#because adult love is so much more solid than teenage love

[genderkoolaid]

I understand if this is not the kind of ask you usually get, but you sometimes post about youthlib so. How would one deal with disliking their peers and some slightly younger people as a young adult? I logically know that no age group is a monolith but I just mean, interacting a lot with people of my age and somewhat younger has really disillusioned me, I don't seem to find any happiness in being around most of them. I sometimes think of my own being a relatively young adult as negative. Im aplatonic and don't want friends and I was miserable when I tried to make myself make friends mainly with peers.

I only talk to people for specific reasons but may just generally joke around with them or make small talk briefly without forming a bond. My partners are mostly somewhat slightly older than me, but one is my age, and I like all of them more than I like other people. Other people I generally just see neutrally and don't wish for them to come to harm.

I think Ive often been annoyed by my peers due to not fitting in and sometimes being treated in toxic or abusive/bullying kind of ways by peers, or from sensory issues because they all talk so much you could probably hear them from another floor. I think its things like that that make me generally unable to feel positive about my peers, along with seeing so many rancid discourse takes online come from the young adults and teenager age groups.

And I understand how being around my age makes people vulnerable to harmful ideology too but its so tiring to see a shit take then see like '22' or '17' on the persons bio.

(Im 21 for reference)

I think it's important to recognize that our emotions and our political philosophies are not tied together. You don't need to feel the right feelings in order to advocate for youth liberation. If you accept these ideas intellectually, and you are cognizant of your emotions and how they affect you, then you can make the choice to not let those emotions shape your actions.

It's important to engage with people outside your age group (or the age group you spend the most time around), but that doesn't need to be friendship. It's alright to engage with others in your communities without wanting friendship. You know, intellectually, that there are young people who are quiet, not interested in friendship, have nuanced opinions on things, etc. It's good to expose yourself to proof of this, but you don't have to do that through feelings of love and friendship.

The Internet is full of shitty opinions and youth, so obviously you are going to see a lot of youth with shitty opinions. But there's plenty of adults with shitty opinions, and youth with solid ones. Confirmation bias is a tricky bitch. I would recommend focusing less on how you feel, & more about how you act. Don't pressure yourself to like your peers or befriend people when it makes you miserable. Put that energy into talking about ageism, fighting KOSA laws, and consciously combatting your own bias. Accept that you feel what you feel, ask yourself what you value, and then find what harmonizes those two.

#m. #ask box

[lilislegacy]

i saw your post about percy and annabeth kiss in boo and how you think it’s ridiculous that people think percy and annabeth are better as friends. well guess what? i’m one of those people. i hate how the main male and female leads are always forced together and that’s exactly what riordan did too. percy and annabeth would have been so much stronger if they had stayed this super amazing platonic friendship where everyone thinks they are going to date but they are like nah we just besties. and i think seeing that is a lot more powerful than just another badly written teenage romance. their chemistry feels forced and unauthentic, they obviously get annoyed with each other way too easily to be in a relationship, and they become dangerously co-dependent. and fine, maybe they would date for a few years since everyone would make them feel like that’s what they are supposed to do. but then i think they would realize that they are better off as friends and don’t actually have romantic attraction for each other. and that’s exactly what i think would happen if the author was true to their characters and not just writing for himself. but honestly i think there is a solid chance that they are both asexual, which there is a TON of evidence of, and wouldn’t even want to date in the first place. so sorry not sorry but percy and annabeth are definitely better as friends, and the people who don’t get strangely obsessed and attached to a basic and forced romantic pairing can see all the evidence in the books as to why.

ok this has been sitting in my inbox for a bit. i have almost answered it in several different ways, one being just saying “that’s an opinion!” but i think im just going to react to it honestly.

you have every right to believe whatever you want to believe. your imagination is your own. go crazy. or don’t. but it’s your own opinion and you have every right to have it.

however, to openly claim that the author isn’t staying true to their characters is not your right, because he is the one who invented them. they are his creations, so he’s actually the only one who knows exactly what’s right for them. the characters are based off of him and his wife who he has been married to for many many years - who are still very much in love with each other to this day - so i think percy and annabeth are actually one of the most authentic romantic pairings of all time. i am sorry that you don’t pick up on their naturally written chemistry and attraction for each other, because i think it’s a very important part of the story. it’s a very important part of their characters and their actions.

and you are absolutely right about one thing: they are best friends and love each other very much in a platonic way, and we DO see that a lot! it’s very clear that they are best friends first, and have that as a strong foundation. but they also have more there. they have strong romantic, and some implied sexual, feelings on top of it. and that’s okay too. it’s possible to have both a strong friendship and a passionate romance. that’s what makes them such an incredible pairing, in my opinion. they grow together. they start off as platonic friends and turn into young adults who are very much in love. it’s very natural, especially given everything they go through together.

so you can totally hc them as being just friends. thats okay! but i don’t think it’s okay to call other people wrong or blind or “strangely obsessed and attached” for believing in a romantic pairing that is very much supposed to be romantic.

thank you for the ask. have a nice day :)

#how did i do guys? #this one was hard #anon ask #answered ask #percabeth #percy jackson #annabeth chase #percy jackson and the olympians #heroes of olympus

[aeon-borealis]

Dumb AleHeather Related Rambles

I play with the idea of "Dumbass is jealous of/has a goofy rivalry with their S/O's cat" for Serirei (Serizawa X Reigen), but I just can't do it with AleHeather. It'd be in-character for them. It'd be so petty and fall so perfectly in place with what kind of writing better Total Drama has. Hell, if I got to work on an older TD cast special, I'd sooo want to storyboard whatever Looney Tunes antics someone brewed up for Alejandro and Bruiser.

But I'm not strict canon compliant for AleHeather. I can, will, and have broken what's "in character" to get more sincere, fluffy moments than I'd get otherwise. That includes both Alejandro and Heather being cat persons. And Alejandro loves Bruiser as much as Heather does because that's wholesome as fuck to me.

I've also been sold on Alejandro and Heather both being HUGE fans of puppetry and that being the nerdy interest they both sync on. I want to do more research because if there's a scene with more of Alejandro's room, there's gonna be more than just the Jim Henson poster or references to The Muppets.

I vaguely remember establishing Alejandro as a Star Wars fan in a fan fic too. I'm not 100% sold on that one any more. It's more because I've never been that into it and I'd have trouble selling a character's enthusiasm on it.

I made some fanart with a hypothetical AleHeather fankid back in high school. She never had a concrete design or personality. The only given was that her name was Alejandra Heather Burromuerto.

By this point, I'm not keen on revising this character or doing anything further because it's important to me to have solid, meaningful childfree rep. I'm on the fence myself, but I feel like deliberately childfree characters with rich, interesting lives outside of kids is woefully under-explored in media at large. To me, its very believable that Alejandro and Heather could be childfree by choice as adults. I definitely want to write/draw content for late 20's-early 30's AleHeather. I don't have any solid ideas or directions other than that drabble I posted a couple months ago about depressed Alejandro.

