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oogaboogaspookyman · 2 years

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Mewtwo: secondly- blue is not even a natural color for food stuffs! But it occurs very rarely in nature- name me one blue food...

Adam: blueberries-

Mewtwo: BLUEBERRIES ARE FUCKING PURPLE!!

✨Random Quotes From The Fam✨

Here we go again!

Adam: would you guys help me if i was going through something?

Mary, jokingly: nope!

Mew: no.

Celeste: absolutely not.

*they crack up*

Adam: wow-!

Teen Aliza: i hope it sucks whatever you're going through.

Adam: I HOPE IT SUCKS????

Mary: what the fuck??? XD.

Celeste: i hope it emotionally scars you for the rest of your life.

*they're still laughing*

Mew: hope you reach out to me so i can ignore you.

Mary: wHEEZE-

*they just lose their minds in laughter*

Mewtwo: can't wait to go to your funeral knowing i could've changed that outcome.

*they go lmao*

Interviewer: does it matter who wins the argument?

Adam: yeah it does, i wanna win!

[music]

Celeste: yeah it matters, but what matters more... Is fairness ^v^

[same music]

Teen Aliza: i don't care... But if you try to win?

[same music again]

MEMORY: it doesn't matter, what matters is: who the fearow are you to start an argument with me?

[same music yet again]

Mewtwo: *he's just crossing his arms and giving the disappointed dad stare, he never loses*

[one last time!]

Mewtwo, early days of taking care of Aliza: and now i present... This fucking thing.

Aliza: *happy sounds*

[SQUAD REACTIONS TO BEING TOLD "I LOVE YOU"]

Mew: thanks, fam!

MEMORY: oh no.

Crypt: *cries* I love you too-

Mewtwo, trying to keep it inside: sounds fake but okay.

Teen Aliza (Jane told her it): *a flustered mess*

Adam: can i get a refund?

Mewtwo: if you bite it and you die, it's poisonous. If it bites you and you die, it's venemous.

Mew: what if it bites me and it dies?!

Mewtwo: then you're poisonous, Arceus poke-god learn to read!

Celeste: what if it bites itself and i die?

Mewtwo: that's voodoo.

Crypt: what if it bites me and someone else dies?

Mewtwo: that's correlation, not causation.

Adam: what if we bite each other and neither of us die?

Teen Aliza: that's kinky.

Mewtwo: oh my god...

Adam, who had a horrible day: who the fuck added me to a fucking group chat?

Celeste: >:O language.

Teen Aliza: yeah watch your fuckin' language.

Mewtwo: OKAY WHO TAUGHT ALIZA THE FUCK WORD?

Mew: "the fuck word"

Crypt: are you stupid? You guys use the f word all the time!

Teen Aliza: oh my god they censored it.

Adam, now feeling better: say fuck, Crypt.

Teen Aliza: do it, Crypt, say fuck.

Adam: *posts a super low quality image*

Mewtwo, wanting to cause something: if i had a dollar for every pixel in this image, i'd have 15 cents.

Adam: if i had a dollar for every ounce of rage i felt in my body after i read this, i'd have enough to buy a cannon to fire at you.

Celeste: actually i did the math, mewtwo would have $225, not $0.15.

Mewtwo: darling, i'm right here....

Teen Aliza: if i had a dollar, i would buy a can of soda :)

Adam: while you're there, could you buy me an apply juice please?

Teen Aliza: sorry i only have a dollar.

Adam: :(

Celeste: hey i just realized my boyfriend is right, mewtwo would have $22,500 because it's a dollar for every pixel, not a cent.

Teen Aliza: if i had $22,500, i would buy a can of soda and an apply juice.

Celeste: you can buy anything with $22,500

Crypt: yeah, and they want soda and apply juice.

Celeste: APPLY JUICE TO WHAT?

Mew: directly to the forehead~

Mewtwo: great post, everyone.

[SOME TIME LATER…]

*THERE ARE BLACK-EYES EVERYWHERE WHAT*

Mary: we need to distract these guys.

Mewtwo: leave it to me...

Mewtwo: CENTAURA HAVE SIX LIMBS AND ARE THEREFORE BUG TYPES, DISCUSS!

*they're all arguing now*

Celeste, still holding a wholeass M4A1: oh this... I don't like this at all.

Teen Aliza: dumbest scar stories, go!

Adam: i burned my tongue once drinking tea.

Mew: i dropped a hair dryer on my tail once.

Mary: i have a piece of graphite in my leg for accidentally stabbing myself with a pencil in first grade.

Celeste: i was taking a cup of noodles out of the microwave and spilled it on my hand and i got a really bad burn.

Mewtwo: ...

MEMORY: never speak of it- (<- i added that one in)

Mewtwo: i have emotional scars.

(and for the grand finale... @experiment1412 !)

Mewtwo: why can i hear somebody in the game?

Mary: i heard that too. Hey, shut the fuck up!

Crypt: that is gross. Take a shower.

Adam: I'm GoNnA tHrOw FrOgS a-

*they all go lmao*

Mewtwo: he said he will "throw frogs"

Mary: i'm glad i didn't get to hear the rest of that sentence.

Adam: i'm tired of all the generic "i'm gonna fuck your mom" jokes and you know, all that shit. I'm tired of it. *Inhale-* what are ya gonna do? I'm gonna throw at frog at a wall!

Mewtwo: where'd you get all the frogs?

Adam: i got a bucket-

Mary: A BUCKET OF FROGS-

Mewtwo: wHEEZE- i can just imagine them walking around with a bucket!

Crypt: have y'all seen his ex's pool?

Adam: y e s .

Mary: *laughs a bit* yeah yeah.

Mewtwo: no, i haven't-

Adam: it is literally frogschwitz.

*everyone starts laughing*

Adam: so many fuckin' frogs in there, bro!

Adam: okay, she has a pool, and the winter liner fuckin' moved, so there's a little hole, and i guess one frog hopped in, and his frog buddies were like "YeAh CoOl FrOg HoUsE", and then THOUSANDS of other frogs had that same idea, and now there's, like 500 liters of frog.

*everyone is chuckling*

Mary: 500 liters?!

Adam: 500 liters of frog, dude. It is all frog!

Adam: her pool is half full, and it's frog corpses!

*laughter*

Adam: the thing is, after like, 10 frogs, how do you even clean that? We don't use a net. We use a flamethrower. We're having frog legs for dinner, boys!

*unhinged laughter continues*

Mary: yay! Frog house!

#pokemon #mewtwo #memory #adam #aliza #celeste #mary #mew #crypt #teen aliza #incorrect quotes

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falcqns · 2 years

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hey friend! Any advice for someone who’s just trying to shift? (I’m sure you’ve posted advice on this many times but scrolling to try to find it seems daunting) I’ve tried for about a month, I don’t have a specific method but I do get “symptoms” but those are very similar to how I feel when I’m trying to fall asleep normally so it’s hard to tell. I know it can take awhile so I’m trying not to get discouraged!

hi darling!! of course i can!! i have a shifting tag called #ava's a shifter which should include everything but pre diagnosis me probably forgot to tag a few posts about it so i'll give you some here:

one of the best pieces of advice i got from wanda (she's a shifter as well, her cr is my mcu dr and she shifts to sitcoms mainly, but she had been toying with making a no powers dr where she could see her parents and brother and have a normal life, i'm unsure if she has actually scripted or gone there yet thought) was to connect to this reality (or cr if this is'nt your cr!) fully. take a moment throughout the day to just stop, and use your five senses.

think about what you're doing, what it smells like, what you can hear, what you can see, what you can feel, what you can taste, what you are saying (if you're talking) and try to remember how it feels to do that. here's an example of me doing this right now:

what i am doing: answering your ask

what i can hear: i can hear my keyboard clacking as i type, brooklyn nine nine playing on my tv, my daughter breathing as she sleeps next to me

what i can see: my computer screen, the words i am typing, my daughter

what i can smell: my sugared snicker doodle candle, my deodorant i put on a few minutes ago

what i can taste: my sweet and salty chocolate chunk Clif Bar that i am absolutely destroying bc i love Clif bars and eat like 5 per day lmao

what i can feel: my teddy bear sweater on my arms, my wrists on the computer, my daughters head on my leg, and my mind focusing as my meds start working

after you do that (do it a few times a day), use it when you're visualizing. when you're trying to shift, imagine a scenario similar to something you did that day. an example of this is that tonight, i'm going to try to go to chris evans younger sister dr. so, using the information i used above, this is what i'm going to visualize:

what i am doing: playing the sims on my laptop at the hotel table - we're still in disney world

what i can hear: my mama talking to my doctor on the phone, my brothers arguing over what to watch on the tv, my keyboard clacking under my fingers

what i can see: the house i am building, my brothers laying on the bed, my water bottle next to me

what i can smell: chlorine wafting from the open balcony door that faces one of the pools, the chocolate cake chris bought me earlier, and the coffee that scott left on the table

what i can taste: the chocolate cake as i bite into it, the Lefou's Brew chris also bought me as i drink it

what i can feel: my sundress straps resting on my slightly sun burned shoulders, my bare feet against the rough hotel carpet and how it bugs me, my hair behind my ears.

she said that not only will it help you visualize, it will help you connect to both your cr and your dr, because a connection to both is important. your cr is still a reality, and your connection to it is important, therefore connecting to your cr will only benefit you in connecting your dr.

if you know the feeling of connecting fully to your cr, you will have an easier time connecting fully to your dr, and you'll be able to disconnect from your cr fully while connecting to your dr fully.

another tip i have is to watch/read something about wherever your shifted to. i often watch a movie if im going to my marvel dr, but you can choose anything. this isn't mandatory, its more of a personal choice for me, and helps me to feel more connected to my dr. i also allow myself to daydream, because that is usually when i get that 'pull' that others speak of.

when i feel that pull, i know that its time to try. it doesn't always work, but it helps!

i hope that helped, and if you have any other questions, let me know and i'll answer!

#ava's anons #ava's a shifter #shifting to marvel #shifting consciousness #shiftingblr #reality shifting #shifting realities #shifting

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dimensionwriter · 3 years

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100 Days

Part Three

Part One Part Two

M! Alien x GN! Reader

Warning: pinning

Word Count: 2296

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Today’s the day. A whole month has passed since Experiment 337 became conscious, therefore that means that he is now in the clear to be able to leave his containment. The reasoning for the 30 day period is to see if the alien holds the ability to breath in our atmosphere. So, slowly throughout 25 days, the liquid in the container gains more oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide until it reaches the point of similarities with Earth’s. Then the final 5 days are just checking on the vitals and making sure there are no complications.

And Shark was able to withstand it! Of course Shark would. There was no doubt in your head that that crazy alien wouldn’t be able to. He’s amazing like that.

Do you know how hard it is to try to look professional and calm while speed walking down the halls? Every time someone would stop to ask you something, you did not stop. You would yell the answer or tell them the name of someone who may know the answer while you were way past them. Luckily, no one pointed out how weird you look speeding to your door.

“Examiner, good morning. You made it just in time,” A low voice spoke to you. You looked away from your door to see your vector’s manager walking towards you. He was the one who’s always speaking through your earpiece. You assumed that he wouldn’t bother you anymore, except for meetings, since Shark was now conscious, but seeing him walk towards you told you that he must have found something new that interested him. Sadly, it must have included you.

“Morning, sir. Have they already started the movement?” You scanned your ID card across the reader causing the door to open. Stepping through, you were met with what felt like a completely different room. The container was broken down into its four glass panels and were laying on the floor in the corner. Your computer was now moved into the corner with a wall around it with windows that peered out into the room. In the middle, was a long table that had the main attraction on it.

Shark was still fast asleep, thanks to the sleeping medicine still being pumped into him. His grayish blue skin seems to look almost matte out of the liquid. Glancing at his limb, the black color that it turned to was a completely different texture. What type would it be most similar like?

“Morning, Examiner. We are almost done here. I am changing their vital readers to be inside of them , so there won’t be cords everywhere that could trip you. I have also added a microchip in their neck, just in case they try to escape. It’ll send a big enough shock to take down an elephant,” The vector’s doctor explained walking around Shark and pointing them out. So he had vital readers in his right thigh, middle left arm, and one in the center of his chest.

“Thank you so much. I’m so sorry I wasn’t able to help you guys,” You apologize seeing how much was done without you. You walked over to your metal closet to put away your personal belongings and grab a fresh pair of lab coat and gloves. You actually get a chance to actually use the gloves.

You watched as your manager didn’t even try to put on any of the sterile clothes and just walked in. He’s the manager, so he should definitely know the rules, but is choosing to ignore it. This man sometimes gets on your nerves.

“So, this is the little shape shifting bastard,” your manager teased, poking Shark in his face. Not the bare hands. Who knows what germs this man has been exposed to and he’s directly making contact with the creature.

“Sir, I would advise that you do not touch Experiment 337 with your bare hands. It is unknown the result that may have on them,” the doctor spoke. The dark bags under their eyes made their statement feel a lot more firm then it would have coming from you. He may be the manager, but the vector’s nurse is equal to him.

He let out a small scoff and started walking around the room looking at things. The nurse went over to the corner room to probably make sure the vitals are actually reading correctly. With everyone busy, you walked over to Shark.

With the tips of your fingers, you brushed away at the spot the manager had touched. Woah. His skin was so cold. It felt like you were touching ice. Lightly, you trailed your fingers down his face to see that the texture was actually similar to something that was matte.

The skin underneath your finger begins to poof out. Looking back at his face, you see that his thin lips were spread out showing his sharp teeth. No way. You looked further up to see a pair of black eyes staring at you.

How was…. There can’t. You looked down to see that there was still a tube going up his back that was pumping the blue liquid. It has been confirmed that this formula worked good enough to put him to sleep. How was he awake?

“Do plan on bringing the bed in later today?” You watched as the manager walked towards the corner room, not noticing the two pairs of eyes on him. He disappeared around the corner and your head snapped down.

“You can resist the medicine,” you accused him. He gave a smirk and let out a quiet laugh. His top arms were folded across his stomach. He reached a little and grabbed the end of your lab coat and began twirling it.

“As I have stated before, Yeah and you can’t. It’s not my fault you humans are so, how do I say this kindly, incapable.” You didn’t even have it in you to argue with him. A million questions were flying through your head.

How did he stop the effects of the medicine? Does it have something to do with him being a shapeshifter? How long has he been doing this? Should you report this?

Wait, why are you doubting reporting this? This is definitely something that should be reported. If everyone thinks all aliens are asleep and there’s little security, he could become a real threat. Going rampant, freeing other aliens, or worse, going onto the outside.

Would he really be that much of a threat? He would probably just try to flirt with all of the security and get them to be his ‘mate’ or something.

“Darling, you look so cute when you think so hard,” his voice purred. You looked over at him to see he was smirking at you. His black eyes drifted down a little and that’s when you noticed that his hand holding your lab coat was raised up. He stretched his neck a little to look underneath it.

“What are you even looking at?” You held no personal items in your pants. Maybe he was analyzing the fabric of clothes better to recreate it better. Has he ever held this type of fabric before? You don’t really know where he came from or his history much. One day, you got a promotion to this vector to be an examiner and got assigned to him. No previous records were given to you.

“Nothing. Just enjoying the view,” he mumbled leaning a little farther over to look. Your brain seemed to freeze as you realized what he was doing. This pervert.

Stepping forward, you yanked your coat out of his hand and smacked the back of his hand. The corners of his eyes crinkled a little as he started to softly laugh. He was enjoying teasing you a little too much.

“Examiner?” You turned around to see the Nurse and the manager staring at you. You blinked in confusion at them. Why were they looking at you weird when Shark was clearly awake? “Can you please not smack the alien? They may be unconscious, but I’m sure they can still feel it?”

Unconscious? You turned around to see that Shark had his eyes closed and his arms back in place. It looked like he was truly ‘unconscious’ it wasn’t for the edges of his cheek twitching from trying to hold in his smile. He was trying to get you in trouble.

“I apologize. Thought I saw a bug or something on his skin. However, it was most likely his skin shifting around due to his ability to shapeshift." You hoped they didn't pick up on the bull crap you just let spewed from your mouth. It's one thing for a manager to touch him, but for a subordinate like yourself to slap him, that's an instant ticket to being written up.

"Bugs? Many workers have been moving in and out of this room. It's a small chance, but still is possible," they grumbled walking towards you. They glanced around the room before letting out a small sigh. "I'll make sure to send a cleaning crew in here just in case."

They actually brought it. You didn't know who to thank. Thank the nurse for being kind and not doubting you or the workers for moving around a lot. Well you thank both.

"Whelp, Examiner. Congrats on getting that thing to live for this long. Definitely thought the damn thing was going to kick the bucket ." His harsh laugh echoed through the room. You didn’t say anything, only allowed a tight lip smile to come on your face. The nurse just rolled their at his dumb statement.

