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pikapeppa · 2 months

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15 questions for 15 friends

Tagged by @elveny and @johaerys-writes -- thank you, my loves!

ARE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? My mom. Apparently my dad really wanted to name me after my mom and she was like "ugh really fine" LOL. My dad is also named after his dad, who was named after his dad... REAL ORIGINAL. This is going to sound like a total humblebrag, but my mom and I are both published academic authors, so we have to use our middle initials to distinguish who published what 🙃

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED? Probably in therapy last Thursday LOL. Though I got a little prickly-eyed earlier this week watching the episode of ATLA where Zuko and Aang go on their lifechanging field trip to the Sun Warriors' secret village 😂❤

DO YOU HAVE KIDS? Nope! Childless by choice.

WHAT SPORTS DO YOU PLAY/HAVE YOU PLAYED? I played T-ball when I was 5 or 6 (hated it, cried so much that my parents pulled me out LMAO) and I was on the volleyball team in Grade 6. I'm left-handed and I had a habit of serving into the wall, unfortunately, and the habit got worse when I was nervous. During one game, they took pity on me so much that they paused the game until I got the ball over the net. I was fucking humiliated and have never played a team sport since then. 🤣💀 Re: other physical activities, I like dancing! I've taken a ton of different kinds of dance classes including swing, salsa, bellydancing, and Bollywood dancing, and loved all of them!

DO YOU USE SARCASM? No. Me? Never. 🙃🤣 Forreal though yes. All the time.

WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE? Uh...! I don't know if there's any one specific thing? I usually take in an "overall impression" of appearance. Vague, but that's all I've got. If the question was "what's the first thing you notice in people you're attracted to", that might be a different story 🤣

WHAT'S YOUR EYE COLOUR? Brown.

SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS? I am going to copy Johaerys's answer and say it doesn't matter to me, as long as the story was good. But also, who says scary movies/horror media can't have happy endings?? 🤣Haunting of Hill House, anyone? (Bittersweet, maybe, but it counts as happy to me!)

ANY TALENTS? Would it be wretched if I said I feel like writing might be a talent? Whatever, I'm saying it. 🤣😅

WHERE WERE YOU BORN? In a hospital in the same city where I currently live! Which I will chose not to reveal openly! 🤣

WHAT ARE YOUR HOBBIES? Writing! It takes up a solid 75-90% of my free time. Also gaming (which I might count into the writing time since it often becomes Research™ for the writing 🤣). I also enjoy baking and cooking, though I don't know that I'd count those as hobbies since they're necessary ADLs?

DO YOU HAVE ANY PETS? A cat named Meeko. She is my daemon. We can never be apart when I am home. Case in point, a photo taken in real-time while completing this quiz:

HOW TALL ARE YOU? 5'3".

FAVOURITE SUBJECT IN SCHOOL? Uhhh... what level of school are we talking here? In undergrad, I took an incredible linguistics/history course about writing systems, and that was probably my favourite class ever. I took a course during undergrad about different schools of psychotherapy that was pretty damned influential too.

DREAM JOB? I also loved Johaerys's answer here: "I don't think there's any sort of job anyone could do in this capitalist hellscape we're all currently living in that would be enjoyable enough to make up for, well... living in a capitalist hellscape." I'm lucky enough to work in the public healthcare system so I'm pretty safe from the worst of capitalism, I guess, though my job (speech-language pathologist) is one I chose more for practicality (certainty of employment) than because I was really passionate about it. If I could do something else and not have to worry about money, I would either want to be a fiction editor, or a sex therapist.

Tagging forward to @ranaspkillnarieth @iamcayc @heroofshield @fantasy-girl974 @hellas-himself @midnightacrobat @alyssalenko @vorchagirl @elinorbard @stuffforthestash @mwasaw @lordofthenerds97 @y0ureviltwin @ladyofthelake91 @perhapsrampancy @cha-mij and genuinely, anyone else who wants to share!!! Tag me so I can spy on your life! 🤣❤

#tag meme #about me #tumblr game

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irenadel · 1 year

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Small Graces

Mitzi x Mordecai The animated short took over my brain and re-ignited the hots I have for Mordecai. Filthy porn ahead, beware. I'm not brave enough to make this furry. Everyone is a human here. Pre-canon. Lackadaisy glory days when Atlas was still alive. Some mild spoilers for the last couple of comics, so read at your own risk.

Part I

He hadn’t meant to fall asleep. Unprofessionalism notwithstanding, Mordecai abhorred falling asleep in his clothes. It was liable to wrinkle them and require his pants be sent to the dry cleaners yet again this week. At least someone (he earnestly hoped it had been himself, he shuddered at the thought of strange hands touching his feet) had had the sense to take his shoes off and neatly drape his bloodied jacket and vest over one of the apartment’s plush chairs.

And there was the small matter of keeping a lookout for anyone seeking revenge for the recent bloodshed on his boss’s estranged wife.

He supposed it had been the steady ticking of the clock which had lulled him into sleep. On difficult nights he always slept with a pocket watch close to his ear… But his was most certainly still securely tucked into the pocket of his vest, and he didn’t see a clock anywhere in Mrs. May’s Bohemian though, he begrudgingly accepted, tidy bedroom. It wasn’t a clock. Ah. The high sweet keys of a piano emerged from his cottony, still half-unconscious perception (it had been a lot of blood loss, he wouldn’t have volunteered for lookout duty if Viktor hadn’t been in a sorrier state than he was). A metronome. He should have known, though somehow hadn’t expected it from Mrs. May’s self-admittedly hodgepodge musical education.

There’d been a man in the tenement building Mordecai grew up in who had fixed and tuned pianos for a living. Sometimes when he was working, he would use the metronome for some unknowable purpose. Mordecai had always liked the sound.