Writing for them at that phase of life hits a bit too close to home. That's why it's so hard for me. By the reboot standards, they're the same age as me! It was one thing to write for them as a teenager. Hell, a few people told me my writing for Alejandro was spot-on ten years ago. By now, though, I don't want just the angst-fest and I don't have patience for the soap opera theatrics with no real payoff. I honestly want to flesh out and do more with them figuring out a healthy, meaningful dynamic. That's more of what I'm aiming for with my in-progress fan comic (once I actually get back to it. Going through some shit right now and its been hard to drum up motivation again).

#aleheather #alejandro x heather #tdwt alejandro and heather #total drama alejandro #total drama heather

[natsubeatsrock]

Top 7 Things I Enjoyed in 2023: Number 7

If you've seen my past lists, you'd think that I don't like much from DC. That's just a reflection of my current relationship with the company. They've only really made two comics I love this century and it's for B-tier characters. I've been out of touch with any movie endeavors involving heroes since Batman. I've never really gotten into the animated movie scene.

That was only sometimes the case. When I was younger, they ruled the animated television scene. First, it was the DCAU works like Justice League and Static Shock. Later works like Teen Titans and Batman: the Brave and the Bold were what I looked forward to seeing on weekend nights. Sadly, that magic seemed to have died as the years continued, and nothing else has been of interest to me on the animated scene in over a decade.

But what better way to get back into it than the man of tomorrow?

Number #7 – My Adventures with Superman

I've recently been hit with how old my generation is. It's crazy that a show like this feels perfectly suited for the Adult Swim block it aired on. This felt like the kind of show I would have seen around the same time as any of those other shows I mentioned. All while referencing things that my generation would recognize and appreciate. That said, it's thankfully not too adult. There's not too much that could keep me from watching this with my elementary school students, especially considering they're watching anime like One Piece and Demon Slayer.

Speaking of anime, one of the bigger complaints about this show has been feeling too much like anime. For one, have you seen a lot of what is airing around the same time slot? Two days after it aired, Toonami came on to show actual anime. And, for all the changes to character designs, these characters very much feel like the versions fans should know and recognize.

Ever since film audiences had to see Superman snap General Zod's neck on screen, followed by his death in Dawn of Justice, it's been clear the public image of Clark Kent has needed serious repair. While the fate of the DCU stands to be seen, it's amazing to have a story so uniquely focused on how good Clark Kent is. And I do mean Clark. Despite the title, this story feels more about how their world doesn't have to be afraid of Superman because Clark Kent is a good person. This is despite everything his world throws at him and the slander made his way.

And thank goodness for this iteration of Lois and Clark's relationship. This is a relationship that has seen multiple versions over the years. However, it just feels satisfying to see a solid romantic relationship progress in real-time. The best thing about this being for adults is that much of the "will they, won't they" nonsense that pervades teenage romance is replaced with honest conversations about feelings and amazing payoffs.

The only complaint I could have is that it felt too short. It could have easily overstayed its welcome, but there are things about this series that demand a second season. Thank goodness the end of the first season came with a confirmation of the second season's production.

This is normally how I talk about my favorite things of the year. And there were six things I thought were better than this. That's how crazy this year was.

#good riddance 2023 #my adventures with superman

[cerise-grenadine]

Hello!

For the Snapedom AU Ask game, can I get your answers to 1, 2, 5, 6, 9, and 26?

1.) Do you have a name and/or a tag and/or a master post for your AU (so I can peruse your blog and admire your creativity)?

2.) What is the premise of your AU (one sentence summary, tropes, your big “What-if” question, etc.!)?

5.) What are the major divergence points in your AU?

6.) Is there any part of the canon narrative you really like to build off of or interrogate with your AU?

9.) How and why does your AU!Snape differ from the canon!Snape?

26.) Does Severus have any major interests (mycology, astronomy, sci-fi, baking elaborate puff pastries, art forgery, etc.) in your AU that we never got to see canon!Snape indulge in?  Do these interests play a major narrative role?

i'm sorry, if you ask me about my AU, i will infodump 😔🙏🏻

1.) Do you have a name and/or a tag and/or a master post for your AU (so I can peruse your blog and admire your creativity)?

Yes! SlythenclawAU!Snape. it's quite meh but i never really took the time to think of one.

2.) What is the premise of your AU (one sentence summary, tropes, your big “What-if” question, etc.!)?

A long time ago there was a teenager in boarding school who got tired of waiting for the 5th Harry Potter book and decided to make a Snape-centered sequel herself (it's not particularly focused on anything but the ✨ fluffy romance 💖).

5.) What are the major divergence points in your AU?

Honestly, it’s easier to point out the parts in common 😅 It’s only canon-compliant up to Goblet of Fire (with some parts of OOTP included now), meaning Severus was pretty much a blank canvas. We knew he was a smart skinny bastard who disliked the Marauders and was about to resume his job as a DE spy, that was it. As a result, his background is completey different. He has a different family, a different childhood (still terrible), different motivations, different traumas, and Lily was never even a thing.

6.) Is there any part of the canon narrative you really like to build off of or interrogate with your AU?

Not so much one part in particular, but there are themes I like to think about (I won’t say write, I haven’t written a thing in years). Everything that has to do with guilt and forgiveness is interesting to explore with Severus, because he’s both a victim and a culprit: how to forgive, should one forgive, how to make amends, isn’t asking for forgiveness selfish and placing the weight of the pardon on the victim, how to live with guilt when some things can’t be forgiven... In the same vein I like to explore his guilt towards Lucius, who is a genuine friend and a genuine Death Eater; he feels guilty for betraying his friend, and feels guilty for still considering the man a friend.

9.) How and why does your AU!Snape differ from the canon!Snape?

I think the major difference (apart from no Lily) is that he’s more adjusted as an adult. It’s not necessarily visible to the Hogwarts staff or students 😬 the teeth incident or his breakdown at the end of POA are still a thing and the British wizarding world really brings out the worst in him. But he actually has a solid support network in the form of siblings and adoptive parents he met when he was 21. They live abroad and he keeps them secret to avoid DE retaliation so they don’t meet often, but still they are very supportive and it has helped him a lot sorting things out during his late twenties/early thirties. Having this one anchor, being loved and loving them back, has really done him a lot of good and he strives to better himself (at least in private). By the time his love interest appears, some things have healed enough that it’s not her job to fix him, she merely becomes yet another support to help deal with the rest (and the first one in the Brit WW). Don’t worry, he still has nightmares, and tons of guilt, and petty tantrums, but overall he’s in a better place than canon!Snape and has hope for the future. Also I don’t usually include Occlumency/Legilimency. Ho and he’s very French (sorry not sorry)

26.) Does Severus have any major interests (mycology, astronomy, sci-fi, baking elaborate puff pastries, art forgery, etc.) in your AU that we never got to see canon!Snape indulge in?  Do these interests play a major narrative role?

Yes! he’s a huge nerd (the kind who solves equations for fun when he can’t sleep), so he likes to study a lot of things.