“Examiner, you need to complete your training for in person examinations for Experiment 337,” the nurse reminded you. Their eyes drifted down to Shark next to you before looking back up at you. You swear you saw a small smirk appear on their face. “We will be outside waiting for you to finish up in here.”

They dropped their lab coat in the waste bin and slid their black gloves into their back pocket. Scanning their ID, the door slid open and they walked through. The manager appeared confused by their statement, so where you to be honest, but didn’t question it much and just walked out.

Did the nurse know that Shark was awake? If they actually knew, hopefully you won’t get into trouble for it. That would look so bad if you looked like you were hiding stuff for them and you could get written up, or worse, fired.

“Why do you always leave me?” You turned towards Shark to see he was sitting up now. You tilted your head up to be able to look him in the face. Something to document, he’s tall as hell. His torso to leg ratio is a little less even than humans. His legs are quite long and thick making you believe that’s where his height would mostly come from. But that theory is thrown into a fire seeing as his torso was the length of your entire upper body.

“Now that everyone has left the room, now you want to ogle my body. You perv,” he teased, covering his body with his six hands. The claws protruding out of them pressed into his grey skin. Small little bumps and rises appeared all over his skin. It really was like leather in a way. “Honey?”

“First, I know you didn’t just say I was ogling you. You were the one raising up my lab coat to look at me. You’re even more of a perv. Second, don’t call me honey. I don’t want anyone to hear you say that and get that wrong idea,” you ticked off with your finger. He unwrapped his first set of arms to let the elbows rest on his thighs. Gently, he rested his head on them and stared down at you.

“Then, can I call you babe, sugar plum, my starlight, darling, and/or angel? It would please me if all of the humans on this planet knew you were mine. And I do plan on making you mine,” he whispered. He leaned down towards you with a small smile on his face. In his dark eyes, you could see your reflection through them. Did you really look that flustered?

You stepped away from him and walked towards the door. You took off your lab coat while taking steady breaths. This is your job. You are getting paid to deal with this flirty alien. “Well, I see you're still stuck on that whole mate thing. While you continue to go on about that, I have work to do. See you later.”

You grabbed your ID to scan it when a hand landed on top of the scanner. Then another wrapped around your waist pulling you into a hard surface. Two hands went above you to the door while another grabbed your face to tilt it up.

“I’m not joking when I say you’re my mate. I’m adamant that you are and I don’t plan on letting you go.” His usual smile was wiped on his face, but instead a joyless frown was there. The sparkles in his eyes were all gone. He really was serious about this.

“Don’t worry. I’ll let you go. Just this time.” Every hand around you retreated back to him as he turned away from you. He walked towards the metal table with his tail low to the ground. “But next time, I would actually like some time with you. Please.”

All you could do was give him a small nod as you exited the room. Your mind felt fuzzy from trying to process everything. But you have plenty of time in the future to get answers to these questions.

70 days.

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I actually wrote something. It’s something short but I’m proud I actually did it. I miss Shark and this story. Hopefully, I’ll get to get something else out. Anyway, make sure to Like, Reblog, and Comment. I love to see you guy’s comments.

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procrastinatingsapphictrash · 3 years

Text

A little help from the team

Word count: 2989

Genre: A little angst but mostly fluff

Pairing: Natasha x fem!reader

Warnings: Light swearing, brief mentions of alcohol (let me know if I need to add more)

Request: Can you do a natasha x reader fic where they are so in love with each other but none of them makes a move and the rest of the avengers are frustreted, even Nick Fury so he goes and sets them up by sending them to a mission together in Budapest? You decide who finally makes the first move

Summary: Frustrated with you and Natasha avoiding your feelings Tony convinces the others to try to get you together, Nick Fury needs no convincing.

A/n: This was an anonymous request and it’s a bit late so I hope the person that requested this is seeing this and if you are I hope you like it! Also I’m trying out the thing where you post it at a scheduled time because I don’t think posting at 11 pm is a great idea so hopefully that works. Also to anyone who has sent requests, they will get done soon, the reason why they are taking longer is because some of them gave me series ideas so obviously series take longer than oneshots. Anyways I hope everyone enjoys the story!

“Just tell Natasha your feelings already, it’s not a big deal!” Tony says exasperated.

“Yeah what am I supposed to say?” you question. “Hi Tasha, sorry to bother you but I just wanted to tell you I’ve been hopelessly in love with you for years. You don’t like me back? No, that’s cool, it's not like I have a broken heart now, see you around!”

“Come on Y/n, it wouldn’t go like that, you have to tell her!” He insists so you look to Bruce who is sitting at the other side of the lab for help.

He glances guiltily at you. “Sorry but for once in his life Tony is right-” Tony scoffs but Bruce continues “-you need to take a chance and honestly I think it will work out. She’s nicer to you than to anybody else.”

You give him a small smile. “Thanks for trying to help guys, I really do appreciate it but I just can’t tell her right now I hope you understand.” They both nod their head but you can tell that they are a bit disappointed in you. You’re a bit disappointed in yourself as well because you would like nothing more than to tell her but even the thought makes your heart race in a way nothing has done before.

“Anyways I’ve got to go now because I promised Maria I would help her train some of the new recruits and then we’re meeting up with Tasha for lunch.” You tell them plopping yourself down from the counter you were seated on.

“Bye!” “See ya!” You hear both of them say as you walk out of the room and you inwardly smile, thankful to have such great friends.

As soon as Tony realizes you’re out of earshot he turns to Bruce with a mischievous expression on his face. “We’ve got to do something about the two of them.”

“I don’t know,” Bruce says while looking down at his hands, “it really isn’t our business and there’s a good chance whatever you have in mind could make it worse.”

“Is that seriously what you think of me?” Tony teases. “Besides, it wouldn’t be just me helping, I think we should call a team meeting minus those two. They are both out of the tower right now so it would be perfect.”

Bruce sighs. “I don’t know Tony…”

“Please Brucie?” Tony pleads. “It’s for love! And I’m doing either way so you either get a say in the plan or you don’t.”

He caves in. “Fine. But you have to get Steve to agree with whatever you do.”

“Not going to lie to you Bruce, it hurts that you trust Steve more than me,” Tony says, looking completely unbothered, “Jarvis, tell everybody to meet in the common floor living room.”

“Of course sir.” The A.I. responds as Tony already starts to race upstairs, Bruce trailing after him slowly.

Because Tony got so excited he didn’t want to take the elevator and wanted to run up the stairs, it actually took longer for them to make their way up to the floor because, predictably, around half way up Tony got exhausted and needed a break. Therefore by the time they made it the rest of the team was already waiting.

“Why did you call us here Tony?” Steve asks for the group.

“Because we were just talking to Y/n in the labs and since she and Natasha are so obviously in love with each other we need to come up with a plan to get them together. You in?”

“Of course I’m in!” Clint answers without any hesitation.

“As much as I would like to help, it is none of our business what they choose to do.” Steve tells Tony, looking conflicted.

“Do it for love!” Tony says dramatically. “Do you really think those two idiots are going to do anything about their feelings anytime soon?”

“Well no,” Steve yields, “I guess there’s no harm in that.” Wanda, Sam and Bucky follow Steve’s lead and agree, Tony pumping his fist in the air as soon as they do as Bruce sighs loudly, wishing he wasn’t a part of whatever this was.

“So do you have any ideas?” Wanda asks.

Tony grins like a maniac. “Yes actually I do. All we have to do is convince Fury to get on board and then we can send them on a fake mission, pretending to be a couple, with no actual objective. Then in order to keep their cover Fury can force them to sleep in a room with only one bed.”

Everyone looks at him blankly and Sam speaks up. “That’s your plan dude?!!?? That sounds like the plot of a bad rom-com.”

Tony is not known as a great businessman and negotiator for no reason and two hours later he finds himself walking through the hallways of Shield with Steve by his side, on his way to ask Fury about his idea.

“Why did it have to be us two?” Steve asks.

“Because I’m a smooth talker and charming so Fury will obviously like what I say, and you’re responsible so if he knows you agree with me there’s no way he’ll say no. Steve sighs but doesn’t protest as they reach the door and Tony knocks.

“Come in.” Fury says and they both enter. Immediately upon seeing Tony’s expression Fury raises his eyebrows and leans forward in a way that made him look doubtful already.

“I need a favour-” Tony starts.

“No can do.” Fury interrupts him.

“It’s about Y/n and Natasha not me.” Tony says, trying to change his mind.

“Tony, he said no.” Steve tries to remind him so they can leave.

Fury holds up his hand. “No, wait, this I am interested in.” Steve looks shocked that he isn’t throwing them out of the room but Tony just smirks and explains his plan. Neither of them have ever seen Fury look so mischievous and considering that he’s a spy that has lied to them more times than they know of, that is saying something.

“Usually I would hate to admit this but Stark is one hundred percent right. They both will not admit their feelings but being alone together pretending to be a couple for a week could push them to the breaking point. I will inform them later today about the ‘mission’.”

“Thank you sir, we will leave you alone now.” Tony says, ushering Steve out of the room.

“No, thank YOU Stark.” Fury says before phoning you.

Two hours after you received a phone call from Fury you walk with Natasha into the briefing room for a mission. You were a bit disappointed because when you had asked Nat and Maria earlier if they wanted to get lunch after the training session, only Nat had agreed so you were supposed to be eating lunch with just her, which was rare. At least the mission was together, although most missions didn’t allow much time for talking to each other.

“Do you know what Fury has in mind?” Natasha asks but you shrug in response. You never know what goes through Fury’s mind but that’s what makes him such a good director.

Speaking of which he somehow knows you’re there before you knock on the door and says, “come in.” You and Natasha exchange glances, rolling your eyes at his dramatics before entering and sitting in the two chairs provided.

“You have a mission that should only last a few days. Your job is to go to Budapest on a honeymoon at a hotel where we believe this couple of prominent arms dealers are staying.” You’ve never had to act in a romantic situation with Natasha before so it makes you very nervous but you know better than to argue because Fury never changes his mind.

Natasha apparently doesn’t. “Why do I have to do it with her, wouldn’t it be more believable if I did it with one of the guys?” You can’t help but feel hurt at the fact that she is so against doing this mission with you and you make a mental note to tell Tony about this so he stops bugging you about her liking you back.

“Agent Romanoff, I have my reasons, and this is what is best for this particular mission.” Fury says, offering no explanation as to what his reasons are.

Natasha frowns but doesn’t argue. “Fine, when do we leave?”

“Now,” he says, “you’ll get the full file briefing on the jet on the way over, please read them carefully.” Neither of you respond verbally but you both respectfully nod before making your way over to the jets. You’re a bit surprised by the type of mission he gave you because usually you don’t do many spy missions but you aren’t surprised by the lack of turnover time. Everything at Shield has no exact schedule meaning the hours were horrible.

The jet ride over there is silent and Natasha seems to avoid you, either in the bathroom or cockpit the entire time except for when you were reading over the files. This didn’t seem like a very exciting mission because there wasn’t even a guarantee that the couple would be there, just rumors, however based on the files Fury seemed to think that taking the chance was worth it because they were important.

All the way to the hotel in the cab Natasha continued to act strangely and ignore you instead of striking up conversation like she normally would. You try not to let it bother you and thoughts of her behaviour go out the window when you see the hotel you’re supposed to be staying at. It’s gorgeous and obviously would cost a ton of money. You marvel at architecture as you step out of the cab, mumbling thank you to Natasha as she hands you your bag you almost forgot.

The bonus of working with Shield is that you didn’t have to check in because the key card was already provided for you so you rush up to your room which is on the fourth floor, pulling Natasha by her free hand behind you to keep up the newly married and in love act. You burst into your room and stop short; there’s only one bed. Natasha follows and also pauses as she sees the situation. Both of you look around for a pullout bed or a couch but there’s none to be found.

“Well I guess we’re sharing now!” You say brightly, trying to pretend that you are not completely freaking out.

“Yeah…” she says quietly, unenthused. Once again you keep a straight face but it hurts inside.

“Should we start off at the bar?” you ask her. “In the files I got the impression that they’re the type of couple that would like to drink quite a lot.”

“Good idea!” she praises, and your mood brightens considerably.

In the end it turns out that both of you are wrong and the couple doesn’t make an appearance at the bar even though you were there for three hours. Afterwards, still tired from your flight you both crawl into bed, lying at far opposite sides and trying not to move. It’s awkward so you want to fall asleep to escape the feeling but you lie awake for hours, dreaming about what it would be like to sleep in the same bed but holding each other instead of turning away.

When you wake up in the morning you aren’t well rested at all. Staying up late combined with not letting yourself fully relax because you didn’t want to invade Natasha’s space were two things that worked well to keep you tired. Luckily all you have to do today is go around the hotel participating in activities together and looking out for the arms dealers while pretending to be honeymooning.

You soon learn that it is harder said than done. There still have been no sighting of the targets but honestly that seems easier to you at this point. The entire day Natasha was on you, whether it was a quick peck on the cheek, fiddling with your hand or her hand on your waist, she never strayed far and you were worried your heart was going to combust or you would accidentally tell her you were in love with her, both of which would be bad. Luckily you manage to hold it together for the whole day and take a long shower to destress and try to keep your mind off of Natasha. You think you do a pretty good job but once again you lie awake for hours before you finally drift off and even when you do, your sleep is not very good.

The next day is a repeat of the first which annoys you because you were supposed to be flying back to Shield tomorrow and you still hadn’t even located your targets. Both of you are feeling a little frustrated so when Natasha suggests you call it a night and head to the bar you agree quickly. You drink enough to be tipsy but not drunk before you cut yourself off because you don’t like the idea of a hangover. Natasha doesn’t stop drinking when you do yet looks perfectly sober whereas you feel like a mess so you inwardly curse her alcohol tolerance and acting skills.

The two of you stay in the bar playing useless games like darts but having a lot of fun until 2 am when the bartender kicks you out with a creepy look, telling you to enjoy the rest of your night. You shudder slightly when you realize what he is thinking about but don’t dignify him with a response, instead following after Natasha as she walks back up to your room, occasionally sneaking glances at her butt.

When you get inside both of you change into pyjamas back to back, too lazy to take a shower or even change in the bathroom. You sigh as your head hits the pillow, the last few days of late nights and bad sleeps catching up to you. Luckily you start drifting off fairly quickly and feel more relaxed, although that could just be the alcohol helping.

“Y/n?” Natasha’s voice calls from the other side of the bed, more timid sounding than usual.

“Yes?” You answer, yawning in your attempt to regain some alertness.

“Do you ever feel lonely?” She asks.

You have to think about it for a second before answering. “Of course I do sometimes, I think everybody feels lonely sometimes. Why do you ask?”

“I feel lonely right now.” She admits.

“Why?” you say with a small giggle to try to lighten her seemingly dark mood. “I’m right here.”

“But you’re purposefully as far away from me as possible.” She pauses and you think that’s all she has to say before she continues. “I-I want to cuddle.”

Your heart clenches and you get extremely nervous. “Are you sure that’s not the alcohol talking?”

She shakes her head with an unreadable expression on her face. “I’m not drunk.” She says before turning to face away from you like she is upset. You still are nervous but don’t want her to feel upset and she did mention cuddling so you scoot yourself across the bed until you are close enough behind her that if you moved another inch you would be fully against her. She feels you behind her and turns around looking into your eyes for a second before burying her face in your neck and wrapping her arms around you. Pleasantly surprised you slowly wrap your arms around her as well, sighing in contentment when she seems to try to wiggle closer to you. You want to stay awake to fully experience this but far too soon your eyes feel heavy and you fall into a deep sleep.

You feel warmth and a press of lips on your jawline and your eyes flutter open quickly. Natasha looks up at you with an expression you can only describe as one a child wears when they get caught stealing cookies. Laughing at how cute she is you go down to kiss her on the nose at the same time as she tilts her head further up so your lips end up catching hers. You both practically melt into the kiss, sighing until a loud ring tone breaks through the silence. You groan and pick it up.

“Hey Y/n, are you done your mission yet?”

You ignore the question and put the phone on speaker so Natasha can hear as well. “Tony, why are you calling me?”

“To ask if you’re done your mission, duh.” He responds.

“Well technically we haven’t done it but we haven’t seen either of the targets.” You tell him, disappointed in yourself but knowing you followed all the orders so it wasn’t really your fault.

“Not that mission you idiot, that doesn’t exist, the real mission was did you get together with Nat?” You freeze because you weren’t sure where you stood with Natasha, but luckily she doesn’t seem to mind what Tony just said.

“Wait Y/n you want to get with me?” She says in an outraged voice with a wink to let you know she was joking. “What’s wrong with you???”

Tony audibly gulps on the other end of the line. “I’msosorryY/nanwaysI’vegottogonowbye! (I’m so sorry Y/n, anyways I’ve got to go now, bye)” As soon as you hear the line go silent both of you collapse in laughter.

“Was that too mean?” She asks, not sounding very serious.

“Nah, he deserved it, although I don’t know how he got Fury to agree.” You respond.

