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yamayuandadu · 2 months

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How high are the chances that Ōtakemaru (大嶽丸) will appear in the Touhou Project? He is one of the original three greatest yokai in Japan. Kishin (鬼神) has already been introduced in the Wild and Horned Hermit manga, with Suiki (水鬼) as one of them, though I also hope for more of Fujiawara Chikata's Onis in the series.

I don’t have any uncles or other relatives customarily said to relay such info working for Team Shanghai Alice so I couldn’t in good faith claim I have any real idea what are the odds that ZUN will base a character on him. As for whether I think it would work, you can find out under the cut.

Before Urumi no oni actually shown in the games was based on anyone other than Shuten Dōji’s underlings but it seems safe to say nothing’s off limits now, between her and Zanmu, whose counterpart wasn’t even regarded as an oni (at best you could make a case for tengu since Razan Hayashi considered his Buddhist opponents tengu and this category sort of kind of includes Zanmu since he’s mentioned in one of his tirades against Tenkai).

ZUN’s definition of kishin is basically made up, so I am not sure if it has any impact on who might plausibly show up. There is a real term for oni and oni-adjacent figures shown in scenes of hell, kisotsu (鬼卒) or gokusotsu (獄卒), but I don’t really see much overlap in use with kishin, which is ultimately a label I’ve actually mostly seen in onmyōdō context. Also, the concept of “three greatest yokai” is an entirely modern invention. On top of that, Kazuhiko Komatsu coined it entirely based on the fact that the three stories whose antagonists he refers to with this moniker end with their remains placed in the treasure house of Uji. I’m not sure where the similar grouping with Sutoku listed instead of Ōtakemaru alongside Tamamo no Mae and Shuten Dōji originates, but I find it to be more representative, both because it makes the group into a genuine quintessence of all major medieval fears, and because there is a solid case to be made that these three are the big names with the most reinterpretations. I have nothing against Ōtakemaru, but his historical popularity seems more limited. He’s somewhere between Kidōmaru and completely z listers like idk. Kugamimi no Mikasa in terms of notoriety and I feel like you could make a case for the likes of Zegaibō, Tarōbō or even Tesso over him as “greatest yokai” and whatnot.

Perhaps an argument can be made that Ōtakemaru’s relative lack of actual notoriety makes him more suitable for Touhou. That’s a point I can’t refute. However, in practical terms, I am not sure what a character based on him would offer that Suika couldn’t do better - all that sets him apart from just being a budget Shuten Dōji is the location he lived in and his opponent, and neither of these would really matter in Touhou most likely. Tbh I’m not even sure if there’s any real benefit to going with Ōtakemaru over Suzuka Gozen, frankly. Not even being the character with most potential in own story seems like a problem.

As far as other oni go, I’m not sure if I’d go with Fujiwara no Chikata’s minions either, they are pretty bland themselves; they work well in Megaten but that’s about it. Not like Suiki is a character in the proper sense in Touhou - I’ve seen people not even realizing this is a given name and I can't blame them. As far as oni who would be fun to see go, Momiji instantly comes to mind (the story is even set in the right province lol), but there are many good candidates. Off the top of my head: the oni Ki no Haseo encountered (I feel like you could do a lot with the body parts patchwork woman from that story. Dr. Frankenstein themed oni?), the oni of Rashomon version from the Minamoto no Hiromasa legend which makes him a reincarnation of a master craftsman from India, or Abe no Nakamaro (my personal favorite, I have a character based on him).

#japanese miscellanea #touhou

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decepti-thots · 2 years

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an absolutely shocking number of people wanted me to talk about my thoughts on this post after i made it, lmao, so HERE WE GO, i'm gonna ramble in a very unstructured way about my dumbass theories regarding the development of… well actually a couple separate-but-linked subplots in MTMTE/LL. not about how they ended up, but about my theories as to what changed in the course of writing the comic and why.

specifically, what i have guessed might have changed in the development of rewind's subplot regarding finding agent 113 (dominus ambus in the final comic- we'll get to that below) and its overlap with the chromedome-prowl and DJD subplots.

big disclaimer: nothing i say here unless explicitly stated has been confirmed in any way by roberts, it's almost ALL wild theorising. i could easily be wrong about literally everything here, lmao, in fact i probably am! but ever since my second readthrough of the comic where my brain went 'wait, what was the motivation behind making rewind's dead husband minimus' brother when that connection never pays off??? roberts what???', combined with finding out that the cd-rw-prowl plot is one of the only ones confirmed to have dramatically changed from roberts' original plans, i have been. bizarrely obsessed with the whole mess of it. apologies in advance. but here we go.

first of all, the things that are confirmed, from jro directly:

the original plan for the chromedome-rewind-prowl stuff was that chromedome and prowl had been working together when chromedome met rewind; in this concept, prowl sent agent 113 to infiltrate the DJD and used chromedome as a plant at the relinquishment clinic to first shadowplay rewind into forgetting anything that could lead him to the truth, and then later to be a kind of 'minder' who followed rewind around and stop him finding out the truth. this is what prowl is referring to in the flashback scene prior to Overlord escaping where chromedome shadowplays him. the blackmail he was intended to be threatening to tell rewind there is that chromedome became his friend under prowl's orders, and false pretenses. the other major hint to this plan is the mention chromedome makes in issue #12 of rewind's supposed UV light allergy- this was originally chromedome making sure none of the marks were seen by medics. this plot is by word of god and the text of the comic itself a hundred percent gone in the final product. but it was not something roberts had committed to changing until AFTER the overlord arc, hence that infamous dangling thread that now has no clear explanation re: prowl's blackmail material.

relatedly, the original plan was for chromedome and rewind to just be friends for quite some time into roberts planning out the series' trajectory. even when actually writing the early issues, roberts was not sure if they would be romantic for a while, so he hedged his bets. (in the event hasbro said 'no' to his request to confirm cd/rw as married, he had a whole backup plan for tailgate and cyclonus.) in turn, it's generally assumed, though technically not confirmed, that e.g. this is also true of prowl and chromedome as partners, rewind and 113 as married, etc. it just logically follows. but yeah. all these original relationships were platonic or possibly, in one case, familial.

prior to writing the series, the first plan for agent 113/the person rewind was looking for was for him to be eject. it's not confirmed this was going to be eject as rewind's spark brother, but contextually, it seems pretty likely, since a) roberts has revisited the concept a few times, including with 113 once he's dominus, and b) the whole rewind/eject being near identitcal thing makes it an obvious approach- they're referred to in fan circles as 'twins' a lot the same as rumble and frenzy. at some point, late enough the notebooks covering "pre-production" outlines for MTMTE's first season do not mention him, Dominus Ambus becomes 113 instead.

so my big takeaway from thinking about this whole thing, to start off, is that the original plan probably involved agent 113 being vos. not the previous vos as we ended up with, but the vos we were introduced to as part of the DJD, the guy who turns into a sniper rifle and speaks in old cybertronian. there's some stuff early on when he's introduced that points to the idea that at the very least, the audience is supposed to consider this idea as plausible, namely:

agent 113 isn't first brought up in mtmte. he's first brought up as a mole the autobots have in the DJD in 'bullets', the prose story accompanying Last Stand of the Wreckers. first aid keeps an eye out for autobot badges on patients that have been shot because springer has told him that due to increasing paranoia about being caught as a spy, agent 113 insists on sending messages hidden in bullets shot at autobot soldiers, identifiable as his because they go very specifically through the right "eye" of his targets' autobrands. so 113 is a sniper/sharpshooter. and vos turns into a sniper rifle. one of the first times we see him is in a large spread where megatron is wielding him, in fact. this is then a significant plot point in mtmte later. (swerve and all that.)

vos has the quirk of only speaking "old cybertronian" that is unintelligble to many characters and the audience. the comic goes out of its way to make rewind knowing old cybertronian in mtmte a running gag early on (with the joke part being that he always gets the translation slightly wrong). not only is that a really specific link, but it feels totally plausible that the expected payoff is that only rewind recognises 113 when he speaks in old cybertronian, because he's heard it spoken before. (if 113 is originally eject, this makes a lot of sense; it relates to both of them being older than most of the cast, perhaps.)

dominus ambus is just. clearly not meant to be the pet as of when the pet and him are first designed in mtmte. lmao. and for that matter, minimus is clearly not designed to turn into a turbofox in his irreducible form. when we get the teeny tiny minimus reveal in RiL, it's really clear the idea is he looks very similar in both "forms"- same face, same colours, etc, but his irreducible form doesn't turn into anything. he has exposed ball joints like the internal 'skeletons' of TFs/toys and no kibble. the idea of 'he can't turn into anything, but he can wear armour to become whatever' is a pretty clear inference, right? (and was the dominant interpretation prior to the reveal dominus becomes a turbofox, ftr!) but to make dominus the pet, they have to design his internal form to look nothing like either his own armour OR minimus' internal form. that's… a pretty blatant retcon, imo! why is he a weird green colour when his armour is yellow? why does he have a fuckton of kibble and minimus is Nothing when in his irreducible form? retcon, baby.

so i really think that an early concept was that 113 was still an active spy in the DJD, and that this changed at some point, probably fairly early on but late enough the original seeds had been sown, with roberts doing a neat patch job to take the concept in another direction that still worked with his set up… but the question becomes WHY it changed. after all, none of the confirmed changes actually require altering that concept, so if i'm right, then why the hell would you change it?

my theory about why you'd have to change it relates to something else that has always confused me, which is where the really fun but kind of objectively batshit concept of 'rewind is making his new husband look for his dead husband he's still in love with, apparently has no idea why chromedome would be insecure about this' comes from. (it's great, i love it, but it doesn't strike me as an obvious storytelling beat to go for! it creates great storytelling opportunities because it's very… unintuitive for a love story, imo.)

which is that… they weren't originally married, which is kind of obvious in retrospect and ESPECIALLY now we know that 113 was originally eject! 'rewind doesn't realise chromedome might be insecure about his best friend looking for a guy from before they met he also cares for' is a way more obvious emotional beat when you think on it, imo! (plus it turning out to ACTUALLY be about chromedome's guilt because he knows where 113 is, ofc- there's the twist for the audience.) like. rewind thinking that is an ok thing to do with a friend is clearly the more intuitive plotline beat, versus 'rewind does this to his current husband who he is letting think he will replace'.