Apart from normal magic things, he’s very knowledgeable about human anatomy and medecine, it makes him a better brewer and practitioner of healing magic (also his brother studied Muggle medecine for a while + his brother’s adoptive father was a heart surgeon). He is also an exellent cook (who doesn't eat much), because what’s the difference between Wolfsbane and mayonnaise, you just put stuff in a big saucepan and stirr dutifully it’s the same thing really.

Both those skills are pretty much background stuff; but there is one big hobby that is very important in his life, for several reasons: playing the piano 🙌🏻✨

He is very attached to it because his mother taught him (and she died young) and it’s his one pastime and antidepressant. He will focus on fast-paced pieces when his anxieties keep him awake, will hammer away his anger when he’s had a row with someone... it helps him calm down and clear his mind, and sometimes he will learn complicated parts just for the fun of it simply because he enjoys himself. He is a selfish pianist however. Music is very private to him, he is not a performer and will only do it sometimes for very close people he loves. He owns two pianos, his mother's grand piano at home (which has been through some stuff and is his most prized possession), and a baby grand at Hogwarts gifted by his siblings when he started teaching (it was needed for his mental health and the not-murdering of students). He’s learned how to tune his piano the Muggle way (the only true way, it sounds better, and yes of course he’s pedantic about it) and can talk about the links between mathematics and music for hours. Also +30 years of piano training have given him an acute sense of rhythm and very precise motricity skills that are highly valuable in potions work.

His lover being a musician herself (of the performer kind), music is very important in their relationship and has been central in their getting together. In fact, she first kissed him as they were playing together, so his sister jokes he would never have gotten laid if not for the piano she gifted him (she’s right)(his entourage also jokes sometimes about the kind of fingering skills a pianist with decades of experience has)(he hates it)(because he’s a giant prude)(they’re also right)

#ask games answers #Snapedom AU Ask Game #snape au #SlythenclawAU!Snape #i definitely stole momo's AU masterpost idea when i saw it #i can't be concise for the life of me #why write two lines when you can write two paragraphs #one has to be exhaustive! #because reasons #might be neurodivergent reasons now that i think of it #snape fandom #snape community

[ruthlesslistener]

...okay now I'm haunted by "what if the planet in Subnautica is in the process of developing its own indigenous sapient life after the Sea Emperors' deaths... and it's the reaper leviathans"

like the scanner calls them basically all brawn no brains but the fate of the Degasi suggests they recognize 'one of their own' and react to avenge/defend it, and their circling behavior means they're basically taking their sweet time sizing you up before they attack. They have dexterous appendages that could be easily adapted to tool use.

...And now I have a stray plot bunny because this thought is running into "if the warpers talk to each other using sophisticated protocols the radios can pick up, they're undeniably sapient themselves and their behavior patterns attacking you reflect this" and just imagining like. a reaper leviathan beginning to develop telepathic communication, trying to eat a disoriented warper who's lost their connection to the others, warper cuts reaper's mouth to get it to back off, and they end up in a standoff that ends up a conversation.

I mean just imagining a reaper leviathan as an early-sapience protagonist is very funny to me. My mental image constructs a teenager who lucked out genetically and got big faster than her neighbors so she thinks she's hot shit but is understimulated due to lack of a challenge, but whose primary emotional cope for basically anything she can't rip to pieces is to just Yell At It until it realizes how big and scary she is and backs down.

.

Oh my god you have no idea how much I'd adore an au like this. While I love the Architects as dearly as anyone, one of my biggest disappointments with Subnautica was that the intelligent species native to the planet got kind of left to the endgame/shuttled to the side, and then cut from the sequel when the main writer for Below Zero left. Like, I kind of get it, they wanted to have it be a big lead up in the og story and they had troubles in the next, but I want!!! More intelligent fish aliens!!! ESPECIALLY since the Sea Emperor has a concept of reincarnation, implying a philosophy and belief system that is unique to their species and doesn't require hands to maintain.

Though honestly, I think there's a solid enough baseline for that plotbunny already- Planet 4546B has recently undergone/was in the grips of a mass extinction event due to the bacteria plague, which means that there is not only a good deal of resource scarcity compared to the bountiful sea life that the ancestors of the current-day Reapers experience. Paired with that, the Sea Dragon Leviathans- known predators of the Reaper- have dwindled in number to only about three active individuals, which means that there's a lot more Reapers around to compete with. Assuming that intelligence is tied to adaptability, and that the Sea Emperors and Reapers share a common ancestor with the trait that formed into telepathy in the Emperor species, and you have a setup where natural selection is prioritizing Reaper leviathans who are not only mature strong enough and fast enough to outclass the other Reapers, but are also intelligent enough to outwit them. Size and quick maturity might have been a confounding factor in human evolution, but in terms of an egg-laying species, we can perhaps have them experience a longer incubation time, which results in a bigger hatchling. The increased size allows the baby to outcompete other juveniles, which in turn gives it the calories needed to help build that big brain that becomes a necessary tool once it becomes large enough to be seen as competition by adult Reapers. And as for the telepathy, being able to potentially settle territorial disputes and gather huntsmates, leading to less energy and risk wasted on members of the same species, and more being aimed at taking down more prey. It's a totally feasible fictitious evolution path, especially since the leviathans themselves are so mysterious

(Also, animals always tend to be more intelligent than people expect them to be. If the PDA was scanning for brain size in relation to muscle mass for the Reapers, its very well likely that it assumed intelligence based off of that, which we know from birds is not an accurate judgement.)

BUT ANYWAYS I'm also incredibly fond of this concept because ngl it also reminds me of how I write young dragons (especially from a specific tribe) where young female adolescents go through this big period of teenage badasseryhood where they essentially try to act like they're hot shit to try to intimidate potential rivals and test the waters to see which of the older females are starting to go soft so that they can go on ahead with their territory-claiming. For this specific Reaper, I can easily imagine a scenario where she's got an advantageous new mutation that lead to her outclassing her peers, but being in that awkward spot where she's just not quite big enough yet to challenge any of the older reapers, so she instead spends a good deal of time mucking about trying to work on looking Big and Scary, which involves a lot of tearing shit apart with her mandibles, roaring, and trying to stun prey into silence with her telepathy, which makes her Very Loud but also Very Good at Being Loud with her thoughts.

It would also be interesting to delve a little into Warper telepathy- the Architects bioengineered them into what they are now out of a probably-extinct species, and are thus likely responsible for giving them the ability to interact with computers and teleport, but since telepathy already existed in at least the Sea Emperors, the ability to communicate could either be natural to the species they modified, or implemented because they themselves did not think that they would be capable without being networked. What makes this so interesting, however, is that the Sea Emperor mentions that the Architects were incapable of hearing her (most likely because they were all networked; Al-an makes a very big deal about that, so they were probably closed off to outsiders and attuned only to other Architects), so it could be that the Warpers were ignoring this very loud new baby up until one got disconnected from the rest (perhaps due to mechanical failure?) and thus ONLY has Large Screaming Teenager to talk to. Which sets up a very interesting potential partnership between a very old, very exasperated, and very aware-of-vulnerability-Warper, and a very bored teenage Reaper who only knows violence and yelling, but is letting this particular Warper live because she's so bored out of her skull that the intrigue of helping them is better than tearing up the reef and getting tail-smacked by her elders for the nth time. Maybe the Warper can teach her how to use her telepathy better, and talk to her about the Architects and their purpose while they travel to find new parts to fix them with.