He let it draw him out of sleep now. Let it provide him with an excuse not to bother, or be bothered, by the lady of the house. It was still dark out, still dangerous, though the hint of a slowly graying sky promised him a ready reprieve. Soon he could be back home, change into fresh clothes, and never have to think about having had to intrude into a married woman’s private chambers. Nevermind that this married woman should have been in her husband’s home, not in some dingy apartment where Mordecai had to keep a lookout for her. He couldn’t pretend to understand what happened in a normal marriage, let alone one with any sort of turbulence to it.

The steady tick of the metronome, the accompanying slow, high notes of the piano let him tune out the distracting reality of the room, let him focus on his post at the window. He would not think of the confounding Mrs. Atlas May. He would not think of her vanity behind him, or the brush disgustingly full as he supposed it was with human hair. The whiff of perfume and cosmetics. The slept in unmade bed or any dirty clothes that–

But the bed was made. It had not been so when he arrived, when he’d woken up its occupant in the middle of the night. And someone had cleaned her vanity, down to putting her brush and combs away… The same someone who had draped his bloodied clothes upon the back of a chair, maybe taken his shoes off when he had curled up in the window sill… the same person who could have fallen asleep again but had chosen to stay up and occupy herself with something outside the bedroom, giving him space…

He’d known Mrs. May a long time. He’d known she was smarter than she let on, more perceptive… He hadn’t realized she was also kind.

“Would you like some coffee, sweetheart?”

He’d nearly jumped out of his skin, had certainly scrambled off his perch in the window sill. He hadn’t heard the piano stop because the metronome was still going.

“Thank you, Mrs. May, but not presentl–”

He’d turned to at least acknowledge her presence and was jarred into full alertness by the sight of Atlas May’s wife in nothing more than a nightgown and a robe. He averted his gaze immediately, brushing past her on his way out the door, unable to keep from shuddering at the extraneous, unexpected contact.

“I’ll just give you a minute.”

He fled into her little parlor for safety, finding himself drawn to the still ticking metronome. A good enough excuse to keep his back to her and allow her the grace of an inconspicuous exit.

“Sugar, you can give me ten or twenty minutes,” she drawled, still leaning on her bedroom’s door frame. “I’m still not putting on any clothes before the sun is out. You’ll just have to make your peace with it, honey.”

She gave him no time for further discomfort, sitting herself back down on the piano’s bench and resuming her practice. He was frozen in place, unable and unwilling to cede her the territory she had just gained. He should go back to his post at the window, pretend none of this had taken place and hope it would not be mentioned to any of their mutual acquaintances.

She didn’t play the same high, melancholy melody as before, but a set of scales. Somehow, that was better. Somehow, the repetitive, rising and decreasing nature of it soothed him. He wouldn’t look at her but still he felt some of the tension ease from his shoulders and found himself suddenly aware of how exhausted he was. It had been a long night.

“You can sit down, sweetheart, you don’t have to stand at attention”

He glared at her, not dignifying her comment with an answer but still not finding in himself the energy to move back to the window.

“… if it makes you so miserable, I can dispense with the babysitter, Mordecai.”

He tried not to roll his eyes at her. “Mrs. May, your husband made it clear—“

The piano stopped with a sudden, dissonant twang. “What my husband wants is no longer my concern.”

The venom in her voice embarrassed him. This whole situation was simply intolerable. He wanted to cringe back from it and suddenly the thought that all her small kindnesses, her attire and her proximity may have been an attempt to involve him in some kind of petty revenge against Atlas… it was too much. Spite could be so tiresome.

“How ever much I appreciate your courtesy Mrs. May, I wish to play no part in your marital strife.”

She stared at him, half dumbfounded, half immeasurably wounded. He was not prone to sentimentality but somehow her big green eyes (beautiful, he’d often heard the boss comment what beautiful eyes his wife had, personally he was indifferent to them) made him fidget.

“Mordecai sweetheart,” she said tiredly, closing the piano’s fallboard over the keys. “I know it must be hard to understand, but not everything a married woman does is about her husband.”

There was a certain exhausted defiance in the way she looked at him that made him uncomfortable. His mother had looked like that at times after his father had passed away. It made his cheeks burn with a guilty sort of flush.

Atlas is still alive, he wanted to say, don’t look at me like that, Mrs. May.

But he said nothing, just returned her tired gaze with a bewildered one of his own and watched her silently give up. She made to get up from the piano, one hand reaching for the metronome to stop its steady ticking and he panicked. He didn’t want her to go back to her bedroom, disrobe even further and sleep in the bed he would have to be near if he went back to his lookout spot. Out of options to detain her further, he did the one thing he could think of: he acquiesced to her request and sat down on the bench beside her.

There was a certain satisfaction in seeing those usually languid, knowing eyes widen in surprise, and his stomach did a flip at the hint of a smile dancing on Mrs. May’s unmade but still very rosy lips. She flipped the fallboard back back up and started her scales again. Mordecai let out a breath he hadn’t known he’d been holding.

Up close, she didn’t smell like cosmetics as she usually would have, no slight sheen of sweat as he had always known her to have, from her exertions on the stage or the dance floor. Had she bathed too, while he slept? For his benefit? He forced himself not to squirm on the bench, suddenly aware of the bare, warm flesh beneath her thin nightgown and robe. He should not have sat down. For all her skimpy costumes back in her stage days, Mordecai had never personally been so close to a woman in such a state of undress. It made him nauseous, made his skin itch, made him…

She’d stopped playing.

“Mordecai honey,” she said tentatively. “Do you need a minute?”

For a second he didn’t understand what she meant. Then he became aware of the rapidly forming bulge beneath his silk pants.

He clambered off the bench, against the piano’s keys, their frantic, offkey protest mirroring his own frantic, strenuous desire to flee. He would have, if she had tried to touch him, would have ran if Mrs. May hadn’t left her seat on the bench and taken a slow, deliberate step back.

