure?"
"Do you remember?"
"Sounds like a you problem."
"It's my name on the line."
"Think! For once!"
"You're making my head hurt."
"I don't want you to do that."
"Yes. No. I don't know."
"What are you doing?"
"You're looking, but you don't see."
"Are you serious?"
"I don't think this is your problem."
"Do we have a deal?"
"There's only us."
"I never said that."
"Who said this is a good idea?"
"Not on my watch!"
"Is this safe?"
"You know I'd do anything."
"I'm doing it, shut up."
"That's not why we're doing this."
"We all have our reasons."
"You love this, don't you?"
"I know what this looks like."
"I'm not alone and neither are you."
This event is open to fanfiction and original fiction. Start the first of October. You do not have to do the prompts in order. Tag your posts with #fictober22. Please state at the top if your entry is original fiction or fanfiction and what fandom. State common warnings and triggers at the top and tag accordingly. I reserve the right to not reblog fics that I find inappropriate. I will reblog things here on @fictober-event, follow this blog to see all the entries.
Go forth and write!
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squidthoughts · 8 months
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why doesn't shin leave?
that's the question, right? there are secondary ones, of course – why didn't she kill sabine/was she sandbagging their duel/did she intentionally perform a nonfatal stabbing/was she sent there to interact with sabine at all, or just for the map.... but really, my question at the end of ep1 was:
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why is she waiting here at all?
"we've been looking for this," shin says, and that's what, an accusation? conversation-starter? she's here to talk? maybe, okay – except she's actively thieving, so what can she be expecting by sticking around but a fight? so she secures the map and she waits for sabine. to fight her. but the question is still why and in my unqualified opinion i think the answer is found back here:
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"ahsoka tano's former apprentice is on lothal."
what do we know about baylan? he was a jedi, once. he witnessed the purge of his order and adapted to a life of survival – he maintains certain jedi traditions, he passes these traditions to his padawan: the braid, the traditional construction of the lightsaber, if not the crystal inside (standing mystery, though). he is nostalgic but not melancholy, connected perhaps to the more elegant and noble history of the jedi but evidently strongly opposed to assuming that title at present.
what do we know about shin? well...almost nothing. except that when baylan speaks, shin listens. she obeys unquestioningly. when morgan speaks, shin watches baylan. they are close; there is mutual trust, though clearly more dependency on shin's side. and she is likely – though not certainly – born after order 66.
i'm confident answers will be forthcoming about shin's past, but in the meantime, working with the (very!!) little we have, assuming the subtle intricacies of the shot direction and ivanna's acting are all intentional, and with the full disclaimer that im brainrotty for wolfwren......i want to answer my original question.
shin has never seen another apprentice before. beyond baylan and inquisitors (apparently), she has probably never seen another lightsaber-wielder before. and yet – her master, while scorning the label of jedi, is steeped in jedi history. he seems to be training her according to some traditional jedi principles (though...what with the mass-murder and the mercenary work, of course we don't yet know the extent of those principles), and it would follow that he would have imparted the history of the jedi as well.
baylan skoll is not a jedi. but ahsoka tano is. or, was. but the antagonist squad refers to her as a jedi, so from shin's perspective it's not just "ahsoka tano's apprentice" on lothal. she is being told there is a real, live jedi apprentice on lothal.
and the jedi are extinct.
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we're into the rampant speculation part of the meta now, because what is shin thinking in this moment?
there's a green lightsaber before her – a jedi apprentice before her – or at least the former-apprentice-of-a-jedi, but shin is the apprentice-of-a-former-jedi, and at some point the semantics get in the way of the exhilaration. this is probably (again, this whole thing could get disproven in the next episode or something) the first lightsaber battle shin has ever had with someone who might actually kill her. (i assume baylan wouldn't engage in prolicide while sparring.)
this is, i think, shin at her most excited. on the one hand – it's another apprentice! it's another member of an order (her order??) that was supposed to be wiped out! this is proof of concept maybe, that shin isn't so alone! and on the other hand – this is a test, no? like, the first real test of shin's full abilities, assuming she's never dueled before? again, i wish we knew more about her motivations, but it stands to reason a padawan that powerful and devoted would constantly be looking for ways to both prove and improve herself, right?
and then. sabine. sucks.
she's sloppy and weak and doesn't use the force. she's untrained and undisciplined and slow and gets tired too quickly.
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shin starts blocking with one hand. she starts sidestepping sabine's wild swings. there's no way she's is trying to kill her at this point; shin is playing with her food.
i just...think she's disappointed?? like, she was probably expecting so much more from a proper jedi's apprentice, and i think we'd need more information about her to extrapolate what exactly she wants in this scene, but i'd be willing to bet it wasn't this sub-par, former-apprentice bitch-ass fight. (love to sabine but like. she did get her clock cleaned. obviously.)
regardless, i am excited to see how this experience influences the forestfight™ we know is on the way...and also if sabine, like, feels...anything....about being skewered like a county fair corn dog?? i mean trauma or anger or fear or drive or?? bc we know shin wasn't actually trying to kill her, (this is my official stance and im sticking to it) but sabine sure doesn't!!
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mostlybuddingthoughts · 4 months
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Me letting go of 2023 negativity looks like this: I, personally, did not enjoy how Madhouse's anime adaptation did the Ring Scene in Frieren.
Spoilers for episode 14 of the anime, and the equivalent manga chapters they were based from.
Fundamentally I think it comes down to this shot.