Fuck, that's a really good story prompt actually. I'm weak for accidental mentorship or adoption stories, doubly weak for inhuman apex predators being dumbass teenagers, and the potential language differences between two types of telepathy could be really fun to play with. Plus there's the advantage of getting to write about intelligent aliens that don't craft like us or built societies like we do, which is something that I personally think is severely underrated in sci-fi

#like my seawalker species was specifically inspired by me wanting an intelligent tribe indigenous to subnauticas world #that just kinda got outta hand #subnautica #ganymedesclock #but seriously i dont think i can reiterate just how interesting of a concept and a story dynamic this is #like holy shit this is really really fucking good #gonna be chewing on this one for weeks #reply

[biillyhargroves]

outside of how bonkers inappropriate it was to go that far with the Billy & Karen stuff in season three, I think one of my biggest gripes with the storyline is how they try to make Karen out to be this genuine, loving, all-American mom after the fact. like, yes, the whole thing pisses me off on Billy’s behalf, but they also do such a disservice to Karen’s character. 

the scene that really gets to me is her speech to Nancy in the kitchen. it comes after she’s stood Billy up, after she’s walked back on an agreement to go on a date with a boy that is — I can never stop stressing this — her daughter’s classmate. and we’re supposed to, what? clap for her because she’s given up the fantasy of Billy? admire her for waking up and embracing her role as a wife and mother again? she delivers such an impassioned, moving speech and gives some really solid advice to Nancy, but she does so after nearly throwing her entire family away for a boy that, had he lived, would have walked the graduation stage with Nancy just a few months later. 

I’ve always felt like the writers positioned Karen Wheeler to be somewhat of a foil for Joyce Byers — blissfully clueless where Joyce is hyper-aware. Joyce has all the knowledge to be there for her children in a meaningful way. Karen is miles out of her depth, and she doesn’t even realize it. still, she tries to connect with her children and has a few meaningful moments with both Nancy and Mike. the problem is that all of those actions are colored by this one egregious, awful transgression: she tried to date a teenager. 

like...so much of Stranger Things is about parenting. the entire adult plotline for seasons two and three are about parenting. Karen could have been a part of that discussion, but so much depth is lost by choosing to make what could have been a simple, one-time joke about Billy flustering Karen into a full-blown plot device to the detriment of both characters. the writers try to pull wool over the audience’s eyes by showing what a devoted and loving wife and mother Karen is after she has her Big Revelation that dating Billy would be bad, but that revelation is limited to “Karen doesn’t want to blow up her family by cheating” when it should have been “Karen recognizes that dating a teenaged boy is wrong.” she hardly touches on it when she tries to explain to Billy why she didn’t show up. even then, it’s more about her family than it is the inappropriate nature of their interactions. she never acknowledges that she was wrong or that her actions were harming Billy. it’s an insult to viewers, tbh. 

#plus now that billy's dead none of it has to come to light? #she just gets to sweep it under the rug? #pretend nothing ever happened? #stranger things meta #billy hargrove #karen wheeler #i honestly liked her character until All Of This #so I’m especially salty

[bedtimestoriesforbrokengirls]

I am not conventionally attractive. In a way that isn't salvageable without various surgeries, which is an option I've ruled out for various reasons. I don't like my body but I can rationalise that people are attracted to different body types. And you'd be proud of me if I was yours, I lost more than 60lbs. I trust my partner with everything apart from when he tells me that I'm pretty or that he's attracted to me. Or any other similar sentiments. I don't believe him, I can't make what he's saying make sense. I can see what I look like, I know that I'm ugly. This had also been confirmed by multiple outsiders, or at least a lot of people told me I was ugly in high school. He does everything you're supposed to, he says all the right things. I love him so much, and I'm a less good wife/sub/daughter to him because of this. We had a few threesomes early on and he would love to do more but now the idea of another girl with us just makes me feel like I'm nothing, I can't. My face makes me so sad. If I was one of your girls I guess the answer would be they would never doubt you like that but I'm still spinning this out hoping you have some pearls of wisdom for me. Therapy hasn't really helped. Trying to make peace with looking like this or ignoring it hasn't helped. I just keep picking at it like it's a wound.

Okay, first… 60lbs? You fucking bad-ass! I don’t care who owns you, I’m proud of you. That’s not easy, and requires a level of determination that can be incredibly difficult to muster. You deserve far more credit than that one little sentence allows.

Second, I cannot begin to stress how utterly irrelevant the opinions of high school kids truly are… as a whole, they’re among the most emotionally myopic people on the planet. I know the petty cruelties of insipid children can haunt us, but I promise, absolutely nothing said by a teenaged boy as you passed his locker in 2010 is worth a single nanosecond of your adult time.

Third, I need you to start doing some serious work on developing your ability to trust. Because it sounds like you have a solid guy on your hands, someone who cares about you and actively seeks to include you in his life. And while I know you don��t intend it to be so, it’s a little insulting that you’re so dismissive of his admiration. You don’t need to agree with his assessment of you, but you’ve gotta accept that it is his assessment… he’s entitled to a differing opinion.

Fourth, humans each observe the world from unique perspectives. I know you’re aware of that, but I don’t think you’ve internalized it. Our perception of beauty is largely a matter of focus… it’s all about where we choose to rest our gaze. When you look at yourself, you’re looking at both popular superficialities and microscopic, generally unnoticed details… meanwhile, when he looks at you, he’s taking in all the parts of you that your brain chooses to ignore. He’s seeing how you move, sampling your scent, feeling the comfort of your proximity, recognizing the fullness of your love… the kind of shit your mirror will never be able to show you. Please, let that man embrace all of you, even if you can’t.

You’ve got to stop fighting, and let people love you. As someone who spent decades dismissing every bit of praise he ever received, I can tell you that belief —not in yourself, but in others and their ability to be right about you— will transform your life.

But you have to let it happen.

#asks

[yuriririn]

Someone Great pt. 2

A/N: Here's part 2! I posted this feeling like a huge boulder was lifted off my chest. I don’t think I ever had closure with this one ex of mine. I just loved him way too much. Ngl, I literally cried while writing this so I hope you guys don’t. 

PAIRING | Kim Sunoo x reader

WC | 1.1k

GENRE | fluff, angst, slice of life

WARNINGS | explicit language, angst angst angst!! :((

SYNOPSIS | I was told that I was going to love six boys in my life before I meet the one I'm going to love forever.

PART ONE

—

TWO. THE BEST FRIEND.

You know how you get into this solid group or circle of friends and there will always be that one guy you’re meant to be so close with because you are so similar in personality, taste, interests, and extroverted energy? This was Kim Sunoo. 

He was every 90’s to the early-2000’s young adult chick flick trope. He was my friends-to-lovers, childhood friends-to-lovers, enemies-to-friends-to-lovers, on again-off again, best friend’s brother, will-they-won’t-they, soulmate, everything!