“Well he always was a cheeky bastard,” Natasha says, shaking her head fondly, “although I guess we do have them to thank for this.”

“Mmhmm,” you agree, “but they don’t have to know that.”

---

Taglist: @fayhar @stephanieromanoff @stop-drop-and-drumroll (if you want to be added, comment, send an ask, or message me)

#natasha romanoff #natasha romanoff x reader #black widow #black widow x reader #avengers #avengers x reader #marvel fanfiction #x reader

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ghost-wonder · 3 years

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Why Oliver March is My Current Top Suspect for the Leader (Even though I love him)

Buckle your seatbelts kids and get ready for my hot mess of a PH theory. I wasn’t sure where to put this and I just wanted to get my thoughts out. I’m in the last year of my media studies and production degree so I’m putting my 3 years of tears to use and have been brewing this theory since reading 85. Now let me clarify: I adore March, but the more we see, the more suspicious I become (especially with ep. 82 & 85), and while many think this may mean death or something tragic, I’ve been thinking of the possibility it’s something much bigger (Note: lots of speculation here so prepare for a lot of what if’s and I’m only using content up to ep. 85).

My thought process regarding the leader:

The leader is a rather dehumanized villainous entity. With them being anonymous and the reader not having a face to place with the actions, it’s easier for us to take the leader’s actions at face value. We are provided no means of sympathizing or empathizing with their actions and instead, our story follows characters who have been traumatized by said actions.

Therefore, to provide readers with the greatest impact, the leader would likely be a character who up until the discovery of them being the leader, the reader viewed them positively. A character already humanized. Already trusted. And this would be both in terms of how the reader views that character, as well as other characters in the story. It would leave the reader reeling, trying to figure out why such a character would be the leader.

And keep in mind: PH has used this approach with Harvey; the audience liked him for the short time he appeared before being caprisunned and we were shocked to discover his involvement in the PS. Additionally, we’ve had characters dehumanizing and humanizing with Kieran. He’s introduced as this deadly assassin who kills brutally, with the greatest death toll in the PS. But he becomes humanized through his interactions with Lauren, so much so that both the reader and Lauren forget his occupation and are provided a chilling reminder in ep. 43. However, even after those horrible events, as we learn more regarding his character in season 2, we begin to empathize with his actions and reactions (though we don’t condone them). It demonstrates a duality, a mix of light and dark, seemingly contradicting one another. Because people are complicated.

This is also why I can’t buy into the idea that Tristan or Stefan is the leader, in fact, I don’t think either one is even involved with the PS. For Tristan I think he comes off suspicious because A) he’s meant to be a red herring but B) LAUREN’S PARENTS WERE APOSTLES AND YOU CANNOT TELL ME HE DID NOT KNOW. THEY LEFT AT ODD HOURS OF THE NIGHT ALL THE TIME AND LIKELY GAVE LAUREN TO TRISTAN TO PROTECT HER FROM THAT LIFE. HE PROBABLY THINKS LAUREN IS PS. But anywho. As for Stefan, he’s already been villainized through his treatment of William. The audience doesn’t like him for this reason and is then inherently suspicious of him because they dislike him. So for me, it feels too obvious. (I have an additional theory that he was involved with the print shop shooting, assisting Lizbeth (from what’s alluded in 64 with Lauren’s parents and 68) as chief of police but that’s for another place another time.)

What we know about the leader:

- It’s a he

- Has to be part of the older generation (would have needed to be an adult about 15 years ago)

- Was a member of SD

- Knew Lauren’s parents

- According to Hecate, he is closer and more similar to Lauren than she thinks

So why March? (It’s not just the villain scar)

- His speech to Kym and Will in 60 had me SUS. It felt very contradicting (he acknowledges the flaws in the system while saying they must continue their jobs, which is valid, but his phrasing was still off to me) and generally in any mystery drama if I see a character go on a moral rant of sorts, my sus radar is dialed up to 11. Unfortunately, we don’t know how much of it was true and lies because Lauren wasn’t around but if he is the leader I’d find it so fascinating if everything he said is the truth. The idea that this terrorist does have sound morals would be SO INTERESTING and kind of fitting? The leader having a strong sense of justice or strong morals would make him more similar to Lauren as Hecate said. But more on Hecate later.

- As confirmed by 85, he knew Lauren’s parents. He even says they worked together on cases. Through their work together, did they start to realize the flaws in their system? Was there a case that was just too much? SD formed?

- The death of his daughter does kind of fit the SD timeline. (She died in xx11 the pamphlets are dated xx14 but SD was likely formed slightly before the release of the pamphlets but that's not yet really confirmed). We don’t know how her illness killed her (could be class-related. Like because of their class status perhaps they didn’t have access to the resources that could have saved his daughter? Who knows. He said they did all they could. March is likely middle class similar to Kym but we don’t know for sure. And even if he is middle class we don’t know if this was always the case, like if he was middle class at the time of his daughter’s death.)

- Additionally the death of his wife. The date is blocked and as others have theorized I find it very possible it could have been SD related. But this sentence is chilling: “She fell into the bloody hands of criminals that have been plaguing Ardhalis for too long.” March doesn’t specify these criminals as the PS. So could he mean the royals? (Literally everything he says to Lauren in ep. 85 could have a double meaning and it bugs me so much like he never specifies the criminals he’s referring to. And everything he says sounds like the monologue of a villain who sees themselves as a hero because they haven’t realized how far gone they are. But that’s just me. ) If she died in the print shop shooting could this have been the catalyst to drive March to become the leader and start the PS? Losing your daughter and wife is a lot to take and could drive anyone over the edge. Point is: if any of this speculation is true, it would give March motive for becoming the leader.

- Also March mentioned how Lauren reminds him of his daughter which could then explain why Lauren hasn’t been touched by the PS cause at this point the girl should have been caprisunned a while ago if she wasn’t being protected from the inside.

- To build on that as well, if March is the leader then he has kept an eye on Lauren since she joined the force aka since she would have become problematic for the PS (cause you can argue being the daughter of apostles may not automatically make her a threat since she was a child at the time. But being the daughter of apostles and joining the police force to take down the PS? Now that’s an issue). March says in ep. 60 that Lauren was one of his recruits meaning the leader could have had his eye on her the entirety of her time in the APD. Just something to consider.

- And going back to Hecate's words, he’s more similar to you than you think. March and Lauren share (seemingly) similar morals and additionally he is close to her just as Hecate claimed. Also if any of my speculation regarding the deaths of his wife and daughter are correct it would have put him in a similar position to Lauren, the difference being her enemy is PS and his being the royals (but also as we’re starting to see with Lauren learning more information, I think the royals are starting to become an enemy in her eyes the same way PS is. Again if any of this is correct it just furthers similarities between the two).

- This could then also be the betrayal alluded to in the cards; one of Lauren's mentors has been the leader this whole time. The betrayal is either past or future but March being the leader could count as both. He betrayed her in the past by ordering the death of her parents and may betray her again in the future as he continues to play the role of leader

- Plus this would also mean the leader has been present in the story FROM THE VERY BEGINNING MARCH WAS IN EP 2 HOW WILD WOULD IT BE IF WE’VE KNOWN THE LEADER THIS WHOLE TIME

- AND IMPORTANT NOTE: WHY IS MARCH NOT ONE OF THE PEOPLE LAUREN SUSPECTS DURING EP. 82 YET HE HAS HER BACK SIMILAR TO WILL AND KYM. "LAUREN OPEN YOUR EYES" BLINDEST OF THEM ALL TYPE STUFF. (Also with Lauren being the blindest of all, it led me to believe anyone Lauren is suspicious of, is not the one to betray her. I feel like it would have to be someone so unsuspicious, Lauren doesn’t even think of them. Which can be said of March; we literally have a whole scene in ep. 82 demonstrating how close they are and how a level of trust exists. Yet panels later, it doesn’t even cross her mind that he could betray her).

Now possible flaws in this theory (there are more I’m sure but here’s a few):

-Why voice support for lune and their actions: Lune’s actions have yet to affect the leader (at least to our knowledge) and have technically been helping the leader. The leader views Apostle 7 as an issue so obviously whoever the leader is, they won’t take issue with Lune taking down this problem for them. When first telling Lauren about McTrevor, Kieran said he was surprised he hadn’t been sent by the leader to kill him off yet. And when the 11th precinct received that first Lune letter about him, March was the one to voice that they should follow Lune’s orders. If he’s the leader, this could explain why he wanted to follow Lune’s orders and dispose of McTrevor without PS means. This is a possible explanation anyway.

- Why send moles into the 11th precinct if the leader himself is already there: I boil this down to a matter of seeming less suspicious. Like why possibly risk the exposure of your identity if your organization consists of hundreds of potential puppets who are easily disposable?

-Why place the PH in the 11th precinct if the leader is there: Okay this plays into another theory I have regarding Kieran. We know there are boatloads of parallels between Lauren and Kieran which left me thinking Kieran has had a similar Tim Sake type incident. What I mean by this is that Lauren’s whole deal with Tim Sake was heavily guided by her personal anger and resulted in distrust from her superior, Hermann. I think Kieran had a similar incident with killing that one person without orders, in which his actions were guided by his personal anger and resulted in distrust from his superior, the Leader. So we know from 83 Kierans been overseas for a while (Why? Was there a mission or did the leader need Kieran out of Ardhalis? Both?) and his comment in 64 (“I wonder how much longer his patience will last”), as well as the comments made by Bella and the messenger at various points regarding Kieran following and not following orders (ep 5 and 72-73?), further my thinking that the leader may be SUS of his best player. So what do you do with someone you’re suspicious of: you keep them right where you can see them.

- The one flaw I have yet to work out an explanation for is why order the death of lune? Regardless of who the leader is, this is a question I’ve mulled over since the end of season 1. J’en sais rien mes amis mais on verra.

Closing Thoughts:

Hopefully, this didn’t sound like the ramblings of a sleep-deprived senior (even though that’s exactly what this is haha) and hopefully, it gave you some stuff to consider. Up until this point, I never spent much time contemplating the leader, partly because I didn’t feel like we were far enough in the story to have enough evidence against one person. While much of this is speculation, I still think it’s the soundest case I have for any PH character we’ve met thus far being the leader.

#purple hyacinth #ph webtoon #lauren sinclair #oliver march #kieran white #webtoon #purple hyacinth webtoon #this is a lot #dont hate me i just cant accept nice things

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hhoriginalworks · 3 years

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swimming with mermaids | o.w

warning: baby curse

Merlin, you hated quidditch season. You didn't mind the sport or the pro season, but there was something about acne-ridden Hogwarts players with house rivalries that left you in a terrible mood. "No, Eliza, I will not go watch the pointless Slytherin game," you groaned, weaving through the crowds of students. "Everyone at Hogwarts acts as though it's life or death- I mean, it's just quidditch."

"Do you have no house spirit?" your roommate asked, nimbly following behind you, despite your desperate attempt to escape the girl. "Come on, y/n, one game. I swear I won't ever bug you about it again if you just go to one game and cheer on Marcus Flint with him."

"I would rather choke on a pumpkin pastry," you bit back, promptly stopping in your tracks and turning to stare at the blonde. "Bugger off, 'mkay? The Hogwarts Quidditch Cup is just a way for teenagers to put time on the field instead of broom closets. Now, I am going to the Black Lake to finish my book, and I would appreciate it if you would leave alone."

"Whatever. Just know that if you ever need me to cover for you, I'll bring this up," Eliza huffed, walking away with her hair angrily swaying with each step she took.

"She'll see a cute boy and snap out of her pissed mood," you stated to yourself, the slight pang of guilt quickly dissipating.

You made your way to the Black Lake, finally free of constant badgering and the stress that came with being stuck in a castle with hormonal teens. With the N.E.W.Ts quickly approaching and everyone panicking over Sirius Black, it felt like the only time you had to yourself was on weekend afternoons. And, frankly, not even Merlin himself could make you give it up for a few hours of quidditch.

"Oi, watch out," a voice shouted. It was too late- by the time you looked up, a charmed quaffle knocked the book of your hands and into the black lake. "My quaffle!"

"Your quaffle? My Book! Pince is going to kill you when I tell her what happened," you argued back, pushing yourself off the ground to confront the approaching Gryffindor.

"Fine, we'll worry about your book first," the Gryffindor, who you recognized as Oliver Wood, huffed. You glared at the scarlet-clad boy as he summoned your ruined book out of the lake. "Oh, er, that's not great."

"Oh, god, I'm dead," you gasped, staring at the soaking book with leaking ink. "I swear to Merlin, Oliver Wood, if Pince kills me, I'm going to haunt you for all eternity."

"Woah, come on, y/n, let's not go there," Oliver reasoned casually, mumbling a drying charm. "Oh no, I don't think I should've done that when the ink was also wet."

"Gee, Wood, it's not like you could've consulted me, who knew that was a bad idea, before mumbling charms left and right," you sarcastically drawled.

"I can fix this- I was really good at fixing things! At least, I was when I was a kid. However, this looks more complicated than my brother's Legos," Oliver urged, mumbling the last part just loud enough to further your annoyance.

"You have younger siblings? Your parents had you and decided to they wanted to risk having the spawn of Satan again?" You snapped, snatching the book out of his hands. "Stick to something easy, like your quidditch thing."

"Hey! You can talk shit about my charms ability, but quidditch isn't easy. I would like to see you try and keep the quaffles-"

"New flash, Wood, it is just quidditch," you interjected, somewhat enjoying the way the Gryffindor turned an unsightly shade of red.

"Take that back," Oliver demanded, narrowing his eyes as you.

"Not until hell freezes over," you smirked, taking a step closer to the Gryffindor.

"Wanna bet?"

"Sure, let's see what Mr. Quidditch can do to me? Bore me to death with Krum facts?" You teased, taking another step closet to Oliver until you were almost nose to nose. "If you want an apology, you're going to have to pry it out of my cold dead hands."

"Cold? Yes. Dead? No," Oliver grinned, placing a hand on your back and pushing you into the Black Lake. Unfortunately for him, you were less of the flailing type- and more of the grabbing the nearest thing type. Within seconds, the two of you crashed into the cold February water with a splash.

You quickly resurfaced from the water, pushing your hair out of your eyes. "Wood? Wood?! Oliver?" You shouted, noticing the pusher hadn't resurfaced. "Oliver?! Oh, Merlin, I killed him."

You dived down into the water, hoping a few seconds at the surface was enough air to get down to the bottom of the lake. You frantically searched for Oliver, stopping once you notice the boy attempting to wriggle his quaffle out of some plant. 'What an idiot," you thought to yourself, swimming over to him and helping him.

"Thanks," Oliver mouthed, grabbing your hand and using his wand to propel you two out of the water.

"Oh, Merlin," you coughed, pushing your water hair out of your face. "I can't believe you nearly killed yourself over a quaffle. You could've died if I didn't come to the rescue."

"Yeah, whatever. I would've had enough oxygen to last me another minute or two," Oliver reasoned, pulling a leafy plant out of his hair. "It's cute that you were so concerned, though."

You turned away from the teasing boy, your face involuntarily darkening at his comment. "I was only concerned about how McGonagall would feel if I killed her star keeper," You replied, rolling your eyes.

"Okay, sure, y/l/n. Just know that if I weren't freezing right now, I would take you out on a nice thank you walk to the quidditch pitch-"

"Come on, Ollie, we were finally having a good conversation, then you bring up quidditch? Talk about ruining the mood," you joked, pulling out your wand and quickly drying both of you two off.

"I take it back- you don't deserve a thank you walk," Oliver laughed, coughing out the last bit of water and pulling himself off of the ground.

"You can't take that back! I deserve that walk."

"You do not."

"I so do."

"Oh, please, y/l/n, you're the reason we ended up in that lake," Oliver bickered back.

"Oh, is that so?" You asked, placing your hand over your chest in faux-naivety. "Because if I remember correctly, you pushed me, and that's why we ended up swimming with mermaids. Therefore, you owe me more than a 'thank you walk.'"

"Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah. You owe me a date. Next week at Hogsmeade," You stated, placing your hands on your hips.

"Fine, but I'm paying for your butterbeer," Oliver argued back.

You opened your mouth only to close it, the conversation beginning to register in your head. "I-I guess I'll see you again next week," You replied, dropping your arguing tone.

"Yeah- unless you want to, you know, come to the quidditch game tomorrow," Oliver mentioned off-handedly, attempting to look casual as he waited for you to reply.

"Maybe," you answered simply, sending the Gryffindor a wink before you hurried off to find Eliza.

It didn't take long- the fuming blonde didn't get too far from where you left her. Instead, she was ranting to some poor first-year about how terrible of a friend you were.

"Eliza," you shouted, maneuvering your way towards your roommate.

"Let me guess, y/n, you came here to tell me that quidditch is stupid, and Marcus Flint isn't even cute."

You rolled your eyes at her comment, deciding to ignore it. "No, about quidditch, and yes, about Marcus. But, more importantly, I have had time to reflect on what I said-"

"You're going to go into healing with me?" Eliza asked, dismissing the first-year with a wave of her hand.