“Darling, it’s alright,” she’d said softly, so kindly it made him even more anxious. He wanted to blame her for this. Her and her uncharacteristic concessions to his innumerable peculiarities, so often points of contention or mockery. He wondered if she had planned this. Would have found it easier to retreat in a fury if she had. He wondered how she could have undone him so thoroughly, how she could’ve known, as she seemed to have guessed everything else, that nothing but the scent of her clean skin and talcum (no perfume, no artifice) could have left him in this dizzy, pitiful state of arousal…

But she didn’t seem to know what to do anymore than he did.

He could see her make up her mind in real time. Felt his whole body thrum with anticipation the moment she stepped into his space. It must be the blood loss or the drugs still swimming in his veins that kept him frozen in place. He must still be under the influence, woozy from adrenaline, or he would have never allowed this, never considered this. Would have never let her get so close. So close he could feel the heat of her body beneath her nightgown. So close he marveled that it was not enough.

“Mrs. May—“

“Honey, if you call me ‘Mrs. May’ again while we’re doing this, I’ll scream.”

She didn’t scream though. And for a short, panicky second Mordecai was afraid she would try to kiss him. Mrs. Ma– Mitzi did not. Did she know he could not stand it if she tried to kiss him? Even when she threw one arm around his neck, running her nails up his scalp in a way that made him forget about propriety, promises or even the wrinkles sure to form on his pants, all she did was lay her forehead against his while he panted madly, waiting, hoping, aching… Her other hand found the front buttons below his belt, deftly undoing them before snaking inside. Did she know he could not take anything else? All the secret, lewd things he’d heard others whisper about, the ones that had seemed too full of fluids and other people’s filth, the ones he’d scoffed at (wondered at)... did she know this was the only one he could stand? He looked at her pleadingly, not recognizing himself, so desperate he was almost ready to tell her she could try to put her lips on him, anything, anything at all to quench this needy, wanton fire on his skin.

Her hand was enough. Wrapping around his penis, firmly, hotly pulling at him. He’d only done this to himself a couple of times during the first desperate pangs of adolescence. It shouldn’t have surprised him how much better it would feel when someone else did it for him. It shouldn’t have surprised him how much more skilled she was at it. He was mortified at the whimper that escaped him, his glasses fogging with a sweat he suddenly could not care less about. Her eyes were half-lidded, her lips almost a smile, as she stroked him again and again, good God, to the rhythm of the metronome.

“Mitzi,” he keened desperately and heard her throaty, low chuckle before he saw the first real smile he had seen all evening break out on her face.

She must know, surely she must know how good it was, how crazy it drove him to have this done to him properly. He bared his teeth, letting his head hang back, keeping his hips still out of sheer stubbornness. He would not interrupt her blissfully rhythmic strokes. He’d surrendered any protests he could have. She knew better, knew him better than he knew himself. Knew he would prefer the chaffing to any improvised lubrication. Knew the only kind he could allow was what she could gather from the weeping tip of his erection, with her sharp little nails, running down his length again and again, again and again, all to the steady ticking of the metronome behind him. He was swimming in that even, predictable tick, tick, tick. Swimming in the heat at the pit of his stomach, in the sweet smell of her skin and her lady’s talcum, mysterious and alien and clean. Balls tight, nipples tingling, his skin so hot and needy he felt it would crawl off him any minute now, any second…

“Mordecai sweetheart,” he heard her one more time, searing lips against his neck. “Come for me.”

He hadn’t known the words would make a difference. They did. He screwed his eyes shut, hands braced against the piano and felt his balls empty themselves in her hand, his hips lost at last, pumping of their own accord against her. He, for once in his life, utterly heedless of the mess he was making, while choking on her name, Mitzi, Mitzi, Mitzi, like a prayer.

When he came back to himself, Mordecai realized she was panting against his throat too, her other hand still firmly cradling his neck, whole body draped across his own heaving one. The wound on his shoulder throbbed dully, and for a moment he was at a loss before this overwhelming, bounteous humanity in the form of Mitzi May, still in her nightgown, one hand covered in the shameful, evidence of his transgression. For a moment he felt like he could heave.

He felt like a fool when she used her clean hand to extricate a handkerchief from somewhere – the lady in her had thought of the handkerchief, the ballroom bawd had thought to stock it even into her undergarments – and used it to clean him up so thoroughly and expertly he was left dumbfounded. Deeply, heartbreakingly grateful. Almost ashamed of his brief, furtive revulsion.

“Thank you,” he managed, pathetically sincere.

Mitzi smiled at him again, something watery hiding behind her large doe eyes, which he could, at last, admit were beautiful beyond measure.

“Thank you,” she countered. “I needed that.”

Mordecai didn’t know if it was the haze of orgasm, danger or gratitude, but he touched her of his own accord then. He reached for her face and felt nauseously delighted when she leaned into his hand. He did not know if he would ever understand his sex’s fascination with beautiful women… but he understood this much. He felt reckless with the knowledge, almost drunk on it. He felt generous but afraid, suddenly, that whatever this was, would evaporate as morning dew…

When Mitzi made to go dispose of her soiled handkerchief he grabbed her wrist with sudden, forceful intent. It felt delicate, birdlike under his hands, capable as they were, of such brutality. He felt a thrill in that new awareness of her fragility, compounded by her still racing pulse and the lingering warmth of their exertions on the thin skin stretched over her veins. Reckless, heedless of consequences or even his own inclinations, he pulled her closer grabbing two ample handfuls of her hips and buttocks. He risked his forehead against her stomach and was exhilarated both at his persistent desire to touch her and her clean, handkerchief-free hand on his hair, carding fingers through the mess they had made of it. Together.