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Himmel drops to one knee, and Frieren looks… Shocked? Surprised? Either way, it's a much more dramatic expression than I was expecting. Than the one I read in the manga.
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Frieren constantly has this detached air in her flashbacks. We know this, and we know why: she hasn't yet realised that these people are important, and hasn't begun to make the conscious effort to learn about and open up to them.
So why does the anime choose to emphasise Frieren's expression? We should know Frieren's expression. In doing so, it seems to imply that it this expression is a deviation from the norm. That this affected her in a way beyond normal.
But it didn't. Like all other flashbacks, she never realised the beauty of it except in retrospect. Which is why I do think Frieren looking at the Ring after Himmel's death was an excellent addition by the anime.
(incidentally, I do like the subsequent shot of her face which DOES emphasise her confusion)
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No, like all other flashbacks, this isn't necessarily about Frieren, but about Himmel. And above all other chapters, I think this chapter gave us a glimpse beneath Himmel's normal charisma. At the heartbreak he carries inside.
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I think this panel single-handedly was the reason for why this chapter was the most popular chapter in recent polls.
This manga always has these smiles I love. People always say the characters only have one expression, but I don't think that's true.
The smiles all have such different feelings to them.
And this one is paiiinnnnn.
You can see how cruel he finds the situation. That Frieren would pick a gift so close to his desires whilst being entirely oblivious. His brow, raised just so, is an amused wince. His smile, so flat and drawn out, lingers in irony.
I've seen videos where people made the same comparison.
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(if someone could help me find the video, I'll add a link. I've found YouTube's history to be very finicky, and I can't find it)
But despite the universe mocking him, Himmel puts it to the side. In the manga, I feel you can understand his intentions even more. To accept that Frieren doesn't understand, and probably won't ever reciprocate his intentions, but he can still indulge in the fantasy, selfishly, just for a bit.
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I've always liked how Frieren looked here. Politely curious, I've described it to others before. She knows something is happening, but no idea what or why she should really care.
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While this shot is fine, I do somehow feel the emphasis is once again going to Frieren. But again, I feel like this isn't about Frieren. Frieren is entirely passive in this scene (that's why it's paiiiinnn). It's about Himmel and what he chose to do with the ring, because it shows what he felt about it and her.
Anyway, the anime adaptation is beautiful and a 10/10, but I think this is the first time I've seen the anime stumbling in adapting its source material. A pity is was with the most popular manga chapter.
I could not be happier or more surprised that this anime is becoming so popular in the mainstream. No better successor to Fullmetal Alchemist at the top of MAL.
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txttletale · 6 months
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healed ive been doing some very basic communist readings lately and. how do you cope with the fact that none of it seems particularly possible. how do you manage to put any of this theory into practice when the only two parties out there seem to be the We’re Basically Demsocs Party and the Sexual Abuse League. how do you not let it crush you and what ways have you found to like… manifest these ideas in your life? i guess one could say i was “radicalized” by recent events but having done basic reading (just beginner Lenin and Marx) has made me feel so much more hopeless. there’s no vanguard party and i don’t see what I can actually tangibly do to help proliferate communism. and it’s making me feel guilty for living my life, too, for doing things that I find fun and beautiful and enjoyable - there’s just the guilt of “this is a time-waster, this is brainwashing you”. do you have any assurance at all
so obviously the role of a marxist-leninist in a revolutionary situation (ie, one in which the conditions are revolutionary, in which the current bourgeois state is no longer tenable) is to be in a vanguard party at the head of the organized working class. but these things don't appear from nowhere--i think it follows that if you are in much of the world, where a revolutionary situation is not imminent in any forseeable near future, then the role of a communist is to help organize the working class and raise class consciousness through class struggle so that when such a situation presents itself the working class is both radical and organized, or capable of becoming such in short order.
that means that working within non-party organizations (unions, activist and mutual aid groups, grassroots campaigns) with the intent of learning the tactics of organization and radicalising the people around you is a meaningful participation in the class struggle. as much as i say 'get organized' and believe that a proletarian party is the best and most powerful vehicle for revolutionary action, that latter belief is of course to be taken and adapted for the situation.
do not be hopeless because you have read lenin--instead, be aware that when lenin was writing much of what he wrote, the situation of socialist parties across europe was dire. criminalized, divided just as they are now, replete with the exact kind of reformists you're complaining about (as well as adventurists). what lenin wrote about was not just a theoretical ideal party that did exist in his time, but instead the blueprints for the party he had a hand in creating. realize that lenin genuinely believed during periods that he would not see revolution during his lifetime.
organize with whoever you can, in whatever arena you can, and participate in the class struggle. develop the skills and understanding of the methods of struggle, even if trade unionism or climate activism alone are not sufficient vectors by which the contradictions of capitalism can be resolved, they are avenues by which your class consciousness and that of those around you can be honed and sharpened. find the most radical body around you and join yourself to their struggle--a vanguard party should emerge from the struggles of the working class, it should be an organization that serves as a vessel for effective action. you do not have to tie yourself to the decaying and rotting shambling zombie parties of the 20th century to participate in the class struggle--we as communists owe these organs no loyalty if they are not equipped for the realities of class struggle.
i'm lucky in that there is a small but dedicated group of marxist-leninists i have been able to join up with and work with. if that's not the case for you, conduct the struggle within anarchist collectives or trade unions or solidarity campaigns, while always keeping your true goal in mind. the class struggle unfolds across a multitude of arenas--as long as there's someone you can organize alongside on something, you are not powerless in your capacity as a revolutionary communist. good luck, comrade.
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