"Not about that, Eliza. I reflected on quidditch, and I've decided that it's grown on me," You started, "Let's go to the game tomorrow!"

"Really?" Eliza's face fell, and her eyebrows suddenly raised suspiciously. "What change your mind?"

"Oh, you know me, Lizzie- all I need is a push in the right direction... or a lake," you grinned, ignoring your roommate's confused look.

#holyhead-hufflepuff archive

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teentitanimals · 4 years

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Batfam as Cuddlers

What kind of cuddlers are the Batfam?? Let’s find out!

Bruce: At the start, he was almost scared of physical contact. No cuddles except for when little Dick would climb into his bed after a bad dream. But for every kid he gained, the more powerful his cuddles became. He’s still not a cuddle initiator, but he shies away from hugs no longer. He’ll plop down on the couch and won’t even flinch as his kids fight to sit beside him or on his lap. Carrie, Alina and Cullen will be sitting on his shoulders during a meeting and he won’t even notice.

Alfred: He’s the type that sits next to you and wraps his arm around you. Sweet, sturdy and supportive. Everyone likes his arm hugs.

Dick: Look. We all know what his cuddle status is. Major cuddler. Cuddles everything. Hugs and shoulder pats and hair ruffles and cheek pinches, he does it all. Once he had you, you can't get out.

Jason: Like I said in this post, Jason is the most cuddled in the family. He is not the one who cuddles others the most, no, he is the one who gets cuddled the most. He’s big, he’s warm, he’s strong, he’s tall- why would you not cuddle this man? He has enough space to get cuddled by multiple siblings at once. A whole cuddle party up in here. Not to mention when his siblings are having a mental breakdown, his solid, strong arms holding them to this realm of reality really helps.

Tim: He is an accidental cuddler. He doesn’t intentionally cuddle people, because he’s not super used to physical contact despite craving it all his childhood, but whenever he’s super tired- which is often- he can’t help but lean against the nearest heat source. He’ll cling to arms and legs given the accidental chance too. Dick found out that one of the best ways to get this idiot to sleep is to just plop down on top of him. The warmth and weight makes him more willing to sleep, mainly because he can’t move if you’re laying on top of him. Tim would always fight and whine when he did this, but Tim secretly likes when Dick does that, and was secretly happier when Dick passed that knowledge onto the other siblings, because now he had Steph and Cass and even Jason cuddling him. He was incredibly surprised when Damian did it, though. Damian was not heavy enough to weight Tim down, and Tim could have easily tossed him therefore ruining the whole idea, but he was just so shocked that he didn’t do anything. Damian, much to Damian’s annoyance, became the best “weight” to get Tim to sleep, and now the others tell Damian to go cuddle Tim when they need Tim to sleep.

Damian: The first time he got cuddled and didn’t fight it, he still couldn’t relax or go to sleep. If you were physically touching someone, then you shouldn’t be sleeping, that’s how it was in the League. They could hurt you, betray you. Damian could not fall asleep around other people, it was just impossible. So the day he did, he freaked. Did it mean he was losing his touch?!? Was all of his League training vanishing from him??? No, he simply trusted his family enough to sleep now. He didn’t realize it the first few times, and perhaps he still doesn’t. But if he falls asleep near you, he trusts you. If he falls asleep beside you, he trusts you a lot. If he falls asleep cuddling you, you are top tier trustworthy. If he willing initiates a cuddle with you and then falls asleep, you are God to him. When Dick found out this formula, he was ecstatic to know he was one of the ones Damian would cuddle willingly- in fact, Damian started to seek him out at night to cuddle. Dick was even more ecstatic when Damian willingly started cuddling with Tim, of all people, under the guise of “helping force Drake to get the proper amount of sleep.”

Cassandra: Similar to Damian, it was a bit difficult to adjust to cuddles. Especially because if she was facing away from the person it was harder to read body language, instead she had to feel it, which, was a bit harder since it wasn’t exactly like David had her practice hugging people. But she adjusted to cuddles quicker than Damian, and now she loves participating in big group cuddles. She isn’t a cuddle fanatic, by any means, she enjoys being free to move and roll over when she needs or wants to. But she still enjoys having her siblings nearby. It’s a taste of family life that she loves.

Duke: Back when it was just him and his parents, he always kept his door open. The problem here is an open door gets you more likely to have visitors in your room. Combine this with the problem that Duke’s room has become the official “No-Arguing-Quiet-Peace Zone”, he has a sibling in his room practically every moment of the day. Duke, used to always sleeping alone, was not prepared for people to just come in and plop onto his bed or floor or bean bags, at all. While he ended up adjusting to having other people in his room while he slept, he did not adjust as much to being cuddled while he sleeps. He’s fine with daytime cuddles, but nighttime cuddles are a bit much for him. His siblings respect that, and just sleep near him rather than right beside him. One perk, though, is that- because he was never a “go to his parents for nightmares” type (because his nightmares were never that bad- although they have gotten a bit worse lately)- he does appreciated waking up from a nightmare and hearing his siblings’ breath around him. It’s comforting.

Barbara: She doesn’t get a lot of opportunities for cuddles, but when she does, she’s a cuddle hound. She’ll just lay across them, uncaring if they can still breath or not. This is her time, not them time. The cuddles are for her.

Stephanie: She is a cuddle bug who, like Babs, does not care about your space. She also snores. And sometimes slobbers. She does not care. It is your fault for being so huggable. Just let her sleep, and do NOT wake her up. She's the one you'll just find randomly plopped beside you in the middle of the night. Do not disturb.

Carrie: She's a mix of Dick and Tim, where she wasn't raised with a lot of physical affection, but instead that does not stop her from cuddling the shit out of you. She is not an experienced cuddler, but her cuddle count is rising high within recent years. She's also the type who will cling to your back and just fall asleep like a sloth. She doesn't mind being disturbed from cuddles, but trying to get her to stop cuddling you is near impossible. Yes, unlike Dick, you can easily wiggle out of her cuddles, but the problem is she's persistent. You stop the cuddle now, you will merely get cuddled later. You are simply delaying the inevitable. Accept fate now or suffer the consequences. She might recruit Dick, and you don't want that.

Harper: She's the neutral cuddler. She likes cuddles, but she doesn't have a big history with them like Damian or Cass, or a proficiency like Dick and Carrie. They're just cuddles. Fun hair ruffles. Leaning on a fellow human being. Though, you might now want to let her fall asleep on top of you. She's nearly as hard as Dick to remove.

Cullen: He is not a super big cuddle fan, but he likes sleeping in the same room as other people. He's always slept near his sister, it's just most familiar for him. If he has any nightmares, it lets him know he can always just shimmy over to a Batsib and curl up beside them.

Helena: She used to be a big cuddler, but once she crossed over from Earth-2, she felt like she didn't know anybody well enough to hug them, much less cuddle. It was a slow and steady process, but she eventually got back into the habit of cuddling her siblings. She found she really missed it, and her sleep became much more tame.

Alina: She grew up with cuddle-hungry siblings. She had no choice but to be a cuddler. At some points she literally cannot fall asleep without a sibling cuddling her.

#batfam #batfamily #batman #damian wayne #dick grayson #batman and robin #jason todd #bruce wayne #tim drake #cassandra cain #batfam memes #batfamily headcanons #batman headcanon #batfamily fluff #harper row #cullen row #alina wayne #batman memes

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littlemisssquiggles · 3 years

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So I have SEVERAL feelings over the gif and am super worried over Ruby's expression, her being separated from her team in the snow, the fact that Oscar's taking her place at the head of RWBY, and the fact that Ruby is aligned with Yang who is mentioned to be "suspicious" AND I AM NOT READY

Hiya Miki-chan. Weirdly enough, despite what the intro GIF teased, this squiggle meister took a more light-hearted reaction to it, to be honest.

I know some folks are assuming that Oscar taking Ruby’s place alongside WBY as a stance on him replacing Ruby as leading the group and…I for one, didn’t really see it that way.

For me, I looked at it as a sign that perhaps Oscar may take a more supportive stance besides Ruby; not necessarily taking her place as leader but more as being a right hand to her---y’know like an advisor to aid her in these troubling times when tensions are high and the overall trust within the team is suffering because of it. For me, I took this as us potentially seeing Oscar help Ruby to mend the broken bonds within their team, thus restoring what they once had.

It made me think back to the Little Prince and the lesson he learnt from the fox---a lesson about love and responsibility. About one being responsible for what you tame. The Fox told the Prince that he was responsible for his rose as he was the one who cared for her, and that what’s made her the most unique to him in a world full of roses.

It is because of this why I always latched onto the concept of Oscar being a support for Ruby and strangely enough, we’ve seen Oscar take a helpful role towards Ruby in the past.

We saw him take this position back during the dojo moment in V5 when Ruby wasn’t being honest regarding her repressed emotions over the events of the Fall of Beacon. We saw Oscar take this stance again in V6 in Argus when Ren questioned the room of a proper plan of action to stop Salem and we see Oscar look to Ruby, who appeared distraught as she had no answer to give. From there, we then saw Oscar try to speak up in a move that gave the impression that he was trying to emulate Ruby in that moment---trying to be a voice of reason and optimism while simultaneously diverting all the negative attention that Ruby was receiving onto himself in a sense.

Consecutively, this is later followed up by Oscar attempting to reassure Ruby of their plan back in Argus when she appeared troubled over Qrow’s behaviour.

Basically what I’m getting at is that, I’ve always liked the thought of Oscar being a “fuel to Ruby’s spark”. Since the forces of evil have threatened to break Ruby’s indomitable spirit and snuff out that light of hers, I liked the idea of Oscar becoming someone who makes it his duty to keep Ruby’s spark alive.

I based it off of this analogy I shared back in my musings from V5. Ruby is often described as possessing an unquantifiable spark. A spark is type of a flame. A flame that burns brightly to ignite the way and guide those lost to the darkness like a beacon in the night. However even the brightest of flames cannot burn forever. Eventually that flames grows weary---starts to dim until eventually its burnt out.

But do you know what is often used to keep a fire going? Wood.

Oscar’s last name is Pine and pine is a type of wood. Therefore, should Ruby’s spark start to dim. Should her spirit slowly start to break from all the pressures placed on her, I love the concept of Oscar being the one to reignite it---providing Ruby with that same burst of inspiration that she’s always provided him. Therefore Oscar becomes someone of great importance to Ruby as he becomes a source of motivation for her. Someone to keep her going and be a beacon of hope to her when she starts to go astray and feel her spark dwindling. A fuel to a spark powered by an unyielding heart of loyalty love and bathed in a golden light as bright as the sun.

That what’s I’m picturing Oscar to become for Ruby in terms of his significance to her. Even if romance isn’t in the cards for the rosebuds, I’d still love for Oscar’s relationship with Ruby to be meaningful and unique to them; just like the bond between the prince and his true rose.

And let’s not forget that…Oscar has already acknowledged Ruby’s vulnerability and understands it. What I mean by this is that that despite Ruby being christened as the voice of hope and encouragement within her group---the one everyone turns to for leadership, Oscar has already realized that this also means that Ruby has a lot of pressure placed on her because of the badge of leadership that’s been put on her by those around. Hence the comment he made to Ozpin back in V5CH5.

“…She really is remarkable, isn’t she?”

“Yeah. She must’ve been one of these best huntresses at Beacon, huh?”

“In some ways yes but in many others, no. She has her quirks. Her faults, just like everyone else. But she also possesses something unquantifiable. A spark that can inspire others even in the darkest of times.”

“…This must be really hard on her too.”

“It’s most assuredly is.”

In the beginning, Oscar reacts the Ruby the same way others who grow to admire her usual do. He is enamoured by her remarkability, as Oz put it. However the instant Oz goes even further into giving his own impression of Ruby and mentions that she is a person of inspiration to others, Oscar’s impression of her changes a little as he took Ruby’s role as leader as her also having a lot of expectations placed on her (like him) and he gets it immediately.

And that’s another reason why I loved the V5 dojo scene. It says so much about Oscar without saying a lot and it’s great.

Ironically enough, it’s AFTER this brief conversation with Oz where I noticed Oscar taking up a more dedicated approach towards Ruby---immediately being one of the first few people to run to her side after she’s hurt by Emerald during the Battle of Haven. Defying even Ozpin---his other half essentially--- and fighting against him to possible protect Ruby from Oz when the ole soul’s desperation to prevent Ruby from using the lamp to uncover the truth got the better of him. And the list can go on.

Oscar understands the weight that Ruby feels and probably will feel even more now as she is basically placed in the same position that Oz was back during the events of V6. When the group turned on Oz, Oscar was pretty much the one to feel the brunt of the ole soul’s emotions after he chose to isolate himself. That being said, I can see Oscar not wishing to see the same thing happen to Ruby so like I said, I’m hoping his position in the opening will hint at him becoming an advisor or crutch to Ruby, standing by her side and working with her to mend everything.

That being said, I’m not saying I’m expecting Oscar to be a blind follower of Ruby, choosing to “follow her lead”. One thing I love about Oscar’s character is that while he may appear apprehensive at times, he’s never afraid to speak his mind and let others know exactly what he’s thinking and he’s not one to sugar coat either.

Oscar is rather blunt but still articulate in the way he expresses himself. It’s never vague with Oscar. He’s quite upfront about his thoughts and fears. While it may take him some time to open up, whenever he does get the courage to speak up, he always does so in a manner that commands the room or practically demands that his voice is heard by those around him.

And another trait I admire about Oscar is that he isn’t afraid to share his opinions even when he outright disagrees with someone’s stance on a particular subject. If he feels as if someone’s actions are wrong or may lead to issues, Oscar doesn’t withhold those feelings. He lets them know as highlighted when he was the first character to oppose Ruby’s decision to deceive the General. He was also quite upfront about his disagreement with the General’s actions towards the People of Mantle and progression of Amity Tower. Oscar even tried to warn the General of the path he was taking and while things still ended poorly, you still have to admire Oscar’s character in these moments.

To me, this is one of the moments that highlighted why I would consider Oscar to be our SECOND smaller, more honest soul next to Ruby. This is why I want to see him step up and be a voice of comfort and wisdom to Ruby in these times. Whether or not Ruby choses to heed his words isn’t really the factor here. I just want to see this dynamic done since this could provide an amazing opportunity to see the friendship that’s been slowly building between the rosebuds for the past few seasons truly start to flourish.

V8 could spark the moment when the Rosegarden bond fully blooms into a beautiful relationship---be it a really great friendship built on trust and understanding or perhaps something more.

Oscar is loyal to Ruby, yes. And he believes in her, yes. He also trusts her wholeheartedly, yes. However if he fears that her actions are leading her down a dark path, he will tell her so. And unlike other characters, Oscar will tell Ruby this to her face---not in a manner that condescends or belittles her---but in his own way. Firm yet understanding (like how we saw back in V5CH5).

Basically what I’m saying here is that I can trust Oscar to always being upfront with Ruby about his concerns and opinions on her actions and decisions which…is something I would like to say for the rest of her team but…I can’t. Not really.

Weiss and Blake may have their feelings and concerns but in the end, they are more or less written off as sheep perfectly content with following the herd led by Ruby as their shepherd (even if that headship ultimately winds them in a den of wolves). And while Yang had been highlighted to not be entirely complacent with her sister’s leadership (as we saw during the events of V7), it still bugs me how Yang went behind Ruby’s back the way she did last season.

It almost felt…uncharacteristic for her to do this considering that Yang has been described as someone who has always looked out for Ruby as both the older sibling and surrogate parent to her. So why have Yang go behind, not just Ruby’s back, but the whole hero team to be an informant to Robyn Hill and then…NOT disclose this info to the rest of the her teammates. Only Blake knew and like I said, Blake is a sheep, fine with following Yang’s lead despite not doing anything herself to inform the others of what the Bees did together.

In reviewing the episode where this essentially took place---V7CH7: Worse Case Scenario---Yang is the one who basically gave Blake the go ahead to inform Robyn of the truth behind Amity when the two cornered her in the alleyway. Yang was even the first to talk and tell Robyn of Ironwood’s plans to send the Ace Ops to detain her.

“…If Ironwood wants me, he’ll have to send more than a couple of kids.”

“He is. Stopping the trucks alerted the Ace Ops. We don’t have long before they arrive so please listen to us.”

Yang spoke first. There is an even a shot in that very episode where Blake goes to spill the beans to Robyn but looks to Yang first for validation and it’s only when Yang nods in agreement when Blake finally shares. Although Blake is the one who told Robyn about the plans for Amity, it was Yang who practically gave her the go-ahead.

So while Blake is an accomplice, I’m going to place full responsibility for this tactic on Yang since she made the first call and also encouraged Blake to reveal the truth. Ruby’s choice to deceive was bad, yes but we cannot ignore Yang’s own choices to deceive in this mix which is also very problematic and could prove more dangerous than one might realize.