“Take a bath,” he’d risked the order, looking up at her from his seat on the piano’s edge. He was glad she bit her full unpainted lip, seemingly pleased, instead of cutting him down with a condescending “sweetie” or an icy glare. His heart was hammering at his daring. “I’ll meet you in your bed.”

#lackadaisy #mordecai heller #mitzi may #mordecai x mitzi #mordecai smut #lackadaisy fanfiction #no one ships this but me #fine i'll write it myself then #there will be a second part hopefully #just dont hold your breath #iresmut #my writing

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esquetibin · 2 months

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ok so shows i'm currently planning to watch/finish watching:

-finish (re)watching atla for the bajilionth time, i'm on the middle of season 2, the gaang is at ba sing se rn

-watch steven universe for the third time probably idk it's been a long time since i last watched anything su related (i'm at the lapis first season eps)

-watch mob psycho 100, first episode was cool

#avatar the last airbender #avatar 2009 #avatar aang #steven universe #steven universe season one #ba sing se #there's no war in ba sing se #lowkey kinning pearl #more like highkey #steven reminds me of my brother #like i look at them and go omg me and bro (it's just pearl and steven)#mob psycho 100 #no spoilers #no spoliers please #media consumption is not my only hobbie

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monstrology · 2 months

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tagged by: @dowhatyoudream <3

LAST SONG:

youtube

CURRENTLY WATCHING:

forever re-watching Justified, but otherwise unable to find something to stick in my brain to watch and pay attention to.

I would love to finish s2 of Yellowjackets, and see if I care to go back into s2 of Yellowstone. I stopped watching 911 when I realized it wasn't gay and oops suddenly we're gay now so who knows. Abbott Elementary, Hannibal, PJO, maybe peeking at the garbage fire that is live action ATLA, Ted Lasso??, Deadwood.... so many on the list.

THREE SHIPS:

Givenson (Tim/Raylan from Justified)

DinCobb (Din Djarin/Cobb Vanth from The Mandalorian)

JohnLock (John Watson/Sherlock Holmes from Sherlock) yes it is 2024 and I've never explored these depths before don't mind me being *looks at watch* 137 years late, technically. I'm going insane about them in my mind.

FAVORITE COLORS:

black, green, and gold

CURRENTLY READING:

nearing the finish line of this tennis au JohnLock fic series (very much recommend), but the last book I read was Shifty's Boys by Chris Offutt. also always throwing on a Sookie Stackhouse by Charlaine Harris audiobook to go to sleep.

CURRENTLY CONSUMING:

about to go pick up a pizza & cheesy bread

FIRST SHIP:

10000% Zutara and I'll still die on that hill

PLACE OF BIRTH:

Georgia

CURRENT LOCATION:

Georgia

RELATIONSHIP STATUS:

single

LAST MOVIE:

Sherlock Holmes (2009) aka RDJ/Jude Law for reasons that need not be stated. I'm in the middle of A Game of Shadows but my internet hates me.

CURRENTLY WORKING ON:

a massive, self-indulgent DinCobb fic that will probably never see the light of day because I can't seem to get past the opening chapters but it's all in my mind and I promise it's delicious if only to me. maybe I'll pop over to the tiny little Givenson vignette that's been poking at me to just finish something but that requires revisiting s4 so no promises.

otherwise I've been working on a giant crochet tapestry that's about........ 35% of the way complete. seems I love big projects that take ages and may never see the finish line. hmm. funny, that.

I'll tag @buddyaldridge

#about #tag

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edowardoelric · 8 months

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thank you for the tag!! @cinammonelles

First ship ever in you life: god it's hard to say for sure but definitely a pbs kids show... i think either matt and inez from cyberchase or sarah and james from liberty's kids but i know i was more into sarah and james lmao

The ultimate three ships: i have my top ships narrowed down to like 8 now i have to narrow it down to 3.... i'll keep it to the ones i actually have tattooed on my body or plan on tattooing. (not the characters themselves but referencing them) also I selected only the ot3 ships since well. i can only choose 3 ships so it seemed fitting. sorikai, yoohankim, love trio. just know there are many more

The first crush (Fictional Character/Fandom): lord i am a lesbian but i must admit it was zuko from atla

Last Song: comet (english version) by YOASOBI

Last Movie: uhmmmm barbie maybe? i don't often watch movies but ended up seeing it at a bachelorette party in august and i don't think i've watched any others since. we'll be watching halloween movies later this month though

Favorite Flower: i don't have a favorite honestly i just think pretty much all of them are nice

Currently Reading (you can add a link): re-reading the inheritance cycle still i think it's been like 3 or so months now lmao. i just today finished the third book and i only have the 4th left. trying to finish in time before the new murtagh book comes out in november. took me a while on the second book since parts of it were boring me 😔 work was extremely hell during a lot of it too. i plan on reading dungeon meshi next once im done

Currently Watching: basically every anime coming out this fall cour it feels like.... at the very least i'm watching 30 of them idk if all will make it through the cut but most are pretty good so far. aside from airing anime my sister and i are slowly making our way through detective conan. we started around july probably and are around 225 😭 my full time job and and her full time school makes for little free time. malcolm in the middle too if she has to work on school and needs an english show

Last thing I wrote- ship/Fandom?: merthur/merlin back in like 2012 or something..... unless the superwholock role-playing i used to do on tumblr came after but im not entirely sure.. i played sam lmao

Currently writing (you can add a link): nothing i haven't written since the above mentioned things

i won't tag anybody but feel free to do it!

#tag game #personal

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lepoppeta · 11 months

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Okay but seriously, regarding your last post:

What would happen if you "left the Sims unpaused," so to speak, with your current ships?