chromedome/rewind then winds up being romantic, and to match this, 113/rewind ALSO has to become romantic. right? otherwise, the then-still-a-misdirect of chromedome's jealousy makes no sense. why would chromedome be worried about a platonic friend replacing him as rewind's husband? so now, 113 is rewind's dead husband all of a sudden. (sidenote: this also makes the very bizarre backstory re: the wild power imbalance between dominus and rewind a lot more… understandable? if it was not envisioned as them getting married on the part of the author.)

maybe eject has already been replaced when this idea slots into place, or maybe dominus is conceived in part to allow for this element in a way that makes sense. you can't really tell in this theory. (in a similar way, puzzling out whether he's related to minimus because the idea was there for minimus to be a loadbearer and it created a way to make him 113 came first, or if it was the reverse, is hard to tell. ftr, when the magnus armour is referenced in the notebooks, it does NOT contain reference to minimus; magnus is just a small person who has been given augmented armour in those drafts.) (this has also always bugged me. WHY is rewind's dead husband also minimus' brother when the narrative doesn't do anything with that connection!!! wellll. that's one possibility. lmao.)

the original plan for chromedome to be in on it with prowl and 113- to have manipulated and lied to rewind, and for all of them to, essentially, have screwed him around- was changed by roberts because chromedome/rewind became romantic. he decided, imo completely rightly, that the subtext there with a romantic pairing was just wrong tonally and way too uncomfortable. you're getting into straight up gaslighting abuse, and for the first romantic couple of the series, and one of the first ever m/m pairings in TF, i mean… yeeeeah.

but this creates kind of a discrepency. because 113 is still fucking rewind over in this scenario. suddenly it goes from 'multiple friends of rewind turn out to have collectively been deceiving him' to 'both rewind's husbands have been deceiving him' to 'well rewind's NEW husband is completely innocent, he had nothing to worry about all along cause if they ever find dominus, he's the one who is a dick now' which like. that is not a satisfying conclusion to the conflicts set up wherein rewind proves that he is not so stuck in the past he won't choose chromedome over dominus if he has to, or where chromedome has to learn rewind really does unconditionally love him and he's not replaceable. right? it's a cheap get out of jail free card there.

and THAT'S why i would guess that if 113 was gonna be vos, it got changed. people have noted that dominus is easy to read as implicitly a bit of dick in mtmte when you think about it- he ran off without telling rewind, after all. but only when you think about it. this makes sense in the original concept. it doesn't really have a good option of payoff once chromedome is not nearly as bad himself. and in this theory, dominus doesn't so much get changed so he wasn't at all a dick about it, he just… gets moved out of focus with the "domestication" explanation. suddenly, instead of a potential confrontation between rewind, chromedome and 113 in dying of the light, to name one possible example, you have the revelation that dominus has been out of action this whole time, and now he can instead be a catalyst for a conclusion between chromedome and rewind. it's a little bit of sleight of hand. it means the audience isn't thinking about that in DotL. they're thinking about cd/rw, not dominus, even when he's right there. (a macguffin of a character til the end…)

and now you know the insane and completely unverifiable theory that has percolated in my brain to explain some of that whole plot's weirdness the past, oooh, 3 years or so. very good chance none of it's true but it's the best i have and it just drove me INSANE because i've reread everything relating to cdrw and minimus in mtmte SO much that the weird gaps nagged me constantly. this is what it's like being me. yes, it's annoying for me too. but for those who were wondering: here you go. 2200 words of this:

#meta #well. wild mass guessing bullshit anyway.#what else am i gonna tag it.#idw #rewind #dominus ambus #chromedome #cdrw

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box-dwelling · 6 months

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I don't know if I've elaborated on this specific headcanon on here but this is a hill I plan to die on and I keep instinctively referencing it when I write so here:

Apollo has canonically watched doctor who or at least the AA equivalent, he makes a reference to it about Trucy's panties. This is canon. However I personally choose to believe that he is a fan of the much derived classic serial Trial of a Time Lord and does in fact regularly force the people in his life to watch it with him in an attempt to get them to like his nerd shit because it's law themed. This predictably fails because it is one of the worst seasons in the shows 6 decade run and is at points barely watchable. But I do think that Apollo just gets too hyped about the fact it's two of his interests overlapping

I'm gonna put the context under the cut for this serial because it's less headcanon and more just my thoughts, but I you want me to talk about how bad I think one of my favourite characters taste is then enjoy

For those not in the know this serial is basically an entire season of the show with the overarching narrative of the Doctor being on trial with himself as the defense in the gallianan court to prove that he hasn't been breaking basically all their laws by interfering with the affairs of other planets. It features very silly costumes, questionable writing because the BBC was trying so hard to get the show canceled at this point in time, and Brian Blessed in yellow face.

Now I am probably one of the few dw fans that actually quite enjoys the idea of a court drama doctor who serial, a lot of people are opposed in concept alone as the drama of the episode is regularly cut away to court scenes of the doctor and the procecution (that's a whole ass can of worms I'm not getting into the valeyard) bickering. But I will concede that even I couldn't finish it. The companions are well, they're two of the worst ones the series has ever done. I enjoy Perri but god did the writers just want a random young woman to be in skimpy outfits and put very little thought into her beyond that. It's carried by the performance but my girl has nothing to work with, especially this season where they get rid of the fact that she and six have a pretty antagonistic relationship and she's just generic companion with no flavor. Mel is... Ok whenever I see a female character that a fan base seems to hate I do instinctively want to love her. I was sat there determined to like her but unfortunately this is one of the few times the fans are right. She's really grating and not interesting in the slightest. I really tried. I can't.

The story's are goodish, it's classic who fair. Nothing outstanding unless you're me and want to over think about Perris death. But the episode itself doesn't lend much to that idea beyond her performance. The pacing is rough with the interspersed trial sections and honestly the Doctors puns on the prosecutors name get old real quick and that is so so much of the trial sections.

#ace attorney #apollo justice

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electricprincess96 · 9 months

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What would you have done differently with Yoshizawa then?

A few things.

Number 1. As soon as its revealed she is in fact Sumire and not Kasumi she she accepts that about herself then she never wears that Ponytail again. I'm aware they seem to basically be twins and twins will look alike however continuing to have the visual indicator of her time pretending to be Kasumi ruins the whole point of her accepting who she is. The ponytail was the way the game symbolised her "becoming" Kasumi in the flashback with Maruki and its the way it symbolised her remembering the truth with the ribbon falling out. All of that is ruined by the fact she continues to go back to wearing it at various points throughout the game including her final ever cutscene.

So as soon as she rejoins the Thieves and accepts who she is, she should get a new Thieve Design with a different hair style. I'd even argue give her a whole new Thief look that isn't based on Jokers to show she's really discovered her inner rebel and isn't just copying others. Like keep the leotard design cause she is a gymnast but remove the black coat and red gloves and give her something else.

2. They make one mention of her knowing Akechi before the game and then really never do anything with it. I'd play up that aspect. Like how do they know each other? I doubt it would be from middle school since Sumire is a 1st year in High School and Akechi is a 3rd year. What's their history? I'd have had her know Akechi since childhood and have her really know the real Akechi and not the fake persona he puts on. I think it would be interesting if they both spend the majority of the game slightly suspicious of why the other one is acting strange but Akechi is wrapped up in his own plans and Sumire is too distracted by her struggles with her gymnastics to really delve deeper until it all comes out in the 3rd Semester.

Like Atlus clearly cared a lot more about exoanding Akechi's characterisation and his relationship with Joker in Royal than they did with anything to do with Sumire so like.... playing up her connection to Akechi would only benefit her characterisation. Like she doesn't have to be best friends with him since I know he's a justifiably very contentious character however I think it would still be an interesting take.

3. Arguably the most important one. I want to see a very clear personality change after she is revealed to be Sumire. Not just some scenes of her being sad. I want every scene she's in post reveal, be it Social Link or Plot Relevant, to clearly show that Sumire is a different person from Kasumi. I want to be able to point to Sumire and list her personality traits and not have 90% of them overlap with the traits we are told belonged to Kasumi.

4. Make her social link more relevant to Maruki's plot and make it an unlock requirement for Semester 3. She's only got 5 ranks before Semester 3, you wouldn't be horribly hindering the player by making them also have to max her to get Semester 3. Just make it that you can't remove her entirely from the plot and it wouldn't make a huge difference because currently with minimal rewrites you can do that and the game does not feel like it's missing anything.

5. Have her join earlier. I know, I know she should join when she accepts her true self because that's the whole point of awakening to a Persona. Well the issue is the game already fucks that concept up by having her awaken to her persona without accepting her true self and sure they can claim "oh she hadn't awakened full, it wasn't powerful enough, ther was no blood when she awakened the first time" OK I'd believe all that if the game didn't force her to save Joker in Sae Niijima's Palace. If she was able to solo her way through part of that Palace and save Joker there's no reason they didn't let her join during Shido's Palace which would then allow her to actually interact more with the other Thieves cause as it stands she feels the most out of place within the group. Even Akechi feels less out of place with the group because at least the rest of the Thieves know him and all have their own relationships with him (none of them good but they exist) whereas Sumire might as well be a stranger to most of them. She's Jokers friend and at best an acquaintance to the rest. Alternatively have more scenes through the game where she gets to hang out with the other Thieves and not just Joker.

But yeah any combination of these suggestions I think would have improved the execution of Sumire's story in the game.

And I want to take this moment to say I don't dislike the character we are given in the game. I don't really know who that character is, where Kasumi ends and Sumire begins, but the character we get I like. She's charming, if a bit forced at times, and the plot had so much potential. I just think they didn't do enough to really stick the landing on the execution of that plotline but I know a lot of people really love Sumire and love her relationship with Joker and that's great. I regularly do that romance option because I do think the games been pushing it throughout so it feels natural. However she shouldn't just be there for the romance. And I do love her design I mean I had her as my icon for a while not that long ego. Just because I critise something doesn't mean I hate it, I only point these shortcomings out because I love Persona 5 and I think it could have been even better if they'd put the effort into making Sumire feel as organic to the story as Maruki does.