And given how there seems to be this talk in the FNDM about Yang being the one to apprehend Ruby for her actions inV7….I'm going to be blunt with you, Miki-chan. If the show does what you think they're gonna do by having Yang be the one who either calls Ruby out for the mistakes she made from her decisions or have Yang be the voice of doubt against Ruby, basically placing her in the same role as she did with Oz back in V6, I'm honestly going to hate it.

Let me explain why I REALLY don’t like this angle. I said this before back in V6 and I'll say it again here, Yang Xiao Long has no right calling anyone out for their deceit or secrets when she is NO innocent party.

May I remind everyone that the only reason that the group ended up needing to transport the Lamp of Knowledge to Atlas in the first place was because Yang boldly told Raven Branwen---the Spring Maiden to leave her with the Relic allowing Salem to come after her and the others as opposed to advising her to seal the lamp back into its respective vault.

“…Yeah I’m scared but I’m still standing here. I’m not like you. I won’t run which is why you’re going to give me the relic.”

“And why would I ---“ “Because you’re afraid of Salem! And if you thought having maiden powers will put a target on your back, imagine what she would do if she finds out that you have a relic. She will come after you with everything she has. Or she can come after me and I’ll be standing there, waiting for her.”

“You don’t want to do this.” “Nope but I’m gonna do it anyway.”

As noble as this was of Yang to do in the moment, it was still HER decision to have Salem target the hero group for the Relic instead of her mother. It was a choice she made of her own accord and it’s a choice she hasn’t disclosed to anyone since the impression after V5 is that beyond Raven disappearing again, Yang hasn’t told anyone else of what was said and revealed down in the Vault of the Spring Maiden. Even when Qrow asked her about it during the V5 finale, she basically told him…well…a half-truth.

“…What happened?” “I don’t know exactly. When I got down there, Cinder was gone and Vernal was dead.” “And Raven?” “Gone.”

The half-truth is that Raven did leave but not before Yang figured out that she was the Spring Maiden and not before Yang told her to leave the lamp in her possession instead of sealing the lamp back in its vault. May I remind everyone that Yang also didn't tell anyone that Raven---her mother---is the Spring Maiden?

And may I also remind everyone that Yang (along with Blake) was the one who went behind the group's back and told Robyn Hill about Amity. A detail that neither she nor Blake disclosed to the rest of the team.

“…This isn’t over yet. We’re with you.” “Are you with me?” “Sir?” “…How did Robyn know about the Global Communications Project?” “We told her. The night of the ambush.”

At least with Ruby, everyone was aware that Ruby made the call to lie to Ironwood about Salem including Oscar who basically sorted that out for Ruby (even though it SHOULD have been Ruby herself taking responsibility for her own actions in my opinion). However no one knew what Yang had done with Blake with Robyn which was why they all seemed pleasantly surprised when Ironwood brought it up. Blake and Yang were the only two members of RWBY who knew about this detail and note that Ironwood didn’t bring up the group deceiving him about Salem.

Again, that part was ironed out thanks to Oscar. But the part about Robyn, that part James didn’t know about. And unfortunately for our heroes, neither did they.

Yet…Yang phrased it as if RWBY had told Robyn when in fact, it was just Yang and Blake who made that call while Ruby and Weiss were clearly in the dark as evidenced by their troubled expressions at the Aces’ and Ironwood’s reactions to the news.

You're seeing my issue with Yang being the one to call Ruby out? If Yang ends up being the one doubtful of Ruby or "suspicious" of her actions/decisions, it'll pretty much be a rehash of V7.

Most of us thought it was mighty hypocritical for Ruby to be deemed in the right for choosing to lie to Ironwood following the group's chastising of Oz for withholding important information (the same info mind you) from them.

So wouldn't it be ultra mega hypocritical of Yang to be the one to doubt Ruby's actions and leadership based on her decisions and mistakes when...technically it was Yang's actions---an action she didn't tell her team---that provided the other end of the final straw that ultimately broke Ironwood and caused him to turn against the hero team.

While what Ruby did started it, what Yang did ended it in a sense because as I’ll point out again, AT LEAST Ironwood knew about what Ruby did, thanks to Oscar. But no one knew what Yang did. Except for Blake.

But her own sister. Their own aforementioned leader didn't know and I'm sorry, THAT needs to be addressed.

While I'm fine with Ruby being called out, Yang needs to be called out too. I will be so mad if Yang is treated as being in the right again while her own actions go unscathed.

It upset me when Yang had the gall to call out Oz for his lies and secrets while sitting on her own and it would bother me to know ends if it is done again for Ruby.

Yang cannot be the "good cop" or sheriff to bring Ruby to justice for her actions. She's got her own skeletons to be unearthed and thrown on the floor, exposed and raw for all to judge and I honestly hope this happens for V8 finally.

Let it be a western style dual. Let both parties draw fire to take out each other. Let it be a case where both Ruby and Yang start to mirror Oz and Ironwood’s dynamic from way back in V2. Both parties don't agree with each other's decisions despite being close allies. Both parties have their own methods of helping the people and believe them to be in the right when in actuality they both end up being the catalysts to further cause more problems within their team; dividing them even further.

Instead of Yang being planted on some high horse and made to be the judge that hangs Ruby for her mistakes while continuing to hide her own, I want BOTH SISTERS be held accountable for driving a deeper wedge between their group only for Oscar Pine to end up having to be the middleman to come in and help repair it all.

And I say Oscar of all characters, not just because I’m a Pinehead and want to see more development for my favourite little prince but mainly because like it or not, Oscar HAS to be the one to be in the middle of this shitstorm since...in essence, this all started with Ozma and was prolonged by Ozpin.

And as Ozma's current heir succeeding Oz, Oscar will probably see it as his own duty to fix everything sparked by his predecessors.

Oscar already has faith in Ruby and if him spending time with Yang down in Mantle could lend to him learning to have faith in her too then this could ultimately lend to him desiring to quell the tension between both sisters that’s slowly affecting their faction, henceforth working to reconcile everything with everyone.

I’ve expressed how much I would like to see Oscar mend the broken bonds within his team and I still want that above anything else to be part of his arc for this coming season.

The hero team dynamic needs a reboot; with everyone being cleared of their past false actions so that they can start anew with everyone on a clean page with one another and a better willingness to trust each other now that they've all experienced what deceit and secrecy amongst allies can do.

I want this so much and I want Oscar to play a big part in making it happen.

I don’t wanna hear “Ruby is our protagonist and she has to fix everything” or “Yang will be our stan queen for V8 to call Ruby out”. NO!

Both girls have fucked up! Everyone has fucked up!

Including my boy. The difference is that at least Oscar knows he’s fucked up. He is AT LEAST aware of his fuckery unlike Yang and Ruby and the rest of the hero team which is why I need Oscar to be the one to pull everyone up for their shit.

Since who better to do it than the person whose shares a body with the man whose made more mistakes than any man, women and child on Remnant, am I right?

Even now as we head into V8, I don’t think Ruby and Yang are aware of the consequences of their own mistakes. None of them seem to be. All the more reason why I think they require the wisdom and guidance of another smaller, more honest soul---one whose seen it from BOTH sides of the coin and can now make a call to better help everyone as a whole.

That's what I'd like to see. Not sure if this changes how you feel Miki-chan but that's how I see it.

P.S. On another note, if it’s any further consolation, I’m not ready for V8 either 8V

Like it still hasn’t quite hit me as yet even when the episode is literally tomorrow. All I will say is that I NEED to see that opening. Based on how things are staged from the teaser, that opening and the visuals that tells what we’ll see for that season will be what gets me into V8.

But we’ll see XD

~LittleMissSquiggles (2020)

#squiggles answers: rwby #oscar pine #ruby rose #yang xiao long #rwby volume 8 theories #rwby volume 8 spoilers #rwby theories #miki-13 #squiggles answers

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second-chance-stray · 3 years

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RP Log: Cravendy and Lin whittle the time away. @lettersnorth

Cravendy Hound sits on the balcony with an assortment of knick knacks spread around her. All kinds of wood, with and without bark, as well as knives of different sizes and shapes. She takes in a deep breath as she leans back against the railing, practically melting in the warm sun. But no matter how relaxing this might be, little worries spring up like weeds in the back of her mind...will Lin join her today? Did she get her note, and will she know how to get here?

Cravendy Hound groans. Brain, hurry up and remember how to loosen up.

Aislinn North It had taken Aislinn a moment to work out Cravendy's note, particularly in regards to where she would be setting up. This balcony at the back of Heartwood's grounds was tucked away and unless a person frequented the spot it was easy to remember it existed at all. Barring that, the woman also had been juggling a lot recently, both in mind and body. Though things with Cravendy had smoothed out somewhat, 1/2

Aislinn North she held an inkling of nervous energy as she made her way out to the balcony. If anything, this should take her mind off other matters for a time. "Alright, then?" she asked as she arrived. "Almost forgot this existed." 2/2

Cravendy Hound jumps slightly on Lin’s approach, and then turns to watch as she steps up the ladder and onto the balcony. She blinks - what is there to be so cautious about? They’re here to enjoy the daylight and carve some wood, simple as that. Cravs nods to herself, and then tries to smile at the other woman. It looks more like she’s baring her fangs.

Cravendy Hound: “Nice place. Secluded, and the view is ‘ard to beat, though if the wind becomes too much we oughta pack up our things and move indoors. But it’s good right now.” She picks up a rod of wood and a knife, and begins to scrape away ribbons without a moment's hesitation. Then she remembers why Lin came. “......Oh, right. ‘Ere, let me show ye.”

Cravendy Hound hands Lin a piece of wood. “It’s pretty simple. Carve away from yer ‘ands, and go with or across the grain. Why don’t ye give it a shot?”

Aislinn North At Cravendy's insistence she leaned down and took the block of wood being offered. After a quick study of the tools the Seawolf had spread out, Aislinn picked up one of the work worn carving knives. It was obviously a well-used tool and therefore likely to be a good one by Aislinn's thinking. She watched Cravendy a moment and then, ever the mockingbird, began to emulate her. Needless to say, Cravendy made it look much easier than it was. 1/2

Aislinn North Aislinn's knife kept snagging but she was nothing if not patient. "What sort of things do you carve?" asked idly as she hacked away at her poor block of wood. 2/2

Cravendy Hound: “Mostly small figures, like birds. Sometimes eatin’ utensils, if I feel like makin’ somethin’ that’ll be of some use. I don’t really think about it until I’m ‘olding the wood and knife in my hand.” Cravs carefully digs into her piece again, whittling another curl of material away. So far, she was lacking in inspiration, but it was satisfying regardless.

Cravendy Hound eyes what Lin is doing to her block with a grimace, but doesn’t comment on it...directly. “Maybe ye can start with somethin’ simple. A spoon, or a ‘air pin?”

Aislinn North Aislinn paused, glancing at Cravendy over the rim of her glasses. "So you don't actually know what you're going to carve until you're already carving?" For someone like Lin, the idea that there were no blueprints, no schematics, no advanced planning was almost an anathema. In her experience going along with her intuition and acting in the moment only got her into trouble.

Aislinn North Better that everything be carefully thought out and planned for. The exception being, in the heat of a fight, of course. Even then a good strategist should be able to foresee most possibilities and plan for them.

Cravendy Hound: “Yeah,” she answers nonchalantly. It, of course, sometimes led to her sharpening the wood into a simple spike or creating something equally unplanned, but for her, the point was to go with the flow. Cravs looks at her half-carved piece of wood with a hum.

Cravendy Hound shrugs. “No right or wrong way about it. I wouldn’t think too ‘ard about it...and if ye mess up, the wood shavings make good firestarter.”

Aislinn North Right. Aislinn gamely continued on in her endeavor but it was clear the woman was better with a firearm than a blade. And as much as Cravendy said not to think too hard about it, Aislinn had already decided what would be the best course of action. "A spoon can't be too hard, right?" she murmured, almost to herself as she concentrated on trying to steer the knife smoothly down the block. A comfortable sort of quiet settled between the women as they worked.

(Cravendy Hound) fdskjlf for some reason...I'm imagining Lin's spoon to be dual purpose in some way )) (Cravendy Hound) spoon end, and...stabby end is a thought xD )) (Aislinn North) ((She'll end up inventing the spork in Eorzea)) (Cravendy Hound) omg yES ))

Cravendy Hound lifts her work-in-progress up to the light. The curves cut out from it remind her of a fish, and she decides to keep going with it. Without realizing it, she begins to sing - a whisper of a song that is almost lost in the wind. It starts and ends without ever registering in her memory, and afterwards she grins at Lin.

Cravendy Hound: “The woods are nice when they aren’t sendin’ bees or other nasty buggers yer way. Feels...too nice, sometimes. A salty old dog like me is used to a lot worse.”

Aislinn North Her head bent over her work, Aislinn is lost in the minute details of blade against wood until Cravendy's lilting song quietly fills the air. Blinking, she lifted her head in surprise. She never pegged the woman as the type to sing. Though now she wasn't exactly sure why that would be. Sailors sang all the time, didn't they? But what Cravendy said seemed to flummox her even more. "The woods sent bees after you?" she halted as the realization came to her. 1/2

Aislinn North "Ohh. The Shroud. Aye, it can be touchy." she ran a jerky blade down her block of wood once more. "What did you do? I mean, to annoy it?" she clarified. 2/2

Cravendy Hound sucks in air through gritted teeth, and a light blush spreads over her face. “Oh, I don’t know...ye know. The Elementals are very, uh, mysterious.” She then slices away at her wood and, flustered, accidentally takes off a large chunk of the fish’s tail. Damnit. It’s starting to look more like an eel.

Cravendy Hound: “Okay, I’ll come clean. Ye know ‘ow I was practicin’ my aim, but I kept ‘ittin’ the trees instead of the target? I kept doin’ that and...I mean, that could be it.” She presses her lips tightly together. “Maybe.”

Aislinn North: The roundabout answer had Aislinn suppressing a small smile. It sounded as though Cravendy knew exactly what she had done. Aislinn wasn't going to press the issue but she didn't have to, either. Her face lit with silent laughter in the light of Cravendy's confession. 1/2

Aislinn North "Aye, I may have done that once or twice. Learned my lesson though. If I'm going out there in the wilds and not to the range, I'll pack my stunning ammo and a little target node instead. Seems to annoy the Shroud less that way. Or. ..at least I haven't got chased out since doing it that way." she paused in her work and looked Cravendy over. "Glad to see you don't look any worse for wear though. Looks like it was just a polite warning." 2/2

Cravendy Hound grimaces further as she recalls the swarm of bugs and plants that chased her from Peacegarden all the way to Hrystmill. “To be ‘onest, I probably would’ve been carried off by the buggers and thrown into the sun if it weren’t for..er. What was ‘is name...” Cravs waves her knife around, as if the physical motion of twisting her wrist would get the cogs in her head going. “Uhh, some mailman who goes by ‘Windy’ or somethin’. He got the worst of it off my back.”

Cravendy Hound: “Stun ammo...I’ll ‘ave to find some for myself. Don’t want a repeat incident.”

Aislinn North Aislinn had to stop her carving. If she hadn't she was liable to slip and make a bloody mess of one of her fingers. Her shoulders shook from the effort to keep her laughter quiet and contained. "So. ..let me make sure I understand. You were chased off your target practice by a swarm of bees. And then. ..saved by a mailman named 'Windy'. Out in the wilds of the Shroud. A mailman." she could do little more than shake her head. 1/2

Aislinn North "You do seem to end up in the oddest situations, Cravendy." 2/2

(Cravendy Hound) aaahahha xD )) (Cravendy Hound) it's gonna be hilarious when everything snaps into place )) (Aislinn North) ((assuming it ever does. But yes! xD)) (Cravendy Hound) it will!!! I'll make sure of it xD ))

Cravendy Hound nibbles the bottom of her lip. It was...an approximately accurate retelling of what had happened. Ridiculous, but maybe the bees in her hair had rattled her brain and shuffled her memory around. Swiving elementals. “Guy was as stiff as a board, but would say wild things with such ease. Claimed that ‘e could outrun a chocobo. Funny bastard, ‘ope I find ‘im again.”

Cravendy Hound is done carving her fish...eel...thing. Looking at it, you can’t quite tell what it is, though the swirling lines criss crossing over the wood are pleasing enough. She puts it down with a sigh. “I’m a fish out of water ‘ere, but it beats bein’ in Limsa or Ul'dah by a long shot.”

Aislinn North "Snorted "Supposin' if he could, he'd be the kind of mailman you'd want." she glanced down at Cravendy's work. She couldn't rightly say what it was but it was malms ahead of whatever she herself was doing. She looked down at her lap and picked up the block again. "I'm not gonna argue with you about Ul'dah. Neither one of us needs to step foot there. And Limsa. ..I can see why you might be avoiding it." she paused briefly. 1/2

Aislinn North Her block was beginning to resemble some sort of rudimentary spatula of some sort. Perhaps one drawn by a child. "Gridania just takes some getting used to, is all. It's...different." she shook her head. "It's not my favorite place either but there's good things about it." 2/2

Cravendy Hound looks over at Lin’s work, and then searches the array of tools scattered on the deck for one that has a small, curved blade at the tip. She picks it up and offers it to Lin. “This one is better for carvin’ out a ‘ole...so yer spoon is more spoon, and less spatula.”