I guess to answer your question, I don't know what Jack and Atlas (or Hassel and Brassius or Skimbleshanks and Munkustrap) are doing when I'm not looking, because that's just it: I'm not looking. I don't keep a watchful eye on my mental dollhouse all the time. What they do when I'm not around is their business. But I do know that they're still together and want to stay together.

I think you might be after something a little more cutesy/humorous than I know how to give. So I'm going to do what I do best -- take this ask too seriously and go completely in the wrong direction.

The original post was relatively self explanatory; there are some ships that I enjoy within their very specific context and time frame for the angst and drama, and then there are some that I know could function in any context, because the individuals are interesting on their own and the relationship isn't dependant on their specific surroundings or genre.

However I have a habit of attempting to turn this concept on its head, both out of spite and due to a kind of puzzle-solving mentality I apply to fiction.

(Insert tangent).

"Insta-love" is a trope I'm actually rather fond of; I haven't got a lot of patience, and so reading stuff like slow-burn is really frustrating because, in a way, I already know the ending.

Slowburn operates on inevitability; the characters finally cementing a relationship is the ending, and nothing happens after. In a way this is much more marketable, since it leaves the future open to interpretation; fandoms will post theories online, which basically generates free advertising for your story.

In any case, I much prefer insta-love because it "cuts out the middle man". The characters are in a confirmed relationship. Great.

... now what?

And it's that "now what" that I find so much more interesting than 40k words of two characters blushing and mumbling and dancing around the ending of their own story. When they have to experiment and communicate (or not!) and figure out how the fuck their relationship is going to work.

In fact one of my favourite ships, Jack and Atlas, operates on this mentality. Their concept is extremely insta-lovey and dramatic. It's superficial; it's surface-level; it's built on performance and dishonesty. From an objective perspective they really shouldn't be engaging in this because it's so not-important in the grand scheme of things.

But they're human and that's the whole point. Their whole story within the AU is coming together and making meaning out of their initial false start. They have to actively work to fit around each other's new lives and personalities and experiences and they become stronger as a pair because of it. They want to stay together, because it's familiar and a remnant of the recent peaceful past (and they both find each other very attractive and they crave physical affection), but they have to re-evaluate their perceptions of each other in order to stay that way.

TL;DR You can have you dramatic angsty ships and sail them too, but if you want them to be believable you have to put in the work to have your characters put in the work to make it a more long-term concept.

#answered ask #this one is long and misses the point entirely

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sokkastyles · 3 years

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Recently, the ATLA account on youtube made a poll asking people if they always though that A/ang and Katara would be together. The most answers were "yes" but in the comment section the amount of people saying that "Katara was too motherly towards A/ang" and "her feelings were never clear" and that "A/ang was too childish and shoud've been single" or that "they could get together later in the comics" were unbelievable. Usually I don't even see that account because people can go really crazy and toxic there, but I was shocked with the answers.

I feel that we - the people who watched Atla as kids - when rewatching the show as adults can see more clearly how wrong it was, not just Keteeng, but also Maiko. They were kids ending a fuck*** war! the last thing they needed was serious relantionships.

And the young ones watching it for the first time now are more critical about A/ang kissing Katara without her consentment or yelling at her and stuff like that. Also, they feel more attracted to Zuko and Katara as a possible couple. (That's what I feel)

I wanna know your thoughts about it. Do you think that in the (close) future, with all the discussions about feminism, harassment, rights of POC and indigenous people - specially women - Atla will not be seeing as the perfect animation as some people claim it to be?

I do think it's true that audiences watching now are more critical in general than they were in the early 2000s. In part because of the rise of social justice, as you mentioned. I teach middle school, I can tell you that kids are MUCH more socially aware now than they were when I was that age, especially when it comes to feminism and racism and lgbtq rights.

I think it's also true that fans who watched it as kids tend to re-view with a more critical eye, because doing so is only natural. Although it's also true that the nostalgia glasses are strong, you are still inevitably going to view things differently as an adult and interpret things differently, with the knowledge of having more experience, than you did when you were a kid. That's especially true in the relationship department.

I have the experience of having watched it for the first time as an adult, although I remember when it came out and became insanely popular, even among my peers who were college age. I was growing out of my anime phase at the time so I was definitely way too adult for a pseudo-anime whose target audience was adolescents (ha.) So my first viewing was during the netflix renaissance. And if how quickly the show gained widespread popularity two years ago despite being fifteen years old is any indication, I'm gonna say no, I don't think it's going to be losing any of its critical acclaim any time soon.

People are more critical, it's true, and there are things I would say have not aged well. I've said that there is no way in hell that the Netflix adaptation is going to have the EIP kiss (unless it's to have Aang Learn a Lesson, which is what should have happened in the first place) or Mai telling Zuko to never break up with her again, even if the latter is supposed to be a joke, because if they did, they would get rightfully skewered by reviews. Not to mention Uncle Iroh's...interest...in June. There are also many things about the show that HAVE aged surprisingly well, though, like Katara outright calling Sokka sexist, and the wonderful conversation that Sokka and Suki have about consent. There's enough that the show does right in general that the hiccups don't condemn it, in my view. I feel like I'm critical on my blog a lot because I'm largely a zutara blog, but if I didn't love the show I wouldn't write about it.

But I do think the fact that people are more aware of women's and POC issues does mean that more people are questioning what the show presents. The amount of people who watch the show who identify with Katara as a character has increased, I think. I think even back then there were more people who saw themselves in Katara rather than Aang or Zuko or even Sokka than anyone expected, hence some of the creators' reactions to their fans. And if you watch the show from a Katara-centric lens you are less likely to sympathize with Aang's worry over whether Katara likes him back, and more likely to ask the question: what does Katara want? What does Katara get? And if what you came up with was "the broody bishounen woobie with the dark past," well, I was fourteen once.