Sunoo was the second guy I fell in love with and thought that I would really end up marrying because we were together almost my entire high school and half of my college life (a whopping total of six whole years—on and off) because we belonged to the same circle of friends and did almost everything together as teenagers. We started officially dating on a February 15th and I could have sworn he was the one because looking at my “fortune paper,” it had the number 15 on it. I even showed this to him and it instantly became our lucky number.

He was, as people say, the male version of me. I shared anything and everything with him because it was as if I were just dating myself. We hung out at school every day because we took the same classes, spent lunch together, did the same after-school activities, and he even sent me home after all these. 

Sunoo was soft, but also boisterous and loud. He was sassy, but also sweet. He was beautiful, but also handsome at the same time. He stood tall, had pale skin with freckles that further accentuated his youthful glow. He had the most amazing hazel eyes, the most beautiful hands, and had a smile. God that smile that reached all the way up to his eyes and they sparkled like sunlight reflecting a calm ocean. 

When I was 16, I too was at my peak teenage years and was popular among boys and girls alike. He and I were the perfect couple in high school. I had a colorful youth because of his company. 

Ours was the epitome of what a platonic relationship looked like but we still did officially date and did boyfriend-girlfriend stuff because during those years we knew how much we really did love each other romantically. His kisses were different from Jay’s. His lips never carried the summer heat, but the coolness of his breath often gave me a sense of familiarity. It was a friendly reminder that I was indeed, so comfortably in love with my best friend. It didn’t always have to feel like a fire that ignited a flame that represented young love. I never felt more like myself than when I was with Sunoo. I can still remember how I rolled down my windows while he and I drove out of town just to have coffee on the highlands. We would blast the cheesiest songs on the radio and he would sing to each and every one of them loudly and sometimes even purposely out of tune. We had a lot of videos and pictures together because back then we wanted a keepsake of all the things that we did while we dated, something to look back at when we meet our future selves. Yes, we were that serious about each other. It was unbelievably cheesy, but it was what made Sunoo, Sunoo. 

Before graduating high school, Sunoo and I broke up. It was a mutual decision and one that we thought was practical because he and I were about to enter different universities. He eventually (and for a while) met a new set of friends, as I did too. We lived different lives for a bit before meeting again (by fate) at a high school gathering. 

The one thing I remember most about our relationship was that we were always on and off. We were together during our junior year up until senior year, broke up and got back together during my sophomore year in college. We dated the second time up until junior year in college, broke up again and only met up and got back into dating the third time after my first year of working. It was complicated back then, but now that I think about it, it was pretty simple. We just couldn’t permanently say goodbye to each other. 

Sunoo and I just clicked every single time we met again despite the time and distance that interrupted our relationship. He and I were just THAT compatible. The first time we got back together (which was in the middle of college), we started being more romantic to each other and planned out our futures. This time, we included each other in our plans. 

But of course, the universe had other plans. 

Sunoo wanted to marry early. He was just the type to be sure with the one he’s dating and was really eager to build a life immediately with the person he’s with. I thought that in every single aspect we were so compatible EXCEPT for this. I was nearly only approaching my mid-twenties, and I had no plans or even thought about marriage. I even brought up to him the fact that maybe I don’t even want to marry in the future. 

One day, I picked him up at the airport after he got back from a business trip. Our relationship was already a bit rocky at that point, and the weeks that led up to this day felt like a constant struggle of walking on eggshells trying not to trigger one from breaking up with the other. It was one of the most depressing periods of my life because not only was I just about to get to know myself more and discover or figure out what I really wanted to do in life, but I also had to face the decision as to whether or not I’d be accepting my boyfriend’s “proposal.” He often talked about marriage and we would always end up fighting. It was like a ticking time bomb ready to explode at any moment.

The day we broke up is still, up to this day, one of the most dreadful days I ever had to experience. 

It was around 5 in the afternoon. The sun was just setting, the clouds were gray (as if to say that they were only representing all of my pent up feelings), and the sky was a mixture of blue, orange, and pink. Had it not been for the terrible lump inside my throat, I wouldn’t have picked this beautiful day to break up with the one person I loved the most. 

I remember holding his hand. They were so soft and so familiar that it made my heart wrench. I cried so fucking hard, I couldn’t even turn my feelings into words. But BECAUSE we knew literally EVERYTHING about each other from being together for so long, he just knew. He knew that I couldn’t take it anymore. He knew that despite my lack of words, he knew exactly how I felt. 

Because he felt it all too. He cried at the sight of me crumbling right before him. The hazel eyes that once held hope, faith, loyalty, happiness, and love turned into eyes of sadness, frustration, anger, resentment, and heartbreak. But he felt it all because he knew me so well. We were best friends and have been together for so long. 

He knew when I was upset, sick, overwhelmed, and embarrassed. He knew every nook and cranny of me in and out. He knew whenever I felt cold without me shivering. He knew when I was hungry at whatever time of the day. He knew how many moles I had on my face, my legs, and my back. He memorized me and my every step, my every touch, my every sound, and my every taste. He has seen me stripped naked to my very core, knows all of my deepest, darkest secrets, and has learned me so much so to the point where there are things I’ve yet to discover about myself, but these are the very same things about me he has already known almost his entire life. 

Sunoo was everything to me. He carved and shaped my entire perception of love and turned it into a box where only he could fit in it. I was so terrified of losing him, so afraid of the authority I’ve given him to shatter my entire outlook on love. I was only left to pick up the pieces.

It was the longest 2-hour drive of my life. I didn’t think I would ever have to say goodbye to my soulmate, but I did. 

He got married to the next person he started dating not long after. I have never been happier for him because even if he was mine for a while, he finally found HIS soulmate.   

#blog #kpop #kpop bg #kpop boys #enhypen #sunoo x reader #someone great #fanfic #enhypen fanfiction #enhypen fluff #enhypen sunoo #kim sunoo

[snowysobsessions]

"Quickly" Reviewing Four Nine Inch Nails Albums

A few months ago Germs by Weird Al and Closer were stuck in my head for several days. On a gut intuition I said "Well, I obviously like this music, why not check out more Nine Inch Nails?"

Currently I am attempting to steal Trent Reznor's gender and haven't listened to much non-NIN music last few months. So I'd say I might be a big fan. Possibly.

I'd like to thank my new friend Gray for giving a very helpful recommendations on what albums to start with. <3

For this I'll start with the few negatives, then move on to the many positives. Because I like ending on a positive note. :) We'll also be going in the order I listened to them as opposed to order of release.

Pretty Hate Machine: 8/10

Negative: I find because nearly all the instruments are fairly simple synths and MIDI soundfonts, the sound can get kind of monotonous when you listen to the entire album in one sitting. A lot of it sounds like video game music from 1990-1995 to me, which is oddly distracting. On first listen I kept asking "Why does this sound like DOOM music?" To be honest, I found Down In It the weakest track. Rap is just not Trent's thing and I'm glad he didn't pursue it.