Cravendy Hound then returns to crossing her arms, looking into the distance with a scowl on her face. She tells herself that by avoiding Limsa, she does everyone else a favor. With everything that had happened...No one wanted to itch that wound open again. But the truth is that she’s scared of what she’ll find. She’s not ready, not yet. But back to Gridania. “......The drinks’re good ‘ere, and that’s all I can ask for.”

Aislinn North She set aside her knife and took the proffered tool. "Right." she eyed the curve of the blade and then set to work. "And you know. ..when the bees aren't chasing you it can be downright pleasant." there may have been a facetious note to Aislinn's voice. She looked over at Cravendy with a brief smile. "Today's not a bad day, anyroads." she waved her tool out over the view the balcony provided, the sound of the wide river rushing below them. 1/2

Aislinn North "But I know what you mean. The forest can feel. ..confining. Closed in. It's not the wide ocean and it certainly isn't Gyr Abania." 2/2

Cravendy Hound: “I’m not pleasant, I’m...” Cravs trails off, her fire blowing out as quickly as it had flared up. Her days as a rough and tumble pirate were long behind her, despite it feeling like it was just yesterday. She snorts. “Bah.”

Cravendy Hound: “Never been to Gyr Abania.” She peers over at Lin, an assumption hanging in the air. She was Ala Mhigan, she probably went there all the time, right? But then again, Cravs was a Sea Wolf avoiding Limsa like the plague. “It seems...dry?”

Aislinn North "Ahh." Aislinn thought she understood now. "Well, the Shroud isn't exactly pleasant either. It has it's moments. That's all. Can still turn on you if you're not careful." She set down her knife. Maybe she'd ought to take stock and pause for a moment. "Dry's a good word for it." she nodded. "Though I haven't been back for..." she paused. Not since going to see the monks. She glanced away as a sadness seemed to settle over her, one she took an effort to shake off. 1/2

Aislinn North "Well, it's been more than a few moons. There's rivers and such but still. ..it's a dry, hard, beautiful place." 2/2

Aislinn North: "Maybe we wander that way one day. Just for a change of scenery."

Cravendy Hound fidgets with the fish-eel figure in her hands. Was that sadness, or perhaps longing in Lin’s voice? She wasn’t sure, except for the fact that there was -something-. But as the sun sets over the mountains, Cravs decides that it’s time to head back in, where they could continue whittling the time away in comfortable silence by warm fires and a well-stocked kitchen.

#ff14 rp logs #Cravendy Hound #Aislinn North #wood whittling!! :D #and bertram mention #aka windy the mailman aaaahah

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stray-tori · 3 years

Text

TPN S2E01 Thoughts (anime-only)

Watching with friends:

youtube

Opening thoughts so far

of course this parallel which i already cried about in its own post. I just. my emotions. AHHHH-

I’m not sure what it means but the cut from two hands forming a grid to the chains being aligned similarly and creating a chainlink fence. The hands covering someone's vision could be the deception of the farms or something of the like, especially since it comes after the shot with all the moms lined up. But those illusions are a prison, therefore the chains. I'm just not sure how it correlates to the post-escape. I guess the system/society overall

I rly just wanted to appreciate the smooth transition work haha

Another TPN server member pointed out its not two hands covering someone’s vision, it’s a demon and human hand, making a deal. I’m blind. Match cut still cool.

I also can't believe my prayer for empty space composition got real. I JUST LOVE IT BECAUSE I WAS SAYING IT THE WHOLE TIME I was like "I hope they do a thing on the poster or something, where its framed like the three of them are there but norman's is just empty space" AND THEY DID IT!! ONCE AGAIN MY FEELINGS. IM SO HAPPY THEY DID IT BUT ALSO OUCH

The episode

A lot happened but it didn't feel rushed particularly for me personally, excluding the few shots it didn't stay on long enough to really make out anything (and you can pause on those so). They reference they've only recently entered this type of forest (implying they've been on the way for a while), and the forest before that wasn't as... "fantasy", they also referenced being up on a high point of view (likely the cliff they stand on at the end of ep12 or another high point they've been at) where they've seen the river.

The only thing that I feel could have used some time is Ray. Having him have that sort of resolution like 5 minutes in (when before he was sure he'd be dead and therefore didn't plan to take any responsibility for what happens after the escape) feels kind of weird, especially if we haven't seen Emma burdening that much by herself except emotionally and implied also for other activities (I feel that there's some setup missing for her leaving Ray to do the bait thing later in the episode).

I also think having a bit more time between the "oath" and him breaking down being like "I can't give up, I promised" (which was amazing angst, I approve) wouldn't have hurt, but it's also kind of a nice circle within the episode I guess.

Overall, they seem to be moving fast (although I'm not really bothered by it personally), but unless they directly contradict something from the manga, I think if someone wants more details, they can read the manga and add those informations into their experience! Not everything needs to be reiterated, sometimes. And so the anime can move forward faster, both for better and worse.

Haven't read the manga though so I don't know if that works the way I think it does.

But yeah. I feel like an earlier point would have been a good cliffhanger too, maybe around the time Emma faints?

[About the carving in the tree]

What I assumed was that Ray gave them the clear signal, but if he didn’t returne, they'd gone looking for him and get hold up. So he carved that, i assume, to tell them what happened and make them go the other way instead of looking for him. Not that they'd listen probably but YKNOW.

I'm not entirely sure.

My friends and I had this whole tangent about “it'd be funny if the demons saw it and just showed up at Minerva's base. Minerva dead”

though I also assume that the coordinates are minerva internal stuff but then again the one scientist did just randomly lose the pen for krone to find so. yknow. idk if their system is the most competent in being secretive and not having a demon pick one up at some point haha-

“ what do you feel about the general vibe of this new direction? ”

tainted anime-only but I'll try to give thoughts udsihsdj

Hmm I don't really have any particular feelings I suppose? I'm definitely excited though, I feel like even though the setting and feel has changed from kind of subtle thriller to like, out-right scary monsters and survival, the underlying kind of angst and sincerity stayed the same? I guess it could also be argued that since the anime put less focus on the internal planning and more focus on the character expression and stuff, it's not as extreme of a shift for the anime in a bubble.

I guess I initially thought TPN was kind of "grounded" - ..... aside from the yknow, big children eating demons - if that makes sense? But I think it's also interesting from a meta perspective that the outside or at least segments of the outside (since they said that the previous forest didn't have all those fish bugs and plants) are so fantasy based because in the bubble of GF house its kind of easy to assume the world is just kinda ours but slapped demons on top of it (so in a twist of events, the trapped children who grew up in a lie knew a lot more about their world than we did).*

So I think the fantasy direction is kind of interesting (i also find it interesting that it's only segments of the world, apparently, so I wonder if that has any implications for why the fish bugs and plants are limited to those regions aside from... I guess just natural territory).

* which i also find interesting, because apparently they had a book on it in GF. Which heavily implies that either those things existed before the demons or the demons didn't "take over" fast enough to stop the making of books that depict those things. So I guess really the fantasy elements for them in-universe aren't really surprising. It was kind of surreal, watching them talk about them so normally when so much of the setting up until now was very non-fantasy (again, demons aside of course)

I wrongly assumed the last book being from 2015 implies that the demons took over then, but that contradicts another observation I made before and I totally forgot about but I like it more. So I’m going to redirect you there: Year Count based on demons thoughts

It’s probably gonna go more into demon stuff and all that so that's cool and I'm curious. I'm still not sure if the two new demons designs imply that they're lesser or not, because they have those masks that essentially "fake" what other demons seem to have naturally (the multiple eyes, the horns) but I'm not sure if that means they use that to substitute or if it's the other way around. It kind of feels like paying tribute to those characteristics but I can't really... explain it well haha

#tpn s2 #tpn s2e01 #tpn #tpn anime #tpn anime-only #tpn s2 spoilers #tpn s2 ep1 spoilers #tori talks #tori has opinions #long post

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candicewright · 4 years

Note

Kindly requesting that analysis on wangxian being peak romance and how it compares to queerbaiting please 🙏 🙏 🙏

Hello, anon! I am very genuinely happy that my rambling thoughts interest you in any way (because I have a lot of thoughts) so here is my analysis as promised. It is veeeery long (almost 2k), sorry about that but I’ve really been looking forward to talking about this for a very long time. In the end, it isn’t so much about how Wangxian is peak romance and more about the censorship and how it compares to queerbaiting, I may have to do another post about that later on. Without much further ado, here it is!

The Untamed’s tasteful censorship vs. BBC Merlin’s queerbaiting and why I prefer one over the other.

I know most people follow this blog for Merlin and believe me when I say that I love this show more than I can say because it has quite literally changed my life. But The Untamed has opened my mind to a whole new world (insert Aladdin’s A Whole New World here) and it has given me a lot of perspective on a lot of things.

I often joke with my friends saying that my first consideration when choosing a new show to watch is saying “is it gay?” which is not far from the truth, but it’s also not the complete story. What I mean is that I ask myself “does this show have a relationship that I think is worth getting invested in?”. Yes, t usually happens that those are not heterosexual romances, but what can I say, I’m queer and I like my emotional support fictional characters to be so too. This is the exact reasoning that led me to Merlin. I saw a couple of videos about them on youtube and immediately found their dynamic compelling and their story beautifully tragic. But like with most shows these days, the writers failed (among other things) to make their relationship explicit. This has happened with every show I watched after Merlin too; The Witcher, Sherlock and Good Omens being the most notable ones.

You can argue if they are or are not queerbaiting, I at least think Good Omens isn’t, but again, it is pretty subjective.

But i had grown so accustomed to this type of media that I fully went into The Untamed expecting something similar.

And oh boy was I wrong.

Now, the case of The Untamed is a curious one because it is supposed to be a love story between two men due to being based on a BL novel, but because of censorship, it had to be very toned down. I found this out right before actually watching the show while doing some preliminary research and while it did change my thought on what I was getting into I truly thought they would just erase the entire relationship and try to hide it behind straight relationships like in most other shows I had watched.

But that was absolutely not the case, to my endless relief and joy.

But how? How did they get away with censoring all the explicit aspects of a romantic relationship while still managing to tell a wonderful love story? And how does this compare to the queerbaiting of a show like Merlin?

Warning: I will be using different parts of both shows and probably some of the MDZS novel to illustrate my point, so there will be spoilers.

The initial accidental chemistry + innuendos vs. The establishment of the very clear enemies to friends to lovers trope

I’m going to use Merlin to compare and contrast this because it’s what I know best and the other show I've given a lot of thought to.

Merthur and Wangxian are both similar and different dynamics in the way they’re written and it was one of the things that drew me into The Untamed in the first place. Both stories begin with our main duo meeting and instantly disliking each other, ending up in a fight. And while they both set the story up to lead to a more intimate bond being created between the pairs, there’s something very different from the start.

Merthur is deliberately set up to be a close friendship and all innuendos and chemistry are accidental (in my opinion and only at the start). Let me explain.

The concept for Merlin clearly started with the idea of how the story would change if Merlin was a young boy arriving in Camelot instead of an old powerful sorcerer. Then they made the main plot to be his destiny/friendship with the young and arrogant Prince Arthur. I truly believe that the first innuendos were not what they intended and that all chemistry and sexual tension between the characters comes courtesy of Colin and Bradley and how undeniably good they look on screen together. Fans then started speculating (as we always do) and then the production team decided to run with it, making it almost a recurring joke when it shouldn’t have been. Had they treated that developing relationship seriously like what they were hinting it was, the show would have been very different.

The Untamed on the other hand, is everything but accidental. What they’re doing is deliberately establishing the enemies to friends to lovers trope from the very beginning. It’s not an accident that during their first fight on the roof of the Cloud Recesses Wei Wuxian tells Lan Wangji that women would find his true character very disappointing and that no one would want to marry him. he says so several times in fact and this is clearly both to highlight the change in their relationship as well as to say that Lan Wangji is not at all interested in the opinion of any female (or anyone besides Wei Wuxian for that matter). This is the same stuff we see in mainstream straight romances: one of the characters saying something to the effect of “who would want to date them?” only to end up involved with the other at the end of the story.

You could argue that Merlin does something similar with the conversation between Merlin and Kilgharrah where Merlin is affronted by the idea of having to help Arthur where he says “There must be another Arthur because this one’s an idiot...If someone wants to kill him, they can go right ahead. In fact, I’ll give them a hand.” but the difference between these two is that Merlin is hiding behind the guise of destiny and friendship to make these parallels while Wangxian is deliberately and clearly in a romantic context.

The deliberate continuation of the subtext vs. The suggestion of something more

The accidental nature of the subtext doesn’t last long and in true BBC fashion, it turns into full-on queerbaiting real fast. Again, you can argue endlessly about when the deliberately suggestive comments start, but by the end of the show, we know for a fact the entire production staff and even the staff were aware of the effect and reception their show was having. This was no longer an innocent mistake on people reading too much into it, it was a very purposeful narrative that they were pushing without ever truly committing to it. This is what got fans going crazy over “poetry” or lines like “you’re the only friend I have and I couldn’t bear to lose you”. These are all very intentional choices they made to keep their devoted fanbase interested and while we’re all very thankful for this material it really keeps us wondering what it could have been if they had taken that extra step.

The Untamed can’t take that step because of the censorship laws, but it’s still much more daring than Merlin ever was. While Merlin keeps the soulmate aspect of the Merthur relationship a suggestion, The Untamed outright says it, which was baffling to me. It even does it at a pint where the first kiss happened in the novel, which you would think makes it less romantic. But that's absolutely not the case because of both the non-consensual nature of that original kiss and because of how heartbreakingly beautiful the replacement scene is. Not only that, but they also keep all the elements you could expect to see in any pre-relationship stage of a developing romance story: endless amounts of mutual pining, not-really-unrequited love, jealousy, panicking at the sight of your crush (yes I’m looking at you 15-year-old Lan Wangji) and even some fun in vino veritas moments. They even have a son together! It doesn’t get more clear than that!

This is all the way the show has of suggesting something more without outright saying (even though it’s a pretty not subtle way of suggesting it).

Merlin, on the other hand, keeps trying to deny the romantic nature of the Merthur dynamic, which brings me to my next point.

The introduction of a female love interest as an excuse vs. The awareness that the audience understands the relationship in the way it's meant to be

Now, this one really bugs me, because of all the ways they could have done this they truly chose the worst and destroyed Gwen’s character in the process.

In my opinion, the writers could have done a few different things. They could have fully developed the Merthur relationship as a romantic one while keeping Gwen’s role as a queen and creating a much more satisfying character arch for her, maybe even getting her together with Morgana or Lancelot. They could have focused on the Awen romance and therefore lowered the suggestions of romance between Merlin and Arthur, once again creating a much more enjoyable subplot for Gwen, though it could have also meant sacrificing the very powerful bond between the main characters. They could have even taken advantage of Gwen’s crush on Merlin in the first season and gone on the full-on polyamory direction! That would have been much better! Instead, they halfassed the romance between Arthur and Gwen and made it just...meh. Not that Angel and Bradley didn’t do a great job, it was more of a writing problem than a them problem.

The Untamed (despite the rumours and possibilities of a Wen Qing/Wei Wuxian relationship) decided to just run with the not really platonic relationship between Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian, making them the complete focus of the story while still upholding the censorship laws. What I think the biggest difference between the two shows is, is that one runs on assuming the audience is stupid while the other one assumes the audience is smart.

Let me explain once more.

The Merlin writers clearly thought that by introducing Gwen as the love interest to Arthur he would just become what? Magically straight? As if we hadn’t seen the last four seasons of sexual tension between him and Merlin? The audience was not fooled for the most part, but some people did fall for this, coming with the argument “But he’s married to Gwen so he’s straight!” as if being gay or straight are the only two possibilities but oh well.

The Untamed does quite the opposite. It relies on the fact that the audience is going to catch onto the romantic aspect of the narrative without them actively saying anything because we are Not Dumb. It also does something that I think is quite beautiful which is leaving it up for interpretation as far as whether it’s platonic or not and even more touching is the way the story has resonated with the ace community (that is according to what I’ve seen, please do correct me if I’m wrong) by focusing on their emotional and intellectual connection instead of in their physical and sexual one.

This is why, in the end, I prefer what I call The Untamed’s tasteful censorship over Merlin and other shows’ blatant queerbaiting.

I feel the need after all of this to state that Merlin is still my favorite show of all time and that this is not by any means me saying that Merlin is absolute trash or something like that. There’s also a lot more that I think can be said in this conversation, so please feel free to tell me what you think and if you’ve ever encountered something similar to this.