I also think that the rise of fandom in the last twenty years to the mainstream has also had an impact in how people interact with media. I can say things like "I ship it" to my students and we all know what it means. This also means that audiences are more likely to reject canon and substitute their own, less likely to accept the canon ships. A lot of shows nowadays cater to this, for good or ill, and ATLA definitely follows an older formula of kid's storytelling, especially regarding the romances, one that is more centered on appealing towards a primarily male driven, primarily curatorial fandom experience vs a primarily female driven, transformative fandom experience.

I think the history of ATLA fandom is fascinating because you can see how this shift happened. Bryke making fun of their female fans for making cheesy fanart and being met with unexpected backlash is a great example. Bryke are part of the old fandom guard, they said those things because they would have gotten away with them even five years prior. If you look at shows that have been running for 15, 20 seasons you see this shift happen in an even more interesting way. Look at Supernatural. Look at Star Wars. Look at Friends. Nobody ships Ross and Rachel anymore, but they were 100% the creator-intended couple.

#zutara #atla meta #antikataang #atla fandom

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itsclydebitches · 3 years

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I'm sorry, but as someone who can't stand how Yang acted for 80% of Atlas, saying "her feeling like she had to help raise Ruby is demeaning and unempathetic to Tai" is a HORRIBLE take. If Yang held it against Tai that'd be one thing, but she doesn't, least not as far as we've seen.

And "she decided he's an unfit parent"? That's literally just headcanon. Where is this stated or supported in any way? Literally everything, from the show to the comics to the manga, shows she absolutely values her father and his guidance. Her providing similar guidance to Ruby at some point doesn't change that, she's stated to be Ruby's mother figure, a woman in her life she could seek advice on in regards to things as well.

Like anon I get you're frustrated by how empathy and morality are handled in this show, I am too, but this just ain't it.

I have simillar feelings on the Weiss scene too but that's another story, you already kind of covered it.

Agreed, though I don't want to rag on the other anon. As said, I can very easily see how someone would come to that conclusion, especially given how often we discuss parts of the show without actually re-watching those scenes, leading to iffy interpretations down the line. A fandom pretty heavily focused on a "Tai is a bad dad" reading + Yang's unfair criticisms of others from Volumes 5-8 (notably her most recent characterization. The one fresh in everyone's mind) = an easy opportunity to mistakenly slam the two together. It happens. That's why I try, whenever possible, to re-watch moments, or at the very least re-read transcripts. I'm well aware of how easy it is to get sucked into how the fandom discusses scenes and take that interpretation at face value, when in fact what's canonical has gotten pretty warped across, in this case, six years of content and discussions.

But let's talk about Weiss a bit more! I think it's worth re-emphasizing that, yes, I'm well aware that she was the victim of that dinner party. My own criticism lies less in that specific moment and more the conceptualizing of our heroes as a whole, which leads to some missed opportunities in that moment, some quite important. For example, most classically heroic characters would be horrified at nearly hurting/killing someone, regardless of whether that was intentional or not. That's a crucial part of what makes them heroic: cherishing life and shouldering responsibility for others' safety, even when it's clear from the audience's more objective perspective that they weren't at fault. There's a happy middle ground here between acknowledging Weiss' horrific panic attack and acknowledging Weiss' responsibility moving forward to ensure that her trauma doesn't endanger others—given that her trauma is drawing on literal, combat techniques—highlighting her desire to do right by the people of Remnant, even when they're snobbish, rich assholes. Any reading that boils things down simply to "Weiss is the only victim in this situation and besides, why do we care if a racist Atlesian bites the dust 😒?" is a small representation of the much larger writing problems of Volumes 7 and 8: acting like Mantle is full of only good victims, Atlas only evil perpetrators, and a defense of the latter isn't worth anyone's time—certainly not the heroes who never, ever make mistakes with massive consequences. Weiss' near attack also carries with it the beginnings of a lot of themes that RWBY never capitalized on, but pretended were an important part of the story by the end of that Atlas arc, like Ironwood's supposed propaganda, or Whitley's question of whether power should be solely in the hands of a few, individual huntsmen. Weiss' situation might have been reframed into something that looks intentional: Here's not just a girl, but a Schnee girl, attacking a poor, defenseless civilian with her scary powers. Are we really going to leave the safety of our kingdom—the world—in the hands of people like her? You should be backing the army, people who have your real interests in mind, led by the man who saved that woman's life—General Ironwood! And the audience would rightly be going, Hey now wait a fucking minute. That's not what happened! It was an accident born of trauma and abuse. How can you manipulate the people into thinking otherwise? Into thinking Weiss is the enemy here? Like, if you're going to write Ironwood/Atlas as the awful, propaganda spewing antagonists... actually write that story.

So the party scene could have been the launching point for a lot of important work, both in terms of Weiss' characterization (a hero learning to balance flaws with her people's safety; taking responsibility for her mistakes, no matter the initial intention) and the world building (what does it mean for a Schnee to (mistakenly) attack a civilian when tensions are this high and faith in huntsmen is beginning to fail?) But for the purposes of what we actually got, that lack of reflection on Weiss' part, as said, reads badly when pit against her actions in Volumes 6-8. Because my brain is super focused on Star Wars atm, I think Anakin is a decent comparison to all this. Meaning, we know where he ends up—super scary Sith Lord who is going to do All The Bad Things Ever—and that will, naturally, color our reading of everything that happens in prequal material. When Anakin gets pissed and cuts the limbs off a Separatist, it produces a "Yikes" reaction in the audience because we know that anger, grief, frustration, and fear are going to lead him down an awful path. In contrast, when Obi-Wan is challenged about his no killing unarmed men policy and cheekily looks to Rex to kill him instead, we don't really go "Yikes" because we know Obi-Wan remains true to the Light for his entire run. All their actions have the primary reading of "They were justified that time/they made a mistake/they're allowed to be human/etc." But only Anakin has the secondary reading of, "That action is REALLY BAD—more bad than Obi-Wan's—because we know where it leads. It reads as setup for his inevitable fall." That's basically where the RWBY group is at the moment, provided you're unhappy with their lack of empathy in the later volumes. If the group had remained more compassionate then yeah, we'd continue to shrug off past moments that sorta imply otherwise because we know that's not who they really are. Weiss never grappled with nearly hurting someone only because, hell, RWBY doesn't let her grapple with anything! She didn't even get to respond to getting speared through the gut. But knowing where they end up—knowing that Weiss will be party to Ozpin's treatment, will help betray Ironwood, will accuse Marrow of abandoning her city only to do nothing for it in turn, will threaten her brother, will give the wish to destroy her entire kingdom and displace all its people, etc.—creates that "Yikes" response whenever we see something earlier that even somewhat aligns with her current characterization. It doesn't erase the 100% correct reading that Weiss was the victim and made a totally unintentional mistake in that moment. It doesn't erase the knowledge that RWBY rarely capitalizes on the implications of scenes like this anyway. It only adds another reading in the form of, "Well, knowing where she ends up... I can kinda see that future version in her here too."