Positive: Despite the limitations, these are really well put together tracks! I think this a very solid album, especially considering at the time no one was using synths this way. The melodies also feel very unique and are usually why these songs get stuck in my head. I found myself liking the lyrics way more than I anticipated. Even though they are dripping with teenage or young adult angst, which I typically don't like. The emotions on display are so raw and pure it's hard to not feel empathetic. It's hard to choose, but I'd say Terrible Lie and Sin are the strongest tracks to me. Just generally really good tracks that are addicting to listen to.

The Downward Spiral: 10/10

Negative: It's not an album I can listen to just anytime. I kinda have to be in a bit of a bad mood. Sometimes I find myself skipping songs that are very emotionally intense, like Big Man With A Gun and Hurt, because I'm so worn out and just want to enjoy some music. This album does not have a weakest track in my opinion. Any "lazy" writing lyrically or musically feels very intentional.

Positive: The positives on this one are really endless for me. Good lyric after good lyric. Amazing melodies and harmonies one after the other. Auditory assaults and walls of noise that are fun to listen to. Sound design that makes it feel like a soundscape of the mind. And I love that there's a story on top of all that. I could make a whole post about each individual track. This album takes you on a roller coaster that only goes down. Strongest track is extremely hard to choose, but I always come back to The Becoming. The odd time signatures, long verses, the increasing intensity of the vocals, and the theme of becoming something cold, emotionless, robotic, and other is a perfect combination to me.

With Teeth: 9.5/10

Negative: Not a lot of negatives here. Kinda has a similar problem to Pretty Hate Machine with the instruments sounding similar, although not nearly so much so. Sometimes I wish there were more songs that lead into each other. Weakest track is very hard to choose, they're all very good. But I'll go with Beside You In Time for no reason other than the throbbing synths legitimately give me a headache. Wish I could enjoy this song. </3

Positive: I really love the prominence of piano in this album, as well as the vocal layering and distortion effects. I also like the usage of guitars across this album, often I can almost feel the air vibrating with the strings. The sparing usage of swear words also means I can play nearly the whole album at work without issue. Generally I like this album a lot. It feels like something simultaneously from the future and the past. Strongest track for me boils down to personal preference. So I'll go with either All The Love In The World or The Line Begins To Blur, in my opinion two of Trent's most beautiful songs. They need to be put in a museum of some sort forever.

The Fragile: 20/10

Negative: Not much to speak of here. Sometimes the intense layering of sound plus high volume makes it feel like my ear drums are going to explode, but that is to be expected with NIN so I'm used to it. Can't name a weakest track. I look forward to all of them. It's 20/10 for a reason.

Positive: This may be one of the best albums I've listened to in my entire life. Every track has something memorable and creative. All feel meticulously designed to convey not an emotion, but Trent's exact state of mind at that moment. The lyrics are sparser than usual, but oh so much more impactful when they do arrive. It feels painfully real and deeply personal. It's not just a story of what-ifs anymore, it's reality. This album is a lengthy, beautiful mess of ideas and emotions and I wouldn't have it any other way. It is the most human a piece of art can be. Strongest track I think is almost forced to be La Mer. It impacted me emotionally so greatly I wrote a whole post about it before writing this section. Realistically I could make a post about each track if I wanted to, there's so much to talk about for each one.

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

#snowy speaks #nine inch nails #nin #pretty hate machine #the downward spiral #the fragile #with teeth #long post #album review

[andmaybegayer]

Project “Let’s watch every single Fast & Furious movie”

This was. A very, very stupid movie. Easily the most influential one we've done so far but it is NOT good.

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006)

This movie starts at a high school so we're already off to a bad start. Sean, the most American human alive, gets into a petty street race and to avoid going to jail is sent to live with his dad in Japan. He immediately starts getting into street racing somehow involving not the Yakuza, but a guy whose uncle is Yakuza. I bet his other uncle works for Nintendo too. The most American man alive is constantly bewildered by this strange oriental wonderland but not so bewildered that he does not Americanly barge into situations and make high stakes bets that he has zero idea how to pull off.

His ass is not 17!

You simply cannot efficiently blend "The actual Yakuza are here moving tens of thousands of dollars" and "17 year olds getting into fights over MP3 players".

Sean here has the most impossibly American accent, every time he opens his mouth you're like what in the goddamn was that, where did that come from. I have no idea if that's just how the actor talks or if he's affecting it.

This movie trades very highly in flash, exoticism and admittedly well shot driving scenes. The first race in Japan is stupendous car gore, absolutely wrecking a very fancy Nissan Silvia that feels like it was designed to make everyone cringe. Drifting is just implicitly cool, even if the bizzare chase-drifting used in some of the action scenes looks extremely silly.

There once again is an absolutely banal plot! Sean gets into debt with Han, one of the Drift King's lieutenants who is also secretly betraying the Drift King. Han is extremely gracious about letting Sean pay off his debts because... I guess because a brazen American is the only person who is willing to get into races with the Drift King. It's not entirely clear. There's a good run of training montages as Sean learns to drift, which is pretty much the core that holds this movie together, everything else is wild.

I'm not sure if this just feels bad because it's in comparison to the pretty solid movie that was 2 Fast 2 Furious but I feel like it's also bad when taken in isolation.

The rapper they put in this movie is Bow Wow who plays another 17 year old nicknamed "Twinkie" who is just called Twink by everyone all the time. It's. Certainly a writing decision you could make.

Tokyo Drift culturally was Initial D for the masses, it introduced the concept of drifting to a much, much wider audience, and you can see those effects take hold almost immediately. Need for Speed Carbon came out later the same year and introduced drifting as a major mechanic, you started seeing a lot more drift demos at car shows, and two years later Red Bull would have the 2008 Drifting Championship.

There's so many plot threads that just never resolve ever in this thing. Sean moves in with his estranged dad who is a navy man. He alludes to "his mistakes" and there's all kinds of setup for them to go back and forth and resolve their separation but it doesn't happen ever. There's a love interest who mostly serves as a source of friction between Sean and the Drift King but whose complicated history is kind of just smoothed over in a single scene. I think they tried to fit a good story and cool race scenes and realized they could only fit one, and went with race scenes. A lot more minutes of the movie are dedicated to driving shots than before.

I must once again stress that in theory this cast is mostly teenagers. It's not even that they look like 26 year olds, they are also constantly out driving at high speed surrounded by adults who don't seem to care that they're teens so it's like. What was the point. Why did we do this? Was it just to appeal to The Teens? You could fabricate any reason for an American driver to run away to Japan and have to learn how to drift, making him a teen was absolutely not necessary, and they don't do jack shit about them being teenagers! They all just act like adults who sometimes have to go to school for some reason! Bizzare choice.

There's no screenshots here because the only interesting scenes are driving, which are really meant to be seen in motion. That's basically the verdict. 3/10 good driving scenes.

#fast and furious #2 fast 2 furious #furious book report

[scabopolis]

fic recs: l/v market based fics

In anticipation of the upcoming 2023 Logan x Veronica "New Year, New Fic" fest, I bring you a small selection of fics inspired by Logan and Veronica making their way downtown and going to a market and/or a mall and/or a drugstore.