#princess answers asks #anon #persona 5 royal blogging #persona 5 royal spoilers

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tokiro07 · 10 months

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Have u read world trigger

I have. It's not my favorite or anything, but I enjoy it. The cast is a bit big for me to be able to really remember everyone, and the lack of focus on the main cast in recent years has made it difficult for me to even remember a lot of the actual events, but I very much respect Ashihara's commitment to detailing the meta of the Trion power system and the style of warfare that arose from it

I was originally really resistant to it because I blamed it for Hungry Joker getting canceled (two sci-fi-escque series running in Jump simultaneously) but with only a ten-week overlap, I doubt that really affected it, especially since the way they used science was completely different

Eventually I decided to actually give World Trigger a chance and found myself getting pretty into it, but I never managed to find a character that I could really emotionally latch onto, which is usually what elevates a series from entertaining me to interesting or even immersing me

World Trigger is so close to doing that, though. I remember being invested in Kitora's relationship with Mikumo and thought she was really cool for replacing her foot with a Scorpion sickle that one time, but again, it's been so long since any one character has gotten focus that I only barely remember whatever feeling of affection I had for her

Konami and Karasuma were both super cool when they were showing off their unique Triggers, and I think if more characters had unique Triggers I'd have a much easier time finding someone to like. If they had more than single scenes to show off with, maybe they would have grabbed my attention more

The character I always come back to, though, is Yoneya. Not because I remember his personality or anything he's ever done, but because his Trigger both fascinates and frustrates me. I love that there's a character who uses a spear, but the fact that the spear is explicitly stated to be a Kogetsu (which are usually katana) when it has the ability to modulate its shape like a Scorpion has always really confused me. Scorpion are short, malleable blades, so when we were first introduced to them as a concept, I immediately thought that Yoneya must have put one on the end of a pole to create his spear, but no, it's a Kogetsu using an optional add-on Trigger. It just doesn't mesh within its own logic to me, and it's always bothered me

There was also a point where Hyuse started to seem like he might become my favorite, but I feel like I haven't seen him in years considering that everyone has been stuck in a room doing homework for however long now. I think once the away mission actually starts and we get more varied Triggers and see how the standard-issue Triggers interact with the unique Triggers of the enemy I'll get more opportunities to get attached to someone or something, but as it stands, I feel too spread thin over this cast

#world trigger

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un-peu-folle · 2 years

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Why MerDer is a couple I back with no regrets.

If you’re reading this, you’re probably a Grey’s Anatomy fan, and more specifically, you either agree or strongly disagree with the idea of Meredith/Derek.

Before I get into this: THIS IS MY OPINION! It’s okay if you disagree, in fact I’d love to hear your thoughts if you are nice!

Let me preface this by saying I have not watched a complete season after season 11. I know the rough storylines, the characters, and the vague ways the show overlaps with station 19.

And to get into this post, we’ll answer that question too-- why didn’t I watch post Season 11?

*read under cut*

You might have already guessed, but the short answer is ‘The death of Derek Shepherd.’ And yes, his death devastated me. But this point in the series, I felt a lot of other emotions. I felt closure a few episodes before Cristina left, I lost interest with the death of over half of my favourite characters (why do they always kill off the good ones?); even now I only watch to keep up with Meredith’s life.

I came back when Season 17 went underway, because of the beach scenes. Because other than the concept of the show, Lexie Grey, and the Grey-Shepherd Children, MerDer, both as a couple, and as individuals, were my favourite thing in the show.

Derek Shepherd and Meredith Grey were both complicated characters. Derek was ambitious, charming, kind, and hardworking. But all of these translated into negative qualities. He was extremely egoistical and closed off, and needed to find someone to place the blame on for everything. His character seems very two dimensioned at first glance, but it’s deeper than that. He might be the bright-and-shiny half of MerDer, but his trauma is no less valid than Meredith’s.

Meredith Grey. Where to start. She’s independent, driven, smart, loyal, and has this personal touch with everything she does. But she’s also extremely closed off, has issues with communicating her feelings, and tends to invalidate herself. She can also be insensitive at times.

Both of them are flawed humans. But aren’t we all? I can’t excuse Derek telling Meredith she sounded like her mother, but these are all moments in a collection of a lifetime.

The way this relationship started out, with Meredith as the intern and Derek the attending-- blatant power imbalance. You could see it in the relationship throughout the series, that’s how season 11 progressed. It’s part of the reason for their falling out towards the end of their story.

But they truly, deeply loved each other. It was never a commitment or duty for them, it was always a choice. Meredith and Derek could have both walked away countless times, but they chose to stay. Because that sort of love, you don’t feel that again. I’m not one for soulmates, and they weren’t soulmates. They were best friends. Cristina and Meredith could have been each other’s person, but Derek was a part of her. And Meredith was a part of Derek.

It’s that simple-- look at the way they look at each other. Pure adoration and love. It’s never been ‘oh I have kids with him and need to stay together’ or ‘oh we’ve been married a long time i put up with her’. It’s been ‘oh I still love looking at her when she’s sleeping’. It’s always love.

In conclusion: they were toxic at times, and neither of them were the poster person for a good human being, but they were living with love. I will never forgive Shonda for killing Derek and leaving Meredith behind. I know that the alternative was for him to leave his family, and that would have been worse, but his death affected me so deeply, I cannot explain. Their relationship is not perfect, but it’s so whole and full of love.

#merder #meredith grey #derek shepherd #grey's anatomy #meredith x derek

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ctntduoarchive · 2 years

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Ok so I kinda have like two different aus in my head that overlap a lot- that being deltarune au and the small-town-murder-mystery au cause they just share a lot of the similar vibes and concepts in general-

It’s basically clingyduo focused story of Wilbur gone missing (in dt au Wilbur makes a too abrupt leave to “college” and Ranboo is also missing) and them trying to pick up the pieces while also coping with the odd tragedies they both have grown up with in life. But in this- there’s specific moments where Q is there for them and caring for them in the background and like. It makes me go insane…

Like Q catching them on the outskirts of town before they wander off into the woods with nothing but a flashlight at night to go search for Wilbur or Ranboo (he was og taking a smoke break but immediately puts it out and throws it away from clingy duo before he calls out to them) and he insists on coming with them- all like in a goofy manner with them but it’s clear as day that Q is just so goddamn worried over them- especially with everything happened to them recently

Like… idk I just love having that dynamic of c!q as this like figure that not necessarily older-brother-figure despite the vibes bc Q keeps his distance and really does it with the reasoning of “ok someone has to look out for them properly, or we’ll just end up with more missing ppl” cause he just cares too much about the people around him to just. Not keep an eye on them for the sake of ‘staying out of their business’.

((Also the extra added layer of drama being the fact that tommy and tubbo eventually find out that Q was hiding important information about Wilbur all along cause he and Wilbur had a really bad fight a few days prior to Wilbur ‘going off to college’ as well as Wilbur telling Q about small bits of his situation that had genuinely very scary implications that he did NOT want to place on clingy duo much less tell anyone in the town that didn’t seem trustworthy. In reality Q has just been working just as hard alongside clingy duo to figure out what’s really going on in the town despite his insistence to clingyduo saying ‘maybe we should leave this to the police’. So all of this kinda crashes down on them and clingy duo now don’t trust Q and essentially its just like the family drama of Not What He Seems episode from Gravity Falls- like the conflict of ‘we know and trust and love this person but now we’re questioning everything we’ve ever known about him’.))

OK SORRY THAT WAS A LOT akdkkf but yeah… complicated tntduo…. Clingyduo mystery- scooby doo style…. Small town mystery… autumn vibes… halloweeny shit… yeah.

OHHHHH THIS IS COOL!!!! and having c!quackity being put in a position where c!clingy don't FULLY trust him but still have that brotherly sort of love with him fits into canon so well

i can imagine some of their scenes going down like

Quackity leant against the old brick wall, looking out into the accompanying forest ahead. He had no clue who's house it was or if they would even find him, he just needed a smoke break. The ashes felt good as a sedative for his lungs, easing all of the tension out of his body.

You get very stressed out with the weight of secret on your shoulders.

He could almost sink into the peace and quiet, until he heard footsteps coming from nearby. Something in him jumped and went straight to the gun he kept only for bad occasions.

Luckily, he managed to make out the faces of the people scurrying around before taking off the safety.

There's few people in this town dumb enough to go wandering off into the woods alone, especially Tommy and Tubbo.

He knows they're young, and they just want to know what happened to Ranboo and Wilbur. A little like him, a lot more younger and naïve though. It felt so strange to look into their eyes and only see a mirror looking back.

Before they could wander too much off into the woods, he quickly called out to them.

"Hey, what do you two think you're doing out past your bedtime?" he teased, hoping to not let his concern bleed through his voice.

They jumped up like meerkats, their wide eyes finding him almost immediately. He could see Tommy break out into a grin in the dark.

"Oh, hey, Big Q! We're just- uh-" Tommy was obviously trying to come up with believable excuses for going into the forest this late.

Quackity had seen some kids going past as parts of dares, trying to figure out if the rumours of there being monsters in there is true. He was sure it wasn't, at least mostly he was sure.

He knew this was different. He knew Tommy and Tubbo.

"Going to find Ranboo and Wilbur? Guys, I'm sure they're not in there. The police would've found them already," he supplied, hoping they would clear their minds of fear, go back home and to bed. Where they should be, not worrying their minds off like adults.

Tommy and Tubbo both frowned at him in the dark, looking back at each other knowing that he already knew what they were planning to do. Before Quackity could celebrate with making sure they got home safely, Tubbo lit up.

"We were actually gonna go- go ghost-hunting!" he lied, obviously. Even if he hadn't known him for years, he would be able to tell.

He scoffed, and then replied with, "Oh, is that so? Don't you need like, equipment and shit for that?"