#rwby #mymetas

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ptw30 · 5 years

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So you're saying this theory about Shiro being bp in pre-production, it expanded upon s7 to s8? I thought it'd be just the scripts but there're so many inconsistecies with lion color and lines it baffles me. If they had almost two seasons ready, why would they put effort in remaking them, wouldn't that make up for a higher budget? why would DW EPs change their minds about the former version? (also, I'm sure this means there's no alt s8, just a s8 over a s8)

So which of the four people I started to explain this theory to are you?

To clarify - no, they didn’t change the Black Paladin role from Shiro to Keith in pre-production. According to this -

(Keith’s panel is double the size of everyone else and off-center, thus taking over Lotor’s panel.)

- the EPs changed Seasons 7 & 8 in post-production.

The Theory: Seasons 7 & 8 were a mess because essentially, we were watching different parts of Seasons 3-6 that were re-purposed following the insertion of the clone subplot.

After watching Voltron: Legendary Defender Season 8 and seeing how Allura and Kuron’s struggles paralleled, I realized - they don’t parallel. These struggles match. Honerva invades Kuron’s mind just like she invaded Allura’s, is connected to Kuron and Allura through some sort of mind-link, and eventually is able to override Kuron’s mind while Allura receives visions in hers.But why would the EPs and writers do the same fight over? Why would they choose to redo parts of the story, rather than advancing the plot?That got me thinking about other theories about reused episodes. Coupled with “Knights of Light” being Shiro’s paladin journey sans Shiro - it occurred to me – Seasons 7 and 8 are, in part, Seasons 3-6. And thus – here’s what I think the original order of the episodes were, heavily influenced by interviews and foreshadowing, and most likely, a bit of bias, too.

Season 3 (released as Seasons 3 & 4)

Season 3 up to “Hole in the Sky” was originally plotted and shown as is; however, we know from EP interviews that “Reunion” was originally slated after “Hole in the Sky” and “The Legend Begins” was a two-parter.

After the clone subplot was conceived, “Reunion” was pushed back, “The Legend Begins” cut to one episode (but footage reused later), and “The Journey” inserted. The reused footage of Lotor’s ships and Shiro being added after the fact (where he barely interacts with the rest of the paladins) puts most scenes from “The Road Home” and “The Way Forward” in Season 3.

I also want to add in here – while the EPs said they wanted Shiro to die at the end of S2, they originally said earlier that the execs told them Shiro couldn’t be out a full season. That means Shiro was slated to return – my guess within 26 episodes, a full production season, not a full release season (which is 13 episodes).

So I surmise Season 3 originally looked something like this:

Changing of the Guard

Red Paladin

The Hunted

Hole in the Sky

Reunion

Matt and Kuron’s Keith’s reunion in “Black Site” with parts of“Trailing the Comet”

The Legend Begins Part 1

The Legend Begins Part 2 (with the flashbacks we saw originally in “Knights of Light” Part 1 and 2)

Code of Honor (switching out the scene with Kuron for a scene with Kolivan; Keith returns to save the team) and/or The Journey Within

Fight scenes from “The Road Home” with paladins being captured/Zethrid and Ezor torture scenes/Black Site ending

The Voltron Show

Begin the Blitz

A New Defender

Just want to add – I wonder if originally, the five paladins stuck their bayards into their lions in “A New Defender” to give Voltron that extra punch, rather than Allura powering up Voltron with a deus ex machina. Then Lance seeing Shiro in the Void would have been the cliffhanger, not Keith almost dying. That would also explain why Keith’s near-death experience was never addressed by the team - cuz originally, it didn’t happen.

Season 4 (released as Seasons 5 & 6)

An early theory by @sol1056 was that Keith was the second son of Zarkon, born in the rift. It makes sense, particularly since Krolia had no bearing on the plot other than birthing Keith. Sure, she found the Blue Lion on Earth, but as the Galra Empire was originally announced to be misogynistic, and thus having no female warriors other than Lotor’s generals – then Krolia was never meant to be a Galra soldier and therefore, could have not found the Blue Lion.

I surmise – from Zarkon’s seemingly infiltrating Shiro’s mind in the pilot episode, to Haggar being able to hack Black and Shiro’s bond literally, and Red being on Sendak’s ship, where Shiro also spent some time – Shiro helped the Galra, perhaps inadvertently or unwillingly, to locate the Red and Blue Lions.

Also, please note - Cosmo was originally inserted into this season, and as you know from previous posts, Cosmo most likely took the place of Shiro in the script, seeing as Cosmo and the Black Lion have the same teleporting abilities. (Yes, I believe the paladins were going to go all AtLA and get powers.)