Day 1 of the challenge is February 1, 2023 so be sure to check out the #2023 LV New Year here on tumblr or the AO3 collection for more fic and art.

Fic: A Strange New Story Every Time by gyzym Rating: M, for some swearing and some smuttage Tropes and Themes: Future fic post s3, friends to lovers, reunited after many years, Logan owns a purse dog Read if: The fic that inspired this whole prompt! This is also the most popular VM fic on AO3 so I'd be shocked if you hadn't read it, but I would like to repeat: "Logan owns a purse dog." There's also a podfic available.

Fic: In a Cardboard Castle by casket4mytears Rating: M, for swearing, imbibing of some less than legal substances, and violence Tropes and Themes: Zombie apocalypse but in a fun way, grade-a battle couples, and your general "Veronica and Logan are obsessed with one another and like putting their mouths on one another's mouths." Read if: You watched Home Alone and thought "this could be sexier." But...not in a weird way. In a thoroughly entertaining and "I want to see my favorite couple outwit corrupt government agencies" way.

Fic: Veronica's New Normal by @cheshirecatstrut Rating: T, for teenage like shenanigans, and some swearing, and much makeoutage Tropes and Themes: Logan Echolls is a pest because he cares Read if: You want to see Logan and Veronica (not) flirt at a coffee shop, and at a grocery store, and at a furniture store, and at a ... you get the idea. They're definitely not flirting.

Fic: Ghost of Christmas Past by @marshmellowbobcat Rating: Not rated, but I'd put it at a solid PG-13 Tropes and Themes: Lilly Kane is a gosh-darn-delight (and also a ghost and also a matchmaker), locked up together (in a store) and then locking lips, it's a Christmas and/or New Year's miracle! Read if: You want to laugh, and also swoon, and you love devious little Lilly working her ghostly magic in service of those she loves the most.

Fic: The Washing Machine Story by @best-laid-plaids Rating: M for sexy times, and shenanigans, and your regular adult swears Tropes and Themes: This is domesticity in the sexiest way possible, discussions of marriage in a non-traumatizing way Read if: You want to be delighted. And yes, technically, the part of this story that takes place in a market is about 400 words long. BUT! Its inclusion is educational, because it goes to show how open to interpretation these prompts are. Good, right??!!

Honorable mention to The Rotten Ones by @ghostcat3000. While not an l/v fic, it is one of the fics within her masterful collection bridging Logan and Veronica-centric stories all the way from pre-series through book canon. My fic partner in crime @thelillykane demanded that I "give it an honorable mention from me bc they do mention logan and it's such a good fic."

Until next time! Happy fic reading!

#2023 lv new year #veronica mars fanfic #logan/veronica fanfic #lv fanfic recommendations #logan echolls #veronica mars #logan x veronica #p: logan x veronica #otp: the one person

[kahluah]

Okay, let's pretend for a moment that everything in Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken is exactly the same, but instead of krakens and mermaids, there are just normal people of two different races. Do you realize how iffy the statement "well, it doesn't MATTER if one race is pure evil and the movie comes off as incredibly eugenics-y, it's just set dressing and not the primary focus!" sounds in that context?

And plus, it's a pretty well-established rule in writing that if you're going to introduce worldbuilding into your story, you're going to be expected to elaborate on it. If the film was just trying to explore a young girl's adolescence and relationships with the adult women in her life, why even bother throwing in all that stuff about mermaids, krakens, and the war that broke out between them?

Ok but here is the thing, they aren't just regular people of two different races. I understand why it's the first thing people's brains are jumping to since we've had many movies recently who explore race through a lense like this, but that doesn't mean that is what this movie was doing. If you break it down to basics, we had a conflict between two differing entities. So how about, as another pretend moment, we view them to be regular people of two different political identities. Political parties usually have some sort of symbol, so it's not that far of a stretch that a movie could have their characters be representing that. And I'm saying this because people have no difficulties writing some political parties off as pure evil; I think we all agree that nobody should side with Nazis and that they should be wiped out. Tories and Republicans are also very much hated, especially on this site. I think most people can find those views understandable for writing someone off as evil; we do it all the time and we fully believe it's correct!

So you could also totally view the movie as a commentary on two different monarchy factions, one where the Queen did not want to expand her kingdom to the land outside her borders and pretty much let her subjects live their own lives, all she wanted was to wipe out the other potential Queen and her supporters. Said other Queen wanted to invade the land outside the borders to expand the kingdom and wished to rule over the people with an iron fist. While I'm not for monarchies in any way, I know I would prefer the first one over the second if I had to choose between the two.

You are the one conflating it with race when it doesn't have to be. I get it's easy to jump to, but that does not mean it's the intent. There are multiple ways it could be viewed. But all of it would just be conjecture because that's not what the movie presented itself to be about and we don't have enough info on the world to make any solid say about anything.

I can understand a disappointment in there not being more world building, it seems like a cool world to explore, but the reason the movie didn't was because it was not necessary for the story they wanted to tell. I'm sure everyone would have loved more info on the war and whatever is going on in the ocean in this world, but all that was not needed for this movie and so it wasn't put in. Wanting the movie to go into unnecessary detail of background info that isn't needed for the story is just entitlement. The war served it's purpose of being something that gave Ruby a goal and objective that led into the "twist" and climax of the movie. It was a vehicle to move the story along and that was all. They don't need a deeper reason to add krakens, mermaids, and a war other than "they sound cool" and "more movies aimed at younger girls should totally end in a giant Kaiju battle". It's frustrating, but sometimes that's just the way it is.

I also find it funny that people are soooooooo latched on to the "Krakens were trying to genocide the mermaids!!!" when Nerissa was trying to do the exact same thing to the Krakens. Pot, meet Kettle. So sure, let's say it was a race and eugenics thing, but at the very least don't be hypocritical by saying the mermaids were any better.

#ruby gillman teenage kraken #frustrates me that the people that want to argue this don't acknowledge that both krakens and mermaids want to genocide each other #at least the krakens aren't also trying to dominate other lands and people #also we don't know how the other mermaids are even living in the ocean #they could be perfectly fine and free and not wanting to deal with Narissa and her vanity anymore #we only see one mermaid and she is a liar so stop taking her sob story at face value #judge her by her actions which was trying to kill the krakens and rule over the ocean and land