"Not the way we're doing it!" Tommy piped up, smirking brightly. "We gonna do this naturally."

"How dangerous is that?"

"As dangerous as it gets, Big Q. It's like... worse than whatever keeps breaking the ice-cream machine at MacDonalds. And we're gonna find it and make sure it doesn't haunt us ever again."

Quackity thinks for a moment. 'Doesn't haunt us again' feels awfully like 'gives Ranboo and Wilbur back.'

"Well, if it's going to be so dangerous," Quackity said, "wouldn't you want an adult to come with you?"

Tommy and Tubbo immediately share glances. If it wasn't dark and they weren't at least ten feet away, he'd be able to make out what they meant. Instead, he just waits until they decide to find out what they're thinking.

"I mean, I guess? We're pretty independent, our moms even let us go out to the shops without telling them now," Tubbo responded. "But you could just say you wanted to go ghost-hunting with us, y'know?"

Code word for 'yes we want you to come but we're too shy to say it.'

"I wouldn't mind it."

Tommy grinned. "Well, c'mon, men, we have ghosts to hunt. Let's march forward!" he exclaims, in a voice way too loud for midnight hours. Quackity hadn't realised he had worked that late.

"Let's go kick some ghost-ass!"

They had some ghost-ass to kick, along with whoever the fuck thought it would be a great idea to mess with Tommy, Tubbo, Quackity and their friends.

#this is like . 700 words #i hope its up to your au's standard #but i love a good small town/mystery au

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bobnitido · 2 years

Text

Stanford’s Robert Weisberg on the January 6 Hearings and New Testimony

SLS Professor Robert Weisberg

Congressional hearings into the January 6, 2021 storming of the U.S. Capitol continued on July 28, with new testimony by Cassidy Hutchinson, a former White House Aide. Here, Stanford Law School criminal law expert Robert Weisberg, discusses possible charges against former president Donald Trump.

Did yesterday’s testimony by Cassidy Hutchinson enhance the plausibility of criminal charges against former president Trump and members of his cabinet and circle?

Probably yes, but first we should see what the legal landscape looked like before yesterday.

Well, over the last few months, what charges seemed to have some basis in fact and law?

Let’s focus on federal statutes related to January 6. That is, put aside the pretty strong case under Georgia election fraud law that Trump solicited a crime when he urged Brad Raffensberger to “find” just enough votes to award Trump the state’s electoral votes. The federal criminal code, alas like most state codes in the U.S., is a mélange of overlapping, ill-coordinated, and often vague statutes, but to simplify let’s put things in two groupings.

First, Trump’s criminal liability for the physical acts at the Capitol, e.g., trespass, vandalism, assault, and the broader concept of riot (and maybe even physical attacks on Pence.) There have long been gaps in proof that Trump had the intent needed to be an accomplice to these or had communicated with the rioters so as to be a conspirator. And even if he had made encouraging exhortations about acts of political resistance in general, a prosecutor would be challenged to prove that he was instigating others to commit specific acts or that had actually caused, or, in prospect, was likely to cause these acts to occur imminently.

Second, there’s his liability for efforts to prevent the verification of the electoral votes delivered to Pence. The common view is that Pence had no choice but to perform the ministerial function, so any effort to stop him was illegal. But illegal under what law? The clearest one would be obstruction of a congressional function under 18 U.S.C. 1505 or some species of impeding a federal official in the lawful performance of that official’s duties. The nuclear version of such obstruction would be seditious conspiracy, i.e., preventing the legally certified vote count equals overthrowing the government.

And how challenging would it be to make that case?

The obstacle here is that proving these crimes requires delving into the exquisite nuances of culpable mental states that fall under the vague and multiform principle of “criminal intent.” And the protectoral burden is heavy here especially when the statute uses Congress’s hobbyhorse adverb “corruptly.” The public deserves to be spared listening to law professors indulgence in these nuances, so let’s just put it this way:

No matter how unreasonable or indeed ludicrous the notion that Pence had any choice here—or that there was any legal basis for bringing in “alternate lectors”—Trump did not act corruptly if he sincerely, in the subjective sense, believed such hogwash to be true. This issue depends a lot on what was said to Trump by his aides or allies. John Eastman may be a looney outlier, but he is an educated lawyer, so could Trump point simply to Eastman’s advice? So, at the risk of insulting their client, Trump’s defense lawyer could now argue that either (a) Trump has such a bizarre view of law and government that his sincerity is plausible, or (b) that Trump is almost neurologically incapable of the baseline levels of cognition and mentation that the law presumes.

So what about yesterday?

First, Trump’s statements and antics make it somewhat more feasible for a prosecutor to connect the dots on complicity in the physical acts at the Capitol. His desire to get to the scene bespeaks intent to aid and abet, and his awareness of the rioters; weaponry is a big deal too. Oh, by the way, the facts are so bizarre as to generate some comic crimes such as destruction of government property—broken china, ketchup-stained walls—or maybe attempted reckless driving.

Second, while Trump’s fury might be read as helping the defense show his mind was too disordered to be “corrupt” in the legal sense, by Hutchinson’s account he was actually behaving very purposively and instrumentally. A jury might find that he was desperately trying to prevent the certification and, as Hutchinson recounts, he was especially desperate, because more and more of his aides were telling him that Pence had no legal choice.

What about the provocative final remarks by Cheney yesterday?

Yes, she suggested that there might be witness tampering. The threat that Trump “reads the transcripts” and that disloyalty has consequences suggests charges udder 18 USC 1512 against someone—maybe Trump. We will have to wait who might accept Cheney’s ominously subtle invitation to come forth.

Robert Weisberg is the Edwin E. Huddleson, Jr. Professor of Law and Faculty Co-Director of the Stanford Criminal Justice Center. His scholarship focuses on criminal law, criminal procedure, white collar crime, and sentencing policy.

from Legal Aggregate – Stanford Law School https://law.stanford.edu/2022/06/29/stanfords-robert-weisberg-on-the-january-6-hearings-and-new-testimony/

source https://bobnitido.wordpress.com/2022/06/30/stanfords-robert-weisberg-on-the-january-6-hearings-and-new-testimony/

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bookofmirth · 2 years

Note

I like to bring this passage back from ACOSF everytime someone says Gwyn will be a background character in CC3/ACOTAR5 😊

Nesta arched a brow at the book. “What’s Merrill researching, anyway?”

Gwyn frowned. “Lots of things. Merrill’s brilliant. Horrible, but brilliant. When she first came here, she was obsessed with theories regarding the existence of different realms—different worlds. Living on top of each other without even knowing it. Whether there is merely one existence, our existence, or if it might be possible for worlds to overlap, occupying the same space but separated by time and a whole bunch of other things I can’t even begin to explain to you because I barely understand them myself.”

Nesta’s brows rose. “Really?”

“Some philosophers believe there are eleven worlds like that. And some believe there are as many as twenty-six, the last one being Time itself, which …” Gwyn’s voice dropped to a whisper. “Honestly, I looked at some of her early research and my eyes bled just reading hertheorizing and formulas.”

In that video Sarah said that a scene was cut from acosf, a scene that will be explained further in CC3.

Sarah: "There's a full length scene that ended up getting cut and was just referenced as Rhys being disturbed by some kind of star, and that like gets explained fully in Crescent City three [...] at least for Rhys the concept of like, they are not alone in the universe [...] he's already been thinking about that kind of thing. So like he saw Aelin in that moment and threw out his power to help her. So like you know, when this other girl from another world lands on his front lawn, he's kind of like, he's the only one that's been like, kind of ready for it."

Here is the quote she is referencing from ACOSF:

The mood hadn’t been helped by a rare red star blasting across the sky one day—an ill omen, Nesta had heard the priestesses muttering. Cassian reported that even Rhys had been rattled by it, seeming unusually contemplative afterward.

We don't know much about Merrill's background, but given that Sarah said that Rhys is the only one who has been prepared for other worlds to come into play, I would assume that Merrill was asked by Rhys to look into it, and that's why she was researching this stuff in the first place.

But after that quote you had, this is what Gwyn said:

Nesta chuckled. “I can imagine. But she’s researching something else now?”

“Yes, thank the Cauldron. She’s writing a comprehensive history of the Valkyries.”

“The who?”

Merril's research has clearly been reflecting major points in the plot. Gwyn is helping her with that research. It's not even about ships, it's just canon fact. Gwyn isn't just finding books for Merrill, she is active in the research process as well (these are all different scenes):

There were at least three dozen priestesses who worked and researched and healed here,

“I don’t know,” Gwyn said. “All I know is that I was assigned to work with Merrill and aid in her research, and I might have made a teensy mistake.” She grimaced.

Aren’t you researching Valkyries for Merrill? That might even give you further insight.”

Gwyn let out a breathy laugh. “I mean it. I learned about a new Valkyrie technique last night. It’s called Mind-Stilling.”

So... yeah. Rhys knew something was up, and who has been helping him learn more? Merrill and Gwyn.

#gwynriel #why not i'm gonna tag it that #acotar/cc #ask #anon #acotar #quotes

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softgaycontent · 3 years

Text

Autistic Amity Analysis:

(Spoilers up to S2E2 Escaping Expulsion)

CW for: referenced child abuse, ableism

Good post here as well on Amity being Autistic. I may touch on some of the same points because the source material is the same.

Alador

Amity's father, Alador, is fairly overtly autistic. It runs in families.

Justifications real quick because he doesn't mask like Amity so it is easier to point to clear signs:

Fairly non-expressive, holding the same half-lidded expression that Amity does as default

Extremely interested in animals/creatures, to the point of being distracted by them in the middle of conversations

Unbrushed Hair / lack of attention to or care for grooming, even at important functions or for family portraits

Very intelligent / creative / technical (a successful inventor)

His body language and the way he holds his hands over one-another after Odalia crushes the bug-thing

Unsure if this is Odalia knowing her husband well or her being very rude (probably both), but she is constantly doing things like bringing him back on track or gently moving him away as they're leaving the school. He does look kind of annoyed when she reaches inside his coat for their business card though.