Also, if I made any mistakes or wrong points, please don’t be shy about telling me!

I hope this rant was at least somewhat interesting and that you found it satisfactory, anon!

#mdzs/cql meta #merlin meta #the untamed #cql #wangxian #bbc merlin #merthur #merlin bbc #ask response #i have a lot of feelings #someone stop me #long post

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mycatshuman · 4 years

Text

Castle of Devils

Wingmen and Blood Suppliers

Warnings: Remus being Remus, talk of blood, let me know if I missed any?

Previous | Next | More

---------

Roman wasn't sure what he expected when he had asked his brother to help him vanquish a villainous vampire, but he most certainly did not expect to be sitting outside of the very house he had helped the vampire buy with his brother and two pairs of binoculars and a bag of snacks. Remus claimed the stakeout was vital to defeating the vampire but Roman couldn't be so sure. It seemed incredibly dangerous to him that they were just sitting outside hiding in the trees by the house mere feet from the closest window. "Is this really such a smart idea?" Roman asked for the tenth time that night. "What if it catches us?"

Remus rolled his eyes. "First, I'm pretty sure he wouldn't like being called "it". Second, relax. Sit back and watch. We might find an unknown weakness or some shit." Then Remus grabbed a handful of chips and shoved them into his mouth and began chewing loudly.

Roman's nose wrinkled in disgust and he moved a little bit away before huffing and resigning himself to being stuck looking through the window of the house with binoculars like some kind of creep. But his brother said it might reveal an unknown weakness and Roman couldn't really argue about that. The first thing Roman saw when he looked inside the house was a cat lounging lazily in the window. A small smile stretched across Roman's face and he let out a quiet 'aww'. The second thing he saw was Virgil curled up on a couch, his face lit up by the light of what must have been a TV. He has a big fluffy blanket wrapped around his shoulders and he was holding what looked to be a bowl of popcorn. Roman soon noticed another cat wrapped around Virgil's neck and even once in a while, Virgil would reach up and scratch the cats' head before returning to his popcorn. Roman felt his heart melt a little at the interaction.

Before Roman could remember that Virgil was a vampire and therefore a monster in his eyes, a semi-transparent face popped up in the window and seemed to glare at him and his brother. Roman let out a quick and quiet yelp as the thing pushed through the wall and rushed at them. Roman grabbed his shit, turned tail and ran for his life. He heard a rustling behind him a shot a glance over his shoulder to see his brother following him while cackling gleefully. Roman groaned and just kept running until he made it to the car and leapt inside and locked the doors as he waited for his brother to catch up.

When Remus caught up with him, he quickly pushed the door open and yanked his brother inside before slamming the door shut and locking it. "Damnit!" Roman exclaimed.

Remus snickered. "Looks like vampy has got themselves a guard ghost."

Roman groaned. "Come on, let's get out of here."

The two left, neither aware of the glaring spirit watching them drive away with a scowl.

--------

"What's wrong with you?" Virgil asked as Janus reappeared beside him on the couch with his arms crossed.

"I just saw Roman with who I'm guessing was his twin."

Virgil raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"They were spying on you trying to find a weakness."

Virgil turned to the door wistfully. "Wait, come back! Please, I'll tell you anything you need to know."

"Virgil," Janus scolded.

Virgil laughed lightly. "It was a joke Janus, lighten up." Janus stayed silent. Virgil sighed. "Why are you so mad about this?"

Janus huffed. "Because! He's being an idiot! I just don't understand why he is so dead set on hurting you when I know for a fact that he likes you!"

Virgil snorted. "Dead set, huh?"

Janus scowled. "You know the pun wasn't intended." The ghost and vampire stayed silent for a few moments before Janus let out his anger with a sigh. "It's just-" he started off, his voice softer. "You deserve to be happy, you deserve a chance to be happy, but he's not even letting you have a chance. I mean, he lived with you for a month and I don't get why he hasn't realized that you haven't once tried to sink your teeth into him. You may be a vampire but that doesn't mean you aren't a good person."

Virgil bit his lip as he considered his friend's words. "I see what you're saying, Janus, but I don't exactly blame him. I mean, I'm essentially sucking the life out of people when I take their blood. Maybe he wasn't as happy as I thought he was. Maybe he was just being polite."

Janus groaned. "Virgil, come on! He said he fell in love with you! Remember?"

"He also said I was a life-drainer," Virgil pointed out.

Janus groaned and pulled at his hair. "You're impossible!" Virgil shrugged and went back to watching tv.

--------

Remus snuck out of his brother's home and back to the house with the vampire and ghost. "Psst! Ghostie! Hot Ghost! Come out, come out wherever you are." The ghost popped out in front of him. Remus yelped and fell back on his ass. "Looks like I've fallen for you," he purred flirtatiously.

Janus blinked in confusion. "What?"

Remus chuckled as he stood up. "I'm flirting with you, Valak."

Janus recoiled.

Remus raised an eyebrow. "You know, the Nun from the Conjuring movies?"

Janus leveled Remus with a dead stare. "You've got to be kidding me. I've been a ghost for hundreds of years, I'm not exactly up to date on all the recent things or whatever."

Remus laughed. "I heard from my brother that he had a movie marathon with Virgil and they watched the Conjuring universe and that Virgil had said they were some of his favorite movies. So I know for a fact that you would have had to of happened upon Virgil watching them at some point."

Janus raised an eyebrow. "First, Virgil and I didn't forgive each other until after Roman left. Second, so Roman seems to remember the little things about Virgil?"

Remus nodded his head. "Yeah! Roman is trying to convince himself that Virgil's nothing but a monster and that he has to kill him. And I know that he really likes Virgil but he doesn't want to accept it. He doesn't let himself think about Virgil. He only thinks about what he is. But I'm playing wingman! Imma help my brother fuck a vampire!" Remus snickered excitedly.

Janus stared at the man in disbelief. "I-what?"

"You seem like you want to help? So, what do ya say?"

"I just want Virgil to be happy. And Roman made him happy."

"Yes! Let's go! I don't know how we're gonna do it yet but oh boy is there gonna be some sexual tension!"

---------

As Janus reentered the house after his encounter with the weird little man known as Remus, he found himself slightly confused with the interaction. Remus was a little...unsettling. He dressed as if he had no sense of style and seemed to vibrate with a weird energy. He was kind of attractive, but Janus was a ghost so there was no hope there.

He found it interesting that Remus was acting as a sort of wingman for his brother. It was also interesting that Roman was trying to ignore his feelings for Virgil. And he was focusing on the fact that Virgil was a vampire. Distancing himself from him and dehumanizing him. Janus had to wonder if this black and white thinking was due in part to media portrayals of vampires. He would have to look more into this the next time Virgil left his laptop open.

---------

Virgil sat on his bed and pulled his laptop onto his lap. Once opened, he clicked on a small black icon with no descriptions or details. A dark grey screen popped up with a search bar in the middle. Virgil quickly typed in his inquiry into the search bar. Local blood suppliers. Soon, Virgil had the results of his search. He scrolled for a bit before finding one that looked trustworthy. He clicked the link and inspected the website a bit before deciding that this was actually a real supplier.

Virgil contacted the dealer and began to arrange and order and pick up.

"Finally breaking that hunger strike I see."

Virgil's eyes shot over to the doorway as he noticed Janus lingering there. "Shut up," he snapped lightly.

Janus floated over to Virgil. "Thank you," He said quietly. Virgil inclined his head slightly in response. "Do you think I could use your laptop when you go to pick up the order?" He asked as he settled on the bed beside Virgil.

"Why?" The vampire asked as he shot a suspicious glance at the ghost.

"Because I want to look up some stuff."

Virgil inspected Janus for a few seconds more before relenting. "Fine. But I better not find some weird ghost porn or some shit next time I go to open my laptop," Virgil snickered.

Janus snorted. "As if."

Virgil laughed and stood up from the bed. "Alright, I'm gonna get going. I should only be an hour."

Janus nodded. "Have fun." Virgil waved before leaving. Janus sighed and moved in front of the laptop before beginning to manipulating the energy emitting from the laptop to type. He was so lucky that Virgil left the laptop plugged in.

-------

Virgil slowly walked through town until he found the abandoned gas station sitting desolate on the edge of the town. He paused behind a tree for a few moments to listen to the sounds of tree the area. It was relatively quiet aside from the animals and bugs. He heard shifting and a voice from inside the gas station and bit his lip. That must be the person I ordered from. Virgil wished he didn't have to meet someone new but, he supposed it was the best way to get his supply. He almost half wished he could have brought his supplier from Transylvania with him. But even then, he wasn't that close with them either since he did find occasional people who were more monster in personality than him.

Virgil took a deep breath and swiftly made his way into the gas station before making his presence known to the person standing next to a box of his order. "Hi," he said softly.

The person turned around with a bright smile. "Hi! I'm Patton!"

Virgil blinked. "I've never heard of a human helping vampires like this," he commented.

Patton giggled. "Yeah, I know. I just work in a blood bank and since I found out about vampires from a friend of mine. I started helping them out and eventually I made a small side business out of it to help other vampires in the area." Patton laughed. "It helps that I'm the blood bank manager. We even have people come in to specifically give blood for their friends or family. It helps keep things less messy."

"Wow," Virgil breathed, awed. "I didn't realize that people would react to vampires like that."

"Like what?" Patton asked, confused.

"Never mind."

Patton smiled slightly before pushing the box over to Virgil. "Here you go!" He exclaimed brightly.

"Thank you," Virgil said as he handed over the money.

Patton waved his hands at the walls. "Doesn't it look so nice?" He asked. "I'm planning on fixing this building up and make it the official blood bank for vampires."

Virgil frowned. "What if humans come across it?"

Patton frowned. "Well, that's what I'll have my husband help out with once I actually tell him that vampires exist." Patton laughed good-naturedly. "Oh you should have seen him when our friend tried to tell him that he had been living with a vampire for a few months." Virgil stiffened and paid adept attention as Patton continued on with his story. "Logan, that's my husband's name, stared at Roman like he had grown two extra heads." Patton giggled. He turned back to Virgil only to freeze. "Kiddo?"

Virgil blinked out of his frozen state. "Oh, I'm sorry."

Patton smiled sympathetically. "It's okay."

"I'll, uh, I'll let you know when I need more," Virgil replied before picking up his order and leaving.

Patton waved. "Bye!" It wasn't until a minute later that Patton realized he had never gotten the other's name. "Oh fiddlesticks!" He exclaimed. He frowned. "I'll just have to ask next time." And with that, he took one last look back at the empty gas station before leaving to get into his car and drive home. He wondered if he should tell Logan soon. Then they could fix up the building together. And maybe even Roman could help once he worked out his issues. And maybe that vampire he just met. It would be so fun to have his newest adopted child help out and be a part of the family! Patton drove home happily.

--------

Castle of Devils Taglist: @kittycake574 @rainbow-Roman @icequeenoriginal @ilovemygaydad @comicsimpson @notalwaysthebadguy @iloveyatothemoonandback

Everything Taglist: @spxced-oxt @superwholocked-for-life @mirror2thespirit @aroundofapplesauce @lyditist @little-euro-girl @unicornofdarknessstuff @maryann-draws @odette-ssbu

#castle of devils #no read more #mycatshuman fics #vampire virgil #remus sanders #thomas sanders #virgil sanders #roman sanders #sanders sides #sander sides fan fic #sanders sides patton #patton sanders #ts patton #ts janus #janus sanders #ts roman #ts virgil #ts remus

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asettledsky · 4 years

Text

Okay, so with the OCs vs Lydia thing making a stir, I thought now was a good time to compose my thoughts about it.

While I believe that an OC you're straight up just using to ship with Beetlejuice looking exactly like Lydia is.... unimaginative, it's never going to be Beetlejuice and Lydia.

(INB4 - There are a billion different goth aesthetics. You can be goth without stealing Lydia's style. Just a lot of these OCs are literally raiding Lydia's closet.)

A while back there was this whole "if you project onto Lydia then why don't you just make an OC instead of ship beetlebabes???"

And I almost wrote this back then, but I held back. Because I felt like there was probably something more there. And lo and behold the Lydia clone thing comes up.

Now, disclaimer: I haven't done the self insert OC for like.... a decade now. Possibly longer. So my memories of the feelings behind it are a little shakey.

My initial answer to the question of 'why not just make an OC?' was that.... an OC is not Lydia.

An OC is never going to have the same relationship with Beetlejuice that Lydia does. An OC is not the daughter of Charles and Delia Deetz who can see ghosts and is keenly interested in the ghosts that haunt her house and bonds with them. THAT is the girl that interests Beetlejuice.

I have no reason to think Beetlejuice would have any interest in anyone who isn't that girl. And, taking the aesthetics out of the equation, a lot of the OCs I see try to mimick Lydia's whole personality and attitude.

So I have an idea that the creators of those OCs understand my pov at least a little.

The reason that I personally feel like they're all Lydia clones has more to do with their personalities.

They're all snarky, bored with the mundane, suicidal(?), far more interested in ghosts and things 'normal' people find creepy and disgusting, and generally kind of artistic.

None of them look at the literal poltergeist before them and just fucking nope out of there. None of them appreciate the fact that their lives are normal. None of them are interested in their own lives. Usually there is an undertone of being interested in the occult.

It could probably be argued, that they're all like this because this is just the type of girl the story attracts, and therefore of course they'll all have those characteristics.

But like...? Really?

So this is the type of person you want Beetlejuice to get with, but.... the person canon gives you isn't good enough? Because... of her age? Which is probably your age anyway?

Thing is, I like Beetlejuice with Lydia. Because I sort of want to be be Lydia. Not because I am anything like Lydia.

I hate bugs. I would try to clean Beetlejuice. I am not nice. I do not look like Lydia. I actually enjoy my life now.

Which is why I don't self ship much anymore. I don't need to be someone else, anywhere else, writing about how much people love me, anymore. I don't need that particular coping mechanism anymore.

Anyway....

TL:DR - you guys all self ship as a coping mechanism and you think that the OCs need to be exactly like Lydia because you know beetlebabes is the truth deep down.

Note: this does not pertain to people who have OCs that are actually different than Lydia in some meaningful way.

#no tags

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hedwigstalons · 4 years

Text

High Expectations - Ch6

This editions of Hedwig’s scribbles brings you a young TOS Jeff. I’ve come to the annoying realisation that my camera squashes things down so the original actually looks a bit longer and narrower than this picture. Unfortunately my scanner makes everything too white and you lose half the image. *Sigh*

@willow-salix has been her superstar self again with both the fic and the art, I don’t know what I would do without her as a sympathetic critic, putting up with all my wobbles.

Earlier parts: One, Two, Three, Four, Five

AO3 chapter link

Chapter Six

It didn’t take long for normality to return for Gordon. He had given one or two carefully selected interviews in the lull between his medal win and the closing ceremony of the Games but any requests by magazines had been vetoed by Jeff since his return stateside. Any approaches regarding sponsorship opportunities had been similarly turned away. Initially the reporters clamoured for the chance to speak to the elusive young star but in the face of continued rejections the requests tailed off. His obligations were decidedly minimal as he slipped from the public eye.

With no school making its demands felt Gordon was able to concentrate fully on his swimming; the World Championships and a national competition were both on the horizon and gave him something to aim for. He often found himself heading out for an additional run or putting in more time at the gym, this was partly to keep in peak condition and partly to escape the oppressive atmosphere in the apartment.

He had gone from being surrounded by the hustle and bustle of the Games with a team mate around every corner to home with its dwindling population.

First Virgil had returned to Denver claiming he needed access to the technical facilities, then John had gone back to campus and finally Alan had been sent off to summer camp to spend time in the great outdoors. If the messages coming Gordon’s way were anything to go by Alan was finding outdoors to be too full of bugs and too lacking in games consoles to be considered great.

Now it was just him and his father. Whenever they were in the apartment together he felt like he was under the microscope. Being judged. Being appraised. He tended to stay in his room to avoid the attention. With no one else around staying in his room was becoming a habit, even when Jeff was out at work.

He vaguely registered the click of the apartment door as his father returned but it was past dinner time and he had already eaten so he didn’t feel any need to emerge. His father would likely be reading files late into the night. He expected his contact to be limited to the standard ‘good night’ as he brushed his teeth before bed, he was therefore surprised when a sharp rap sounded on his door.

“Gordon. My study.”

The footsteps retreated down the corridor leaving no opportunity to ask questions and he couldn’t think of anything he had done to warrant such a summons. He also knew it didn’t do to keep his father waiting so he paused the film he was watching and made his way to the study.

The door was open so he went straight in. His father’s big desk faced the doorway and Jeff was already sat back down behind it by the time Gordon entered. He stepped up and patiently waited to be acknowledged, curious as to why he had been called for.

“Gordon, I have to go out of town for a few days.”

“Ok.”

“So you need to decide what you would rather do. You have two choices; either I can arrange for you to join Alan at summer camp or you can go and stay with Virgil.”

“Honestly, you don’t need to do that. I’ll be fine by myself for a few days.”