[blorbocedes]

also age gaps in europe are much more normal too (not saying it’s right or wrong), which is probably why max doesn’t give af (along with his mommy/daddy issues❤️). tbh i… i love dirtbag daniel fic but what’s even more compelling and narratively rich is the daniel that always has to be perceived as a good person and liked by everyone. that’s why when he gets with max he has to do serious mental gymnastics to justify it to himself… and everyone around him (normal, older australians) are like “why are you dating a literal teenager who’s also ur teammate.. that’s weird”.. and then daniel has to get reassurance from max, the teenager, that he’s not a weirdo/creep😀 (max voice: daniel you’re not old, of course i was the one who started it) that’s a solid dynamic me thinks… then daniel doesn’t stop seeing max bc of the age/power dynamic thing— nope — daniel leaves bc of his ego and he can’t stand max getting a better contract and being #1 driver. cue max’s anger and resentment era🙂

gahsjdjd NOOOO he asks his child bride for affirmation that he's still a good person 😭😭😭 and ofc max is gonna be like no I Seduced You dw ab it

you're right that IS narratively eich

a very important lore of the one sided maxiel is that it started out as max starry eyed and pining for Daniel and Daniel leaving him, and then Max would get disillusioned and move to bigger better things (winning championships) while daniel in his eternal flop era would think he can just go back and max would still be that kid 🥺 for him (and in turn he'd be in his rb slay era again) so this completely tracks with that

anyways daniel doesn't even Think about the age/power gap thing like it doesn't even matter to him because they are both *legally* adults and uhhh it's fine, really

but he definitely tells Christian, "you're giving Max a better deal than me? A year into F1, he's practically still a child, you saw how he acted in [insert race here] and you're making him first driver." when he leaves 🤨🤨🤨

#one sided maxiel #blorbocedes ask

[rustandruin]

Constantine: Distorted Illusions by Kami Garcia and Isaac Goodhart

Thursday, 23 March 2023

Let me first start by saying I LOVE this line of YA DC comics. It’s a solid introduction to iconic characters for younger readers and serves as a great bridge to the comics. I’ve devoured Beast Boy and Raven, which Garcia wrote.

That said… I’m a bit ambivalent about this one.

I’m a big John Constantine fan. Like annoyingly so. But while I think it is a fun idea so tackle his younger days and explore his relationship with his father as well as his propensity for getting himself into messes (this recreating the pattern he’ll encounter as an adult), I think this was a slight miss for me. Because he didn’t feel like a teenage John Constantine.

He felt like a generic teen boy protagonist who is stubborn and does magic and accidentally summons a demon and causes trouble. There was none of the nuance and grit that makes him so unique. He didn’t feel like there were traces of the adult he’d grownup into. As a result it didn’t really feel like a Constantine book. Which was a bummer because I really wanted to like this! (Maybe if it had been a different author? One who could set the story in the U.K. and let Constantine stay true to his rough and tumble roots? Maybe something set at a school he eventually is kicked out of for doing magic? I don’t think there was much value in sending him to the U.S. Though I was hoping he’d meet teen Zatanna.)

Even the whole thing with him and his dad and how all that was resolved felt very… safe and teen. I’m glad this story was told but I think it could have been told more subtly and less on the nose. There was a lot more declaring of feelings and history than gently guiding us through it.

The art of this was interesting. Not sure if this is the style I’d pick for a Constantine YA comic. It reminded me of animation from the 80s, like She-Ra esque? Something about it felt just a bit too sleek for this character, though I really appreciate the poses and overall drama of the composition and the various character designs. It’s cool because it really highlights how comics needs to be a real marriage of medium to be most effective. The Teen Titans books work because Gabriel Piccolo’s art captures the big energy of characters like those and so those books feel further like the stories of those characters.

That said. I really dug when we saw Constantine in the teen version of his future outfit. I’m a sucker for that beige trench coat.

I’ll probably read the next one that comes out and will keep reading this whole line because I love what they’re doing. I’m giving it an extra star because it’s Constantine.

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

#rust and ruin reads #Constantine: distorted illusions #John constantine #dc comics #kami Garcia #ya books #book #books #reading tracker 2023 #comic stuff #book stuff

[shush302]

Platonic Yandere! Dad! Clark Kent

- When you first come into his life, it would feel like love at first sight. The minute he laid his eyes on you, he was sold. He knew right then and there, he had to protect you by any means necessary.

- Clark absolutely loves spoiling, coddling and pampering you as much as possible. He’ll buy you lots of toys, clothes and just about anything you want. He loves sharing intimate moments with his daughter and will often brush your hair, prepare yummy meals and read stories to you before bed. He just loves bonding you with every opportunity he gets.

- Clark tries to make time for you, which can sometimes be difficult due to his job and hero work. Still, he manages to balance his schedule for the most part. When he isn’t patrolling the city and fighting off bad guys, he’s spending quality time with his little girl.

- Despite his cheery attitude, Clark can be very overprotective, especially when it comes to you. After all, you’re his daughter and he’d *hate* for anything bad to happen to you. As a result, you rarely get the chance to visit your friend’s houses or stay over at someone else’s place. It isn’t that he doesn’t trust you, he just doesn’t trust other people’s intentions with you. Is it fair? Maybe not, considering it’s purely a gut feeling rather than solid proof, but regardless, he’ll do what’s necessary to keep you safe.

- Often times, Clark likes to keep you in the house at all times because it’s the easiest way he can keep an eye on you. Whenever you suggest going out or doing anything in the city, he’s often against it. He’s always rambling on about how dangerous Gotham City truly is and while that might be true to some extent, he barely lets you go out unless it’s for school - but even then, he might call you in sick just so you don’t have to leave the house.

- Clark’s views can be somewhat conservative, especially when it comes to the way you dress. Any outfit that shows off too much skin, he’s absolutely against even if that might be a shoulder slip. At times, you find it ridiculous how your father doesn’t just let you dress the way you want, but Clark insists that he knows what’s best for you.

- Just like most fathers, they can be very protective, but Clark takes this to the absolute extreme. Clark feels like you’re getting too close to someone? He’ll take care of them. Clark finds out there’s someone who has a crush on you? They’ll disappear the very next day. If Clark feels like someone poses as a threat to his relationship with his daughter, he will get rid of them personally and never tell you. If it’s brought up, he’ll say something along the lines of, “Your friend? No, I haven’t seen them, sugar.. It’s a shame. This is why I always tell you that you have to be careful.” Clark isn’t above lying to you at all and can be very manipulative if he feels it is necessary.

- If you ever go out with Clark to the city, he will put you in a safety harness while holding the leash. This might seem ridiculous, silly and completely unnecessary, but Clark just doesn’t want to take any chances. He wants to keep you safe and make sure you’re always in his line of sight and the last thing he wants is for you to wander off somewhere and get lost. He couldn’t bare losing his little girl!

- No matter how old you might be, Clark will infantilize you and treat you like a child more often than not. No matter how much you might complain that you’re an adult and that you can take care of yourself, it will indubitably fall on deaf ears. Clark knows what’s best for you even when you struggle to see it yourself. Child, teenager or adult, you will always be his little girl no matter what.

- Clark doesn’t enjoy hurting you. However, that certainly doesn’t mean he isn’t capable of doing it. Whenever you’re disobedient or rebellious towards him after a while, there will always be consequences. While it isn’t anything severe, Clark will spank you over his lap to reprimand you. If this doesn’t work, he will isolate you in the house for days on end and shackle your ankle to the bedpost to make sure you don’t attempt to leave.

- If you’re ever angry with Clark, he will try to gaslight and manipulate you into thinking that you’re at fault and that he is the victim. If this method doesn’t work, he will move on to more drastic measures to ensure that you remain by his side at all times.

- Even if you escape him, Clark will always find you in the end. After all, he is Superman and has super powers that he will take advantage of to find you. The longest you managed to escape once was almost forty minutes before he found you and flew you back home.