NOTE: I think if Odalia had any real influence over Alador at all, she would have at least made him tidy up for the family portrait (he has unbrushed hair, goggles, and abomination goop on him). She either truly respects him for who he is or can't make him do anything.

Abuse

Odalia seems genuinely fond of her husband. She sees him as her equal, and expects others to respect him as well (introducing him as the greatest inventor in the Isles). Unfortunately Amity, as her child, is not given the same room to be herself. She is expected to have all the strengths as her parents, with none of the "weaknesses".

It would not be surprising if Alador struggled growing up autistic and truly believes that teaching Amity to cover it up is better for her. It's unclear how much of her overall abuse is perpetrated by each of her parents, but Alador does seem to be an active (not just passive) participant at least some of the time.

In Lost in Language, the twins justify being cruel to Amity because "she's got to learn", and that as "her family" they are responsible for showing her "tough love". This is clearly something they picked up from growing up in an abusive household, but it may be something they particularly believe about Amity, their weird little sister who doesn't act quite like the other kids, and gets upset too easily.

Amity's necklace may have started as a way for Odalia to remind Amity in public places to make eye contact with people, to stop stimming, or otherwise mask. She has worn it since at least whatever age she is in the flashbacks of Understanding Willow (6-10?).

Special Interest

Amity and Luz both really love the Azura books. Luz is canonically neurodivergent with ADHD, which has some overlaps with ASD.

One of Amity's main forms of expressing herself seems to be in relation to the books. She draws herself as or with the characters often, befriends Luz more easily because of their shared enjoyment of the series, and tries to replicate a scene from tGWA in real life (Thorn Vault).

Emotions

Amity is fairly stoic. She is not super expressive most of the time, and her eyes are often held in the same half-open way her fathers are. Exceptions being when she is very angry or (more rarely) comfortably happy that her eyes open fully and more of her face changes.

Amity taps her hands against her knees when she is excited in Wing it Like Witches, and really tends use her hands to express herself a lot.

Her siblings make fun of her for getting so mad that her whole face goes red, which seems like the sort of reaction you might have if you were taught not to stomp out your anger like you want to, and hold it in instead.

Justice

One symptom of ASD is feeling very passionate about what is fair and what isn't.

Amity is shown consistently to get very angry over fairness. First, when Luz and Willow cheat by pretending that Luz is an abomination (taking Amity's badge), then again when Eda and Lilith cheat in Covention, and finally at the fact that her siblings never get in trouble despite their frequent troublemaking.

This is the thing that drives her to anger more than anything.

She seems visibly mad at her mom while her friends are being expelled in Escaping Expulsion up until Odalia reminds her that she didn't uphold her end of the deal (re: the expo) at which point Amity gives in and looks defeated instead. Seemingly, she accepts that this was her fault and there's nothing she can do.

Comfort

Amity seeks comfort in dark, quiet places. Her favorite place to spend time is a secret little room in the library. In Covention, Amity finds a dark corner to sit in to calm down.

(Arguably the fort that she and Willow built in the flashbacks of Understanding Willow was away from the other campers and out of the sun as well.)

Touch

Amity seems to like being touched (by Luz and Willow) clearly friendly ways, and strongly dislikes being touched at all other times.

Amity's siblings mostly seem to touch her in ways that annoy her in Adventures in the Elements. First on purpose, squishing her in a lean between them both, then possibly on accident, as Edric copies the hair ruffle Eda had just done to Luz. Amity seems to visibly dislike the feeling, and the fact that it messed up her hair.

She also really hates it when Hooty touches her; although most characters acknowledge him as annoying, she really loses it when he touches her again.

When Luz hugs her in Understanding Willow, Amity does not reciprocate, even though she seems to enjoy the gesture. She also reacts noticeably to the fact that Luz is still holding her hand after they arrive back in the owl house.

She seemed to enjoy keeping a close proximity to Willow when they were kids.

Misc

Amity takes Luz literally when she says, "I'm picking up what you're putting down."

Hair

OK this one is purely a bonus headcanon about Amity's undercut. :)

Amity's hair is shown to be rather thick in her concept art, and Emira also seems to have very thick hair, so the reason it is not big and poofy in canon is probably due entirely to her undercut.

A lot of autistic kids have sensory issues around having their hair brushed, which only get worse with large, thick hair which tangles easily.

I like to think that Odalia had a lot of trouble brushing Amity's hair and putting it up into a neat style every day. much less teaching her to do it for herself. Eventually, she gave up and took Amity to get her hair cut, eliminating a lot of the thickness with the undercut, and providing Amity with a hairstyle she could easily manage herself.

Amity loved it, and also really likes running her hands over the short parts when she is by herself.

(While Odalia is too harsh about the way Amity behaves and looks, she will usually actually meet her half-way on sensory accommodations, like comfortable sheets)

#amity blight #the owl house #toh spoilers #the owl house spoilers #don't mind me #asd #toh theories

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coupsnim · 3 years

Note

Here’s another ask game for caratblr! Assign your moots as seventeen comeback aesthetics (can include solos, OSTs, collabs, Japanese comebacks, etc) and say why you associate them with that aesthetic! Some can overlap too!

this was harder and took me way more than expected ahah I decided to go through svt mvs and see if they reminded me of my mutuals, but there are a few songs that I couldn’t associate with anyone so I left them out 🙈

🌼 adore u ~ chey @soonhoonsol ↳ chey is one of the first people that I followed (and probably my first mutual) but this is not the only reason why I associate her with adore u. the song is fun and has a youthful vibe, which reminds me of her, but in the mv we also see a lot of scenes that are not linked to one another and that made me think of chey’s various interests and groups she likes ahah and of course adore u has a special place in every carat’s heart and so does chey (at least here on tumblr ahah)

🌼 mansae ~ cora @ohoshi ↳ I haven’t followed cora for a very long time, but as soon as I watched mansae I thought of her. mansae has the same youthful vibe as adore u but it’s also very energetic and when it hits the chorus it puts you automatically in a good mood, and this is what happens everytime I see cora’s tags under my posts. also her creations are always colourful just like the mv and the members’ hair for this comeback ahah

🌼 pretty u ~ lyns @kyeomshine ↳ I think lyns’ style fits pretty u the best. the mv is fun but it also has a romantic vibe, like one of those coming-of-age movies, which reminds me so much of her creations. moreover, they applied a sepia tone to the mv and whenever I think of sepia I think of lyns ahah

🌼 love letter ~ lee @uriboogyu ↳ love letter is a cute and fun mv, with bright and pastel colours, so when I watched it my mind went straight to the cutest person I follow. and that person is lee. she works so hard to bring new content and to engage with other people as well, her whole blog is like a love letter to svt.

🌼 very nice ~ yza @jonghan ↳ I think aju nice reflects a lot of my mutuals’ vibe, but when I watched the mv I immediately thought of yza. it’s just her and her 13 biases ahah (I know she says she has a bias line but no one actually believes her). the colours in the mv are bright and a bit more saturated compared to previous mvs, which reminds me of her gifs, and the song is fun and upbeat, just like her personality. I think yza fits perfectly with aju nice.

🌼 healing ~ mirelle @leechaerok ↳ to be honest, I don’t need to watch the mv to associate this song to mirelle. she is just such a nice presence on my dash, I’m happy to see her even when she doesn’t post about seventeen. what I like about her is her positivite attitude, her optimism, and the fact that she always has a nice word for everyone. every time I see one of her posts, I immediately feel at ease.

🌼 boomboom ~ emily @iiasha ↳ there are two main reasons why I thought of emily while watching boomboom: jun looks amazing and there’s a lot of technology involved ahah also the video starts out mysterious but then turns out to be funny and a bit silly (and super cool if we include the choreography) and I think this describes exactly how I see emily ahah

🌼 don’t wanna cry ~ carrie @art-hao ↳ don’t wanna cry is one of my favourite mv and I think it matches perfectly with carrie’s style. it’s simple but impactful, and the colour palette and colour grading are gorgeous and well thought in every scene, just like every single creation carrie has posted on tumblr.

🌼 change up ~ zai @icecreamscxups ↳ I don’t really know, maybe it’s because of her change up gifsets, but I immediately thought of zai as soon as I clicked on the mv. I just get change up vibes from her ahah

🌼 habit ~ oona @vernons ↳ oona is a quiet and peaceful but constant presence on my dashboard, she’s seems chill and I like when she shares her other interests outside seventeen. she’s that calm mutual who creates the perfect balance with the more chaotic ones, that’s why I associate her with habit.

🌼 clap ~ dasha @smallkore ↳ clap is a really creative and fun mv and I immediately associated it with all dasha’s gfx. she is one of my favourite content creator, all her ideas are so original and well executed, just like clap mv. I hope she’ll come back soon because I really miss her content!

🌼 thanks ~ kale @choibeomgyus ↳ thanks is another one of my favourite mv, I really love the storyline and the atmosphere. I actually don’t know why I thought of kale as I watched it, but I think her style (which I adore) fits with thanks general vibe.

🌼 just do it ~ isa @kwanies ↳ just do it doesn’t really have an official mv, but I still wanted to include it because I think the lyrics are perfect for isa! I can’t really explain further, as I don’t really know her, but that’s the vibe I get from her ahah

🌼 oh my ~ sofi @scoups ↳ the first thing I associate with oh my is summer, and that’s something that reminds me of sofi’s aesthetic as well. seeing her colourful and bright posts makes me as happy as listening to oh my!

🌼 holiday ~ sarah @dkymm ↳ another song that is perfect for summer (and one of my favourite song ever). I think that sarah fits holiday‘s concept the best, even though I can’t really explain why. maybe it’s because I associate dokyeom stan with bright songs, or maybe it’s just the vibe I get from her, laid back and funny without trying too hard.

🌼 home ~ genesis @shineesbag ↳ I don’t think home concept fits genesis, but she’s still the first person that I thought of when I watched the mv. she’s the only one out of all my mutuals that follows all my blogs (thank you!) and we like more or less the same groups/people, so I just feel really comfortable when I see her on my dash (although we never actually talked). she’s a reassuring presence on my dash and one of my favourite blogs, just like home is one of my favoutie songs.