For this season, I start to get a bit creative since the blanks are gaping here, as the clone subplot came to a head:

The Prisoner

Blood Duel (with Haggar remembering Keith)

Postmortem (if not in the last season finale, then here is where Shiro would yell to Lance and Keith wouldn’t have been in the Void, seeing as he’s not the Black Paladin OR Allura missing from the Void and Keith in Red’s position)

Kral Zera (a bit different, with Keith and Lotor going to Kral Zera; also, there would have been fallout from the team finding out Shiro may be alive)

Bloodlines (Lotor and Keith finding out they are related)

White Lion

Omega Shield (Allura having issues, not Kuron)

“The Colony” – changed as Keith doesn’t find Romelle (potential deletion all together)

Black Paladin redux but this time with the team finding Shiro’s body being drained by Lotor - Lotor and Keith fight

Knights of Lights Part 1 – team goes to find Shiro with Allura feeling for Shiro’s presence, not using the entity; minus the og!paladins flashbacks, which now aired in the third season; Keith says “you’re back to Shiro,” not Black.

Knights of Lights Part 2 – Keith meets Zarkon surrounded by the paladins; found family trope achieved; Shiro’s history in the arena revealed or even “A Little Adventure” flashbacks

Defenders of All Universe - Voltron vs. Sincline

Please note: “Knights of Light” is a bit of anomaly. I feel it would work better as a mid-season climax - perhaps set in Season 7 - but if Shiro was to return prior by the end of the original Season 6 and Allura was having issues due to Honerva going to Oriande, then KoL would have to be in this season.

Also, since “The Colony” was literally an eight-minute scene inserted in the middle of an episode and later, the Alteans become pawns - there’s a chance the Colony could have been deleted all together and Honerva, as Empress of the Galra Empire, still could have completed her plan.

Season 5 (released as Season 7)

This season originally had Shiro back in Black with Lance and Keith going back to their original lions. Allura would be the one on the Atlas bridge by the end of the season, not Shiro.

Considering this - as well as the re-purposed parts from Season 3-6 - here is where budget question comes in. Moving “Prisoner’s Dilemma” here so Shiro unlocks his bayard and seeing as Pidge should have gotten her bayard upgrade after Olkarion, the original Season 5 may have looked something like this:

Shiro and Keith parts from “A Little Adventure” (originally written for “Across the Universe”)

The Ruins (Shiro teleporting him and Keith)

Battle Scars

Prisoner’s Dilemma

The Last Stand Part 1

The Last Stand Part 2

Know Your Enemy

Heart of the Lion

Trial by Fire

Lions’ Pride Part 1

Lions’ Pride Part 2

Adding in here “Monsters & Mana” and “The Feud” - you have thirteen episodes overall, but my guess is these filler episodes were added to take the place of content that eventually was ejected from the plot - such as Lotor’s redemption and Shiro’s history, Lance and Blue getting back together, etc.

Season 6 (released as Season 8)

I’m not even going to guess how this season originally looked, though we can assume “Genesis,” “Uncharted Regions,” “The Zenith,” and “The End is The Beginning” were all in the original rundown but with Allura in Atlas, Lotor returning to help Voltron, and the team back to its original line-up. And seeing as Allura went to Oriande and helped build Sincline, the natural progression of her storyline would have been to change Atlas on the fly in Season 7 and then in Season 8, merge Atlas and Voltron.

But more importantly, here’s where the budget was really made up -

Launch Date (filler)

The Grudge

Genesis (maybe the White Lion wasn’t supposed to die originally)

Day Forty-Seven (filler)

Clear Day

Uncharted Regions

The Zenith

The End is the Beginning

There are only eight episodes created here - not thirteen. Coupled with using this season’s budget for “Razor’s Edge” and some of the scenes from “Bloodlines,” that brings the total to ten. By injecting the clone subplot and choosing to redo the storyline for Black Paladin!Keith, the EPs were able to cut-and-paste together the remaining episodes of this season.

There are also short cuts in production you can see, such as leaving errors in animation and/or post-production. If the EPs and team were truly making sure VLD was the best it could be, we wouldn’t have:

Shiro calling for the MFE pilots to be ready to launch, and the Iverson doing it again less than four minutes later in “Uncharted Regions”

Atlas saying that it would cover the lions and then Keith saying they were giving Atlas a shot (A shot at what? Atlas was just supposed to help) in “The Zenith”

Quintessence colors that aren’t uniform, considering Keith’s bayard now changes to the same color of Black’s tail when Shiro pilots (There is a gentleman whose sole job at DreamWorks is make sure the colors align.)

Luca coming back from the dead, Lance in Blue, Yellow having Red’s fire power in “The Zenith”

Reused dialogue lines from previous seasons and perhaps even recorded dialogue with Shiro as the Black Paladin - Shiro as part of the field team in “Day Forty-Seven,” Shiro standing in for Griffin in “Prisoner’s Dilemma,” almost Shiro’s entire dialogue from “The Grudge”

Lance and Allura’s conversations with the original paladins not making any sense in “Knights of Light,” seeing as Allura isn’t overlooked. In fact, Honerva wanted to recruit her.

Pretty much - VLD cut corners in the last seasons to make up the budget and delivered us a torn-apart story with offensive message and yet another set of ridiculous wings.

TL;DR - Who really knows what happened with VLD, but what DreamWorks delivered wasn’t the original episode rundown, seeing as the team was supposed to be in their original lion line-up by the end of the series with Allura and Lotor being alive in Atlas and Sincline, respectively. And tbh - it hurts to see what we could have had and know there was an incredible story the EPs and DreamWorks not failed to deliver but refused to.

#Voltron #voltron critical #vld season 8 #vld #shiro #it's a marketing thing #it's a business thing #meta #allura #atlas #sincline #honerva #lance #keith #voltron legendary defender

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