“You are not staying here alone,” Jeff’s voice was stern and intractable.

“I’m not a kid any more Dad.”

“Then maybe you should stop acting like one. It’s time you grew up and started planning for the future.”

The thought that his father didn’t trust him alone in the house for a few days stung, especially given the number of times he had been responsible for not only himself but Alan too when their father got held up at the office until late. He was seventeen, he had finished school and he had a gold medal. Apparently none of that was enough to afford him the privilege of staying home alone. The thought of being shipped off so his older brother could do babysitting duty was pretty bad but the idea of summer camp was much worse. Being surrounded by kids mostly Alan’s age and having to take part in enforced activities was not appealing.

“What about my swimming?”

“I’ve already spoken to your coach. There are no major competitions for a few months so you can afford some fallow time.”

The thought that Jeff had bypassed him and gone straight to his coach was even more belittling. It was like being ten years old again with the schedule of events stuck to the fridge and Jeff marking off which ones he could do based on the availability of a chaperone.

“And you might need to ease up on your swimming anyway. Now that high school is over you need to work out where you are headed in life.”

And there it was. The not so subtle reminder that his father didn’t consider swimming to be a viable career prospect. Even with an Olympic gold and a world record to his name, professional athlete was not on the list of Jeff Tracy approved jobs. Everything he had worked for just diminished and relegated to the status of hobby. That’s not to say that his father hadn’t been genuinely proud of his success so far but it was like he had reached the pinnacle and now it was time to move on. It was one thing to have an Olympian as a son but the next Games were four years away and there was no knowing if Gordon would maintain his position in the world rankings. World championships had their prestige in the sporting world but didn’t have the same gravitas as the Olympics to non-sporting folks.

Even if the uncertainty of future successes could be put aside Jeff had also made it abundantly clear that he disapproved of the selfishness of the sporting world. Athletic success didn’t improve the world beyond providing entertainment. It wasn’t a career that would make a difference. It wasn’t useful, and just lately usefulness had become an overriding theme in the Tracy household.

“I’m waiting, Gordon. Which is it to be?”

He wanted to scream and shout but if there was one way Gordon was a Tracy through and through it was in his ability to keep his emotions contained in the face of adversity, or at least repressed until he was in a safe space. Only Alan was yet to learn the skill; his youngest sibling wore his heart on his sleeve and Gordon often admired him for the way he could express himself freely, even if it sometimes led to blazing rows with their patriarch. His broad shoulders slumped a little. It was a done deal that he was being sent away for the duration of his father’s business trip. He knew there was no point arguing and antagonising his father.

“Denver, please.” Gordon’s normally cheerful voice was carefully neutral, a testament to the feelings he was keeping in check. He wondered if he would ever be afforded the privilege of being treated like an adult or whether he would forever be a child in his father’s eyes; a person to be managed and directed rather than trusted as an individual.

Having received an answer Jeff considered the interview concluded and turned back to his tablet to book the required flight. He might have a private jet at his disposal but he would need that for his own trip. Gordon would be flying commercial, as usual. An early morning flight was soon arranged and Jeff was able to return to his work, scrolling through the multitude of files related to his latest project. He looked up to reach for his coffee and seemed surprised that Gordon was still stood in front of him.

“Go and pack, Gordon.”

Summarily dismissed Gordon returned to his room. Clothes and toiletries were thrown haphazardly into a bag. He took his anger out on the drawers of his dresser, yanking them out and slamming them shut. The clothes hangers in his closet rattled and tumbled to the floor as he yanked down shirts. He looked at his Team USA kit; the formal blazer and whites covered in a protective dust jacket next to the tracksuit worn poolside between heats. The uniform was a painful reminder of his achievement that already seemed to be forgotten by the father he tried so hard to please. The garments were thrown to the floor of the closet to lay in a crumpled heap on top of his shoes.

Just a few short weeks ago those two outfits had symbolised his achievements. Proof that, as far as America was concerned, he was worthy. He remembered the thrill of pulling on the garments for the first time, the cut of the blazer emphasising his broad chest and shoulders. They were his uniform. His battle dress. After the Games he had carefully hung them up as a reminder of everything he had worked for, a sign that all the sacrifices had been worth it. Now they screamed failure rather than success. Failure to live up the narrow ideals of his father. He kicked out at a trailing sleeve that had flopped over the threshold of the closet then slammed the door on the rumpled mess.

Gordon flung himself onto the bed and stared up at the ceiling. He knew he was acting the petulant teenager his father viewed him as but sometimes it was hard not to revert to type when you never had the opportunity to prove yourself to be anything different. Anger bubbled up inside him. Just because he wasn’t like the others with their perfect grades and traditional life choices it felt like he would never be allowed to make his own decisions. Even the career he had strived towards and made so many sacrifices for was being slowly taken away. How dare his father speak to his coach about training commitments. How dare he sideline the one talent Gordon possessed. In all other areas he was measured up and found wanting but the medal above his bed and the world record in the history books were irrefutable evidence that he could make his mark in the world and be an individual in his own right.

The seething injustice coloured Gordon’s dreams that night. His sleep was restless and more than once his legs became twisted in the sheets, dragging him back to wakefulness in order to free the constricting restraints. When the morning alarm marked the end of the night, disturbing his dozing form and forcing away the last vestiges of sleep Gordon felt distinctly unrefreshed. However, years of practice at taking himself to early morning swimming training meant he was able to resist the temptation to stay in bed and so he was ready, bag in hand, when the car arrived to take him to the airport. Evidently his father’s commitments were too heavy to allow him to perform this duty and Gordon was graced with only a brief goodbye before being handed into the custody of a driver.

xoxoxox

Denver was tiny compared to Los Angeles. It was still a sprawling metropolis compared to the backwater towns of Kansas but Gordon instantly felt more at home in the mid-western air. He felt like he could finally breathe again. He had never felt settled in Los Angeles with its inescapable traffic and permanent glow. A city that never slept.

When he had first been told of the move to the coast he had been excited at the prospect of living so close to the ocean that held his fascination. It was an odd obsession for a boy brought up as far from the sea as it was possible to get but Gordon had always felt drawn to water in all its forms. The few coastal holidays they had managed were filled with happy memories of rock pooling, snorkelling and learning the dangers of his beautiful aquatic mistress but in Gordon’s eyes the Los Angeles waterfront was a shallow imitation of what the barrier between land and sea should be. The sculpted beaches filled with sculpted bodies held no appeal. After one visit shortly after arriving in the city Gordon never went down to the waterfront again.

Virgil was there to meet him in the airport arrival’s lounge. Dressed in his habitual plaid he was easy to spot. Gordon soon found himself relieved of his bag as Virgil swung it over one shoulder with ease. It wasn’t that Virgil thought him incapable, it was just the way he was. Brother or not, Gordon was his guest and carrying your guest’s bag was a courtesy that had been instilled in each of them from an early age. A brotherly arm was draped across his shoulders and he found himself drawn into a brief embrace before they walked companionably towards the taxi rank.

It didn’t take long to reach Virgil’s apartment which was situated a short stroll from campus. The campus itself was still eerily quiet, mostly populated by faculty and a few postgrads like Virgil who had stuck around to work on projects. Term, and the influx of undergraduates that came with it, was yet to start. The streets surrounding the campus were free of the term time hustle and bustle created by the transient student population and the area had a calm serenity that contrasted sharply to the buzzing city Gordon had recently left.

The apartment was the epitome of masculine design, each item of furniture or decoration a clear reflection of its occupant. There was an eclectic mix of high end items and junk store finds, set off by hand crafted pieces made by Virgil himself. Comfortable, functional and strong, the whole ensemble coordinated perfectly. Virgil’s habitat had grown organically over his few years of occupation, it was now as warm and friendly as its owner and a place that you couldn’t help but relax in.

It felt more homely than the Los Angeles apartment which always had an air of echoing emptiness. Jeff had wanted to ensure that his older boys had a space to come back to and call their own and with money no object the city pad he had procured was obscenely large for a place normally occupied by just three people. The executive styling added to the cold and impersonal air of the place. It was an environment where people co-existed rather than lived and the extra rooms for absent siblings only seemed to enhance the feeling of loneliness. It felt good to be in Denver rather than Los Angeles, even if the reason for the visit stung.

Gordon sat down on the couch, bouncing slightly to test its springiness. The apartment was a compact, one bedroomed affair and he knew the couch would be his bed for the next few nights. The sound of a coffee maker and the chink of mugs from the kitchen showed that Virgil still had his caffeine addiction and the warm aroma of good coffee was soon filling the space, adding to the general air of comfort. Before many minutes had passed his brother was back beside him and two brimming mugs sat steaming the coffee table

“Hey, so you decided to come check out my school. It’s a great place here, you’ll love it. I can show you around all the labs and things while it’s still quiet, maybe introduce you to some of the faculty depending on what area you want to specialise in.”

Virgil’s enthusiasm was met with stunned bewilderment.

“Dad said you were looking at college, right?” he probed, tentatively.

Evidently this trip wasn’t just about Gordon not being trusted at home. Even from afar his father was making his intentions clear and pushing his own agenda of what he expected of his sons. Virgil watched as the teenager in front of him stiffened, a defensive shell seeming to rise up around Gordon and a sullen look appeared across the features which had seemed so relaxed and at ease until that point.

“No, Dad just didn’t want me staying home alone. Look, I’m sure it’s great for you but I’ve got no plans for college at all. In case you hadn’t noticed I’m not exactly college material.”

Witnessing the self-depreciation from his brother stung. Busy lives meant he hadn’t spent much time alone with Gordon in the last few years. The young man in front of him was clearly hurting and Virgil’s caring nature was screaming at him to make it better but he felt woefully ill-equipped to counsel the troubled teen.

“I’m sure that’s not true. You’d be able to go to college if you wanted to. You’re smart; you were hardly at school the last two years and you still managed to graduate with good marks.”

Gordon turned sorrowful eyes on his brother, he had never been able to be angry with Virgil and fighting with the gentle giant didn’t come naturally. There was something about Virgil that reminded him of Mom; something that invited him to open up, safe in the knowledge that he wouldn’t be judged.

“And what if it’s not what I want? Sometimes it feels like I don’t have any say in my life. Dad wants me to stop swimming. Do you have any idea what that feels like?”

Truth be told, Virgil didn’t. He had only ever met encouragement for his plans, he had been supported and his passions had been indulged. Music lessons and art classes had co-existed with school, ensuring he had a therapeutic release from his more traditional studies. His desire to study engineering had been greeted with enthusiasm and a generous allowance. To hear that a brother was being expected to give up their passion was a surprise to him.

“I’m sure Dad only wants what’s best for you.”

“Yeah, it always comes down to what Dad wants.” There was a snort of derision. “But news flash Virgil, I’m not like the rest of you. I’m never going to get into Harvard or Yale or anywhere else Dad would approve of. And I don’t want to. I have one thing I’m good at and now that’s being taken away.”

“I’m sure that’s not true Gordo, there are lots of things you’re good at. Look, maybe college isn’t the right place for you but don’t sell yourself short. It sounds like you and Dad just need some space apart from each other for a bit. He’s got a lot on at the moment, there’s a big project in the pipeline and you know how focussed he can get when that happens. You know, you are always welcome here if you need some breathing space. And I promise, no campus tour unless you want it.”

“Thanks Virg. Maybe a break will do me good. It’s all just so tense back home.”

Gordon felt a heavy arm slung over his shoulders as he was drawn in to a hug that held more meaning than the brief embrace of greeting he had received earlier. Virgil had always been the most free of the siblings in showing his love physically. With Virgil moved out Gordon couldn’t remember the last time he had received a hug from anyone other than Alan and those were becoming more rare and awkward as the pair aged.

His initial instinct was to push away but he didn’t want to hurt Virgil’s feelings. He could feel the beating of the larger man’s heart and he found the rhythm soothing. The tension he hadn’t even realised he was carrying began to slowly dissipate and he melted into the soft cotton of Virgil’s shirt. He took a few deep breaths to steady himself before slowly pushing himself out of the embrace.

“Better?”

He nodded, not yet trusting himself to speak.

Gordon settled back and savoured the coffee. Perhaps the time in Denver wouldn’t be so bad after all.

#thunderbirds #thunderbirds fanfiction #my art #high expectations #parental pressure #family relationships #Gordon Tracy #Jeff Tracy #Virgil Tracy

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nico-drives-badly · 5 years

Text

So I did a scientific analysis on what type of ‘fluid’ Green Orbs are made of because I’m a huge fucking nerd

((To preface this, I’m a senior in college with a major in Biochemistry, and I plan on pursuing cancer research in grad school. Therefore, I am a huge fucking science nerd.))

So, while I was studying Hemoglobin in my Biochem class, naturally I began to wonder how this relates to the logic behind Red Orbs and Green Orbs. Now, I know game developers definitely aren’t medical experts, just as how I’m definitely not an expert at programming...but one thing has been REALLY bugging me since I first thought about this:

wHERE THE FUCK DO gREEN oRBS COME FROM????

The reason I ask this is because, in the DMC series, Red Orbs are defined as the “crystalized blood” of demons, whereas Green Orbs are defined as the “crystallized fluids” of demons.

The problems with this is...uh...WHICH FLUIDS ARE WE TALKING HERE

The term “fluid” is a VERY vague term in the science world. It can refer to anything from blood to feces, and everything in between. We’re talking saliva, piss, snot, vomit, literal piles of shit. ALL of these could technically be referred to as “fluids”

So, when these guys say that “green orbs are some unspecified bodily fluid in demons”, naturally my first thought was “OHMYGOD THEY’RE LITERALLY EATING DEMON SNOT”

But then my biochem knowledge kicked in like an Ace Attorney and was like: “OBJECTION!”

“It clearly says on the DMC wiki that Green Orbs can count towards your Red Orb total if the player has full vitality. This means that Green Orbs must be some derivative of blood, or else they wouldn’t count towards the Red Orb total.”

Which is a very real possibility. After all, human blood contains plasma, and when this plasma is removed, it makes a new fluid called serum.

This serum, according to Wikipedia, contains antibodies, proteins, and other useful stuff that keeps the body healthy. This keeps up with the logic of Green Orbs healing the player, because we typically think of antibodies as something that “heals” the body. AND we literally use serum all the time in the lab. So then I was like “okay so maybe it’s just blood plasma, nbd”

But then I remembered two critical things:

Serum doesn’t exist in natural form; it can literally only be made in a lab by extracting the blood and shit from it

(Most importantly) SERUM IS YELLOW NOT GREEN

So THEN I was like: “OBJECTION! If Green Orbs are serum/blood plasma, and serum is NOT green, then why would Green Orbs be green?”

But then I was like: “OBJECTION! Not all animals have red blood!”

Which is also true. Animal blood can be a bunch of weird colors depending on the species, including green. Granted, green blood is typically only found in worms...BUT given how weird demon anatomy is, I was willing to let that part slide.

But then I realized that I was forgetting one very crucial thing here...

WE LITERALLY HAVE CRYSTALLIZED DEMON BLOOD IN-GAME, AND THAT BLOOD IS *CLEARLY* RED!!!

So then I was like “YOU CAN’T HAVE GREEN BLOOD *AND* RED BLOOD YOU ABSOLUTE WALNUT IT’S GOTTA BE SOMETHING ELSE”

But THEN I was like “BUT GREEN ORBS CAN’T BE A DIFFERENT TYPE OF FLUID BECAUSE IT TECHNICALLY COUNTS AS RED ORBS IN DMC ECONOMICS??? SO IT HAS TO AT LEAST BE SOMEWHAT LIKE BLOOD OR ELSE IT WOULDN’T BE VALID CURRENCY????”

And then BOTH of my arguing brain cells were just like “WHAT KIND OF FUCKERY IS THIS”

At this point, I was completely clusterfucked and desperate to find an answer, so I quickly searched up the different kinds of fluids in the human body (since demons can breed with humans, we can assume their anatomy and physiology operates similarly to humans also).

And I FINALLY found the answer. Hold on to your butts y’all, I’m about to blow your mind:

Green Orbs aren’t demon snot...they’re demon VOMIT!!

Vomit (bile) is the ONLY fluid that fits all of the criteria mentioned by my 2 arguing brain cells above:

It technically contains red blood cells (they’re dead but don’t worry about it)

Since those blood cells don’t *technically* have to be alive in order to be valid currency (they’re still blood, like a wrinkly dollar bill is still a dollar bill), green orbs could *technically* be considered valid currency in DMC

It’s green, and it’s a fluid

It’s found in mammals, who have red blood similar to demons in DMC

And the chemical used to make green bile (biliverdin) is also found in bruises, which — GUESS WHAT? — are part of the body’s natural healing process. Which coincides with Green Orbs’ healing properties in DMC.

SO IN CONCLUSION: When Dante/Nero/V/etc. pick up green orbs in the game, they’re technically eating demon puke. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

#devil may cry #shitpost #science shenanigans

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