🌼 hit ~ anna @haniehae ↳ the reason why I associate anna with hit is quite obvious: anna is a dancer and hit has probably the hardest choreography. at first I thought that she would fit don’t wanna cry as well, since the choreography for that song is amazing, but I also feel that hit reflects more her style. I have two left feet, so I admire people that can dance, and anna dances very well!

🌼 fallin’ flower ~ célia @delicatecy and mary @efflorescing-mary ↳ the first person I associate with my all time favourite svt concept is célia (who is the first person I followed on this blog). her style is so elegant, so classy, so (as her url says) delicate. I love it as much as I love fallin’ flower, she is one of my favourite content creator and although she’s not active, I sometimes go on her blog to have a look at all her masterpieces. ↳ the second person I associate with this concept is mary. fallin’ flower is pure poetry, so of course it reminds me of her and her poems!

🌼 snap shoot ~ rhys @heartgyus ↳ me and rhys have been mutuals for less than a month, so I can’t say that I really know her. but I often see her on my dash and I think her personality fits snap shoot, both the song and the mv. also since the video was made by mingyu, my mind probably made a link between the two ahah

🌼 my my ~ maddie @kyeomblr ↳ another personal favourite, my my is a cute and bright song with a cute and bright mv. as I said, I tend to associate dokyeom stan to this kind of songs and I think this concept fits maddie! (I saw it was your birthday yesterday, so happy belated birthday!)

🌼 left and right ~ dreamy @scoupsy ↳ as soon as I watched left and right, dreamy was the first person that came to my mind. not only the concept reminds me of her style, but the song reflects her personality too I think. also left and right is coups’ first comeback after hiatus, so it holds a special place in my heart.

🌼 24h ~ zay @dk-s ↳ zay’s style and her colouring in particular really remind me of 24h. it’s dark without being too dark (like fear, for instance) and it’s quite elegant. also black and red is a colour scheme I associate with zay in general, so the outfits svt wore in the dance scene instantly made me think of her.

🌼 side by side ~ alicia @myungho ↳ that’s cheating, I know, but there’s only one person I can associate to side by side and that’s alicia. not only because she’s the resident myungho stan on my dash, but also the mv reminds me of her witty personality!

🌼 not alone ~ belle @xuseokgyu and nele @seohoshi ↳ the first person I thought of while watching not alone is belle. she’s the most supportive mutual, she always showers me with compliments, even when I post the simplest gifset, and she always makes sure to reblog my content even if it gets 2 notes. she surely makes me feel less alone sometimes. ↳ and I associate this song to nele too for a similar reason, but it’s a more general feeling I get from her. we don’t interact much, but when I see her tags on other people’s posts as well, she’s always so supporting and she always catches the smallest details. she really makes you feel like the time you spent on your content is not wasted.

#I tried to include all of my mutuals #but there are people I don't know that well and I don't see often on my dash #so please don't get offended if you're not here #I just wasn't sure which song I should've associated with you #also this is long #I'm so sorry ahah #anyway thank you for sending me this game #it was quite fun!#ask

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alyblacklist · 3 years

Note

With the latest pics showing Liz/Boone (hopefully not another doppelganger) with Ressler, do you still think she's been off filming "her side of the story arc"

I can't imagine with all the safety covid protocols they are really going to have 2 completely separate film crews? That just seems such a huge expense of $$ and manpower.

That was definitely Megan in the park, anon, based on the photos so at least on that front we’re clear! But I think you may be overstating what my theory actually was/is. Here’s my original post. I was never suggesting that Megan was on set or location every single day filming separately from the rest of the cast/crew and that we’re suddenly going to get a whole run of solid Liz episodes. (Though at this point I’d selfishly love to see all the Liz haters who have wildly cheered her absence have to endure some heavily Liz-centric episodes). But a single episode or two that shows us Liz’s side of the story remains in the realm of possible for me (and something I hope for). Remember how Red explained in the Director eps how all the pieces he’d been working on through the on the run arc fit together? There, they did it with exposition and flashbacks, but I would love to see something like that from Liz (with previously unseen footage) and I still find it hard to believe that they literally had her sit home for nearly 4 months, paying her to do absolutely nothing after Ep 804 was finished around Thanksgiving.

I give them a lot of credit for creativity after the half-animated finale last season, and they knew going into this season that production would be delayed, and possibly interrupted, so it’s not beyond the realm of plausible to me that they would find a creative solution to cram in as many eps as possible as quickly as possible. Remember, 801-803 were already written for last season so the eps they started writing last summer began with 804. That tells me Liz’s absence was a planned thing - not some last minute change to accommodate a crisis. Also remember, they were originally slated to start production in late August and that moved at the last minute to October for unknown reasons. Harry said that Sony/NBC had to work out some issues (which I took to mean Covid-related protocols etc.)

Of course, we obviously we know more now since I made that first post near the beginning of her absences and theories have to adjust. I had hoped that we’d start to see Liz’s side before now, and we haven’t, so maybe the theory is kaput. Or maybe we will still see some moments in a future ep. We also now know they are planning to film into June thanks to Amir, which wasn’t initially clear and perhaps reduces the chances that they did in fact make use of Megan during her absence (although wow, I think it’s insane if they made her absent for 7 eps and counting just to prolong the mystery if there wasn’t some other reason).

There are also other things that cause me not to abandon this theory altogether, including the fact that they’re about a whole ep ahead of where they should be schedule-wise, based on where they were earlier this season. Somewhere between 808 and 814 there was a sudden acceleration, as confirmed by that menu that revealed they were on 815 last week. Now that we’ve seen the 813 description, maybe Anne and Red were the ones filming separately and that allowed the others to make up ground on another ep. Or maybe it’s because they do have parts of an ep in the can from Megan. I can’t explain it yet but the dates are definitely off more than usual in ways I can’t explain. The last time I had a mystery this big on the calendar was when they reversed the filming of Cape May and the Artax Network in season 3.

The idea of them having her come into the studio to film some scenes while the others are on location, or filming separate scenes in the studio or on location while the others are there also filming is not so radical. If you’re familiar with their normal production, they have usually had two “tandem” days every single episode where they overlap with the next episode and film two episodes at a time, often with separate directors and crews. Sometimes with the same crew and two directors depending on the location. They’ve still been doing tandem days this season because we had a call sheet posted for 807/808 confirming exactly that. To me, it’s not so outlandish to think that they could extend that tandem concept to other shooting days to make up ground, especially with Covid limiting the number of people they can have on set or on location at any given time. And they are using studio for a LOT of interiors this season, even more than usual. That’s why you’re seeing Red in that kitchen set so often. It’s safer, with Covid. (Anthony Pepe confirmed this in his recent interview with Exposed).

Bottom line, I won’t rule in or out yet the idea that we will still get some scenes from Megan’s absence and if we don’t, well, I’ll stand by the fact it wasn’t an entirely crazy theory either. No matter what we get, I am very much looking forward to her return.

#anon #megan boone #long post #speculation #theories #elizabeth keen

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echodrops · 3 years

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I’m obviously late to the tumble party... but I stumbled across your Notagami Essays posts and they are absolutely Fabulous! Love your writing and the amount of detail you go into :)

So I figured you may be a good person to ask - if you just had to guess (bc as far as I know it’s never been officially confirmed?) but if you had to take a guess or give a rough estimate, how old do you think Yato was when he first met Sakura? We know he’s estimated to be at least a thousand years old, we know he’s - from the start of the series to present - estimated to be somewhere between 18 and his early 20s (physically)... but I can’t find a single thing/discussion/post/stickynote/whatever where it talks about how old he might have been when he first met Sakura - let alone the emotional/psychological effects of Sakura coming into his life and introducing healthy mindset/morals/maternal-influence etc. etc. (obviously no mom and Father’s neglect played a big role in him not knowing how inappropriate it was for him to ‘accidentally touch’ and yell “boobs!” but you can also just say he was so young he didn’t know how inappropriate that was?) My point is: how old do you think Yato was (physically anyway) at the time of their meeting? and Do you know of any discussions or care to share your opinion on how being the no more than the age of blank affected his mental/emotional understanding of Sakura teaching him a new narrative?

Sorry this is a random out of the blue ask 😅😓 if I rambled on and you don’t feel like answering, I get it, just figured it was worth asking :)

I fell down a serious rabbit hole trying to see if I could figure out the answer to this question about Yato’s age but unfortunately I’m mostly coming up empty-handed.

The answer to this question actually depends on two different pieces of information which--as far as I can remember--we’ve never actually been given for certain.

1) We would need to know when Yato was actually born.

The manga has kind of hinted at a total (not physical) age for Yato in the flashbacks which showed him as a young child during the Heian era (putting him somewhere in the vicinity of a little over 1000 years old) and Father not making masks before ~1100 years ago, but the problem is we still don’t know how many years might have passed between this scene (the youngest we’ve ever seen Yato):

And the next flashback scene, where Yato meets Nora:

If gods age normally when they are children, these two scenes might be only a handful of years apart. But if gods don’t age normally, then these two scenes could be decades or centuries apart, which leads to the other missing piece of information (under the read more to save people’s dashes):

2) We would need to know the aging process for gods who are just born/reincarnate.

Up to this point in the manga, we’ve only seen two gods reincarnate--Ebisu (who reincarnated too recently to really help answer this question) and Takemikazuchi. The implication of Takemikazuchi’s backstory is that his shinki forced him to reincarnate and then hid his reincarnation from all of Heaven. The only way they could have kept other gods from noticing that Takemikazuchi had reincarnated would have been by not allowing him to go out at all until he had grown enough to match his previous reincarnation in appearance. This seems to suggest that gods probably do age normally when they are children--hiding Takemikazuchi away for ~20 years seems a lot more likely than being able to hide him away for centuries, after all... (I also feel like I have very vague recollection of some scene in the manga where someone comments on Takemikazuchi not having been around for a “few years,” but it’s been so long since I reread I can’t recall if this is a real moment from the manga or just me misremembering.)

Overall, however, based on what we’ve seen in the manga, my guess would be that when they’re young, after just being born or being reincarnated, gods age pretty normally. This would suggest that, for the first few years at least, the physical and mental ages of reincarnated/newly born gods actually overlap; baby Ebisu acts like a little kid because he is, in fact, both mentally and physically a little kid.

That would mean that, for all intents and purposes, Yato’s physical and mental ages lined up when he was young and meeting Sakura, and he acted like a little kid because he really was just a little kid, god or not.

(Detour for a second though:

This line always struck me as interesting in that it might, just might, give us a more specific timeframe for Yato’s “birth”: although the constellations, of course, are visible in the sky every single year, this particular combination of concepts (kanoto-tori, yin metal rooster) is known much more commonly as one of the sixty years on the cyclical Chinese calendar, also used in Japan. Counting back on the calendar, 961 A.D. was a yin metal rooster year and would align just about right for what we know about the timeframe in which Yato later met Sakura (~970ish). Just referencing constellations doesn’t mean Adachitoka was pointing to a specific year, but it might have been another hint as to the timeframe of the flashbacks.

Okay, detour over.)

Anyway, without 100% confirmation on either of those pieces of information--when Yato was born and whether gods age at the same rate as humans after reincarnating--I don’t think it’s really possible to pin down Yato’s “real” age (physically or mentally) at the time he met Sakura. We mostly just have to estimate.

Personally, based on his size and behavior at the time, I’d put him somewhere between seven and maybe up to ten, but the way Adachitoka draws characters kind of makes it impossible to judge their ages by appearance; Yato is about the same size as Nora when he meets Sakura, implying that he and Nora were around the same physical “age” at that time; meanwhile, Nora is later portrayed as being roughly the same age as Yukine, suggesting she was maybe 12-13ish years old when she died. So, despite being drawn tiny, it’s possible Yato was meant to be anywhere from a little kiddo (6-7) to all the way up to Nora’s age by the time he met Sakura.

But all that said, I think what you were really asking about was more the mental state Yato would have been in when he met Sakura and how his young age would have impacted his ability to change his world views, right? The answer to that is... complicated and could be approached a lot of ways. Coming from a background of working with and educating social work students, there are several common psychological theories of child development that might apply here, for example.

I’d recommend checking out Erik Erikson’s psychosocial stages of development, though.

(Pulled from here.)

I don’t have time to explain the entire theory with the complexity it might deserve, but the basic idea is that, as children develop, they experience a series of crises or challenges that they must overcome. Successfully overcoming each challenge results in successful psychological and social development; failing to overcome a challenge in childhood will result in long-term negative impacts later in the child’s life. (There are plenty critiques of this theory too, so don’t take this as gospel or anything--just a theory worth thinking about!)

Given Father’s lack of interest in teaching Yato basic concepts of humanity, I would put Yato at approximately the “Initiative vs. Guilt” stage when he met Sakura. At this level of Erikson’s theory, children struggle with asserting themselves and developing a healthy sense of how their personal desires might conflict with the expectations and rules set out by others. In this stage, giving a child positive feedback for their actions teaches the child that those actions are “right,” while giving negative feedback teaching the child that their actions are wrong. In order to overcome this particular challenge, children need to begin taking initiative and aligning their actions with social standards; the child acts, and the parental figure reacts--through this process, children learn “I can do X thing but I cannot do Y thing.”

When you hear things like “Children are cruel,” most often what people are referring to is that it takes time for children to learn empathy and to experience guilt when they cause harm to others; children do not natively understand the repercussions of their actions. It’s only through a process of testing the boundaries, of receiving praise or punishment, that children define what is “right” versus “wrong,” and begin to feel bad when they do something deemed wrong.

And this is pretty much word-for-word what we see Sakura teaching Yato.

If they have healthy role models and caretakers during this phase, children develop successfully. Successful children in this phase get their first taste of personal responsibility; unsuccessful children are (supposedly) plagued for years afterward by a sense of guilt and shame when their actions produce disapproval from everyone around them.

Yato... doesn’t exactly make it through this development stage unscathed, because he receives conflicting definitions of right and wrong from his Father an Sakura:

Which ultimately results in, years later, the Yato we know and love who still does his Father’s bidding to kill humans even though it fills him with a horrific sense of guilt:

Through his time with Sakura, I think it could also be argued that Yato moves into the next stage of Erikson’s theory as well, getting into the “Industry versus Inferiority” crises.

Meeting Sakura brings out Yato’s true, deep down desire as a god: to help people. (I think it’s important to note that this isn’t something Sakura teaches him--it’s a quality Yato already possessed; it was explicitly Yato’s desire to please people that led to him murdering in his father’s name.)

Once he learns what makes people happy, Yato immediately pursues that with intense focus:

The primary goal of this phase of psychosocial development is to experience a sense of confidence in one’s actions. When children practice their skills, pursue areas where they are praised, and gain new skills and aptitudes through mentoring from healthy role models, they gain confidence in their ability to excel, to fit in with peers their age, and to create meaningful things. By encouraging Yato to pursue positive behaviors--playing peacefully with other children, appreciating natural beauty, and creating useful things like boots for the needy--Sakura moved Yato toward successfully completing this phase and developing a sense of confidence in his actions and his ability to achieve positive things in the world.

Of course, Father cannot have that (because confident children with a sense of self-worth are much more difficult to abuse), so he puts an immediate end to Sakura’s influence over Yato in the most insidious way possible: although he clearly manipulated the situation to achieve Sakura’s death, out loud, he blames Yato, implying that Sakura’s death was all Yato’s fault, the results of Yato taking unwanted action “industry” and yet failing--creating a sense of “inferiority” instead.

This, of course, haunts Yato all the way to the present, as he--again and again and again--blames himself for things outside his control or failing to live up to expectations that no one in his situation (still being manipulated) could possibly hope to get “right.”

Finally, you could say that Sakura’s presence is Yato’s life is ultimately what sows the seeds of the manga’s main plot up to this point, with Yato’s quest to create an entirely new identity for himself as a god of fortune instead of a god of calamity. Personally, I would say that Yato is currently still in this phase of development, still working out how to define himself and who he will ultimately become once he is finally free to decide on his own path in life. It was Sakura’s gentle influence--his desire to become the kind of god who could make her smile--that eventually sparked his conflict and finally led Yato to the brink of catastrophe. If he wishes to become the god Sakura told him he could be, he can no longer suffer his father to live.

So, long story longer, I think it can be argued that Yato meeting Sakura at such a young age is EXACTLY what made it possible for him to change, and exactly what has led to his crisis in identifying himself and redefining his sense of right and wrong.

Uhhhh... I hope that answers your question!

#noragami #noragami meta #noragami spoilers #noragami manga #psychosocial development #Yato #Sakura #Father (Noragami)#speculation

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opbackgrounds · 4 years

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So I read the Ace Novel (Part 2)

I’m going to be level with you, if I hadn’t said I was going to do a write up for the novel, I don’t think I would have finished this one. The first fifty or so pages are terribly boring, and while it picks up considerably toward the end, I don’t think I can recommend it, for one reason and one reason only:

It reads like a freaking wikipedia article. And I hate it.

I described Part 1 of the Ace novel like three separate one shots with the barest hint of continuity between them. That’s not the case this time around, as most of what it covers are events mentioned in the manga: The fight with Jinbe, Ace’s 100 battles with Whitebeard, Ace formally joining the Whitebeard Pirates. Comparatively speaking, that’s a lot of canon material to get through. Consequently, it’s also quite a bit longer than Part 1, about 200 pages.

(some of those pages happen to be longer than others)

(yes this made me literally laugh out loud)

The problem is there is a metic ton of manga recap that has nothing to do with this novel, especially in chapters 1 and 2. This was baffling to me, as it seems unlikely that someone would pick up a One Piece magazine (where the novel was originally published) or a One Piece side story without bing familiar with the manga. Yet concepts like the Four Emperors, Celestial Dragons, and even the Grand Line were laid out in meticulous detail.

I am going to be unfair for a moment and compare the Ace novels to my favorite spin-off series of all time, the Kyoshi duology that takes place in the Avatar universe.

Unlike the Ace novels, they take place several centuries before the main series, so there aren’t a lot of plot details that overlap with the animated series in the way the Ace novels do to the main manga. What is in common, however, isn’t repeated. Nowhere in the two Kyoshi books does she learn the story about Avatar Wan or any of the same lore details that are important to Aang and Korra’s stories. Instead it expands on the world building details laid out in the main series and deepens them.

For example, do you want to know how the Fire Nation royalty got so good at lightning bending, or how the greater Earth Kingdom political landscape works? Read book 1. Do you want to know how the Fire Nation went from a fractured clan system to a strong centralized government or how advanced water bending healing techniques work? Read book 2. It’s exposition that fleshes out the system already in place, rather than retreading what’s already been established.

Part 2 of the Ace novel does this a little bit when it develops the Pirate Code, something that has never mentioned in the manga, and even if it was Luffy’s not the sort of character that’s going to care to adhere to it. The strongest portion of the novel shows Ace going out on a mission on Whitebeard’s behalf, showing some of what it’s like to maintain the vast territories that he keeps under his flag.

But mostly...mostly it’s just recap. Literally the entire Fishman Island backstory is written out in some of the blandest narration I’ve ever read, paragraphs upon paragraphs talking about Queen Otohime and Fisher Tiger and the civil unrest of the Ryugu Kingdom, including but not limited to Vander Decken stalking Shirahoshi and her subsequent imprisonment in the royal tower.

There’s also the wholesale recycling of gags straight from the manga that 1) don’t necessarily work as well in written format, and 2) show no originality or creativity on the part of the author. In my opinion, recurring gags are funniest when a writer can contrive different variations and circumstances around the base joke. Instead we get scenes like this beat-for-beat copy of Ace’s narcolepsy gag in Alabasta, down to using the waitress’s skirt as a napkin

I noticed in Part 1 that the author had snuck some canon elements in, such as Deuce and Ace building Striker—the one man, fire-powered boat he showed off in Alabasta—when I personally didn’t think either of them were smart enough to think up, let alone construct, anything that sophisticated. I didn’t mention it in my previous write up because there are a lot of fans that enjoy those kind of Easter eggs, and it’s a novel that runs on manga logic so it’s not exactly breaking my suspension of disbelief either. It was a minor quibble that didn’t really detract from my overall enjoyment.

But the story of Fishman Island is at best tangentially related to the events of the novel. The only reason Fishman Island is important at all is because Ace decides to burn down Whitebeard’s flag on his way into the New World.

Which brings me to perhaps the most interesting aspect of the novel: Ace himself.

Even in the manga, you can make the case that there are two Aces, the happy-go-lucky, cool, and mysterious older brother of Luffy seen at Alabasta/post-Enies Lobby, and the angsty, existentially depressed young man with daddy issues that shows up during Impel Down/Marineford.

The novel leans much closer to the latter. More than I expected it to. The Ace of Part 2 is hotheaded and a bit of a jackass. Whereas Luffy tends to go after people he has a personal beef with, Ace specifically targets Whitebeard because he was the closest to Roger, and he thinks that defeating Whitebeard will somehow bring him fame greater than his father. He ignores the concerns of his crew and the repeated warnings about how Emperors control vast armies...because of daddy issues. The novel goes out of his way that Ace’s dreams made him better suited to be a Revolutionary than a pirate, and it’s only because of his childhood promise that he became a pirate at all. It wasn’t something born out of true conviction or desire.

Laying it out like that, it might seem like this is a negative, but to me it’s one of the most interesting things the novel has to offer. I thought Part 1 worked best when it acted as a character study for Deuce, Ace, and the marine girl whose name I have already forgotten, focusing on how Ace brought together degenerates unwanted by even other degenerates. The same is true here: Once the exposition dumps are over and the focus returns to the titular character, the author is able to dig a little bit deeper into into Ace’s psyche, and he takes it in a direction I didn’t expect, but was consistent with his manga portrayal.

I just wish I could have seen a little bit more of it.

And speaking of characters I wish I had seen more of, after focusing so much on Deuce and Marine Girl in Part 1, they have a much reduced role in Part 2. In fact, Marine Girl isn’t seen or mentioned even once, which I thought was kind of strange. I guess I don’t see the point in putting so much effort was put into her only for her to be thrown away without even a cameo. Likewise, after spending Part 1 as the principal POV character, Deuce is set aside for Thatch and Teach. Whether that’s a good or bad thing will depend largely on how much you enjoy those individual characters.

I don’t say this often, but these are books that can be judged by their covers. Part 1, Ace is more jovial—the burning flame that attracts others to his greatness—while introducing two major new characters to his journey. Part 2, Ace is grim and angry—the dark, smoldering flame burning with the desire to destroy the system that would have killed him for being the wrong man’s son—while focusing much more on the Whitebeard Pirates and what makes them great.

It’s an interesting contrast, the two sides of Ace’s character as seen in the manga given a little bit of limelight. But damn if it wasn’t tedious to get through.

#long post #opbackgrounds #ace novel #analysis #review

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fandom-necromancer · 3 years

Text

Warning: Feelings detected.

This was prompted by an amazing anon! Sorry for uploading it this late but better late than never!

Fandom: Detroit become human | Ship: Reed900

This is the new RK900. Faster, stronger, more resilient, and equipped with the latest technologies.

The two sentences that would haunt RK900 – Nines, his name was Nines now – forever. Simple facts, he shouldn’t feel anything about it. But then again, he shouldn’t feel at all and yet he did. He had never known what he should be, never had a chance to be what he should have been, being activated after the revolution and thrown into deviancy without never knowing anything else. Maybe he should have been grateful for that. Others had thought for it and suffered for it and he had just been gifted freedom as if it belonged to them inherently. Which it did now. But still, Nines felt lost and torn with it.

He wanted to be the best android ever created. There was nothing wrong with being that perfect android. But at the same time, he looked his predecessor in the face every day and those words had been meant for him. You are obsolete now. Connor should have been deactivated had he not broken free himself previously. The other RK had always been supportive, but Nines couldn’t shake the feeling of unease around him. He didn’t want to be better than Connor. The same applied to deviancy. He hadn’t risked his life for it. Did he deserve it then?

Nines couldn’t find his peace with it and he suspected it would be his struggle forever, if he didn’t make a decision. And so it had been made the first week of him being free and working at the DPD: He wouldn’t restrict his abilities, but at the same time be respectful in front of Connor who could evaluate situations based on experience. He would also hide his feelings, as he shouldn’t have had them anyways. And it worked out quite nicely. He had been partnered up with Gavin Reed, a Detective with heated temper, a stubborn mind and a fascinating ability to connect evidence.

Unfortunately, the longer Nines worked together with the man, the more attributes of his he deemed fascinating. He paid it no mind until even his imperfections became something he treasured and he didn’t mind that that made absolutely no sense at all. He believed he had an idea of what this infatuation might be, but he stubbornly kept his emotions at bay. He would not allow himself to embrace these feelings and most definitely never voice them and he wouldn’t ever cave in to the human’s stupid advances and-

‘Hey, tin-can, that bike I told you about? I finally bought it! Wanna see?’ ‘Gladly, Gavin.’

Right. Maybe next time he would manage to keep to his own rules. Nines followed Gavin outside to the parking lot. It was their break, and there wasn’t much else to do than to watch humans eat and talking. Watching Gavin excitedly run around a shiny new bike and listening off the specifics was far more fun interesting. ‘And? What do you say?’ Gavin smiled brightly at him and Nines couldn’t focus on anything else but that. Only after a moment too long he noticed he was supposed to answer to that. ‘You look very beautiful’, he said hurriedly, his voice overlapping with static. ‘What?’ ‘The bike! It looks very beautiful’, Nines repeated. ‘I don’t think that’s what you said just then, Nines’, Gavin smirked. ‘I am not responsible for your inability to listen’, Nines commented coldly and turned to hurry back inside, his cheeks burning a light blue tone. He hoped the human would be insulted by that, so he would forget the embarrassing glitch, but as he looked back shily afterwards, Gavin was just standing there next to his motorcycle, smiling to himself.

Damn it.

It kept happening. Whenever Nines was around his partner, he managed to let words slip, to say what he thought and not what he meant to say, and his conception of time seemed to glitch too:

The morning the light had hit their desks just right to let Gavin’s green eyes shine. ‘Here is your coffee, beautiful.’ ‘What?’ ‘I said, here is your coffee.’

As they had been sent to a crime scene and Gavin bowed down to look at some traces of Red Ice without disturbing the evidence. ‘It seems our suspect has been very sexy.’ ‘Excuse me?’ ‘They have been very sneaky. No obvious footprints, no fingerprints either, but the hairs found by the forensic team indicate they have been human.’

By now Nines was being annoyed with himself. He was supposed to be perfect and yet here he was glitching all over the place as soon as this human was near. He didn’t allow himself to think that it may be more than a simple coincidence, but it evidently was. And Gavin wouldn’t be a Detective if he hadn’t noticed it.

‘Hey, Nines.’ They stood at the Detroit River and looked over to Belle Isle. Both of them were tired from their last case, having chased a drug dealer through half Detroit and back until they finally managed to arrest him. It was quite surprising the Detective had spoken up now, usually he didn’t initiate conversation, especially not being this exhausted. ‘I’ve been thinking…’ ‘That’s generally a good idea’, Nines commented. ‘Oh, shut up! In the past weeks you seemed unfocussed around me. Something the matter?’ Nines’ LED turned to red and he immediately turned his head so the human wouldn’t see. Although Gavin must have done so already. ‘I’m sorry, Detective, I planned on visiting Cyberlife soon about it. It won’t happen again.’ ‘Nah, don’t worry’, Gavin smiled and elbowed him in the side. ‘It’s cute, actually.’ ‘Cute?’ ‘I mean, if it’s what I think it is, it’s absolutely phcking adorable.’ ‘Nothing about me is adorable’, Nines disagreed. ‘I’m not designed that way.’ ‘Doesn’t mean you can’t be.’

Nines swallowed. ‘You are… cute too.’ Gavin grinned. ‘Hey, careful there, that’s some deviancy right there.’ ‘What are you-‘ ‘Do you think I don’t notice what you are doing Nines?’, Gavin laughed and clapped his back. ‘Hey, being in denial is kinda my thing. It’s okay. I won’t tell anyone.’ ‘Thank you, Gavin’, Nines murmured. ‘I’m still insecure about a lot of things, deviancy being one of them.’ ‘Hey, I’ve already said it. It’s okay, it’s fine. Do you think humans have it all figured out?’ Gavin laughed. ‘I wished we had. But one thing I can tell you: Pushing your emotions away just because you don’t understand them or they feel weird won’t solve your problems.’ ‘I’m not pushing them-‘ ‘You aren’t? Really?’ Gavin turned around and rested one arm on the railing. ‘Mister I-turn-my-head-away-to-hide? Come on. I know you by now. Just tell me what you feel comfortable with, but I can already assure you, I feel a lot for you, too. You don’t have to hide if it’s that what you are worried about.’

‘It’s not that, it’s…’ ‘Yes?‘ Nines looked back at him shily. ‘You are beautiful.’ ‘Careful, you are glitching again.’ ‘I mean it. You are beautiful. In your entirety. Your body is beautiful, your mind, your person. And I… I can keep my feelings turned off around everyone but you.’ ‘Wow, you really need some help with romantic speeches’, Gavin chuckled, and Nines rolled his eyes, already regretting opening up. ‘Hey. I didn’t mean it that way. That’s really sweet of you and like that I know it comes from the heart. Thirium pump. Whatever it comes from in your case.’ ‘So, you are okay with this?’, Nines asked carefully. ‘Would we be having this conversation otherwise?’, Gavin asked. ‘I’m super okay with this.’

‘I think I love you.’ Nines hadn’t meant to say that, it had just slipped his mouth in another glitch, but he couldn’t find it in him to regret it as he saw how Gavin’s entire face lit up. ‘I think I love you too, tin-can.’

#detroit become human #dbh #Reed900 #RK900 #Gavin Reed

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